Banking on Faith

Banking on Faith
Chuck Ripka co-founded a bank known for its bold Christian witness in the marketplace. Now his faith is taking Him on new ventures.
By Matt Modrich

Chuck Ripka is not your typical banker. You could call him a pastor, but instead of wearing a clerical collar, he dons a suit and tie. That’s because for him, banking is ministry. At 48, Ripka has already made his mark as a leading example of Christians in the marketplace who view their work as ministry.

The so-called “marketplace ministry movement” has proliferated since the 1980s to include hundreds of businesses or individuals that seek to bring faith to the working world by way of Bible studies, prayer groups or, in Ripka’s case, with business practices and models that are firmly biblical in nature. Numerous networks and associations exist today, such as The C12 Group, International Christian Chamber of Commerce, Christian Management Association and International Coalition of Workplace Ministries.

Ripka co-founded Riverview Community Bank in Otsego, Minnesota, northwest of Minneapolis with Duane Kropuenske in 2003. Before opening the bank, Ripka says, God spoke to him: “Chuck, I want you to pastor the bank, and I’m going to use you as a model of what I can do. If you do all the things I’ve called you to do, I promise you I’ll take care of the bottom line.”

The bank quickly developed a reputation as a Christian business. It was easy to understand why. There was the inscription on the building’s cornerstone, “In God We Trust,” and the fact that a Bible had been buried in its foundation.

But it was the bank’s bold Christian practices that really caught the public’s eye: Instead of merely selling financial products, the staff at Riverview routinely prayed with customers for salvation or physical healing.

Ripka sees no divide between his Christian walk and professional life. “The Lord is fully present at the office and very much a part of everything we do at work,” Ripka writes in his book, God Out of the Box (Charisma House). “If we put up walls to keep God out of our business dealings, we are erecting barriers to a personal relationship with Him and His plans for us.”

In Ripka’s three years there, the bank greatly exceeded financial expectations by reaching $132 million in net worth. News of Riverview’s success spread quickly. The New York Times Magazine featured it in a cover story about faith in the marketplace in October 2004.

The story gave Ripka the opportunity to pray with reporters from all over the world while telling them about what God had done at the bank and in his life. Ripka says God had told him that he would be given broad influence, but even he was surprised that reporters from Canada, England, Germany, France and Japan came to his office to interview him.

Ready to Change

Despite the success, Ripka believed he was being called to move on. Even though he was a co-founder, senior vice president and stockholder of a successful bank that was garnering media attention, he began to grow more distant from the company.

When he told his friends that he was thinking of leaving, they rejected the idea. “You can’t leave the bank,” they told him. “Look at all that God’s been doing there.” “My identity is not in the bank,” Ripka responded. “It’s in Christ.”

In October of 2005, Ripka had a vision in which he saw himself chained to his desk. Believing that God was telling him it was time for him to go and do greater things outside the office, Ripka resigned from the bank in March 2006. He had enough money saved for three or four months of living expenses, but with no backup plan he began to worry as his money dwindled.

During this time he learned an important lesson. “With the marketplace we get so into striving—making things happen and getting it done—that we forget to wait on the Lord,” Ripka says.

He started pursuing rather than striving, and the difference made a significant impact in his life. With pursuing comes peace, he explains, because you’re doing things in God’s time and not your time.

However Ripka is quick to add that when you pursue God’s will, your own personal comfort is not guaranteed.

“If you’re walking with the Lord, be careful about becoming comfortable. Get ready for a change.”

He had felt that someday he would be involved in international banking, but was unsure when that day would come. As a man without a college education, he felt unequal to the task.

“If I were God, I don’t know if I would choose me because I don’t know anything,” Ripka says. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to find someone who knows what he’s doing?”

But Ripka realized that his lack of knowledge might also give him an advantage. Someone with more education may not feel the need to rely solely on God.

He prayed for God to bring him a retired international banker who could mentor him. Six weeks later Ripka was introduced to Eugene McDowell, 74, the retired son of a Baptist pastor. McDowell, who has helped generate wealth for families all over the world, agreed to mentor Ripka.

The mentoring paid off. In the short time since he left the bank, Ripka has founded Rivers International, a company that aims to plant banks throughout the world. Representatives from six nations have already contacted him about banking in their countries.

He has high hopes for his international banking endeavor—he wants to redeem the banking industry for God. International banking is often corrupt, exploitative and based on greed, he says, and he believes his business will bring much-needed transformation. In addition to his international banking venture, Ripka founded an export company named Ripka Enterprises that focuses on shipping internationally.

