Archive for the Business Life Category
By Dr. Rick Warren
“You are about the most flameproof person in this office.” Those words from the boss, indicating that her job was safe, brought understandable relief to the receptionist of a corporation that was engaged in major downsizing. Despite the turmoil some of her coworkers were facing, she took some comfort in feeling “flameproof.”
As the global economy continues the struggle, many companies are still finding it necessary to reduce their workforces so they can retain or regain a competitive position in highly challenging times. In such an uncertain environment, knowing how to “flameproof” your career is a wise job skill!
KEEP YOUR CAREER EVEN IF YOU ARE TERMINATED. You might not be able to flameproof your present job, but you can and should flameproof your career in a long-term sense. We find a good example of this in the Bible’s Old Testament:
In the book of Genesis, we read about Joseph, the faithful man in with the amazing multi-colored dream coat (a gift from his father) who twice was knocked off the corporate ladder. First, he landed in a pit and later in a prison. His brothers on the family board of directors gave the first shove. Later his boss’s wife made false accusations that resulted in Joseph being put behind bars. Not exactly the ideal path to take for corporate advancement.
However, Joseph knew how to flameproof his career and ended up on the top rung of the biggest ladder in Egypt. In fact, he later forgave his brothers for their betrayal with these words: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…” (Genesis 50:20).
KEEP YOUR CHARACTER BY KEEPING PRIDE IN CHECK. Pride inhibits service and stops the flow of God’s grace (His unmerited, undeserved favor) in your direction. “God (and many others) resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Pride has a tendency to distort one’s view of reality that amounts to blindness. Another consequence of pride is that it gives motivation and ammunition for your enemies to seek to bring about your downfall.
KEEP YOUR CHARACTER BY KEEPING YOUR PROMISES. People that are promise keepers end up in the big tent on the holy hill! “He…who keeps his oath even when it hurts” (Psalms 15:1,40). Remember, it is much easier to keep your promises if you make fewer of them – then it is more likely you will be able to hold true to every one that you do make. Character grows fastest when difficult to honor promises are kept with the “little people” in our lives – those individuals that seem “less important” to our goals and desires, yet are just as deserving of our integrity.
KEEP YOUR CHARACTER BY TREATING EVERYBODY LIKE AN ANGEL. “Never…refuse to extend your hospitality…sometimes men have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2). You never know who will end up being your boss. There is a saying that we should be careful who we step on as we climb up the corporate ladder – they might pass us on our way back down! Never fret when people that use others get ahead, because they usually end up losing their head. “I once knew a wicked man who was like a tyrant; he towered over everyone…but later I passed by, and he wasn’t there; I looked for him, but couldn’t find him.”
© 2011, Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved. Adapted from a column by Dr. Rick Warren, author of numerous books, including the highly acclaimed, The Purpose-Drive Life, which has been translated into many languages worldwide. It affirms the importance of a carefully considered, clearly expressed purpose to guide everyday life. It has been named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th Century.
CBMC INTERNATIONAL: Jim Firnstahl, President
1065 N. 115th Street, Suite 210 ▪ Omaha, Nebraska 68154 ▪ U.S.A.
TEL.: (402) 431-0002 ▪ FAX: (402) 431-1749 ▪ E-MAIL: info@cbmcint.org
Please direct any requests or change of address to: www.cbmcinto.org
Reflection/Discussion Questions
1. How would you rate the security of your current job – do you regard yourself as “flameproof,” or do you fear that it could go up in flames at any moment?
2. What do you think Dr. Warren means when he says, “Keep your career even if you are terminated”? Have you ever had a opportunity to put this advice into practice?
3. Why can personal pride become an issue in one’s desire to keep a job secure? What is the difference between the kind of negative, offensive pride Dr. Warren refers to and taking pride in doing your work well and achieving good results?
4. Have you ever experienced a person using – or abusing – you as he or she was striving to advance their career? How did that feel?
NOTE: If you have a Bible, consider these other passages that relate to this topic:
Proverbs 20:28, 22:29, 25:13, 28:20; Colossians 3:17, 23; Matthew 5:37; James 5:12
November 14th, 2011 in
Business Life |
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By: Rick Boxx
Just as in many families, many businesses seem to struggle with achieving a proper balance between maintaining rules and discipline while providing employees enough latitude for freedom and individuality. Some organizations are far too permissive, allowing their personnel to do virtually anything as they see fit. Others are too strict, severely restricting their staff’s actions and behavior.
