An Abiding Christian Leader: Interview with Carrie-Ann Jasper-Yearty

Carrie-Ann Jasper-Yearty, Vice President of People and Culture at Jasper Ventures

What do human resources, natural resources, and the Kingdom of God all have in common? It turns out quite a lot—when Carrie-Ann Jasper-Yearty is involved.

I recently talked with Carrie-Ann, Jasper Ventures’s vice president of People and Culture, to learn how her faith intersects with her work. We discuss what drove her to reimagine human resources (and launch a nonprofit), how she learned to see all work—including oil and gas—as God’s work, and the importance of abiding and praying through it all.

What’s your current role in your organization and what do you love most about your position?

I work at Jasper Ventures, a midstream oil and gas company located in Whitehouse, Texas. We serve clients in the “midstream” industry and build natural gas processing plants. My dad started this company in 1992 and founded what eventually became Jasper Ventures. Jasper was never intended to be a family business, but it is now. Unfortunately, my dad has since passed on, but before that my brother, my brother-in-law, and I all began working here.

My professional background is in human resources, but I’ve had several titles here. When I started, we were really small and they never even had an HR person. Now, my title is Vice President of People and Culture, which I love because I get to provide leadership and direction for four different areas of the company. First, I have human resources, which is just your typical HR department: employee life cycle, staffing selection—just taking care of all of the compliance issues, policies, and procedures. Second, I have responsibility for safety, which is brand new for me. Third, I have marketing and communications. And then last but certainly not least, I have responsibility for a department called Beyond Business.

This is the one that typically stumps people. Beyond Business is really our culture-building, culture-maintaining, and employee engagement department. But the unique piece is that we do it all from a Gospel perspective. We are loving and caring well for people within the workplace. We take care of any type of spiritual conversation or spiritual training for those interested. Beyond Business takes care of all the hospitality around the office and all of our employee experiences.

I have a background of 30 years in human resources, and I still love it! I love all of it. It’s amazing that I get to challenge and help people grow into their God-given potential and use their unique gifts to work and make a difference at our company, within our community, and really across the world. I get to help people understand why their work is important, how God made them to work, and that their work matters and has value. I can help connect to the bigger picture.

You recently celebrated 13 years of service at Jasper Ventures. Congrats! What is one thing you would want to tell your younger, first-year self if you had the chance?

I wish I could go back and tell my 20-year-old, 30-year-old, 40-year-old self that you don’t have to separate your work and your faith. I’d tell myself to just view work differently.

I was raised in a Southern Baptist church and can remember sitting in the pew, watching somebody come down front and be “called,” either to the mission field or to a specific ministry. And I can remember being young and thinking, “Wow, I must not be a very good Christian because I’m not being called.” I just felt like you had to be a missionary or a minister or work at a faith-based nonprofit to do God’s work.

But what I’ve learned is that all work is God’s work, and that there’s really no division between the secular and sacred. I have found that God can use me for his purposes in my workplace—and that my workplace is my mission field. I don’t have to go very far. I get to come to work every day and be on mission right here. With the employees that I work with, with the clients, with vendors, subcontractors, the UPS guy that walks in and delivers packages. I am a really good business person. I may not have been a very good missionary or minister, but I’m good at what I do here.

But what I’ve learned is that all work is God’s work, and that there’s really no division between the secular and sacred. I have found that God can use me for his purposes in my workplace—and that my workplace is my mission field. I don’t have to go very far. I get to come to work every day and be on mission right here.

Your LinkedIn headline says, “Carrie-Ann Jasper-Yearty: Creating culture and building people for God’s purpose.” What does this mean and why is it central to your work?

What I have learned in HR, both at Jasper and other places, is that every company has a culture. Whether you are intentionally creating that culture or not, there is a culture. For us, we’ve been very intentional about creating a culture that allows people to bring their whole selves to work. And we are going to love and care for them in Jesus’ name regardless of what they believe.

From the first day that someone onboards with us, and sometimes even in the interview process, we’re going to let them know that they don’t have to believe what we believe—that definitely has nothing to do with our hiring process. We are always going to hire the best person for the job. But they know from the start everything we do is in a way that honors God through our faith.

I’m in human resources, but our team doesn’t just look at people as a resource. We are asking, “How can we help them fully use the gifts that God has given them?” And so we pray that God can use them here at Jasper, but we also pray that whatever they learn here whatever culture they experience here—that they walk away and can take something from it that is going to make them better. One of the things we say on our team a lot is, “These are not our people. These are God’s people.” And so, like everything else, we have to hold them really loosely.

I’m in human resources, but our team doesn’t just look at people as a resource. We are asking, “How can we help them fully use the gifts that God has given them?”

What is a workplace challenge you are currently facing as a leader? What does it mean to you to lead in a distinctively Christian way through this challenge?

Oil and gas are very cyclical. If anybody has ever been in the oil and gas industry, they know that. If they’re new to the oil and gas industry, they may not be fully aware, but they’re going to experience its extreme swings. It really does feel like a feast or famine environment.

