From my observation, most Christian business owners, leaders and managers have a tough time connecting the principles of managing a business with Biblical principles. Most management problem solving and decision making appears to happen without seeking God’s wisdom or reviewing the underlying guidance from Scripture.
So, what is the purpose of a business? Is it not to produce a product or service that consumers want and are willing to buy? To sustain the business, you need to make a profit. As the business grows, you need to hire additional people to produce your product or offer your service. How do we fit these thoughts into the Kingdom? What are the obstacles? What does Scripture say?
Obstacle #1, thinking we own the business.
Psalm 50:10 says, “He owns the cattle on a thousand hills”.
To me this means He owns it all. We are simply stewards of His “business”. If He wants His business to prosper, if it is His will, if somehow the business fits into His Kingdom plan, our job as His steward is to continually seek His guidance for His business to accomplish what He wants us to accomplish, bringing glory to God.
James 4:13-15 says, “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
For our business to have Kingdom value, it must be in the Lord’s will. With our limited understanding of what the future brings we may see what we think are great opportunities, but the Lord might have a better plan right around the corner.
Psalm 23 verse 1 says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”, verse 2 says, “He leads me…He refreshes me…He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake”.
“For His name’s sake”. To ensure we stay in step with His will, we must seek Him until we have the peace that only He can give about our situation. After all, He is the Shepherd of His business, and He will accomplish His plans, if we follow His guidance, we can be part of it. I believe it starts with us recognizing everything we do needs to bring glory to our Lord.
Matthew 5:13-16 says, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
One of my favorite quotes is, “Preach the Gospel at all times…when necessary, use words.” (St. Francis) Our life, business and personal, needs to reflect the Gospel, salt and light. If we “put our lamp under a bowl” while we are doing our job, people cannot see God’s glory.
Obstacle #2, not incorporating prayer into the business day-to-day.
How do we seek God’s wisdom? Do we pray before making decisions? Do we start meetings with prayer inviting God into our discussion and decision making? Do we have a prayer team that daily brings to our Lord our desire to understand how to steward His business each day? Do we believe that prayer should be relegated to church and home but has no place in business? Just saying that is convicting, yet is it not it how it is most of the time?
James 1:5 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, he should ask God.”
Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.”
1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.”
Obviously, there are many more verses about prayer. The question is do we believe they apply to our business life. If we think about it, God is our God 24/7, at home, at work, at church, etc. When we humbly ask for His will to be done, He will answer our perplexing business problems.
I worked for 8 years with a small manufacturing company. A few years ago, the then President retired. At the very first meeting after the retirement, the new President, Vice President, and myself decided to invite our Lord through prayer into the guiding of this company. That first meeting, and every Leadership meeting since, opens with prayer seeking God’s will in the decision making. We have seen His hand move many obstacles and guided us through countless decisions.
Obstacle #3, thinking the business is about making money.
Another struggle I see in connecting business to the Kingdom is that the Kingdom is about people, not money. Two Scriptures come to mind.
Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
1 Timothy 6:10 “The love of money is the root of all evil”.
So, money is not the problem. Loving money is the problem. We must serve God, not money. Serving Him by building into His Kingdom. Think about the Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30. Are we a “good and faithful servant”? Doing what we know He would have us do with what He gives us is the key.
Here is “The Parable of the Rich Fool”
Luke 12:16-21, “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 5:10,
“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.”
Obstacle #4, not a focus on building into people.
We understand we are not to love money, but it takes money to run a business. What I hear in these passages is our focus can’t be money. It is only a “tool” to be used in the business. I have recognized for years that profit cannot be a goal. It is a result, or a measurement of our people doing things right. Then what should be our focus? God and people are the only things that are eternal. What are the most important things in the Kingdom? What did Jesus say we should love? Jesus answered that question when He was asked “what is the greatest commandment?”
In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
I think this is where we get lost. We understand that as a Christian running a business, we want to reflect God’s laws, be honest, have integrity in what we do, etc. However, how does “love God and love your neighbor” fit into operating our business? I believe the confusion comes from our definition of “love”. Love is not a feeling. Love is an action word. How the world sees us reflecting God’s image in what we do and how we and our teammates treat each other is the connection.
If we use the Biblical definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 as a guide to employee interaction, we will see remarkable results. Here is my paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 with a little flavoring thrown in from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey for Team Building.
Have patience with teammates
Show kindness and first seek to understand others, then to be understood
Never be envious of teammates’ accomplishments
Be proud of your Team, not proud of yourself alone, it takes everyone
Do not be rude, but always be polite to others
Do not be self-focused, create Interdependency, all working together for greater results
Do not be easily angered, be a problem solver, be proactive, fix it together
Do not focus on past wrongs, forgive past relational problems, don’t let them stop teamwork
Always seeking the truth, be an empathetic listener listening for meaning, not just words
Trust your teammates to do their part, without trust there is no team
Teamwork never fails, it creates synergy, the team can do more than the individuals
Defining how we treat each other is the beginning. We must then establish Core Values that will guide all business interactions with employees, customers, and vendors. This takes effort. It will probably take the Leadership Team 4 to 6 hours to flesh out how we want to measure our ability to stay Kingdom focused. Once we have created the 5 to 7 Core Values, we can use them as a filter in all business decisions and transactions. We can also use them to evaluate our employees and our vendors quarterly to help them understand and stay on track.
Having established our Core Values, the next step is to get the “right people” in the “right seat”, a philosophy first stated by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great. The “right people” are people that believe in and act out our Core Values. The “right seat” is getting each of our employees into a position where they can use their God-given passions, talents, and abilities in the positions our organization needs to accomplish fulfilling the business purpose. This takes “knowing” each person. Not know a few facts about them but knowing their passions and skills so we can determine what type of work God created them to do.
I have come to call this the “iceberg concept”. An iceberg is 90% below sea level. When we first get to know people, the “whole” person is 90% below “see” level. It takes time and trust building for anyone to open up and let you “know” them (1 Corinthians 13 above). However, once we reach that point in our relationships with our employees and get them into a job that fits who God created them to be, they will experience job satisfaction at an amazing level. Imagine all our team doing what they love to do, and they were incredibly good at it. A team full of people doing what God created them to do. People typically do not leave jobs like that. The results will be low turnover, greater efficiency, higher morale, team harmony resulting in higher profit. Good goals for our business. All by putting the Scripture definition of love into the workplace.
We can also allow employees to display interests they have outside of our business. I worked in a company that allowed employees to share charitable ideas with the team. A young lady was on the steering committee of a halfway house that help women get out of bad situations and into safe places. The organization put on a drive for bedding, blankets, linen, etc. Our employee put out a challenge to see which department could bring in the most bedding supplies. The company offered a pizza party for the winning department. The challenge created great excitement in our teams, and we gathered an amazing amount of bedding for the charity. It was fun. Our employee was so proud of her fellow employees. The team building was priceless. People using their God-given passions to help others.
Obstacle #5, thinking some positions are more valuable than others.
Every job at every level is important. Just because someone has more seniority, or their position pays more does not mean one person is more important to the team than others. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about the “Body of Christ”.
1 Corinthians 12:12-16 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ…Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body”.
I have spent my career in the manufacturing world. This is my paraphrase of Paul’s word picture.
A Die Maker cannot say to a Customer Service employee, “I don’t need you!” And the Plate Maker cannot say to the Production Artist, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be lesser are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less productive we should treat with honor. And the parts that are the support processes, Accounting, Purchasing, etc., should be treated with respect, without them we could not exist.
Obstacle #6, not recognizing we are making disciples.
Matthew 28:19 says, “Go and make disciples of all nations”, verse 20 says, “Teaching them all I have commanded you”.
With the right people in the right seat, we can teach them to think in a Biblical manor. Not preaching but teaching situation by situation. Think of how Jesus did that with His chosen team, three years of day-to-day situational teaching that turned them into His Disciples that changed the world around them after He was gone. Our job then is to make disciples of our business by teaching them to understand the business and its processes and then getting them to the level that they can teach others, making more disciples. These employees understand the value of the Core Values even before they equate them to Scripture.
