The new book from Joe Petersen
For leaders who are performing well yet living poorly.
Whatever gets your first moment gets your whole day.
Right now your phone gets it. Your inbox gets it. Yesterday's unfinished list gets it. FIRST shows you how to give that moment back to God, with a 350‑year‑old prayer the church forgot and five minutes before your feet touch the floor.
“So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God…”Isaiah 30:18 NLT
The problem
You're doing everything right. So why does it feel like this?
If you lead anything, a company, a team, a family, you may know exactly what I mean.
- You're tired in ways sleep doesn't fix.
- You give everything you have and still reach the end of your best days missing something you can't name.
- You're surrounded by people all day, and you still carry every real decision by yourself.
- Your faith is real. But somewhere between Sunday morning and Monday's first meeting, it stopped changing how you lead.
The harder you drive, the less solid it all feels. I know, because I lived that way for thirty years.
Here's what I finally learned. The shaking isn't the market. It's the foundation you've been standing on. And it starts cracking in a place almost nobody looks.
Inside the book
FIRST
One Prayer. Five Minutes. Everything Changes.
FIRST gives you the Sacred Start Prayer. Five movements, five minutes, prayed before you're fully awake: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and surrender, in that order.
You can pray it tomorrow morning.
Then the book follows that first moment outward, into the day it reorders and into the people who'll carry your words long after you're gone.
The first moment, where it goes, and where the Sacred Start Prayer comes from.
What surrender looks like under real pressure, in the office and on the calendar.
How a surrendered life overflows into the people you lead, at work and at home.
The first moment
It isn't your calendar. It's your first moment.
Think about the first second you're awake, when your mind comes out of sleep and forms its first thought. I call it the first fruits of the mind. Almost all of us give it away without knowing.
We reach for the phone. We run through the day's tasks. We list everything from yesterday that's still undone. The cleanest moment we'll get all day is gone before our feet touch the floor.
And whatever gets your first moment gets your whole day.
Three hundred and fifty years ago, the English clergyman Thomas Ken figured this out. He wrote his students a prayer for the moment they woke, before the world got a word in. He ended it with four lines you've sung a hundred times:
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
The church kept the hymn. It lost the prayer that leads to it.
The prayer
A note from Joe PetersenAuthor of FIRSTI didn't go looking for that prayer. I needed it.
For thirty years I led on one formula. Work harder, add excellence, get success. It worked, right up until a stage-four cancer diagnosis took everything that formula was built on.
I was left with one thing I could still give God: the first minute of the morning. So I gave it.
I went back for Thomas Ken's prayer. And what I found was bigger than a prayer. Christ was there in that first moment, every single morning, waiting on me.
He always had been.
Joe Petersen
Fort Worth, Texas
“So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God…”Isaiah 30:18 NLT
What you'll discover
Inside these twelve chapters, you'll discover
- Why your first thought of the day sets the tone for every meeting, decision, and conversation that follows it.
- The prayer the church misplaced, where it came from, and why it ends with a hymn you already know by heart.
- The five movements of the Sacred Start Prayer, in the order Joe prays them every morning.
- What surrender looks like under real pressure, in the office and on your calendar, not just on Sunday.
- Why you can be surrounded by people all day and still feel alone in every real decision, and what changes when you stop starting the day alone.
- How a surrendered morning overflows into the people you lead, at work and at home.
- Why the peace you've been chasing was never out ahead of you.
This book is for you if
- You lead people and you're tired of leading on fumes.
- Your faith is real, and you want it to reach Monday morning.
- You've tried harder and it hasn't made things lighter.
- You want something you can do tomorrow, in five minutes.
It's probably not for you if
- You want a productivity hack with a Bible verse on top.
- You're looking for someone to tell you to hustle harder.
- You'd rather read about surrender than practice it.
About the author
Joe Petersen
He doesn't teach this from a safe distance.
Joe Petersen spent three decades in real estate development. For the past thirteen years, one day a month, he has sat in a closed room with a dozen chief executives who agreed to tell each other the truth.
Every Monday since April 3, 2017, he has led a five-minute prayer call for business leaders. It started with about fifteen people on a phone line. Nine years later, it’s still growing.
