Welcome back to the Christianity and Business Podcast, an initiative of the RTW Dummy College of Business at Houston Baptist University. I'm your host, Darren Sheer, and this is the show that helps Christian business leaders integrate biblical values into business. And on this episode, we're joined by Dr. Lenny Peters. And Dr. Peters is renowned in North Carolina and beyond as the founder of a revolutionary medical network, a bank for the underserved, a cutting-edge research facility, and a world-class charity foundation, as well as being an accomplished caring physician. In 1987, he founded the Bethany Medical Center in High Point, North Carolina, which has grown from a single clinic to the largest independent medical group in the state with 65 healthcare providers and 550 employees serving a thousand patients from all walks of life. And he's also the founder and CEO of Peters Medical Research and Peter's Development, and served as the founding director of the Bank of North Carolina, later becoming part of Pinnacle Bank and his charitable organization, the Lenny Peters Foundation, provides grants or donations to needy individuals in the Piedmont Triad and many other worthy causes in the U.S. and around the world. And his new book is just now releasing, titled Barefoot to Benefactor: My Life Story of Faith and Courage. Dr. Peters, thanks for joining us. Welcome to the show. So when did you first realize God wanted to be involved in your profession?
SPEAKER_02So I am a Christian from South India. That's a big part of my life. I'm driven by my faith. So as you know, uh there are there's uh less than 5% uh in India are Christians. Uh vast majority are Hindus, but Christianity came to India very early, over 2,000 years ago. So that's a not a well-known fact. So part of the reason I wrote my book, Barefoot to Benefactor, is also to bring the history of Christianity in India. I want to put that in print. Um St. Thomas, Disciple of Christ, was the disciple for the East, uh, started our church AD 20. So we've been um Christians for that long. Uh, but over the last 400, 500 years or so, uh, Europeans started coming there, and uh we had more Christians uh developed. So my faith comes from my my family. We are uh very poor. Um uh I was born and raised in a small village with no running water or electricity. My mother was a very devout uh Catholic Christian. Um and she wanted to be a nun, um, but her father would not allow, and that's why uh she had uh her three children. So uh her faith was very deep. Um, but we are over the years, we are not um that that Catholic faith is not that uh not not the only um driving force. We um I I have um chosen Presbyterian Church, and and you know for me that that was a non-denominational uh approach. So my faith started very young uh in my early years. Um and um it was uh based on uh her my mom's uh desire to pray Saturday and Sunday and take uh us as young. I was the youngest of the three, all three children to to church. So that uh um instilled in me um a faith that took me uh through four continents. So uh I was um um blessed to be able to go to pre-med um at age 14. I packed my bags and left uh my village um uh at age 14 and went to the city uh with much older uh students um and finished med school very early.
SPEAKER_01They would have made a TV show about you in uh the United States called uh Doogie Hauser, uh the child doctor.
SPEAKER_02Um so that that's how uh my faith evolved.
SPEAKER_01And so with all the you started uh this the the medical clinic and network, uh a bank, um how do you uh how do you incorporate biblical principles into the into the work you do?
