See if this real-life
example doesn’t sound familiar. The owners of an automobile dealership were regular church-goers and considered themselves to be pious Christians. However, the sales process they used in the business was designed to be manipulative and had several small lies built into it. They never saw this as a contradiction, believing that Christianity was one thing and business was something else.
They compartmentalized their Christianity to encompass what they did around the programs and activities of their local institutional church and saw their business as outside of that. In their Christianity, they followed the local pastor. In business, they incorporated the best practices of the world. This approach provided them with some benefits. They ran a financially successful business and were comfortable with
that. They were active in their local congregation and enjoyed some respect in that. In short, their approach to business and the Kingdom fit their lifestyle, and they were comfortable in both arenas.
Consequences
That sounds acceptable until we look a little closer.
Peeling back the superficial uncovers a significant problem. It is not what has happened, the problem is what has NOT happened that could and should have.
Had they built Christian principles instead of worldly values into their sales process, thousands of customers would have seen what it was like to be deal with an
organization grounded in love and expressing itself in honesty and integrity. Those customers would have been touched by a subtle witness of what it means to be a Christian. But, unfortunately, they weren’t.
Had they built Christian principles instead of worldly values into their business, hundreds of employees would have seen
that Christ is real and involved in the business and would have witnessed that impact on the lives of the owners and the actions of the principals. They would have seen acts of love and times of prayer. Christ would have become real to their employees, and many would have been attracted to the peace and hope that they saw in their bosses. Unfortunately, they didn’t.