Episode 91 – Can A Business Be Christian? with Curtis Chang

Today we put an end to an age-old question—can a business itself have spiritual meaning? For years as Entrepreneurs, we’ve been called to live out our faith in our individual work activities and relationships. But we are fundamentally about building business enterprises. Can we take it a step further to conceive of the enterprise—the organization itself—as having spiritual significance?

Curtis Chang is our guest who’s recently come out with some work that makes the case for all organizations—including secular organizations—as having a deeper spiritual meaning than what Christians have typically been taught. 

Curtis straddles the world of secular organizations and Christian thinking. He is the Founder and CEO of Consulting Within Reach, a management consulting firm serving secular nonprofits across the country. He has won national recognition from the White House for innovative work in the social sector and teaches on the faculty of American University. At the same time, he is a former pastor, is a Senior Fellow at Fuller Seminary, and is a professor at Duke Divinity School. 

He’s a deep thinker and someone who we found engaging, encouraging, and challenging, and we think you will too. As always, thanks for listening.

If you have thoughts or questions from today’s show, let us know!

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Henry [00:03:04] So welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur Podcast, it is great to have you back. We have a special guest today, Curtis Chang. Curtis and I had a conversation about three months ago that really, really intrigued me. We’ve got a lot in common. And no, it’s not that we both graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, could not go to the university of Delaware. But we do share something very much in common. And that is a passion for looking back at the Old Testament in Genesis in particular about what the biblical narrative means for us is not raw. And we are particularly shared a passion about the story of the Tower of Babel. You might have heard me mentioned before in other editions that I’ve got a painting of Tower of Babel in my office. It’s the largest when I have it inspires me, encourages me, and really makes me think about what does it look like when this broader community of faith driven entrepreneurs come together, when the body of Christ comes together to build something beautiful? Not for our name to make us famous, but to make God famous. That’s something that Chris shares as well. And we absolutely want to talk about that. But, Chris, before we get into the biblical narrative. Who are you? Where do you come from?

 

Curtis [00:04:11] Yeah, well, for the last 14 years, I’ve been a faith driven entrepreneur myself. I’ve started my own management consulting firm that serves other organizations, primarily secular. And my my firm is a secular firm, but I’m a faith driven entrepreneur. So I’ve been starting my own company. And then I’ve also been advising and cults whole thing with numerous folks, mostly non-Christians, but some Christians as well, who are driven to start their own social enterprises as well. And the reason why I think we’re meeting up on this particular topic is several years ago I began trying to reflect more deeply on the spiritual meaning of my own work. What is God’s perspective and the ultimate eternal significance of this work that I’m doing? And really to answer that question. I realized you have to have a story to tell about how God cares or doesn’t care about the organization itself, because most of my work is about founding and building this enterprise and then helping other people build their enterprises, their organizations. So to have spiritual meaning for my work, I realize I have to have an account for why the organization, the institution, the enterprise itself matters or doesn’t matter to God. And I realize that much of pretty much everything I’ve read in Christian theology and thinking completely neglected the central question does the organization itself matter to God? Does it have a place in God’s big story? And I like to contrast the absence of that account with my previous vocation. So before I was an entrepreneur or starting my own Madgwick consulting firm, I was actually both a campus pastor and a church pastor.

 

[00:05:54] And what was striking to me was that in my work in those roles, I had a very robust account for why that work mattered, because the object of my work, my ministry had a rich theology to it. I mean, you know, when I was a minister to individual students, we have a very rich theology, a story to tell about why the individual matters to God, whether they’re Christian or not Christian. They’re made in the image of God. They’re even though they’ve sinned, they are redeemed by Christ. Their ultimate destiny is to be reunited with the father. Like all of that. Right. That’s what got me out of bed in the morning to go do this work as a church pastor. I had an account for why the church matters. Made of the image of Christ, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, similarly to be redeemed and ultimately reunited at the wedding feast, the lamb. What’s striking, Henry, is that for the millions of Christians who work in secular organizations or not or any organization or for the faith driven entrepreneurs starting his or her organization, we do not have the equivalent account of what is that object mean? Like, what is that? Does it have any spiritual significance? Does any spiritual value in the way that we know individuals or a church does? So that’s what I became intent on trying to figure out. And one of the great joys of my last several years has been discovering how much scripture has to say about the meaning and its place in God’s big story of the organization itself.

 

Henry [00:07:19] So I want to hear more about that. You know, one of the frameworks I’ve always heard are often heard is that there are Christian leaders, but there aren’t Christian businesses. How would you respond to that? So maybe you’re not suggesting that they’re Christian businesses, but you’re at least suggesting, of course, that the business, not just the person, not just the leader. That’s right. You got to expand on that.

 

Curtis [00:07:40] Yes. So I think the best way to talk about an organization is what is it fundamentally like in its essence? And my answer to that is that actually scripture teaches that all organizations, secular or Christian, whatever you want to label it, but all organizations are made in the image of God that it’s not just individuals or the church that’s made in the image of God. But organizations in their own way are intended by God to reflect him, to reflect his character and his being. And this is a great truth that somehow has escaped the attention of Christian teaching, such that people don’t think of opposition that way, but it’s very much conveyed throughout scripture. And if I want to pull out, you know, one passage that most clearly summarizes this would be Colossians one 15 to 17, where Colossians says that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God first born of all creation. And by him all things were created. All things were created in heaven and earth.

 

[00:08:44] And so what what’s covered in that all things? The scripture says in the very next phrase, it’s thrones. Dominion’s rulers and authorities. In other words, Clausen’s goes out of its way not to say, hey, it’s not just individuals or the church that can image God, but the things that can image God include institutions, thrones., demeanors, rulers and authorities and all aspects of those institutions, visible or invisible, which in other words, means that institutions have their own invisible quality as well. They’re not just concrete beings. They have, if you will, a spirituality, a spirit. If you want to use that term, they have a soul as well. In its own way. And therefore, the work we do in creating maintaining growing organizations, we are creating growing images of God. Your audience, your typical audience was a faith driven tree. They should think of themselves as sort of like a almost a Greek Orthodox monk who is painstakingly in his or her monastery painting an icon of Christ. They are crafting in their own way an image of Christ. That’s what Colossians 115 to something to say. And if we think of our work that way, not only does our work gain in supreme significance, forgot that it becomes an act of worship. You know, that’s what worship is reflecting the image of God. But also scripture suddenly opens up with enormous significance and instruction for how we are to image God in our institutional life.

