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When Your Faith is Central to Your Identity, How Much of Yourself Can You Bring Into the Office?

And what would you say if a colleague invited you to pray?

Author

Lionel Foster
October 02, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

MEET THIS WEEK’S GUEST

Adrian Bracy was Chief Financial Officer for the Arizona Cardinals, an NFL team now worth five and a half billion dollars. Today she is a full-time advisor to one of the wealthier families in the country, helping guide their business and philanthropic operations.

Friends, here is this week’s episode.

Before our interview, I had spoken to Adrian Bracy exactly one time. But her warmth, and openness, and generosity all felt so familiar. She grew up in Miami. I’m from Baltimore. But in a way, we share a homeland: the Black church. It gave us our native language. Today, she speaks it much more frequently than I do, but I understood every word.

Our conversation reminded me of all of the following.

James Baldwin on Coming of Age in the Black Church

James Baldwin: Letter from a Region in My Mind

From 1962: “Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.”

www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/11/17/letter-from-a-region-in-my-mind

Even if you did not grow up in Black, Christian circles, you’ve been influenced by them. Rock stars took a lot of their rhythms and a particular type of swagger from Black preachers. And a lot of people over the age of 40 can quote the church scenes in Coming to America by heart. Baldwin makes it clear why he left the church, but you hear what he learned behind the pulpit in everything he wrote.

Church as Startup Business

That was the theme of season 2 of the podcast Startup. There are groups that specialize in opening churches, finding an audience, and seeing if they’ll stick. They sound a lot like new restaurants or any other business trying to get off the ground.

I Forgot How Conservative—and Religious—the NFL Is

I was reminded of this when Adrian said talking about her faith during her 18-year career in the NFL was never an issue. The best thing I’ve read on what the NFL is like behind the scenes is Mark Leibovich’s book Big Game. It focuses on the owners, who are, shall we say, a very colorful group. It’s wild to imagine how many of their secrets Adrian must know.

Thanks for listening.