When I lead business workshops, I like to teach the following formula:
“Rules + Relationships = Corporate Integrity.”
My years of experience in the corporate world have taught me this balance is crucial for a healthy, productive working environment. If you have rules, but have very little in terms of relationship, you will likely experience rebellion.
If, on the other hand, you have placed a strong emphasis on relationships, but you do not have well-thought-out, established guidelines for everyday practices and behavior, you might experience chaos. Being able to balance the two provides assurance to your people that you care about them, yet at the same time expect them to produce results in keeping with your company’s mission and values.
Romans 13:3 teaches, “For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.”
The problem occurs when there is confusion among your employees as to what “to do right” means. As leaders, our responsibility is to communicate that clearly and effectively. Just as sociologists have discovered children are most content when they understand their boundaries – whether at home or in school – business and professional people also look to their leaders to define the parameters under which they are expected to perform their jobs.
Rules and guidelines, especially when created with valued input from the people who will be governed by them, are not restrictive. They actually are empowering, because the individuals understand they are free to use their talents and abilities within those limits. Without those rules, workers can become confused, even immobilized, by fear of doing something wrong.
The alternative is for personnel to determine their own standards, which can have chaotic results. As Proverbs 29:18 tells us, “Where there is no vision, the people run wild.” Another translation expresses the same passage this way: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.”
Establishing rules just for the sake of controlling people can be demoralizing, so guidelines must be used as a means for enhancing the productivity – and satisfaction – of people in your employ.
Strong, effective leaders know how to balance compassion and discipline. Do you?
Copyright 2011, Integrity Resource Center, Inc. Adapted with permission from “Integrity Moments with Rick Boxx,” a commentary on issues of integrity in the workplace from a Christian perspective. To learn more about Integrity Resource Center or to sign up for Rick’s daily Integrity Moments, visit www.integrityresource.org. His book, How to Prosper in Business Without Sacrificing Integrity, gives a biblical approach for doing business with integrity.
CBMC INTERNATIONAL: Jim Firnstahl, President
1065 N. 115th Street, Suite 210 ▪ Omaha, Nebraska 68154 ▪ U.S.A.
TEL.: (402) 431-0002 ▪ FAX: (402) 431-1749 ▪ E-MAIL: info@cbmcint.org
Please direct any requests or change of address to: www.cbmcint.org
Reflection/Discussion Questions
1. What gets the strongest emphasis where you work – rules or relationships? Explain how you see this being demonstrated on a day-to-day basis.
2. How do you think a leader can go about seeking this balance, as Mr. Boxx writes, between rules and relationships? Is that even practical to attempt this, in your opinion? Why or why not?
3. It is suggested that people who are going to be governed by established rules and guidelines should have input into what those are? What are your thoughts about taking that approach?
4. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were not certain what the rules were that governed your actions or the plans you were formulating? If so, how did you feel about that circumstance – and what was the outcome?
NOTE: If you have a Bible and would like to read more about this subject, consider the following passages:
Proverbs 6:20-23, 13:13,18, 21:1; Romans 13:1-5; Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:17, 22-25
By Derek Dutka
I often read Oswald Chambers ‘My Utmost For His Highest’ as part of my daily devotions. Even though I have used it for years, each time provides a fresh revelation. The above title was for October 21.
Chambers talks about the calm strength of Jesus’ earthly life – He never got into a panic! Most of us develop our Christianity along the line of our temperment, not along the line of God. He finished off with the following: “We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in everyday as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.“
That last part – ‘We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things,’ really struck me. Isn’t that at the core of what integrity is? And isn’t that a reflection of our one-ness with Christ? Just imagine if every Christian purposed in their hearts to be the very best that they could be in whatever circumstance God puts them in . . . every day. Think of the impact you would have on the people around you! Whether you are a school teacher, a stay at home mom, an office cleaner, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a factory worker, a truck driver, a baker, a professional athlete or musician, a volunteer coach, a shopper – it doesn’t really matter. Whatever you do, you do as a witness for Jesus Christ. That is a startling thought because I can think of times when my actions and attitudes would not have been a good reflection (witness) of who Jesus Christ is!
