In this heartfelt episode, Dr. James Dobson sits down with Frank and Jan Harrison to discuss their remarkable journey of faith and leadership. Frank, the CEO of America’s largest Coca-Cola bottling company, shares how honoring God is central to their company’s culture. Learn about Jan’s impactful ministry work and how their shared faith has been a foundation through personal trials. Experience a powerful narrative of hope, redemption, and unwavering belief in living a life aligned with biblical principles.
Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It’s a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute supported by listeners just like you. I’m Dr. James Dobson and I’m thrilled that you’ve joined us.
SPEAKER 02 :
Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk in powerful, transformative ways. But when you hear the story that you’re about to hear, you’re going to hear a story of faith, of fellowship, and also of heartache and tragedy, and how God has led two faithful servants of His through the fire, through the valley, and led them to a higher plane when it comes to their life. and love and ministry. The inspiring story you’re about to hear that includes bringing chaplains into the workplace, prioritizing biblical values and business decisions, and watching God work in extraordinary ways is one that Dr. Dobson is anxious to bring to the airwaves today. So here now is our host, Dr. James Dobson, to further introduce our very special guests here on Family Talk. Doctor?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, welcome everyone to Family Talk. I’m James Dobson, and I’m so glad that you’re here listening to us on the radio. The guests that you’re going to be hearing from today are very dear friends of mine that we’ve known for many years, and they have served the Lord faithfully. They are Frank and Jan Harrison, and Shirley and I just love them both. They have experienced some of the greatest joys a Christian couple could ever hope for but they’ve also been through some very difficult heartaches, and we’re going to talk about that too during this program. Frank is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Coca-Cola Consolidated, the largest Coca-Cola bottling company in America. His family history goes back 125 years. He’s not that old, but his family is. and I think you’re going to enjoy hearing from him. Frank also served on the board of directors of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and he is the author of an outstanding book called The Transformation Factor, Leading Your Company for Good, for God, and for Growth. Frank’s wife, Jan Harrison, is also in the studio.
SPEAKER 03 :
The way the Coke system works is so simple, and so many people get it confused. First of all, they think we’re one company all over the world. But really, the way it works, and if you do a little quick history, 1886, a pharmacist by the name of John Pemberton started up the first batch of Coke in a drugstore in Atlanta. Little nothing business. Two guys from my hometown, Chattanooga, Tennessee, had the idea of Coke and Bottles. And that was 1899. They came down to Atlanta, talked to the owner of Coke and talked him into selling them the franchise rights to bottle Coke for the entire United States. They brought these rights back to Chattanooga, handed them out to family and friends. And that’s when we got our first Coke franchise in Greensboro in 1902. But instead of just selling it in Atlanta, all of a sudden through this contract with these guys in Chattanooga, You’re selling Coke now all over the United States. There were like 1,000 Coke bottlers in the early 1900s. And here we are 123 years later, and what’s that rule? Five percent of family companies make it beyond 100 years. Five percent of 1,000 Coke bottlers is 50. There’s like 60-something Coke bottlers left today. And we operate in the 14-state area in the District of Columbia. And again, we buy concentrate from the Coca-Cola company. We make, sell, and deliver all these products to our customers. And in a simple version, that’s how it all works. But my responsibility as chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Consolidated, if I had to say my number one responsibility, it would simply be that we accomplish our purpose as a company. And our purpose is really our culture. They’re one and the same. We think culture is so important. We think it’s the most important thing in any business. But our purpose is our culture, and our culture is our purpose. So what is your purpose? Well, our purpose is to honor God in all we do, serve others, pursue excellence, and grow profitably. It would take about an hour to describe what all that means.
SPEAKER 04 :
We were talking about it yesterday at dinner, and I would want everybody to listen carefully as you describe that part of your business. It’s not just making a soft drink. You have a lot of other purposes here.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, first of all, honor God in all we do. Is that just you or is that through the company? Through the whole company. We have 17,000 teammates, and this is the purpose of our company. And again, to honor God in all we do really is about our values. There’s 10 of them. That’s way too many, but we can’t figure out which ones to delete. I mean, things like honesty and integrity, humility and morality. But just to make a point real quick, honesty and integrity. Well, everybody has that, you know, that value in their company, I’m sure. But we talk about it all the time. We do our best to live it. And one question I love to ask the audience is, you know, you think it’s kind of the normal thing. How many of you, Luke, how many, Jan, how many have you told a lie in the last week? Dr. Dobson, surely not. But have you maybe told a lie in the last week? Well, when you really think about it, you probably have.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m pure as the driven snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you’re way too honest. And these big audiences, like church audiences, nobody says – I’m kidding, of course. I know. Nobody says they told a lie. I do a little prison ministry from time to time. I’ll ask in a prison group of guys, how many have told a lie in the last two days? Everybody raises their hands. But just as an example there, we just drive that thing home hard and clear. When you know that the people that you’re working with, reporting to you, solving problems, they’re not white lying. They’re not exaggerating. They’re telling you the whole truth. Oh, it makes such a difference. And then humility. We don’t do proud, cocky, and co-consolidated. You’ve got to go down to go up and all that. And morality. And I could go on. But Psalm 512 says, For you, O Lord, will bless the moral or righteous with favor. You will surround him as with a shield. We want God’s favor and protection and blessing on our company.
