This summer, we packed our minivan and headed out on a cross-country road trip to Texas. We have family there and summers offer the kids a chance for a nice long visit with their Grandma and cousins. I knew we were in for a long haul when we didn’t even get off of our street before my 5-year-old had to use the washroom. But we forged on and eventually crossed the Texas state line.
Just outside of Amarillo, Texas, my wife and I did a double take as we passed a roadside truck stop. I turned the car around at the next highway exit and we went back for a closer look. This is what we saw:
The name of this truck stop is The Jesus Christ is Lord Travel Center. Along the windows are verses from the book of Psalms. A digital sign alternated bible verses with the local time and weather. No matter which side of the building you faced, you were met with declarations of Christ’s Lordship over that travel center.
The Jesus Christ is Lord Travel Center is owner by Sam Kohli. Sam is an entrepreneurial-minded business man. He owns a trucking company that transports goods across North America. Disgusted with the way Jesus’ name is used as a swear-word by media, TV and movie productions, he decided to use his trucks as traveling billboards to share the gospel and proclaim the message of Christ. He especially likes when he has deliveries in Southern California and the message drives through Hollywood.
Sam wasn’t worried that he might lose business by doing what he knew to be right. In an article on Sam’s website he states: “Some customers said they didn’t want their goods transported in trailers with this message. So, they’re not customers anymore.”
Sam is 100% all-in to the cause of the gospel and the purpose of his business. No one can look at Sam’s website, his building or even his trucks and come away wondering what he is all about. He puts it out there – front and center – for the world to see.
In your business – if an outsider were to look at your website, read your brochures, or listen to an employee talk about the company would they know what you are all about? I’m not just talking about your faith; is your business message so crystal-clear that no one could wonder what you do or why you do it?
Too often I encounter companies who are trying to blend in with others in their industry. “Everyone else does this, so I think I should do it too…” Unfortunately, there is nothing to differentiate you from the rest of the world. Nothing to show why someone should do business with you, above all other options.
As Christians, we are told we are to be in the world, but not of the world. I seek that in my life and in my business. If I am just like the people in the world around me, I am going to be ineffective in my discipleship. If I am just like the others in my industry, I am going to be ineffective in my work.
God cares about our work. He cares how we do it, He cares about our motives behind our work and He cares about the people we come in contact with as we work. Are you all in?
Investing – Ensure That Your Motives Are Godly and Not Worldly: Tom Copland
It is possible for a Christian to be involved in investing with godly motives or worldly motives. Your motives for investing are important to God. “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.” (Proverbs 16:2)
Godly motives for investing would include the following:
Investing in Order to Meet Future Needs—1 Timothy 5:8 states, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Examples of needs that usually require saving and investing would include children’s education, retirement, automobile replacement, and purchase of a home.
2. Giving to God’s Work—If God has blessed you with a surplus and if you have given to God’s work everything that the Lord has laid upon your heart (Proverbs 3:9, 10), then it is possible that God may direct you to invest the surplus with the long-term objective of giving even more.
3. Practising Good Stewardship—If you have given to God’s work as God directed, then as a good steward, you should invest your surplus as directed in the parable of the talents (Mathew 25:14–30). However, be sensitive to God’s leading; do not invest only to accumulate more. Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19, 20).
4. Following God’s Specific Will for Your Life—Sometimes God’s specific will for a believer may be to invest a significant amount in the business that God has called him or her to. Because God discourages debt (Proverbs 22:7), it may be necessary for some people to accumulate significant retained earnings in their company in order to provide the necessary working capital.
Worldly or ungodly motives for investing would include the following:
1. Pride—Some people invest with the objective of accumulating significant wealth because it makes them feel more important than others. This attitude is clearly contrary to God’s Word. 1 Peter 5:5 states, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
2. Selfishness—Philippians 2:3, 4 states, “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.” Investing with selfish motives is not God’s will.
3. Greed—God warns about greed. Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
4. Trust in Wealth Rather Than in God—A good example of this is the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16–21). This man’s problem was not that he had significant wealth but rather that he hoarded his wealth and he trusted in it rather than in God. God called him a fool.
