Reality Magazine Article No 4 2004

Over coffee I asked Steve what made his business ‘Christian'. He was silent for some time and then said "I didn't know it could be Christian, can a business be ‘saved'?

What a good question. All over New Zealand there are Christians in positions of influence in business either through ownership or senior management in someone else's organization. While many of these people are living with integrity and honouring God in their personal lives their businesses are run just like everyone else's. Being a Christian personally has not necessarily changed the way the organization is run.

Before we get too critical however we should declare that many business units are run well, employees are treated with dignity, contracts are honoured and work is of good quality. The law and common decency have ensured a good average performance. However Jesus challenged us to be both salt and light. Where the salt is a more passive "presence" focused expression of faith, flavouring business with integrity, care and good supportive relationship, ‘light' is more intentional, more activist, driving out the darkness before it. The light is intentionally placed on the lamp stand to be seen

We talked of God, himself an entrepreneur, creating from nothing, birthing an idea, bringing together the assets and the labour, appointing managers and retaining ownership. We shared how in the true spirit of entrepreneurship God took a risk, creating, with the possibility of failure through sin. In His image humanity was encouraged to fill and subdue the earth, innovating, producing, caring for His creation. We talked of God's business setbacks, the arrival of a predatory competitor (Satan) who actually moved to take over the business, winning the attention and diverting the loyalty of the human. The decision to sin distorted all of God's enterprise (creation).

We talked further of how Jesus came to redeem all of creation because God so loved (all) the world. (John 3:16 NRSV) Jesus came ‘to save that which was lost' (Luke 19:10 KJV) and that creation itself awaits its redemption as the children of God are revealed. (Rom 8:19ff) Paul writes that everything that is built on Christ will be saved (1 Cor 3:11) The purpose of God is for all things to be restored.

Steve was intrigued at the thought that if his business was built on Christ it too could be saved and that Jesus had died to redeem even his business. He was challenged that if he, through Christ, redeemed his business and if his business submitted to Christ the King then the words "the kingdom of God is near" could also be applied to it. People would see it, the good works of the business and "give praise to the father in heaven (Matt 5:16ff).

Steve then asked "How do I know that I am doing God's ‘good work' in my business?"  Another good question. We agreed that there were three constitutional agreements (every business must have a constitution) and four KPI's.(Key Performance Indicators) that revealed whether it was God's business.

Three constitutional agreements

The first agreement is that the business relationship with God is a Management (Stewardship) relationship. The business belongs to God and Steve was only a tenant (Gen 2 and Lev 25:23). As steward, Steve was responsible to God to invest his resources; physical assets, skills, money on God's behalf. Even the labour Steve employed was entrusted to his care and God would ask Steve to account for the way he treated them (John 17:12, Eph 6:5-9)) One day God will ask Steve to account for all God has given into his trust and care.

The second agreement is one of Partnership. God's created intent is not complete without our efforts (Gen 2:5) and we are His fellow workers (2 Cor 6:1). It is to us that God has given the commission to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom (Matt 28:19-20) and reveal it in (amongst other things) the way we work (Col 3:23).

The third agreement is that these previous two agreements are to be understood as calling of God every bit as sacred as a calling to lead a church congregation. It was God's purpose for us that we should work with him in his purposes for the earth. This call remains and applies to each of us as a sacred vocation. God becomes our employer, the master of so many New Testament passages.

We make our business Christian when we act as good stewards of God's resources and partner with him in his work.

Four Key Performance Indicators

KPIs are established so that we might know when we are on track in meeting the expectations of our employer. KPI's which are the business activities of "the way" which seen in our business will cause others to call us Christian.

The first KPI is that we fulfill his command in the creation to creative and productive work.

Creative and productive work

We are to carry out the created purpose to subdue and fill the earth, to draw out the ‘good' of creation. Our activities should reflect God's creative personality through innovative and aesthetic expression. We are encouraged to come up with new products and creative innovative advances that bless others. We make modifications and enhancements to existing products and systems that explore the potential of the earth in a sustainable way. We should leading people in such a way so as to release their created potential.

We are to be productive, "tilling the earth" (Gen 2:5) to bring out its productive potential, providing work to other people, providing amply for needs of all in a manner which is sustainable to the earth and in God's way ("in our image") caring for all of his creation. When that production reflects God's own practices of excellence, completing the task set and honouring his expectations for ‘rest', we produce as he would have us produce.

The second KPI is that we partner with Him in his providential work.

His / our providential work

The theology of God's providence is often reduced to debates of how God's sovereignty deals with issues of evil in the world or how it co-exists with free will. God's providence not unimportantly also includes his maintenance and sustaining of the earth. Without this work the earth would not continue. If He were to withdraw his breath all humanity would perish (Job 34:14-15), He holds all things together with his hands (Col 1:17), He keeps the earth going by his word (Heb 1:2-3) He restrains evil in case it destroys the earth and sets final limits on the consequences of sin (Job 1, Luke 12:31, Rom 13:1ff). How do we partner in this task? Our business should protect the earth and contribute to its sustainability, protecting the environment and the balances necessary to maintain it. He calls us to resist evil and do good. When we keep our word, refuse to lie or cheat, pay to "Ceasar that which is Ceasar's" we resist evil and do good. When we remain loyal in our relationships, exercise justice in our employment relationships we resist the expansion of evil. When we live by the ethics of His Kingdom, only doing to others that which we would have them do to us, going the second mile we do good.

God's providence is a phrase that is often used to describe God's guiding hand guiding us to faith. Known or unknown to us the faith full life of the Christian business person expressed in business dealings is a contributor to many in their own journey to faith, employees, suppliers, service people, customers.

Our third KPI is that we live redemptively.

Redemptive business practice

Paul speaks of the complete work of Christ, the redemption of all of creation (Rom 8:19ff). This redemption awaits the revelation of the children of God. This redemption certainly has eschatological significance in the second coming of Christ and the final and full restoration of all things. However it also has current application. When the business person is revealed as a child of God walking in obedience and submission to God, genuinely living out of the character of God's family then the creation, or at least the sphere of creation of which they are part and able to impact, begins its redemption and the process of restoration.

 

The fourth KPI is that we leverage our business to restore.

 

The work of Restoration

God has been working since the fall to restore humanity and all of creation to its original created intent. This created intent revealed in Genesis 1-2 is usefully outlined by four created relationships. God is working to restore the relationship with himself, with each other, with work and with the creation itself. God is working to remove sin from the equation and deal death to the ursurper of his creation. Working with God our business has opportunity to contribute to this restorative process. When we forgive the sinner, the cheat, the thief, the abuser of power and wealth we allow restoration to begin. When we honour remorse and repentance and move to restore we reveal God's Kingdom. When we clean up a landfill, when we replant a forest, when we pay for or support counseling for the alcoholic worker, the workaholically abused family we are in the restoration business. When the widows trust fund robbed by a trustee is repaid with interest restoration is evident.

Can a business be Christian?. It must be, for if the Kingdom of God were not able to be evidenced in the marketplace then it is no Kingdom at all.

Martien Kelderman June 2004

 

 

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