Richard J. Mouw
Uncommon Decency - Christian Civility in an Uncivil World, (p. 111), InterVarsity Press, 1992
Transforming leaders are receptive to others. We cannot hope to bring about effective change unless we are willing to be changed. This is a profoundly biblical idea. But it is also a risky one to pursue.

Proverbs 12:15
The New International Version
The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.

His leadership performance has tanked for the past two years and I’ve had enough. Plus, I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Todd has been running one of our smaller business units, the one we never really cared about because it was so insignificant, and it just kind of ran itself. Well, the truth is that Todd actually ran it, and he wasn’t doing such a bad job for a while. This business was in a small but growing niche, and it generated a nice cash flow, and we at corporate were satisfied to just keep our hands off and mouths shut and let the little business do its thing.

Until his performance started to suck.

No one likes to fire people. It’s awkward, it’s disturbing, and you can’t help but feel bad for the person on the other side of that conversation. Even if the employee has been a high-maintenance nightmare, when it comes right down to it, we still don’t want to have to look him in the eye and tell him it’s over. Even when we know that it is the right thing to do.

So we procrastinate. We hem and haw and give them second and third chances. We correct, we train, we develop, we sleep on it, and hope that the next day our problem employee will magically transform into the charming, high-performance manager that we had hoped for all along. But at the end of the day, many people just won’t, or can’t change.

That’s how it was with me and Todd for a while.

I decided that if I explain things to Todd very slowly, give him a little more guidance, and have some faith in him, perhaps together we could recover the business performance. Isn’t that what Jesus would want? Yes, I’ll give Todd the benefit of the doubt. Let’s get behind him and give him a chance!

But working through this turnaround with him turned out to be very irritating. I mean, he’s a decent fellow and has his positive qualities and all, but he resisted taking both advice and ultimatums from me or anyone else, and the situation just got worse.

A few weeks ago I met up with an acquaintance—an older, wiser gentleman named Howard, who had just come back from visiting a retired executive friend. He told me how they had spent time kind of looking back over their careers, reminiscing about life lessons learned.

“What is the one most important lesson that you have learned in your executive career?” Howard asked his friend. “I mean, if you had to give one piece of advice to business executives, based on all of your years of corporate leadership experience, what would it be?” His friend paused a moment, and said, “I would have fired more people.”

Well, fair enough. But that sounds harsh, doesn’t it?

Howard’s executive friend obviously knew that as a leader, you are only as good as the people you put in place around you. If you settle for mediocrity, or poor character, your entire business will suffer. And really, it’s not in the best interest of either party to perpetuate a bad situation. Plus, it’s poor stewardship of your company’s resources to invest in non-performing assets!

Howard was telling me this story because he knew I was struggling with the decision to fire Todd. He was really telling me what most of us as leaders already know. It’s OK to fire people—when they aren’t performing up to expectations, or if they’re in over their heads, and especially when they are destructive or demoralizing, as some employees turn out to be.

I wondered about Jesus, if he were in my shoes—would Jesus have fired Todd? If so, how would he break it to him? I couldn’t find any mention of a disciple layoff anywhere in the gospels. In fact, Jesus didn’t even fire Judas. Judas Iscariot, the evil betrayer! And Jesus knew about the horrible act he was planning! In that situation, the only thing Jesus did was to let Judas know that he knew: “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.” (Matthew 26:23). Which you would think would have freaked out Judas enough to maybe think twice about his betrayal, right?

Although advice on firing people was not forthcoming from Jesus in the gospels, I have much greater confidence that the Apostle Paul would definitely want me to fire Todd. Paul strikes me as a driven, demanding, intimidating, dictatorial leader who does not put up with poor performance from anyone. That’s why, for years after, Paul had to keep writing letters to the churches he started; because he had to make sure they were getting it right. And in Acts chapter 15, didn’t Paul fire that dear, sweet, encouraging man, Barnabas, after working side by side with him for so many years? Yes, Paul disagreed sharply with Barnabas’ suggestion for bringing his friend Mark on their next mission road trip, and that was that. Paul had Mark pegged as a poor performer (seeing that Mark had ditched them during a previous mission trip. I guess that would qualify), and wouldn’t have anything to do with either of them. So much for encouragement.

I hear Todd has started his own business, and that it’s going pretty well. God has something great in store for him. I know He does.

Before and after everything, companies are about character.

Before the first idea, the first money, the first employees, the first distributor, retailer and customer, before the creation of the company itself, there is the character of the founders.— Michael S. Malone, Infinite Loop, p.1

The gurus and the books would tell us that great enterprises begin with the great vision of the leader, what the leader sees “out there” or the previously unimagined breakthrough he sees. This vision is what he communicates to rally people and resources to his mission. But ultimately the very soul and survival of the enterprise depends upon a very different kind of vision. It is the vision of what the leader sees when he looks inside his own soul.

We know how to build strategic plans, business plans and project plans to accomplish our vision, our dream. But how do we build our own inner life? How do we start? How is character formed? When we look into our own heart, what do we see? When was the last time we carved out time to really look? And do we realize that it is from inside the heart that the real accomplishments and consequences of life and business are shaped?

