NJ Rongner
This month’s spotlight is on NJ Rongner, Christian business strategist and advocate for the working Christian mom. I’ve known of NJ Rongner for a few years now. I’ve followed her journey since I met her in a large Facebook group for women business owners and have been a member of her Working Christian Moms Facebook group nearly since it began.
What I’ve learned is that NJ Rongner is not just a mouthpiece. She doesn’t just say the right things for Christian women to hear: she lives it. She is a staunch supporter of Christian women who work (in or outside the home) and she truly cares about the women in her community.
She is a smart strategist for Christian women business owners, as well (in fact, I work with NJ on the direction of Women of Noble Character). Her programs for back to school and Christmas help women make the most out of those seasons by getting organized and keeping their eyes on Jesus.
Here’s a bit more about NJ Rongner:
NJ Rongner is the gal who never thought she’d be asked to lead a movement. However, she confidently stepped into the call after God asked her to start telling Working Christian Moms how much HE loved them. As the host of the Working Christian Mom podcast, NJ encourages moms who work and love Jesus to thrive in the people, places and passions God has given them. In addition to hosting the podcast, NJ uses her business and digital marketing background to help other entrepreneurs learn how to do business God’s way. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two children. Connect with her at http://www.workingchristianmom.com or @workingchristianmom on Instagram.
Here’s some highlights of our conversation. You can watch the full interview below:
Sue:
Would you mind telling us a little bit about your testimony.
NJ:
Sure! So I am, I guess what you would call a Christian good girl. So, my faith tradition, it’s my heritage of faith tradition is Lutheran. I Grew up in a small town in Illinois. And everyone knows everybody and my grandparents got married in my hometown’s local church. Local Lutheran church. My great grandparents got married there, my parents got married there, I was baptized there, I got married there, and my children got baptized there. So like the heritage of the Lutheran tradition is Important to me from a cultural standpoint because that’s what my heritage is. And my kids attend a Lutheran school which kind of crazy full circle thing. Because we live a thousand miles away. From my hometown and my Lutheran church. But they attend a Lutheran school.
But growing up in a town of 2500, where my entire family lived. It always left me an identity of somebody else. So when I was a little girl, I would say my entire family, I mean my grandfathers, sister. And her kids and their kids and my dad’s parents. And my dad’s brothers and sisters, and my mom’s brothers and sisters. And my great grandparents, my great aunt. All of them live in this little town. So when I was going to have a softball game when I was 9 years old I would have forty people on the stands.
So that’s the population of the town you are related to. And so in our hometown, I was somebody’s somebody. So I was always somebody’s granddaughter or somebody’s daughter or somebody’s niece. I wasn’t ever my own person. So that’s where the real story of what meeting Jesus and learning who I was and that it was okay to step in to the Identity that he have gave me.
My powerful testimony is that, when I met Jesus, and really met Jesus. It was after I left my hometown in Illinois and drove to Boston, where I don’t know anybody and because I need to figure out who I was. And so as I slowly began to learn more who I was in Christ, the more I could appreciate all the things that I was and the people that I was and I sense have a place to belong to. And that’s like my big transformation moment. I wasn’t ever like a smoker or an alcoholic or a person who’s really really really broken. It’s just that I don’t know who I was. Until I met Jesus.
Sue:
So why Boston?
NJ:
Because that’s where the “New Kids in the Block “lived! And wasn’t Jesus in his sweet mercy. So my first concert of my whole life was about when I was nine years old, I went to the “New Kids on the Block” concert. Because that’s where they were in that time. And when I was a little girl, I was told my mom, I was going to Boston someday and find Donny Wahlberg. And I have forgotten about that. Until I moved to Boston and I was just like, that’s why I was drawn to, that’s why I was being called to. And two years ago I met Donny Wahlberg. I have an opportunity through my local blog to Interview the members of the “New Kids on the block”.
Sue:
Wow that is so amazing. God was just working in the background there and to fulfill the dream of a little girl.
NJ:
Yeah, exactly, exactly. The real reason why I was called to Boston, was so I could meet my husband Mike. When the job that I was at, as a nanny, was not going so well. I started a new job, with a new family and it was a nine months contract with that family because the kids went away to summer camp.
And I told God at the beginning of that contract. If the was any reason for me to stay in New England. I would go back to my tiny town become a farmer’s wife and become a happy and contented wife. And I met my husband that December and I know immediately that I was to marry him even though he wasn’t walking with Jesus. Didn’t believe in God, Didn’t have, and didn’t want anything to do with Jesus. That relationship or otherwise.
But I do know that I was supposed to marry him. And through us getting married, I continued to date him and when we got engaged. I told him I will marry you, I know the Lord has called me to marry you but I need you to make this promise to me. This promise is that when we have kids, if I want to take our kids to church. You’ll come with me and we’ll go to church as a family. You’ll give me that one hour a week. You don’t have to pray, you don’t have to read your bible, I’m not going to force my religion on you, I’m not going to force Christianity on you. But you’re gonna give us that one hour a week. And he said yes! So this is going to be the deal breaker. If you say yes, like I’m going to hold you to this. And when we got married we had kids, we started. I found a church for us to go, we started attending it when my daughter was six weeks old. And he met Jesus again there.
Full Interview with NJ Rongner
Upcoming Programs from NJ That You Won’t Want to Miss
An 8 week course to get you ready to enjoy December. Members will end this course with a Christmas Season Blueprint. Starts in October.
Mastermind for Christian Mom Bosses
We’ll invite the Holy Spirit into our brainstorming, accountability and business support. Applications open 10/1/18.
Where you can find NJ Rongner
Working Christian Moms Facebook Group
If you enjoyed my interview with NJ Rongner, you can find previous interviews with amazing Christian women, see this section of my website.
