Welcome to Joni and Friends, where I’m with my friend, Billy!
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and I’m grateful that my good friend and co-worker, Billy Burnett, is here with me today. Billy… welcome!
BILLY: Hello, Joni!
JONI: Glad to have you here and I love the way you say “Joni”! It sounds so much like the way my dad used to say my name – Joni, I love that… Joni! Bill, you have served with Joni and Friends for more than 13 years and have held the position of Vice President of Finance and Administration for some time now: Bill, our budgets are accurate and on time largely because of your leadership. We are so grateful for that! But your MBA from Pepperdine University which prepared you for your role at our ministry did not come easy, did it?
BILLY: No, it didn’t come easy, Joni. In fact, I characterize the period of my life that got me here and put it in the group that I call “bumps, bruises, and blessings.” As a kid I grew up in Texarkana in the 50s along that east Texas corridor on the Texas and Arkansas border. My father was a sharecropper and for maybe some of you folks who might not know it, a sharecropper is someone who works the land owned by someone else and plants and brings the crops to harvest and shares in whatever bounty is in that harvest.
JONI: And you grew up in a little cabin on the corner of the Jimmy Lynch farm.
BILLY: I did indeed. It’s on my birth certificate and when I went back and looked at it and there it was. I was born on the Jimmy Lynch farm there on the outskirts of Texarkana, Texas – I sure was. Not only was my father a sharecropper but my family – all 11 of us – we all worked those fields, kind of like itinerant workers – we went wherever the work was… long hours and little pay.
JONI: How did you get from there to here?
BILLY: Well, my mother and father had strong Christian convictions and strong family values and even growing up in an area where you had limited access to education and people told you not to expect much, it was those strong convictions and Christian values that motivated me, they propelled me forward to where I am today. And in fact, I often think that it created a framework for me to motivate me… and Joni, it got me past the hurt of bigotry and bias during those days and how God had made me… it was the fuel that energized me when I thought about what people said – “don’t expect much.” I went on to get three degrees. God blessed me, I got three degrees: technology, engineering, and finally my MBA at Pepperdine that God has used tremendously for me.
JONI: Unbelievable! You know, Billy, our staff volunteers at our ministry love and respect you, and I just bet you have some words of wisdom for men listening today who are in positions of church or business leadership. Any pointers you can give us?
BILLY: Well, Joni, besides the essentials that I call Faith, Focus, Fortitude, and Flexibility… those things are important for any leader. Faith in God, faith in yourself, faith in the people you lead while you have to have focus. Keep your mind on what you are doing… clear vision, clear eyesight, know what’s happening around you. And fortitude; they are all looking at you as a leader. Don’t be shaken, don’t be disturbed and moved by everything that happens around you. And be flexible. That flexibility has served us well here at Joni and Friends: adapting to change and embracing and even shaping change. Those are just important things, but you know the thing that is more important that I have found as a leader here is that as a leader if I treat people like they’re family and they’re friends, they will see the authentic leader and the authentic Jesus in me.
JONI: Friend listening, for your copy of Billy’s story visit my radio page at joniandfriends.org and while you are there, take a minute to watch a video clip of Billy sharing his testimony from a television episode we produced. Billy, thanks for joining us!
BILLY: You’re welcome, Joni.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends