At 10:30 on a Friday night, a team member called John Stewart. He wanted to meet soon, and John asked what was going on.
"Well, John, I want what you have," the man said. He couldn't explain where John got it. He only knew that when meetings were going sideways and everything was moving at once, John stayed where he was.
John leads Encompass Development, Design and Construct, a firm that designs hospitality spaces: hotels, casinos, restaurants. This month's featured video is John explaining why the company exists and what that looks like on an ordinary Monday.
"At this point in my life, I can't separate the business from ministry," John says. The intent from the start was that the company be a ministry in every aspect, with the design work as the place it happens.
He puts his own responsibility plainly. "A lot of people will never understand, never see Christ if they don't see it through somebody."
Paul used the same picture for the church at Corinth.
"You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all." — 2 Corinthians 3:2 (ESV)
Some of the people you work with will never open a Bible. They will read you.
John's starting place is that work is worship. "There's no line between Sunday and Monday when it comes to living your faith."
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." — Romans 12:1 (ESV)
Paul asks for bodies, and bodies are what show up on Monday. The meeting, the drawing set, the difficult client call all happen in the body you offered.
Nobody pitched that team member anything. He watched how John carried himself under pressure and wanted to know the source. Peter assumed that question would come.
"But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect." — 1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)
The order matters. Honoring Christ in your heart comes first, and the asking follows. John got the opportunity to tell his team member what it is, and he calls living it out "our responsibility."
When a new team member joins Encompass, John sits down with them for what the company calls “why training.” He walks through the company's written values, where each one came from, what it means to him personally, and what it should mean for the culture.
Then he says something that disarms people. "I'm not asking you to believe in God. I'm asking you to live out what the company says it stands for.”
A wall in the office holds the notes and thank-yous people have given the company over the years. John says they are not there for visitors to admire, but as a reminder of "what we get to do today." That word, get, changes a Monday.
He is just as direct about the larger purpose. "Every business has a why. Our why is not to increase shareholder value. Our why has to make a difference in the world and glorify God through that."
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." — 1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV)
John and his wife have lived on a budget since they met, and part of it is a dining-out line. One year they asked what they could do in their community when they ate out that would benefit the people serving them.
Their answer was to tip a hundred percent, keep the same budget, and eat out half as often. They started writing a short note with each tip. Relationships grew out of it, and John began asking how his whole team could learn the joy of that.
"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" — Acts 20:35 (ESV)
Paul ties hard work and helping the weak into the same week.
Encompass team members carry company credit cards, and the company wanted to give more wisely. The rule is short: if you see a need, go meet it. No questions asked, no explanation required.
He wants to hear the story afterward, and he wants the team member to tell the person why they are helping. If someone needs a tank of gas, the card is there for that.
"Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." — 2 Corinthians 9:7 (ESV)
John lets people decide in their own hearts, and he removes the permission slip.
None of this runs on easy months. John says the joy of giving holds "even in the really tough times, even when we don't get paid and we haven't been able to pay somebody because we haven't been paid."
He doesn't dress that up. The cost is real. What he describes is "a peace and a joy" that makes every bit of it worth it, and he points to transformed lives, Joe's among them, as the reason.
John ends the video with what he hopes to hear one day: "well done," and he adds, not just almost well done.
"His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'" — Matthew 25:21 (ESV)
No hotel lobby award or quarterly number will carry that verdict. Faithfulness over a little will, one Friday night phone call at a time.
Watch John Stewart's full Encompass DDC story, and if you'd like stories like this one arriving in your week, join the movement.