I encourage you to ask God to reveal your motives for investing, and then take action to ensure that your motives are godly: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23, 24).
Tom Copland is a Chartered Accountant who operates his public accounting practice in Toronto, Canada. He’s been teaching God’s financial principles since 1982 and has written many articles www.biblefinance.org .
The question took me by surprise. I was at a second meeting with a new client, and we were discussing his online marketing strategy. We weren’t talking about personal beliefs, or anything other than business, so his question seemed out of place.
Sermons and devotionals are often messaged on the need for those who follow Christ to be salt and light in a dark and tasteless world. I hear / read them and usually do a double take to wonder, “Do others notice a difference in me?”
On particularly busy days, I bustle from one meeting to the next, barely stopping to stir the sugar into my fourth cup of coffee. At the end of the day, when I flop down exhausted, I sometimes wonder if I did any light-shining at all. The temptation would be to add “shine the light of Christ” to my to-do list, as if it were something I had to manufacture.
I have some Good news for you. You don’t have to manufacture salt and light. You just have to be willing to be the deliverer. In those moments when you are able to take breather – when you can connect with God through prayer or by reading His Word – His Spirit is up to something.
Jesus said, “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” (John 15:26)
When I allow His Spirit the room to work, through me, the Spirit gives evidence of Christ. The Spirit enables the salt and light to be seen. In those moments when my human mind is focused elsewhere – like on marketing plans and sales tactics – the Spirit is doing what He came to do. My job? Allow the Spirit access.
You don’t need to add “Be salt and light” to your to-do list. If you use your breathing moments to spend time with God, He’ll shine the light and sprinkle the salt through you. With the Spirit of God, you ARE the salt and you ARE the light.
I can genuinely say that it was God’s work that the client noticed a difference in me – not my work – because I was busy thinking about other things. I was thankful for the reminder and encouragement from God that even in those little nuances – like the language I use – He has the chance to use me for His work.
John Edelman owns the largest used car dealership in the country, and proves God and business go hand in hand. John operates his business with a conscience, selling used cars the way God would want. His sound Biblical business principles will inspire and motivate you to “put God in the driver’s seat” for your business.
Businesses today want to win — no matter the cost. Perhaps the marketplace could change its ways — and maybe the world.
It must be a coincidence, right?
Andrew Fastow, Enron’s former chief financial officer, was recently sentenced to six years in prison — and on the same day he names 10 prestigious Wall Street firms as his “co-conspirators”, including Merrill Lynch, RBS and Barclays.
Former Hewlett-Packard board chairwoman Patricia Dunn has testified to the use of “pretexting” to investigate its own board. “I do not accept personal responsibility for what happened,” she says. And then Ann Baskins, HP’s former general counsel and nine other witnesses all said they wouldn’t say anymore on the grounds it may incriminate them.
Oh, and here’s one more item — an interesting recent study by Donald McCabe, professor of management and global business at Rutgers University: Among all graduate students, MBA candidates are the biggest cheaters.
According to survey data from 623 students at 32 graduate business schools in Canada and the USA, 56% admitted cheating. But, as McCabe notes, it’s not cheating for cheating’s sake: These students are doing it to win. Cheating can help them get great internships and high-paying jobs at big name companies. So maybe it isn’t a coincidence. Even so, that doesn’t answer the deeper question: What’s wrong with the business world — and, in particular, as business leaders who are followers of Jesus Christ, how do we respond?
Difference in professions
Part of the answer could lie in the history of business graduate schools. The MBA is a fairly recent invention, unlike the other professions with graduate degrees. The oldest graduate school for business in North America is a little more than 100 years old; Europe’s oldest is only a bit more than 40 years old. Compare that with law and medicine. Law schools date to the Roman Republic. And though lawyers might not have the best reputation, at least the Canadian Bar Association has issued its Code of Professional Conduct. Medicine goes back farther, even if you consider only Western medicine. Hippocrates of Cos, who lived in the age of Pericles, is widely considered “the father of Medicine.” Science might have advanced, but Hippocrates lives on today in the Hippocratic Oath, which proscribes a moral basis for doctors.
