Which Life is Worth More?

 There have been two significant news bulletins recently. Only one is getting a lot of press, showing up on page 1 of newspapers and landing pages of news websites and blowing up social media feeds. The other was relegated to page 6 of a regional paper and I have yet to hear of any secondary news agencies pick it up. The former is the news that the US Supreme Court heard arguments in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health. This case is predicted to cease a national liberty for a woman to end her pregnancy by abortion and return the legislative deliberations to each state to grant the liberty or not.

Abortion has been on the decline with the CDC reporting under 650,000 abortions in the year 2019. A lot of the politically-inclined evangelical world is excited by the possibility that the US Supreme Court will overturn the preceding decisions of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The latter story is that over 22 million Afghans are nearing death through starvation this winter. The story has been carried in various secular news feeds but not in Christian feeds. World Vision has mobilized to provide assistance. Albert Mohler, who comments on "news of the day" each day, has not provided a comment on this story.

Is the evangelical world more concerned with 600,000 deaths of unborn children than 22 million Afghans or 5 million people who have died from COVID-19? If so, then an unborn child is worth 36 Afghans and 9 people worldwide.

If we have the heart of Christ and we are ambassadors of His, shouldn't we be just as anguished over 36 Afghans and 9 other people perishing without His grace and mercy as well as the unborn child?

[Also published on Compassionate Curmudgeon and Business Radical blog.]

The Myth of the Proverbs 31 Woman

  Last night I heard an inspiring and encouraging message given to women at our church. (I was like the church mouse hiding in the balcony running tech.) The base text for the talk was Proverbs 31.20. There are many good attributes in this chapter of the bible. The female speaker pointed out how nearly impossible it is to be as good as this described wife; others have also noted that no woman in the bible lives up to the Prov. 31 standards. However, I was kind of expecting the female speaker to discredit the lofty aspirations because of its authorship.

Not many people read closely the text leading into the chapter. Essentially, this chapter is written by the (future) queen's mother-in-law as perhaps a snipe towards her son's mate: The sayings of King Lemuel contain this message, which his mother taught him.

Might not the mother's-in-law perspective contribute to the lofty standards. I am not discounting the divine inspiration of the writing. I am saying we need to show grace and mercy to women who think they've failed if they miss a beat according to these verses. Just like being disinherited from the Kingdom because we are greedy, envious, quarrelsome, etc., we know God is gracious. The Sermon on the Mount also might be considered impossible standards and yet Christ says, "Knock and the door shall be opened" which will allow us into the kingdom even if we are not consistently poor in spirit. Or we might be persecuted for our own stupid mistakes, and not righteousness' sake.

[Also published on Compassionate Curmudgeon and Business Radical blog.]

Biblical Business Radical: Goals and Methods of Developing a New Employee

 In a discussion with business owners regarding mentoring new believers, I was struck with an observation that perhaps we could apply the same mentoring methods to new employees. So first, I had us look at the similarities and differences between new employees and new believers:

• THEIR MOTIVATION: New employees are often motivated by money and escaping a prior bad work experience; they might also be looking for new life opportunity (career) and a sense of belonging in the new organization. Similarly, new believers are looking for belonging, new way of living (opportunity), confidence, and perhaps mostly hope.
• THEIR GOALS: New employees want to be good at the new job, fit in with the new team and have a sense of job security (i.e. into the next week, month, year at least). New believers also want to fit in, find peace/joy/love; most will want to be good at followership and seek enlightenment. 
• OUR GOALS: We want the new employees to be able to operate independently, be proficient to help the organization be more profitable and, as owners, thus we can do more through the company as a whole; we also want them to be as passionate about the work as we are. As discipling mentors, we want the new believers to become mature followers (Col. 1.28) and be able to make good life decisions that bring glory and honor to the Christ.

At the top of Maslow's hierarchy is Significance and that can be achieved by most. I believe most people want to know how they're contributing to the team and they'd like to think that they would be missed, that the team wouldn't function as well without them.

