The Greens Story

In 1970, David Green borrowed $600 and started assembling picture frames in his garage. What he and his son Steve built from that is now the largest privately owned arts-and-crafts retailer in the world. And they’ve run it like they believe every word of what they say about God owning it.

Steve Green, who later took over as president , says it plainly: “This is God’s business. We are only stewards of what God has entrusted to us.” That could sound like a talking point. Here’s what makes it real.

Hobby Lobby closes every store on Sundays forgoing an estimated $100 million in annual sales to give employees a genuine day of rest. In the retail industry, that’s almost unheard of. It’s also expensive. They did it anyway.

On wages, Hobby Lobby raised its full-time minium wage twelve times over thirteen years, eventually reaching $18.50 an hour for full-time workers well above competitors who hug the legal floor. The reason is theological too. Steve talks openly about servant leadership, about the greatest leaders being there to serve those they lead. That’s not HR language. That’s the Sermon on the Mount applied to compensation.

And then there’s the giving. The company tithes half its profits to philanthropic and ministry causes. Steve has said it directly: “I want this company as big and as profitable as it’s going to be because half of its profits are going to mission efforts.” The growth isn’t personal ambition it’s a multiplier for what they believe God called them to fund.

That funding helped build the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C., wuch is a 430,000-square-foot institution three blocks from the U.S. Capitol, housing one of the world’s most significant biblical artifact collections. A $500 million act of public witness.

Hobby Lobby has real controversies worth honest conversation. But what the Greens represent is a decades-long attempt to build a company that costs them something, and answers to something higher than the bottom line.