SPEAKER 04 :
Has it always been this way, or did you bring that culture when you took over?
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, my word. Now, you’re getting into a lot of stuff there. But, yeah, we had a very different culture as far back as the mid-’80s. And I fortunately got to work around it about 10 years, and our Coke plants moved to our corporate office and got about three years around a really, really bad culture. And it taught me so much, so much about what not to do in business. Just, oh, so political, messy, dishonest, short-sighted. Compensation was all based on the stock price. It was not a good culture. But when I did become in charge, I’ll just say this, that I had a wake-up call. I just understood day one that, Frank, someday you’re going to be accountable before God for the influence and impact that the company’s having for God. Now, I understood accountability of my life before God. I understood accountability before shareholders for the growth and health and the value of the business. But accountability before God for the influence for him. I didn’t know what to do with that, but I felt it, felt it strong and clear. And so we just began to pray about that. And then things began to happen that led to the culture we have today.
SPEAKER 04 :
Has the company more recently gone in that direction, or is this really – Something that goes way back.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s been about 23, 25 years now. 23 years ago, a friend of mine mentioned to me that he had put a chaplain in his manufacturing plant. And that had been a good thing. That’s all he said. And what he really did was he planted a powerful seed that day. I’m thinking, public company, chaplain, you can’t do that. So totally let it go. But then God just had me run into chaplains one after the other. I think the first one there, our sheriff in Mecklenburg County asked me to come down to the jail to do some target shooting. We were down there wearing these targets out, and we go by an office, and it said chaplain. And I said, Sheriff, you’ve got a chaplain, city government. Can you do that? He said, oh, of course. Nobody’s given us any problems. It’s been great. Two weeks after that, I’m at Clemson University walking around with a football coach back then, Tommy Bowden. He introduces me to their chaplain. And I’m thinking, public university, can you have a chaplain? And he said, yeah, we pray. We like to win football games. It’s good. Works good for us. And right after that, I’m at the Coke 600. Right before the race, they have a driver’s meeting. Right after the driver’s meeting, they have a chapel service. And I noticed most of the teams were there. Many of them had chaplains. So to make a long story short, go back into work the next week and say, man, we should look into this chaplain thing. It might not be so crazy after all. And so we decided to do a pilot test in our Nashville, Tennessee Coke plant. We put two chaplains down there and, you know, they all have their counseling degrees, seminary degrees, and six, nine months of those chaplains in place. We get a call from the HR people, and they say, Frank, if you pull these chaplains, we’re going to have a revolt in our hands. It’s incredible what’s happening here. Marriage is being put back together. I think two suicides prevented. Kids gotten out of jail and put in Christ-centered addiction places. And then we had an employee who died, came to Christ through the chaplain. Family didn’t have a church. Asked if they could have the funeral at the Coke plant. I knew nothing about it there in Nashville, but they had the funeral back on the loading docks. And 13 people came to Christ at the funeral. And just from there, we just really woke up and said, we should spread these chaplains around. And I could tell you chaplaincy stories for the next five hours, how they rescue our people.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s where you get your thrill, too, isn’t it?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, probably, but…
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, maybe it’s not where you get your thrill.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, that’s my wife, Jan, over there. Oh, okay. You got more than one thrill, right? Yes. But they so rescue our people. I mean, all the people out there.
SPEAKER 04 :
Did you grow up in a Christian home?
SPEAKER 03 :
I did. Thank God.
