ATLANTA (BP)–Well-known Southern Baptist pastor Ike Reighard has assumed the new position of chief people officer for HomeBanc Mortgage Corp., a loan company with nearly 1,000 employees and $5 billion in loans throughout the southeastern United States.
Reighard, 52, will be responsible for shepherding the company’s corporate culture and honing ethical standards and leadership. He also will serve on the eight-member executive committee, a group of HomeBanc’s highest-ranking executives.
Reighard, pastor of NorthStar Church in Kennesaw, Ga., near Atlanta, is a former president of the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference. He served as senior pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ga., from 1976-96 and at First Baptist Atlanta in 1996. He founded NorthStar in 1997 and the congregation has been among the fastest-growing church plants in the Southern Baptist Convention.
“There’s been some significant gaps in character that’s been displayed in leadership in corporate and government roles,” HomeBanc chairman Patrick Flood told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “CEOs have gotten way too full of themselves, believing they’re the success of the business. The fact is, we play a real role, but the real success are the people who do the heavy lifting — the workers.”
HomeBanc officials had gotten to know Reighard through the company’s monthly Bible studies and Reighard’s motivational talks to employees.
Reighard told the Journal-Constitution he believes his 28 years in the ministry will help him in his new job, which is chiefly about people. In addition to serving as senior pastor at NorthStar Church, he’s adept in leadership and organizational behavior. He’s already turned over day-to-day management of the church to others and will preach twice a month for a period of time.
A native of Andrews, N.C., Reighard earned an undergraduate degree from Mercer University and master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Luther Rice Seminary.
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