So what are the biblical means of developing these newbies? Paul has some suggestions in his letter to the Thessalonians:

• Gentleness as a nursing mother
• Fondness
• Vulnerability, as in admitting we made mistakes when we were learning too
• On call day and night
• Education cycle to be light and applicable to daily work

With this list, we realized this might be contradictory to how many of us have seen or heard of drill sergeants in the military's basic training. We also know that they have a goal to make a mature soldier and they want each one to succeed by toughening up, being resilient, being dependable to the next person, to put the mission/goal first...

• Modeling the right behavior with maintaining integrity with personal and corporate values
• Encouragement, exhortation, imploring to make improvement (see the Progress Principle)

In short, as we want our children to be prepared for life on their own, we want our employees to be prepared to work independently. Therefore, we need patience and a focus on the ultimate goal of developing them to be the best they can be. Paul's advice to create new disciples and new churches can provide guidance for us to create new successful employees.

 

Qualifications of a Hero of the Faith

 Our own church is going through a sermon series on the book of Acts with the perspective of history making. Another pastor I know is going through a series regarding heroes of the faith based on Hebrews 11. It is interesting that none of the heroes in this epistle are professional religious leaders. They were shepherds, wives, government officials, and even a harlot. The closest you get are Samuel, the exceptional priest, and the prophets. 

If you were going to launch a global movement to transform the world, what qualifications would you put in your employment ad? How would you screen the résumés? Undoubtedly, as a top-notch leader of your organization, you wouldn't select fishermen nor hated tax collectors. You might, as Christ did, select a few of a friendly rival's leaders. 

One church leader postulates that today's churches wouldn't hire King David, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph (a felon), Peter, Paul, John Mark, et. al. A group of pastors is funneling their efforts to "equip the saints for ministry" in their respective vocations. I believe that's the original context of Ephesians 4.12.

To be a hero of the faith, how much do you have to be involved with the organized church? How much do you have to be in your community, in your business making a difference and pointing others to God?

Sola Scriptura?

 Martin Luther, in response to corruption in the Holy Roman Catholic Church in his time, coined his guiding principle of sola scriptura—only scripture—and not tradition as a means of discerning God’s will and truth. However, as NT Wright and others have pointed out, not even scripture shows we should use scripture as the sole guiding influence. God’s authority is greater than scriptural authority. “All authority under heaven and earth has been given to…” scripture? No, Christ. Other examples…

• God violates His own later handed-down law by punishing a murderer—Cain—not with an execution but banishment.
• The prophet Micaiah in 1 Kings 22 shows that prophets were deceived by relying only on scripture to determine if the king should attack a city.
• In the wilderness, Christ could have relied on Satan’s quoting of scripture as an authoritative plan of action, but Christ knew greater principles that countermanded those scriptural promises.
• Many people like to quote scripture that shows only a mustard seed of faith is needed to accomplish healing and therefore, when healing is absent, the fault lies with our faith…and yet the Author of our faith, Christ, prayed for a different outcome in the Garden of Gethsemane and the outcome didn’t change. Was this a case of a son praying for bread and a cruel father giving him a stone to eat? (Matthew 7.9)

In the age of literacy, for the last hundred years, I believe we’ve relied more on our ears than our spiritual ears to discern the will of God. We’ve stopped being living sacrifices and transformed from our worldly reliance on our own skills in order to know the will of God (Romans 12.1-3).

Biblical Business Radical: Overcoming 21st Century Roman Oppression

Prior to a discussion with a group of pastors about their congregants’ workplaces, I remembered a bunch of startling aspects—some personally experienced—about the workplace in general. For the pastors, it’s one thing to help us find our purpose, mission in our vocation and to be encouraged to work as if we’re working for the Lord…but what if our boss is the devil?

