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To many business leaders, Hobby Lobby Stores represents something of a commercial miracle.
Although the $2 billion Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain keeps its doors locked on Sundays, donates well over 10 percent of its income to charities, and shuns the expensive high-tech productivity systems most stores embrace, this privately held company charted more than 20 years of steadily increasing revenue and profits despite four economic downturns.
In the face of this national recession, founder David Green and staff established a medical clinic for his 20,000-member work force, plotted a million-square-foot addition to Hobby Lobby's 4 million-square-foot Oklahoma City warehouse headquarters, and set plans to enter California and three other states - all without amassing any debt.
"They do some incredible things," said Victor Domine, public relations manager for the national Craft and Hobby Association in Elmwood Park, N.J. "One of the things that I really, really admire about them is, during the recession, they have continued to make pay-raise increases to all their employees. They made one just two or three weeks ago so that every employee they have makes $10 an hour. That's extraordinary."
"I have seen it over the years where these publicly held companies will do something for short-term benefit to make stockholders happy," said Mike Hartnett, publisher of Creative Leisure News of Tremont, Ill. "David doesn't have to worry about that. He can take a longer view of things."
To Christian entrepreneurs, Green sets the standard for what a businessman of faith may accomplish.
Although his $1.1 billion fortune ranks 647th on the Forbes wealthiest people list, Green didn't fall under the sway of money, but demonstrates how to use it for the glory of Christ. The millions his family donated to revitalize Oral Roberts University, or preserve the Scriptures through a National Bible Museum, represent just a hint of all the Greens have given away.
"He is as totally committed to his relationship with God as anyone I know," said Steve Trice, president and chief executive of Jasco Products Co. of Oklahoma City. "Therefore he works serving God, not man, and so he allows the Lord to work through him and it shows in the quality of his work, it shows in the quality of his leadership, and...