 

Henry [00:10:09] To tie that back in, if you will, to the creation many or more specifically, the command to take dominion over all things and to name things. So are you suggesting that as we were to name the animals and take dominion over them, we’re all set to name companies and take dominion over them, but that God cares about companies like he cares, but don’t just help us understand more.

 

Curtis [00:10:33] Sure. Well, so, look, if we start with the core truth that organizations image God that we see from very beginning, well, what is this God that we are a call to image with our organizations? And Genesis, of course, one of the primary pictures of God as God as a creator. But what does that mean? That God is okay with the image of God as creator? And we find in the Genesis one passage that the creator, God is really intent on organizing and creation and bring order. The problem is that the earth is without form and with an empty. And so God in the Genesis account goes about basically creating or chart of creation. The week of creation is like night goes here, dagos here, the land goes here. The animals are related to the fish this way and so forth. It’s an elaborate or chart of creation. God is bringing order. And so if human beings that are to image this creator God, it means human beings themselves are meant to bring order to organize creation. And that’s what organizations are. Enterprises. That’s what businesses are. They are human expressions of bringing order of organizing creation in a new way. And the most poetic, I think, expression of that human reflection of God’s organizing image is in that passage in Genesis to about the human beings call to have dominion. And Dominion just means to bring order to organize creation.

 

[00:11:58] And the particular expression of that is in naming the animals. And it’s a wonderful poetic picture of what it means for human beings. And I think that faith driven entrepreneur to bring new order and new purpose integration, like when Adam was naming a particular piece, Adam is essentially saying you belong in this category and you are connected to this part of creation in this way. And your purpose is this. That’s what the biblical meaning of naming is, is calling forth your true identity, your true intended relationship to other parts of creation. And that’s what an entrepreneur is doing. An entrepreneur is looking at creation and seeing some aspect of creation saying, wow, if we did this, this would bring a new relationship into being this would bring a new order, new creation. I mean, entrepreneurs basically are saying the world should be connected in this new way. This should be organized in this new way. And that’s a perfect expression of the biblical mandate to have dominion and to name creation, because we’re reflecting the creator God in that way.

 

William [00:13:02] Curtis, that’s interesting. And as I walk through and I listen to you, I see you’ve got a big imagination to see you’re thinking through what the Genesis mandate means to a company in twenty nineteen. Right. That is really fascinating. And I wonder how you think about maybe more on a practical level as you think about taking that story a step further. How does that impact, you know, a CEO or business leader when they think about individual relationships with other companies, potentially competitors, other employees, other vendors? How do you think that goes forward? How that mandate that God gave us moves forward in a practical maybe everyday way?

 

Curtis [00:13:41] Sure. So certainly in the creation mandate, if you want to express, how do we then carry this out practically? I think this has a lot to do with how you relate to the world through your external environment as a CEO, is your fundamental posture to the world and your understanding of dominion. Is it domination, for instance? Is it like I’m out to actually crush the competition, take over the space, rule it? That is a distortion of dominion. That’s a distortion of how God relates to creation. How God relates Christian is so fascinating, right? God, really, it’s Christian. By making room for others, most fundamentally by human beings, by giving human beings real agency purpose and power is Christian. You could have just crushed everything and just said, I’m going to rule it all myself. But he’s purposely making room for others to be in relationship with others. What does that mean for an enterprise and a CEO and an enterprise to purposely make room for others to actually practice this mutuality and the sense of like we share this space and we share common purpose. It’s really interesting. The Mars company, the large conglomerate of beverages, too, recently did a study in terms of their own practices with their own supply chain and their own ecosystem, like coffee farmers and often down their supply chain.

 

[00:15:00] And they came across this fascinating finding that the more they practiced mutuality as a company, the higher ROIC they achieved. And so, you know, they’ve come to realize that mutuality has to be baked into their business model of how they relate, that have to pay attention to how others are sharing power, sharing profits and all that. Well, that’s a beautiful, I think, expression of an accurate reflection of God. The creator is one that makes room for others that actually is creating this sort of mutual interdependence and purpose. So that’s one example. I think another example would be in the internal structure of one’s enterprise and organization. That’s actually a key to what a founder and CEO does. What’s going to be our internal organizational culture? How are we going to be organized? What are internal relationships are? And there I would actually go even further back than the creation mandate. I would say that goes into actually who is God internally to himself. Right. We have to really sink deep into the fact that the image of God we are given, in addition to the creator and image, is that God himself is an organization, God in itself, as an organizational being. We worship a trying God. It’s one of the bizarre but sort of amazing complex pictures of God, images of God that Christianity presents is that our God is father son spirit. Three persons, one being distinct roles, common purpose, interdependent with a shared purpose. That’s called an organization, Harkat. We worship an organizational being. What does it mean that if we’re supposed to image God with our organizations, that we are bringing it to be. What does it mean for a CEO then to actually craft his or her organization to truly reflect the Trinity, to have the Trinitarian relationships of mutuality, of interdependence, of shared purpose, permeate its organizational culture and Slausen design? I know there’s a tremendous amount of wealth of insight and creativity to be found by for a CEO to meditate deeply on that.

 

William [00:17:03] I think you might be the first guest as well to tell us to go back much further than the creation story. So that’s awesome. I’ve never been instructed to go back much further than the creation story. So that’s great.

