What Makes a Business “Christian”?

R. Paul Stevens

Running a Christian business is like having a Christian marriage. A marriage is not Christian simply because two Christians get married. They may conduct their marriage in a non-Christian way, without making a covenant marked by leaving father and mother, cleaving in friendship and becoming one flesh (Gen 2:24). Non-Christians may have (unknown to them of course) a Christian marriage if they make such a covenant. In the same way the presence of a Christian in a business or running a business does not guarantee the business is Christian. The Christians may be keeping their faith and daily work in separate compartments on the assumption that “religion and business do not mix.” This is especially evident where Christians view business as merely a way of making money where there real interest (and ministry) is in church-work. The following are ten marks that provide a comprehensive vision for the Christian in business:

1. THE PRESENCE OF A CHRISTIAN OR CHRISTIANS WITH A SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

The owner/manager of a small or large business has a special opportunity to “incarnate” his or her value system into every aspect of the business. But even “low level” employees have a sphere of influence. It may be useful for clerks, for instance, to draw an imaginary circle of 30′ radius around their work station and prayerfully to regard this as their “parish,” bathing all the people, structures, equipment and interactions within that circle with continuing prayer.

2. A PRODUCT OR SERVICE IN HARMONY WITH GOD’S CREATIONAL PURPOSE

There is almost no place in the work-world so demonized that a Christian might not be called to serve there. Obviously businesses that thrive on prostitution, drug traffic and the exploitation of the poor are not acceptable options. But Adam and Eve were called to be priests of creation, to “work it and take care of it” as trustees and stewards (Gen 2:15). Further, the command to “fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen 1:28) and “rule over it” (1:26) involves developing and enculturating the world (Gen 4:19-22). The world was not made for Adam and Eve (to use as they wish); they were made for the world. This means that Adam and Eve (and all of us who are restored to our human vocation through new life in Christ) had three full-time jobs: communion with God, community-building, and co-creativity with God. So products or services which are in harmony with God’s creational purposes include the following: agriculture, forest management, providing communication services, accounting and financial services, products that make people more beautiful, entertainment and play products and services, processing foodstuffs, governing, politics and government services, town planning, counseling, medical services, education, media, transportation, accounting and stock brokering, selling life insurance, repairing automobiles, composing or performing music, creating beautiful things, crafting environments, making tools and law enforcement. The Christian manager knows that structures can have either a positive or negative influence and ministers wisely both to people and to structures.

3. A MISSION OR BUSINESS PURPOSE THAT IS LARGER AND DEEPER THAN MERE FINANCIAL PROFIT (THOUGH INCLUDING IT) SO THAT THE BUSINESS CONTRIBUTES IN SOME WAY TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

A Christian business person should wisely define what is the mission and hold this before all the employees. The mission is why the business is there; the vision is what we want to be; the values are how we want to live as we pursue our vision. In distinction from a non-profit society, a for-profit business must make money. Profit in a business is like blood in the body. Every organization needs it to survive and function. But no one gets up in the morning and says, “I live for my blood.” But if our blood goes away we stop living. Organizations that state they exist for the purpose of making money are doomed to failure. Organizations exist to serve customers, and they do so when they provide the customers with value. The value added to the customer is such that normally the customer will pay a profit. Therefore profit is a legitimate measure of the value the firm is producing for its customers. Without a surplus the firm will not be able to continue to offer the service or to add value. It is legitimate for a Christian to pray for a profit. But that is not the same as having the company exist “to make money.” (Flow) Being a Kingdom business also involves respect for the environment (soil, trees, air, human community) and some share of stewardship of creation rather than raping the earth.

4. THE PRODUCT & SERVICE IS OFFERED WITH SUCH EXCELLENCE THAT IT SUGGESTS THE PRESENCE OF THE KINGDOM AND INVITES THE OPPORTUNITY TO WITNESS

A Christian in business strives for an excellence of service or product that makes the customer surprised, rather than left demanding more, or resigned to the minimum the business can offer. Jesus invited his disciples to reflect on how much more they were doing than the Gentiles, the tax collectors and the pagans (Matt 5:43-48). A service company that provides extraordinary service or a product that has extraordinary quality invites the question “Why?” It should not only be the fact that someone is a Christian that invites the opportunity to witness to Christ, but the evidence of something special in the way business is done that is a sign of the Kingdom. Unpaid bills, excessive profit, slow delivery, no guarantees, poor quality, dishonest advertising, and sloppy workmanship all speak negatively no matter how positive the Christian worker is about being a saved.