SPEAKER 04 :
There was a dedication to Christ in your family.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, my mother led me to Christ as a kid growing up. She got saved at a Billy Graham crusade in 1953. Dr. Graham came to Chattanooga. My mother wanted to hear some good music, went, heard the message. God sent his son Jesus, died on a cross for her sins. She would just repent and invite him into her life. She’d be saved and go into heaven. So she did and made all the difference in the world in how I was raised. She had us in church every Sunday night, Wednesday night, Sunday morning. She was one of nine. Her parents were dairy farmers and believed in hard work. So we had jobs and you worked all the time. And it was a wonderful childhood, really.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I was fortunate enough to have the same kind of culture in my family. My grandmother had six children and she would bring them all together early in the day. And she said, I have something I want to say to you all. You have been raised in the culture of life. And she said, if I lose one of you, it would have been better that I had never been born. And she meant it. And that’s the way she brought them up. And that’s been that part of my family ever since. How about you, Jan?
SPEAKER 01 :
How about me? I am so honored to be here. Thank you for having us. I have just been a part of all of these things in a very secondary way as far as the things that Frank has just shared. We were young when we got married right out of college, and I would say we probably really neither one had a great idea of what it looked like to be married. We you know, were attracted to each other. We had hopes, we had dreams, and we learned to follow the Lord. And I would say that probably the word over our lives really has over and over again been redemption, to just watch God take broken but with a heart and a desire to please Him. Guide and lead and show us how to build a marriage, how to build a family, how to build a business, how to build a culture within that business. And how to follow Him and serve Him has been just a day-by-day, step-by-step, season-by-season walk with the Lord. And here we are. We’ve been married 47 years and have three grown daughters, one son in heaven, nine grandchildren with a tenth one on the way.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, I said you had eight grandchildren. You picked up ones.
SPEAKER 01 :
I know. God has just redeemed so many things from two young people who showed up with a desire to raise Christian family and be a Christian family, but not a whole lot of experience. I think I found out very quickly that it’s all a lot harder in reality than it looks to be married and to build a godly marriage, to be a godly mom. And I will have to say right here and now, thank you for all of the times you spoke so personally into that radio, into those books, into my desperate desire to know what to do, but really not a whole lot of experience to go on. So thank you. You were one of my mentors and teachers.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, this is what you’re teaching in your programs. Talk about what you do with women.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, when I was 27 years old, so I would have told you I was a Christian. I believed in God. I believed in the Word. I knew the stories. But I was really very well churched. I didn’t grow up in that atmosphere of prayer and that atmosphere of learning how to seek God’s face. But when Frank and I were newly married and we lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, a friend invited me to a Bible study. And within about the first, and I was like, oh yeah, I can do this. This is the kind of thing I do. And it felt very comfortable and I knew the story. So this would, you know, this would be a good thing to do. And I heard the Word of God taught from such a powerful place of conviction, of passion, of application that within the first few weeks, I started to realize, well, I know all about him, but I don’t know him personally. And the teacher just continued to explain, there’s a time and a place you will remember. I think we shared that last night. You’re memory of that day you gave your life to the Lord as a little boy was so vivid. And I didn’t really have it. And I just thought, well, if I’ve done this, I don’t remember it so vividly. So I want to know for sure. So I think that my true, genuine spiritual birthday, I was 27. I went home from that Bible study that day. It was Bible study fellowship in 1980. And And I went home and I said, Lord, I want to know you personally. And I want to walk with you. And I want to know your word. It’s been a journey. I didn’t, like, grow up overnight by any means. But seeking the Lord and knowing his word and sharing that. Because I think particularly in our culture, in our area of the country, we live in the Bible Belt. It’s so easy for people to believe they know him. And they really just know about him. The church culture is acceptable, the less and less so maybe. But for many years, it was so easy to be deceived that you really knew the Lord. And that was the passion that drove me to teach.
SPEAKER 04 :
When we were talking last night, you were referencing my telling you and the rest of the people at the table that, When I found the Lord, which was at four years of age, and as I was telling it to you at four years of age, I broke in tears. Remember that? Yes. I was crying. And that’s the power of it. It’s amazing. I’m 88 years old, and that moment at four years of age is still with me and still guides me and still is meaningful to me. And I want to say to those who are listening to us who just have nothing really powerful in your life, you’re just kind of making it up as you go along. You start looking for Him, and He’ll set you on fire.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. I love that, too, because— I get overwhelmed trying to remember people’s names. But when I stop and think that God knows us by name, and when He calls your name, when you all of a sudden realize, I sense this personal call to give my life to Him, the God of the universe calls you by name, and you never forget it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Tell us about this program that you have. Who comes and how many come? What do you do?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, for years, I was part of, it was really a community Bible study. And we met for a while. We were like squatters. We would meet wherever a church would allow us to meet. But After several years, I was able to meet in my home church. So it wasn’t really under—it was community and non-denominational was the affiliation. But it was called Women of the Word. And I really, really desired and knew I needed to be under the covering and under the authority and under the protection of my spiritual leaders.