He works at surrender every morning. Some mornings he loses, the same as you.
What readers say
“There are a lot of good books out there with solid teaching on spiritual health, but this one really stands out… Reading it feels like Joe is sitting next to me in my living room sharing his wisdom.”
Joe Bergman“I have long been struck, sometimes even unsettled, by how much Joe Petersen accomplishes and how professionally and passionately he serves others. I’ve always known his faith was central. FIRST helped me understand why and how.”
Mark Modesti“I’ve only read one chapter of FIRST so far, and it moved me so much that I put it down and started writing letters to some of the most important people in my life. I can’t remember the last time a book moved me to action like that.”
Denise HarmonWhy I'm doing it this way
Why I'm signing every one of the first 2,000 myself.
I could have handed this book to a warehouse and let it ship itself. I didn't want to.
This prayer met me in the hardest season of my life. It didn't arrive in a box. Somebody handed it to me. So the first printing goes out the way I'd hand it to you across a table: inscribed with your name, signed, and numbered.
Two thousand is about as many as one man can sign and still mean it. When they're gone, they're gone.
You'd be giving God your first moment. The least I can do is give you mine.
Joe
The first printing is limited to only 2,000 copies.
- Limited to only 2,000 hardcovers. That's the whole first printing.
- Inscribed and signed by the author, every copy.
- Numbered, and consecutively numbered within every set.
- Free shipping on every order. Sales tax is added at checkout.
- Ships the first week of December, in time to give.
Choose your copies
Buy the signed book
Shipping is free on every order. Every hardcover ships the first week of December.
The signed first edition
The Hardcover
- Inscribed and signed by the author
- Numbered, from a first printing limited to only 2,000
- Free shipping. Sales tax is added at checkout
Ships the first week of December.
One to keep. More to give.
Signed hardcover sets, consecutively numbered and shipped together, in time for Christmas.
“I ordered my copy, and I’ll be giving FIRST to family and friends this Christmas.” Denise Harmon
The Pair
Two signed hardcovers, consecutively numbered. One for you and one for someone you love.
Buy the PairShips the first week of December.
The Table
Eight signed hardcovers, consecutively numbered. Enough for everyone around your table.
Buy the TableShips the first week of December.
The Twelve
Twelve signed hardcovers, consecutively numbered. For a small group, a board, or everyone on your list.
Buy the TwelveShips the first week of December.
For the people you lead
Hardcover and paperback combination packages. Every book signed, and the hardcovers consecutively numbered.
The Team
Two hardcovers and ten paperbacks, twelve books in all. A $317.90 value, so you save about $29.
Ships the first week of December.
Buy the TeamThe Company
Four hardcovers and twenty paperbacks, twenty-four books in all. A $635.80 value, so you save about $87.
Ships the first week of December.
Buy the CompanyQuestions leaders ask
I already have a morning routine. Why would I need this?
Most morning routines start after the first moment is already gone. The phone, the list, the worry about yesterday get there first. FIRST is about the five minutes before your feet touch the floor, before any of that gets a word in.
I don't have time for one more thing.
It's five minutes, and you do it before you get out of bed. You don't add anything to your day. You give its first moment to God instead of your inbox.
Is this just a book with a prayer in it?
No. The prayer is where it starts. FIRST is twelve chapters in three sections, Start, Live, and Love, that follow that first moment into how you lead, how you handle pressure, and how you love the people around you.
When will my books ship?
The first week of December, in time for Christmas giving.
Is shipping really free?
Yes. Shipping is free on every order. Sales tax is calculated from your address and added at checkout.
Can I order for my whole team?
Yes. See the team packages above. For anything larger, write to [email protected].
Tomorrow morning, something will get your first moment.
It can be the phone, the list, and the weight of yesterday. Or it can be the One who's been waiting there all along.
Buy the signed bookFrom a first printing limited to only 2,000. Ships the first week of December.
P.S. Every hardcover is inscribed, signed, and numbered, from a first printing limited to only 2,000. I'd be honored to send one to you and to your chosen friends. Begin tomorrow. Before your feet touch the floor.
Joe