5. CUSTOMERS ARE TREATED WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT AND NOT JUST AS A MEANS OF PROFIT

“The customer is always right” is the secular version of this. But this is not always true. More than assuming that the customer is always right the Christian business treats every customer as a person to be loved and appreciated whether or not business is transacted. Even difficult customers need love even when they are wrong. Loving customers as oneself is neighbour love (Matt 22: 39). A salesman will sell only when three conditions are met: the customer wants it, needs it and can afford it. Love for competitors is even harder. The Old Testament offers a powerful model of harvesting with the poor in view (Deut 24:19-22), which means leaving something for someone else. In contrast business people that engage in hyper-competition (or predatory competition) find their identity in domination. They are driven by the will to power and the survival of the fittest. Because winning is the only thing there is no space for failure or compassion. They lead relationally deficient lives, measuring others only to see “how they stack up” and if they are judged to be deficient to defeat them.

6. EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS ARE EQUIPPED TO ACHIEVE GREATER POTENTIAL IN THEIR LIFE AND, IF THEY ARE CHRISTIANS, TO WORK WHOLEHEARTEDLY (Col 3:22-25) WITH FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE (1 Cor 13:13; 1 Thess 1:2-3)

One of the most tragic situations today is that many Christians are noted for being “poor workers” because their real interest is in evangelism and church activities. In a Christian business people work hard and wholeheartedly (Eph 6:7) because (1) work is good for us and the world–given as it was before the Fall (Gen 1:26-31; 2:15); (2) though work has been twisted and spoiled through sin (Gen 3:16) it can be substantially redeemed through Christ; (3) indeed, as Luther taught, there is a “cross” in the marketplace providing a practical arena for our sanctification in the challenges to ourselves that we encounter in the context of our work (Col 3:25; 2 Thess 3:6-13); (4) work is part of our calling (Eph 4:1) to live for God’s glory (Eph 1:12, 14) and to share in Christ’s purposeful rule of all creation (Eph 1:22; 2:10), a calling that can be expressed anywhere (1 Cor 7:17,20); (5) what makes work Christian is not the religious character of the work or even the fact that it is obviously a “people-helping” profession, but faith, hope and love; (6) work is a way of practical love since by it we provide for ourselves and those we love, and may have a surplus to give to the needy (Eph 4:28; 1 Thess 4:12); and (7) Jesus is our boss (Eph 6:5-9; Col 3:23). A Christian employer sees every interaction with an employee as an equipping opportunity through which the employee can be trained, encouraged, improved and released for his or her potential. In line with this many Christian business invest a substantial part of the profits into employee development and training. (See chapter 5 of The Equippers Guide to Every-Member Ministry , IVP, 1992 ).

7. ALL ASPECTS OF THE BUSINESS ARE CONSIDERED TO BE POTENTIALLY A MINISTRY AND THE SUBJECT OF PRAYER

The Christian businessperson does not create a secular-sacred division in business (witnessing is sacred–doing the accounts is secular; direct people involvement is sacred–maintaining equipment is secular). All is part of our creation mandate (Gen 1:26-28) and done for Jesus (Col 3:23), be done to God’s glory, and is worthy of prayer. William Tyndale, the English Reformer, said, “There is no work better than another to please God; to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a souter [cobbler], or an apostle, all is one, to wash dishes and to preach is all one, as touching the deed, to please God.” The process of work has eternal significance (1 Cor 3:14-15) and may contribute in some way to the New Jerusalem. (See chapters 1-3 in Disciplines of the Hungry Heart, SHAW, 1993)

8. THE CULTURE (VALUES, SYMBOLS, GOVERNING BELIEFS) OF THE ORGANIZATION LINE UP WITH GOD’S WORD AND KINGDOM PURPOSES

It is now well known that the environment or culture of a business “speaks” more loudly than the stated business policy. People “get a message” as soon as they walk into a store or a factory. Culture has outwardly symbols and cues (signs saying that we guarantee good service), values that are cherished even if they are not published, these two being based on underlying beliefs. Both workers and customers are influenced profoundly by this invisible culture. Wise managers know that the cultivation of the culture is part of their leadership: what values are cherished, how people are treated, how people learn in the organization, how failure and mistakes are handled, whether the truth should always be told. Biblical beliefs that should inform the culture are: (1) men and women have equal dignity; (2) work is good; (3) people are sinners but can be redeemed. Biblical values that should be cherished are: (1) communication (in advertising or sales) must be honest even if the sale is lost; (2) the customer is a person to be treated with respect; (3) we are not a business that can be “bought” by bribes or kick-backs; (4) prices are fair and not inflated to make an excessive profit; (5) workers are given a second chance–there is forgiveness as well as discipline. The Christian manager is a community-builder in the business, a “pastor” in a secular context.