• 4 out of 5 workers would switch companies if given the chance—which unfortunately means we’re all trading one dysfunctional place for another
• If we’re so unhappy in our workplace or dread going there, it may be one of the leading sources of mental and emotional unhealthiness that 2 out of 5 of us suffer from.
• If it’s true that 80 percent of business executives have suffered from clinical levels of depression, sleeplessness, anxiety, addiction, etc. (according to Dr. Henry Cloud) and they have more control over their work-life environment than the rest of the organization, it seems to spell doom for a lot of workers in our companies.
• Companies have been paying attention and making moves to influence employee engagement for 30-40 years but it hasn’t moved past 25 percent according to Gallup in all that time. So what are we business leaders getting wrong?
• Most people don’t know what their company is trying to accomplish and how they contribute, and most could care less if the company succeeds.
• In survey after survey, employees say there isn’t enough communication (but it’s unclear on what aspects of communication—content, media, frequency, style, etc.—are failing) and every employee can tell you about an inane policy in their workplace and dysfunctional workplace dynamics.
• Employees agree to be hired because of the organization’s brand and mission but most often leave because of the managers—so it’s not the work itself that’s the problem but how the culture of the organization that is. Remember 4 out of 5 would change companies if they could.
• Despite a move from Theory X (autocratic) leadership to Theory Y (consensual) leadership since the 1970’s there are still a lot of narcissistic and toxic leaders in our workplaces who will not change and leave their employees the only choices of prayer or departure.

This and more led me to think that what we have are oppressive situations here. People who don’t like what’s going on, feel controlled by rules that make no sense and have little voice in accomplishing changes and aren’t even sure they want to “owners” to win. It’s a lot like being in Israel in the 1st century where a foreign power governs and makes the rules. Into this situation, Christ preached the Good News that God had not abandoned them and that their circumstances did not negate their special status.

What would be our 21st century Business Sermon on the Mount—or Sermon on the Slack Channel?

Blessed are those who are poor in spirit and dread Mondays for they shall…

Blessed are those who mourn and grieve over layoffs and reduced work hours for they shall…

Blessed are the meek and those who competently do their work, collaborating freely for the organization’s success without expecting celebrations and glowing performance appraisals for they shall…

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for a feeling that their life matters, that their work matters and it could be more than just a paycheck that feeds the kids, for they shall…

I encourage you—especially you pastors—to contemplate the rest.

Calling and Confirmed?

 A lot of people talk about having a “calling”. I’ve been asked the question about what my calling is, as in “Do you feel called to this career, this ministry, etc.?”  Recently I heard a talk from the author of an upcoming book, Enduring Hope, about the gift of disillusionment based on the book of Jeremiah. In the talk, the author mentioned Jeremiah 20.7: “You misled me, Lord” i.e. this job is not matching his expectations of what a prophet’s career was meant to be. He may have imagined a bit of glory, crowds listening to his every utterance “thus says the LORD” and invitations from the nobility and elite. This is what we might imagine the result of a calling to be. I know several people who feel called into business; they certainly don’t expect that they’ll be failures in the calling. 

Jeremiah didn’t expect ridicule, assassination attempts, imprisonment, abduction and more…but that is what he got. Do we expect the same in our callings? Weren’t we warned by Christ on the Sermon of the Mount that we would be persecuted because we carry His Name on our team jerseys, so to speak? Certainly we don’t expect this in America. We expect that if God calls us, He will make us successful in that endeavor.

So how are callings given by God?

Abraham didn’t have a clear road map to how we would be father of nations and a blessing to all who lived. But he listened to God’s voice. He heard from God directly. 

Jacob deceived his way into a birthright but then had to wrestle God for his calling.

Joseph got a dream from God though he wasn’t shown exactly how it would come to pass. Through many downs and ups—slavery, prison, forgotten—he finally gets into a position where he can help nations survive a 7-year drought, including those of his family.

Moses did experience God through a burning bush. That would be a definite calling—though Moses negotiated some assistance to accomplish it. Aaron’s and Miriam’s calling was confirmed by God through Moses.

Joshua had been an aide to Moses and was anointed as new leader by Moses and filled with the Spirit of wisdom.

Judges, Deborah, Gideon, Samson were called by God directly. (It is interesting that after Joshua there was no anointed spokesperson and God spoke to all the people as recorded in the early chapters of this book.)

Saul was selected and anointed/confirmed by Samuel the priest.

David…ditto.

Jeremiah heard directly from God, as did other prophets, and many thought the job was burdensome.

Daniel beseeched the Lord for the gift of interpreting dreams to save himself and other leaders when the king was angry.

