Man. God was fighting battles for me, I didn't even know were happening. The more inquisitive I am about other faiths, the more I get to talk about my faith.
How do people respond to that?
I know. I could go faster, if you want to see that. Pastors generally don't think as big as business leaders do.
God isn't surprised by AI. He created it. We discovered it. Man, I don't want to be like Ed Stetzer. Anything but that!
People say that all the time.
Pat Gelsinger here, people may have heard of you at Intel or before. But you have a spiritual story and a spiritual background, tell us about it.
Yeah, I grew up in the church. I was baptized when I was six days old in the United Church of Christ with full knowledge of what I was doing. And, always went to church every Sunday. Otherwise, I got in trouble with dad, and I was there to meet girls and impress the mothers and grandmothers. So that was a great spiritual journey. So I always thought I was a Christian, moved to California when I was 18-years-old to go to school and started at Intel at ripe old 18 and started attending church. Why? To meet girls and impress their mothers and grandmothers. So that was a good formula. And soon after starting attend there, I met Linda and the sermon topic about three months after starting to attend there, Revelation 3:15-16, I know your deeds. They are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one and the other. But since you're neither cold nor hot, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. And I became convicted and began my hot for God journey there in February of 1980. But the next piece of the story yet is pretty exciting because just a couple of months later, baby Christian. And I'm walking down the aisle at one of the hallways at Intel, and I feel convicted to go into the ministry.
And it's like, man, I don't want to be like Ed Stetzer, anything but that!
People say that all the time. That's true.
And, I was loving technology. I was good at it, excited about it. So I argued with God for several months. And finally, I laid a fleece before God. I said, Okay, God, if this happens, just like Gideon, I'll go into full time ministry. I'll become like Ed Stetzer. And as soon as I did, the answer was the workplace is your full time ministry. That's really what began my journey as I'll say faith and tech and living that out every day.
Fascinating. So this is a space that, I don't know how to put it cause, you're sort of known in this. You've done workplace, ministry, seen it as a mission, and more. I guess I wonder how do people in the workplace respond? This is not exactly a bastion of the Bible Belt, you know, where you've been working. How do people respond to that?
Well, I'll say, clearly, I'm a bit of an oddity that way and, being so visible about my faith. But it's also I've gotten to more leadership roles. I've helped start things like the Intel Christian Bible Network, the precursor to ERGs, employee resource groups. You know I've been, visible as this faith work kind of guy, and that's gotten a lot of things. But then as you get to more significant roles of leadership, it's like, how do you demonstrate that in a way that still has a very diverse, liberal community. In fact, a fun little story I was meeting with one of my board members when I was at VMware and, over lunch one day, he says, we weren't sure about you. This is a couple of years and into my VMware CEO journey. And I said, really? And he says, Yeah, that Christian stuff.
And I'm like, what? And he says, Yeah, we debated that more than anything else before calling you as CEO. And I'm like, really? And he says, Yeah, being a CEO of a liberal, Silicon Valley software company, we just weren't sure a conservative Christian could do that. And I'm like, really? And then he just says, But it worked out okay. I am like, man! God was fighting battles for me I didn't even know were happening, at the time. But I'd also say that it's important for us as Christians to show up in a good way. And, for that, how do you demonstrate your faith? May I pray for you? Being able to truly support a diverse community. And one little I'll say magic has been the more inquisitive I am about other faiths, the more I get to talk about my faith.