Our lives need to reflect an awesome reverence for the God of creation, and a respect for other human beings, whom God created in His own image. We can’t simply tell people to be honest, hard working, respectful, etc. We have to model it for them – that’s how they’ll know what those words mean, is through your actions. When providing guiding on parenting, I have often used the phrase “character is more caught than taught”. While it certainly is important for parents to model Godly character traits for their children, it is our calling as Christians to model Godly character traits in the workplace and our social circles as well.
In closing, I believe that God calls us to have an infectious love for Him, which is translated into loving and respecting His creation . . . and being exceptional in the ordinary things. What are the people you hang out with going to “catch” from you?
November 4th, 2011 in
Business Life |
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by Os Hillman
“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’” Luke 11:1
God is calling out a remnant of workplace believers throughout the world who understand the role of prayer in their work. These people have learned that prayer is not a five-minute exercise in the morning devotion time, but it is a vital strategic tool to discern and know God’s will and purposes in their work lives. You see they have learned that their business lives are their ministries to God and others.
These men and women have entered into covenant relationships with intercessory prayer partners who help discern the activities they should be involved in. Some even have paid staff, who intercede for the decisions and activities in which they will be involved. They are a small remnant of workplace believers who know that skill and technique are not enough to fulfill God’s purposes.
A servant of the Lord has well said: Prayer is the rail for God’s work. Indeed, prayer is to God’s will as rails are to a train. The locomotive is full of power: it is capable of running a thousand miles a day. But if there are no rails, it cannot move forward a single inch. If it dares to move without them, it will soon sink into the earth. It may be able to travel over great distances, yet it cannot go to any place where no rails have been laid. And such is the relation between prayer and God’s work. Without any doubt God is almighty and He works mightily, but He will not and cannot work if you and I do not labor together with Him in prayer, prepare the way for His will, and pray “with all prayer and supplication” (Eph. 6:18) to grant Him the maneuverability to so work. Many are the things, which God wills to do, and would like to do, but His hands are bound because His children do not sympathize with Him and have not prayed so as to prepare ways for Him. Let me say to all who have wholly given themselves to God: Do examine yourselves and see if in this respect you have limited Him day after day. [Watchman Nee, Let Us Pray (New York, New York: Christian Fellowship Publishers, 1977), 11.]
Is prayer a vital part of your strategic business practices? Put prayer on the front lines, instead of making it an afterthought. You will begin to see renewed power in your work life.
October 26th, 2011 in
Business Life |
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This summer, we packed our minivan and headed out on a cross-country road trip to Texas. We have family there and summers offer the kids a chance for a nice long visit with their Grandma and cousins. I knew we were in for a long haul when we didn’t even get off of our street before my 5-year-old had to use the washroom. But we forged on and eventually crossed the Texas state line.
Just outside of Amarillo, Texas, my wife and I did a double take as we passed a roadside truck stop. I turned the car around at the next highway exit and we went back for a closer look. This is what we saw:
The name of this truck stop is The Jesus Christ is Lord Travel Center. Along the windows are verses from the book of Psalms. A digital sign alternated bible verses with the local time and weather. No matter which side of the building you faced, you were met with declarations of Christ’s Lordship over that travel center.
The Jesus Christ is Lord Travel Center is owner by Sam Kohli. Sam is an entrepreneurial-minded business man. He owns a trucking company that transports goods across North America. Disgusted with the way Jesus’ name is used as a swear-word by media, TV and movie productions, he decided to use his trucks as traveling billboards to share the gospel and proclaim the message of Christ. He especially likes when he has deliveries in Southern California and the message drives through Hollywood.
Sam wasn’t worried that he might lose business by doing what he knew to be right. In an article on Sam’s website he states: “Some customers said they didn’t want their goods transported in trailers with this message. So, they’re not customers anymore.”
Sam is 100% all-in to the cause of the gospel and the purpose of his business. No one can look at Sam’s website, his building or even his trucks and come away wondering what he is all about. He puts it out there – front and center – for the world to see.
In your business – if an outsider were to look at your website, read your brochures, or listen to an employee talk about the company would they know what you are all about? I’m not just talking about your faith; is your business message so crystal-clear that no one could wonder what you do or why you do it?
Too often I encounter companies who are trying to blend in with others in their industry. “Everyone else does this, so I think I should do it too…” Unfortunately, there is nothing to differentiate you from the rest of the world. Nothing to show why someone should do business with you, above all other options.
