10. Redee…
When you commit to doing business as a ministry and are equipped to do business God’s way, we hope that your mind will turn to how your personal transformation might affect the culture of your company.
At the very least, you will want to ensure that your company is a place where a Biblical approach to business is able to flourish and prosper. Importantly, this is about more than you. It is about more than being a better Christian at work. In addition to transforming the way you do business, it is about redeeming the culture of your company, which is the way you and your company do business.
Your business is a separate legal entity with an identity, values, and a culture of its own. This culture will determine how the company functions, how it is perceived, and ultimately what kind of fruit it achieves in the world. Doing business as a ministry is about cultural transformation. It is this that ensures your company will bear spiritual fruit that will last, even when your leadership ends.
Both you and your business are called to play a part in the ministry of business. Your business needs you to mold and lead it, changing its culture from the inside. If you are successful in this task, your business will become a context that helps nurture and sustain your own walk and witness.
As importantly, it will also help to transform the lives of those around you, including your colleagues, customers, and even your competitors. Finally, it will help to sustain your business as a Kingdom Business long after you have gone.
we are seeking Kingdom Entrepreneurs who will make their business their ministry. A key responsibility of the Kingdom Entrepreneur is to embed a Biblical way of doing business in their company. This is the pursuit of what we call a Kingdom Culture Company.
The diagram below illustrates how your personal transformation can ultimately establish and sustain a Kingdom culture in your company, such that it bears spiritual fruit and becomes resilient enough to outlast the company’s Christian founders. This is BizMin’s goal.
Reflection.
Look at the diagram and mark where you and your company are on this journey, from Kingdom Entrepreneur to Kingdom Culture Company. In order to sustain this transformation in your own life and embed this in your company, it is helpful to regularly audit how you are doing. This is why we have created the BizMin Audit.
You adopt it, your company.
Reinforce, celebrate & embed it in your culture
Look back to the activity on Session 1.1 page 10 which explored the difference between the culture of business and the character of God and His Kingdom.
A Kingdom culture is often contrary to the prevailing business culture. We must actively swim against the tide if we are to see business transformed into a fruitful ministry and become part of a great move of God.
Reflection.
Are you increasingly confident to swim against the tide of prevailing business culture and model a Kingdom Culture in your company?
Is there evidence that this is influencing the behavior of others?
Pledge 1 – I recognize that business needs transformation through a great
move of God and I will seek to play my part.
Joseph was spiritually gifted for business. Once he had learned the essential ingredient of success and walked through the gateway of humility, his spiritual gifts were able to bear much fruit and achieve the primary purpose for which they were intended. Joseph demonstrated how God can achieve His purposes through gifted business leaders.
Teaching.
Gifted for a Purpose (Session 2)
1. Activity.
The record below your abilities/ gifts and God’s purpose for your company as recorded in Session 2.1 page 23 and Session 2.4 page 35.
Your abilities/ gifts、 God’s purpose。
Pledge 2 – I humbly acknowledge that it is God who has gifted me for His purposes.
1. God has a call on your life and has prepared you for ‘good work’. In Session 3, you established whether or not that was a call to a business. We believe God is calling a new generation of Christian Entrepreneurs to do business as ministry. We hope you feel equipped to press on and take up that calling.
Reflection.
Are you called to do business as a ministry?
Are you prepared to do business as a ministry?
Called to Business (Session 3)
Are you committed to doing business as a ministry?
Pledge 3 – I will take up the call to do business as a ministry.
At the core of BizMin is the idea that business should be transformed into a fruitful ministry. Our core belief is; if it is your business, it is also your ministry. A complete Christian ministry will ‘carry forth Christ’s mission in the world through a spirituality that balances Deed, Word, and Spirit.
A Complete Ministry (Session 4)
Do you have examples of how you and your company are doing ministry in each area?
Deed 、
Word 、
Spirit。
How might you and your company take practical steps to become a more complete ministry?
Pledge 4 – I will make my business a complete ministry with equal emphasis on Deed, Word, and Spirit.
As Kingdom Entrepreneurs, we must balance work with care so that our good works are sustainable. To do this successfully, we need to pursue a godly vision of prosperity.
Reflection.
The Creation Mandate (Session 5)
Reflection.
Are you living within the moral limits of Biblical prosperity?
Is your business trading off and promoting a way of life that is sustainable within the moral limits of Biblical prosperity?
Pledge 5 – I will sustain fruitfulness by pursuing a Biblical vision of prosperity that balances work with care.
A Kingdom Business will demonstrate love for God, our business neighbors, and ourselves.
Activity.
On the diagram below, mark how you and your company are currently expressing love. Join up the dots to reveal the current ‘shape’ of your company. Who is receiving the most love? Who might you need to love more?
The Great Commandment (Session 6)
Pledge 6 – I will love God, my neighbors and myself, in and through my business.
A Kingdom Business will do good work that wins the respect of those with whom it works. It will model Christ and help both us and others to know Christ and become more Christ-like.
The Great Commission (Session 7)
Are you modeling Christ at work?
Pledge 7 – I will not be ashamed of the gospel and will respectfully model Christ at work.
If we are to prosper in business, we must master money. We must proactively pursue purpose before profit, adding value across multiple bottom lines. A generous spirit should underpin all that we do.
Activity.
On the diagram below, mark the impact you and your company is currently making in each area of value.
Profiting through Purpose (Session 8)
and upheld Pledge 8 – I will profit through purpose and will be extravagantly
generous with all that I receive.
As Christ-like leaders, we must recognize our place in God’s hierarchy. We must remain both under Christ and in Christ. Out of this, we can serve others and prayerfully lead our companies in a spiritual battle that advances the front-line of the Kingdom.
A Fruitful Ministry (Session 9)
of God and, when we have done everything, stand. Then our ministry will bear spiritual fruit for the praise of His glory.
Are there any areas of your business that you are struggling to bring under the authority of Christ? Take a moment to pray into these issues, and stand.
Reflection.
Pledge 9 – I will remain both in and under Christ, bearing spiritual fruit
for the praise of His glory.
Throughout this course, we have built a vision for how a business can become a fruitful ministry. We need to humbly recognize that the goal is not perfection but direction.
In ‘Life Together Dietrich Bonhoeffer wisely identifies the dangers for those who set their love and pursuit of a vision of something above their love of the reality of that thing. He writes; ’He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.’
We might rephrase this as; those who love their dream of what a Kingdom Business could be more than they love their colleagues, customers, and competitors will become a destroyer of their dream. We must guard against the pursuit of an idealistic vision for our business. This is a humble venture rooted in grace.
We do not believe it is necessary or even beneficial to make our ways ‘law’. Culture is ‘the way we do things around here’ rather than ‘the things you must do around here. A healthy culture has willing participants. All we can do in light of this is what has become our mantra
That is; press on to take hold.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider me yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians3.12-14
Pledge 10 – I will ‘press on to take hold of my ministry, upholding and revisiting each of the BizMin pledges.
Take a moment to pray for one another. It is important to be commissioned into your new role as a Kingdom Entrepreneur.
Share your reflections on the course.
Write down your plans for the next month, the next year, the next 5 years, and beyond.
Discussion.
Consider how you might stay connected with other Kingdom Entrepreneurs who can encourage you to press on and take hold…
Close the session with a short time of prayer.
