From Stage Four Cancer to a Painting Business: Fred Bays on Stewarding What God Gives

Fred Bays had spent 25 years in ministry when he heard the number: a 20% chance to live past five years.

It was 2011. He had planted a church in Fishers, Indiana, in 1999 and led it for about 13 years. Now he had stage four malignant melanoma. The treatment was brutal, and what followed was something he never saw coming.

The Season Nobody Plans For

"I went through a lot of depression because of the treatment," Fred says. He had to step away from the church he built. "I really felt like I failed God, failed my people, and didn't have a job."

The cancer was only part of the weight. Panic attacks arrived, something he had never experienced. He pulled back from people and became, in his words, recluse and afraid. "It really altered my personality."

He didn't pray his way around the problem or tough it out alone. He did both the spiritual work and the practical work. He studied how the brain works and found that much of what he learned confirmed truths he already knew in Scripture. He also saw a counselor and a psychologist, and took medication. Over about two years, he rebuilt his mind.

Many leaders think faith and professional help are rivals. Fred's recovery says otherwise. God worked through all of it.

A Wife's Suggestion and a $100,000 Surprise

Fred's education degree opened a door, and he began teaching fourth grade. It meant a massive pay cut, right when his kids were nearing college and marriage. One day his wife suggested he paint, since it had been his high school and college job.

He was about 45 and didn't want to do it. He started anyway, running a residential painting business on the side while he taught. He bid jobs on his breaks, texted his crew and checked their work afterward.

Year one brought $100,000 in revenue, enough to cover the pay cut and a daughter's wedding. Year two brought another $100,000, and he realized he had a viable business. He decided to double it, and he did. Within a couple more years it reached $400,000, and he left teaching.

"Then I realized I love business," he says. The selling, the building and the people fit his entrepreneurial, evangelistic wiring. He credits his wife of 34 years with more than the idea. "She was a rock when I went through the depression."

The Same Principles, a Different Platform

As the business grew, other owners started asking how he'd done it. Fred admitted he wasn't sure at first. Then he saw the pattern. "The same principles that I used to build a church, I used to build a business."

That became Principled Success. He still runs the painting company, and he also speaks and coaches. His message is that God's principles shape our relationships, money, influence and work. We either point that success back to God or take the credit ourselves.

"We are spiritual beings that happen to be in a physical body for a little bit."

For Fred, a Spirit-led decision starts with slowing down enough to remember that everything we have is a gift. He believes we are always led by one of two spirits, and he wants leaders to stay alert to which one.

Rivers, Not Ponds

Fred often returns to Jesus' parable of the talents. A master leaves, entrusts resources to three servants and returns to settle accounts. Two servants double what they were given. The third buries his out of fear.

Fred notes that the master didn't compare the servant with two bags to the one with five. "God cares about what we do with this life and with the blessings and resources we're given."

He is blunt about two opposite mistakes. Business people forget that God is the source of their success. Church people sometimes condemn success, which Fred suspects often comes from jealousy.

"It's not just so I can enjoy it, like for my own little pond here in the cul-de-sac, it's to be a river. Let him bless others through me."

Seeing the Wiring in People

Fred uses DISC assessments to help teams understand how they're wired. He once trained the lead team of a music therapy business that had grown from one therapist with a guitar into a million-dollar organization with 17 therapists.

The founder was still tangled in nearly every daily task. The training gave her team language for their differences, and the "oh, that's why you frustrate me" moments became grace. They realized they needed to free her to focus on vision. Within four months, the team had taken on 200 new clients and added four therapists. The founder was more energized than she had been in years.

His time in the classroom shaped the same instinct. As a kid, Fred didn't fit the school mold. As a teacher, he went looking for the students who didn't either. He built a Shark Tank-style unit where fourth graders developed businesses, and it grew into an event with 800 people, including the state superintendent of schools. The program kept going for about five years after he left.

He points to the idea that "teach" can mean both to instill in and to draw out. "It's very easy to just get caught in information," he says. "God wants transformation."

What He'd Tell Leaders Starting Out

Fred's years supporting new owners at Flagship Enterprise Center taught him two things. Owners need connection with other owners, because starting a business is lonely and you can't tell your employees everything. They also need a foundation, especially in managing finances, because "we don't know what we don't know."

His advice on faith is simple. Sometimes moving forward is the faith. "Have the vision, have the faith, but then just be in the moment and do the next step," even when you feel insecure or weak.

His advice on leadership comes from planting a church in 1999, when few people knew how and even his pastor father wondered what he was doing. Leaders have to go first and see what others don't. But they also need a few older, wiser people who believe in them. "I wish I had more of that when I was younger."

Finishing Well

When asked whose life shows results that last, Fred points first to Jesus, who kept his heart pure and his mission focused on others. He poured his life into a few followers, and the local church still stands because of it.

Fred believes finishing well comes down to two things. The first is knowing why God put you here. His call is to reach the northeast side of Indianapolis for Christ, and it has shown up in a church plant, a classroom and a painting business. The second is loving your family well. Loving your wife well is the most important relationship in life. Then your relationship with your kids is next.

"The influence we have with the people closest to us is the greatest impact we have."

He talks most weeks with his three adult kids, now 30, 28 and 24, about what they're learning and how their faith is growing. To him, that matters more than any revenue number.

Monday Morning

Fred's story offers a few things to try this week:

Name what you've been given. List the gifts, resources and influence God has entrusted to you. Then ask whether you're using them like a river or keeping them in a pond.

Find your people. Reach out to one owner who understands the pressure, and to one older, wiser believer who can walk with you through the unknown.

Know your wiring. Put yourself and your team in roles that fit how God made you. As Fred puts it, life is hard enough without working against your own design.

Take the next step. If the results haven't matched the vision, you don't need more faith to start. You need to move forward anyway.

Fred's closing word for fellow believers in business is short. "You're not alone. Everything you do is making an impact in this world for good. You never know the impact you're making, so just stay faithful."