4.Christi…
Open the session with a short time of prayer.
At the core of BizMin is the idea that business can be transformed into a Christian ministry. This session will explore the nature of Christian ministry and how your business can systematically become a fruitful ministry. We believe that if it is your business, it is also your ministry.
Reflection
Imagine serving God faithfully every day, becoming a person who walks by faith, practicing what you preach and trusting God for your daily provision. You are confident in God’s calling, free from worry, and clear in purpose. You know you are engaged in a good work to which you have been called, and others support and endorse you in this. At the end of your days, when it is all done, you will look back with satisfaction and look forward with anticipation of treasure stored in heaven and the words “Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and share your master’s happiness!” You will have lived a truly prosperous and satisfying life; one lived to the full. Wow, it sounds amazing! It sounds like what all Christians long for. It sounds like a life spent in fruitful ministry.
Does this describe your life?
Always.
Sometimes.
Maybe someday.
The Encyclopaedia of Christianity Online defines ministry as ‘carrying forth Christ’s mission in the world’ and states that this is ‘fundamentally the task of the church, the whole people of God, and is conferred on each Christian in baptism.’
Discuss whether you agree with this definition of ministry. Write your own definition.
Discussion.
Do you think business can become a Christian ministry?
The term that we translate as ‘ministry’ is from the Greek word ‘Diakonia, meaning, ‘to serve.’ Discuss how an attitude of service, rather than self-interest, might transform the prevailing culture of business.
1.What are the primary activities and purposes of a business?
Activity.
Purpose.
2.Take a moment to consider some of the more fruitful church ministries that you are aware of. What are the primary activities and purposes of these traditional Christian ministries?
Activity.
Purpose.
Discuss the similarities and differences, identifying potential areas of overlap and conflict, between the activities of a business and those of a church ministry.
Consider how church and business have complementary roles and can work in partnership to achieve God’s purposes for the wellbeing of society.
Discussion.
Consider how business might remove or reduce the demand for many church ministries, enabling the Church to focus its resources on its primary ministries of preaching the gospel and equipping the saints for works of service.
We believe that church and business are two complementary elements in God’s plan for society.
Consider what the passages below tell us about the relationship between business and ministry.
Activity.
Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters…to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: you should mind your own
business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
1 Thess.4:10b-12 , Colossians3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
A business can become a fruitful Christian ministry. The business could be an essential partner to the Church in
carrying forth Christ’s mission in the world.
Business as a ministry is about the outworking of our faith and Business as a ministry is about the outworking of our faith and Christ’s mission in the context of our business. The Bible encourages God’s people to express the work of Christ in a balanced manner. Different streams and traditions within the Christian community can be prone to place the emphasis of this outworking quite differently. The diagram below illustrates the three broad areas of emphasis by which God’s people ‘carry forth Christ’s mission in the world’. These are Spirit, Word, and Deeds.
Throughout history Christians have struggled to maintain a well-balanced approach to all three, tending towards a spirituality that favors one or two, but rarely all three. Our goal is for your business to be a complete ministry. This requires actively balancing all three.
The following pages contain stories of Kingdom Entrepreneurs who have demonstrated how each has been outworked in their business.
As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James2:26
Teaching.
SIR TITUS SALT (1803-1876)
Titus Salt was more than a gifted businessman. What made him unique to many other industrialists of the Industrial Revolution was his compassion for his employees and the practical manner by which he demonstrated his faith. Moved by the squalid conditions, his workers were living in, he decided to do something about it. With over two hundred factory chimneys continually churning out black, sulfurous smoke, the northern England town of Bradford had gained a reputation for being the most polluted town in England. Salt was one of the few employers in the town who showed any concern for the problem. After much experimentation, he discovered a burner that produced very little pollution and in 1842 he arranged for these burners to be used in all his factories. When he realised other factory owners and the council were unwilling to take action over the pollution, he decided to move his operations out of Bradford.
Salt consolidated his factories into one large factory and called the new complex Saltaire. Built in 1853, ‘Saltaire was so bold in its conception, so extensive in its design, so complete in its execution, that it placed the owner on a pinnacle of fame, without a rival’. Suffice to say, it was a special and well-respected new community. The factory complex was located on the banks of the River Aire and included a village for Salt’s employees. He not only pioneered cleaner production; he also provided his workers with good quality homes in a healthy environment.