So perhaps part of the difference between these schools is what it means to be a profession. But there is also a wider gap that separates business from medicine and law. The Marketplace has yet to answer a question of the first order: What’s the point of the exercise?
In the case of medicine and law, there are higher purposes. Doctors work to heal the sick and provide comfort to their patients. Lawyers are charged with representing their clients and also with upholding the nation’s laws. What about business men and women? What’s our higher purpose?
Christians in the Marketplace
The ads in The Economist offer a good idea of the missions that leading business schools assign themselves. The promotion for the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management is “We’ll make you a better leader.” South of the border the ad for the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business says, “You’ll experience the people and ideas responsible for revolutionizing the business world.” How perfectly it complements Harvard Business School’s mission: “We educate leaders who make a difference in the world.”
At least these ads are consistent with what today’s businessmen have taken as their key responsibility: Increasing a company’s share price. Or, as Jack Welch so succinctly put it in the title of his recent book, Winning. But winning, as the data is showing, can become a rationale for cheating.
What if, instead of seeking to create shareholder value as their definition of success, business men and women sought to establish well-articulated social values — and then applied them to their own careers and organizations? What if, instead of writing books called “Winning,” they called their books “Serving”? And what if, instead of measuring success only by their ability to amass financial capital, they also sought to grow social capital?
Because the real problem with the marketplace today isn’t the few scoundrels who bring disgrace to so many honest managers. The real problem is that it needs to serve a higher purpose than making a lot of money. The challenge today is to answer a fundamental question: what is the purpose of work?
What is the Purpose of Work?
This is hardly an academic question, what with issues of global warming, the growing gap between the haves and have-nots, and the seeds of war and terrorism sown by divergent economic systems. Business leaders need to espouse a bigger game than just winning that connects to a view of the world as an interconnected community, where the future of the wealthiest depends in equal measure on the future of the poorest.
Over the next year we will be outlining our Pathway to Purpose. This is our strategic vision to help business leaders in Canada express the love of Jesus in the marketplace. We see four pathways that lead us on a journey with Christ in the pursuit of personal and business transformation: Life, Leadership, Ministry and Business Excellence.
As business leaders we need to think about this bigger game that asks fundamental questions about the purpose of business. Jesus teaches that we must serve each other to be true leaders (see John 13:14 and Matthew 19:30). Or as the teacher William Hundert, played by Kevin Kline, says to future business leaders in the movie, The Emperor’s Club, servant leadership teaches how “it is not living that is important, but living rightly.”
Sponsored by Corpath and Christian Business Ministries Canada
*Special Corpath member pricing*
Tim Philpot is a lifelong resident of Lexington, Kentucky. In 1971, Tim married Susan Davis who grew up in Congo, Africa. Tim and Susan have no children and have been married for 37 years. Susan is a registered nurse.
In January 2004, Tim was appointed as Judge of the Fayette Circuit Family Court and was re-elected to an eight year term on November 7, 2006. Judge Philpot is now involved daily with families in crisis.
Tim received a J.D. Degree in 1977 from the University of Kentucky. He was a courtroom attorney for more than 26 years, concentrating on employment law, family law and civil rights cases.
In 1990, Tim was elected to the Kentucky State Senate where he served two terms until 1998. He was named “one of the ten best” Legislators by the Lexington newspaper in 1992 being known as “a man with a conscience” for his strong stand on ethics and as “a lone voice crying in the wilderness” in the local media. Tim also served as President of CBMC International which is a ministry for business and professional people. He has spoken in 66 nations to CBMC groups, Parliament groups, and business groups
Tim also was a serious amateur golfer for many years wining several local and state tournaments as well as participating in the 1983 British Amateur.