As Christians, we are told we are to be in the world, but not of the world. I seek that in my life and in my business. If I am just like the people in the world around me, I am going to be ineffective in my discipleship. If I am just like the others in my industry, I am going to be ineffective in my work.
God cares about our work. He cares how we do it, He cares about our motives behind our work and He cares about the people we come in contact with as we work. Are you all in?
There is a lot of evidence of the value of goal setting. In the book What They Don’t Teach You in the Harvard Business School , author and business success expert Mark McCormack talks about a study conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program. In that year, the students were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” Only 3% of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13% had goals, but they were not in writing; and a whopping 84% had no specific goals at all.
Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings, while somewhat predictable, were nonetheless astonishing. The 13% of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84% who had no goals at all.
And, what about the 3% who had clear, written goals? They were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97% put together!
I am the first to admit that the amount of money you earn is only one aspect of ‘success’. In twenty-five years as a financial planner, I have helped many clients set, plan for, and, achieve personal and financial goals. I learned very early in my career, that it is relatively simple to set and achieve financial goals. I say relatively simple because financial goals relate to things: doing something or having something. It is very simple to find out the cost of a Caribbean cruise or a ski trip to the Swiss Alps, index it for inflation and calculate how much money you need to put away each month to achieve that goal. Likewise, it is very simple to find out the cost of your dream automobile, cottage or recreation vehicle and do the same calculation.
The Do and Have goals are easy to track. This in itself provides great incentive to stick with the plan. You can see yourself getting closer to the goal, which is the reward (the ‘activity or thing’). However, these are temporal goals, and achieving them provides only temporary satisfaction. People can literally become ‘addicted’ to Do and Have goals. Each new goal tends to be ‘bigger/better’ in an attempt to bring lasting satisfaction. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to matter how much bigger or better the reward is, satisfaction and contentment tend to elude those that are deemed to be very successful at achieving their material goals.
We are eternal beings, comprised of body, soul and spirit. The body is a temporary residence for our eternal soul and spirit. Achieving temporal goals will never fill an eternal need, yet many of us try to get through life focusing primarily on the Do and Have goals, with very little time invested in who we were created to Be. We are referred to as human Be – ings, not human Do -ings. Is it any wonder that there is such a high level of dissatisfaction in the world today?
I will warn you, that setting and achieving the Be - ing goals can be much more difficult. Be - ing has everything to do with your character (eternal) and very little to do with things (temporal). It is possible that some of your Be - ing goals might actually detract from or prolong your Do and Have goals. It is much harder to define and track Be - ing goals. What does it mean to be a good father/mother? Husband/Wife? Business owner? How would you rate yourself on the character traits listed in Galatians 5:22-23? Is there room for improvement?
Questions for Reflection/Discussion:
1. Do you have specific goals (preferably written) for every facet of your life (health, financial, spiritual, family, etc.)? If yes, how is it working? If not, why not?
2. Do you feel setting goals and planning is biblical? Explain your answer.
3. The bible talks a lot more about stewardship than ownership. Are you being a wise steward of all the gifts (not just money) that God has given you? Explain your answer.
4. I am sure all of you are operating your businesses legally. However, there can be a difference between legal and ethical. How do you think you would fare if Jesus came and did an “Ethics Audit” of your business, and of your personal life? Is there anything you’d like to clean up before He comes?
Closing Challenge: take 5 minutes right now and write down 10 things you’d like to accomplish in the next 12 months. Studies show that the simple act of putting your goals on paper will result in achieving at least 6 or 7 of them!
February 24th, 2011 in
Business Life |
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“You don’t swear, do you?”
The question took me by surprise. I was at a second meeting with a new client, and we were discussing his online marketing strategy. We weren’t talking about personal beliefs, or anything other than business, so his question seemed out of place.
Sermons and devotionals are often messaged on the need for those who follow Christ to be salt and light in a dark and tasteless world. I hear / read them and usually do a double take to wonder, “Do others notice a difference in me?”
On particularly busy days, I bustle from one meeting to the next, barely stopping to stir the sugar into my fourth cup of coffee. At the end of the day, when I flop down exhausted, I sometimes wonder if I did any light-shining at all. The temptation would be to add “shine the light of Christ” to my to-do list, as if it were something I had to manufacture.