Ripka also founded a charity named Rivercenter INC (International Network of Christians). The nonprofit ministry will bring Christians together for the purposes of prayer and worship, giving to the needy, training, and networking.

The group’s mission statement reads: “Rivercenter is an international network of Christians inviting the hungry and thirsty of all nations to experience God’s love through Jesus Christ and to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to advance God’s kingdom.”

Back to the Beginning

Growing up in the small town of Melrose, Minnesota, Ripka attended a Roman Catholic school, but he never had a relationship with Christ. Alcoholism had hurt his family, but things began to change when he, at age 20, and his brother accepted Christ.

Ripka says God promised him that his whole family would be saved. Sure enough, one by one each person in his family became a Christian.

When his mother was on her deathbed, Ripka prayed a salvation prayer with her. In 1991 he prayed with his father to receive Christ after picking him up from an alcohol treatment center. At his father’s funeral in 2004 Ripka shared how he had prayed with his parents to receive Christ and then he proceeded to lead those at the funeral in the sinner’s prayer.

Also at age 20 he married his high school sweetheart, Kathi. Early in their marriage Kathi suffered internal bleeding after a miscarriage. Ripka was out of work, and the couple had no health insurance, but God was watching out for them. Amazingly, the state forgave them more than $67,000 in hospital bills.

With five children to support Chuck and Kathi struggled financially. Chuck did construction work and later was employed as a salesman in a furniture store before becoming a loan officer. At first, his salary as a loan officer provided the much-needed income for his family, but by 2000 Ripka’s commissions began to dry up. The same year, he met with Duane Kropuenske, his former boss from a bank where he’d worked.

Kropuenske wanted to start a bank with Ripka. He offered him a better paying position to keep him afloat in the meantime. As they planned for the opening of their new bank, Ripka expressed his desire to have God take center stage.

“We don’t want this to be just any bank,” Ripka told Kropuenske. “We need to invite Jesus to be our CEO.”

The two men agreed, and three years later Riverview Community bank opened its doors.

Obedience Is the Key

God Out of the Box, Ripka’s first book, was released earlier this year. He shares many principles for living a God-centered life, but one virtue stands above all the others—obedience.

Ripka recounts a message he received from the Lord. “I’m going to take the entire Scriptures and narrow it down to one word—obedience. If you’ll just obey Me, I promise I’ll tell you what to say, what to do and where to go.”

Ripka’s spiritual journey led him to undertake a 40-day juice fast just before his 40th birthday. Each day of the fast represented a year of his life. It was a time of physical and spiritual cleansing. On each day he would ask for forgiveness and make amends for anything he felt convicted about from the corresponding year of his life.

His radical commitment to obedience has led Ripka to take some chances along the way. At one point he felt led to pray for the salvation of Carl Pohlad, owner of the Minnesota Twins and one of the richest men in the country. In 1998 Ripka’s prayers were answered when he prayed with Pohlad to receive Christ.

During the 1999-2000 school year in Ripka’s hometown of Elk River, Minnesota, a number of the students committed suicide. Ripka organized a group to pray with local officials to do prayer-walks in the schools. The result was a drop in the suicide rate and the passing of a critical school referendum that few thought would be approved.

Outside the workplace, Ripka speaks at churches and conferences and writes. He has plans to speak at an upcoming conference in Argentina being hosted by his friend Ed Silvoso, founder and president of Harvest Evangelism.

Although Ripka believes he is called to speak, he doesn’t feel comfortable doing it. But that does not dissuade him.

“God has no interest in my comfort,” he says. “He’s just looking for my obedience.”

People often tell Ripka their excuses for why God can’t use them, but he insists that God can use anybody. He challenges people to be obedient to God and to put aside the excuses.

“People say, ‘God could never use me,’ or, ‘It’s too late,’” he notes. “But it’s never too late.”

Ripka has faith that God will continue to use him. “If God can use a carpenter, if God can use a tax collector, God can use a banker.”

He often acknowledges that he has no theological background. But what Ripka does have is his “God stories,” and that’s what he shares with people.

“In the marketplace, decisions are made based on numbers and black-and-white ideas,” he says. “If you make the decision based on the black and white, there is no faith [involved]. There are things that I am involved in that don’t always make sense in the natural, but I know I have peace in my spirit to pursue them.”

