Kemmons Wilson Jr: Business Is Important, But It’s #6 On The List!

And we continue with our American Stories and with our Faith in Action series, where we tell stories about how people of faith live it out in the public square. Today’s story comes from a business and community leader in Memphis, Tennessee, named Kemmens Wilson Jr. And we broadcast from Oxford, Mississippi, about an hour due south from the great city of Memphis. Kemmens has previously shared the great story of his dad founding Holiday Inn, which you can hear at OurAmericanStories.com, and today Kevin shares his own story. My faith walk really was. I didn’t come to the Lord until I was like thirty years old. I had been asked four or five times to get into a Bible study with some young guys my age at the time, and I was always too busy, and I really wasn’t avoiding him. I didn’t particularly want to do it. It was early in the morning, so I wouldn’t have missed anything. But, but we really did have a lot going on with five kids in a business. And finally, they asked me a fifth time, and I said this is over, of course—maybe three years. I said, “Yeah, I’ll do it,” and so I go to that Bible study, and believe it or not, that was a long, long time ago. Those same guys or meeting. We met this morning at 7:30. So I’ve got fifty-five-year history with the same guys. It really is amazing. And we’ve, we’ve held together, and it’s, uh, John Stimmler, Ron Hickman, Ricken Moore, Rick Collins, and Fred Schaeffer was there. Fred Schaeffer died, but every Thursday morning, and we started out, and we still do it where someone hosts the meeting every week; and if it’s at my house, then I’m responsible to fix breakfasts for everyone, and then we would go in and do some sort of a Bible study. And now we’ve gotten so old that all we do is talk about sports and politics and, you know, el months. But every time we’ve ever met, the last thing we do is ask for prayer requests, you know. So, so I know five guys are praying for me every week, whatever that situation is, and m, and, you know, you obviously, the trust is built up. You know, they say they’re nine layers of trust. First layers: Everything’s great. I don’t have a problem, and I don’t need any advice. And there seven other layers of trust, and the last layer is: I got a problem, it’s my fault, and usment advice. Well, when you get your group to go to that level, you know, you’re, you’re kind of home free. I mean, in a sense that, you know, everybody needs a truth teller, and a truth teller is someone who’ll tell you the truth no matter what the consequences are. You know, they’re willing to risk the whole relationship. And in the Christian world, it would be somebody that loves Jesus morning, I love you. And we all need truth tellers in all life. And so I’ve got that group of truth tellers, and I’ve got one other group that started at as a business group, and we’ve probably been meeting forty years. So, this is another kind of support accountability group that I have, I could go to. I mean, these are people where you can go to it, you know, 3:00 in the morning when you screw up, you know, uh, these are the people you call. And now, you know, we’re talking about Asian parents. We’re talking about, you know, kids that are getting in trouble, you know. I mean, you know, it’s just life. It goes back to my comment about, you know, we were so focused on what we thought was important, was all this work. What are you doing? How many? How many companies you bought? Die and die? You know, everybody was, you know, trying to, and they were kind of like your own personal board of directors, but not really. But we, we have got to that ninth layer of trust, you know, to where, you know, I can tell them anything. And that particular group, I mean, we’ve, we’ve saved a divorce—and we didn’t save one, but, uh, you know, it’s such a comfort to know that you’ve got those kind of friends that that are there, you know. I mean, I tell you how special it is. Uh, one of the guys in our group, his son got married, and of course, we went to the wedding, and so, you know, we’re in in Lyne. And, and they said, “Hey!” They were—they said they want you to sit with the family. You know, wanted me sit with their family at the wedding. And, you know, I mean, I’m, you know, that that I, and I try to tell every young guy I meet with, “Whatever you do, try to get in with a group of good, like-minded guys, you know.” I mean, you know, life wasn’t meant to go. This is not a lone ranger of Christian. And I’m able to tell people now, I’m seventy-four years old, that if somebody asked me what’s important in life… You know, I mean, you’re seventy-four years old. I’m on the back nine. I, I’m on like twelve or thirteen, you