 

Curtis [00:17:15] I think the meaning of organizational life for the faith of an entrepreneur should start at the Trinity. It just started at the fact that we are told that human beings are meant to imagine a triune relational organizational God. And by the way, I think it also explains a great deal of why institutions matter so much to God and Scripture is because God realized and this gets to things like the meaning of the Bible story. Is that because God cares so much about organizational being in life, that scripture actually includes an explanation of how we get it wrong, how we fall from a proper imaging of God?

 

William [00:17:56] Curtis, one more. So I want to think about a company. It can be a real company. It could be an imaginary company. I want to take one step towards. Could you walk us through maybe how you’ve seen some of these ideas play itself out with entrepreneurs, kind of building an organization, maybe some decisions that you think they’ve made in this vein that maybe they wouldn’t have if they weren’t thinking through this lens?

 

Curtis [00:18:18] Sure. So I’ll point to Will, probably one of the biggest debates in business thinking today, which is the what is the purpose of a corporation and what does it exist for? Right. So for decades we’ve been dominated by the Milton Friedman sort of dogma that a corporation exists solely to achieve maximum profit for its shareholders. That’s been the dogma we’ve been told. What is a corporation? What does it exist? I believe that’s a fundamental distortion of the biblical image of God and of the corporation, because, again, the idea of a corporation existing solely to maximize profits for its shareholders is a contradiction to this idea of a God that is making room for others. It’s saying, you know, we only exist to make room for a very small set of people, our shareholders, people own our stock. And that’s all we exist for in the world. Whereas the picture of God is like, no, God is constantly making room, taking into account the needs of the other in the world, especially the most vulnerable and the weak, those on the margins.

 

[00:19:22] And I think a classic institutional expression of this in scripture, of course, is God’s commandment to Israel in Leviticus 19. So you want to talk about great scripture for CEOs out there. Let me direct them to the Leviticus. How about that? For a biblical guidance, because Leviticus 19, Francis is an explicit rebuke to the Friedman model of a corporation existing solely to maximize profits for shareholders. In Leviticus 19, it’s the law of the gleanings, which is essentially saying to Israel’s landholders, to Israel’s entrepreneurs, look, you cannot maximize your profits for yourselves or for your shareholders. You must leave room on the margins on the sides of your fields for the others, for that the resident alien, for the widow, for the weak. You exist for them also. And so you cannot harvest all the way up to the edges of your field. In other words, you cannot maximize your profits. You exist for something beyond yourselves than just that. I think any Christian that’s participating in a discussion about their own company with the meaning of it or other companies has to actually take that into account. That a faithful imaging of God cannot be just you exist solely to maximize your profits. You have to make a profit, of course, but that cannot be your sole definition of what you exist to do.

 

Rusty [00:20:39] Hey, Curtis, do you see that the winds are blowing sort of this way an industry today? I mean, we have more and more talk about meaning and purpose and mission. I mean, you feel a little winded your back here. And then I know you do a lot of work with non-profits. Maybe you talk a little bit about that because non-profits are even closer to what you just spoke about there. Right.

 

Curtis [00:21:00] Yes. And so I that’s always been true. And I pay us why I’ve been drawn to work primarily with nonprofits. So the idea that we exist for something beyond ourselves obviously is baked into the very being of the nonprofit sector. But what I think you’re talking about is absolutely right, that there is a hunger in the corporate For-Profit world for something beyond just profit maximization. I think there’s a number of factors for that. Know, one of them is the realization that that ethic is leading potentially to global disaster, both whether it’s income equality or climate change or whatever that. You know, this is if we’re going to have a world, a vibrant world where we have customers, we have to take care of a broader set of constituencies and stakeholders than just our shareholders that we have to we have a responsibility to the world. So I think that’s one driver for why that wind at the back for search for greater purpose.

 

[00:21:52] I think also the fact that corporations are hiring this generation, the millennial generation, they are wired for a variety of reasons to want to have a higher sense of purpose than just pure professional advancement. And so they’re responding to their own internal pressures among their employees. And if you’ve paid them to do like with the struggles that Google is facing, for instance, is that corporations are realizing its own internal constituency wants them to be about something more than just profit maximization. So I do think that this is a moment when Christians potentially have a prophetic word to offer the broader secular world an account, a robust account for why organizations, why institutions, why corporations exist. I think the world is hungry for that. We are I think at a moment in a society, in a world, in in something of a crisis of institutions. And by that, I mean the problems that we face as a world to me clearly require robust institutions to solve them. I mean, climate change, energy, income inequality. None of these things are going to be solved by some brilliant individual. I’m sorry. These are institutional issues that institutions have to solve. And at the same time, if you look at all the polls, surveys and the results, just read the sign of the times. Actually, people are more cynical, more distrustful of institutions than ever before. So we need institutions more than we ever have. Yet people are more cynical and doubtful and distrusting of institutions ever before. This is a moment where I think Christians have an opportunity to wade in, to have a robust story, to say why institutions matter. Also why there’s reason to actually forward that distrust or skepticism. But at the same time, a hopeful voice for redemption of human organizations as well.

 

Rusty [00:23:38] Yes, fascinating, actually, I think the dilemma that some entrepreneurs probably find themselves in. Right. Because they are trying to live out the principles that you’re espousing, which I think are just beautiful, especially in the context of today that you just articulated. But yet, on the other hand, they are pulled and pushed by the culture. The total, you know, economics that other people’s money might push them into. And I’m wondering, you know, if you have any advice for that entrepreneur who feels like they might be caught in between these two worlds, how to navigate, you know, as simply as they can?

 

Curtis [00:24:18] Yeah, well, I don’t know the answers to simply as they can’t because I don’t think there’s a simple answer. There’s a truthful biblical answer to that question, which is and I’m going to use a word that is going to sound foreign to many entrepreneurs or turn off in Christian culture, but I have to use it, which is theology. But actually, the way out to resist the pressures of the world is had to be thinking rightly about who God is, who human beings are, what human musicians are truly are, what their role is in the world. Those are theological issues. This is or if you want to use that fancy word, a theology. You know what Paul talks about by the renewing of your mind. Christian entrepreneurs have to renew their mind with right thinking, right understanding, as well as right practice, including spiritual practices that renew the mind and how they think about their works. Otherwise, they absolutely will be blown about, as Paul says here and there, by the spirit of the age, which are powerful today, but it frankly even powerful in every age. And so the task of the Christian church here in this age is to renew their mind, to think deeply and correctly about all of these things that we’ve been talking about. So they can resist the spirit of the age.

