A Kingdom (Re)Definition of Business

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.

What’s the “Bottom Line”?

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:

The Questions that Drive Us

I’m coming into Missional Buisness from full-time urban missions, planting simple church networks in the New York City metro area. Our city-wide mission team MetroSoul, and various other friends are forming cooperative ventures to fuel and sustain mission here, impact more lives, and have more life-on-life time with emerging leaders. Right now, most of what we have are heavy questions and few answers. I’m thinking that might also be true of many people in the house/simple church movement right now. I have friends from Mexico to Chicago to Texas and Denver all asking very similar things.

Perhaps the most pressing question comes from the most apostolic leaders among us. Although these guys have served to catalyze countless leaders and networks, they are having trouble figuring out how to pay the bills. They’re question is very real: “How am I going to avoid bankruptcy?” (This was actually a topic of concern on a conference call today with other national simple church leaders.)

Four Streams of God + Business

My friend, co-planter, and business partner Jared Looney has been doing some research into Jesus-following in different business modes.  He’s identified four “streams” of combining faith and work, each with it’s own emphasis, origin, and culture.  I’d be curious which of these terms you identify with the most or have heard most often:

H2H2008: House2Harvest

Check out these details on the 2008 House Church Conference.  If you’re planning on being there or want to ask questions, feel free to drop us a line by commenting to this post.

Learning to Listen to the King and do what he says

How do we build Kingdom focused businesses to provide financial freedom in ministry?  How do we bring Kingdom impact in the jobs we have?  How can we best touch the world outside the U.S. with and for the Kingdom?  How can we do all this while also deeping our intimacy and followship with each other and our King?