Beyond the Page From Divine Anaalogies:

Creating a Pathway for Reflection, Discipleship, and Service

Charles D. “Chuck” Vollmer is the founder of Divine Analogies, Jobenomics, and the Jobenomics Foundation. His career has spanned military service, strategic planning, business development, technology, community transformation, and faith-based leadership. A highly decorated U.S. Air Force combat pilot, Chuck flew 175 combat missions and later held senior leadership roles with organizations including General Dynamics and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Divine Analogies grew out of Chuck’s more than fifty-year walk with Christ. Through a seven-book series, he connects biblical truth with familiar experiences and modern metaphors, inviting readers to recognize God’s presence in everyday life and move from reflection to active faith, service, and purpose.

More information at https://DivineAnalogies.org 

The Interview Summary

In this episode of The Nonprofit Exchange, Hugh Ballou talks with Charles D. “Chuck” Vollmer about the vision behind Divine Analogies and the larger purpose he sees beyond the books themselves.

Drawing from his military, business, entrepreneurial, and faith journey, Chuck shares how Divine Analogies grew out of approximately 50 years of walking with Christ. The series includes 364 reflections organized across seven volumes, each designed to connect biblical truth with everyday experience in a personal, non-preachy way. Chuck explains that his goal is not to offer a formula or win arguments, but to encourage discovery, reflection, and transformation.

The conversation explores the progression of the series, including reflections on faith, seeking God, eschatology, the Holy Spirit, success and surrender, the future of the church, and the still-developing final volume. Chuck speaks candidly about his own struggles with pride, surrender, habits, success, and the ongoing process of spiritual growth. He emphasizes that faith is not simply about ideology, but about a lived relationship with God.

Hugh and Chuck also discuss the broader vision for Divine Analogies as more than a collection of books. They consider how the reflections could become a movement that helps people—especially younger generations and those who feel disconnected from traditional religious structures—explore faith, purpose, service, and spiritual transformation. Chuck connects this vision with his experience building large-scale movements and initiatives through Jobonomics and other efforts.

The episode closes with a focus on legacy, discovery, and practical spiritual practice. Chuck encourages listeners to begin simply: read one reflection at a time, remain open, and listen for how the Holy Spirit may speak through ordinary life. His central invitation is to pursue relationship with God rather than merely adopting an ideology. 

The Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou

Welcome to The Nonprofit Exchange. This is host Hugh Ballou. Many leaders spend years building organizations, solving problems, and creating strategies. But some of the most important work we leave behind is the wisdom we have gathered along the way. Today’s guest, Chuck Vollmer, has spent decades as a military officer, strategist, entrepreneur, coalition builder, and founder of Jobonomics. Alongside that public work has been a deeply personal 50-year walk with Christ. Divine Analogies is the expression of that journey, a series of reflections connecting scripture and scriptural truth with the ordinary experiences of modern life. Today we are going to talk not only about the books, but about the vision beyond those books, and what it takes to turn that vision into something that reaches people, forms communities, and continues beyond the printed page. Chuck, he’s called Chuck Vollmer, Charles D. Vollmer, is the founder of Jobonomics, Jobonomics Foundation, nonprofit, and Divine Analogies nonprofit. His career has spanned military service, strategic planning, systems engineering, he’s an expert in these things, investment capital, international coalition building, and entrepreneurship. He served in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard flying 175 combat missions in Southeast Asia and earning six Distinguished Flying Crosses and 11 Air Medals. He later held senior roles with Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, and other national level initiatives. Through Jobonomics, he has focused on creating startup businesses and economic opportunities in under-resourced communities. Divine Analogies draws from his approximately 50-year walk with Christ and translates that journey into practical reflections connecting biblical truth with everyday life. I said that twice because it’s so important. So Chuck, welcome. If Divine Analogies succeeds as exactly in your hope, what will be the difference of the lives of readers, viewers in the future?

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

I hope in one word it’s transformation. But I met Christ 50 years ago in an apparition in Tokyo after screaming at gods to prove himself. Two months later, Jesus appeared in an apparition. And when I asked him if I had to quit being a fighter pilot, because I didn’t want to be a conventional Christian in the traditional sense, he said to me, I want you just for who you are. And I would echo that to anybody that’s listening. He wants you just for who you are, where you are and allow him to work his miracles in your life.

