We continue to count down the Top 100 Books for Faith Driven Entrepreneurs with…

Outliers

by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.

Click on the book cover to check out the Reviews and Purchase at Amazon

This article was originally published here by FOX News

— by Lauren Green

No suit, no corner office… but Karen Diefendorf wields a great deal of power at Tyson Foods–as pastor.

The food giant has become one of the new faces of corporate faith-friendly work environments. Diefendorf is head of the chaplaincy program for Tyson’s 141-thousand employees.

She said: “Our chaplains spend a lot of time in the break room and during the lunch or dinner periods so that they can sit down with folks and just check on them. So there’s a lot of what we would refer to in the chaplain world as a ministry of presence just being available… and it’s in the building of those relationships.”

Tyson is tied at number two among Fortune 100 companies in a new study measuring corporate America’s inclusion of religion as a part of its diversity programs.

The first-of-its-kind study is from the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation.

Brian Grim, the organization’s president, said: “There’s a lot of studies that look at how well a company does and including gender or sexual orientation or race… This is the first one to look at how they include religion.”

The purpose of the study, said Grim, is not to measure “doctrine or dogma in the workplace, but it’s to help people be able to express themselves” and their faith in the workplace.

Click here to read the full article!

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[ Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash ]

Our very own podcast host Rusty Rueff will be hosting this live virtual event this coming Sunday night!

This is Cornerstone SF church’s third such event and first virtual one. Their most recent one was with Sue Warnke – President of Salesforce’s Faithforce. This will be an encouraging and inspiring event for all you entrepreneurs!

Tune in online for the next LIVE Tightrope Talk: Sunday, May 17 @ 6:00 PM PST

Guest Speakers:

Allen Mask (Sonos, Airbnb, Google, Goldman Sachs) &
Carly Mask (Camp Digital, Airbnb/Tilt, Monster, Apple)

God is the ultimate Creative. Out of the darkness, He created light. Out of a void, He created life. His creativity shines in captivity.

As His image-bearers, how can we use today’s shelter-in-place confinement to fuel our creativity?

Hosted by: Pastor Terry, Rusty Rueff, and Emily Wang

Join us in exploring this unique opportunity to reflect God’s creativity and hope, as leaders at work, at home, and in community.’

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Also check out their Facebook event page here

This article was originally published by the Center for Faith&Work

— by Bill Peel

Although pain is inevitable, misery is optional. The same calamity can produce positive change in one person and cause caustic bitterness in another. Whether pain’s life-shaping power makes us better or bitter depends on what we believe about God. George McDonald explains it like this:

Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathering storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and its response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, its spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophes never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches. (Thomas Wingfold Curate)

The Pandemic of 2020 is a fierce storm—one that will alter our spiritual weather and the shape of our soul for better or worse. This kind of storm reveals what we trust in–and trusting in anything but God fuels soul-twisting fear. In Psalm 34, David reminds us to seek our loving, sovereign God when we are fearful.

I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. (Psalm 34:4-8 )

The Heidelberg Catechism reminds us of our only solid comfort at times like these and every day.

What is your only comfort in life and death?

That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.

Keith & Kristyn Getty and friends put these profoundly beautiful truths in song in their “Christ Our hope in life and Death.” Listen and find comfort.

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[Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash]

At the end of every podcast, we like to ask our guests to share what God has been teaching them in this season of life. This week’s guest is Kelly Shackelford, Esq., President and CEO of First Liberty Institute, the largest legal firm in the nation dedicated exclusively to protecting religious freedom for all Americans.

Deuteronomy 10:17

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

At the moment, I’m just standing back in amazement at what God does. You know, as I said when we came into this, I mean, if you had told me four years ago, hey, can you get rid of that bad case and really free up religious freedom? I would’ve said probably not in my lifetime. And, you know, three years later this last summer, we just changed history with that case. 

And as we started this Covid-19 journey again, we were like, Lord, you let us have these opportunities. You know, we want to work really hard, but you’re the one who provides these things that allow us to do things we can never do on our own. And just in the last three or four weeks, we’ve just been blown away. I mean, we have a meeting on Monday morning, our prayer meeting as a group with people all over the country. And everybody is looking at each other on Zoom going, how did the Lord just allow us to do that? 

You know, the CARES Act legislation. People don’t know this, but every church is allowed to participate and every religious nonprofit. Well, we were able to see that there were some dangers in the act and we were able to get through a protection on the last day that protected every church and every religious nonprofit in the country. 

And they have no idea, you know, that Louisville case we’re talking about. It’s the first case ever in the history of the country in a pandemic about constitutional freedoms. And it was just a grand slam. And the fact that God let us do that. I mean, you know, every week there’s been another miracle. 

It’s almost like something we could have never constructed in our own hands, that God just let us have the opportunity. And so that’s been I guess, the really the thing I’m kind of sitting back in amazement and just saying, Lord, without you, we really can’t do anything. But with you, we can do anything. And if we’ll just trust and wait on him, the incredible things we get to do that we could never dream of can start to happen.

Today’s guest has argued in front of the United States Supreme Court…Now, normally we try to list multiple accolades and interesting facts about the guest, but do you really need anything other than that? 

Kelly Shackelford is the President & CEO of First Liberty, the largest law firm in the country dedicated exclusively to protecting the first amendment rights of Americans—that is, freedom of religion. 

Kelly came on to talk to us about his entrepreneurial journey in starting First Liberty, how business leaders can better understand their constitutional rights, and yes, what it’s like to argue in front of the Supreme Court.

Useful Links:

First Liberty

The Shackelford Sessions

Judge Rules in Favor of Kentucky Church