Inaugural Armes summit equips Christian leaders in business

Last week, business leaders and business researchers came together at Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business to dive into an important topic. They weren’t there to discuss revenue or industry disruptions; instead, they came to talk about faith — specifically, what it means to be a Christian leader in the workplace.

Over parts of two days, businesspeople of all levels took part in the first-ever Armes Family Christian Leadership in Business Summit, which featured presentations from a series of keynote speakers along with interactive panel discussions on the integration of faith and topics like innovation, inclusion, and ethics. Held May 16-17 inside Baylor’s Foster Campus for Business and Innovation, the event brought together CEOs, founders, leading researchers and others to talk about living out one’s faith in the workplace.

Featured speakers included Baylor alumni, BU faculty, and experts from outside the Baylor family. In a keynote speech, Loyola University business chair Elisabeth Kincaid captured a key part of the heart of the summit: analyzing identity and the pursuit of goals and true success.

“If work is part of our identity and is part of us becoming like Jesus, the failures at work and how we change and grow through that are also what’s going to make us more like Jesus,” said Dr. Kincaid, who coincidentally will begin work soon as director of Baylor’s Institute for Faith and Learning. “Just seeing this as part of our journey to Christlikeness, as opposed to a journey to success, is really key to reorienting our drive away from the numbers.”

Baylor alums Joseph (BBA ’83, MBA ’84) and Kelly (BBA ’84) Armes provided the support to start this annual event, which builds on three main Scripture-based goals — aiming for attendees to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14), fulfill their calling as ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), and grow as servant leaders (Mark 10:42-45).

This integration of topics is a meaningful fit for the Hankamer School of Business.

“At Hankamer and at Baylor, we do not believe in a secular-sacred divide,” says Dr. Sandeep Mazumder, Hankamer’s William E. Crenshaw Endowed Dean. “We want to bring all of ourselves to the study of whatever it is that we’re doing, whether it’s business or outside of business as well. And our faith and our spirituality are part of who we are… We think you can be a Christian entrepreneur, you can be a Christian finance person, you can be a Christian information systems analyst. We’ve found there’s a hunger out there to talk through the challenges we face with others, and we want to provide spaces to have these discussions.”

Sic ’em, Armes Family Christian Leadership in Business Summit!