 

Henry [00:25:30] Curtis I want to shift gears just for a second, because I know that you’ve done some other work. In addition, obviously, to this space. But you have this operating interest in connecting sources of capital to users.

 

[00:25:44] And I don’t know if that comes from in your work with not for profit entrepreneurs, but every entrepreneur that’s looking at this is thinking about how to gain access to capital. We often say that there are three overarching job responsibilities for a leader, for an entrepreneur, whether they’re for profit aren’t for a not for profit, not sharing. It’s distorted the mission and vision to resource the project, resource the enterprise, and then you get the right people on the bus. That middle one seems to be a real focus of yours about resourcing. And how do you see that play out and what are some of the mistakes you see entrepreneurs make? Or just tell us more about your work in that space.

 

Curtis [00:26:21] Yeah, well, it certainly is the source of great anxiety, of constant need and the constant pressure to have to raise capital. And this is true for nonprofit entrepreneurs who are constantly aiming to raise funding from foundations and philanthropy and donors or from obviously the for profit who are constant looking for their next round. Who’s going to be my B C round investor and so forth. You know, and this is where I think if we can give the faith driven entrepreneur this sort of robust thinking, this robust imagination that’s not just in their heads, but in their hearts, that they are actually creating the image of God in these enterprises, that they are, like I said, to use the analogy, they are painting this beautiful icon to be placed in the world that is meant to image Christ. I think that puts a proper weighting on this issue of funding. Right. Look at that image is to be truly of God and its of God. It’s not your it’s not your creation. It’s not it’s not just a tool. It’s something holy, actually. Then I think it increases our capacity to truly trust that God will actually provide for the replication of images in his world. That’s what he’s about. That’s the whole scripture narrative is about God wanting to multiply to see more and more images of himself and declare it is good. And then the Genesis account to go back to that. That’s actually the picture of abundance that we see most is when God sees the replication of his images. And then he declares, oh, that’s good, that’s it. Whenever there’s replication reproduction in the creation account, that’s when God says, and this is good. And they saw it was very good. And so forth. And that’s the picture of a teeming abundance. So to move entreprenuers to a state of abundance mentality where they’re not thinking just always, constantly, scarcity need to keep the raise funds. I think it starts with getting them back to that imagination that I am participating in the imaging God and that is where God is most desirous of. Want to release his abundance.

 

William [00:28:20] It’s a great way to come towards a close. Curtis, I really appreciate you walking to entreprenuers through that framework. And as we come to a close, I would really love to always try to figure out where is God taking you today? And it’s amazing how God usually weaves that end where listeners are today day. And so if you could. Bring us into your world, where is God’s word? Be an open do you in new ways? Could be today. Could be this morning. Something that you’re reading could be this season that something you might be meditating on. Just maybe walk us through God’s living word is impacting you during this season.

 

Curtis [00:28:53] Yeah. Well, I’ll take you to a funny place which struck me as relaxed. I don’t know when this podcast is gonna come out. But as of this moment is recording, the latest episode of Star Wars is about to be replaced by this epic saga. That’s hasn’t of cultural changing significance. And I was thinking the other day I was talking to a friend. I said, no. What’s you like if we were to view the entire Star Wars saga? But we removed all institutions from it. So no empire, no Jedi Order. And then we would tell the Star War stories solely as well. It’s a father’s. It’s a family story. It’s a father son story between Darth Vader and Luke. Or it’s a story of friends, you know, between on and lands over that. And that story would kind of work at some minimal level, would end together. But how much richer and meaningful the story is by bringing these institutional realities into play, that all these people have institutional relationships to the Empire of the Jedi order and so forth, and that the story really gains the sort of vibrancy and meaning by actually having institutions be part of the story. So what I realized like, oh, that’s what I’m trying to do. That’s what God’s calling me to do with scripture, with the biblical story. I’m trying to bring a story that is so often collapsed to just an individual story or maybe a story of just a family or friends. And I believe that God actually means for the grand epic of scripture to be a story that includes institutions, includes organizations, enterprises, businesses. And that’s what gives me both the story, but also to the faith driven entrepreneur who wants to locate his or her work in that big story. And so this season, I think that’s just given me fresh within myself like that. That’s I’m trying to tell that story. And if people are interested in hearing more of that story, I invite them to actually go to a website that we’re launching called Redeeming Dabhol dot com. So it’s the words redeeming battle where we try to tell the story, especially to faith driven entrepreneurs to help them realize they and their businesses and their enterprises are part of this grand, multi-faceted, rich and exciting narrative that is found in scripture. This has been great.

 

Rusty [00:31:05] Thank you. It’s fascinating what you’re working on. It’s an important work. Thanks for sharing it with us today. Well, it’s been a pleasure.

 

Henry [00:31:11] Okay, guys, that was really cool. I love talking to a guy that’s that smart about the Bible. Is that thoughtful? I find myself wrestling with things a little bit about whether a business can have a spirituality to it or not, whether it’s is a function of a dedicated business for the glory of God. But what, how do you guys all process this?

 

Rusty [00:31:33] I had the same feeling. I mean, I actually love the idea and the concept because, you know, it’s clearly biblically rooted and it’s clearly something that we can strive for. I do think there’s the flip side of it. We’ve had many guests who’ve actually talked about that. You know, sometimes when you tried to spiritualized your organization, you may actually get lost in your own identity as to what’s more important, your own spiritual growth, or is it the entity that I’m working so hard for? Right. Doing all the right things, the mission that I’m going after. You know, I’m sure God’s going to bless this. And then do you lose your own understanding of what God is trying to do to grow you as the entrepreneur? But I do think that it’s exactly right. What Kurt has said is we should work really hard to make this an ad right. Not inor as best we can, but watch the pitfalls that come with it. You know?

