Unconcealed Faith, Uncommon Profits:

Evidence That They Are Compatible

Christopher Crane and Mike Hamel

From: Executive Influence: Impacting Your Workplace for Christ (NavPress 2003)

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Christianity 24/7 is a calling, to apply a new phrase to an old truth. Jesus cautioned would-be disciples to count the cost before enlisting to make sure they could finish what they started:

“Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish’” (Luke 14:27-30).

Starting a business is also a demanding, all-consuming undertaking. So what’s a believer who wants to be both a committed disciple and a successful entrepreneur to do? It is possible to put God first and run a successful business at the same time – but it isn’t easy. Just ask Ken Eldred. He’s the founder or co-founder of such fast-growing technology companies as Inmac and Ariba Technologies, Inc. He has also worked with other well-known businesses including Click-Action, Office Depot, and Norm Thompson Outfitters. In 1988, the Institute of American Entrepreneurs named him Retail Entrepreneur of the Year for the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ken’s aggressiveness in business is an expression of his commitment to Christ. “When I became a Christian in 1972,” he recalls, “it seemed that too many people were weekend warriors. I had a problem with that attitude. Within six months of becoming a believer, I decided to make Jesus Christ lord of everything, not only on Sunday, but everyday. Becoming a Christian meant I was a new person and I needed to be that person at all times.”

Put the Lord First in Life and Business and Trust Him to Take Care of the Rest

This full-time commitment is why Ken took his faith to work with him when he started Inmac, the first company to market computer products via catalog. The company soon expanded to other countries and eventually generated annual revenues of $40 million. “We started Inmac with $5,000 and a grocery bag of connector parts,” says Eldred with a trace of nostalgia. “I put in forty hours a week, and of course nobody would invest in a company like this because VCs [venture capitalists] want you to put in sixty or seventy hours a week minimum. But I wasn’t going to do that. I’d committed to God that He was first; my wife was second and my kids came next. I told Him that He would have to run the business while I was gone because I could only give it forty hours a week. We were probably one of the few companies that grew to the size we did from so little money and so little investment of the founder’s time.”

Not that Ken was “letting go and letting God.” “It was a very intense forty hours, but when I left, I went home and spent time with my family. God defines success differently from our culture. Success means that my relationship with Him is good and growing. It means that I have a quality relationship with my wife. It means that my children know I love them and feel like I’m there for them. And then if the company is prosperous, that’s a bonus. Roberta and I have been married over thirty years and neither she nor my three boys have ever felt as if the business came first. That’s true success.”

Ken’s time at work had boundaries, but it wasn’t compartmentalized or segregated from the rest of his life. A year after he started Inmac, he asked a pastor how he could make Inmac a Christian company. The wise man told him, “There’s no such thing; only people are Christians. But believers can use their businesses as opportunities to make Christ known.” This led Ken to put tracts such as The Four Spiritual Laws and Got Life? In the office lobby, a practice that generated both light and heat. He vividly remembers the day a very angry employee came to his office and loudly complained, “I don’t like those tracts! I’ve been taking them out of the lobby!” “What do you want me to do?” Eldred remembers responding to her. “You knew they were there before you came to work here, and they will be there as long as I’m president. As we continued to talk she softened and eventually asked, ‘How do I become a Christian?’”

Because of that conversation, Ken put a letter in the lobby explaining that the literature didn’t represent everyone’s views, but it did represent his opinion of what was important in life. He invited anyone who wanted to know more to call his office, which people did every now and then. One might think an open line to the company president would be abused, yet Ken maintains it never was. “The people who called really wanted to discuss spiritual issues. And because my business was God’s business, if He wanted me to take fifteen minutes to talk to someone, that’s what I did.

“Believers should not be afraid to be public about their faith,” Ken says. “Yes I’ve taken flak for being so open about what I believe. However, I’ve also had people who had given me a bad time come back privately and say that they respected the fact that I’m not ashamed of my faith.”

Watch Out That Spiritual Boldness Doesn’t Create Resentment Toward the Gospel

Many Christians would not be comfortable with Eldred’s frankness, especially in light of his privileged position at the top. Harvard Business School professor Laura Nash asked Christian executives what level of witnessing they thought was appropriate at the office:

When does Christian commitment from the chief executive constitute an unfair use of space, and when is it a duty not to be denied simply because the business culture frowns on it? All the interviewees felt they had bore witness in some way in their working life, but the ways in which they deliberately affected the business culture fell into three categories of responses:

• Overt, institutionalized witnessing through the use of language, rituals, and symbols of Christianity.
• Overt but personalized witnessing.
• Indirect or passive witnessing (Laura Nash, Believers in Business, p.249).

Ken’s response to Nash is, “All of the above and in that order.” And he has been effective because of his integrity, consistency, love for people, and love of Christ. Such boldness is not without pitfalls, and Ken is candid about some of his mistakes. “At one stage of my life I shared my faith very aggressively at work. I would often talk to people who were busy or in a hurry. Some of them got upset because they had things to do. I had to learn to be more sensitive to their time. If they were interested in spiritual things, I needed to set up a lunch or some other time to meet so as not to interrupt the business day.

