Leadership Spotlight is a way to see how other godly men and women are striving to put Christ at the center of their business, what scripture Christ has etched into their heart, and how they stay focused on what really matters.
Name & Title: Tim Johnson CEO
Business Name: Impact
Industry: Direct Marketing (Direct Mail, Integrated Marketing, Order Fulfillment, and Critical Documents)
Website: https://impactconnects.com/
Question: What advice would you give a new Christian entrepreneur?
- Occasionally ask yourself the following three questions:
- What motivates you?
- Where is your treasure?
- Who do you trust?
- Company culture matters a lot. By God’s grace, in the strength he supplies, you create it. It is worth investing time and effort into.
- Know that sin is incredibly deceitful. Have strategies to resist it and fight against it.
Question: What verse has influenced your business or leadership the most?
The Gospel and 3 verses really stick out:
- Matthew 25:14-30 – The Parable of the Talents. My dad was an entrepreneur who loved Jesus. He loved the Bible. The ‘parable of the talents’ is probably the passage of scripture that he thought about and talked about most often. The bible teaches and my dad taught us that we are stewards of God’s talents. Someday I hope to hear my master say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
- James 4:13-17 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
- The Gospel – Thinking deeply and repeatedly through the gospel helps me find my soul’s rest in God alone, builds my love for Jesus and my neighbor, strengthens my confidence in his Word, helps me become better at handling the scriptures, increases my joy, makes me more eager to lead people to seek their joy in Jesus, prepares me (I believe) to die well, makes me trust God more with my future and children’s futures, helps me overlook offenses, reduces my tendency toward unrighteous anger, and helps me fight and confess sin.
- Ps 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
Question: How do you keep God at the forefront of your business in the middle of so many distractions?
- I occasionally, deliberately and intentionally think about the brevity of life.
- I often say, “If the Lord wills”, or “Lord willing” (James 4:13-17). Example: when people say, “See you tomorrow,” without being too awkward I often reply, “Lord willing.” (You know the situation and audience.) It is probably more valuable/important than you think. It gets easier as you reply that way more frequently.
- We have a Purpose and Values document for our business. God is explicit in that document. We, especially me as the CEO, really ‘own’ it. We put enough effort into it that it is actually a useful tool that I regularly reference and remind people of. We recognize that we (the company/Impact) are a very small piece of God’s creation. We have chosen a verse from the Bible to fly like a banner over all that we do and to serve as a reminder to us of who we are before God. Our desire is that God be exalted at Impact. The verse is from Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”
- Foundational Beliefs – I believe that God exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. I believe that my Father in heaven knows how to give good gifts to His children. I believe that He sees in secret. I believe that the pleasures at God’s right hand are far deeper and far longer lasting than anything this world has to offer. I believe that the gospel is the greatest message of God’s love for his people. It is historic, life-changing news that brings joy.
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