His village included shops, a church, and schools for both adults and children. The community of Saltaire was seen as an example of a village ‘which embraced architectural comfort and at the same time moral order in a paternalistic community.’ Salt proved that it was possible to be highly successful in the textiles industry without exploiting his workers. He took practical steps which demonstrated that a successful business could care for its employees. His Christian compassion was demonstrated by his deeds.
Salt was a generous man and a great philanthropist of the Victorian age. He helped his workers achieve unprecedented living standards for the time. He had a reputation for generously rewarding his employees and in 1857 he hired three trains to transport around 2,500 workers to the Exhibition of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom.
When he died in 1876, although he had been an extremely rich man, his family was horrified that his fortune was gone. It has been estimated that during his life he had given away over £500,000 to good causes, a huge sum in the mid 19th century.
Salt believed that by helping his employees to live healthier life he was doing God’s work. He was a devout Christian and his coat of arms read, ‘what not by the help of God?’ He was committed to applying his faith through practical action that showed God’s love and compassion holistically for those in his care.
Titus Salt showed his faith by his deeds.
How did Salt’s approach to business demonstrate faith through deeds?
Is your approach to business revealing your faith through your
deeds?
Discussion.
Reflection.
Teaching.
1 Corinth1:23a
but we preach Christ crucified…
SIR JOHN LAING （1879-1978）
John Laing was a successful construction entrepreneur, creating one of the largest construction companies in the UK. The Laing family belonged to a thriving Brethren church in Carlisle, where John Laing learned to rely heavily on the wisdom of the Bible. He was committed to his evangelical beliefs and sought to apply God’s Word to his business.
Laing became a Christian at the age of seven and was passionate about sharing the gospel. On one occasion, when he was waiting to receive an honor from the Queen, he asked the person standing next to him whether he was ready to be received in the court of heaven. He sought to never miss an opportunity to preach Christ, whatever the context.
Laing had high standards and could be tough on staff, but he was also generous and took a very personal interest in his employees. On one occasion he found a man looking tired on-site and asked what the matter was. The man told him he was having to do the housework and look after his children before starting work at 7am, because his wife was ill. Laing disappeared, only to return and give the man two weeks off with full pay. On getting home, the man discovered that Laing had been and checked out his story, leaving £5 on the kitchen table; a generous
gift at the time.
Laing was also a pioneer of professional cost estimating. In his day clients would often only discover that their budget was going to be exceeded as the project neared completion, with resulting losses and disputes. He revolutionized his industry by taking Jesus at His word. In Luke 14.28 Jesus says; “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?” Laing made sure that his company did just that. This is a good example of how he explicitly applied the Word to his work. Today, the whole industry is doing this particular aspect of business God’s way!
Laing’s commitment to God’s Word led him to begin practices like sick pay, pension schemes, and pay during poor weather lay-offs, long before these practices were required by law. Laing also used his business to quite literally build God’s Kingdom. On completing the building of Coventry Cathedral, he returned the profit to the church.
He also built many churches at a cost price and when the company built houses, they would build extra houses for missionaries at the same time. As his business prospered, he also went on to become a significant funder of various Bible colleges and student outreach organizations. Whenever he called by, his question was the same; ‘How many students have become Christians this week?’
Laing sought to practice what he preached. He was a man committed to applying the Word of God and his evangelical fervor to and through his business activities and the other ministries it helped enable.
How did God’s word influence Laing’s business practice?
Reflection.
Are you able to ‘practice what you preach’? Are you allowing
God’s word to influence the policies and practices of your
company?
Discussion.
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s
power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
1 Corinth.2:4-5
LOWELL ‘BUD’ PAXSON (1935-2015)
Bud Paxson founded the Home Shopping Network in the US and later became an evangelical Christian who pioneered PAX TV, the largest family-friendly television network. This is his story. In 1986, four years after he founded the Home Shopping Network, it was experiencing meteoric growth. Paxson was traveling all over the world and was away from home 260 days a year. His financial position exploded, but so too did his marriage. On Christmas Day 1986, Paxson’s wife broke the news that she was leaving him. He considered this the lowest point of his life. “I was absolutely and completely bankrupt. I was a millionaire, yet all of my success was worthless because I had lost my wife and wasn’t close to my kids” recalls Paxson. His Christmas gift to the family for 1986 had already been arranged; a trip to Las Vegas. His adult children urged him to go, despite the news from his wife, so Paxson headed to Vegas. On New Year’s Eve, after all the festivities had ended, he remained unable to sleep. At 4 am, he felt an urge to read the Bible, something he
Teaching.
hadn’t done since he was a child at Sunday school. Locating one in a drawer next to the bed, he read Romans 5:8; ‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ and gave his heart to Christ. It was the turning point in his life. Paxson had an insatiable appetite for learning the Bible and with the help of a local pastor, he began to truly understand how to live a life committed to Jesus Christ.