 

[00:32:25] Yeah, that’s a great point, Rusty. I’ve heard a pastor joke before that the greatest job in the world for a workaholic is a pastor and a lot of the same jobs that you can always justify working more if you take some version and distort that view. Right. I mean, well, I’m I’m working for the mission and working for God and that’s for God is why I’m not around my family. This is why I can’t spend time. He doesn’t have to travel so much. All those things. So I do think it’s something for our entrepreneurs to wrestle with. And also, I’ve done a great writing. So Curtis talked about, you know, God. And it’s sort of interesting the concept of naming two individual human beings. And he had a quote in one of his writings that said, by God and trusting that what he’s telling Adam and Eve to do is they’re meant to look deeply at the other beings in creation to discern their true God given nature and potential and help call forth that potential into reality. So no matter where you end on that, I think that’s such a beautiful picture of thinking about your employees, your customers, your vendors, thinking about your job. And that naming capacity is looking at each relationship that God has entrusted you to say. My job is. Call for it. Whatever potential I see in there. The reality into the world. That God has here. I think that’s really beautiful.

 

Rusty [00:33:46] That’s great. One thing I’m really impressed with that I’m sure our listeners are going to feel. You know, we’ve had a lot of great podcasts. This is one I’m going to want to go back and listen to again. Right. I’m going to go back and listen to this over and over. Because there’s so many nuggets inside of what Curtis had to say.

 

Henry [00:34:01] So, yes, fortunate blessed is our listening audience has comments and questions to love to have him with. As thoughtful as Curtis is on this and as much work as he’s done with entrepreneurs. I think that there may very well be a great second episode in six months or a year. It would be great to have a part of that be some questions that came in from our listeners over time. Where do you stand on this? How do you process this? Where is this an encouragement to you? Where do you start off questions? And that’s really the case, of course, with any of the episodes that we have or things that you’d like us to tackle as a group or guess you’d like us to have on as well. It’s a great honor, a privilege and blessing to be with you each week. Tell us what we might do to make this time really valuable for you until next week. Awesome me with you all. It always is. May God bless you and your businesses.

 

Not Building in Vain

This content was originally published here by Two Ten Magazine, the Marketplace Ministry Magazine presenting Purpose, Perspective & Perseverance.

— by Jessica Burchfield

“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”

Psalm 127:1

WITH 27 YEARS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS, TOM STRICKLAND OF SUNCOAST TEAM SERVICES, BASED IN CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, KNOWS THE WAY TO CREATE A MARKETPLACE IN WHICH THE AUTOMOTIVE CONSUMER FEELS COMFORTABLE AND PAMPERED WHILE SEARCHING FOR THEIR DREAM VEHICLE. INVOLVED FROM THE GENESIS OF EACH BUILDING PROJECT, SUNCOAST TEAM SERVICES ACTS AS THE DESIGNER AND BUILDER COORDINATING LAND SURVEYORS, GENERAL CONTRACTORS, ARCHITECTS, SITE PLANNERS AND DESIGNERS, AS WELL AS REGULATORY OVERSEERS THAT REQUIRE NECESSARY PERMITS AND LICENSING. FROM START TO FINISH, TOM STRICKLAND OFFERS QUALITY AND EFFICIENT DELIVERY OF HIS PRODUCT.

As the parent company for Suncoast AutoBuilders, Inc., Strick Development, Inc., and the Suncoast Design Group, Suncoast Team Services provides all-encompassing care to a variety of industry clients. Recent projects include luxury car dealerships, conference centers, high-end retail and hospitality businesses, and private corporate homes. 

A Wise Master Builder 

With a background in marine construction, Tom Strickland always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Working off the advice of his father to pick a career that he loved, Tom attended Florida Institute of Technology—Jensen Beach, for commercial diving and spent several years working on underwater building projects. Realizing his need for more education, he attended the University of Florida and earned a degree in building construction. 

Soon after graduating from UF, Tom was approached by Hardin Construction to begin a career in the commercial construction industry. It was from this chance meeting that Tom’s entrepreneurial dream came to fruition. “The lack of integrity in the construction industry bothered me,” said Tom. “After three years of working in the commercial construction world, I figured it was time for me to do my own thing.” 

Around the same time, Tom and wife, Bonnie, were married. During their reception, a family friend presented Tom with an offer to consider a small change of career focus: automotive construction. Promised a three-year plan to owning his own business, Tom jumped right in. 

“God will work His best in our lives,” said Bonnie, as she told her side of the story. “The man that approached Tom at our wedding reception was John Pettit, owner of J. W. Pettit, a contractor and construction company in St. Petersburg, Florida. My father was the architect for the firm with a specialty in designing car dealerships. The reason why Tom got into the automotive design niche is because God weaved it all together. We stand in awe at how God worked it all for our good.” 

Exceeding expectations, nine months after accepting the job with John Pettit, Tom took the big step toward becoming his own boss. “I took a project thru re-zoning as my first client, then Mr. Pettit threw me out of the office!” said Tom. “It was amazing. He mentored me, taught me what I needed to know, and then let me go. I found out later that I was the fourth or fifth person he had launched into a into successful entrepreneurship. I am honored to be a part of such a sustainable, reproducible legacy.” 

Following the Blueprint 

“The two great things that Mr. Pettit instilled in me is one, to have position in the marketplace—to be good at something specific—and second, to use the design-build approach—to understand the complete process of construction from beginning to end. I like to know why I’m doing what I’m doing. If I know why I’m doing it, I know what to do; if I’m just blindly reading plans, it’s just sticks and bricks.”

Tom Strickland

Suncoast Team Services does not specialize in a particular make of car; rather, they approach each contract with individual attention by addressing the unique specifications of the industry and meeting the needs of every client on a personal and professional basis. By implementing the design-build approach, Tom and his team are involved at every step of the process. 