“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed.” Prov 29:18 The Message
Leaders receive a vision and direction only from the Lord. It is not something you or a team comes up with. It is a picture of what God is going to do. When you attempt to do things for the Lord, the results often are quite small in the end. The things of God require faith and are beyond your capacity or your resources. Leaders need to be in a posture of intimacy and humility of character in order to receive God’s vision and to cast it to others. The great danger for a leader is to be complacent and rely on your strength and ideas. When you find yourselves relying on your resources, pray and seek the Lord, allowing Him to stir you and rely upon Him and His provision.
Prayer of Sir Francis Drake, an English sea captain, famous for sailing around the world in 1580.
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves; When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little; When we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; Having fallen in love with life, we ceased to dream of eternity; And in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; And to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.
This we ask in the name of our Captain, Who is Jesus Christ.
As a leader whose resources are you trusting in? From whom do these resources come? Trust in Christ and His supply, and the world will never be the same.
LEADERSHIP IS ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS. THE WAY LEADERS and followers relate to each other is the most important factor in their performance and job satisfaction. Poor leaders can depress the performance of even talented employees, while a great leader can draw the very best from less talented individuals.
Relationships are largely a product of the leader’s heart. While great leadership requires well developed skills, these mean nothing if the leader’s heart is not right. Those of us who really know the human condition know that our hearts are powerful. The heart is the foundation of every action. The heart determines how the leader uses the skills.
If it is in a leader’s heart to exploit people and circumstances for personal gain, or to place his needs before the team’s, he will lead selfishly. Leaders who believe they are the most important part of the team cannot build strong motivated teams. They get reluctant survivors rather than enthusiastic participants.
Relationships are tested most severely when the pressure is on. I once heard it said that one can only tell the strength of a submarine’s hull by taking it down – it is pressure that reveals the cracks. This is true of leadership. Smooth sailing tells us little about the leader’s heart – we learn what the leader is all about when the pressure is on.
You’ve probably worked for a few leaders who had the wrong hearts. They are not hard to find. Sometimes they pit people against each other or they are quick to take the credit for the work others have done. They grab the spotlight whenever they can. When the team struggles they distance themselves from the responsibility. When the pressure is on they often react with anger and frustration when the team needs encouragement and support.
For a brief time, I worked closely with someone like this. More than anything, he cared about how every situation made him look. Consequently, he personalized every setback and this led him to take his frustrations out on his team in angry outbursts during which he often criticized others in front of their peers. Nothing they did was ever good enough. He thought of himself as a caring leader but under pressure, his temper always got the best of him. He ended up chastising good people for doing the best they could at the very time he should have been encouraging them. I watched skilled and dedicated people become deeply disheartened. It often took them days to get past the outbursts. Their performance plummeted. One’s best work is the all a leader should expect. You will face the truest tests of the heart when the pressure is on.
Get the heart focused in the right direction, toward the needs of the team and the mission and you will not fall into this ego trap. You’ll see pressure from the perspective of those you lead. Your heart will lead you to care for them. You will steer them through rough water with confidence, providing the support and encouragement they need to stay focused and positive. They in turn won’t want to disappoint you. They will stay focused and work hard as a part of your team.
You will learn much more about yourself and the other leaders around you during a time of pressure than you will in good times. Pressure brings out the best in great leaders and the worst in poor ones. The determining factor is the disposition of the leader’s heart. Great leaders are patient and encouraging under pressure. Rather than creating additional pressures, they shield their teams from all but the most necessary pressures when they are doing their best work. This is all you can ask. When you are receiving it, make sure your team knows you appreciate it.
Discussion Questions:
Thinking about the best and worst leaders you have worked for, what were their characteristics?
How have leaders you have known reacted to pressure and how did their reactions affect their teams?
What steps can you take to ensure you don’t fall into the ego trap when you are under pressure?
For information on a workshop or personal coaching to help you lead your team through this storm contact us for an appointment.
During difficult times often distractions, uncertainty, fear and worry can distract and reduce productivity at the very time leaders and their teams need more productivity. Here are the highlights from a “Leading by God’s Design” workshop I attended over a month ago.
Communicate far more often, daily is not too much. Communication is a key weapon in the battle against fear. Fear grows in the dark (absence of communication).