I think this is where the cutting edge of business training and education must go. This is more than understanding ethics. It is grasping the fundamental importance of character. When will our business curriculums and corporate training and mentoring embrace the challenge of building character?

Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. — Proverbs 4:23 The Message

Dan Wooldridge is Co-Founder and President of InsideWork, managing operations and leading our consulting practice in leadership, strategy, legacy and succession issues for executives and business owners. Dan is a presenter at the More Than Money conference, July 17-19, 2009 in San Franciso.

In Psalm 69, David describes his enemies in detail. They hate him (4), they would want to destroy him (4), they talk about him behind his back (12), make fun of him in song (12).  He also has a long, unflattering string of references to “them” and “they” (vv. 21-28) in which he makes some strong requests of God.

In the middle of these references David slips in a comment in v. 4 “… many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me.”  “They are my enemies,” David complains, “but it ought not to be.  I haven’t done anything to justify them being so against me.”

Enemies without cause.  Hmm. Do I have any of those? I’ve had those who have spoken ill of me to others yet haven’t been willing to say so to my face. I’ve had some who made assumptions about my motives and spoke publicly about me without seeking the truth first. Several have ganged up on me never giving me a chance to speak. I’ve had some who just gave me the cold shoulder.

Oh, how the flesh wants to respond! I get defensive. I get mad (because I’m hurt.) I want equal time. I wonder what people think of me who only get their information from a source other than me. I want to set the record straight. I want those who are wrong to have to pay for the pain they’ve inflicted…

These are all efforts at justifying myself, claiming my rights, wanting to be back in some mythical “comfortable place.” But defending myself isn’t a very pretty picture no matter how hard I try to justify it.

David is stronger. He goes to the point of saying…

• May the table set before them become a snare (poisoning, I guess?), verse 22
• …may it become retribution and a trap (their demise lurks right around the corner), verse 22
• May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, (I like the NASB translation here), and make their loins shake continually, verse 23 (I haven’t asked God to do that one yet)
• Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them.verse 24

And then David adds a stunning request, one I find hard to justify…

Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation. May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.
— Psalm 69:27-28

Part of me wants to say it is merely a harsh way to say, “God, act in your justice to the ends that are appropriate for the action.” But maybe not. In the end, I have to leave this kind of language in God’s hands.

I’m not going to try to justify David’s language. I have enough problems justifying my own responses to people who hate me. They are just as ugly as David’s appear to be. Perhaps I should get my own business sorted out before I try to take care of David’s.

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God. Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal. You know my folly, O God; my guilt is not hidden from you. May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O Lord, the LORD Almighty; may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel. For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother’s sons; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn; when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me. Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards. But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters. Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me. Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me. Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble. Come near and rescue me; redeem me because of my foes. You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you. Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst. May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and a trap. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them. May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents. For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt. Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation. May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous. I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me. I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs. The poor will see and be glad— you who seek God, may your hearts live! The LORD hears the needy and does not despise his captive people. Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them, for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. Then people will settle there and possess it; the children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.
— Psalm 69

Howard Morrison is a partner in Arizona’s Morrison Ranch. He resides with his family in Austin, Texas.

You need to know this about me.

It’s as if Howard Schultz had me specifically in mind when he built the store concept: the serious roast, the eclectic but ever-so-cool music, the aroma, the European Café beatnik ambience. And, oh, how I love the coffee! Or, maybe just the idea of me drinking coffee at Starbucks is what I love. In any case, I am to the point where I won’t, or can’t, drink anyone else’s coffee, which, I think, was Starbucks’ evil plan all along.

Getting a cup of Starbucks coffee is now a critical part of my daily routine. It’s built into the very fabric of my life. No matter where I am, even if I have to drive 45 minutes to find a Starbucks to get my coffee, I’ll do it. Good for you, Howard Schultz. Luckily most of the time I don’t have to drive 45 minutes, because there is a Starbucks located just about every ½ mile in every direction from which I live. Which is just fine with me. Even if I don’t stop in, just driving by the Starbucks, seeing the green mermaid logo, and knowing it’s there to serve me whenever I might want a little java is a great comfort to me.

So for three minutes each and every morning, I stand in front of a barista and ask for a venti ¾ decaf. Then I add ½ skim and ½ whole milk to give it just the right color. All the while I am in a cool, hip, relaxing, inviting environment with great music playing in the background. And during that brief moment, I usually want to drop out of all the responsibilities of my life and just hang out for a while.

On to the spiritual-business lesson. As I was getting my morning cup of coffee the other day, I listened as one of the Baristas established a new and uncharted pinnacle of customer service. It was Carla, who is one of the long-term managers at my local Starbucks store. Carla is great—she makes sure to know your name, she’s friendly, enthusiastic, always has a smile, and is very personable.

So there I was in line, going through my normal coffee routine, and I see Carla in the background taking orders at the drive through. She’s talking on one of those hands-free Britney Spears headphone things, so I can only hear her side of the conversation. She’s going through the order-taking routine. It sounded like it was with a customer with whom she had developed a personal relationship. Here’s what I heard:

“Is that you Barbara? I thought that was you! How was it down at the Shore?”

