Bill Nienhuis is the President of Childcare Worldwide, where he leads a global ministry focused on discipleship through the local church. With more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit and ministry leadership, Bill is known for his emphasis on depth over numbers, integrity in nonprofit work, and measurable proof of impact. He has helped guide Childcare Worldwide's shift toward Life Centers, a church-led model that prioritizes long-term spiritual formation rather than one-time outcomes. Bill is a thoughtful, interview-driven guest who enjoys conversations around discipleship, leadership, and ethical stewardship.

Website:

childcareworldwide.org

Welcome to 12-Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, His creation.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you Bill.

It's a great pleasure to connect with you.

What part of the world are you in today?

I am in the United States in the state of Washington and I am about two minutes, three minutes drive from the Canadian border.

Do you visit often?

Surprisingly, I don't get over there as much as I should.

It's such an easy drive, but there's reasons to go and sometimes I don't find those, but it's simple.

Do you drive a lot?

I don't drive a lot anymore.

I used to.

In my former career, I had a lot of commuting I did, but not these days.

These days I'm lucky enough to be able to work from home and spend a lot of time on camera talking to a lot of people over the world.

How did you get into Child Care Worldwide?

I was very lucky in that I was invited to join the Child Care Worldwide board of directors and when I joined as a board member, then it was clear that our current co-founder and president at the time was getting ready to retire.

He was 87 years old then.

That's a pretty good age to retire at.

His mind was sharp, but his body was giving out and if you have to fly all over the world to visit children, it gets really tough when you are 87 years old.

He was looking to be replaced and to find a new president.

I was on the board of directors and we went through a lot of interviews, a lot of different candidates, but the board of directors came to me and said, well, what about you?

I was like, whoa, wait a minute.

I'm in software.

I was 25 years in a software company.

I'm not the guy that's supposed to lead this ministry.

I'm supposed to be in software.

God had completely different plans for me.

Long story short, he took me from that moment to being a candidate to be president to actually being hired as the president in November of 2018 and my life has not been the same since.

Would you change it?

Do you have any regrets?

Oh, not at all.

I look back in 25 years of software and thought, well, this is what I'm supposed to do.

I had been presented many, many times with different opportunities to work someplace else, but God had always clearly shut the door and said no to that.

I was anticipating the same thing with this offer to be a part of child care worldwide.

I thought, okay, I can hear these people tell me that I might be a good president, but I'm sure God's going to say no because I'm supposed to be in the software company and that's what I've been doing for so long.

But God had different plans and I was waiting for him to say no and he never did.

In fact, he kept on opening doors and reaffirming the decision all the way through.

So it was clear by the time I said yes to the job that that was what God had wanted me to do and he'd spent 25 years preparing me to do that.

Did you know Jesus as a child?

I did.

I was very lucky in that I was born in a Christian family and from the moment I can remember, mom and dad took me to church and also got me involved in Wednesday midweek activities at church and vacation Bible school when that came up.

So I had been a churchgoer early on from the beginning, and what I learned is that I was consistently surrounded by people who were forming me.

I had a Sunday school teacher who was so significant.

I didn't know it at the time, but she gave me my first Bible.

And what a privilege it was to receive that and to understand years later the significance of her following God's call to ensure that kids that she was around for only a short period of time got to know who Jesus was and in fact got their first Bible.

So I remember that specifically, and my mom would always help me memorize scriptures and things before Wednesday night activities.

My grandmother was always talking about Jesus.

So I had a lot of people around me that were forming me until I was ready and able to make that formal proclamation for Christ, and I did that when I was 17 years old.

But a lot of people before that had a lot to do in the formation of my faith.

Was there a fall off time, or were you able to remain consistent with your relationship with God?

I went to college in 1984, and I was 18 years old.

And for my three or four years in college, I was on a wilderness journey.

There's no question about it.

I was influenced a lot by other people around me.

You know, only being 18, 19, 20, I obviously wasn't fully mature and all that.

Didn't attend church when I was in college, which was crazy looking back on it.

But God never let me go.

He never let me go, and he was always present even though I was out there in the wilderness.

And I'm so thankful for that, and it's a great testimony for anybody who thinks God's far away or God's not present.

If God has picked you, he will never leave you, and I can completely attest to that.

So I did have a little bit of a falling away, but when I came out of college and I got married to a wonderful woman who just became a new Christian herself at that time, God brought us together.

I firmly believe in that, and ever since then, we've been committed to serving him in whichever way he wants.

I've had the opportunity to look at many websites, many Christian organizations, and yours is the first that I saw the accreditation model.

Tell me what was the reason for introducing that into the organization, please.

What we firmly believe is that we need to have high, high levels of integrity.

We need to prove and do what we say we do.

We need to be able to back that up with real evidence of God working in the lives of people.

We have something we call proof of impact, and what that is is saying, if you become a partner to child care, if you donate and resource us to disciple kids, we're going to show you everything we're doing.

We're going to prove it to you with video, photos, testimonies.

We're going to show accountability.

If people want to take a look at our financials, no problem.

We are a hundred percent transparent, and for us, it's so important, because in this day and age, there are so many stories out there about nonprofits who have gone the wrong direction, who have tried to hide, obfuscate their finances, and just not being transparent.

We're hearing all about that kind of stuff today, and it's very important to me that their trust from donors is extremely high—as high as we can make it.

So that means we have the burden to show our donors and to prove that the resources they're providing to us, we're treating them like resources that have come directly from God, and that as a result, we have to treat them like that and also show the utmost accountability and stewardship.

Five years from today listening to this conversation, what's a message you'd leave for future Bill Neenhouse?

The future Bill—that's a great one.

I would say stay true, stay committed, trust, do not have worry come into your mind, do not have worldliness come into your mind, do what's next, and be ready to shift to whatever God will have you do.

Just trust in God.

He's been faithful.

He has always done what's the right thing and has shown up, and you can continue to trust him.

And I'm here to tell you, Bill, five years from now, just rely on the Lord, because he's good and he does what he says he does.

Bill, is there any question that I could have asked that would have helped you serve us better?

I think the question that a lot of people have on their mind is, how do I be a part of Team Great Commission?

Some people imagine that that means you've got to go next door and pound on the door of your neighbor and berate them until they become believers.

And some people think that is standing on the side of the road with a sign and maneuvering at cars as they go by.

I'm here to say that being on Team Great Commission can take lots and lots of different forms.

Sometimes people on Great Commission are just called to pray.

They're just called to pray for those who are on the front line, communicating God's truth to people.

That is a worthy position on Team Great Commission.

Others are called to resource.

They'll never get on an airplane to go someplace in the world to serve, but they can resource people who do that, and that's a particular role on Team Great Commission.

Others, maybe there's a missions trip in your future and you don't even know it.

Be open to that.

Be ready to be called by God to go someplace and proclaim His truth.

Sometimes that's Team Great Commission.

But like I say, ask yourself to be made available to God and don't put conditions on it.

And if you do that, I think He will surprise you and put you in circumstances that He will equip you for and make sure that you're ready to be a great representative of Him.

So I would say, think about your position on Team Great Commission.

Don't think it's only one thing, and certainly don't think you have to be a pastor to do that.

Ask God to show you how to be on the team, and He will do it, and He will use you for His glory.

Amazing audience, links are in the show notes.

If you want to connect with ChildCareWorldWide.org, the link is in there.

Just click.

Bill, a pleasure.

I treasure.

Thank you for being on What Is Inspired by 12 Minute Conference.