Connect Live @ Adventist Health | October 14, 2021
Story 51

Joyce:

How do we talk two and with each other? How do we maybe do less telling? Because communication isn't just about sharing information. It's a two-way street. How do we ask more questions?

Joyce:

Welcome to Connect Live at Adventist Health. I'm Joyce Newmyer, the Chief Culture Officer here at Adventist Health and your host for Connect Live. Live this week, we are going to be talking about COVID in Africa, money and mission, and typical Alex style. COVID in Africa, our global missions team under the leadership of John Schor with the office of mission, arranged for six containers filled with medical supplies from Adventist Health to go to Africa, directly serving Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, Uganda, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Adventist Health is partnering with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency on this project, as well as other COVID-19 relief measures around the world. They're planning on a second shipment to Africa in February of next year. So congratulations to the team that is helping make a difference clear on the other side of the world. Today, I'm delighted to welcome our guests, Alex Bryan and Todd Hofheins.

Joyce:

Thank you, gentlemen, for joining me. Alex is the Chief Mission Officer for Adventist Health. Todd is the Chief Finance Officer for Adventist Health. And I've really been looking forward to this conversation. We're going to be talking about money and mission or mission and money. So a physician recently said to me that it seems like I'm focusing too much on money rather than mission. I pointed out to him that the only reason we focus on money is to enable and fuel mission. So here's a question for both of you. How do you respond to critics who turn mission and money into an either or argument instead of both end?

Todd:

Joyce, I think as the separation or the either or is one that we run into a lot, I think. And even when we get into the money fuels mission or mission is what proceeds, I think it misses the point of we are there to serve the communities. And it is part of just thoughtfulness and sustainability and stewardship, I think, over the last several years. Even the word stewardship, we've lost our way with that it becomes something we have to constrain, or we have to overly restrict. And I think it really is we have a great amount of resources available to us. And how do we best utilize these resources to serve our communities? And how do we engage others to do that? At the strategy summit, we had a lot of conversation about and, and I really think it is an and conversation. How do we do these things together as we think through it? I am puzzled by the either or, and I think it is an and strategy as we work through those conversations.

Joyce:

Thanks, Todd. Couldn't agree more. Alex, do you have thoughts on that one?

Alex:

Yeah, I think Todd hit the nail absolutely on the head. I don't know, Joyce, what people expect when there's a subject like mission and money. If Todd and I are supposed to show up with boxing gloves, if the two of us are going to be at some kind of a fight. I think the problem is this. I think the two should, in fact, not ever be thought of as intention. So I'm going to bring a little bit of a Alex drawing here to share with you. This is what I think is the problem is we put money and mission on par with one another, and we say, "Well, there's this tug of war between these two ideas that are coequal." And I want to put a big on that. I think we should stop thinking that way. I don't know. Should it be more margin or more money? And how does that relate to our mission? I think that that's completely wrong.

Alex:

This is the way it should be right here. Mission is what drives everything. Mission, in the case of our company, is God, is our ethics, our values. It's everything we care most deeply about, and mission drives how we think about money. So what do we think about? Well, austerity sometimes, stewardship, frugality, generosity, careful management, thinking not only about what we want today, but making sure we're set up for tomorrow and 10 years from now. So I think that we should always think of money as being under the authority of mission. And Todd leads this way. And then, mission just sorts out the way we think about money. So I've never seen the two intention. And I think this way of thinking changes things.

Todd:

Alex, you bring up a great point. And you could see my anxiousness to jump in. I think we have made the whole idea of mission too small. We talk about mission as if it is mission and community, that community benefit defines mission, or mission is as small as community benefit. And I think what you're highlighting is, is mission is much bigger than that. Mission is serving our communities in so many different ways. It's engaging people in different ways about what we believe and the values that we bring. And so, I think that broader definition, that broader thought about what mission is can help us change the dialogue that mission doesn't rely on money to serve it. Mission exists, period, end. And money or resources are just part of what helps fuel it and carries it forward.

Joyce:

So I love that. Both of you. Todd, let's expand on that just a minute. So why does so many health systems, not just health systems, but that's what we're talking about now, operate from perspectives of scarcity instead of abundance? And how do we live into the true meaning of abundance and not just some pop culture meaning of abundance?

Todd:

Yeah. Great question. And I think in the question, you partly started to answer it as it relates to perspective or mindset. Every place I've ever been, and I'll use an example of a process that's there, is we talk about what do we need for capital expenditures in the next year. And almost every place I've ever been the desires or the list are three times our capital capacity. And I think our focus becomes on, "Okay, so what don't we do?" And the reality is we have an abundance of resources. Every year, we get $4.8 billion of revenue flowing through our system. We have 37,000 people dedicated to our mission, serving our mission, serving our communities. We have 23 hospitals. We have hundreds of clinics. If that's not abundance, I don't know what is. We spend $200 million every year on capital.

Todd:

We have an abundance of resources. We have people, and assets, and capabilities to carry forward the mission. And I am saddened by the focus is sometimes, well, I couldn't do this one thing, or I didn't get to do this, or we didn't get to do this, rather than what is it we want to do? What are those most important things to do? What is the greatest need and how do we put those resources to that? And I think part of, as leaders, what I hope we can move to is say we've got a lot of things that are available to us, a lot of resources that are available to us, and we have great communities. How do we put those to use there? And I would suggest is as we turn to a focus of abundance, we will find other resources. We will find other constituencies, churches, schools that want to participate with us, donors that want to participate with us.

Todd:

I think that a perspective of abundance brings more because people want to be part of it. It doesn't change stewardship, which I don't think is a restriction. I think it is really where the word comes from. It is a steward of the resources to make sure they're put forward in the best way. It really comes down to, and Alex can speak to this much better than I could, the story of Jesus and the fishes and the loaves. I mean, it was there. It was what was needed, was available to the multitudes to serve. And I really think that that focus on abundance, and it's not recklessness, it's not reckless abandon if we can spend on anything, but it is recognizing we have a lot of skills, and capabilities, and people, and resources available to us. How can we better serve our communities with that?

Joyce:

Yeah. Beautiful thoughts. So, Alex, as a faith leader at Adventist Health, what are these concepts of stewardship and abundance mean to you, and what council do you have for us about how to view these concepts in light of our mission?

Alex:

Yeah. So again, Todd, just brilliant touching, I think, all the relevant points. I think on the issue of abundance, one, it's trusting that indeed God will provide everything that's needed to take care of the mission at hand. Now, I do think it's important to know, that doesn't mean that my little project or Adventist Health, there's not for profit companies that do extremely well and there's others that go out of business. So I wouldn't want to pin on God, well, God smiles on those that are financially just blowing it out of the water and not smiling on those that are struggling. So I think we have to be careful with that, but I do believe that God always will provide everything that's necessary for what he's calling us and asking us to do.

Alex:

And I think that you have a lot of testimony to that fact from people, generation after generation who have put confidence in God, in what they're up to. So stewardship, Joyce, I would just add, I think stewardship is ultimately just whether it's at Adventist Health, a large corporation, or whether it's in our homes, stewardship's about caring for the resources in front of us so that we can love people better, period. Stewardship's about caring for the resources in front of us so we can love people better. And that's the way I see it.

Joyce:

Thank you to both of you for joining us to talk about mission and money. It's the and, right? So thanks for being here and engaging in this wonderful conversation. Our final story today is typical Alex style. Not Alex Bryan. It's a different Alex. On April 18, 2021, when Alex Pamintuan's heart stopped beating, the hearts of his friends and colleagues broke. Alex was the Administrative Director for Cardiac Services for Adventist Health, Bakersfield. And the love that he had for his colleagues and his patients was palpable.

Joyce:

August 31st, 2021 was dubbed Alex Day by the team he once led. And on that day, the first artist cube biplane procedure took place in cath lab one, an opportunity for which Alex worked diligently. Soon, additional diagnostic and emergent cases for neurology will use the biplane system as well. To honor Alex and the first procedure, his team wore matching Argyle socks, which they described as typical Alex style. Alex, you'll be missed by all of us. You can read his story and many others at adventisthealth.org/story. Friends, thank you for connecting live. We'll see you here again next week. And until then, let's be a force for good.