“I had a similar issue with a Bible study I used to conduct during the lunch hour. I was not always sensitive to when people needed to be back at their desks. ‘I’m late,’ some would say, ‘but I was with the president.’ Their supervisors got mad because I was messing up their work schedules. Finally, I put someone else in charge of the study and backed away. It faded and disappeared after that.”

While Eldred’s vigorous Christianity caused some occasional friction, he never had employees claim they were treated unfairly because of their spiritual views. “Everyone could see that promotions were based on a person’s work, not their beliefs,” says Ken. “I once asked a fellow executive who wasn’t a Christian, about religious discrimination. He said, ‘Don’t worry about it, Ken. It’s because of you that we have so many non-Christians throughout this organization, including at the highest levels.’”

As Inmac grew, Ken faced the dilemma of every successful entrepreneur, the lessening of his influence over the values initially set in place. “We got to fifteen hundred employees in ten countries,” he says, “and it bothered me that I could no longer keep track of the spiritual temperature in the company. I wrestled with how to make sure we were still doing things according to a godly standard. As I was praying about this, God said, ‘Look, Ken, I know you have given me your business. If something is not right, I will bring it to your attention. If I do, then I want you to fix the problem. If I don’t, don’t go looking for trouble.”

Here’s one example of how this arrangement worked. “At one point in our history people were buying software and passing it around the office,” Ken relates. “The software companies said, ‘Hey, wait a minute! You only have the right to use the software on one computer.’ God brought this to my attention and I asked the IT manager if this was going on. He said ‘yes.’ When I told him it was wrong, he replied, ‘Everyone does it.’ ‘I don’t care if everyone does it,’ I answered. ‘We need to do what’s right before God.’ The man wasn’t a Christian, but he accepted what I said. I asked what it would cost to pay for all the software we used. He came back two weeks later with a figure of $250,000, which we couldn’t afford. I told him that God would provide the funds; no more sharing software. Well, the year went by and we made our numbers in spite of the [money] spent on software.  I don’t know how God did it, but it worked and we all learned a valuable lesson.”

Eldred found other opportune moments to bring up God. One of his favorites was during the hiring process. He would tell prospective hires how important it was for him to know what motivated them as employees. After they responded, he would say, “‘You need to know what motivates me as an employer in order to understand how I operate and why things happen the way they do around here.’ Their motivation didn’t have to be the same as mine; it never affected the hiring process. But the discussion gave me a chance to share my faith with people.”

Raise Awareness of God Through Public Acts of Dependence Upon Him

Overt displays of faith such as those mentioned earlier can create sharing opportunities. Praying as part of normal business operations can be another door opener. If done flippantly, it can easily backfire, but it can be very powerful if done carefully. Reaching back into Inmac’s early days, Eldred tells of the time, “I had four or five employees, and none of them were Christians. Sales were way down and we were worried. My wife and I were praying and the Lord showed us that we would have a $7,000 day that Monday instead of our average $2,200. I sat down with my employees and said, ‘God told me that we’re going to have a $7,000 day.’ The look on their faces said ‘I’d better update my resume. This guy’s flipped his lid!’

“As the day wore on, our customer rep came into my office to announce that we could actually have a $5,000 day. I said, ‘No, Nancy, $7,000 is what we’re expecting.’ At 5 p.m. we added the total twice and it came to $7,050. The employees were just as excited as I was. Talk about making an impression!”

Prayer is so important to Ken that it permeates his leadership style. It was standard operating procedure at banquets, meetings, and company lunches. If an employee or executive came to him with a difficult personal issue, Ken would offer to pray with them. “I’ve never had anyone say no,” he says. “I’ve seen men cry who have never shed tears before because they were so deeply touched by someone caring enough to pray with them.”

Inmac merged with Microwarehouse in 1996 and this provided another chance to talk about Jesus. The day of the merger, Eldred told the new chairman, “‘You’re taking over a company that’s been very important to me. I’ve built it from scratch to around $400 million in revenues. I’m happy for you to have it, but I want to give you something important.’ At that point I shared my faith in Jesus Christ. After thirty minutes he thanked me and then went into the then-president’s office. ‘Eldred just talked to me about Jesus,’ he stammered. ‘Is he serious?’ The president, who is also a Christian, smiled and said ‘Yes he is.’”

Ken left Inmac after the sale and co-founded Ariba Technologies, Inc., an Internet-based B2B platform. He and his wife Roberta also started Living Stones Foundation to encourage Christian work around the globe. Their horizons have broadened as their wealth has increased. Still, their foundation remains the same, a commitment to put Christ first in everything. They have proven the reality of Jesus’ promise, “But seek first his [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). They have also taken to heart His warning, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in glory” (Luke 9:26).

Given the rewards of commitment and risks of concealment, Ken thinks the biggest mistake Christians can make is remaining quiet about their faith. It’s a mistake he’s determined not to make.

Excerpted from Executive Influence: Impacting Your Workplace for Christ, by Christopher Crane ad Mike Hamel. Copyright 2003. Used by permission of NavPress (www.navpress.com). All rights reserved.

Christopher Crane bought COMPS Infosystems Inc., a commercial real estate information company, in 1992, grew it substantially, took it public, and eventually sold it in 2000. The year prior to the sale, Chris won the USA Today/ Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in San Diego.

Mike Hamel is a former pastor. He has interviewed scores of business leaders for various books, including The Entrepreneur’s Creed, The Women’s Ministry Handbook, and Giving Back.