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Insights on Ministry & Business with Bishop Dale C. Bronner Part 2

In Part 2 of The Pastor & Businessman Series, hear from Bishop Dale C. Bronner—a 4th generation pastor and 4th generation businessman—as he shares insights gleaned while navigating both worlds. Missed Part 1 of the interview? Watch it here. 

Bishop Dale C. Bronner is a 4th generation pastor and 4th generation businessman. In this instalment of The Pastor & Businessman Series, he shares insights gleaned while navigating both worlds.

Your business, Bronner Bros., dreams to be the largest African-American Christian company. What’s driving that dream?

It really sort of came from the parable of Matthew chapter 25, where they gave the talents. Gave one man 1 (talent), gave one (man) 2, and the other one 5 (talents). The one that had 5 made it into 10, the one that had 2 made it into 4, the one who had 1 kept it as 1. 

All of them were faithful to keep it. But the ones that were really called faithful were the ones that increased it. Faithfulness is not maintaining something on the same level, it is increasing it. They were commended for taking it from 5 to 10. They got commended. The one that took it from 2 to 4 was commended. The one who maintained it as the same was told, “You wicked and lazy servant”, and then he was cast into outer darkness. 

So faithfulness is not maintaining something the same way that you received it. It’s increasing it. We wanted to be able to increase for the kingdom of God. And when you increase that, you increase your influence. When you increase your influence, then you increase the good that you can do for the kingdom of God. 

So we really wanted to be able to have an impact. When you’re the biggest at anything, it’s difficult for anybody to ignore you. And then we would use that influence to be able to say, look what the Lord has done. It is marvellous in our eyes what he has done.

How does having a business help you to be a better pastor?

You know, to me, my business background has helped me more in ministry than all of my religious training, and I have a Doctor of Ministry degree. But I have valued more from the business world because ministry is people. And I learned in the business world to be able to manage people, encourage people, celebrate people, involve the ideas of other people. 

I realised it didn’t have to just be all me. I learned those skills in the business world that helped me build teams so not everything rested on my shoulders and I had to feel as though God, you’ve got to speak to me. And I’ve got to figure all of this out. I learned so much of that. 

I was one of the first churches in my city that started using billboards, but I learned that from the business world. It was just natural. So I was just doing what I knew from the business world—that training of just connecting with people.

And once the blessing comes of having a draught of fish, a multitude of fish that you catch, you need management skills to know how to steward that in a proper way, and even be able to organise things for distribution. 

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