Full of Grace and Truth: How Len Devaisher Leads with Integrated Faith at the Highest Levels of Banking

There's a moment in most executive careers when the pressure of leadership and the pull of faith begin to feel like opposing forces. You feel the tension — be professional or be genuine, strategic or spiritual, pragmatic or prayerful. Most leaders quietly choose one side or the other.

Len Devaisher chose neither. He decided to be fully both.

As President and Chief Operating Officer of MidWestOne, Devaisher has spent decades navigating the complex world of commercial banking — acquisitions, new market expansions, publicly traded company dynamics, and the relentless demands of senior leadership. But woven through every chapter of that career is something you might not expect to find on an executive's resume: three years on the mission field in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, serving with Young Life.

That detour — if you'd even call it that — tells you everything you need to know about how Len Devaisher thinks about the relationship between faith and work.

A Career Built on Unexpected Invitations

Devaisher's path into banking began in 1999, not with a five-year plan, but with a phone call. He was selling HR solutions for ADP, calling on small and mid-sized businesses, when one of his banking contacts said something that changed his trajectory: "We've got a position. You ought to apply."

He declined at first. He liked what he was doing. But he agreed to lunch — and that lunch became the beginning of a career that would take him from business development representative to commercial banker, then into team and market leadership, then to Tanzania, then back to Indiana, then to leading a bank acquisition and expansion into Wisconsin, and finally to MidWestOne six years ago as its top operating officer.

Now, as MidWestOne moves into a new chapter through its partnership with Nicolet, Devaisher is preparing for his own next chapter — stepping forward from a career defined not by titles, but by intentional integration of who he is and what he believes.

Faith as Character, Not Compartment

When asked how he intentionally lives out his faith in the context of his work, Devaisher doesn't reach for a formula. He reaches for something deeper.

"We know what Jesus is doing in and for and through us includes how He is changing us. I fundamentally think about it — it should be integrated by my character, which is still a work in process as He continues to shape me more and more."

That character, he says, shows up most visibly in how he treats people. "I believe that folks perceive with remarkable accuracy if we genuinely care for them," he says. "The first thing that happens as Jesus followers is thinking about how do we show genuine care. And I think that starts with listening to folks and making it more about them than about us."

As a leader in a publicly traded company operating in a diverse, progressive college town, Devaisher has learned to be both authentic and wise about how his faith surfaces at work. One practice stands out: he quotes scripture without attributing it.

"The people who know, know. And that creates opportunities for engagement. And those who don't — it just sounds like a lot of wisdom. Because it is."

It's not evasion. It's discernment. And it's opened more doors than a direct approach often would.

The Toughest Calls Require the Deepest Roots

Senior leadership in a publicly traded bank means navigating decisions that can't always be neatly resolved by chapter and verse. Devaisher is candid about that. When DEI initiatives were at their most intense and colleagues were debating whether pronouns should be required in email signatures, he had to find a middle way that honored both his convictions and his responsibility to lead an inclusive workplace.

The solution: make it optional, not mandatory. It wasn't a grand stand or a retreat. It was the kind of quiet, principled leadership that doesn't make headlines but makes culture.

But more than any single policy decision, Devaisher points to prayer and humility as the foundation of his decision-making framework.

"I'm absolutely dependent on the Holy Spirit to guide, and I want Him to inform my decisions. And there's a natural humility — not performative, but real. If we know about our own shortcomings, our own inadequacies, that we are only made whole and right because of what Jesus has done and not because of what we have done, then that humility really helps shape how we approach the decision-making process."

Faith and work, he insists, are not in conflict. "The spiritual disciplines of what we do to grow our relationship with the Lord change our character, and then we bring our character to our work. That's our calling."

Servant Leadership Means Turning Tables, Not Just Towels

"Servant leadership" has become so common in business culture that it risks losing its teeth. Devaisher is quick to reclaim the term — and its source.

"We all know who the original author and exemplar of servant leadership was," he says. "We've got the inside track."

But his understanding of Jesus as the model goes beyond the image of gentle humility. He points to the full picture of Christ in the Gospels — tender with the broken, unflinching with the corrupt.

"Jesus knew when it was time to be very tender and gentle, and He knew when it was time to turn over tables. And He did both. That discernment — what does this situation call for, what does this person need — that's what servant leadership is really all about."

And then there's the insight that stopped him in his tracks recently — one that reframed something he'd assumed for years. He'd always thought about grace and truth as needing to be held in balance. Then a new lens shifted everything.

"Jesus didn't have a balance of grace and truth. He was full of grace and full of truth — just in the same way that He was fully God and fully man. There was no diminishment or trade-off or compromise between the two. And that is fundamentally what we're called to be and do as well."

Not half grace, half truth. Fully both. The same integration he lives in his career.

Three Practices for the Leader Who Wants More Than Balance

When asked what he'd say to Christian business leaders who feel the strain between faith and professional life, Devaisher offers not platitudes, but a practical framework rooted in lived experience.

First, receive the grace that's already been given. "Whatever we think about the ways that we haven't lived up to who we were created to become, we are not out of His reach of grace. We start where we are, and He is ready to start right now."

Second, be deliberate about spiritual growth. "We don't drift into discipleship. There's not a default mode. It requires us to be planful and self-sacrificing and deliberate and persevering." The spiritual disciplines aren't a personal luxury. They're what forms the character you bring to your team on Monday morning.

Third, build real Christian community. Devaisher has standing phone calls every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning with close friends scattered across Indiana and Kentucky. Friends from different seasons of life, different cities, united by a simple commitment: to pray together and be real with one another.

"Instead of saying, 'Hey, we ought to stay connected,' we made a plan. We get on the phone and we pray together. And that's been invaluable to me — as a husband, as a father, and as a leader in the workplace."

When you invest in those things, he says, the integration takes care of itself. A better husband becomes a better leader. A man rooted in prayer makes better decisions under pressure. There is no separation because there was never meant to be one.

Still Being Worked On

As the conversation closes, Devaisher circles back to something simple — a children's song from Sunday school that he says captures his theology better than most sermons.

"It took Him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. But how loving and patient He must be, because He's still working on me."

For a man who has led banks, moved his family across the world, and navigated the highest levels of corporate leadership — that lyric is not a concession. It's an anchor. It's the confession of someone who knows that the most important work happening in his life isn't on any balance sheet.

It's the ongoing, patient, unstoppable work of a God who hasn't given up on making him more.

And that, Len Devaisher would tell you, is the best thing you can bring to work.