Bobby Gruenewald serves on the Leadership Team at LifeChurch.tv as the Pastor, Innovation Leader and founder of the YouVersion Bible App. Working with lead pastor Craig Groeschel, LifeChurch.tv has shaped a missional approach to technology, seen in initiatives like Church Online, as well as the Bible App and the Bible App for Kids from YouVersion. Just six years after its launch, the YouVersion Bible App has been has been downloaded and used on over 200 million devices on nearly every smartphone and tablet in every single country on the earth. Bobby believes this generation has the potential to become the most Bible-engaged generation in history.
Bobby received the Entrepreneurial Leaders Award on November 18th at the ELO World Conference in Toronto, Canada. The Entrepreneurial Leaders Award is presently annually by ELO to an individual who is an example of a Christian entrepreneurial leader making a difference on a global scale who inspires others in word and action. Past recipients have included the following international leaders: Graham Power, Power Group, Cape Town, South Africa (Vancouver, 2012; Mark Burnett & Roma Downey, Hollywood Producers, Malibu, CA (Vancouver, 2013); Datuk Edward Ong, OCK Group, Singapore (Vancouver, 2014); and Lord Robert Edmiston, I.M. Group, London, UK (Vancouver, 2015).
*This Q & A is based on an interview by Dr. Richard (Rick) J. Goossen, Founder & Chairman, Entrepreneurial Leaders Organization (rick@entrepreneurialleaders.com) with Bobby Gruenewald at the ELO World Conference, Toronto, November 18, 2015.
R – What have you learned by being a business person working with the church and what are some lessons you have learnt through this whole process?
B – I think the biggest thing I learned early on is that God gave me a lot of unique experiences in business as a very young business leader, 20-24 years old. We had a multi-national company that was birthed out of a dorm room and we had lots of things going on. We had bad experiences as well, lots of challenging times, but I have learned that God doesn’t waste any of those. If you let him use you and are obedient to his direction for your life, he takes every last little piece of these experiences and weaves them into his plan for your life.
I resisted my particular calling at first, but it was clear that God was leading me from this position in business into this vocational role into the church. I know that is not everyone’s calling and there is nothing about my calling that is more correct than anyone else’s. It is really just being true to what God is calling you to directly.
I wish in retrospect I had connected the dots earlier, that the things I was doing in business would have Kingdom impact. I could have just as well stayed in business and made a Kingdom impact without necessarily being on staff at a church. That just happens to be my particular path and calling. I would encourage people to recognize that God is giving you a unique set of experiences, resources, not just financial ones, but in terms of the position of influence and the relationships that you have. If you will sincerely ask God how you can use those for Kingdom purposes, I am confident he will blow your mind with what can be done.
R – To emphasize one point, all of us of course have a calling as business people to use our skills in the marketplace. From your standpoint, given what has happened, what have you learned about calling versus what your prior concept of calling may have been? What is the number one lesson you have learned about God’s calling in your life?
B – I have learned it is a step by step process. I didn’t know what God was going to do back when I was a finance major in college. To give you some more context, I had a Christian rap ministry when I was in college. I was a rapper. I don’t look like a rapper, but I was a rapper! I went to a Christian university and the expectation of me going to that university was that I was likely going to be a religion major and would be a pastor. But when I got there I felt very distinctly that I was to be a business major and that was difficult because there was a set of expectations that others had that I was going to do something different. The perception by those people was that taking a step towards business was stepping away from your calling.
I knew in the moment that this is what God was calling me to. Then step by step as I traced it back every step of this journey was a matter of trying to listen to God’s voice when you are at these points of decision.
So it has been a process. If I had known where I was going to end up today I would have become a religion major thinking that was what I needed to do to take this path. There is nothing wrong with being a religion major but taking the path that God had for me is what created this unique set of experiences to allow me to do what I do today.
I would encourage people to think about calling in a way that appreciates the process and recognizes that God reveals himself in a step by step process without the clarity of what the destination is and being comfortable with that process because for me it is the only way that I would have got here. I would have messed it all up, I am confident I would have, I would have wanted to cut straight to the end and that wouldn’t have been the right journey.
R – Do you have any final word you would want to leave with us?
B – The passage in Scripture that strikes me as something that typifies what God has been doing in my life is Ephesians 3: 20-1: “20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” God is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. He chooses. He doesn’t have to do it this way, but he chooses to do it through his power that is at work within us, in whatever context that he has placed us in. But He doesn’t do it so we can receive the glory, He does it so He can receive the glory. He does it through us so He can be seen. I think that is an example of what I have seen God do in my life. I would encourage everyone in the significant spheres that He has placed you to recognize that He is able to do so much more than you think is possible. You probably have a limited view of what God could do through you. But He is only going to do that if you let him work through you and not so that you can be glorified.
When I tell the story of what God has done through YouVersion I like to highlight for people that this is a church in Oklahoma, which is not known as a hot bed for technology. God used a church in Oklahoma to create a technology solution to help people engage in Scripture that is reaching every single country and territory on the planet. I believe that was with intention and purpose. If it happened in Silicon Valley people would say, oh, that makes sense. Or if it happened in New York at a publisher who had tens of millions of dollars, that would make sense.
Instead God chose to use a church in Oklahoma to do it for only one reason and that is so we can’t take credit. There is absolutely no way that it makes any logical sense that as smart as our team is, and they are smart, they are not that good. They are really not. So it allows us to tell the story in a way that makes God the centre, not us. It was clearly him. If you would just allow God to use you in whatever your context is I think he will surprise you with what is possible.
R – Great, thank you, Bobby.