Benedict’s Business Paradigm

In his latest post (10/2/09) at the Cardus website “Building an Economy of Communion“, Bruce Webb asks a thought provoking question,

Is there no way to change the business mindset so that profit is not seen as an end in itself, but as a means to address social needs?

While profit is a moral good in and of itself, a casual reading of Scripture tells us that our business better be about more than that or our accounting before the Lord of the Workplace will be uncomfortable to say the least. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the account I will give before Christ for the work I do. I think it’s something Christians need to ponder.

I would love to know what you think about the business model Pope Benedict proposes in his recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate.  Webb summarizes it at Cardus (a much easier read).

Economic Decisions and Moral Consequences

I highly recommend a subscription to Comment from the Canadian think tank Cardus. In a recent article Bruce Webb commented on Pope Benedict’s latest social encyclical,  Caritas in Veritate (“Charity, or Love, in Truth”).

While one of Benedict’s proposed solutions is quite concerning, there are a number of points we should take to heart. Here is Webb’s comment on one that struck me as important.

We should also ponder carefully the claim that “every economic decision has a moral consequence.” How many of us take the time to consider seriously the moral consequences of our economic decisions to spend, invest or work at a particular job and for a particular company? Christians should devote more time to learning about the ways in which our economic actions either serve or fail to serve the common good and the well being of the poor.

The fact is that what we buy, where we invest, and who we work for does impact others. And in a global economy, our stewardship impacts a lot of people.

What do you think?

The Most Strategic Place for Kingdom Influence

In this blog I’ll address the first Big Idea that can change the way we do church.

Big Idea One: The workplace is the most strategic place of Kingdom influence for most Christians. Contrary to popular perception, you don’t need to quit your job and move to a Third World country in order to make a significant contribution to the Kingdom of God and help fulfill the Great Commission. God has called most of His people to workplace vocations meeting a variety of human needs emotional, physical, and spiritual and wants to use them there for His Kingdom purposes.

I cite numerous examples of men and women who are pursuing Kingdom purposes in the “secular” workplace, but my favorite is Steve Bigari. I wrote about him in my April 20, 2007 blog. But I just met another man this week, who convinced his Fortune 500 company to sponsor a Christian Diversity group within the company. Of course this opened up the gate for a host of other faiths to begin groups as well, but I’m pretty confident in biblical faith in the free marketplace of ideas. One of the reasons that the company allowed this to happen was because they trusted this individual. They had seen the quality of his work and the quality of his character lived out before their eyes for twenty years. This individual knows he is called to his work and is making a significant Kingdom difference in his workplace. Because of the size of his company, he actually has a bigger audience that his pastors (of a very large church). He told me, “A person can hide in my church. But I can’t hide at work. People see who I am. They see everyday whether my faith makes a difference in my life of not.”

We don’t need more churches. We need more churches committed to equip men and women to take their faith to work!

These four Big Ideas are discussed in detail in Going Public with Your Faith. To order a copy click here.

Four Big Ideas That Can Change the Way We Do Church

My proposition is simple: when we forget the importance of the workplace in God’s plans, the cause of Christ suffers. We believe that this is both biblically and historically true. However, all over the world men and women are beginning to understand how tactically significant the workplace is to God’s Kingdom plans. When the church calls its people to focus inward (on the church organization), it shrinks. On the other hand, when the church launches people into the world and honors their calling to the workplace, the church grows. We think that it’s time for men and women in the workplace to fulfill their destiny as the leaders that God called them to be.

That’s why Walt Larimore and I wrote Going Public with Your Faith. In this ground breaking book, we propose four radical ideas that could change the way people think about work and evangelism.

Big Idea One: The workplace is the most strategic place of Kingdom influence for most Christians.

Big Idea Two: Evangelism is a process, not an event.

Big Idea Three: Our job in evangelism is to discover where God is already at work in people’s lives and join him there.

Big Idea Four: Being a person of spiritual influence is every Christian’s calling, not just the responsibility of a gifted few.

In the next few blogs I’ll speak to each idea breifly.

These four Big Ideas are discussed in detail in Going Public with Your Faith. To order a copy click here.

5 Comments »

1. Amen! I look forward to this series, and may have to add this book to my reading list. Thanks!Dan King
   http://managementbyGod.com

   Comment by Dan King — January 4, 2008 @ 11:08 am

2. Dan, I think you’ll like Going Public unless you are a gifted evangelist–they sometime balk at these concepts. God has gifted some people to get right to the specifics of the message (about 12% of the church according to Barna have the gift of evangelism). That leaves the rest of us to figure out how we are to share our faith. Fortunately the Bible is not silent. John 4:35-38, Matthew 13 and other passages all teach that evangelism is s process. Going Public is not just about being biblical, it’s also about what’s appropriate in a given situation, specifically the workplace. And here is the big principle here: If we want people to pay attention to our faith, we first better pay attention to our work.Comment by Bill Peel — January 4, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
3. I agree with Dan. This is a great book, and it will be good to have this promo. I was looking at the video curriculum and I wondered if you had posted any preview clips on YouTube. That might be a good thing for bloggers to embed…Comment by Mark Goodyear — January 8, 2008 @ 3:27 pm
4. Great thoughts Bill. Thanks.Comment by Daniel D — January 10, 2008 @ 4:59 pm
5. I just wanted to point out again that I appreciate you doing this series! It has been good to follow!I also wanted to let you know that I have selected you to get the Thinking Blogger Award.
   Thanks! Keep up the great work!
   Dan

   Comment by Dan King — February 5, 2008 @ 2:45 pm