People often ask Ripka how he knows God is speaking to him. He says he knows God’s voice because it is a “quiet inner voice” that he senses every day. Hearing God’s voice comes down to developing childlike faith and being willing to follow as God opens a door.

He doesn’t promise that following God will always pay off in the short term, but he is certain it has eternal benefits.

“I can’t guarantee that your obedience to the Lord will lead to blessings in this life,” he says. “Even those who are most faithful to God experience hardships. But I can promise that your obedience pleases Him and will be rewarded in heaven.”

Article was a cover story for New Man Magazine.

Businessman Takes Ministry ‘Out of the Box’

Chuck Ripka’s call to ministry has taken him well beyond the four walls of the church.

The 48-year-old said God led him to co-found and “pastor” Riverview Community Bank in Otsego, Minn., an overtly Christian financial institution at which tellers not only service accounts but also pray with customers.

Since the bank 30 miles northwest of Minneapolis opened for business in March 2003, some 125 decisions for Christ and more than 80 physical healings have been reported, according to Ripka. Among those accepting Christ are employees and their spouses, waitresses and news reporters, he said.

The reported healings have been related to back, neck, leg and hip problems, as well as more serious back trouble and cancer. Some people have reported feeling a warmth in their bodies as they received prayer.

Ripka, the senior vice president of business development, counsels, mentors and prays with employees. He also teaches them to pray with customers. He said it is not uncommon for prayer requests to come in over the phone lines.

Plans for developing Riverside began in October 2000 when Duane Kropuenske, the president, approached Ripka about starting a bank together.

Ripka was interested but insisted on involving God from the start. “If we’re going to do this, then we need to pray and invite God to be a part of this,” he said.

The idea of a “Christian bank” came later as the partners allowed God to direct their plans. It took Kropuenske and Ripka about a year to raise the $5.5 million they needed to start the bank.

The men were selective when choosing investors, not wanting to accept funding from groups they were uncomfortable forging partnerships with. Ripka said that when opportunities fell through God faithfully provided money from more reliable investors.

One of the bank’s mission statements is to bring Christianity into the workplace. According to Ripka, the foundational principles of the business are honesty, truth and being the light of Christ to the world.

He said God spoke to him before the bank was started and told him: “Chuck, I want you to pastor the bank, and I’m going to use you as a model of what I can do. If you do all the things I’ve called you to do, I promise you I’ll take care of the bottom line.”

Financially the bank has prospered so much that its Christian approach is being held up as a model for the banking industry. In three years, it has reached $132 million in net worth, including deposits and assets.

Ripka, who attends Alliance Community Church in Elk River, said God told him several years ago he would speak to the nations, but he did not realize reporters would be sent to his office to speak with him.

A cover story published about the bank in the New York Times Magazine in October 2004 and a documentary filmed later in France have given Ripka opportunities to share how God is working through the business. The interviews about the bank have resulted in a handful of members from the media praying with him to accept Christ, he said.

In his book, God Out of the Box (Charisma House), which releases this month, Ripka challenges readers to heed God’s voice, even if that means stepping out of a comfort zone. Acknowledging that he has only a high school education, Ripka said obedience has been the secret to his success in marketplace ministry.

He said God told him in 1998: “If you trust Me, [then] take Me out of the box you put Me in. … You limit Me, what I want to do in your life.”

Ripka, who is married with five children, said God recently led him to leave the bank to launch Rivers International, through which he plans to build community banks around the world. To date he has received calls of interest from government leaders in Uganda, Rwanda and Liberia.

“Here I am again, going through the same steps I’ve been going through for years. It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger,” he said. “For me, it seems so impossible, but … God seems to bring all the right people alongside me. I just need to be obedient to the things He’s called me to do—no more, no less—and He’ll take care of the rest.”

Article was published in Charisma Magazine and co-written by Adrienne S. Gaines.

The Good Steward

Amidst a decade marked by the downfall of CEOs such as Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling and Tyco’s L. Dennis Kozlowski, business mogul David L. Steward stands out like a burning light against a dark background.

Steward is founder and chairman of World Wide Technology, Inc. (WWT) in St. Louis, an information-technology (IT) company that sets up computer networks for the government and various Fortune 500 businesses such as General Motors Corporation and Boeing.

A rock of corporate integrity, Steward’s company was identified by Black Enterprise magazine as the largest African-American-owned company in 2000, and Ebony magazine recognized him as one of the nation’s 100 Most Influential Black Americans in May of 2002.

Steward co-authored Doing Business by the Good Book with prominent business author Robert L. Shook with the intention of getting men in the corporate world to seek guidance from the Bible.

