Replanted Church Grows From 13 to 1,300

Wharton-trained businessman-turned-pastor Eric Suddith leads a miracle.

Both churches and businesses come with the same challenge: they’re made of people. People who lose sight of the goal because of pettiness, discouragement, or confusion. Both kinds of organizations need a mission in order to grow and both must grow to survive.

As a businessman, it frequently frustrates me to see avoidable inefficiencies in the ministry — and still more to hear solutions borrowed from the business world rejected without consideration as "worldly" or "mercenary." As we follow the Great Commission, we desire growth and fruitfulness. Businessmen bring experience in leadership, motivation (i.e. encouragement), and creating and executing a plan. For us, effort and attitude alone win no points when livelihoods -- or lives -- are at stake.

Pastor Suddith is right: the work is spiritual, the enemy is the devil, souls are at risk, and the consequences are eternal. Maybe we should learn something from Wall Street’s sense of urgency. — RDM

by Tobin Perry
Baptist Press
September 25, 2014