Hugh Ballou

So why is this Divine Analogies series relevant to today’s world?

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

Well, I grew up as a troubled childhood. I had a difficulty in the military at the beginning. They told me I wouldn’t belong. They would try to throw me out of the Air Force Academy a couple of times. Eventually, I found out why. I was too entrepreneurial. I was a contrarian. I was a skeptic. I needed to figure things out. I just didn’t accept things that were just served up to me. When I started—when I became a Christian, you know, the Christophany, the meeting was certainly a transformational point, but I was still a skeptic. Okay. It was two years later, I got on an airplane and I flew to Israel and walked the footsteps of Jesus just to figure out, you know, was this guy really real? And so this method of discovery, I think is, is important. And it echoes throughout all Divine Analogies, you know? And so, I wrote 360 some divine analogies broken into seven volumes. And it gives a different perspective from a contrarian skeptics and a point. And it is a non-traditional view that does not just challenge, it challenges the traditional view, but it certainly does not condemn the conditional view.

Hugh Ballou

That’s great. So we want to talk about the seven series, but before we do that, let’s dig a little bit deeper into, um, what do you want readers to experience? Knowledge, conviction, comfort, curiosity, transformation, or combination, or what do you want people to experience in this journey through these books?

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

Okay. Each of these 364, uh, reflections are just that, uh, I write it in first person. Okay. So to avoid the idea that I’m preaching, you know, I’m just trying to say, looking back on my life, OK, from from my point of view across many different areas, you know. And I would think the the reader would would would be fascinated to look through a guy that, you know, that has taken lives in combat, you know, and has risen to the top of the force of 50, but yet learned one thing is to walk away from that. and deny yourself to God’s will. And so I think that that perspective will be interesting. And I support it by biblical reference, but it is my story that I think a lot of people identify with.

Hugh Ballou

So that’s a real important distinction. So let’s talk about the journey, the arc of the six books. And instead of waiting till later, I want to go to divineanalogies.org. It’s D-I-V-I-N-E, analogies.org, for people that are listening and don’t see. So what I have up is the home page for Divine Analogies. And I’m going to go to browse the books. So as you talk about the books, people that are on the audio podcast, there’s a link there for you to go here. But those that are watching, Chuck, there’s a visual of, currently you have five books up out of the seven. And by the time people will look at this year or so from now, there’ll be the full seven. So they can come back and see that. But talk about the whole series of books and what you hope people will experience in that journey along the way.

