John Rivers has created the most successful barbecue restaurant chain in Central Florida. He employs 1,000 people at the nine locations of 4 Rivers Smokehouse, has published a cookbook and appears frequently on local Christian television. Along with his cooking accolades, he was named a finalist for the 2013 Florida Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Not only is Rivers successful, but he's a strong Christian. The mission and purpose of 4 Rivers Smokehouse is to use "God-given gifts to support the local community." The restaurant's name is inspired by Genesis 2:10, which describes four rivers flowing out from the Garden of Eden to the rest of the world.

Yet before he became famous for his brisket, Rivers was a 20-year veteran of the health care industry and president of a billion-dollar company—but God led him down an entirely different life path.

A Call at Work

Rivers' journey began with an unforgettable call one day on his private line. Since very few people had his number, he expected one of them to be on the call. Instead, he found himself talking to a woman he didn't know.

"I'll never forget that day," Rivers says. "She was crying, and she said to me, 'Mr. Rivers, Mr. Rivers, I am so sorry to hear about your daughter.' My daughter, Cameron, she was in kindergarten at the time. I said, 'What's wrong with Cameron?' And she said, 'Well, her brain tumor, her terminal brain tumor.'"

Surprised, Rivers hung up the phone. After 20 long minutes, he reached his wife, Monica, and confirmed that, in fact, his daughter was fine. Yet he could not forget the mysterious caller. Although he was head of an oncology department, this was the first time Rivers ever realized what it felt like to lose a loved one to cancer.

"I couldn't explain how much it had shaken me," Rivers says. "I told (Monica), 'We're going to find this family, and we're going to pour into them one way or another.'"

He found the family one week later. Oddly, the little girl who was afflicted with brain cancer—Megan—shared almost nothing in common with Cameron. They were not in the same class, the same school or even the same city. The families didn't live in the same neighborhood or even attend the same church. There was no reason Rivers should have been the one to receive that call, but God used the incident to change his life.

The Rivers family gave generously to Megan's family, supplying access to nurses and case managers, free medication and other health care needs. But Rivers realized they weren't addressing the real need; what Megan's family really needed was money. He called her father and offered to send him funds but was turned down. He continued to push and offer help but was denied in no uncertain terms.

After he hung up the phone, Rivers heard God say, "Pick up the phone. Call him back." So he did. He had no clue what he would tell Megan's father, but he had been recently working on his walk with God. Now was the time to put faith into action.

Megan's father picked up, and Rivers pitched the first offer for help he could improvise:

"Let me host a fundraiser for Megan at your church," Rivers says. "We'll do a barbecue. All the money we raise from it can go to her."

Megan's father agreed, and Rivers began preparation for the barbecue. Little did he know that God had been preparing him for this event his entire life.

A Call to Cook

"You have to live your life moving forward, but sometimes you have to look backward to understand your life," Rivers says, reflecting on his life philosophy.

Looking back, he can see how God was preparing him for a special ministry even in his early 20s. After graduating from college, he moved to Texas, where he met the two loves of his life: Monica and brisket. Despite growing up in Florida, he had never tried brisket until he went to Texas—a fact about which he received grief time and again from Monica's cousins. Testosterone flowing, Rivers declared that he would learn how to make brisket and that he would make it better than any Texan.

This proved to be easier said than done. Rivers spent 18 years perfecting his brisket recipe. He flew all over the country for his health care job, and at each location, he would visit a barbecue restaurant—maybe even two or three. He'd meet the restaurant owners, get tours of the kitchen and watch the chefs in action. He recorded episodes of Paula Deen and Emeril Lagasse's TV shows. He'd seize any opportunity to cook for friends and family, whether the event was a football game or a weekend party. His brisket may not have always turned out right, but he had tremendous passion for it.

These 18 years of practice, preparation and passion paid off at the fundraiser for Megan. More than 450 people attended the event, which was everything Rivers hoped it would be:

"We fed a lot of wonderful people," he says. "We raised a lot of money for this beautiful little girl. And I like to joke and say nobody got sick in the process."

When he went to bed that night, he was exhausted. He did, after all, cook brisket for 450 people. But when his wife asked how he was feeling, his response was immediate.

"I'm alive," he says. "I feel great."

The fundraiser made Rivers realize that his true passions were cooking and serving other people; for the first time in his life, he had combined them. Exhilarated, he started organizing more fundraisers for people in his community, always ready to serve alongside his meat smoker. He kept his health care job during the week, never taking a cent from his weekend outreach. He called it his "barbecue ministry."

