“Dear God, I know you’re busy solving larger problems, but …”  Have you ever started out a prayer this way?  Perhaps, you’ve said, “I don’t want to trouble God with something so trivial.  He has enough on His plate already.”  Somehow, we’ve got it into our heads that God is some sort of cosmic plate spinner trying to keep all of the plates from crashing to the ground.  God isn’t like that at all.

Contrary to how most of us seem to see Him, God isn’t trying to react to every event that happens in the world.  He’s not waiting for you to say just the right prayer, think the right thought, or do the right thing before He springs into action at the last moment to keep our particular plate spinning.

Clear Away the Rubbish

What kind of God would that be?  Just because we were given free will doesn’t mean that God now has to follow us around making corrections here and there in reaction to whatever choices we make.  God is not at the mercy of our decisions.

A.W. Tozer wrote in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, that the most important thing about us is how we think about God.  He goes on to explain that finding this out isn’t always that easy.

Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is.  Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.

Too often, we try to put God in a box confining Him to our own understanding.  We begin to feel like our prayers are necessary to let God know when and how He should act.  We quit talking to Him about the little things because we’ve convinced ourselves that He’s too busy to deal with them.

God’s is Never Surprised

If we really thought about whether God could be busy, we’d find how humorous that notion is.  How can an infinite, all powerful, all knowing God become busy?  He can’t. Here’s something else to think about.

God has never been surprised by any of your actions, or my actions, or anyone’s actions.  Before the foundation of the world, He knew every possible action that every person who would ever live on the earth would make in every possible scenario.  This is how our free will and His perfect will coexist.

That means God created man knowing he would fall from grace, knowing that most would go to hell, and knowing that Jesus would have to die on the cross to redeem man.  He knew what Hitler would do, whether that child who died would reject Him or accept Him, and that your loved one would die of cancer.

All Things Work Together, But For Who’s Good?

Knowing all of this, God still chose to create this earth and put us on it.  I’ll be honest. I don’t why.  It seems cruel that so many should perish.  Paul writes this in Romans,

²⁸And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. ²⁹For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.  ³⁰Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. – Romans 8:28-30

This doesn’t mean that God hand-picked which of us would be saved or not, but it does mean He knew who would choose Him.  It’s to these people that all things work together for good.  I thank God that I am one of these people.

Paul could pen these words with confidence, because he understood that God has already put every response, every reaction, everything needed to accomplish His will in place.  Since we are still bound by time, we’re still experiencing His handiwork.

Photo Credit: Flickr/Bashed

When I was a kid I used to love going to the amusement parks so I could ride the roller coasters.  It was an awesome experience.  It’s not so much fun when it comes to reading a blog though.  I’m afraid that I’ve let this site become somewhat of a roller coaster ride lately.  Some months I’ve flooded you with posts and other months I’ve barely written anything.  Let me start off by saying, “I’m sorry.”

Some of you have been reading my blogs for a while now and know what’s been going on behind the scenes, but for those of you who only know about this site let me explain.  This site was originally part of my personal blog, but I also wrote about general business topics along with social media and blogging.

It all got to be quite a mess, and I was pulled in two directions whenever it came time to write a post.  I created this site in the fall, transferred over the relevant posts, and expanded the topics from Christian entrepreneurship to the categories you see today. This worked out well for this site, but my original blog was still suffering.

Last month, I launched a new site called Big Feet Marketing which helps individuals and small businesses on a shoestring budget enlarge their digital footprints using blogging and social media.  Getting the site up and running took away from my time here at Marketplace Christianity.

Will You Help Me Smooth Out the Roller Coaster?

Sue Miley wrote a post last week on how we’re called to a different standard.  She’s right.  Of all the online activities I let slip through the cracks, this site should never be one of them.  Our testimony in the marketplace needs to bring glory to God.

God reminded me of something while I was writing the next post for this site – it’s not my site, it’s His.  He never intended me to do this on my own, but I forgot to invite people to help.  Will you please help this site by …

• Praying for this site. Please ask God to use this site as an instrument to teach and encourage His people to bring glory to Him through how we earn and spend our money, and that we share His Word accurately and compassionately.
• Sharing your comments. The posts on this site are not meant to be sermons. The hope is that they will start a discussion where you add your comments based on the experiences from your own life or insights you’ve gained from Scripture.
• Writing a guest post. I write most of the posts on this site, but this was not my intention when I launched it.  I would love to have regular contributors or someone who wants to write the occasional guest post.
• Telling others about this site. If you find the information on this site helpful, please don’t forget to tell others about it.  If you’re on Facebook please like the fan page for this site and any posts that you find helpful.  It just takes a click.
• Providing Feedback about the site. What do you love about this site?  What do you not like?  How often would you like to see posts?  What types of posts would you like to see more or less of?

I will be publishing three posts per week for the next few months just to bring some consistency back to the blog.  Regular posting days will be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  As we add regular contributors, I will likely increase the frequency to five posts published Monday through Friday.