Esther confirmed by other(s), namely her uncle, “for such a time as this.”

 Mary’s calling confirmed through a visitation by an angel. 

Disciples called through invitation and repeated “selection” from the crowd of followers as the chosen ones by Christ.

Matthias confirmed by prayer and the casting of lots.

Stephen was appointed by the apostles along with several others for a service ministry.

Saul/Paul was called through a vision and others laying hands on him.

Paul/Barnabas were set apart for missions ministry after praying and confirmation of the Spirit through others.

What other examples can you think of and research?

Most of the time, people’s callings are confirmed through others’ prayers, as in others are hearing from the Lord. Most, if not all, the advice given to us about looking for our calling does not require confirmation by others. The advice merely suggests that you pray and hear directly from God. I know of one Christian ministry that will not confirm a staff person’s calling; it’s entirely on the individual. 

I’m wondering if the better plan is that you take your cues from others who have prayed and invite you into a ministry—whether it’s in business or outside. Don’t let the circumstances determine whether the calling is correct. A simple example of why I say this: the storm didn’t stop when Peter stepped out of the boat at Christ’s invitation. Also, Paul would have been advised by any 1st century career counselor to only do tent-making because his main career—planting churches—was leading to being ousted, imprisonments, beatings, stonings, starvation, shipwrecks, and so on.

Biblical Business Radical: Never Give Up?!

Perseverance and resilience are buzz words floating through the business world in the past decade. Leaders want employees who are resilient--bouncing back from a setback--and persevering--never giving up and pushing through a tough problem. I've done those things. I've done those things when I've had help to see other solutions. One early lesson in this was hiking along the Appalachian Trail but having an equipment failure on the first day. I thought the only solution was to look for the nearest "exit" back to civilization; however, my friend sacrificed a spare piece of equipment that substituted for the failed part. And we made it through the rest of the trip.

I've also quit. And then I'm told, "Never give up! Never quit! Quitters never win! Winners never quit!"

So let me describe a few times I have quit. There are personal/individual problems like fixing a household appliance. If it's not going well--taking 6 hours when a professional can get it done in 30 minutes because they have the right tools--it's time to quit. 

There are professional times when I just didn't have any more to offer; I was not contributing any more value to an organization. When all the organization needs is a manager to maintain the current systems, processes...status quo, it doesn't need me who will challenge everything and look for the next market opportunity. It's like a sculptor being asked to stack bricks. It's a misfit of skills and aptitudes. It's time to quit.

There are other professional times when I've been using my skills and aptitudes appropriately but it was in the wrong type of organization. It could be a cultural thing where daring is not needed. The market doesn't require creative marketing, for example. I was in one industry where social media was not an effective advertising channel; old-fashioned person-to-person networking was required to get on the decision-maker's call list.

There are also organizational times when to call it quits on a project. Some projects are just ill-fated enough--wrong time, wrong technology, wrong market, wrong price--that no matter how much money and time is thrown at it, it will not ever recover the sunk costs. It's time to call it quits. A lot of companies have gone bankrupt--or had to be sold--because they weren't willing to quit before the project sink-hole swallowed them up. I have written about the "million-dollar machines" in another blog because by the time we developed the product, the company spent $10 million dollars and we sold 10 machines. The company was later sold to a larger corporation because it had run out of money.

There were also times when the personal toll was too great because of a toxic culture. In other places--and done some master's degree work on the issue--I've written that there's not much you can do to change a toxic leader. The top books on this topic give ineffective solutions. No system, policy or procedural change is going to change a toxic manager's behavior; they're in it for themselves and "to hell with anyone else". They view their behavior as the reason for their success. I suggest there are only two options: pray for a spiritual intercession; leave the company. When you're energy is being spent to overcome the dread of going to work, or maintaining some organizational peace in the face of a person who's emotionally unsafe to be around, it's time to quit.

Miracles can and do happen, but they're not a strategic plan that will win. We see this sometime in scripture: the paralytic by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years--you can calculate the months, weeks, days that he just lay there--until he was healed by Christ. Admittedly, a healing by angels was more the paralytic's plan than the appearance of the Messiah.