His business practices began to change too and the Home Shopping Network flourished. When he sold the company, his take was $118M. At this point, Paxson could have retired and/or given the money to charity. Instead, he used the money to buy local television stations at a time when many were selling.
Although the plan to purchase these apparently failing television stations seemed illogical, the Lord had given Paxson peace about the plan. It paid off when, soon after, a Supreme Court decision imposed a ‘must-carry rule mandating that cable operators include all broadcast stations in a given market on their channel offerings.
This greatly increased the value of the supposedly worthless stations he had just purchased. He then parlayed these acquisitions into the creation of the television network PAX TV which he used to combat what he called ‘the moral manure’ found on television. He pledged that Pax (the Roman word for peace) would not air gratuitous sex, violence, or bad language. “I want it to be parables and storytelling, which is what Jesus did”.
J. GUNNAR OLSON
Gunnar Olson is a Swedish entrepreneur and founder of the International Christian Chamber of Commerce. He is the owner and Chairman of Alfapac, a high-tech plastic film manufacturing company. He often teaches about ‘a release under the Lordship of Christ and actively believes that a business, reconciled to Christ, has a place in the Kingdom of God, making the Kingdom manifest ‘through spirit, by faith.’
He tells of a wonderful example. His company was coming to the end of a significant production run and had produced several million pounds of silage bags that were ready for shipment. Just a few days before they were due to be shipped, the production manager came to Gunnar looking troubled.
‘I think we’ve come to the end of the road at Alfapac,’ he said. It turned out that all of the bags were faulty. The fault had not been identified during production and over one thousand pallets of stock, ready to be shipped, could not be used. The business was facing bankruptcy.
This is how Gunnar responded; ‘I assembled the family and shared the news. Then we decided how we would deal with the problem in prayer. We would simply present the situation to the Lord and then listen to the Holy Spirit because we had given the company to Him.
While they were praying a man rang and said, ”I don’t know what’s going on, but I have a word for you. You must speak to the invisible.” That word of encouragement was enough. Our faith was sealed.’ It is worth quoting what they did next in full, from his excellent book, Business Unlimited.
‘He had told me the bad news on Friday, and the first opportunity we had to visit the factory and see all the pallets were on Sunday evening. Driving out, we agreed that we would not allow even the tiniest piece of sealed plastic to remain after we had prayed. As we stood holding hands in the yard,
I was glad I hadn’t seen all the pallets before. They were everywhere! To the natural eye, it was overwhelming. For a while, we stood and praised the Lord for his faithfulness and mercy. Then I yelled at the top of my voice, “Listen heaven and earth! Who is the Lord over Alfapac? His name is Jesus! In the name of Jesus, I commanded all those plastic molecules to come back into line!”
Praying in tongues, we laid hands on each pallet and after three hours we had finished. We went home. The job was done. On Monday morning, my brother ordered the whole factory staff to open all the boxes and check their content. To the glory of God, no bag was sealed! What a mighty God we serve!
This is the glory element that becomes visible as we submit every aspect of our lives to Him. There is a joy that carries us through as we work with him, and He is excellent in everything He does. That is the difference between a secular business and one that is given over to the Lord. His glory and His life are manifest in the workplace.’
The examples of Paxson and Gunnar illustrate how it is possible to lead a modern business in both the peace and the power of the Holy Spirit.
How were their businesses led by the Spirit?
Reflection.
Do you prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to guide your business decisions? Do you act in the power of the Holy Spirit at work?
These business leaders made their business their ministry. We hope their testimony inspires you to do likewise.
Discussion.
Reflection.
Take a moment to reflect on your approach to business. Which area, if any, do you emphasize?
What practical steps might you take to achieve a spiritual balance in your business? If time permits, consider the
significance of 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 and Ephesians 4:11-13.
We must strive to ensure that our business is a complete ministry.
Close the session with a short time of prayer. Ask God to help you live out a complete ministry in and through your business.