SPEAKER_02I always followed a principle where promise less and deliver more, and always uh be caring and compassionate in everything that we do. Um it was uh very important to me to know that we cannot take anything with us. So we are custodians of our talents as well as wealth for a period of time. So do good with what we have. Um so it has never been a priority goal to create wealth. The wealth was important to do good things with it. Uh, when opportunities came, um I I took it. I was an I'm an entrepreneur by by instinct, I'm a healer by my DNA. Um, and I had this inspiration uh to start a uh largest um multi-specialty healthcare provider um entity uh in North Carolina. Um and I wanted to include everyone. Um so we were one of the earliest ones to take um Medicaid population. Um so when I named my clinic back in 1987, I called it Bethany. Bethany comes from the Bible, where Mertha, Mary, and Lazarus lived. There were three different types of people united by their love for fellow human beings as well as uh their villagers and for Jesus. So I picked that name uh and took an emblem, which is a door. Our emblem for our company is a door, meaning anyone can come through the door, and then we're all united for uh our love and care for our fellow human beings. So that's where Bethany comes from. Uh and um I so from the very start, I incorporated principles in the Bible, principles related to Jesus into um into work. And then came the opportunity to start a commercial bank that helps everyone um in the rural population. Um, we actually started that uh bank in a double what double wide trailer the first uh month because we didn't have um time to to build the bank building. When the then we took that to Nasdaq and publicly traded in 68 cities and three states. Um, and now with Pinnacle, now we are four state bank. So when all of those uh happening, I also wanted to start my foundation to help people. Mostly um my desire to help uh poor people in India because I felt there was a reason I was born in India. Um, so I have uh a reason to help them. There's 1.3 billion people. I don't need to go search around the world for poor people. There are many here in the United States, there are a lot of homeless people. So I said to myself, we'll do something, a helping hand here at home and around the world. So instead of looking at other areas, I know India, South India very well. I know I can make an impact. I I have a lot of influence, and it's very difficult to promote Christianity in India because 70% are Hindus and all the government are controlled by Hindus. It's a Hindu party who is ruling India right now. So it's it's not that easy, especially if you're a foreigner. But because of my roots, um, I found an opportunity where orphaned children, uh, we can take them and raise them in a Christian environment. No one can question that. We are not asking them to become Christians because it's illegal to make a child a Christian before they are 18 years old or any change the religion. We go to jail. So, but you can raise them in a Christian environment. And age 18, you can ask them to choose. Of course, they've been raised in Christian faith, so they all become Christians. So it's a good way of uh helping poor people as well as helping my faith.
SPEAKER_01So they're not allowed to profess Christianity until they're 18 under any circumstances, even if it's just uh if they were orphan and they they didn't have um like they were literally just running living on the streets, had no outside influence. If they profess Christianity, is that are you saying that that's illegal?
SPEAKER_02By themselves, they can. By themselves, yeah, but not under any influence. Yeah, if you're using money or shelter or food to influence them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, wow, wow.
SPEAKER_02But in in general, you um people choose religion when they are they can be early on Christians as well, yeah.
SPEAKER_01In one of the the videos I saw of you, your your um your your doctor's your white coat, you have uh a saying, a statement on your coat that says, I treat God heals. Um, what what kind of um how have people responded to to see? Because I I've never seen uh a doctor be so bold with his faith to uh put something like that on his actual white coat. I love it.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Um part of being a Christian for me is also um uh able to and willing to show my faith. Um and I I am I am driven to do that. So I realized that uh being a healer, I had uh pretty good talents. I was I was good at what I do. Even I went to medical school, then I went to London and I studied there and worked there five years, have two degrees from there, University of Pittsburgh in the liver transplant program, Wake Forest University in North Carolina in gastroenterology research. I have six degrees after MD is fully credentialed. I was good at what I do, but all along I knew that it was not the prescription I give or the procedure I do. It's it's another source of energy, my faith that helps me heal them. They get better, but the healing comes from God. So I I I thought about it a lot because uh oftentimes I give the same prescription, I do the same test, I do the same procedure as someone else has done. Uh, I I do the one, I see them for a second opinion, I do the same thing, I put my hand on their shoulder and say, You're gonna get better. And they do. So there was something that was inspiring me to say that. So I said, I'm going to just embroider that on my jacket, white jacket. And yes, maybe some people may not like it, but that's who I am.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But my my company flourished. Um, we're the largest minority-owned business of any kind in North Carolina. Um, Michael Jordan is number two from Charlotte. So we are uh we're also the largest independent provider of health care individually owned in the state or in the in the region. Yeah. So to come there, I I think that faith has helped me. So people may, some of my colleagues felt, well, I'm I may be a little too religious, um, but I found at least three or four others did the same thing without me asking them to do it in my my company. We have 65 providers, the doctors in our clinic right now in our company. So I think it was a plus. Um there may have been a few patients that left, um, but I I do not know one specifically that told me that they're gonna leave because I believe in God.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And there was a man by the name of uh Dr. Chiles. Am I pronouncing his name right? Correct. And and he was instrumental in helping you make the transition from uh being a physician to being a physician and a business owner, which is uh no no small feat to be such an accomplished. You said uh six um uh yeah, yeah, I mean you you had six credentials um in addition to being a medical doctor, um, and to in in in some ways it might feel like you're you're kind of gonna bury that and now start a whole new career with a whole new demand on new skill sets. Um, what was that transition like?