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

Well, having a personal relationship with Christ, you know, the first 10 years, I was fascinated by him. And then at the kind of the 10 year point, you know, I got upset with him because I felt he walked away from me, but it wasn’t walked away. What he actually did was provide me the Holy Spirit. Okay. And the Holy Spirit being indwelled in believers is a transitional time. So I spent a lot of time every day talking to the Holy Spirit and trying to figure out what I can do better, what do I need to do to glorify God. And so one day the Spirit said, I want you to write a reflection. And I said, well, OK, I can do that. I’m pretty good at rewriting reflections. And he said, I said, well, that’s one, two, five. He said, no, one for each day, each day of what? And he said a year. And he said, I’ll make it easy. Rather than do three hundred sixty five, I’ll make it three sixty four divided by seven volumes of fifty two each. And so what you’re seeing is the first five volumes. The first two, and I’ll just keep short about it, is what’s kind of a potpourri, kind of the reflections, just the general reflections. It starts off with God as an atom. Okay. If the first word he spoke, probably the first syllable would be the basic atom, the building block. And it is modeled after the Trinity, the electron, the neutron and the proton, the father, the son, the Holy Ghost. The first two volumes were reflections on the faith, and then what was my reception was, how do I seek God, okay? Because I seek him daily, okay? When I was in combat, I, I didn’t have a problem with laying down my life for other guys. We did that for each other numerous times. And so, dying for Christ is not a big deal to me because I passed that threshold many years ago. Dying daily is a different story, okay? Dying to my will and submitting my will, surrendering to his, to seek God’s face, not his handouts, is paramount. Then volume three really takes a big turn, because about 80% of the people in the United States think that they have a dim view of the future with everything that’s happening, the advent of technology, AI, the shift in the geopolitical, the divide in the country, the possibility of nuclear war in the Middle East. They think something apocalyptic is going to happen. The Christian community, about 51%, they believe that we’re in, according to a Pew survey poll, that 51%, the Christians believe that we could be in the end times. But the fact of the matter, nobody really understands what that means. And so that’s what volume three is. It takes a look at the end time type of thing called the eschaton. And by the way, I’ve become kind of an expert in eschatology from Abraham tradition. Because when the US government sent me as an Arab coach into the Middle East for 10 years to work on the war on terror, As soon as they found out I was a Christian, they tried to convert me. And so I got very much into the idea of what’s coming in the future from not only a Jewish, but a Christian and an Islamic perspective. And today’s things with the Iranian war and what’s going on in the Middle East, this volume addresses all that stuff very, very specifically. from the way I reflect and see the eschatology of the end times. Volume four goes deep into the Holy Spirit. As I mentioned, Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to his disciples at Pentecost for a reason. When he walked the earth in his incarnated form, He was kind of a solo, okay? But by having Christ in everybody, the believers, then he’s got a bunch of mini Jesuses, so to speak, you know? And what the idea is that the Holy Spirit always points us back to Jesus, okay? And the Father God. And he knows, the Holy Spirit knows what the Father’s plan is. And him in me, and if I communicate with him on a daily basis, he reveals little bits and pieces. Okay, and so I’ve got 52 volumes or 52 reflections on volume four. And I think that’s going to be one of the best sellers about what is my relationship with the Holy Spirit and how has that really affected my journey, at least in the last four decades, when I finally started embracing him as Jesus Pericles. Volume five, six and seven. Volume five, a lot of people say, well, how could you be so successful in so many different areas? And then all of a sudden walk away from success. And the world provides power, prestige, possessions, wealth as a reward. And God says love, peace, joy in the Galatians five things. It seems that like most people would prefer the power and prestige and the wealth as opposed to the softer kind of fruits and gifts of the spirit. But in fact, I was hollow inside until I became to Christ, okay? I was convinced that I wasn’t worth much, okay? And there was this hole that it needed filling and he, and through the Holy Spirit filled that hole. And I would think that the readers, just that filling, that filling of the emptiness, especially with the young kids now, okay, that are just not finding, you know, satisfactions in the number of likes that they get on the internet, okay, or they don’t like the idea that pursuing a career in the Fortune 500 is really where they want to go. Okay, volume six is about the church age, the life and death of the church age. I believe that we’re, with all the things that are going on, that the church age was not meant to be forever, okay? It was a period between the first and second coming of Christ, okay? And we’re seeing signs of the decay of the church age. That doesn’t mean the church is gonna just go away. It’s gonna transform. Okay, it’s gonna transform into more contrarian guys. Jesus drove truth to power, and he wants his disciples to do that. Too many churches right now are becoming so secularized that they take more of the social, humanitarian type of thing. And according to Barna Research, which is a research group, only 4% of the Americans now that even professing Christians are biblically based. Okay. So if we move away from the truth of the Bible, the spirit of the truth, and Jesus is a way truth and light, then you’re losing a source of power that I’ve experienced. And I think that that revelation, and that is real, because at the beginning, I just kind of thought of Jesus as a magician, as a miracle maker, and the man, okay? And at the beginning, his miracles, his magician type of things was kind of fascinating. But then eventually, I became endeared to the man, okay? The man that I called the dirty fingernail Jesus, the guy that spoke truth to power, washed feet, got down in the mud with us, and to the point where I got nailed to a piece of wood for me. Okay, as a combat guy, I can relate to that kind of guy. And I think that that kind of view will inspire, especially the young guys and young people, guys, gals, and also the people that had enough of the ideology of religion. And then the last book, seven, is still to be determined. I’m thinking about death and dying. Obviously, you saw my photo. Shop fixture in the beginning on me that you put there and then this is the older version But eventually I’ve got some wisdom not only in death. Okay, I’ve taken a life 175 combat missions But I also really have just explained to you that dying of myself was a difficulty Difficult most difficult part of dying daily. And what does that mean? I And why would you do, why would I do that? Well, I’ll tell you, there’s, I got 364 things, told you reasons why. You may not agree with it. It may not be fair, right down center theme on the theology, but it is a lived reality.

