The Man In Charge
Jerry Caven credits his
employees with making possible something that he and Muriel consider a priority
in their lives - ministry work.
“I don’t have to worry
that they will lose their motivation or that they need to be challenged to do
their jobs every day. They have done it
for ten, fifteen, thirty or forty years,” Jerry explained. “That gives me a great deal of confidence
then that I can leave to do ministry work.”
Jerry and Muriel have
dedicated their time and resources to ministry work in Central America, India,
Pakistan, Africa, Bangladesh, and of course, the United States.
“I explain to our people,
when my wife and I go to do ministry work, each time before we leave, that they
are as important to the ministry as we are.
We are the ones who go, but they are the ones who make it possible for
us to go,” Jerry told the Secrets Of
Success camera.
Jerry and Muriel’s
ministry work is not confined to just writing checks. Shortly before production began on their Secrets Of Success television episode
Jerry and Muriel had spent six months in India.
They were “hands on” in distributing food to the hungry, meeting with
local church pastors and educating anyone interested in learning about the
Christian faith.
Faith obviously plays a
key role in the Caven’s interest in ministry, and as already mentioned it holds
a primary position in Jerry’s varied businesses. Jerry may own the company but he will be the
first to tell you that God runs it.
The Royal Fork Restaurant
Corporation Chief Financial Officer, Jim Chambers, illustrated it this way,
“Jerry basically does everything with prayer.
He prays about whatever it is he is about to do, and the first person he
asks about anything is God.”
“The way we do business,
in terms the way people are treated, in terms of the expectations of what goes
on in any of our businesses, it’s obvious that faith makes up a huge part of
it,” Merlyn Knight added. “And then
we’re challenged to do more than just make money. How do we change people? How do we make a difference in people’s
lives?
Before Jerry Caven decided
he wanted to spend less time at work, his combined businesses were producing
annual revenues in excess of $100 million dollars. Even now, with Jerry focusing more time on
ministry work, and his 5 children and 14 grandchildren, his businesses produce in
the ballpark of $75 million annually. These
are impressive numbers attached to a man whose early ambitions were downright
mundane.
“I’ve only had one
conscious asset goal,” Jerry recalled.
“When I was fourteen or fifteen years old I determined that someday I
would have a home with a fireplace. That
is the only financial or material goal I can ever remember having. I have just worked hard and it just seemed
like you should do your best. I believe
that a person who is in business just for the money, and then does not give
back either some of his money or his life in the process, he is missing out on
a huge blessing.”
“Jerry’s been so successful
because he thinks through what he’s going to do,” Muriel said of her
husband. “He just seems to have a knack
of picking the right businesses and the right people. Honesty and integrity and his reliance on
what he feels like God would have him do; it plays a big role in his
decisions.”
And what is Jerry Caven’s
opinion on his success? “For some reason
our success in business is that the Lord intended it; this is what He wants and
desires and why that would be I don’t understand,” he told our camera.
Make no mistake; Jerry
isn’t advocating that anyone relax while God takes care of business. “From a human standpoint you can’t just sit
and want to be in business and say that the Lord will bring success to us but
not do our part,” Jerry expounded. “From
a human standpoint we have been consistent in the principles of business that
we believe in. We have represented the
values and integrity [of the Bible]. I
think that if a person was starting a business and wanted to be successful in that
business, one thing I would tell him is to go to the Bible and to read and
understand the concepts that are put forth there. It tells us how to treat people and if you do
that [practice the concepts of the Bible] you will be successful.”
© 2012 Philip Kassel
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