David Green
Role/Title: Founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Background: Started with $600 loan in 1970, built Hobby Lobby into $8 billion retail empire
What Motivated His Devotion to Christ
David Green grew up as a preacher's kid, the only one of six siblings who didn't go into full-time ministry. For years, he felt like the "black sheep" who had wandered into the wasteland of business. This changed dramatically in 1979 during a flight home from a church convention.
As he gazed out the airplane window, Green sensed the Holy Spirit speaking: "You need to give $30,000 for Bible literature." The amount seemed impossible for his four-store operation barely making ends meet. But he obeyed, postdating four checks over four months. Days later, he learned that four African missionaries had prayed for literature funds on the exact day he mailed the checks.
This divine encounter transformed Green's understanding: God had called him into business just as surely as He had called his siblings into ministry. Business wasn't a lesser calling—it was his ministry platform.
The real deepening came through crisis. In 1985, overextension and an Oklahoma oil bust brought Hobby Lobby to the brink of bankruptcy. Green found himself literally hiding under his mahogany desk, dodging creditor calls, desperately praying. God's message was clear: "If you're so big, I'm going to let you have it by yourself."
This crushing experience broke Green's pride and taught him total dependence on God. He emerged with the conviction that any success comes from God's grace alone, not human cleverness.
How He's Thriving While Keeping God First
Radical Generosity: Hobby Lobby gives away 50% of its profits annually—hundreds of millions of dollars to kingdom work. Green hasn't taken a personal raise in sixteen years, making a fraction of typical CEO salaries. "This world has nothing more that I want," he states simply.
God Owns Everything: Around 2000, while praying about succession and inheritance, God asked him: "What would happen if the Jones family owned this and you were just the CEO?" This led to a revolutionary restructuring where the Green family placed all of Hobby Lobby's voting stock in a trust for ministry. They see themselves as stewards, not owners.
Holy Spirit Leadership: Major decisions aren't made through conventional business analysis but through prayer and listening to the Spirit. During COVID-19, when all stores had to close and revenue dropped to zero, Green and his wife Barbara prayed three times daily. God gave them three words: "guide, guard, and groom." Despite having only 60% of normal inventory, 2020 became Hobby Lobby's highest sales year ever—while competitors declined.
Countercultural Practices:
- Stores close at 8 PM and remain closed Sundays (sacrificing their most profitable day)
- Minimum wage of $18.50/hour in 2022 for full-time workers (costing $100 million annually)
- On-site chaplains, medical clinic, and marriage enrichment programs for employees
- Refusing to sell Halloween merchandise despite millions in potential profit
- Fighting to the Supreme Court rather than compromise on life issues
Staying in the Weeds: At 83 years old, Green still works in the layout room every Saturday, personally reviewing products and pricing. He refuses to delegate his core gifting as a merchant, saying "pony beads" can still make him lose sleep with excitement.
Core Teachings & Declarations
On Success: "It shouldn't work. So why does it?" Green attributes Hobby Lobby's success entirely to following God rather than conventional business wisdom.
On Stewardship: "When you're an owner, wealth can easily become a curse. When you're a steward, wealth becomes a tool."
On Giving: "We don't give more so we can get more; we get more so we can give more."
On Leadership: "You can't outgive God" (though God challenged him: "Well, you've never really tried, have you?")
On Purpose: "Only two things are eternal: God's Word and human souls. Everything else disappears."
On Humility: "Without God's help, I couldn't sustain even a dozen stores, much less a thousand."
On Risk: "What kind of leader would I be if I were willing to put money at risk to earn more money but refused to risk for people's souls?"
Legacy & Learn More
David Green has created a replicable model proving that business can be both wildly successful and radically God-honoring. His "secret sauce" includes:
- Give God the vote - Structure major decisions to let God show His will
- Listen to the Holy Spirit above all - Pray continually and obey what you hear
- Give away profit - Start with tithing, increase as God increases you
- Put employees first - "God has put these employees in your charge"
- Choose simplicity over perfection - "Close counts" is better than paralysis
- Stay faithful in hiddenness - Excellence in obscurity prepares for elevation
Through Hobby Lobby's success, Green has funded Bible translation, global evangelism, museum projects, and countless ministries reaching billions with the Gospel. His story demonstrates the Joseph Pattern—decades of faithful preparation before sudden elevation for kingdom purposes.
His books include:
- The Legacy Life: Leading Your Family to Make a Difference for Eternity (2025) - Building generational faithfulness and eternal impact
- Leadership Not by the Book (2022) - Complete blueprint for God-honoring business
- Giving It All Away...and Getting It All Back Again (2017)
Green's ultimate legacy isn't a retail empire but a proven model: when you make business about souls rather than sales, God can do the impossible through ordinary people who trust Him completely.