An Unsung Hero
I want to tell you about my friend Steve Baldwin. In my opinion, he is the poster child for Better Business/Better Ministry. Steve is a Christ follower who possesses an amazing gift for financial management and organizational growth. As CFO for one of the largest food distribution companies in the US, Steve built a great reputation for management and business development. In 2016, Steve won the Executive Management Award from SmartCEO Magazine. But life has not always been an upward trajectory for Steve. At the height of his business rise, Steve and his wife suffered the loss of their college-age daughter. She was an NCAA gymnast and tore her ACL. In a surgery that should’ve gone smoothly, everything went wrong. Steve would never be the same. Being the best in business was no longer a drive in his life, and in fact, he fell into a deep depression that would take years to get through.
By the time Steve was ready to return to the workplace, he was a different person. His perspective moved from success to significance. He wanted to invest his life into something that had greater meaning. He found that purpose in an organization called The Children’s Guild. This child-serving organization is changing education for under-served children from Washington DC to Baltimore MD. As Executive Vice President and CFO of The Guild, Steve has helped to build this organization to over $80mil in annual revenue. He is now serving as president of The National Children’s Guild Fund and chief growth officer for TranZed Alliance, an educational arm of The Children’s Guild.
Here is the rest of the story. Steve is now using his gifts and business expertise to help transform communities. Check this out…
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He is opening up his school facilities to pastors who want to plant churches in communities that are in dire need of spiritual and social help.
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He is starting micro-business opportunities for his employees to give them a chance to succeed in life in ways that they never imagined.
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He is going into the under-served communities (where the Guild students are coming from) and rehabilitating housing for those communities. He is attempting to find pastors to move into these areas to plant churches and head up the rejuvenation of these communities.
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He is helping churches across the nation connect with their cities and school systems in order to help start charter schools designed to give students a better opportunity in life. He is working with engineers to design church buildings that can work in tandem with those charter schools.
Steve is a world changer! He is using the business gifts that God has given him to bring ministry into the lives of people who would never have a chance in life. He is a beautiful picture of the church in action.