Redemptive Leader was started by me, Gary Wilkins in 2017. I was going through a transition in my professional life and was looking for a framework or a process that would help me navigate that well.
I have served as a pastor for most of the last 25 years. I was in the process of transitioning out of a church I had served for the last 8.
I had helped lead them through a significant transition, and now God was leading me away. As I began to reflect on my times in and out of ministry, I realized this organizational transition was not the first I had been through. In fact, dealing with unexpected change was a major theme of my professional life.
This motivated me to look for some kind of framework or roadmap for the kind of change I had experienced. I began to do as much reading as I could but did not find anything that addressed my specific concerns.
Specifically, I was looking for a way to relate the Bible to what we describe as culture. But the more I read the more I knew something was still missing. Many authors talked about culture and biblical Christianity, but not in a way that lined up for me.
I decided to pursue this research formally and enrolled in a Doctor of Ministry program at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. My thesis was on finding a framework in scripture that explained what we refer to as culture.
During the same period, I was invited to join MLA Companies. MLA is a business consulting firm owned by Seth Morgan. MLA helps business owners move their companies forward with finance, strategy, and solutions.
Seth is a strong believer and had become a good friend. He was also looking for a biblical model to explain and manage organizational change.
Seth invited me to work for him while I worked on my questions about at biblical framework for culture. The result has been the opportunity to work out theological questions in the very practical world of business consulting.
This partnership resulted in rebranding MLA as Business Redeemed, and the implementation of the Business Redeemed process. It also helped me develop the practical application of my research as Redemptive Leader.