Sorry to all the Walmart haters, but I have always admired Sam Walton. The guy was a true American entrepreneur and a great success story. For me his greatest success was not his billions of dollars or his stores in every state in the country. For me Sam Walton was a success because of things much greater than these.

We took some time to visit his first store in Bentonville, Arkansas called Walton’s Five and Dime. Sam and his brother Bud started in this little storefront with a basic philosophy that stuck with Sam until the day he died. He wanted to be a successful businessman, sure, but he wanted to do something much more important than that. He wanted to help people live better by lowering the cost of living for them. This, and not making a ton of cash, was his driving force. He preached it over and over again to his employees from top to bottom.

The first store in Bentonville has a nice little museum which not only tells the history of Walmart, but more importantly the story of Sam Walton. His 1977 Ford pickup is on display, the same truck he drove for most his successful years. Sam Walton was not a pretentious rich man. He tried to stay a normal and humble guy who could relate to the needs of his employees and customers. He was also one of the first businessmen who would step into an area hit by tragedy and LOWER prices in that city or town. Until then the practice had been to raise prices because commodities would be scarcer. Sam Walton did things with the average person, and not the bottom line, in mind.

Today, Walmart is run by a slick CEO in Armani suits who talks about Walmart being a good citizen. Like Walt Disney, several of Sam Walton’s ideas still pervade the culture of his company long after he is gone. Today when you walk into most Walmarts, someone is there to greet you with a smile, thanks to Sam Walton. Walmart still donates goods and lowers prices in areas hit by tragedy, a practice several other companies have adopted. Still Walmart is not quite the same as image and press have begun to take center stage over the core values of lower prices and good customer service.

Sam Walton's 1977 Pickup truck

Watching the movie at the museum helped us see this in a perfect light. The first part of the movie was all about Sam Walton, his life, family and philosophy. The second half was shots of the CEO in front of a huge screen giving a pep-rally style speech to a bunch of share-holders. I am sure that the production team of this little movie did not intend to make it a study in contrasts, but the contrasts are easy to spot if you think about the differences between today’s leader and yesterday’s founders.

While this may be a common occurrence with companies and corporations, I think it speaks to something greater in society. As much as we fight against it, today’s culture has become almost exclusively about image projection and image management. From football coaches to politicians, from meteorologists to energy companies and from movie stars to theme parks, you’re image is what counts. Never mind that a $1 cup of coffee at Place B tastes better than a $5 cup of coffee at Place A. If the cult of cool says Place A has the better image, this is where the bulk of us buy our coffee!

Sam Walton's office

And yes, this image obsession has found its way into the church. Today we think more about how a pastor looks than what he says. We worry more about the style of music than the message. We want to know if the ambiance is cool more than if the Holy Spirit is welcome. And yes, even in children’s ministry we spend a whole lot of money, energy and time creating the right look, especially compared to the amount of time we spend making sure the message is timely and truthful.

I know we have to think some on these things. I also confess I spent way too much time thinking on these things. Let me challenge church leaders to honestly ask yourself what percentage of your time, meetings, conversations, budgets and creativity goes into crafting the right image for your ministry through your websites, ambiance, communication pieces and even how you dress and compare that with the amount of time you spend in prayer, study and pastoring people. For me I came to a point that I realized my calling was to lift Christ up and give a balance of truth and love to kids and families in my church. We could all use a reminder of this from time to time.