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JACKSON, Tenn. — March 13, 2024 — The story of Barnhart Crane and Rigging is a “journey of generosity” that has resulted in millions of dollars donated to Christian causes, company president and CEO Alan Barnhart told a 51���� audience March 1.

“Greed is one of the choice tools of our enemy,” Barnhart said. “I’m convinced that generosity, and holding what you have with an open hand, breaks the power of greed in your life.”

Barnhart was the keynote speaker for Union’s annual Faith in the Marketplace luncheon, which gives students and local business leaders the opportunity to hear from nationally recognized speakers about the integration of faith and the workplace.

Based in Memphis, Tennessee, Barnhart Crane and Rigging began as a small family business but has grown into a multi-million-dollar operation, with 1,800 employees and offices in 50 cities across the country. Barnhart and his brother took over the business from their parents, and Barnhart has been president and CEO since 1986.

After becoming a Christian through the ministry of YoungLife, Barnhart graduated from the University of Tennessee with an engineering degree and was contemplating a future in ministry. But he decided he was more gifted in the fields of engineering and business than in preaching and writing.

“All of us who are followers of Jesus are in full-time ministry,” he said. “A few of us will get our paycheck from a charity or a church, but all of us should be using our skills full-time in service to God if we’re followers of Jesus.”

He returned home and started working with his parents’ business. About that time, he also began a thorough study of Scripture to see what it taught about business and money. Barnhart came away with two main conclusions: the importance of stewardship and the dangers of wealth.

“Everything I have has come from God,” Barnhart said. “Everything I have belongs to God. I’m not my own. I’ve been bought with a price. … And I need to figure out what God wants me to do with his stuff.”

He became convinced that success in business could be detrimental to his spiritual life if he didn’t have appropriate safeguards in place. When he took charge of the business, he decided from the outset that the company belonged to God. He also put a cap on his lifestyle to break the connection between his income and his consumption.

“If God chooses to prosper the business, we’re not going to see that as a call to increase our lifestyle,” Barnhart said. “Instead, we’re going to see it as an opportunity to use those dollars to help others and to further the kingdom.”

Barnhart said they decided to send out 50 percent of their income to a ministry each year. Their first year in business, they gave away $50,000. That amount increased to $150,000 the next year. The company began growing about 25 percent year for the next 23 years, and Barnhart Crane and Rigging reached a milestone by $1 million each month to Christian causes. This year, Barnhart said they expect to send out $40 million.

By 2008, the company had grown to a value of $250 million. To protect against a hefty tax burden in the event of his or his brother’s death, Barnhart said they gave away 99 percent of the company, transferring it into a charitable trust.

“It just seemed like a natural, logical expression,” he said. “We’d given the company to God when it might not have even survived the first year. God did something amazing with it. At what point along the way should we say, ‘This is mine now’? It didn’t make any sense to us.”

Barnhart said God is not impressed with commas and zeroes, and he has seen the Lord do miracle after miracle in growing the company and allowing them to play a role in his work around the world.

“God has been so good to us to allow us to be part of a fun, growing business and also to allow us to be part of figuring out how to take resources and use them for kingdom purposes,” he said. “God doesn’t need your money. He wants you. He wants all of you. But because he wants you, he wants you to hold everything you have with an open hand. You can’t serve God and money.”