“Many times we get involved before the client even buys the land,” said Tom. “We are available for professional counsel. The building is just a building, but the project succeeds because of our business plan. Once the client knows the plan, we can guide them to say, ‘You need X, but if we do it this way, it’s going to cost more. Maybe you don’t really need X–maybe you need X-Y.’ We put the needs of the client before our own agendas. We speak their language.” 

To Tom and Suncoast Team Services, applicability is of utmost importance. Choosing rather to meet the needs of a client than to push the most expensive product, Tom operates upon the principles of quality, applicability, and professional honor. 

“One of the most important aspects of building is delivering the right product,” said Tom. “Quality goes much deeper than marble or plywood. It goes to the meat of the matter. Once we decide upon the proper product, we focus on proper delivery in a quality fashion. I have A+ customers and I have C customers. The C customers don’t value a quality product as much as the A+ customer, but that doesn’t mean that my delivery will be any different. We offer quality delivery, communication, treatment, and product. That is why we are successful. We are cost plus; we are an open book. We operate on total transparency. They know where we stand. I am a God-fearing Christian and I operate to honor Him in all that I do. It makes all the difference.” 

The Labor of the Entrepreneur 

December 2014 will mark the 27th anniversary of Suncoast Team Services. Incredibly humble, the Stricklands give all glory to God for His sustaining grace through the economic upheaval within the automotive and construction industries over the past three decades. 

“In the 27 years of our company, we’ve seen four ups and downs,” said Tom. “The last one was much more severe than anyone predicted. It’s funny, after going through the first three, you start to see the signs. The first one scared me to death, the next was a bit easier, then the next easier than the first two. After the third one, I knew we were going into a decline. 2009 about killed us. The two hardest hit industries were construction and automotive. It was an extremely humbling time.” 

Rather than let the chips fall as they will, Tom and Suncoast Team Services took the recession as an opportunity to take an introspective look at their operations. “Currently, we are at 11 employees,” Tom said. “We figured out how to be much more efficient; everyone works long and hard. During the down times, we figured out how to do things better. For example, our closeout packages have gone from a huge box of miscellaneous files to a flash drive. I look back at what we have done in 2014 with 11 people and stand in amazement. Six or seven years ago, we would have needed double the manpower. God is good.” 

Not only are flexibility and adaptability two strategies that have been integrated into the daily operations of Suncoast Team Services, but also they are qualities that are found in thriving entrepreneurs. Tom has learned to rely on the providence and provisions of God, rather than to trust his own abilities or desires. 

Describing the process in which he realized that the successful entrepreneur is actually the man or woman that relinquishes control to God, Tom knows that the success or failure of a project is in the Master Builder’s capable hands. “It took a bit, but it was one of those steep and severe lessons that God obviously needed to teach me. As much as I thought I was in control, I was not. I thought about it a lot, because it is one of the negative aspects of the entrepreneurial spirit. If we are not fully connected to God, if we do not understand why He put us in the position of power, we start to feel sorry for ourselves, doubt ourselves, and shake our heads a lot.” 

“Success begins to get you high,” he said. “You start to think that you can make work and that money grows on trees. You become the master of your own destiny. That is Satan, so clearly. When I started to feel on top of the world, God brought me back to my knees. 2009 was our most difficult year and I’m surprised we were able to survive. The next few years after that were still difficult but God provided for us. By 2013 we had regained our stride. My constant charge to my people is that we never forget what God did for us. Our memory needs to be longer.”

Not Laboring in Vain 

Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. 

Elbow grease and a hard work ethic are found within the heart of every entrepreneur, but Tom Strickland possesses something stronger: the fervent desire to see God honored in every build. 

Early in his professional career, Tom recognized his need for accountability and mentorship. After attending a secular mentoring group for several years, he turned to the Tampa chapter of C12, the Christian business peer advisory board based in Greensboro, NC, for biblical support and accountability. 

“The beauty of C12 is the structured program that is brought to the table,” said Tom. “The real key is that it helps you understand that your business is a mission and a ministry. That realization gives you a deeper meaning than what the P&L looks like for each day. I’ve always cared for my people, but I didn’t grasp the deeper role I had to play. In a variety of ways, C12 helped me approach my leadership style with individuality and create a workplace environment that suits my personality of management rather than what works for someone else.” 

By joining other successful entrepreneurs in a mutually beneficial mentorship program, Tom has become more than simply the owner of one of the country’s leading automotive construction businesses. He has become a respected member of the Tampa Bay community and a supporter of both local and national charitable outreaches through company-compensated volunteer time during the workweek. To this date, Suncoast Team Services has completed nearly 400 automotive projects from small remodels to $10 million dealerships, from the Cayman Islands to Las Vegas, but Tom’s heart is in St. Petersburg, Florida. 

“I’m in my twelfth year of C12; one of the great things they helped me realize was my mission for the Florida Suncoast. Through this mentorship program, I have expanded my calling to something much more significant than just building several hundred car dealerships. I won’t look back and wish that I had done one more job, but that I had reached out to more people in my community and within my company. That will be the regret; not the projects or the money, but the outreach possibilities.” 

Suncoast Team Services has found that with constant attention to the blueprints in every element of a build, a quality product is delivered to each and every client. Similarly, by following the precepts and principles found within the Word of God, Tom Strickland has built an automotive construction operation that seeks to glorify and bring honor to the wise Master Builder. 

“Through this process of building our company, there were many opportunities to fall on our knees,” said Tom.

“When God would shut a door, we trusted Him to show us what to do. Having the entrepreneurial drive is tough. It’s hard. But God is always faithful. When we build for Him, we never build in vain.”

Tom Strickland

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[Special thanks to Two Ten Mag for the cover photo]

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

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

The Lean Startup

by Eric Ries

The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.

Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

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


Faith & Co. Courses

We love the work of Seattle Pacific University and their Faith & Co. courses!

Faith & Co. offers fully online education and formation experiences which provide an opportunity to explore deeply the themes, concepts, and questions raised by the Faith & Co. films. The films form the foundation of these courses, with online discussions, exercises, readings, and additional video materials also incorporated. These courses are taught by Seattle Pacific professors and can be taken for free or for credit.

We’re delighted to announce the release of their latest course, Serving Employees, which you can check out and register for here. This course explores how faith shapes the way organizations engage with and manage employees, with topics including:

  • Employing people created in the image of God

  • Hiring, Firing and Compensation

  • Job-design and Employee-development

  • Leadership and Organizational Culture

Check out their other courses below!

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[Photo credit to Faith&Co.]

Writing Successful Emails

This content was originally published by the Center for Faith & Work at LeTourneau University.

— by Bill Peel

After a spate of auto-spell mistakes, typos, misaddresses, and other embarrassing errors in my emails and text messages, I decided to review an article entitled “How Successful People Write Emails to Get What They Want (That’ll Help You Achieve Your Goals).”

I tend to be pretty utilitarian in my online communication unless I’m writing something I deem highly important or potentially controversial. But even then I tend to be a bit careless. I often bang them out and press SEND before reviewing what I’ve written. According to the article, that’s not good.

“Every email you send, you spend precious capital. Time is a valuable resource, and you can waste people’s time if your communications are not worthwhile or incomplete. Send a few unhelpful emails, and you could lose the person forever.”

Yikes. Precious capital!

The article suggests a nine-item check list. Here are a few I’m paying attention to, plus a couple of my own rules.

Consider what else is going on with the recipient.

Too often I don’t stop to think about the person I’m addressing. Beginning an email with “I hope you’re doing well” or some recognition of what might be going on in a recipient’s life tells people that we’re at least thinking of them as a person.

Answer the five “Ws.”

Answering who, what, where, when and why saves time and avoids time spent emailing back and forths. I just made three exchanges setting up lunch meeting, when I could have said, “How about lunch Friday-noon at Corner Bakery? If that doesn’t work, give me a better time. I’m open next week Monday and Wednesday.” 

Don’t start with “I.”

An email is about the other person, not you. When you start with the word I, it sends a message you are more important than the person that you’re communicating with. A short comment to wish someone a Happy Birthday, or Merry Christmas, or congratulate them for a promotion, lets the reader know you’re not just focused on yourself.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3-4, NIV)

Review for tone.

Words alone make it easy for our intent to be misconstrued. Short emails might be efficient, but they can seem curt. Some people think emojis are not professional, but I’d rather someone know I’m smiling as I write than take offence by a remark they take the wrong way.

 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. (Philippians 4:5 NIV)

Spell check.

I am spelling-challenged, I love auto spell. However, the AI correction feature can create embarrassing sentences for those of us who hate to proof what we write. Such mistakes suggest carelessness–that we didn’t take time to get it right. Or worse, that we didn’t know any better.

I’ve found a wonderful tool in Outlook and MS Word. Under the REVIEW tab there’s a feature called READ ALOUD SPEECH that reads your text back to you.

Other Lessons I’ve Learned the Hard Way…

Keep the TO box empty until you finish the email.

If you’ve ever sent an important email prematurely, you know how embarrassing this can be. Double check to see that the right persons are listed in the TO and CC boxes and that no one is listed that you did not intend to receive the email.

Never try to solve a sticky problem with email.

If you feel the temperature rising, don’t try to resolve things with another email. Pick up the old technology called a phone and make a call. At the very least, you’ve added tone of voice to the mix. If the person is down the hall, speak with them face to face so that facial expression and gesture complement your words.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. (Proverbs 15:1, NIV)

Keep emails as short as possible. 

Wordy diatribes not only muddy the water, but tempt people not to pay attention as they wade through unnecessary details. Review emails that are over three-four sentences and make sure every sentence counts. If there’s more to say, attach a document. This says to the recipient, I respect your time and attention–something always welcomed.

A truly wise person uses few words (Proverbs 17:27, NLT)

Don’t answer important emails on your cell phone.

Fat fingers that invite typos and strange auto-spelled words. Wait until you have a big screen and keyboard to respond.

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[Special thanks to Center for Faith & Work for the cover photo]

Fundamentals with Jerry Colangelo

This content was originally published here by Two Ten Magazine, the Marketplace Ministry Magazine presenting Purpose, Perspective & Perseverance.

— by Lisa Huetteman

Jerry Colangelo is a legend in the world of professional sports. But that isn’t how he wants to be remembered. Instead, Jerry hopes that when people think of him they will say, “He cared.”

By all the world’s measures, Jerry Colangelo is a success. His career rocketed from being the youngest general manager in the NBA at age 26 to owner, chairman and CEO of the World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks—the fastest expansion team in MLB to win a championship. For an encore, he led the United States Basketball Team to win gold medals in 2008 and 2012.

But Jerry doesn’t measure success as the world does. “Sure, there is a feeling of accomplishment when you set a goal, have a plan, you follow it and you succeed, but it is better when you know you did it the right way.” For his part, Jerry has always tried to do it the “right way.”

He attributes his core values to his early years. Born in 1939, Jerry grew up in the lower-middle class community known as the “Hungry Hill” neighborhood of Chicago Heights. He lived in the upper flat of a little two-story shingled house that his Italian-immigrant grandfather built out of two railroad boxcars and some remnant lumber. The house still stands today, hosting a commemorative plaque that honors the neighborhood’s most famous resident.

Although his was a bit of a fractured family, Jerry’s life was built on a good foundation.

“I had no relationship with my father. We never played catch. He never took me to a game. Instead, he was someone I threatened to kill because of abuse to my mother. But my sense of family, hard work and relationships were grounded in the foundation of my early years in the neighborhood.”

Faith, while present, wasn’t the first priority, but he was instilled with the knowledge of “right and wrong” and what you “should or shouldn’t do.” It wasn’t until he met and married Joan, his wife of 52 years, at the University of Illinois that his faith started to grow.