9. THE LEADERS ARE SERVANTS, DEDICATED TO SERVE THE MISSION OF THE BUSINESS, THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE EMPLOYEES, THE CUSTOMERS AND SHAREHOLDERS BECAUSE THEY ARE FIRST OF ALL SERVANTS OF GOD

“Servant leadership” is so commonly used that it is forgotten how these two words cannot normally be brought together. (1) Servant leadership is based on the statement of Jesus in Matthew 20:25-28, and gathers up the great statements in Isaiah about the Servant (the people, the remnant and the Messiah) such that the key word used in the New Testament for ministry is “servant/service”. (2) Being a servant leader does not mean being passive and merely responding to pressures/circumstances. There is room for godly ambition, for dreams and visions. Ungodly ambition is where we define ourselves by what new achievement we have accomplished, by what we do rather than who we are. Because no achievement can provide personal meaning the driven person either lives a frenzied life or collapses in despair. But, in contrast, God in creation expressed a dimension of ambition when he created the opportunity for the development of his creation. In the mind of God the City of God always stood as the final destiny of man. So in the workplace there can be legitimate expression of God-honouring ambition as we fulfill the creation mandate for God’s glory. (3) Servant managers/leaders are concerned to bring the best out of their employees, to equip them, even more than they are concerned with their own advancement. The leader’s effectiveness is measured by the advancement of his employees. (4) Servant leaders serve the business by [i] continuously holding up the mission purpose of the company; [ii] empowering employees to do their job well; [iii] saying thanks to everyone, showing them they are appreciated.

10. THE BUSINESS RUNS ON GRACE

Business takes the Christian into the “principalities and powers”–economic, social, political structures of society, into patterns of competition and dishonest financial transactions. These structures, originally created good by Christ (Col 1:16) have become broken and polluted by human sin and “colonized” by Satan (Eph 6:10-18). Christian business persons find themselves frequently in situations where there is no easy answer, no “black and white” choice to be made. Recognizing that Christ is now King but that the Kingdom has not yet fully come, Christians make difficult decisions (1) on the basis of clear teachings of Scripture; (2) in fellowship with other believers in business; (3) prayerfully. Inevitably mistakes and compromises will be made and sins committed. These must not be excused; but neither must they destroy the believer. There is forgiveness; there is hope. Luther once said, “sin boldly” (because you will be a sinner in business); “but believe in Christ more boldly still.”

This is the text of a talk given by Professor Stevens to Christian business people in Ndola, Zambia, August 1994. Used by permission of the author.

Paul Stevens is Professor Emeritus of Marketplace Theology and Leadership at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Professor Stevens joined the Regent faculty in 1987 as Associate Professor of Applied Theology and was named the David J. Brown Professor of Marketplace Theology and Leadership in 1999. During his tenure at Regent, Dr. Stevens taught courses on Marketplace Theology, equipping and empowering the people of God, and ministry and spirituality. In addition, he served the College as Academic Dean. Dr. Stevens’s primary focus in teaching and writing is equipping the whole people of God for leadership. He has taught and spoken at institutions all over the world, including Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, the Christian Studies Institute in Brazil, Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Biblical Graduate School of Theology in Singapore, and in Kenya for the Certificate in Ministry offered by Carey Theological College. Dr. Stevens was named Professor Emeritus of Marketplace Theology and Leadership in 2005 and continues to teach courses frequently at Regent. Dr. Stevens is a craftsman with wood, words, and images and has worked as a carpenter, a student counselor, a pastor, and a professor. His personal mission is to empower the whole people of God to integrate their faith and life from Monday to Sunday. Dr. Stevens is married to Gail and has three married children and eight grandchildren. He and Gail have resided in Vancouver since 1969 and travel to all continents (except Antarctica) to teach, learn, and contribute.