But then we have the apostle Paul, preaching in Jerusalem for the first time. He's preaching to the Greek-born Jews. Fights and riots are breaking out. The "brothers" (Jerusalem apostles) encourage Paul to return home to Tarsus. It says they helped him get home, but I imagine there was some conversation about it. 

"Paul, it's just not working. People are trying to kill you. Maybe we should try something else."

"If I keep doing this, eventually it'll turn around. Persecution does not mean it's not working."

"Paul, we really think you should preach in your home town of Tarsus. You're less likely to upset the majority Jews. You'll probably be well-received among the Greek Jews. You're doing the right thing, but it's in the wrong place." 

What was the result? Paul goes to Tarsus. "The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers." (Acts 9.31 my emphasis) The word "then" is not an English translation transition; it's there in the Greek implying a cause-and-effect, Because Paul was doing the right thing in the wrong place, it was not going well; it was time to quit. 

Henry Cloud has written a book, Necessary Endings, to help discern the time to quit. If you apply some of the thinking above regarding a mismatch between available skills and effective skills, that will go a long way to knowing whether to persevere or not.

 

 

Biblical Business Radical: Your Words, Your Actions...Your Testimony

 We heard the verses from 1 Corinthians 13 read so often at weddings, that it's hard to put them in any other context than marriage. Granted, a marriage relationship is supremely important to get right. I would also say that employer-employee relationships are very important and we should learn to get them right as well. Bad employer-employee relationships not only affect the individuals, they infect the organization's culture with toxicity, low productivity, low community reputation, and low profitability and all the rippling effects from profit generation that are impacted. 

A recent management book, Love As a Management Practice, highlights many of the Corinthian chapter's verses in a business context. And it's welcome in that regard. How do we show patience and why is it important in the workplace?

The broader context to the "love chapter" in the bible is clear from the first few verses:

If I speak in the tongues ^a of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, ^b but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor. 13.1-3 NIV)

Let me suggest a paraphrase:

    If I market with all the skill of Madison Ave and win large contracts, but do not have love, I'm just making noise in the marketplace. If I set a brilliant strategic plan that creates tremendous business growth, but do not have love, I've put my ladder up against the wrong wall and am measuring success the wrong way. If work 80-hour weeks and pay my employees handsomely but do not have love, my place in God's kingdom is not assured.

Recently, and often unfortunately, I've worked with CEO's, who in times of deep stress, resort to what they've learned to be appropriate responses to crises, real or imagined. I've seen them berate employees, customers, suppliers--focusing on the people rather than the process or problem that created the situation. (I often recall Juran's mantra that 80% of problems are controlled by management while Goldratt claims it's more like 99% because the activities are interrelated and not independent events.) They fail to exhibit "love is patient...kind...". They fail to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5)--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control. Bosses are not exempt from these strictures. In fact, as business "teachers or preachers"--placed in authority--in the workplace, we can be held to a higher standard (James 3.1).

It is especially troubling to see CEO's who say they've dedicated the business to the Lord, that the business is their ministry and they want to win people to a relationship with God. How effective is their ministry when public humiliation occurs? Are people attracted to that level of grace and mercy, our actions and words meant to reflect the nature of the Christ for whom we are ambassadors? 

Being a boss does not mean we can ignore exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit in all interactions we have, personal and professional, nor fail to practice the dictums in 1 Cor. 13. If you really want to be worried as a business manager, read the whole book of James and try to practice what it preaches. Here's just a few snippets:

• be joyful in the midst of problems
• guard your tongue because if God loves them, so should you
• don't prejudge or be biased in favor of people with status or looks or "what they can do for you"
• help others tangibly, not just with words
• be accountable
• be humble in expectations ("we'll go to this village and make a profit over the next year" 4.13) because the Lord determines the outcome
• pay your employees fairly, justly--and your suppliers and your customers when owed a rebate or refund
• don't judge or condemn or speak harshly

It ain't easy being a boss. But if you want to be in that position, then do your best to act and speak in a way that brings glory and honor to Him who loves you...and loves your employees.

Biblical Business Radical: Praying for Growth?