SPEAKER_02Um so I was in North Carolina, finished a astroenterology fellowship and uh training as well as research. But I wanted to stay in the area, wanted to uh start my uh my own practice and buy a practice. Um so I Dr. Chiles, that's how I met him. So to give a little background, um my book, Barefoot to Benefactor, um, now being released on September 14th, is uh on Amazon uh to pre-order. Um I wrote this book and I first titled it Angels in My Life. Uh, but over the course of writing the whole 11 chapters um of my published, and I felt this would be a better title. So he was an angel. So I was writing about different angels without wings, come into my life and help me in four continents. So he was one of them, Dr. N. Hampton Childs. It couldn't be any more southern than if he said a pillar of the society, came from uh trained at Mayo Clinic, had the great 25-year-old practice, and wants to retire. So I had written to 100 doctors in the area to ask them if they would want to sell a practice to me. I get four responses, and one of them was Dr. Charles. And he calls me uh to visit with him. So I sent me to meet with him, and he said, Lenny, come and sit down and talk to me about you. So I told him my story, and he said, if I sell this practice only to you. So in one week, he called me back and said, I'm going to sell the practice to you. On day one, you're going to be the boss. I work for you for two years, and uh, you pay me $120,000 a year for two years. Price of the practice is $250,000. So that's $470,000 back in 1987 in debt on first day of my practice, first day of my business. I never knew how to employ a person, do um uh payroll uh or hire a person, uh, billing collections, none of that. That was just um I was in uh various forms of research and training. So he uh was an angel. He saw the practice to me. He worked harder than ever for me, introduced me to all the right people, and that was a big opportunity for me. Uh and real southern gentleman. Um, I could not have made it in the United States without people like him. Uh so I I believe uh he he was sent by God to help me, and um we built the practice together. Um he would uh uh he would do uh start earlier and work late. Um, and that's how I get started with with the company.
SPEAKER_01Can you talk about the role of forgiveness in your your journey as uh as a businessman, as a physician and and philanthropist, and all the things you've been involved in? Um, I know you talked about how Bethany is really uh open door to the community where everybody is is welcome to come, but you haven't always felt that door has been open, wide open to you. Um what uh has been the role of forgiveness in your life?
SPEAKER_02Very good question. Um I as a uh you know this was 35 years ago. A man of color speaking English with an accent, um it was not an easy, the front door has never been opened to me. So the last sentence in my book uh says never give up. There is always a backdoor. So I had to find backdoor uh in the south, and I was never going to give up. I was not going to run away to Florida or to San Diego. I had opportunities. I said, I'm going to stay here and make it work. There were um difficult times. Um, I was um denied um uh a loan or opportunities in many ways. Uh, and I wanted to not take um an issue with it. I wanted to state it uh so that it's it's it's it don't want to pretend like it did not happen. It did happen, but the best way to look at it is what is good in it. How can we look at good things that are always in every day there's good things and bad things happen to everyone? So we're all going to talk about and and ponder on what happened bad. We'll never get ahead. I never met a person who can change yesterday. I do not know of a person who can accurately predict tomorrow. So, what do we have? We have today. So I wanted to look at that. I wanted to uh to to um talk about people like Dr. Childs, who gave me that opportunity, but there were so many other ways um I had difficulties uh to establish a practice, but instead of um um getting angry about it, I decided to use the power of forgiveness. As you know, that you know we all know Jesus is a great example of using the power of forgiveness uh to give himself up for the sins of others. So in I decided I'm going to stay here and build this community and show them that I have been an asset. And that's why right now I am the largest developer in downtown I think uh I I wanted to do that. If there's no other reason, it's purpose-driven. Um and and the largest companies and so on. So I I learned that early enough in India. There's a there's a parallel to it. Um, British people came to India four thousand four hundred four hundred years ago and conquered India and did a lot of bad things. You know, um they uh split our mind and had to recruit Indians to kill other Indians and did a lot of bad things. And inherently, the majority of the Indians have a dislike and anger towards the British. So growing up, I was troubled, 13, 14, 15, 16 to 18. I was very troubled by the fact that there was at one time um there were 15,000 Indians. Indians to one British soldier. So why can't we whip? Is there an inherent inferiority in my genes? As a young person, this was my trouble. No, as you know, there is nothing wrong with Indians. Microsoft CEO is an Indian, Google CEO is an Indian. So I wanted to find out who the British are. I wanted to look at