Keep a short term focus. In times of turmoil think of one hill at a time not the 26 mile marathon – the long term view can be discouraging.
Communicating your plans gives others something they can do about the problem and diminishes feelings of victimization. Do this face to face not from behind your desk.
During times of turmoil don’t overlook wins and progress – celebrating wins builds confidence and confidence is critical to performance.
Provide outlets to relieve stress. Spend time together with staff to build esprit de corps. Turmoil creates long term stress and if not relieved can wear teams down. Chicken wings and nachos can be valuable tool for your leadership.
Bring hope, be optimistic and be an encourager in your conversations. There is seldom value in a good dose of pessimism.
Be prayerful for your company and the people God has sent to you. Seek the support, encouragement and counsel from your Corpath group – they are your friendly board of advisers.
How to be more successful for the Lord in operating your company
In 1964, Jim Dismore joined a small retail enterprise in Arkansas. At that point, there were only three stores open, but the owner Sam, had big plans. Dismore became an officer of the company — the #3 man in the organization reporting directly to Sam. The company expanded rapidly through the 1960’s and Dismore played a key role. One of the things he was good at was fixing problems, and in time he came to be known as Sam Walton’s hatchet man. If there was a tough problem that needed a tough guy to fix it, Dismore was the man.
Oh yes, the company was Wal-Mart.
Fast forward a few decades and Jim Dismore is President of Ultimate Support Systems, Inc., a ‘business in ministry,’ and founder of Kingdom Way Companies, a ministry dedicated to helping business owners move from operating their company the world’s way to leading a business the Kingdom Way.
So how does someone move from being Sam Walton’s self-confessed hatchet man to President of a company with this mission statement?
Ultimate Support Systems, Inc. is a Business in Ministry which markets, designs and distributes quality support solutions while seeking to know Jesus Christ, to be like Him, and to share His life and love with the world.
For Dismore, it was a journey started at the feet of his grandfather who always stressed the principle of a fully integrated faith life. As Dismore studied Scripture, he did not see any separation of faith and work. He took his faith with him to his career at Wal-Mart, but Dismore admits the stresses and culture of a senior management position at Wal-Mart crept into his life. He knew he wanted to live this integrated faith life in his business affairs, but he resisted — and the culture at Wal-Mart did not exactly encourage this mindset.
In his latter years at Wal-Mart, this conviction to operate a company on biblical principles became paramount in his life — and eventually led to his leaving the company after 12 years. He continued to work in the retail industry. But he was also thinking and planning for the day when he could fully implement his heart’s desire of living out business the Kingdom Way in his own company. This finally came to be in the late 1980’s, when Dismore joined and in 1994 became CEO and majority shareholder of Ultimate Support Systems, Inc.
In his years at Ultimate Support and Kingdom Way, Dismore developed a complete process for doing business the Kingdom Way. While this process was lived out practically within the business, it was also delivered through seminars and consulting services under the Kingdom Way Companies ministry umbrella.
There are five key foundational principles developed by Dismore for Kingdom Way Companies.
Write a Mission Statement and a Purpose Statement
Develop a Written Ministry Plan
Prepare a Written Business Plan
Form a Council of Advisors
Measure Up to God’s Standards
While each is critical to the process, it is Principle 2, Develop a Written Ministry Plan that we want to begin with. While there is a growing acceptance within the marketplace movement to the concept of a business being ministry — how this actually happens in the practical, day-to-day of business is often where the Christian business leader stalls. In discussions with other business leaders, Dismore saw a clear desire to integrate faith with business, but they did not know how. He believes that just as we plan for many critical areas of a business, we must strategically plan for ministry.
If we adhere to the tenets of Matthew 6:33 and truly believe we are to “Seek first the Kingdom of God …’ in our business, and that the ultimate purpose of our company is to bring glory to God — then should we not be planning for this? At Ultimate Support, this principle became the DNA of the company and its culture.