 Reprinted from LinkedIn

"If you're not growing, you're dying. If you're standing in place, you're dying." I've repeated this mantra many times in my career. I've also referenced the Alice in Wonderland image of trying to run faster in a race just to stay in place.

Recently I started synergizing a couple of thoughts. One was from a friend, Bill English, and his latest book, A Christian Theology of Business Ownership, regarding how business owners are placed in authority of their businesses. But we are stewards of His resources. Bill's point was that we should ask what God's plan is for the business and not just devise our own plans.

I have been in positions of owning businesses and leading other people's companies and sometimes my hubris probably got in the way. I can say though that I did pray. Almost all companies grew while I was on the leadership team. A few did not. "Lord, I am just the steward and it's your choice whether this company grows or dies...and if you want the financial resources to be disbursed to others outside the company, that's fine but I would make sure the company has them. I think that's the better decision." That prayer was not always answered.

I've also had conversations with many business leaders who believe that growth of a Christian business--one dedicated to the Lord--is a given. But worldly success is not guaranteed 100% of the time in the scriptures; we wouldn't have martyrs or the nation of Israel beat up so many times. We wouldn't have more powerful, pagan countries surrounding God's people if worldly success was God's goal for His chosen ones.

I started to think about the Israelites after the Exodus from Egypt. They survived in the wilderness. Their numbers grew despite losing a generation of people who had once lived as slaves in Egypt. After crossing the River Jordan into Canaan and the other lands, they were militarily victorious. They conquered and occupied the land God has designated for them. Their borders were defined. Joshua proved to be a solid leader, following Moses' example.

They had success after success--with a few setbacks. They knew about empires seeing them all around and hearing the stories from their fathers, mothers, grandparents who lived and worked in the great empire of Egypt. Why didn't Israel become a great empire? Instead it's future became being overrun by Assyrians, Chaldeans, et al. They knew about Persia, Babylon--and some were exiled there--Macedonia and later the Roman Empire.

Especially in the time of their early success of taking the land on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, Joshua surely must have prayed to God that the nation grow. "If we're not growing, we're dying." If they felt blessed by God, certainly it would mean that they would continue to expand their borders and be as powerful as the Greeks and Persians.

But those prayers were not answered. God's promise to the Israel forefathers was that they would be a blessing and an influence on all the nations, not that they would conquer all nations. The goal seems to be a blessing, not an overlord.

So what does that mean for our businesses? Perhaps growth is a byproduct. Our goal should be to bless our customers, suppliers, employees, communities, shareholders--all of our stakeholders. Like the apostle Paul says, learn to be content with much and content with little. Perhaps our goal is to execute effectively and efficiently, utilizing all of our talents and resources--as in the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25.14-18). Maybe that means moderate goals in our strategic plan. As long as we're bringing a return to our investors, perhaps that's enough.

As long as I am and my company is doing the "right things" to bless and serve others, I should be content that my company has 10 employees...or 30 employees...or 100 employees... Should we be allowed to grow by God's will, that I should be allowed to lead a larger organization, I will humbly accept the duty. Until then I will try to check my hubris and learn from Joshua that prayers for an empire may go unanswered in the way I think they should be.

As a postscript, I'm finding several business paradoxes in scripture. This week it's the teaching of Bill English's that we should ask God what He wants done with the business, which I think is correct, while the master in the Talent Parable does not proscribe how the servants should grow the business. Though the parable is not a business lesson, but it does show that not all direction is given by God.

#strategicplanning #theologyofbusinessownership #businessgrowth #leadership

Dependence on Daily Devotions?

 Up to 100 years ago, literacy was not predominant among the world, nor even in the US; only about 1 in 4 people could read. Those who could hard few choices in their native language if at all; the King James Authorized Version (1611) and the Catholics' preference of Douay-Rheims (1609-1610) translations from the Latin, which came from a Greek version being the predominant ones in the English language. Though in a time when most people could not read, we would have to admit that there were many faithful followers of Christ throughout the last 2000 years up to the 20th century. Yet if you listen to most people who teach about spiritual formation and growth, i.e. on how to become a better follower, a better disciple of Christ, the first--and sometimes main--spiritual discipline mentioned is to read the Bible daily. 