what good things they did. So they built railway from north to south, east to west, united the country. If it was not for them, we would have been like Africa of 22 small countries fighting with each other. There's so many different languages. I can't go to the next state and speak their language or eat their food or dress like that. They're so different. The only way we could communicate, they gave us the universal language of English. That's why I could write a book in English. So I looked at that as a good thing, what they did, and used the power of forgiveness and said, I want to go to London. I want to see who these people are. I want to be like them. So I did. The day I arrived, I was in one room with a person who was not known to me. He was an angel who helped me. It's a long story. But he he gave me his bed, he slept on the floor in the fourth side of London. Five years later, when uh uh I was uh the top uh doctor helping a uh Sir Gray, he was in the royal family, he had three hospitals, he's an MD. Um, and I was his first assistant, and I had 50 other doctors working for him. So, in return for doing all of this, running his hospitals for him, uh, he would invite me every Sunday to his palace to play croquet and have dinner. So, my point is five years later, I was having dinner with the royalty. Wow. So that's the power of forgiveness. You're being lifted. So I will I will stop there. Same way I applied the same principle here to say, I'm going to forgive, but I'm it's not that it didn't happen, those things did happen. That's okay. I raised my children that way. So not worry about what happened 10 years ago, 100 years ago, 30 years ago. I think let's look at today. We all have the same opportunities. Nobody born in the United States is poor. You're poor when you're born in a poor country. This is the most blessed country in the world, it's the most richest country in the world. No one here is poor. I believe that because they got people have to live in a village like where I came from to see what power they use. I'll stop there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Wow. Well, it's a remarkable story. Um, Barefoot's a benefactor, is the title of the book. Uh, Dr. Peters, besides buying the book, um, and and I understand that all of the proceeds are going to be going to um to help those in you want to talk a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So 100% of the proceeds of the sales in the book go to orphan children and cancer patients. So I have stamps that are on the front of the book, and um publishing a book is probably one of the hardest things I've done, writing it, getting a lot of people involved, publishing house. I personally pay for all expenses. So, so that this can go to orphan children and cancer patients. So currently we have eight centers around the world. One is in Africa, seven of them are in India. This is for young uh girls and boys for cancer patients, for uh people who are terminally ill. And the last one we opened, uh, it was in Johannesburg, South Africa. And that center is for boys and girls, children's home. So we will use all the proceeds to do that. You know, I've been blessed, I don't need the money. Um, someone else can use it. So also, um, my foundation, the LennyPrex Foundation.org, all our videos, what we do, our opportunities, and our work is there. If someone would visit there, there's also a place to donate uh on the website. Um, and we will we will use all these proceeds to do God's work.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And so we want people to check out lennypeters foundation.org. Um, I'll have the link in the show notes. Um, uh aside from visiting the website and getting involved in some of these initiatives and getting the book, certainly, what action do you want people to take in light of what they've heard today, Dr. Peters?
SPEAKER_02Um, great for us. And um, see what we do, uh, you know, I get a lot of um um calls and requests to serve or uh volunteer, but it is a difficult process. If I send someone from here, I'm I'm responsible for their health and their protection. So it is a much, much difficult process. But if I have one dollar, I can make it work three times more. Um, because the uh people going from the United States, the food is different, the the infection rate with gastroenteritis and all the others are difficult. Um, so that's not an option. I get this contact, we will go there, but it's more of a uh more work for us uh to to host someone there. Um so also the fact that they're very suspicious of uh Europeans, Americans, they're thinking that we are there to change the religion, um, and and so it's more of an obstacle. So I think the best way to do that is to uh talk about our uh uh foundation to others, spread the news. If you can post your lenny periods foundation.org on your social media uh outlets, many other people will see. And uh if someone can donate, we have not done a fundraising for our foundation. This is all so far has been funded by my companies. Uh, so for that reason, we have decided uh that we will we will continue to fund it. But I would like to get more people involved to know what we do, the opportunities, and we can also talk about to what what what can be done um outside the United States? Um so that's that's what I would request. Um promote our website um to your family and friends, um, who more people can see.