“People know that biblical principles work,” says Steward from his home in St. Louis. “And they would rather do business with people who ascribe to them.”

Steward also believes he has been “blessed to be a blessing” to others, which is why he tithes and gives back to the community, serving on the board of 16 different charitable and civic organizations. He credits his faith as being the secret to his success.

Specifically, he cites Matthew 6:33: “‘But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well’” (NIV).

But Steward was not always prospering financially. He grew up 250 miles west of St. Louis in the rural town of Clinton, Mo., in a house that at one time did not have indoor plumbing. He was one of eight children in a working-class Christian home with little money.

“When you have limited resources you find creative ways to meet your needs,” Steward says in a warm voice and calm demeanor that conveys a down-to-earth Midwestern attitude.

He remembers learning to kill and dress a chicken. Steward says those early experiences give him a sense of gratitude for all he has gained–and empathy for people who struggle to make ends meet.

After graduating with a business degree from Central Missouri State University, Steward struggled to find work. A few years went by before he finally landed a job with Missouri Pacific Railroad. He later moved on to Federal Express, where he was Salesman of the Year and a Hall of Fame employee.

But Steward wanted more than just plaques, so he started his own business. He started Transportation Business Specialists and, a short time later, Transport Administrative Services, Inc. Both businesses used large computer networks to focus on finding inefficiencies in the rail and trucking industries. The companies merged in 1990 to form WWT.

WWT started with a few employees and $250,000. A few years later, the business was $3.5 million in debt and Steward’s car was repossessed off the company parking lot. During that time, Steward says he remained focused to “Seek first the kingdom of God,” despite what other people were saying and the distraction from bill collectors.

Shortly after, he got the idea to set up computer networks for other companies. Steward landed contracts with the government and began to partner WWT with other successful IT firms. As WWT provided more organizations with Internet infrastructures and updated technology, their profits exploded beyond expectation.

In 2003, just 13 years later, WWT employed 450 people and pulled in $1.1 billion in sales.

Steward’s Doing Business by the Good Book recounts the story of how his company rose above adversity by using biblical business principles.

“The business principles in the Bible are relevant today,” Steward says. “And my biggest job is to serve the people of this organization.”

He does that by providing the best healthcare, 401(k) plan, resources and facilities for his employees.

Ultimately, he hopes businessmen everywhere will go beyond his book and read the ultimate Good Book, the Bible.

Article was published in New Man Magazine.

Minnesota Family Finds Faith Through Sudden Tragedy

A Minnesota family’s faith has carried them in the midst of a tragic car accident that took the lives of the family’s three girls a week after Christmas.

“I saw such a picture of our heavenly Father in processing the events of everything after the funeral,” Debbie Mayer, the girls’ mother said. “There’s such a hope, not just that we’re going to see them again, but that God is displaying who He is through this.”

Joe and Debbie Mayer were preparing for their son Joey’s wedding when they learned of the New Year’s Day accident.

The Mayer girls–Krista, 19; Nikki, 17; and Jessica, 12–were headed to Willmar, Minn., to meet their brother’s fiancee, Bree O’Connor, and her other bridesmaids for a dinner-and-movie bachelorette party. But on their way the girls ended up on the wrong side of a two-lane highway, possibly trying to pass a car, and before the sisters could get their silver Dodge Lancer back onto the right side of the road, they collided with a minivan coming from the opposite direction.

The 15-year-old minivan driver fractured a bone in her ankle, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

The girls’ car had no airbags, and only the driver, Nikki, was wearing a seat belt. Nikki and Jessica died at the scene, and Krista died at the hospital.

Because the girls died two days before the wedding, there was talk of canceling the ceremony. But the Mayer family was determined to continue. Despite the difficult circumstances surrounding the wedding, the family said it was a day of celebration.

Four days after the wedding, the girls’ funeral was held Jan. 7 at Redeeming Love Church, an Assemblies of God church in Maplewood, Minn. Roughly 1,500 people attended.

The theme of the service was taken from an excerpt in Krista’s journal that cited Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” The Mayers gave Redeeming Love pastor Mike Smith permission to give an altar call.

During his appeal at the funeral service, 150 to 200 youth went forward. Because the front of the sanctuary was full, adults wanting to respond in a similar manner were asked to simply stand in their place. About 20 adults stood to accept Christ. Among those responding were Debbie Mayer’s father and other family members.