SPEAKER 04 :
How many come?
SPEAKER 01 :
There were about 300 at one point. There were that many now. All of that since right before COVID, that group no longer meets. They meet in smaller groups. And it seems like women have really shifted through that period of time in the last five years, six years to desire instead of large groups and then meeting in little small groups they like. to have intimate personal relationships. So the last few years, I’ve done a lot more small group mentoring and being a part of a small group and being able to lead and share. So it’s been a transition, but it’s been very personal and intimate as well.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s your mission.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s my mission.
SPEAKER 04 :
Frank, you’ve now known this lady for 47 years? Yes, sir. You think it’s going to work?
SPEAKER 03 :
Just listening to her talking, I just, Jan has so studied the Bible for years and years and years, you know, teaching. But, you know, when I leave work to go to work in the morning and you leave your wife just in the word, there’s so much wisdom and so much protection and so much blessings that have come from that over the years. I’m just so thankful. for jan’s discipline and teaching and just her you know with decisions just that wisdom that she has is incredible we cry out for wisdom you know and comes from god and it’s it’s not as we know not like knowledge and the facts you have all the facts and knowledge you have no idea what to do and for us for me the biggest decisions it seems like you really don’t know what to do you’re trying to buy a company you have no idea really what you should pay for it and At some point, you just got to get wisdom from above.
SPEAKER 04 :
Can you really ask for the Lord to help you in those routine kind of things, those decisions that everybody has to make?
SPEAKER 03 :
And sometimes in the middle of meetings, we’ll just stop. It’s kind of part of our culture. When we’re lost, I mean, if we’re honest, you know, smart people now do. But when you’re trying to figure out a tough decision and you’ve got three or four options, you know how it is. You’re trying to pick one. Guys, we’ve got to just stop and pray. We don’t know what to do here. So I definitely do that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that is very wise counsel from our guest today here on Family Talk, Frank Harrison, who’s in studio with us along with his wife, Jan, and our own Dr. James Dobson is discussing with them the way that they integrate faith into every aspect of life. Their story reminds us that when we honor God and place Him first, He can and will use us to greater impact the lives of others in truly remarkable ways. Now, if you missed any portion of today’s broadcast or you’d like to share it with a friend or a loved one, we encourage you to go to drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. And we’ve got two more special programs featuring these very special guests. So be sure to keep tuning in to hear more of the remarkable story of Frank and Jan Harrison on Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk. Now, keep in mind, as Dr. Dobson mentioned, Frank Harrison is the author of the book called The Transformation Factor, Leading Your Company for Good, for God, and for Growth. For information on how you can receive a copy of this outstanding book, you’ll want to visit our website at drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. That’s drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. You can also find information about that book in our call center when you contact our customer care team at Thank you so much for joining us. Here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, we are committed to helping families and leaders live out their faith with purpose and impact. Just as the Harrisons transformed their company culture through biblical principles, we aim to transform families all across America with God’s truth. These daily broadcasts that you hear on the radio and online are made possible through friends like you who share our vision for strong, faith-centered families. And if you appreciated hearing today’s program about leading with godly values, please consider partnering with us. Your gift of any amount helps us continue sharing biblical wisdom with the nation in need. Make a secure donation online. Go to drjamesdobson.org. That’s drjamesdobson.org. Or you can call us and give a gift over the phone at 877-732-6825. That’s 877-732-6825. And remember, you can always write to us at Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, Post Office Box 39000, Colorado Springs, Colorado, the zip code 80949. Now, as we were mentioning Frank Harrison’s outstanding book called The Transformation Factor, if you’d like to see the same type of transformation happen in your marriage, we encourage you to check out Dr. Dobson’s book that he co-authored with his wife Shirley called Nightlight for Couples. Whether you’re newly married or celebrating your golden anniversary this year, regular quiet moments with your mate are essential. They’re times to renew love and intimacy with each other and with the Lord. We’ll be happy to send you a copy of Nightlight for Couples by Dr. and Mrs. Dobson as our way of thanking you for your gift of any amount in support of our ministry. So go to drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk and reserve your copy today. Well, I’m Roger Marsh and from all of us here at Family Talk, thanks so much for listening. Be sure to join us again next time when Dr. James Dobson continues his conversation with Frank and Jan Harrison. That’s coming up right here next time on Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hello, everyone. This is James Dobson inviting you to join us for our next edition of Family Talk. Every day we come to these microphones with someone in mind, whether it’s a busy mom looking for tips on discipline or a husband who wants to learn more about connecting with his wife. We want to put an arm around your family in any way that we can. So join us next time for Family Talk, won’t you?