know. But if they said what’s important, I would say: faith, family, friends, church, community, and business. And if you add those, uh, business comes in number six. I talked to a ton of young guys that I’m delighted to be able to tell them that, to be honest, that wasn’t my priority when I was forty, okay, but it is now. And I wish somebody had told me when I was forty that at the twilight of your life, it is not gonna be by business. You know, business is a, it can be a wonderful success, but it’s a horrible God, you know, and a little g, you know. A man with a full resume usually pays the price, and generally, you know, God and family suffer, just the way it happens. And nobody ever said on their deathbed, “I wish I spent more time at the office.” Everybody says, “I wish I spent more time with my wife than my kids,” every single one of them. So I can bring some perspective potentially to somebody where there are all into business as, you know, this is their life, and they’re trying to get to the next house, to the next second home, and, you know, say, “Hey, this number six.” You know, you know, I’ve just seen too many people sort of crash and burn because I kept reaching for happiness, thinking it comes in the form of, you know, material goods or promotions or, you know, whatever it is. And you’re listening to Kemmens Wilson Jr.’s story, or Faith in Action series, didn’t come and to know the Lord until he was thirty, and it was at the persistence of some friends, three years’ worth of persistence, to finally bring him into this early morning Bible study. And they’ve been at it for fifty-five years. What a spectacular thing. When we come back, more of this remarkable story here on Our American Stories. And we continue with Our American Stories and with the Memphis business and community leader Kemmens Wilson Jr., for our Faith in Action series. Let’s return to Kemmens. And I will, I will say this: I had some guilt in a way that I had been asked on multiple occasions to Brunford elder deacon, and it just didn’t appeal to me. You know, I love to work for or with, maybe, startup ministries, more entrepreneurial kind of things, whether it’s in a session meeting with 40 people or something. I felt a guilt because, I mean, you know, when you first become a Christian, like, “Okay, God, am I supposed to go to China? Or what am I supposed to do?” And I didn’t get an answer. Go to church? They asked me to do this. I just didn’t want to do it. But I felt guilty because I got asked every year, and a little bit of guilt trip, you know, like, “Hey, come on, you know, you’re expected to do this.” And then I was sitting here one day, many, many years ago, with a young guy and just talking about life—his career, his marriage—and I went, “Benga! This is exactly what God wants me to do.” He wants me to be a Christian businessman and try to live, you know, a reflective life of what He represents. And I was kind of released. You know, “Oh my heavens, this is great!” because I, you know, I just felt like, you know, it’s one of those things you go through your life wondering what is God’s will for your life. And I really feel that’s kind of what it was. He didn’t say, “Hey, I don’t want you to go off and start a non-profit. I don’t want you to go to a seminary, don’t you know, chest. Stay where you are, keep as clean as you can, you know, and be available.” Just be available, because they’re going to be plenty of people that will seek you out. So really, what I’ve done, and last fifteen or twenty years of my life, I made a cautious decision to have three focuses. One was discipleship, one was mentoring, and one was stewardship. And if something didn’t fit in those three buckets, I would say no to. At earlier in my life, I said no to nothing. I just said, “Bring it on.” And, and some of it, it’s you had to do. I mean, when you’re young and somebody a little older than you calls and said, “Hey, can, can you help with the United Weight Drive?” Well, man, I bet, you know, I don’t. Okay, you know. And so I’ve kind of gotten to the stage about 20 years ago where I could say no. And the reason I could say no is it, it didn’t fit in those three silos. So, for example, if somebody called and said, “Hey, would you be on the, can I put you off in the country club board?” Zero! It doesn’t fit in a bucket, and those buckets of what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. You know, one of the questions I ask people all the time is, “What are you doing today, night, yesterday?” And I what you’re going to do tomorrow? But what are you doing today that will make an impact or an influence in the next generation? And discipleship will, mentoring WILL, and stewardship will. And I carry out the mentoring. I’m doing