Mixing business and faith

Although there are often challenges, business and faith do mix if you are doing it right, according to four successful businessmen in the Bismarck Diocese.
 
They are all members of a local chapter of Legatus, a professional Catholic organization established to support and inspire business leaders. They agreed to share ways that practicing their faith at work has led to personal fulfilment as well as success in the workplace.
 
Dr. John Warford began Warford Orthodontics in 1973, served as Mayor of Bismarck from 2002-2014, was dean of the University of Mary business school from 2014 to 2017, and recently returned to orthodontics working for his son, John, who now owns the practice.
 
Raised Presbyterian in Bemidj, Minn., Warford met his future wife, Jennifer, while attending dental school at the University of Minnesota. He attended Mass with her when they were dating. 
 
“Jennifer never asked me, but I made the decision to become Catholic after going to Mass for six months,” he said. “I see the Catholic faith as the way of Jesus Christ that is the way.”
 
Warford said his conversion was, “one of the best decisions I ever made.” He and Jennifer have been married 47 years and raised four children. Faith, he said, influences all he does and helps him to see each day as a gift. “When you love what you do it’s not work,” he said. “I say, ‘I get to play here.’ I treat every kid as if they are part of my family.”
 
While he was mayor, Warford started every city commission meeting with prayer. No one complained. “We asked for God’s guidance at every meeting,” he said. “I still carry this intention with me throughout the day. I hope my behavior shows it, although I always need to try to get better; to hear the Gospel and go back and live it.”
 
Warford said that he sees serving others as key. “The concept of servant leadership is that happiness does not come from money, but from serving others, with a huge asterisk on being your best and being humble,” he said.
 
A program epitomizing serving others at Warford Orthodontists is “Jerene’s Wish,” inspired by a high school girl who had terminal cancer who asked for braces from the Make-a-Wish program. Jerene was given them for free so that the money raised went to redecorating her room instead. Although Jerene died with her braces still on, she inspired the program that now helps other low-income kids get braces.
 
Faith changed everything
 
Ryan Senderhauf is the COO of Native Energy Solutions, LLC a national electrical and oilfield services company based in Williston, where he and his wife Sarah and two daughters moved eight years ago.
 
Although raised a Catholic in Colorado, Senderhauf drifted away and put his energies into work eventually starting up three companies. One Sunday, five years ago, his 10-year-old daughter who attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School asked, “Dad, why don’t you go to Church?”
 
“I had no excuse,” Senderhauf said. “I went to Mass that night.” He kept going, but one Sunday, the pastor, Fr. Russ Kovash, took him aside and asked why he didn’t receive holy Communion. Senderhauf explained that he had been married outside the Church. Father Kovash talked with him about getting his marriage validated as a sacrament in the Church.
 
“Four years ago, we got married at St. Joes and fell back in love with the Catholic Church,” Senderhauf said. “I had a great wife, wonderful kids, and a great business, but I always felt that something was missing.”
 
He explained that his business decisions are far reaching because they affect 150 employees and their families. Once he put God at the center of his own life, it also made a difference in business. “Before, I was all about business 7 days a week, 24 hours a day,” he said. “Now, we don’t work weekends, which is unheard of in this industry. People have families and need time off.”
 
In addition, Catholics get paid days off for holy days. Everyone gets paid time off at Thanksgiving and two weeks at Christmas, on top of two weeks paid vacation during the year. 
 
“I was blind to those things before,” Senderhauf said. “Because of my greed, I could not see the benefits of that for my employees.” Now, he has one of the highest employee retention rates in an industry notorious for turnovers. “People want to work for us because we take care of them,” he said. “Some things are more important than work. I learned that I can go about things in a different way and pull in Catholic values. It’s a better way.” 
 
Balance faith and work
 
Vern Dosch is the CEO of National Information Solution Cooperative headquartered in Mandan with a total of 1,260 employees which includes offices in four states and remote workers in 26 different states. He and his wife, Lynne, raised three children and have five grandchildren.
 
Dosch grew up Catholic in the Linton/Strasburg area. Other than a short period in college of questioning his faith, he has been committed to it. “I never bought into the notion that faith and work have to be separate, although, we have a diverse work force, so I’m careful not to force it on anyone,” Dosch said. “Shareholder meetings start with a prayer and staff meetings begin with a moment of silence. I hope for a lot of people that’s a time for prayer, but that’s up to them.” 
 
At the request of a few employees, an informal virtual prayer group started up where people can post their intentions. It has grown to 270 members. According to Dosch, supporting people’s faith is an important part of the company culture. Having recently celebrated 50 years in business, he said the software services company has enjoyed consistent growth and has been intentional about trying to balance work with life.
 
Something more
 
According to Shane Goettle, public affairs director and co-owner at Odney, a public relations company and co-owner of JAG, a family gravel company, business owners have unique challenges. “We are responsible for hiring, firing, leading, and making decisions that impact people’s lives,” he said. “There are things we have to do, but there are ways we should do them.”
 
Goettle and his wife, Brenda, have six children. Growing up Catholic on a cattle ranch and small grains farm near Stanley, he said his faith has always been important to him. The example of his parents and grandparents led him to appreciate the Church. He looked into the Protestant Campus Crusade for Christ while in college which made him realize he needed to learn more about his own faith.
 
“A friend introduced me to Scott Hahn tapes and I fell in love with apologetics,” Goettle said. “From that point on, I have pursued a steady diet of spiritual reading based on Fr. John McCloskey’s “A Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan.”
 
Father McCloskey became a spiritual director to Goettle and impressed upon him that there is no separation between work and faith, but instead, faith can be witnessed in the ordinary everyday things. “There will always be temptations, but being grounded in the Catholic faith keeps you from giving in. For instance, you could pad fees in a way a client would never know, but the virtuous principle is to be transparent.”
 
In the end, Goettle explained that practicing the Catholic faith is about more than just not lying or stealing or cheating. “It’s also about identifying the corresponding virtues and pursuing those.”
 
Anyone interested in learning more about Legatus can contact Abbey Nagel at [email protected].