Why Robb Wilson Ends His Emails with 'Grace and Peace'

“It says Wilson on the door,” Robb Wilson says of Wilson Lumber, the 2018 ProSales Dealer of the Year. “But it belongs to Christ.”

Publicly keeping the faith is one of Wilson Lumber’s most notable qualities. That style fits for a dealer based in Alabama, the state ranked by the Pew Research Center as America’s most religious.

According to Wilson, the bedrock is the company’s mission statement: “To build a successful company that upholds Christlike principles and inspires people to grow.” And it extends through its first two core values (“Always do the right thing,” and “Treat others the way you want to be treated”).

A prayer group meets before work at the headquarters in Huntsville, and there are boxes where you can write requests to have prayers said for you. Wilson Lumber’s mission team gets company funds to help both employees and community groups. The company’s October newsletter quotes Ecclesiastes and solicits turkey donations for the local rescue mission. And COO John Marshall credits some of his management ideas to C12, a peer group for Christian business executives.

Then there are Robb Wilson’s email messages, which he typically signs off with the benediction, “Grace and Peace.” It’s how the apostles Peter and Paul ended their letters, he explains, adding that “grace is the one thing people need the most, and peace is the one that people want the most.”

This article originally appeared in ProSales Magazine in December 2017.