I have read it daily. And I also read the Bible outside devotionals. I study scripture passages and scripture themes. I often ask the Spirit to explain some difficult passages to me, especially on how I'm supposed to apply them in my life, my behaviors, my values.

But the spiritual discipline I'm trying to make a habit is to follow Paul's admonition of "pray unceasingly" (1 Thess. 5.17) adialeiptos proseuchesthe, which is engraved on a ring I wear: to ask God more questions than bring requests, to seek His mind as Abraham, Joshua and others did. To follow not only the Christ's footsteps but also those who were faithful and may not have been able to read, but were able to listen to His whispering, small voice (1 Kings 19.12)

Biblical Business Radical: Don’t Harvest to the Edge of Your Fields

[Reprinted here with author's permission and minor editing]

I admit, even though I’ve spent most of my life in the Midwest, I’ve never had to walk a bean field or detassle corn or any of the other typical crop-related tasks/chores for teens. Nor have I driven a combine or a tractor for more than 5 minutes. I grew up on military bases so my agricultural knowledge is sparse. I think I can still detect the difference between a pig farm and cow farm by its smell, however.

Recently, in conversations with friends, we were talking about gleaning. If you don’t know, it’s a biblical practice dictated by God to help the poor in a dignified manner. Gleaners—and there are some modern practitioners—go through the fields after the harvesters have done their work to pick up what was missed or dropped. God’s command came from His heart that people should have a means of being cared for that didn’t reduce their esteem or indicate that they were incapable. My friends and I were discussing modern equivalents in non-agrarian circumstances. We had been shown some examples of neighbors hiring sole proprietor/solo entrepreneurs to do work on their houses, in their yards or catering group meals that they would have done themselves normally. Examples were given of temporarily paying the poor/homeless to do work around businesses and churches.

For me, this wasn’t gleaning. This was passing along our earned income—subcontracting. It was like harvesting thousands of bushels of corn and setting aside some of those to pay people for mucking out the stables. Not quite the pure example of gleaning. The key, I believe, to gleaning is that we are passing on the opportunity to get more revenue. I’m not even sure individuals can offer gleaning opportunities; I think it has to come from ‘field owners’ aka businesses.

I think I have inadvertently practiced gleaning with some manufacturing companies I’ve owned and operated. Here are a few of the practices:

• Letting disadvantaged people haul metal scrap to the salvage yard for cash
• Letting disadvantaged people take good or scrap pallets for their small business use or to be used as firewood in their wood stove/fireplace
• Giving away past-their-prime-but-not-dead tools to people who use them in their money-making hobbies or small businesses—this was hand tools and larger equipment like welders, drill presses, etc.
• Giving away product ‘seconds’ that others could use or sell

In all of those cases, people had to transport the stuff themselves. There may have been other ways I accidentally practiced gleaning but I can’t remember them. I’d love to hear how your business does it. I know restaurants and grocery stores pass along ‘expiring’ food to food shelves, shelters to be given away, and maybe small neighborhood stores to be sold at a great discount.

I really struggle to figure out how service companies could do it. My only thought is that we pass on a certain percentage of contracts, really small contracts that our customers bring to us and let small businesses ‘pick them up’. We should also offer to help them win the contracts by introducing them to our customers and providing a guarantee...but in no way should we operate as the contractor and the smaller business as the sub-contractor. They win the contract, they develop the relationship with the customer directly and perhaps enjoy growth potential with that customer and any referrals from that customer for the work done. If we subcontract, we still hold the earning potential for future business, future referrals, etc.

What are your thoughts?

God set this up, not only to take care of the poor, but to remind us that He’s given us all the blessings and to remind us not to get too big a head thinking we’ve solely created our success. Even on the secular level, we know that we wouldn’t be as successful if we didn’t have all of us aggregating efforts for education systems that have trained our employees, building roads for transporting them and our goods...and so on. We have not made our own success. Let’s help our neighbor...be a Good Samaritan (which means helping those that you may not even like)...let’s figure out how to practice gleaning.