Hugh Ballou

Let me highlight a couple of things. That’s really great stuff. I want to remind people, as I said at the beginning, Chuck’s a colleague. We’re also working together. I’ve been part of Jobonomics for many, many years. Jobonomics is the umbrella, bringing value to underserved communities, principally to create jobs and micro-businesses. But there are so many parts of that. And Divine Analogies is one part. It’s elevating people where they are. And this part of it is discovery chuck but part of it in i’m in this interview knowing intimately everything you’re doing so it sort of guides my questions. I just believe in transparency, but still I want I want to highlight the fact that you’re doing this on your own time with your own dollar because it’s a calling for you And the difference it makes to you is what’s going to happen in people’s lives. So let’s let’s um, also want to highlight the fact that uh we’re in troubled times. My wife and I read the lectionary, which we have to deal with all the themes of the Bible over the year, and there’s a lot of themes in the Old Testament that are pretty severe. Reminds me, it’s current events, not just history, and if you read the New York Times 100 years ago, it’s similar. Now, there’s a lot more complication today, so people are going to be Watching or listening to this this episode in years to come And so there’s a lot of common truths that are eternal truths in this and I discovered you talked about book three of eschatology I knew the word but reading through the books and discovering for myself. It’s it’s helped me transform my own thinking So let’s let’s uh in the in the last part of this episode. Let’s focus on um, you know first, uh, what’s the vision beyond the books and you know our First audience is Gen Zers, but it’s not limited to that. You know, we’re, we’re, we’re, that’s a big audience that really needs this, but there are a lot of audiences. So talk about the vision beyond the book and who do you think is going to read it?

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

I think that the right now, the church age is ending. Okay. I get in church. I mean, then the churches are going to make us Jesus come back and it’ll be his church. It’ll be the, it’ll be the. so to speak. But what’s going to happen is right now is that the whole, there are four religions, so to speak, in my viewpoint. Religious is what is the highest good. I go with theocracy. God is the highest good. But the United States right now, that’s probably according to less than 10% that people are really true. They believe that God is highest good. The majority are humanists, okay, where humans are the highest good. That’s where you see a lot of the advent of the things like Black Lives Matter, critical race theory, those types of activities. But then the question is, when you get into that area, then what humans are the best? Are men better than women? Are women better? Are the LGBT community? All those different things. So that’s humanism. The one that’s really, really rising now is dataism, okay? That, you know, the kids, especially the online, the scrolling and the Instagram, all the rest of the stuff is, goodness is determined by the number of likes, okay? Okay. But, you know, right now, the United States is in this kind of gray area right now. And the fact is that I try to put my perspective on how do you balance that out? Okay. How do you rationalize it? How can you make decisions of where you’re putting your time and your balance? Okay. To me, it’s a process, okay? There are some of my bad habits that I still have after 50 years, okay? That God’s still working on, okay? There are others that were handled right away. I can recall, for example, I love drinking scotch and then whiskey. And it was five years ago that, you know, the Lord came to me one night and said, I think Chuck’s time to stop to go drinking, okay? And I said, well, is that you? You know, I knew darn well it was him, but he said, he said, look, I said, can I, can I, can I ask you a little test? And he says, sure, go ahead, close your Bible, close the Bible. He says, open it up, put your finger in it. And I put my finger down on Isaiah 51, 22, and it says thou shall drink no more. And I highlighted it in red. Okay, I can show you my Bible right now. And I quit drinking that day. And I haven’t had a drop since, it’s six years now. And it’s not that I was an alcoholic, but it was a bad habit. He wanted me to do things like this. There are other habits like pride that he’s still working on. Okay. The pride is my, is my thorn. Okay. Okay. And, uh, and so, you know, like Paul asked to remove the thorn, he’s not going to remove it. He said, just learn to live with it. Okay. And that’s where the Holy spirit and the daily, okay. There’s a pride again, you know? So what? To answer, I’m being a little circular about it, but what people would be interested in is the struggle, okay? Life is a test, okay? I said that in every of the volume, life is a test. We existed before, okay? We’re gonna exist afterwards, this period of time. Some people are lucky, because they’re tested very lightly and they get, get an early release. Here I’m approaching 80 years old and you know, I’m still in work, progressing work. But life is a test. Every day is a test whether you turn to the light or the darkness. And at the end of the day, you can be judged on your heart condition, okay? Some guys are lucky like the robber on the cross at the 11th hour and you know, 59th minute, he was saved. Unfortunately, most of us not that lucky to, you know, to be that. Some are called early. I was 30 when I was called. It’s never too early, never too late. And each day, you’d either turn to the light or the darkness, okay? And you don’t have your own power, your own willpower’s not gonna work. The only thing you have that’s free will is to choose him or choose yourself.