Photo Credit: iStockphoto/ArtBoyMB

Photo Courtesy of iStockphoto/Acik

We’ve been talking a lot about developing leaders the last several posts.  Leadership is a necessary ingredient in any organization regardless of its size.   Even if you fail to create them, leaders will naturally show up and influence your people.  Too many entrepreneurs take their chances hoping that these natural leaders will fall in line with their company’s vision and mission statements.

They roll the dice thinking they’ll simply replace those leaders who don’t conform. It’s a sink or swim mentality.  Throw leadership prospects into the managerial waters and see how they do.  Why do they do this?  Simple.  It’s easy.

As we’ll see in lesson 12 from our Entrepreneurial Lessons from Creation series, making leaders the right way requires getting your hands dirty.

God Isn’t Afraid to Get His Hands Dirty

Have you ever noticed that when God interacts with man it’s usually a messy situation?  Of all the possible ways He could have created man, God chose to play in the dirt.  Creation’s crowning achievement was it’s messiest.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. – Genesis 2:7

Okay, so every living thing was created out of the ground in Genesis 2; however, man is the only creature into whom God breathed life (through the nostrils too).  God got His hands even messier when it came to creating Eve.

And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. – Genesis 2:21-22

God was not content with just speaking the crowning glory of Creation into existence. He took a hands on approach.  His fingerprints were all over us.  We were too important to Him for Him not to be that involved.

Jesus Wasn’t Afraid to Get His Hands Dirty Either

Flash forward to circa 33AD, and you get a picture of God, in the form of man, still getting His hands dirty when it comes to His Creation.  While the future leaders of the church sat back, Jesus quietly prepared to get His hands dirty.

He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. – John 13:4-5

What was the purpose of this demonstration?

So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. – John 13:12-15

Not only does God think we’re too important not to be hands on, He reminds us that we need to see others that way too.  This servant leadership that Jesus modeled for the future leaders of His church requires us to get our hands dirty.

Are You Afraid to Get Your Hands Dirty?

It’s easy to sit back and let leaders naturally form in our organizations, but it’s just not how God did it (or expects us to do it).  We should see the development of future leaders as one of our top priorities.

Great leaders want their fingerprints all over those aspects that are the most vital to the success of their organization.  They don’t take a back seat or delegate them. They roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty.

Is developing leaders in your organization a top priority?  In what ways are you getting your hands dirty demonstrating this to future leaders and your organization as a whole?

Photo courtesy of Flickr/Dalboz17

Every Christmas my wife bakes the most amazing sugar cookies.  She has become so good at making them that people have asked her to make them for their special occasions.  It’s a very labor intensive process, and when she starts our house resembles more of a bakery than a home.  Inevitably, she will complain sometime during this process that the cookies don’t all look the same.

Despite having a myriad of cookie cutters, baking utensils, and decorating tips, there is always some degree of variability in her cookies.  In the last post from our 20 Entrepreneurial Lessons from Creation series, we talked about yielding fruit after your own kind or replicating leaders.  It sounds like a great place to use a cookie cutter type of approach, doesn’t it?  That wasn’t God’s approach though.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

My wife has dozens, if not hundreds, of cookie cutters.  She chooses which ones to use based on the occasion.  Likewise, God did not create all life in the same manner or for the same purpose.  He designed Creation knowing that there would need to be various levels of lifeforms to make it all work as He intended.

We are not all plants, or animals, or male, or female.  It’s such a simple concept to grasp, but I’m amazed how many businesses try to produce leaders by pressing them through the same mold.  When choosing which people in your organization to groom for future leadership roles you need to expand your vision.

Look for people with a variety of different backgrounds, education, and experience.  Pay close attention to their particular talents and strengths and search for roles in your organization where they can make a real impact.

The Need for Flexible Management Programs

It’s interesting that when God went to make a mate for Adam that He didn’t create her the same way.  Adam was created from the dusts of the earth (Genesis 2:7), but Eve was made from Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:21-22).  While He created both in His image (Genesis 1:27), He chose different methods to do it.

How are your leadership programs designed?  Are they flexible enough to meet the needs of your future leaders at whatever skill set they currently possess?  Adam and Eve both shared many similar responsibilities, but both had their own unique strengths and purpose.  Even though God started with Adam’s core structure to make Eve, He didn’t simply replicate it – he built upon it.

Rather than think of your management programs as cookie cutters creating exact replicas of your ideal leader, look upon them as a starting foundation that can support multiple forms of leaders grounded in core principles.

Throw Away the Cookie Cutters

Any parent with more than one child will tell you that you have to be adaptive to be a great parent.  What motivates one child may discourage another.  Parenting guides are a great resource, but following them to the letter in practice rarely produces the desired results.

The same is true with developing leaders.  Creating an organization where all of the leaders look alike, sound alike, and think alike may sound like a great model for efficiency; however, the adaptability and creativity you lose in the process is never worth it.  IBM learned this the hard way in the 70s and 80s.

Are you still expecting perfect cookie cutter replicas in your leaders?  No matter how hard you try to make them the same, like my wife learned long ago, it’s just not going to happen.  Concentrate on what you put into your leaders.  Make sure it is the best quality of ingredients.

