One of my strategies as a speaker was to mention in churches that I speak to businesses so that people can recommend me to their business. One pastor told me that there was a flaw in my strategy. He said many church people have zero influence in the business community. When he said that, I recalled asking a businessman in our church if another businessman had a positive spiritual influence in the community. He looked me in the eye and said that he had zero influence. He said that this man was a nut and people just wrote him off as a joke.

A friend of mine heads a Christian organization. He told me, “You know, at times I feel like I would rather hire non-Christians because the Christians I hire take advantage of me all the time. They’re always spiritualizing everything. They say, ‘You care for families. Surely I can take off for this. Surely I can take off for that. You believe in church. Surely I don’t have to go to this. I need to be at church.’ And they never get their work done.”