that through Nexus, is my sixteenth year to mentor a young person in Memphis. We put young emerging leaders with seasoned business people, and they spend nine months together. And part of that system is you have to ask your protege every week, or every month, twice a month, “What are your plans, and how can I help you?” So it’s all about the protege. I was mentoring a young African American that worked for FedEx, a wonderful guy. So I kept asking him, and all right, “What are your plans, and how can I help you?” Well, his plan was to write a book. I said, “Oh, man,” I said, “I’ve never written a book.” I don’t know, you know. Then I thought, I said, “Look, I know two guys have written books.” So I put him with those two guys, and before our nine months were gone, he wrote a book and gave it to me. It was, I mean, the fabulous kind of a self-help kind of book. Another person I meant toward was Kennon Vaughan. And Kennon Vaughan is now my pastor. I mean, he was sitting at my foot, you know, 15 years ago. Now I’m sitting at his foot, and out of that. When I said, “What are your plans?” His plan was Downline Ministries. And so I explained that to me. “What is that?” He said, “I want to have an institute that teaches people how to be training and equipped people to be disciples.” And really, it’s, it’s, it’s all about fulfilling a Great Commission as Matthew 28:18-20, going make disciples of all nations. You know, all authorities been given to me on heaven and earth, and, you know, baptizing them in the Holy Spirit. And so I guess I had read that verse maybe a couple of hundred times in my life, maybe even closer to a thousand, as old as I am. And looking back, I thought I read it with sincere reverence and understanding, you know, the Great Commission. And when I met Kennon, I realized he really kind of was the first one to confront me about those verses. And I slowly kind of recognized the magnitude and the significance of what was being said. And these were Jesus’s last word to the disciples before we want to be with a father. And to me, that’s kind of huge. That is almost comparable to someone on their deathbed giving you their last request, their last wish while on this earth. So, what would you do with it? I don’t want to have to stand for God and say, you know, “I don’t. I didn’t get this part.” And I said, “All right, well, and I help you.” He said, “If I get it off the ground, would be my chairman.” So I’ve been the chairman of Downline for 16 straight years now, and we didn’t know if anybody had come, because at that time we started at 5:30 in the morning. And lo and behold, by God’s grace, we had people sign up. Now we’ve had three or four thousand people go through. And it’s the Downline. I mean, it’s the theory of down the line. And Kennon would tell the story about, you know, if Billy Graham preached to 5,000 people a day, it would take him 800 years to preach the world. But if I disciple you, and you disciple two more, and you disciple three more, it’ll take thirty-five years, you know. So, just the multiplication of it. And one thing that Bob Buford said that I loved, he said, “This is talking about legacy in a sense.” He said, “Our fruit grows on other people’s trees.” You know, if I pour into you, some of my fruit is going to be on your tree. “Yeah, that’s just the way it is.” And then Ken Blaschet, who’s a good friend, he would always say, “There’s no spiritual retirement.” He said, “Don’t retire, refire,” and that on his teambstone he wants to put, “All used up.” And Bob Buford’s was “100X.” You know, whatever I do, I wanted to multiply 100X. You know, you gotta let those kind of, you know, things sink in. And, you know, I’ve told people decision-wise, “The three most important decisions you’ll ever make or is: who’s your master, who’s your mate? And what is your mission?” And if you can figure those out, I mean, it generally your career marriaging the career of the two biggest decisions you’ll remote. And if you don’t have the right master, it could be a train wreck. It’s kind of like the two most important days of your life: the days day you were born, the day you discover what you were born for. And a special thanks to Joey for the production on the piece, and a special thanks to Alex for bringing us another in a long series we’ve been doing alls from the beginning: our Faith in Action series—how faith animates the lives of so many people in this great country, and how it’s so misunderstood, and it can only be told through stories like this, and men and women that we’ve told. The stories about, “My goodness, God wants me to be a Christian businessman,” a great story. Kevin Wilson Jr.’s story, another of our great Faith in Action stories, here on Our American Stories.