Businesses owned by a Christian, or a group of Christians, or proclaim to operate under a set of Christian values are lauded by the ‘in’ group: Chik-Fil-A, Hobby Lobby, Wegman’s, etc. There are many others quietly operating as faithfully as they can. Not all prosper as greatly as these large corporations. Often books, articles, blogs, podcasts, etc. focus on their principles. They do have some distinction from other non-faith-based operating principles that most companies operate from. However, many ‘secular’ organizations have recognized the benefits of implementing good business practices that these more publicized faith-based organizations practice:
- Making products/provide services that make the world better;
- Being environmentally conscious, sustainable, good stewards of the environment;
- Using profits to fund worthwhile causes;
- Treating employees like family with generous benefits and retention practices
- Creating jobs for the marginalized (i.e. the formerly incarcerated) and impoverished areas worldwide
Additionally, they are touted for standing firm in the face of cultural adversity (i.e. maintaining the Sabbath), overtly stating their service to God and inviting others to join them in their faith walk.
I have found several principles in scripture that would challenge our current, predominant business practices—even in Christian businesses. These are practices like performance appraisals, use of debt, marketing forecasts, disciplinary practices, measuring organizational success, and many more. Some are more subtle like scriptural support for ‘right person in the right seat’ as Collins writes in Good to Great (check out Acts 9.28-31). Or we might be viewing our colleagues with the wrong lens like women as helpmate (laundress, coffee maker, etc.) instead of Helper as God calls Himself when He protects and guides Israel. We business leaders tend to frame everything in terms of profit, shareholders, growth instead of peace (shalom), holiness, justice, love. Then there are practices that seem wholly ignored in the scripture like letting others glean the ‘margins’ of your revenue-producing efforts and letting your revenue-producing efforts go fallow (i.e. idle) in a Sabbath year.
Here’s the framework for how we’re going to explore these issues. Overarching is God’s shalom, call it peace, harmony and its impact not only on our souls but also on our communities, our organizations and the world. God says the right religion is ‘to do what is right, love mercy and walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6.8) and ‘taking care of widows and orphans in their distress and not letting the world corrupt you’ (James 1.27).
Those commands are given to us as groups, as nations, not just as individuals. There are scriptural dictates related to our practices as individuals and we’ll pay attention to them when they apply to our leadership of our organizations. There are also edicts given to the nations that may apply to our corporations more directly.
Churches and Christian businesses tend to focus on changing others’ level of faithfulness (i.e. awareness of spiritual need, conversion, discipleship) and expect then that those individuals collectively will change how society and our corporations operate. Too often we ignore that our witness is confounded by our policies, practices and behaviors. Many people say they like Christ but hate Christians; that means we’re not consistently operating (behaving) the way He would. Christian companies may proclaim their desire to honor Christ and then cheat on their taxes, discriminate in their employment practices, cheat workers of wages (see James 5) in their firms and compel their customers and suppliers to follow suit through negotiation of prices and terms, follow suit with market-based or world-class best practices without questioning the values on which those practices are based. I challenging us to first change our systems—policies, procedures, practices—to augment our personal and corporate witness rather than waiting or procrastinating for the reverse to happen. Instead of business being the platform for expressing our faith, how about having our faith changing the platform? None of this is to diminish the personal call for being a witness, an ambassador of Christ wherever we go and to everyone with whom we travel on a daily basis.
We are salt and light. The world into which we’re called is also our corporations and their communities and networks. What if our corporations could become saltier and brighter by how we operate daring to take to heart the radical business call of scripture?
- Corporate systems in alignment with peace, holiness, justice, love
- Scriptural commands that are communal or national
- Changing our systems as the way to promote our faith
Here’s the framework for how we’re going to explore these issues. Overarching is God’s shalom, call it peace, harmony and its impact not only on our souls but also on our communities, our organizations and the world. God says the right religion is ‘to do what is right, love mercy and walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6.8) and ‘taking care of widows and orphans in their distress and not letting the world corrupt you’ (James 1.27).
Those commands are given to us as groups, as nations, not just as individuals. There are scriptural dictates related to our practices as individuals and we’ll pay attention to them when they apply to our leadership of our organizations. There are also edicts given to the nations that may apply to our corporations more directly.
Churches and Christian businesses tend to focus on changing others’ level of faithfulness (i.e. awareness of spiritual need, conversion, discipleship) and expect then that those individuals collectively will change how society and our corporations operate. Too often we ignore that our witness is confounded by our policies, practices and behaviors. Many people say they like Christ but hate Christians; that means we’re not consistently operating (behaving) the way He would. Christian companies may proclaim their desire to honor Christ and then cheat on their taxes, discriminate in their employment practices, cheat workers of wages (see James 5) in their firms and compel their customers and suppliers to follow suit through negotiation of prices and terms, follow suit with market-based or world-class best practices without questioning the values on which those practices are based. I challenging us to first change our systems—policies, procedures, practices—to augment our personal and corporate witness rather than waiting or procrastinating for the reverse to happen. Instead of business being the platform for expressing our faith, how about having our faith changing the platform? None of this is to diminish the personal call for being a witness, an ambassador of Christ wherever we go and to everyone with whom we travel on a daily basis.
We are salt and light. The world into which we’re called is also our corporations and their communities and networks. What if our corporations could become saltier and brighter by how we operate daring to take to heart the radical business call of scripture?
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