Good News - September 2018

BUSINESS 18 SEPTEMBER 2018 Good News • South Florida Edition When you think of leadership, you need not look further than South Florida’s Pastor Bill Mitchell, who has firmly established Bo- caLead , LauderdaleLead and now MiamiLead , bringing Chris- tian values into the workplace. We had the chance to spend some quality time with Pastor Mitchell at Boca Raton Community Church recently for a sit down question and answer session that reveals how the leadership heart can be presented in a dynamic and en- couraging manner. Good News (GN) - I know you are part of a third generation Boca Raton family. That’s kind of astounding. Bill Mitchell (BM) - My mom’s family came to South Florida in 1842, to Key West. Her father came to the Boca Hotel to work in 1931. I’m third generation on both sides, which is pretty amazing. Both sets of grandparents and parents all grew up and lived within a mile of where we are sitting today. GN - Are there any other places you’ve lived? BM – I lived in Chicago during my college years, while I attended Moody Bible Institute. That’s it. I’ve traveled to almost 100 different countries, but I always seem to come back to Boca Raton. I’m like the loggerhead turtles. They go all over the world and come back and lay their eggs 100 yards from where they were born. GN – How many children do you and your wife Elizabeth have? BM – We had five. We lost one to a heart attack when he was 13. We have four children living here and three grandchildren. GN – You were a businessman for 25 years in real estate. Was it always in real estate? BM – Correct. My grandfather on my dad’s side came to Boca in 1919 and bought about 600 acres of land with his father, who was living in Miami at the time. They started a real estate company called J.C. Mitchell. Then, my father and uncle joined it right after the war, and it became known as J.C. Mitchell and Sons. I joined the business right out of college in 1979 and stayed with it for 16 years. Then I went to Arvida, which was bought by Coldwell Banker. I was in the commercial division and managed Coldwell Banker Commercial for the last few years of that 25-year segment. GN – That leads me to the next question. What was the turning point from being a businessman for 25 years to pastoring this church? BM – Boca Raton Community Church is the church where I grew up. It’s the only church where I’ve been a member. When my wife moved here from Jamaica, she started attending this church as well. We were both seniors in high school when we met and later were married in this church. I was an elder and Sunday School teacher for many years. Because we love to travel, we were very involved in international missions as well. Our children were involved too. We always knew that one day we would transition into full-time ministry. Most people think you can transition at any time once you decide. There really are bridges in your life where transitions happen, and either you take the tran- sition or you don’t. You can’t live on that bridge. We had a new pastor here at our church 15 years ago. I was the chairman of the elder board, and he said, “You know you’ve been talking about becoming a pastor. Why don’t you?” So, I said yes and became an assistant pastor work- ing with small groups and the college ministry. Then, five years into it he left, and the church decided to ask me to be the senior pastor. The transition to full–time ministry from business was almost seamless because we already had a ministry mindset. GN – Were you part-time in real estate while you were assistant pastor? BM – Yes. Maybe it’s better to say I had two full-time jobs. When you’re working for a church, it’s always full time! I still worked in real estate, but no longer as a division head. For about five years, I continued with one foot in each of those worlds. GN – So, BocaLead and LauderdaleLead : Why did you start them? BM – BocaLead was first. LauderdaleLead came four or five years later. Several years into becoming a pastor I realized I was not using any of the gifts I had in business. I was running a church, so I was doing some business in the church in terms of running finances and HR, but I wasn’t impacting the business community that I knew so well. Business is my first language. Theology is my second language, and I just kind of gave up my first language for several years. Then one of our elders, a great businessman who was working for us part- time, said, “Bill you’re not speaking your first language.” And we actually used those words. So I asked, “What can we do?” We got 25 business people to- gether in a room and asked, “What if we did a little lunch and you brought one person?” Twenty-five people all bringing one person was 50 business people. And that was the beginning of what we call BocaLead. Then some of them said, “How about if we buy a table? Instead of one person, what if I brought eight people?” It just kind of mushroomed. GN – In looking over your description it says, “Learn how biblical principles apply in the workplace.” Which people along the way have influenced you with that thought process? A Businessman and Pastor’s Perspective on Leadership Leslie Feldman Good News Publisher Pastor Bill Mitchell speaks at BocaLead. Photo Credit: Boca Raton Community Church (Continued on page 20)