Business? Or Preaching?
“Do I need to preach to people if I am going to run a Christian business?”
That’s a question I recently fielded from a Christian business person who was struggling with the idea that his business could be a ‘Biblical business.’ While the simple answer is “No,” the mind-set behind the question requires quite a bit more explanation.
First, a little background. The religious establishment has for generations promoted the idea that there was nothing ‘Christian’ about business. According to the clear majority of professional Christians, Christianity was what one did in church, and business was a decidedly non-church endeavor. Therefore the two didn’t mix.
I recall two missionaries visiting my home in the late 90’s and ridiculing me for using my speaking practice to fund our short-term mission trips. I was a ‘charlatan,’ for mixing business and Christian ministry, and they would have nothing to do with me or my family. To them, they – professional Christians – were the custodians of the Kingdom, and no one better infringe on their territory. The idea of a Christian
business was anathema to them.
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That idea began to change around the turn of the century, when some missionary groups, frustrated with their inability to operate in certain countries, recognized that, while their efforts to enter those countries were stopped, those same countries welcomed business investment. So, they reasoned, a business could be formed as a stealth mission effort. Let’ s hide our real objective – Christian converts – under the shelter of
a business and thus gain entry into places previously unavailable.
Thus began the ‘Business as Mission” effort. Formed as a church-planting strategy, and primarily advanced by missionary organizations, the idea never-the-less expanded the concept of a Christian business. Now, a business could have a function in the Kingdom apart from just making money to support the institutional church.
Business people were still thought of a ‘second-class’ Christians who didn’t measure up to the spiritual power and maturity of the professionals. One of my clients voiced his experience this way. “I’m the CEO of a multi-million-dollar business. I employ lots of people and run a sophisticated enterprise. Yet, in the church, there is no place for my gifts. If I’m good, and don’t rock the boat, after a couple of
years they’ll let me pass the collection plate.”
But, by acknowledging that a business could have an impact for the kingdom, the religious establishment opened the door to what became a flood-gate, as Christian business people poured through that opening and expanded the concept of a Christian business. The more people studied what the Bible has to say about business and the marketplace, the more enhancements were added to the core idea of business as mission. Multiple
books were written, conferences held, and Christian business people began to flex their new-found muscles. In The Good Book on Business, I noted that a Biblical business, among other
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