Debbie Mayer described the event as “a mixture of awe and a holy moment” during which “part of heaven came to Earth.” She said that it was the girls’ wedding–the day they were united with Jesus, their Bridegroom. With that in mind, the girls were buried in their satin bridesmaids’ gowns.

Joey Mayer, the oldest of the four Mayer children, said the way his sisters’ lives touched others has helped him and his new wife to handle the deaths.

“We are amazed to see the impact that these three lives had in such a short time span,” he said. “It is one of the tools that has helped us cope with our grief.”

In addition to those affected at the funeral, more teenagers have come to Christ in local youth groups as a result of the impact of the deaths. The Mayers have also received many encouraging letters from parents who have lost children in car accidents.

Among other acts of support from the community, church friends of the family made meals and prayed for them. Also, a benefit concert for the Mayer Family Trust Fund was held in January.

In the midst of grieving, Debbie Mayer still struggles to understand how God can bring joy and peace out of pain and sorrow, but she takes comfort in the hope her faith gives her. Whenever her emotions become too much for her, Mayer thinks of her girls.

“I can just hear them cheering me on every time I start to fall apart,” Mayer said as tears filled her eyes.

Like his wife, Joe Mayer is comforted by his belief that the girls are in heaven.

“I personally have a picture of seeing the girls dressed in their robes of white, smiling and being free,” Joe Mayer said. “For me to be close to my girls, I need to be close to God. If I alienate myself from God, I would be alienating myself from my girls.”

Article was published in Charisma Magazine.

Skyway to Heaven

Jay Bakker, the son of former televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, is not the same innocent little pudgy kid whom viewers knew as Jamie Charles. Now twenty-eight, he has piercings in his lip and eyebrow, his arms are sleeved in tattoos, and he plays in a Social Distortion cover band called the Creeps. Bakker is a prodigal son. “Revolution,” the urban ministry he founded, targets skateboarders, hippies, punk rockers, and hardcore kids in Atlanta’s Little Five Points neighborhood.

Growing up, Jay Bakker did not envision becoming a preacher. As a teenager, he drank and drugged while visiting his dad in Rochester, Minnesota’s minimum-security federal prison. Since then, Bakker has turned his life around and kicked drugs and alcohol. After being featured in a 1999 issue of Rolling Stone, he wrote the book Son of a Preacher Man. It recounts how Jay found God after his parents lost the largest television ministry in America, not to mention nearly all of their friends.

Bakker refers to himself as a “grace” preacher. He emphasizes forgiveness, and in particular the “restoration” of ministers—the idea being that a pastor who gets busted for, say, having an affair or embezzling boatloads of money, should be forgiven and allowed to preach again, if he repents. According to Bakker, lack of grace is the biggest reason why many people choose not to go to church.

Bakker believes Christians are too often defined by their outward actions—like attending church and not philandering and not stealing—instead of by the divine gift of grace. “We have a tradition of man’s religion that has no room for grace,” Bakker said. “If we could be saved by a code of morals, God would have just sent us the book.”

One opportunity for restoration especially interests Bakker. Recently, he visited North Central University in Minneapolis, formerly North Central Bible College. This was the school where his parents met in the early 1960s. They left early, because they got married without the school’s permission. After that, of course, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker founded their television program, Praise the Lord, otherwise known as the PTL Club. Even though the Bakkers did not leave on the best of terms, Jim gave money to North Central. He even donated funding for a skyway on campus. But shortly after the PTL Club scandal in 1987, the plaque commemorating Jim Bakker’s charity was taken down.

During his visit, Jay Bakker noticed that the plaque was gone. The next day when he spoke at Eden Prairie Assembly of God, Bakker expressed his desire that it be put back up. “Here’s something my father did out of love and they don’t even keep it up,” Bakker said. “They took the plaque down because, they said, ‘Jim Bakker sinned.’ That sends a message that grace isn’t sufficient for this man.” Vern Kissner, North Central’s plant director, confirmed that the plaque was taken down after the PTL scandal, but he does not know who made the decision. He suggested that the school president at the time, Dr. Don Argue, might know something about it. Argue, who is now the president of Northwest College in Kirkland, Washington, said recently he knows nothing about the disappearance of the plaque.

It’s become a minor cause for Jay Bakker. “Not restoring people is such an anti-Christ message,” he told me. “It just doesn’t make sense.” Apparently, no one at North Central is ready yet for Bakker’s brand of redemption, though they continue to use his father’s skyway.

Article was published in The Rake Magazine.