“Joanie had been very involved in Young Life as a teen and in college. (Young Life International is an organization where Jerry later served as Chairman of the Board). She opened up a whole new world for me with regard to Christianity. However, I still had to hit rock bottom in my own mind before I was ready to make a true commitment.”

“Rock bottom” came when he broke from his friend and business partner in a tuxedo rental/dry cleaning business and discovered he had spent three years of blood, sweat and tears with nothing to show for it. Jerry had a wife and three young children, a small house with a payment and no idea where his next dollar would come from. It was difficult for this self-reliant man to accept that he needed help.

“As much as you think you are able to handle all situations, when something like that happens to you, it fractures you. I hit the point where I realized I had to turn my life over and put my trust in God.”

That night, Jerry desperately searched for ideas for where he might find work. “In my wallet, I had a card for business owner and Chicago sports fan, Dick Klein that my father-in-law had given me two years earlier. I called him first thing the next morning. He recognized my name and invited me to stop in for coffee. By the end of that day, he offered me a job in his business at twice the money I had seen over the past three years. Two weeks later, he shared his dream of bringing professional basketball back to Chicago, and within six months, we gave birth to the Chicago Bulls.”

What Jerry didn’t know was that he was a young guy in a “mom and pop” league that was about to explode into the multi-billion dollar industry it is today. That was 1966. He spent two seasons with the Chicago Bulls working as marketing director, scout and assistant to the president before moving to Phoenix to help start the NBA expansion team—the Suns.

Jerry arrived in Arizona in 1968 with a wife, three kids, nine suitcases and $300 in his pocket ready to take over the new NBA franchise as the youngest general manager in professional sports. With the Suns, his roles have included general manager, head coach, president, managing general partner, chief executive officer and chairman. Under his 40-plus-year tenure in leadership, the Suns grew into one of the most successful organizations in the NBA.

In the 1970s, Jerry was a “closet Christian,” and when he went public for the first time, it opened up a box. “I was asked to speak at CBMC. I was struggling with ‘coming out of the closet’ and talking about my personal journey and my faith. Because I had never done it before, the plan was for someone else to make the close. But without thinking, I just gave the close and an amazing thing happened. Out of the 1000 men in the room that day, 116 chose to give their life to Christ. It wasn’t me. It was God using me, and it was a testimony about the power of God. It blew me away that that could happen.”

“Since that time, Jerry recognized that something had been started in him. He knew he had been blessed in many ways and acknowledged that it wasn’t because he was the best or the smartest, but because God wanted him to do something.”

“These resources aren’t mine, they are His, and I’m going to be held responsible for them on Judgment Day.”

He’s shared his testimony quite a few times since then, including in the year 2000 when he opened a program at the Bank One Ballpark (currently Chase Field), celebrating Christ’s birthday. There were 50,000 people of all faiths there. Jerry walked up to the microphone and said, “Hello, my name is Jerry Colangelo and I am a Christian!” It made the headlines the next day.

With a life centered on building teams, Jerry recognizes that you can do more when you have the strength of numbers. This is one of the reasons he joined Dr. Bill Bright, Founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International in launching the Pinnacle Forum, an organization whose mission is to build a network of leaders committed to personal and cultural transformation centered on the values of Jesus.

“When you bring together respected leaders who can make an impact on a community, and you work on doing things to share Christ within your own community, incredible things can happen!”

Jerry’s perspective is that you have to lead by example, and that is what he has tried to do in his own life. His reputation in the community and around the country is that his word is his bond, and as a result, he is known as a man of high integrity who is trustworthy.

“In the competitive world of professional sports, it is quite easy to try to bend the rules for your advantage, to take a shortcut or to do things that would be illegal. When you even get close to doing something like that, you know, instinctively, if your faith is strong enough, you know that is not where you should be. Our teams have always been thought of as teams of high character, and I put a great deal of emphasis on that. My players needed to be responsible on the floor or court or field, but also in the community.

There were times when I had to move a player because they broke the rules, were involved in domestic violence or otherwise failed to live up to our standards. But I’m also known as a person who does give a person a second chance to make it right. However, sometimes you don’t have a choice. Having the right standards—‘gold standards’—for your organization goes a long way to set the table in the right way.”

When the call came asking Jerry to take over the reins of Team USA in the spring of 2005, USA basketball was still reeling from its embarrassing performance at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. The Americans only earned a bronze medal in a sport they traditionally dominated. The only thing worse than their performance on the court was the arrogance of Team USA. “I was insulted with the view of Ugly American from all over the world,” Jerry said. “That is why I accepted the job.” And Jerry knew what he needed to do.

To transform the culture that had taken over NBA basketball and led in part to the breakdown of Team USA, the team needed one leadership voice, better player selection and a three-year commitment from everyone. He instituted the “Gold Standards” or basic values that are an integral part of today’s Team USA program and brand.

“It isn’t rocket science,” says Jerry of his formula for success. “We got a group together and said this is what we are here for, what our job is, what our goals are and what we stand for. If you want to be a part of this, then this is what you have to do. If you can’t, we will find someone else.”

He got input and buy-in from players and coaches, all of them legends in the game. The road wasn’t smooth, but in the end, Team USA proudly recaptured the gold at 2006 Olympics in Beijing, the FIBA World Championship in Turkey in 2010 and the London Games in 2012.

Currently, in addition to serving as the Chairman of USA Basketball, Jerry is involved in his real estate business as a principal in JDM Partners, LLC, as well as special assistant to the president of Grand Canyon University, where the School of Sports Business bears his name. But at 73, his time is much more precious than when he was 40 or 50. His priorities of time and resources are very heavily favored toward the Kingdom work. He selectively dedicates time to Young Life, Athletes in Action and projects that help people in need–whatever their needs may be.

Jerry jokes that as you age, people ask what you want written on your tombstone. While he’s not quite ready to be planted just yet, he hopes he’ll be remembered as someone who cared. “In the business world and how I conducted my life it was for the purpose of making life better for my family, my community and future generations.”

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[Special thanks to Two Ten Mag for the cover photo]