I’ve been thinking about the “non-negotiables” of following God at work. In order for me to seek the Kingdom in enterprise, what I do must resound with the calling of Christ and impulse of the Gospel. It must prophetically announcing the coming of Kingdom-reality as much as all other Jesus-following. This makes me think that Missional Business is a WHOLE Enterprise:
W – Witnessing: We bear witness to incarnation, ministry, death, resurrection and second coming of Christ in all that we say and do. We have tasted the coming Kingdom and testify to world of its reality.
H – Holistic: God is ONE, so all of life must be integrated: fun, family, work, faith. Value and peace are created when everything is brought into connection for living, organic, sustainable practices in imitation of a God who is in all, and through all, and over all.
O – Other-Serving: Rather than serving self, we seek the shalom of all people. Our strategy is collaboration over competition, connection over coercion, and participation over consumption.
L – Leader-Nurturing: God calls and raises up humans to take responsibility for each other so he may use us to deliver his mysterious grace to people. To that end we disciple people to God so they can be complete individuals in service of community, family, and humankind.
E – Entrepreneurial: Rather than just reform and maintenance of what has been established, the Gospel compels us to exercise creativity with God in doing new thing in new places with new people as the Kingdom expands and subverts the dysfunction of the establishment.
What is the “bottom line?” maybe at it simplest I could reply, “Is God being glorified?” Jesus told us, “Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and that your fruit remains.”
I have done a lot of thinking about fruit that remains. Much Christian activity is well motivated, but not sustainable. When I began looking at how to help world poverty issues, I found many of my (particularly UK) friends thinking “charity”, and “wealth re-distribution”, rather than wealth creation and self-sustaining enterprise. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said that you “can’t make the poor, rich by making the rich, poor!” To bad that most politicians and many Christian acivists don’t understand that simple principle. For fruit to remain, you must “teach the man to fish” rather than just provide him with a fish. How much more authentic much Christian ministry would be if those engaged in it were also seen to “work with their own hands . . . so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” 1 Thess 4:11-12.
Tony wrote:
I think this is where our simple church experience has a lot to offer. We’ve moved out of modes that emphasize religious services and consumerism into modes that emphasize participation and co-production. The lessons in organic principles are as profound as they are rare.
I can’t help but think that the curse for man to work the ground with his hands had a bit of salvation in it. In participating in the growing process, we gained an appreciation for the work of God that just picking fruit could never give us. (Isn’t it like Dad to make punishments redemptive rather than punitive.) In the same way, sustainable fruit — in the developed or developing world, in business or in simple church planting — will always involve joining the life and work of God in deeper and deeper ways.
Not surprisingly, this is good business, and the best way to help the developing world. The Business as Mission Network published it’s list of top 25 companies that are doing just that. Take a look and be inspired: Most Admired Businesses 2008