This concept took on some unique and exciting directions at Ultimate Support. Dismore appointed a Vice-President of Ministry. This paid position had the authority of a Vice- President, with the responsibility to ensure that corporate values and ministry plans and procedures were implemented. The Ministry Plan was developed and directed by a team consisting of employees and senior leadership — drawing on suggestions and input from all staff. Says Dismore, “it is important that employees see this as a people’s plan — not just a management plan.”
Because the title of Ministry Plan might cause concern in some cases, Dismore recommends a term like Care Plan, Community Plan or Compassion Plan may be more appropriate.
Once the plan was developed, the team would allocate resources, be they financial or other, and then monitor progress and results from the plan. Adds Dismore, “the plan is not just about donating company profits to Christian causes. It’s about caring for employees and about sharing money, materials, time and talents with those less fortunate. There may well be secular organizations that deserve to be supported by the plan.”
It is also important to see the Ministry or Care Plan as part of the overall Business Plan. Dismore says, “You integrate the ministry and business plans into one integrated strategic plan.” What is surprising is how few companies have a written Ministry Plan. When asked why this is the case, Dismore finds three main reasons given by Christian business leaders:
It will alienate my employees
It will hurt business
I might get sued by or into trouble with the government
He believes these are often raised as excuses for those who are simply fearful to step out with their faith. He states that each issue can be clearly handled without major concerns.
In terms of employee alienation, if staff are included in the planning process, the process is explained clearly, and the company is sensitive to all employees’ own spiritual journeys, then a plan can be an exciting business process for all.
With regard to losing business, Dismore says, “there may be rare occasions where we saw a proactive stance with our faith have a negative impact on business. As rare as it was, it seemed over time it always came back to us in some other way.” Dismore believes that if we are persecuted for our faith, the Scriptures are clear as to the consequences. We are reminded in Matthew 10:32, 33, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”
While we live in a secular marketplace, Dismore does not believe that means we need to be shy or subversive with our faith. We need to be aware of laws and regulations and honour them — but the law does not prohibit us from living our faith in the workplace. We are not to be aggressive and confrontational, but if we love, serve and care for employees out of our love for Christ — we cannot go wrong.
By having a Ministry or Care Plan the Christian business leader has addressed the practical side of seeing their business or profession as ministry. It moves from being theory to practice. As a Ministry or Care Plan is implemented fruit is borne for the Kingdom, fruit that will last. (see John 15:8)
As we return to the other four Kingdom Way principles, we look at Principle 1 — Write a Mission Statement and a Purpose Statement. It is surprising how many Christian business leaders do not have a clear, written and well communicated vision/mission statement, purpose statement and list of core values. These high level documents are critical to setting and following the correct course for a company. They become the filter and test for all policies, procedures and directions that employees and management follow.
Principle 3 is Prepare a Written Business Plan. Again, it is remarkable how few Christian business leaders have written Business Plans for their organizations. Business owners are notorious for flying by the seat of their pants. The problem is that we often become fire-fighters, moving from one crisis to another. Instead of us running the business, the business is running us. The solution? A written Business Plan that sets the course, direction and objectives for the company.
In Kingdom Way Principle 4, we are challenged to Form a Council of Advisors. On numerous occasions, Dismore has seen Christian business leaders in serious business trouble because they have not had access to godly, wise business council. In Proverbs 15:22, we read “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”
Within the ministry of CBMC, Corpath Groups offer this very type of support. Acting as a friendly Board of Advisors, a Corpath group places six to eight godly business peers in a regular meeting for prayer, encouragement and wise counsel around practical business issues.
Principle 5 is Measure Up to God’s Standards. Dismore says this principle is the most important of all. “If it doesn’t measure up to God’s standards it will not accomplish anything.” Dismore has developed a complete list of corporate goals and principles, both spiritual and corporate, to enable the company leader to make sure the company measures up to the Kingdom Way of doing business.
Tim Philpot is a lifelong resident of Lexington, Kentucky. In 1971, Tim married Susan Davis who grew up in Congo, Africa. Tim and Susan have no children and have been married for 37 years. Susan is a registered nurse.
“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed.” Prov 29:18 The Message