Hobby Lobby CEO to Give Away Company: ‘We Want to Be Stewards of What God Has Given Us’

Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO announced Friday that he plans to give up ownership of the Christian-owned company for God.

“Patagonia’s founder recently made news when he gave away the ownership in his company to allow the mission and purpose to remain intact… I experienced a similar decision-making process with my ownership of Hobby Lobby; I chose God,” Hobby Lobby CEO David Green wrote in an op-ed for Fox News on Friday.

During an interview on Sunday’s “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Green told anchor Will Cain that his calling is to be a steward rather than an owner.

“There’s a huge paradigm change between owning a company and stewarding it, and we want to be stewards of what God has given us,” Green told Fox News.

Green, who founded Hobby Lobby in 1972, told Cain that 100 percent of the company’s voting stock was placed into a trust where the “stewardship” can continue to be conveyed from one person to another.

“All the voting stock is in 1% in its trust, and it is being managed and being stewarded instead of seeing ourselves as owners,” he continued.

Green also says that giving up ownership of Hobby Lobby helps honor God “tremendously” because it alleviates the burden of wealth.

“Wealth can be a curse and, in most cases, if you drill down on it, wealth is a curse in terms of marriage, children and things of that nature; so we’re stewarding our company and, therefore, our children come to work, and they get what they earn… it’s a paradigm change from ownership that can really wreck a family,” he explained.

“You own it, then we’re going to steward it,” Green continued, referring to God’s ownership of all things.

In his opinion piece Friday, Green urged business leaders to examine their source of truth and stressed the importance of tithing.

“For me, my source of truth has always been prayer and the Bible. I truly believe that if leaders pray and seek truth from the Bible that their businesses will be revolutionized,” he wrote.

“For instance, the Bible talks about giving a tithe or 10%… Can you imagine what would happen if every top leader in business became a tither? There would be literally billions available for good work around the world.”

He also encouraged readers to read a chapter from the book of Proverbs daily and continued to stress the necessity of stewardship.

“The biggest challenge is to ask the question of whether you are an owner or a steward – a manager of what you’ve been entrusted with,” Green wrote.

“From the very beginning, our purpose was to honor God in all that we did. We worked hard, and God gave the results. As we were blessed by God, we saw it as a great privilege to give back. We’ve been able to provide hope through supporting ministries and planting churches all over the world.”

Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Joe Raedle/Staff

Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer. He is also the co-hosts of the For Your Soul podcast, which seeks to equip the church with biblical truth and sound doctrine. Visit his blog Blessed Are The Forgiven.

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