How to Reflect God’s Character in Business (w/ Dr. Michael Cafferky)
On this episode, Darren sits down with Dr. Michael Cafferky (former Ruth McKee Chair for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics at Southern Adventist University) to discuss how to reflect God’s character in business. from a pass-through town into the most popular U.S. tourist destination between Orlando and Vegas.
Darren Shearer hosts Dr. Michael Cafferky on the Christian Business Leader podcast to discuss how faith and work intersect in meaningful, practical ways. Mike, a longtime professor of business ethics and former healthcare executive, shares lessons from his journey—starting as a janitor learning trust mattered more than clean floors, to leading hospitals where serving communities outweighed financial ease. He emphasizes how scripture connects God’s character to marketplace behavior, showing faithfulness, truth, and integrity as central business strategies.
He recounts pivotal moments, like realizing maternity services must stay open for vulnerable patients, even when unprofitable, and recognizing that decisions often pit stakeholders’ interests against each other. Mike highlights the tension Christians face when religious language is unwelcome at work, urging believers to embody God’s character in speech and culture, not just silent witness. His novel, On the Brink, dramatizes this dilemma through a healthcare leader navigating how to be a vocal ambassador for Christ without alienating colleagues.
Mike encourages leaders to weave traits like faithfulness, kindness, and restoration into organizational language and habits. He frames Jesus as the ultimate stakeholder—present in every transaction—and calls Christians to champion aspects of God’s character until others invite deeper conversations about faith. His book includes discussion questions for groups seeking to wrestle with living as ambassadors in modern workplaces, showing how character-driven leadership, rooted in God’s image, can shape businesses and discipleship alike.
Read Dr. Cafferky’s Book On the Brink
Key Takeaways 💡
- Discovering God’s Role in Work: Dr. Michael Cafferky, professor, author, and former healthcare executive, shares how an early janitorial job sparked his lifelong question about the purpose of work and how spotless floors built patient trust. Later, as a hospital leader, he kept maternity services open despite financial strain, seeing it as God’s call to serve vulnerable communities.
- Marketplace Discipleship: Cafferky emphasizes that scripture connects God’s character with human activity, making Jesus the center of business life. He recounts realizing that themes of faithfulness and truth in the Bible directly shape how strategy, stakeholder care, and everyday conversations should unfold in the marketplace.
- Modern Models of Faithful Leadership: Drawing from his healthcare career, he contrasts values-driven nonprofit systems with for-profit organizations where money dominated. He highlights how language, habits, and leadership speech shape culture, urging leaders to embed God’s traits—faithfulness, kindness, restoration—into organizational DNA.
- Values That Guide Decision-Making: Cafferky acknowledges the complexity of competing stakeholder interests and the difficulty of always making unambiguous “right” choices. He stresses creative moral imagination, balancing needs, and recognizing Jesus as the ultimate stakeholder present in every transaction and decision.
- Translating Faith Into Practice: In On the Brink, Cafferky dramatizes the dilemma of being a vocal ambassador for Christ in workplaces where religious language is unwelcome. He encourages believers to use business language that reflects God’s character, champion specific traits, and let faith-infused speech earn permission for deeper gospel conversations. The book includes discussion questions for small groups seeking to apply these principles in real-world settings
Christian Business Leader is the show for marketplace Christians seeking to explore and apply God’s will for business. If you want to learn more about how to do business for the glory of God and shape culture through discipling the business world, this show is for you.
BIG THANKS to this episode’s sponsor: High Bridge Books
High Bridge Books helps Christ-centered authors build a legacy by crafting and publishing messages and stories that glorify God in all spheres of culture.
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