Randall Murphree

AFA Journal editor

January 2013 – “Harold, get back down to earth and quit your daydreaming!” the teacher would demand. “You can’t do that!” But Harold didn’t believe her. Born in the middle of the Great Depression, Harold Finch clearly recalls the first time an “impossible” dream captured his heart. As a 10-year-old, he often whiled away his time in class dreaming of fantastic adventures in space and drawing fanciful spaceships to take him there.

Young Finch accepted the teacher’s pessimistic prophecy as a challenge. Now, some 70 years later, “You can’t do that!” have become his favorite words. Why so? Because more often than not, he’s proven the naysayers wrong.

While he didn’t travel in space himself, he did become an engineer and a project director for NASA’s Apollo spacecraft program. For NASA, he pioneered the thermodynamic computer systems to protect lunar vehicles – and their passengers – against heating and cooling hazards in space travel.

One wonders if that fifth-grade teacher later spent decades telling friends, “Oh my, yes, I encouraged young Harold to dream big when he was drawing space ships in arithmetic class!”

Space, school and success
Though it was his only big dream in childhood, space science turned out to be only one of numerous careers for the multi-talented Finch.

“I’m on my sixth major dream,” he told AFA Journal in a 2012 interview. “I don’t think I really set out [to do] any of them until I started going to retreats to determine what’s next. Or God put something on my heart, and I confirmed it through prayer.”

Peggy Finch, his bride of 57 years, had to grow accustomed to career changes. Most people change jobs occasionally, but Finch says his wife observes, “Every eight years, you change careers.”

Chronologically, his second big dream was – quite unexpectedly – in the field of education. When Kansas City leaders were opening Johnson County Community College in 1967, they recruited Finch as academic dean. He told them, “I’m a scientist, not an educator.”

“But you’re an innovator,” they said. “We want you.” Finch rose to the challenge and, as always, he gave it his best effort, even earning a doctoral degree in education while he served there.

Then came career number three – business. He and long-time friend George Robertson wanted to start a business consulting and training service. As they prayerfully proceeded, they agreed to this first step: Without talking it over or consulting each other, they both would write down five goals. They were startled when both of them had written first that they would want to build a profitable business, sell it in five years and use the profits to found a family ministry.

“We both wrote almost the same words,” Finch said, “but we had never discussed this with each other before.” And sure enough, at the end of five years, they were ready to sell the business.

Money for missions
Next came the “family ministry” that grew far beyond what Finch and his wife could ever have dreamed of. They called it Wellspring, a concept taken from Proverbs 4:23 – “Above all, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

“I’ve always said if you invest in banks, they add interest to your account,” Finch said. “But invest in God’s kingdom, and He multiplies. So instead of just our family going on mission trips, we ended up sending some 1,200 people on short term missions.”

Finch said, “My wife and I had always given to missions but never been personally involved.” That was about to change. “I had never heard of short-term missions,” he added. “I thought you went and spent your life on the mission field.”

However, their son was also sensing a call to missions. So father and son – never known to shy away from the toughest challenges – decided to choose the “most severe test we can think of.” So India it was – to serve in an orphanage. It changed Finch’s life. 

Al Fraser, a Midwest tractor dealer, was one of those who found himself an unlikely candidate for one of Wellspring’s mission adventures. Fraser couldn’t figure out why he felt called to go on a short-term mission trip.

“I’ve never taught,” he told Finch. “I don’t even pray in public, and I don’t really have any skills. I don’t know why I’m being called to go.”

“I encouraged him to just go and let God show him why,” Finch said. So Fraser went with a team to Maracaibo, Venezuela. One day they sat under a tree with a local pastor who had been street preaching.

“Someone gave me this industrial tent,” the pastor said, “but I don’t know how to put it up. It’s just stored in huge crates in my garage, and I really need a place for the ministry.”

“Well, let’s take a look at it,” Fraser replied. At the pastor’s garage Fraser was stunned.

“This is the very tent I use in John Deere tractor demonstrations around the Midwest,” he said. “We can set this thing up in a day.” They did, and that tent served that pastor and his ministry for five years.

“I’m sure Al was the only one in that city of a million on that day who knew how to put that tent up,” Finch said.

Ministry and movies
Ironically, God used a missionary in Venezuela to put Finch’s next career in his heart. The missionary told him, “You’re supposed to lead a ministry to people of influence.”

Finch said, “I realized God had given me these different careers so that I had a portfolio that could attract almost any professional person.” It was, indeed, a portfolio that included success in science, engineering, business leadership, education and even Christian missions.

He set about constructing a curriculum to lead personal growth seminars titled Unlimited Success: Discovering the Secrets to Achieving More. It’s a topic that attracts participation from students and professionals in all fields. (More about Unlimited Success next month.)

Because of his unwavering Christian faith, Finch’s print curriculum – on campus, in corporate boardrooms or church basements – is always the same. It concludes with a chapter on unlocking eternal success through Christ and a chapter on guidelines for new believers.

Every road he’s walked, every career he’s mastered, every task he’s undertaken, Harold Finch’s goal has been to lift up Jesus Christ. His current career path finds him using his gifts in the realm of film. (See sidebar below.)

No – Harold Finch is not finished yet.  

Success Seminars
Harold Finch continues to lead Unlimited Success seminars. If doing online research, be sure you have the correct website: www.finchsuccess.com. For more information, call 816-509-9783.