Hugh Ballou

I want to highlight a couple of things that you’ve put out there along the way. Divine Analogies is a book. It’s your spiritual message. But moreover, it’s a movement than that. I don’t know if you see it that way or not, but I think it’s more of a movement. And there’s people in the audience today that are hungry for something. And as you said, this is not preaching. It’s your journey. You also said this is not formulaic. These are all the answers. You do this and you’re perfect. This is a growth continuum, not only for you, but for all of us. So as people out there, talk about your legacy. And I think what’s going to be an important factor in helping Bring this book to people who need it. We call it a market, but it bringing people to that is what can people do that are actually watching this, listening to this, to be a part of it, to share it, to participate in it. So legacy depends on all of us. Can you speak to that a minute? We didn’t script this question, but I think it’s something to think about.

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

The movement is important. You know, uh, I’ve been involved with movement for my whole professional life and national and international initiatives. Uh, My first biggest one was I led one of the four U.S. consortiums, the largest privatization in the history of the world. That’s privatizing former Soviet Union. And it became a movement like we sent in teams. OK, I had like 57 subcontractors, Ernst & Young, KBR, all those things. I was at Booz Allen at the time leading the thing. And so the idea is we would go in with small teams and then train the trainers. And eventually we created reprivatized 70% of the former Soviet Union businesses from center to, so that was a model for, that created tens of millions of businesses. That became the model for jobonomics behind here. That became a movement. Christ said to me that one afternoon, he said, walk away from your million dollar a year salary and your high position, your country club life in corporate life, with all those perks and start this book, write this book, Jobonomics in Your Basement. And I did. My wife thought I was nuts, you know, and so she’s finally come around after a while. But for 20 years, I’ve led this movement. I’ve taken money out of my retirement, okay, to do this. I haven’t taken a salary for 20 years. How many nutcases do that, okay? And only the nutcases that are nutty about God, you know, that’s what the difference is. So jobonomics is a movement, okay? And now it’s been, you know, you’ve been on the baseline, one of the first guys in jobonomics. And the idea is help people, get them where they’re at, start businesses and give them intergenerational wealth. That was the movement. We have 100 chapters in four continents now, after 15, 20 years of doing this. But the problem we’ve lacked is the fact there’s a seed capital to start these things. I can go into a black community in Chicago, which I do, and say, here’s all business plans, but I need to get some cash into the thing. And I’ve used up all the discretionary capital that I have. So we started Jobonomics as a way to fund some capital in to fund these kind of things. Along the way, it appears that this also fills a hole in people. that are empty and then also the ones that are fearful, what’s coming? And at the end of the day, the movement in divine analogies is all gonna be centered around the remnant, okay? In every case in the Jewish lineage or the Hebrew thing throughout the Old Testament, Jews would walk away, you would discipline them, but the remnant stayed. Same thing at the end of the church age, okay? The church age, if we’re going into these dark times that everybody thinks the thing, say if a nuke goes off in the Middle East, okay, which in the Iran-Israel crisis, that’s a century, it’s all about nukes, okay? And this is getting to be very serious stuff and people are afraid. But say we go down that dark road, okay? And the church is not filling the void, okay? of equipping with Holy Spirit kind of power, what’s gonna happen, a new church is gonna be born, it’s called the remnant. Well, just like the remnant in the Israelis, okay, God’s gonna give them a new heart and they’re gonna empower with first century kind of powers from the Holy Spirit, like the first century Christians were. That’s where we’re going. And so, that’s where the movement is. And so, if people are forewarned and they’re forearmed, they can see this stuff and they can make a choice, okay? Okay. I tend to be more interested in the lion than the lamb. I mean, I’m not dismissing the lamb part, but at the end of the day, Christ was a warrior, okay? He came, his mission, his number one mission was to defeat death, okay? And he went through the past, showed us the way how to defeat death and have everlasting life. That was his mission. He was a warrior. He spoke truth to power, okay? That is what this legacy and the movement will be coming. John the Baptist was disappointed. He sent his disciples and said, hey, where’s this guy that’s going to do the revolution? Okay. He did the revolution. He showed us how to defeat the principalities and powers of this earth, the evils of this earth in a different way.