SPEAKER_01And for our Christian business professionals listening today, um what advice what parting advice would you like to leave with us uh to help us to um apply biblical values, our Christian values and and business and follow Jesus in a in a more personal way in the marketplace.
SPEAKER_02Don't be afraid to show your faith. Don't be intimidated. Keep God with you every day. So show that you're a Christian, it's okay. In my book, I say I'm not here to badmouth other religions. If you are a Hindu, be a better Hindu. If you're a Muslim, try to be a better Muslim. But this is the faith I know. So I'll keep it in front of me. And and use the power of forgiveness that we talked about. Use inclusion, be available to everyone, and don't be afraid to create wealth, it's not bad. What we do with wealth can be good or bad. Walk away if there is an opportunity to create wealth, walk away is not what I would recommend to my fellow Christians. Use that opportunity because we all know we can take it here from us uh with us, so it's all going to stay for some good cause. Uh well, even um I'm almost the number two to Mother Teresa in doing this type of work in South India. Mother Teresa was the number one. I'm following her pathway. She and I, her uh convent and I shared um children at one point. They took care of the girls, I took care of the boys, and so on. So even Mother Teresa, 70% of her time was spent in raising money. Only 30% was done. So you need to have wealth, to have money, to do good things. So that's that's one of the messages. So if you are a Christian businessman, you know, use your talents to the best, but keep faith in front, not at the back. Put a badge on on your jacket if you feel like you can say it. Your company is a Christian company, it's okay. There may be a few people who may not like it, but we we've got to do what is good for our faith. Is what I would I would recommend. And um and live uh life that includes everyone, and um you know there's a speech that goes show the glory of you, uh, show the glory of God within you. This is a long speech, but that's a cardinal piece. I'm here to show the glory of God within me. And it's not just in me, it's in all of us. I I challenge sometimes when I give speech to hundred uh thousand people in an audience. Anyone knows who this speech is, who gave this speech? I give you a gift. It's my my own handmade tie, and almost always nobody knows. Nelson Mandela gave that speech. When he came out of uh prison, 27 years in prison, he has no home, he has no bank account, but he was willing to say, I'm going to show you the glory of God within me. Meaning we cannot become smaller because we did not, we will not elevate others by being small, telling ourselves you're smaller does not liberate others to become that bigger. You have to release them in order to release others to become bigger and better, we got to show the glory of God within us. Yeah, so those are Christian philosophies and ideals that are somewhat usually not set. And and I I was so shocked that the man out of 37 years in prison comes out and says, Yes, so much power that he wants to share. That's how we lifted his country and his people. I'll stop there. So those are my messages. We also have a YouTube channel our own, Lenny PR Foundation. A lot of our videos are there. Um, we continuously make uh videos of various uh homes we have. We uh touch the lives of uh about 500 people every single morning in one way or the other, um, taking care of them completely. Um this morning uh I was talking to people in India. They were volunteers are going into small villages to pray with them. Um Christian faith. We read the Bible and and and tell them they cannot be saved, they're terminally ill, they cannot go anywhere, doesn't matter what we give them, but we give them some money to spend what they want to spend on food they cannot eat, clothes they cannot wear. So we give them a gift and then we pray with them. And to say them, there is somebody here who cared.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, wow. Well, as you're talking, it reminded me of um when the apostle Paul said that it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. And um, and and we may be the only Jesus people around us will encounter. So, Dr. Peters, thank you for inspiring us and thank you for the wonderful work um that you're doing here in the US and um and around the world for the glory of God. We're um we're certainly inspired and better for it.
SPEAKER_02One more last thing. I have recruited the next generation, my family, my daughter, to carry this for the next 35 years.
SPEAKER_01Praise God. Praise God. The legacy continues. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00We hope you've enjoyed this episode. And if so, we would greatly appreciate it if you would leave us a quick rating and review for the Christianity in Business podcast online. You can get more information about the HBU Center for Christianity and Business at Christianityandbusiness.com. Thanks for listening, and remember to keep integrating biblical values into your business.