I have some Good news for you. You don’t have to manufacture salt and light. You just have to be willing to be the deliverer. In those moments when you are able to take breather – when you can connect with God through prayer or by reading His Word – His Spirit is up to something.
Jesus said, “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” (John 15:26)
When I allow His Spirit the room to work, through me, the Spirit gives evidence of Christ. The Spirit enables the salt and light to be seen. In those moments when my human mind is focused elsewhere – like on marketing plans and sales tactics – the Spirit is doing what He came to do. My job? Allow the Spirit access.
You don’t need to add “Be salt and light” to your to-do list. If you use your breathing moments to spend time with God, He’ll shine the light and sprinkle the salt through you. With the Spirit of God, you ARE the salt and you ARE the light.
I can genuinely say that it was God’s work that the client noticed a difference in me – not my work – because I was busy thinking about other things. I was thankful for the reminder and encouragement from God that even in those little nuances – like the language I use – He has the chance to use me for His work.
- Colin Parker
A powerful illustration of our relationship with the Creator and His Son
It has taken a long time for us to understand what God’s plan for mankind really is. We have gone through many stages in our understanding including: Jesus died for us so we could escape hell, to Jesus died for us so we could go to Heaven. But God’s original purpose for man is clear. We were created to be the image of God.
When we were first formed, God made it clear what His intentions were for us as seen in what He said when He created us. “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.””[1]
We were designed to be the likeness of God. Today we would say we were to be the image… mirror… reflection… of God. Mankind was created to reflect the attributes and characteristics of God. We were intended to be a physical manifestation of an invisible God. God breathed His own life into mankind to enable us to do this.
It is important to realize that God’s will for mankind has never changed. Whatever God gave to Adam and told man to do in the Garden of Eden, is still what God wants today. They had dominion and that is God’s will for us today. They were the image of God, and God wants us to be that today.
Mankind very quickly failed in reflecting God, as seen in the failure in the Garden of Eden.[2] They were tempted to be like God, but didn’t realize that in the important ways, they already were like Him. They already were reflecting Him. The one thing they wanted, they already had. The effects of that failure is still felt today among people, and there is nothing we can do to change it.
That is the bad news, now here is the good news. Jesus Christ came to earth in the image of God.[3] The very thing we were supposed to be, He is. But that is only half of the good news. We are being changed into the image of Jesus. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”[4]
This is illustrated simply by our own solar system. The sun gives the earth light at day and the moon at night. But under closer examination, the moon does not give light, it is still the sun. Actually, there is no moonlight. It is sunlight reflecting off the moon. In fact, the moon is reflecting the light of the sun whether we see it or not.
It is the most natural thing for the moon to do. You can go outside at night, and you will never hear the moon grunting, “I think I can; I think I can; I think I can.” It reflects automatically. The only time it does not reflect is during a lunar eclipse, when the moon passes in the shadow of the earth.
This is a powerful example of our purpose and relationship with God and His Son. We were created in the image of God. We were designed to reflect Him. It is the most natural thing for us to do on our life journey. In fact, as long as we stay in the presence of the Son, we will reflect Him. The only time, we don’t reflect, is when we pass into the shadow of the world. When the world gets in between us and God, we stop reflecting the Son just like when the moon gets into the shadow of the earth it stops reflecting the sun.
This issue of Business Life explores that very concept. The goal of our life path is not to head toward self-actualization or self-fulfillment or even Freedom 65. The goal of our life development is still the same goal as the original — to reflect Christ. Our goal is to become spiritually mature. May this magazine and this ministry help you get there.
Footnotes
- Genesis 1:26-28 NIV
- Genesis 3:1-7
- Colossians 1:15
- 2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
First appeared in Spring 2007 Business LIFE
How the Church is adjusting to better deal with an ever changing society
We are living in a time of dynamic innovation. The last 25 years have brought us the PC, the Internet, Google, Apple’s iPod, digital cameras, PDA’s, satellite phones and instant communication.
We can now e-mail our friends around the globe, use our BlackBerrys to stay in touch and even blog to get our thoughts ‘out there’ in cyberspace. Podcasting lets us view our favorite programs or news whenever and wherever we want. Skype enables us to talk long distance over the net — for free. And when separated by distance, as many families are, our computers double as a video conference center. These tools are amazing and creating a tidal wave of new ideas.
