The Gospel flips the whole world up-side-down. The Kingdom of God, in it’s most central meaning, is God’s reality subverting and overcoming human-generated reality. That means Jesus re-defines all human endeavors, not the least of which is business. We cannot afford to be dualistic and allow our economic activities to remain unconverted while the rest of us is discipled to the Master (since most of our lives are now spent at work, that would only leave 25% for Jesus). We must start with changing the definition of business.
Being a “wiki-a-holic”, I decided to look up “business” on Wikipedia. Here are the more salient snippets:
QUOTE:
In economics, a business (also called firm or enterprise) is a legally recognized organizational entity existing within an economically free country designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most are privately owned and typically formed to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. The owners and operators of a business have as one of their main objectives the receipt or generation of a financial return in exchange for their work and their acceptance of risk.
and…
QUOTE:
the broadest meaning to include all activity by the community of suppliers of goods and services. However, the exact definition of business, like much else in the philosophy of business, is a matter of debate.
I think these definitions do well at summarizing our culture’s understanding of business, but I would really like to put them under the lens of Missio Dei (the Mission of God) and see how they hold up.
For example, should a business exist primarily to serve the interests and increase the wealth of it’s owners? While this is certainly moral in our culture (in fact it’s the very definition of good business in most capitalist economies), it is not very ethical in my opinion (I’m using “ethical” as that which is consistent with your ethos or mission and “morality” as that which does not violate mores or social rules). The killer for me is that Jesus does not do his “business” for the sake of serving his interests (other than the interest he has in us) or to increase his wealth.
John Renesch, a proponent of the stake-holder philosophy of business writes:
QUOTE:
Corporations are human-made organisms, associations of human beings. To see this association as having one solitary purpose and responsibility, to grow only in economic terms, is such an extreme view that implosions like what happened to Enron, WorldCom and other corporate collapses will become more and more commonplace.
I agree with this, but I’m skeptical that anyone will adopt multipurpose or holisitc purposes to business without a significant transition in motivators. It’s a great quote, but will it really change anyone’s mind who is packing their pockets?
I wouldn’t agree with Druker’s definition that the purpose of a business is creating satisfied customers (or even serving its broader constituency). While a good business will satisfy most of it’s clients, it plays too much to consumerism to allow this as the sole control of enterprise. Otherwise, when the customers are only satisfied with a lower price, the business will be required to purposefully abuse it’s work force (think WalMart). Etc.
How about this:
Business is our participation in the value-producing producivity and activity of God to sustain and enhance life producing shalom to His glory and the good of the world.
The problem with a definition like that is that we already have words that mean that, and none of them are “business”. In some ways, this returns to the Hebraic view of economic activity, all of which was to participate in God-given shalom (holistic peace) for your household, your people, and whomever God chose to bless through you. This wasn’t called “doing business”, it was called “being just” or “being righteous” (same words in Hebrew).
Any thoughts?
I have a passion beyond words to see new believers born into the kingdom. And an almost equal passion for seeing new churches planted, here in the US and in every corner of the world. As a young chap, I was sad, seeing all my comrades sailing off into the sunset to be ‘full-time’ pastors and missionaries. But I knew I had an inescapable call to engineering and business. All I could do is to say to myself, “One day, I’ll show them, God will use me too!”
Now our business is doing very well. I really have no good plan for what to do with all the money. (I also have an unapologetic passion for making money, and feel that it is the fulfillment of God’s purpose for me.) I do know that I am helping and encouraging church planters, right and left. I’m involved with organic church projects coming out my ears. And I’m praying hard about where to give, and hoping that thru all the chaos, I make a difference.
It all started 20 years ago when God led me to give beyond my means by faith, (That’s a whole ‘nother story.) which led to series of miraculous happenings. Part of this process was a sort of prophetic, faith-filled dreaming….fueled by stories of Abraham and how God blessed him. It was almost like what an entrepreneur must experience, but the Christian version. You know, this whole faith thing seems very ‘Jewish’ to me….