A mistake we often make is not listening to our employees. I mentioned empathetic listening above. Empathetic listening is listening deeper than hearing words. It is ensuring you know what they are saying and why they are saying it. Taking time for them to “explain” what they are trying to say. Watching their expression and their body language. Really “hearing” them.
They “see” the business from deeper inside the “iceberg” than we do. They can “see cracks and faults” in our processes better than we can from our vantage point. We need to hear what they think. Not every idea will be valid, but even when they are not, we have the opportunity to help them “see” from our perspective. The more employees see the big picture, the fewer errors will be made in the process. I have seen interns come up with savings of thousands of dollars because they were a new set of eyes looking at how we do what we do. If the culture is open to listening to innovative ideas, we will reap the rewards.
When an open culture like this is created, we will also have opportunities to share the Gospel. When employees experience this culture, some will ask you why we are so different. The door will open to make disciples of Christ, if God’s light is reflected in the way the business is run.
Obstacle #7, not picking the right future leaders.
As the business grows, we will need to add new leaders and multiple levels. What criteria should we use to begin to select potential candidates for us to build into? Paul’s direction to Timothy is a good place to start.
1 Timothy 3:1-5 “Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)”
If we start with this as a first filter and then move them through the 5 levels of leadership, again from Jim Collins book Good to Great, we will find success in our leadership group.
Level 1 – makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits. (Every employee needs to exhibit level 1)
Level 2 – contributes individual capabilities to the achievement of group objectives, works effectively in group settings. (This is where God-given leadership abilities start to show -remember the iceberg)
Level 3 – competent manager, organizes people and resources effectively (This is front line leadership. Most of our employees work for this level. It is key to success.)
Level 4 – effective leader, committed to and in vigorous pursuit of clear and compelling vision. (This is the leadership team level.)
Level 5 – builds enduring greatness through a blend of humility and professional will. (This level moves an organization from good to great.) This was Jesus’ leadership style.
Obstacle #8, not recognizing the Kingdom purpose of our revenue.
Back to the “elephant in the room;” money. We know the love of money is the problem, not money itself. I also stated my belief that money is not a goal, it is a result of profitable efforts. Then we need to answer the question, what is the Kingdom purpose of the revenue or money that we receive from our customers.
The first use is obvious. Pay our bills. Stay out of debt if possible. If we need to make a large purchase, pay it off as quickly as possible. If we stay out of debt, we will remain flexible to change directions if the Lord leads. Kingdom thinking leads us to be slave to no man. Budget for upcoming major purchases. Create major purchase savings accounts before the need arises.
Proverb 22:7, “The borrower is slave to the lender.”
What about salaries and benefits? How does that become Kingdom focused? This is where we need to see a bigger picture than the obvious. Look at the Organization Chart. Not a chart with just position titles, but a chart with every employee’s name on it. Now picture at the top of the chart the revenue streaming in, and after operating costs have been covered, continuing down to each employee through payroll and benefits. Is that the end of the flow of that money? For the company it is, but for the Kingdom it is not. Each employee belonging to the Kingdom invests a portion of the revenue they received in wages back into their part of the Kingdom; some to support their families, some to support whatever ministries in which they are involved. When they invest in their chosen ministry, the revenue continues to move throughout the Kingdom. Lives we do not even know are touched by the Lord through the multiple ministries our people support with the wages we pay them out of the revenue the business receives. That is amazing to me. We are impacting the world through the Kingdom.
I believe as stewards of the Lord’s business, we are called to reflect His wisdom, love people, and create an environment where we can build into people and make disciples, both business and Kingdom disciples. As we are “salt and light” in our world of business, employees that are already His followers may be drawn deeper because we are not “hiding our light under a bowl.” If it be the Lord’s will, employees that are not yet followers of the Lord may be drawn to the “light.” We may have opportunity to help them on their journey to faith.
Christian Life Coach 