Even our world seems so much smaller now. CNN brings us what is happening, while it is happening. Imbedded reporters show us the violence of war from inside a tank or bunker. Consumers are getting into the act and using YouTube to show anyone with a computer, products that are faulty or how the little guy is being ripped off. Giant corporations are watching, listening and responding as people experience the radical influence one person can now have. Something about the old saying, “Power to the people” is becoming true in our day. Tremendous dynamics abound in today’s exciting and ever-changing marketplace.
This is not the only place change is happening. The Church is experiencing a major revolution, a dynamic shift that is being welcomed by marketplace ministers. While the message remains the same, the methods of how we do church are changing as rapidly as our society.
New models of church are emerging. From group specific churches to corporate chaplaincy, from small gatherings in homes to weekly office Bible studies, the church is focused on being the church in daily life.
Church size makes no difference anymore as pastors and people use many of the tools of the digital world. Web pages, e-mail, iTunes to broadcast the service or messages via video or audio. Modern TV and radio are just one of many tools being used by today’s church. As more tools emerge, the church will embrace those as well.
A pastor once said, “All truth is parallel!” He encouraged us to view world events both naturally and spiritually. What is happening in the seen world is a reflection of what is also happening in the unseen world.
As products are developed in secret, then made public, so too have the men and women of faith been preparing in secret. The full effect of marketplace ministry has not been seen yet as God prepares His people for service in the 21st century — a church without walls!
Over the last 25 years evangelicals, pentecostals and mainline leaders have come together regularly to affirm their love for the Lord and need to reach others for Christ. High on the agenda was the importance of their people knowing their natural and spiritual gifts, their vocation and call to service. Believers now understand that their ministry is what they do from Sunday to Sunday in daily life.
Christians everywhere are being called upon to answer questions of ethics, morality and values as the speed of change in society increases. Whether we like it or not, the Church represents God’s government in the earth and He has something to say about how we shape our families, educate our children, use media, arts, sports, fashion, and use our wealth of creativity, influence and money. God has an opinion about the marketplace and He is making that opinion known.
Societal and spiritual transformation is happening side by side. God’s leaders and people have awoken to the need to be trained to serve in the marketplace. Churches are offering courses on basic doctrines, spiritual gifts, personality profiles and workplace book studies. The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren and The Day of the Saints by Bill Hamon are helping to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
The Church is more intentional in making Jesus and His message known. Why? Because the marketplace is the ‘acid test’ of our faith. It is here that truth is lived out among non-believers. It is here that we model something eternal. It is here that we witness to a life lived for purpose not just a pay cheque. We live to know God and make Him known. It is here in the marketplace that we see value in our work and in our co-workers.
Churches understand the opportunities before them today and are seizing those opportunities. Change brings a new language and whoever adjusts quickest wins. In marriage, when you say “I do” change happens in a moment and from that moment on your head and heart need to be wrapped around your new situation.
In the Church, words like reform, nurture, empower, revitalize and redeem are emerging again with new meaning. Christians are seeking ways to bring the essence of these words into their workplace.
Marketplace ministry is about bridging the gap between the spiritual and the natural. Seeing employment as a place God has planted us to be a blessing earns the respect of our co-workers and gives us an opportunity to minister to their spiritual needs.
Modern companies are seeing the value of mergers and focusing the strengths that each brings to the table. Today’s Church sees the same need of mergers. We need to be a united community. While the denominational lines are still clear on Sunday morning, those lines are blurred throughout the week in the marketplace.
The impact God is having through marketplace ministers is raising the bar. In the midst of all the recent financial scandals, Christians in the marketplace are at the forefront of calling on companies to model responsible profit sharing and to help others in practical and creative ways. The recent ‘red campaign’ by U2’s Bono and Bobby Shriver points out how corporations can model giving back. Profit is needed to stay in business, but living for ideals that are nobler than just profit is catching on. This is marketplace ministry redeeming corporations and directing them to causes, which benefit the world we all share.
Just as God lived incarnationally in Jesus and effected change in the world of His day, so Jesus lives incarnationally in His Church effecting change in our world. God is in the business of redeeming people and transforming society. He wants to affect change in the world through you — will you
First appeared in Winter 2006 Business LIFE
October 21st, 2009 in
Business Life |
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Businesses today want to win — no matter the cost. Perhaps the marketplace could change its ways — and maybe the world.
It must be a coincidence, right?