Your leaders will take on their own shape despite your best efforts to keep them uniform.  It’s best to just throw away the cookie cutter and give them room to grow.  After all, God didn’t use a cookie cutter when He made you.

Photo Courtesy of iStockphoto/bluestocking

Perhaps the first thought that popped into your head after reading this question was “No, my pastor would never have a secret bank account.”  There’s just something about the word “secret” that brings a negative connotation to the idea, isn’t there?  National headlines about televangelists committing fraud, or pastors misusing their church’s funds, have certainly played a major role in creating these negative feelings over the years.

The truth, of course, is that most of our religious leaders carry out their roles with the highest ethical and moral standards.  Even so, should they have a secret bank account from which they can write checks without having to report on their expenditures to the church or some committee within the church?  I might surprise some of you with this answer, but I say unequivocally YES.  Not only should they have one, but you should strongly consider setting one up for them.

Jesus Said to Give to the Poor in Secret

Okay, let me explain.  This isn’t some sort of a hush fund or playing around money for your pastor, but rather a tool you provide your pastor to help those in need.  When Jesus talked about giving to to the poor, He said we should do so in secret not drawing attention to ourselves.

¹Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. ²Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. ³But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: ⁴That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. – Matthew 6:1-4

Your church may operate differently, but the churches where I’ve been a member have always had a monthly business meeting where the finances of the church are discussed in some detail.  Some have had benevolence funds, and some have given a certain amount of leeway to the pastor to make these expenditures from the general fund.  In both cases, the details of these expenditures where either made available or specifically addressed in the business meeting.

I’m a strong proponent that church finances be as transparent as possible, but I’m also sensitive to the embarrassment recipients must feel by having their name and circumstances trumpeted before the congregation.  I wonder if Jesus wasn’t also thinking about this when He said to give in secret?  Think about it.  If you were in need would you want it announced at your church’s business meeting?

Why Hand Over Your Purse to Your Pastor?

You could just make these expenditures directly to the person in need.  How would you find those in need though?  Pastors have a unique opportunity to find the needs of your congregation and the surrounding community.  They receive phone calls and visits from people in need on a daily basis.

These requests can be as simple as needing groceries to last until a paycheck arrives, money to keep the utilities from being shut off, a new tire for the car so they can get to work, or an air conditioner for an elderly person in a 100 plus degree heat wave.  Maybe the request is more complicated like money to travel to a loved one’s funeral, help with paying someone’s rent to avoid eviction, or paying the copay for someone needing medical assistance.

How it must grieve your pastor’s, and God’s, heart to turn these people away in their hour of need.  Your church may already have a fund in place for these types of needs that also protects the dignity of the recipients.  If so, great.  I would venture to guess that most churches do not though.  Talk to your pastor and see if these types of requests are being met in your church.  If they’re not, a secret bank account for your pastor would be a great tool to meet them.

Who Should Set Up a Secret Bank Account?

This type of giving should be above your tithes and offerings.  It should not take their place.  If you’re a successful business owner, or just someone whom God has blessed financially, then you are an ideal person to provide this tool to your pastor.  You also should have a good relationship built with your pastor as this tool involves a lot of trust from both of you.

Have a candid discussion with your pastor about what types of requests are being turned away, and how he would respond differently to those requests if provided this tool.  Some pastors will be leery of using such a tool because of the strings that are generally attached when someone offers money.  This is why having a good relationship is critical.

You will also need to be able to commit to a periodic deposit amount to the account for a specified period of time.  If your pastor has to constantly check to see if there’s any money in the account then it’s not going to be an effective tool.  I’d suggest starting at $500 per month with a one year commitment.  This won’t be a tool that many in the congregation will be able to provide your pastor.

Secret Bank Account Guidelines

Here are some suggestions about creating and maintaining this secret bank account to keep in mind:

• Remember, it’s a secret.  Don’t go blabbing to everyone about this great tool you gave the pastor.  Don’t blow your own trumpet (Matt 6:1-4).
• Make it simple for your pastor to use.  Open a checking account just for this fund, make deposits on the same day every month, and make your pastor an authorized signer on the account.  Provide your pastor with a checkbook.
• Discuss what type of expenditures you would like to be made from the account, but give your pastor discretion to use the account as God directs.  Avoid asking about direct expenditures or the specifics of someone’s financial situation.  You have to trust your pastor for this tool to work.
• Meet with your pastor on a quarterly basis to discuss the effectiveness of this tool, any needs the pastor sees that are still unmet, and to pray together that God provide wisdom and bless how the fund is used.
• Pray daily for your pastor and for potential recipients of the funds that Christ may be seen in a very real, and tangible, way in their lives.

Another way to implement this would be through the use of gift cards.  You could purchase $50 gift cards to your local supermarket and give those to your pastor to give away.  If you wanted to give your pastor the same freedom as a checking account then you could use prepaid $50 or $100 AMEX, Visa, or Mastercards.

If you’re a pastor, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this tool.  Would you use it?  Is there a need for something like this in your congregation?