Is there a job position in God’s kingdom for passionate, people that they didn’t tell us about? Is there a way to REALLY pursue the Kingdom at work, thru work, in a small business, or a larger corporate environment? Not the ‘weenie kingdom’, where all we do is post a “fish” on our office door…but really making an impact? If this is true, you must tell me! (I think this is the cry of many a commoner like me.)
Great story Jim! I think many people identify with your story, though I have a hunch you’re a “fore-runner” in this kind of thing as far as the house church movement goes.
You said:
By faith and in my limited experience, I know this is true. But I think we have yet to see the full reality of this. The reality is most church life avoids speaking directly to business life and most Christians in the business world struggle greatly to live in Kingdom ways. But I think the lessons we’ve learned in simple church will help us fashion something new that brings the Kingdom in new ways.
I’ve been experimenting with different things like training young Jesus-followers in my business (discipleship + business) and using parable and metaphor to share the Gospel incarnationally across the meeting table with clients. While I still feel THE WALL where the Kingdom of Mammon resists the Kingdom of God, the subversive, sneaky, saturating, ways of Jesus I’ve learned in simple church seem to be working.
Two quick comments. Soulster comments in his blog, “Otherwise, when the customers are only satisfied with a lower price, the business will be required to purposefully abuse it’s work force (think WalMart). Etc.” I question if Walmart is diliberately abusing its workforce. They are providing tens of thousands of jobs for people, including many elderly folk who may have difficulty finding other jobs in the current economy. They also help family all over the country live on a reasonable budget by their low prices. Alongside this this are poviding work for tens of thousands of suppliers employees. Is this really abuse? It is part of the fuel that has provided a leg up for millions around the world as the reality of market forces and globalization has seen the two thirds world dramatically improve over the past 40 years. This raises so equally challenging questions though for the remaining bottom billion in the countries (mainly in Africa) who have missed out on world-wide economic growth during this time. How do we genuinely help those in the bottom billion now. This is a challenging area that it would be a blessing to explore with others who are interested at the conference. One thing I personally am involved in can be seen at http://www.reachvision.org. Tell me what you think!
Good points about Walmart, Tony. You’re right about the benefits many people have received from Walmart. It’s done a lot of good. But it’s also been doing some bad things like spying on people (http://businessethics.suite101.com/article.cfm/bruce_gabbard_timeline), cutting benefits (see memo at http://wakeupwalmart.com/news/benefits-cut.pdf), and firing aging workers to save costs (2006 news stories). Some have also pointed out sweat-heart government deals, tax payer costs, and harmful importation practices with Asia. This has lead to a reputation crisis for the company, thus my reference to “think Walmart”.
But this is a great illustration of the moral ambiguity of current Corporate America and our response. It’s hard to find a company who doesn’t do some things wrong these days and some things right. Most of this is caused not by malicious intentions of single individuals, but rather by just plain human brokenness (like the consumerist cultural complex) — the same kind that leads families to do some good things and some bad things. I think we must have a redemptive rather than judgmental attitude of todays corps. While we can’t blind ourselves the universal brokenness, we move with Christ to change everything for the better.
Should believers do business with Walmart? Of course. How else can they be in a position to incarnate Christ there and bring positive change? Should we buy and sell and take corps like Walmart as our clients? Yes, most of the time (unless doing so contributes to obvious abuse). Especially when we many help to protect and support people and change corps for the better.
Corps are aggregates of people in one way or another, so God looks at them like his Bride in the books of the Prophets. He wants us to join him in taking back his bride with her good and bad, infidelity, quirks, imperfections, and outright messiness. He can handle cleaning her up.
I looked at the REACHVISION.org site. Looks like a great strategy to bring healthcare to millions. I’d be curious to hear the story of how this got started and what lead to this innovative way of extending care.