Andrew Fastow, Enron’s former chief financial officer, was recently sentenced to six years in prison — and on the same day he names 10 prestigious Wall Street firms as his “co-conspirators”, including Merrill Lynch, RBS and Barclays.
Former Hewlett-Packard board chairwoman Patricia Dunn has testified to the use of “pretexting” to investigate its own board. “I do not accept personal responsibility for what happened,” she says. And then Ann Baskins, HP’s former general counsel and nine other witnesses all said they wouldn’t say anymore on the grounds it may incriminate them.
Oh, and here’s one more item — an interesting recent study by Donald McCabe, professor of management and global business at Rutgers University: Among all graduate students, MBA candidates are the biggest cheaters.
According to survey data from 623 students at 32 graduate business schools in Canada and the USA, 56% admitted cheating. But, as McCabe notes, it’s not cheating for cheating’s sake: These students are doing it to win. Cheating can help them get great internships and high-paying jobs at big name companies. So maybe it isn’t a coincidence. Even so, that doesn’t answer the deeper question: What’s wrong with the business world — and, in particular, as business leaders who are followers of Jesus Christ, how do we respond?
Difference in professions
Part of the answer could lie in the history of business graduate schools. The MBA is a fairly recent invention, unlike the other professions with graduate degrees. The oldest graduate school for business in North America is a little more than 100 years old; Europe’s oldest is only a bit more than 40 years old. Compare that with law and medicine. Law schools date to the Roman Republic. And though lawyers might not have the best reputation, at least the Canadian Bar Association has issued its Code of Professional Conduct. Medicine goes back farther, even if you consider only Western medicine. Hippocrates of Cos, who lived in the age of Pericles, is widely considered “the father of Medicine.” Science might have advanced, but Hippocrates lives on today in the Hippocratic Oath, which proscribes a moral basis for doctors.
So perhaps part of the difference between these schools is what it means to be a profession. But there is also a wider gap that separates business from medicine and law. The Marketplace has yet to answer a question of the first order: What’s the point of the exercise?
In the case of medicine and law, there are higher purposes. Doctors work to heal the sick and provide comfort to their patients. Lawyers are charged with representing their clients and also with upholding the nation’s laws. What about business men and women? What’s our higher purpose?
Christians in the Marketplace
The ads in The Economist offer a good idea of the missions that leading business schools assign themselves. The promotion for the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management is “We’ll make you a better leader.” South of the border the ad for the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business says, “You’ll experience the people and ideas responsible for revolutionizing the business world.” How perfectly it complements Harvard Business School’s mission: “We educate leaders who make a difference in the world.”
At least these ads are consistent with what today’s businessmen have taken as their key responsibility: Increasing a company’s share price. Or, as Jack Welch so succinctly put it in the title of his recent book, Winning. But winning, as the data is showing, can become a rationale for cheating.
What if, instead of seeking to create shareholder value as their definition of success, business men and women sought to establish well-articulated social values — and then applied them to their own careers and organizations? What if, instead of writing books called “Winning,” they called their books “Serving”? And what if, instead of measuring success only by their ability to amass financial capital, they also sought to grow social capital?
Because the real problem with the marketplace today isn’t the few scoundrels who bring disgrace to so many honest managers. The real problem is that it needs to serve a higher purpose than making a lot of money. The challenge today is to answer a fundamental question: what is the purpose of work?
What is the Purpose of Work?
This is hardly an academic question, what with issues of global warming, the growing gap between the haves and have-nots, and the seeds of war and terrorism sown by divergent economic systems. Business leaders need to espouse a bigger game than just winning that connects to a view of the world as an interconnected community, where the future of the wealthiest depends in equal measure on the future of the poorest.
Over the next year we will be outlining our Pathway to Purpose. This is our strategic vision to help business leaders in Canada express the love of Jesus in the marketplace. We see four pathways that lead us on a journey with Christ in the pursuit of personal and business transformation: Life, Leadership, Ministry and Business Excellence.
As business leaders we need to think about this bigger game that asks fundamental questions about the purpose of business. Jesus teaches that we must serve each other to be true leaders (see John 13:14 and Matthew 19:30). Or as the teacher William Hundert, played by Kevin Kline, says to future business leaders in the movie, The Emperor’s Club, servant leadership teaches how “it is not living that is important, but living rightly.”
First appeared in Winter 2006 Business LIFE
