Where Work Becomes Worship

Quentan Tobolka's Story

Good morning, church family. My name is Quentan Tobolka. My wife, Sophia, and I, along with our four kids, have been a part of this body for the last ten years, since 2016. My oldest daughter, Anita, is 21. Our twins, Bowen and Eve, are ten, and our youngest, Sparrow, is nine. And we've also had the privilege of owning and leading a business called PMR Roofing. And I say "we" intentionally, because my wife has been a huge part of this journey. She has put up with a lot of nights where I was physically sitting next to her but mentally still running the business at 100 miles an hour. And apparently being on the same couch at the same time does not count as quality time.

Today, I just want to share a little bit of my story and what the Lord has been teaching me about faith, leadership, and purpose.

Living Two Lives

I didn't grow up wanting to be a roofer. In fact, my life was headed in a very different direction. In 2008, I was kicked out of college, I was agnostic, and I was fully addicted. But by God's grace, and honestly through the legal system in Colorado, I was brought to a place of surrender. I entered a 12-step recovery program, and that's where my journey of faith really began, in a way that only God could orchestrate. My first mentor in that season was a roofer, and he was also a deacon at a local church. He shared the gospel with me, and for the first time in my life, I heard the message of grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). And he gave me a job.

Despite my past, I didn't step into roofing out of passion. I stepped into it because I didn't have any other options. But God used it. Over time, I grew my career from knocking doors, to managing teams, to leading large, complex projects. On the outside, it looked like success. But on the inside, I was living two lives. My work was about making money and providing, and my joy, my real purpose, was found in sitting here at church and in a recovery ministry called regeneration.

So I came up with a plan. I said, "All right, I'll just work really hard and make as much money as I can, and then I'm going to retire early, and then I'll finally give my life to what really matters: serving God." But God. (Romans 5:8) From around 2017 to 2020, the Lord began to show me that my plan was flawed. At one point, I even thought I might leave business altogether and become a pastor. Around the same time, the company that I was a part of was preparing to sell, which meant more responsibility, more pressure, and more time away from my family and the church.

My Work Is My Calling

My wife and I started praying seriously: "Lord, what do you want us to do?" And through His Word, through community, and through a very few specific moments, God made something abundantly clear. My work was never meant to be separate from my calling. It is a part of my calling. That business doesn't have to be a means to an end. It can be a ministry itself, even in roofing.

Around the same time, I got invited to a small lunch with a few other business leaders from our church. It was nothing big, just four or five of us most weeks. But we started wrestling with deeper questions, like, what does it actually look like to follow Jesus in business? We talked about things like lifestyle limits, financial finish lines, and how to guard our hearts against materialism and consumption, because we all felt that tension. Jesus says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, not money itself, but our hearts toward it. So we asked, what is enough? What does it look like to live this out? What does it look like to lead a business in a way that, like it says in Acts 20:35, it is more blessed to give than to receive, not just personally, but inside the business itself?

That question started to change how I saw everything. I began to realize those 40 to 50 hours a week that I had been treating as just work might actually be some of the most meaningful ministry hours that we have. Think about it. The conversations we have, the way we lead people, how we handle pressure, how we care for our teams. That's not separate from ministry. That is ministry.

And here's something that stuck with me. There was a study by Gallup that found small business owners are trusted more than twice as much as the church. You could hear that and feel discouraged. But what if that's not just a problem? It's an assignment. What if God has placed us in businesses and relationships and communities where people already trust us, so we can reflect Him there?

Over the last few years, I've started to see business completely differently. It's not just a place for us to generate income. It's a place for us to care for people, to lead with integrity, to walk with employees through real-life marriage struggles and decisions, to steward not just resources but people. But I'll be the first to say we definitely don't do it perfectly. I make mistakes, I still struggle with the pressure of leadership, and I start acting like I actually am in control. But we're learning what it looks like to lead faithfully.

And one thing I've also learned is this: leadership can be lonely. You carry weight. People don't always see you make decisions that affect families. You wrestle with pressure, risk, and responsibility, and it can feel like you're doing that alone. But it doesn't have to be that way.

A Roof in Guatemala

Recently, the Lord gave me a picture of what this can look like. I've had the opportunity in my career to be a part of some incredible projects: multi-million dollar jobs, large facilities, schools, things the world would look at and call success. But a few months ago, a group of guys from our team had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala to serve at a place called Village of Hope Guatemala, a shelter for abused children in one of the poorest regions of the country. We went down there to do what we knew how to do. We worked on a roof. We paid for the project. We paid our way to get there. We just went to serve. And I can genuinely say that, by God's grace, I've been a part of a lot of roofing projects, but that roof is the one I'm most grateful for. Not because of what it produced for the business, but because we went there expecting nothing in return.

Because what was built there wasn't just a roof. It was a quieter, cooler place for those kids to worship, to gather, to be equipped. A place where the love of Jesus can be poured into them. And there was another way the Lord used that roof that I didn't expect. I got to watch Him work in the hearts of the guys on our team. Some had never left the country, some had never been on a mission trip, and they got a taste of what it looks like to live out Acts 20:35, that it really is more blessed to give than to receive. They got to live out 1 John 4:19, to love because He first loved us. We went there to serve, but the Lord used that experience to work in us too.

Standing there in Guatemala, I got to see something the Lord had been teaching me come to life. If what God has entrusted to us only ever builds things that benefit us, we're missing the point. But when it's surrendered back to Him, it becomes something He can use to change lives.

He Wants Your Platform

So whatever your work looks like, whether it's roofing or something completely different, it's more than just a way to make a living. It's an opportunity to worship God and serve the people He has placed around you. So if you're a business owner, an executive, or an entrepreneur in this room, and you've felt that tension, or that loneliness, or that pull that maybe your work was meant for something more, you're not alone. There's a group of us that are going to start gathering this fall. Not because we have it figured out, but because we want to figure it out together, to challenge each other, to sharpen one another, and to build businesses that truly belong to Jesus. Because if God has your business, He doesn't just want your profits, He wants your platform. And if He has your platform, He will use it to change lives far beyond anything you could build on your own.