Hugh Ballou

That’s a key point right there. And Paul spoke directly to powers and principalities. I’d like to interject here that this isn’t a fundraising thing, but regardless, there are strategic partners for both the nonprofit ventures that we’re working with and the for-profit ventures. And it’s not about us. It’s about leveraging the capital that we have. for the greater good and to create a legacy for humankind. That is the definition of philanthropy. It’s the love of humankind. And I see this is a big philanthropy play. So Chuck, we’re at the final minutes of this. Can we have some fun and do a series of rapid-fire questions?

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

Yeah, go ahead. Shoot. You’re my brother.

Hugh Ballou

Okay. One word that best describes your relationship with God today? Intimacy. The analogy you use most often in your own life? John Newton. Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace.

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

Amazing Grace. I mean, how could a reprobate like that guy who made his living on slavery end up coming to write Amazing Grace? How does a guy that’s taken thousands of lives end up doing what I’ve been able to do through the power of the spirit for the last 40 years?

Hugh Ballou

That’s a pivotal point. And I want people to take away from this. This is not about agreeing or disagreeing. This is about the journey, about the learning, about our personal walk. And really, Amazing Grace has become, to me, focused on how we give and receive grace to one another. It’s got a new life with a message. Here’s another two. What do you hope people will say after they first encounter divine analogies, even book one?

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

Oh, I guess one word you ask for is discovery. Discover what’s missing. OK, there’s there’s a hollowness in every one of us. Fill it.

Hugh Ballou

Yeah.

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

And you’re not going to fill it by by what what what the world offers power, prestige, price, possession and wealth. I was a multimillionaire and I walked away. OK. And I’ve never been happier.

Hugh Ballou

Love it, love it. And we discover we don’t know, or haven’t even thought about, or didn’t know we needed to know. Here’s the last one. Complete this sentence.

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

I believe God is inviting us to… Be in relationship with him and not an ideology.

Hugh Ballou

As a closing, Chuck, for the person who’s in the audience today, who wants to become more aware of God in ordinary life, what is one simple practice they can begin now?

Charles D. (Chuck) Vollmer

Well, this divine analogy is written in one page, 450 words with a really interesting graphic on it. It’ll take you five minutes to scan, two minutes to scan. And you can do one a day, one a week, one a month. It doesn’t make a difference. You can do it in your Bible studies. You can do it sitting on the can. The Holy Spirit will talk to you wherever you are.

Hugh Ballou

wherever you are. So it’s about listening too. You’ve demonstrated that you paid attention, you listened, and you found the scriptures. So Chuck, Divine Analogies invites readers to slow down, pay attention, and connect the visible experiences of everyday life with the invisible work of faith. Chuck, thank you for sharing not only the books, but the larger vision for how these reflections can become an ongoing pathway for spiritual growth, conversation, and service. And I invite people to not only take advantage of the books, but go to Divine Analogies, push contact, and let us know if you want to participate at any level. So Chuck, thank you for being the guest today on The Nonprofit Exchange.