That is hard to manage because when you are in a famine, you have to lay people off. And 2024 was not a good year for Jasper. We struggled with some projects and struggled just getting some work across the finish line which meant layoffs for people. And man, it does not feel loving and caring to have to let people go. As a business owner and a business leader, letting people go is one of the hardest things that you have to do. And what I’ve learned is that as hard as it is—and I’m still learning this every day—I am not their provider. God is their provider and he has a plan for them because he loves them way more than I love them. It’s hard because you still feel so responsible for that.

So to love people well, even in laying them off, we always pray for the employees being laid off. We bring in our Beyond Business team and we pray specifically for those employees—for wisdom and guidance, and that the manager’s words are kind and clear. We pray that the entire process goes smoothly because you just don’t ever know how people are going to react. One of the things that we talk about as an HR team when we’re putting together a reduction in force is that we want to do it with excellence and in a way that still makes the employee feel loved and cared for, even on one of the hardest days of their career. So we pray for them through that process and then continue to pray for them after they’re gone.

The beautiful thing about our industry is that it’s cyclical. So, these same employees oftentimes get a call to come back. And we have a lot of employees that do come back. When they leave they tell us, “I’m coming back when you’re ready and have work again.” And so I think a lot of that has to do with how they’re treated at Jasper and how they’re treated even when they leave here.

Our focus theme for this quarter is “relational challenges.” What skills, practices, or attitudes have you developed to help you navigate difficult relational dynamics in the workplace?

In case you didn’t know it, people are really hard and really messy. We’re all sinful. We all bring our baggage and we don’t leave it at the door at work. And we don’t ask our people to do that. If we’re inviting someone to bring their whole self in, then we are going to be dealing with their whole self. And sometimes people are really hard to love. The Bible provides a very simple commandment that we are to love God and love others. I live by this every day. I repeat it to my team a lot, especially when they’re dealing with a disciplinary situation, an insubordinate employee, or someone who’s not doing their job well.

When we (my managers and I) have difficult conversations with employees, we pray. Covering that in prayer is really important. I always say that being honest with someone is kind. Being honest with someone is loving. Sugarcoating things or not being honest with somebody is not kind. It is unkind to not tell people what is really going on. So if you’re telling somebody they’re doing a good job and they’re not, it’s harmful to them, the team, and the company and our product that we’re going to give to our clients. And so that’s hard for managers.

So, we equip them with gospel-based relational tools to help them better coach and correct their employees early. If we can just address those things early and get ahead of them then we don’t have to have the big difficult conversations later.

Tell me about one person who has a significant impact on the way that you work and lead.

That person would be Holly Betenbough.

Back in 2016, I went to Lubbock, Texas with a group of business owners and visited a company there called Betenbough Companies who have a division called Kingdom at Work. I saw something in action that demonstrated how to live out your faith at work. It made me wonder, “How would that work at Jasper?”

I’m a doer. When I see something or hear something I like, my immediate response is to take off and go. Not to pray about it or invite God into it. I always joke that I’m like, “Come on, God. I have a plan. Come with me.”

So I was on fire after seeing what they do at Betenbough and came back and called Holly Betenbough. I asked, “So what do I do first? I am ready to go.” And she told me I just needed to abide. So I’m pulling out the dictionary because I’m not even sure what that means! That’s not in my vocabulary. Who does that? Abide and pray?

But I ended up doing that for an entire year, which was so hard for me. I like to be productive and I like to be busy. But praying and abiding was probably some of the best advice that I have ever received. If I had just jumped into what I thought I should do and didn’t invite God into that—didn’t ask him where he wanted us to be and what that would look like for Jasper—I think we would have gotten a lot of things wrong. Or it would have taken us a lot longer to get things right because I would have not done that in the right order. To abide and pray is really a beautiful thing.

I like to be productive and I like to be busy. But praying and abiding was probably some of the best advice that I have ever received.

Women face their own set of unique challenges in the workplace as well as in leadership. What is one piece of encouragement you want to give to Christian female leaders?

It is hard to be a female leader. The oil and gas industry is very male-dominated. And I would say at Jasper we are probably about 85% male. One of the challenges is how often I’m told by male leaders that I’m too emotional. By the way, I’m not an “emotional” person. I don’t have outbursts and I’m not a crier. But I would describe myself as very passionate, about my work and about the people that I work with.

My advice to Christian female leaders is that it’s okay to be passionate about what you do. And know that you are going to manage and lead differently. And honestly, some would say that women manage better because we’re more relational and emotional than men. I recently had the safety manager join my team and he is ecstatic. It doesn’t matter that I’m a female leader because he knows he’s going to get structure and development. And so I just say embrace that part of who you are and don’t be afraid to get close to people.

My advice to Christian female leaders is that it’s okay to be passionate about what you do. And know that you are going to manage and lead differently.

What resources have shaped your leadership the most?

Organizations:

• Kingdom at Work
• Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics

Books:

• Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work by Tim Keller
• An Unhurried Leade by Alan Fadling
• Lead with Prayer: The Spiritual Habits of World Changing Leaders by Ryan Skoog, Peter Greer, and Cameron Doolittle

Podcasts

• The Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast