Fate Thompson, in partnership with his brother Ron, own and operate American Agricultural Services, a project management consulting firm to the agricultural chemical and bio-technology industries and iAdvantage Software, a software development and marketing company for R&D Study Management Software for Life Sciences. They have been in business together in Cary for over 25 years. During most of that time, they have recognized their businesses as ministry unto the Lord.

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In July, 2007, while on a mission trip to Ecuador, his tenth year in a row there, Fate heard God say, "I have shown you the need around the world" (Fate had been to Kenya in 2005 in addition to the nine earlier mission trips to Ecuador and business travel across the undeveloped world. "Now that you know the need, go back to the Research Triangle and work with other business men, and help them understand that their business is their ministry and that I will use them to take dominion of the earth".

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Before he left Ecuador, he told his pastor, Pastor Richard Dial, that in 2008 for the first time in 11 years, he would not be returning with the Cary Church Of God mission team to Ecuador because God had called him to a new ministry.

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As soon as he returned to Cary, Fate began to pray, asking God to define how he should structure this new outreach to businessmen, and to study what he came to know as "Marketplace Ministry". Prior to this time, he had never knowingly seen or heard the word "Marketplace Ministry", though he understood immediately that he had lived it for over 20 years. In fact, his one question to God when God spoke to him about this ministry was, "Why me?" and God said, "Because you have lived it". God didn't mean that he had lived it perfectly, but that he had lived his life in community rather than in silos. In the western world there is almost no community anymore. People live their lives in silos; they have their family, they have their church/religion, if they are religious people, and they have their work. Fate understood that God was saying, "Your faith is not only a part of you on Sunday but it always has been a part of you in your family and in your work during the week."

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In studying, investigating marketplace ministry, Fate discovered that this concept, while new to him, was not a new concept, that many organizations had been teaching the value of ministry in the marketplace for decades and that several of these organizations were active in the Research Triangle. Therefore, he assumed that God was calling him to be a part of one or more of these ministries, but as he sat before the Lord asking for direction, it became obvious that God wanted something else done, something that was new and fresh. Not more or better than any of the other ministries, but different and Fate wasn't sure in what way it would be different, but that it needed to be separate and fresh. Therefore, he began to pray into this and the concept of Men Of Significance began to develop. Therefore, this organization and this web-site.