The tiny seeds God had planted years before began to grow and flourish. Rivers served almost 50,000 people through his barbecue ministry. And then God planted a big idea in his heart: What if he were to do this full time?

A Call for Faith

Rivers sold his company to go into barbecue ministry full time. The next thing he needed was a headquarters building. His garage had served him well to that point; in fact, he had served 40,000 people out of his garage! But for bigger projects, he would need more workspace.

Rivers and his wife bought an old Just Brakes location in Winter Park, Florida, and got a remodeling quote. The contractors told them that restoring the building would take $188,000 and 3 months. Six months later, the couple found themselves with an unfinished building, a half-million dollars in capital sunk into the project and the restoration at a standstill.

This was 2009, and the market collapse had made finances tight for everyone. Rivers realized his family was down to less than 60 days' cash. Everything else was either sunk into the building or invested in the topsy- turvy markets. He trusted God but was starting to grow uneasy.

One day, Rivers' friend offered him a way out of his conundrum with an opportunity to become CEO of a new pharmaceutical business. Rivers had conflicted feelings about the offer even though, he says, it seemed like "an answered prayer."

"It wasn't about following my heart and following a passion and doing something that I absolutely loved for the right reasons of giving back and helping other people. ... As the weekend progressed, as we mulled over the decision, thank goodness for the faith of my wife because ... even though we were 60 days out from not knowing what was going to happen, she said, 'If you believe this is what God has led you to and wants you to do, I'll stand by you and stand by this decision and support it.'"

Despite his cash crisis, Rivers continued to act on faith, refusing his friend's offer. It ended up being the right choice; just two months later, the corporation he would have joined fell apart. Meanwhile, God rewarded Rivers' faith. A Christian contractor who worked with Disney and SeaWorld joined the project and helped him get the first 4 Rivers open in 59 days—one day before his finances ran out.

Furthermore, Dan Cathy, president and CEO of Chick-fil-A, reached out to Rivers and offered his support by creating a pro forma. Cathy told Rivers that if 4 Rivers could make $1,500 per day, then the restaurant would break even. If 4 Rivers could bring in $2,000 per day, the restaurant would do incredibly well.

Opening day came without much hype. Because of the Rivers' tight financial situation, the store had done no publicity or advertising at all. The kitchen could only afford second-hand equipment, which began to break down. The staff gathered that morning and prayed for God's providence, then they opened the doors.

At first, it was just friends and family who showed up to support the new restaurant. Then people who had been touched by Rivers' barbecue ministry started coming. And then even more people dropped by—people Rivers had never met before. Counting the cash drawer later, Rivers was stunned by God's goodness.

"That day we closed at over $3,500 in sales," he says. "By far, by multiple, that is the lowest day we've ever had at the company."

A Call to Serve

4 Rivers Smokehouse has maintained that success for more than six years, but Rivers does not take it for granted. He continues to walk with God through dedicated service to his community.

Within the workplace, Rivers and his staff promote exceptional customer service. He says he intentionally finds and promotes people with hearts for service. His employees can be awarded the coveted "Make Their Day" awards if a customer comments that the staff went out of their way to make the customer feel good. According to Rivers, that's not a rare achievement as they "get stories almost every day from all the different locations."

"They might mention the food, but they're talking about how they were treated," he says. "They're talking about something that happened during their visit that made it an exceptional experience (in which) they felt special."

That care and attention extends not only to people within the restaurants, but to the broader community. Twice a year, 4 Rivers' staff—and sometimes their family and friends—celebrate Serve Day. Each location chooses a charity and volunteers there for a half-day. Most recently, the staff went to Second Harvest Food Bank and packed 40,000 pounds of potatoes.

Rivers believes the experience not only serves these organizations but also grows the staff:

"What I love is the blessing that our team gets back," he says. "Because a lot of these folks have never gone to the Coalition for the Homeless, they didn't realize that it's not just people on the side of the road. They're also learning about what's happening around us and how much need there really is."

Though 4 Rivers is successful, Rivers still views each restaurant as a ministry. He keeps the same principle he did during his barbecue ministry days, pouring profits back into the community. In 2014 alone, 4 Rivers donated to nearly 500 different organizations around the world.

Rivers encourages other business leaders to be sensitive to God's voice and to trust Him—whether it requires crazy leaps of faith or continued faithfulness in an existing calling: "Use wherever you're at as a platform to teach people about God's love. ... Never underestimate the impact that your actions and your words can have on all the people around you."  

Taylor Berglund is assistant online editor at Charisma Media.

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