……………….

“Awesome!” (Carla says Awesome a lot)

………………….

“OK… Is that decaf? The usual?”

………………..

“Yeah, I know. That must have been great.”

…………………..

“All right hon, that’s $4.50″

The car drives up to the window and Carla and Barbara complete the transaction. I am also conducting mine at the indoor register. I pick up my precious venti coffee, and as I am walking over to the counter for milk, I hear Carla’s parting comment to her customer:

”Ok, see you soon. I Love ya!”

Did I hear that correctly? Carla said she loves her? She loves this customer? Are they really that close?

Probably.

How’s that for being customer-centric?

If my Starbucks experience wasn’t odd enough, I had another similar experience a couple of weeks later…

I am with the Chairman of my company, and we are meeting with the owner of another company we are considering for an acquisition. We know this guy pretty well, so our conversation is fairly informal. As we discuss different aspects of his business, we eventually turn to customers: how to keep them happy, dealing with conflict, war stories about recovering from problems and mistakes that sometimes happen. And guess what he says, kind of casually, in passing… He says:

Yeah, you know, even if you screw up once in a while, as long as you have developed a relationship with your customer and they know that you really love them, it usually works out.

What? Love? You love your customers too?

Affirmative. He is dead serious.

Actually this makes some sense. Isn’t it true that love is the ultimate connection between spirituality and work? Obviously we are not talking romantic love here, but the everyday kind of love that says you care, you are committed to the other’s’ well-being, giving the best of yourself, being compassionate, caring, really wanting what’s best for them and trying to help them get there. Isn’t that kind of what Paul talks about in I Corinthians 13? Isn’t that more or less the main thing Jesus wants us to try to do more of? To everyone, including our customers? And probably the people we work with, too?

I know. It sounds weird. But actually, it’s pretty straightforward.

Because when you strip out all the formalities and strategies and jargon of doing business, at the end of the day we are all just needy human beings, after all. We all just want to be loved. And I’m thinking, wouldn’t that really lift everyone’s spirits at work, if we tried to love each other?

Bradley J. Moore posts regularly on the joy and challenge of business spiritually engaged at shrinkingthecamel.com. Bradley is an executive in a large corporation in the Northeast which shall remain nameless.

The life of the godly is justly compared to trading, for they ought naturally to exchange and barter with one another in order to maintain intercourse; and the industry with which every man discharges the office assigned him, the calling itself, the power of acting properly, and other gifts, are reckoned to be so many kinds merchandise; because the use or object which they have in view is, to promote mutual intercourse among men.
— John Calvin, Commentary On A Harmony Of The Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, And Luke, p. 443

In spite of this pleasing insight from the Reformer John Calvin, God’s love for commerce is not intuitively obvious. Indeed, there have been periods of history in which most believers were sure that God thoroughly disapproved of commerce…periods when Trading and Markets and Business were shunned. For example, medieval thought was permeated with religion…and religion was uneasy with the market. Bargains were immoral.

Church dogma often had a paralyzing effect on trade. Take the invention of the Magnetic Compass. In Columbus’ day, using the new technology of a floating needle to find North seemed like sinful magic…so a prudent captain would hide his compass in what was called a binnacle or little box, lest he be accused of trafficking with Satan.

Furthermore, progress…the idea that drives Western economies… was not attractive:

The idea of an expanding economy, a growing scale of production and increasing productivity was as foreign to the guildmaster or fair merchant as to the serf and lord. Medieval economic organization was…a means of reproducing, but not enhancing, the material well-being of the past. Its motto was perpetuation, not progress.
— Robert Heilbroner, The Making of Economic Society, p. 31

This distrust of Business is not merely a medieval peculiarity. It lingered at the end of the 18th century. Take this 1776 comment by the capitalist hero, Adam Smith:

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or in some contrivance to raise prices.
— Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, p. 84

In this, as in so many spheres, the US is thought to be different right out of the gate. Consider this impression from a prominent European visitor in the 1830s:

Business is the very soul of an American: he pursues it, not  as a means of procuring for himself and his family the necessary comforts of life, but as the fountain of all human felicity…it is as if all America were but one gigantic workshop, over the entrance of which there is the blazing inscription, “No admission here, except on business.”
— Francis J. Grund, The Americans in their Moral, Social and Political Relations, quoted in David Brooks, On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense, p. 226

A businessman is a person…

• Who lives in order to make money
• Who looks at everything in terms of profit or loss
• Who can never relax
• Who does not understand love, kindness or charity because he can’t sell them
• In an executive suit, with a mobile phone in his hand, driving his brand-new fast car
• With cold blood and a cold heart

This unpleasant stereotype is not wholly lacking in merit. The deterioration of the US business climate…especially when indexed to the stratospheric earnings of many CEOs…has shaken America’s business confidence (along with everyone else). Business ethics emerged as a growth industry in the first decade of this century, buoyed along by media scrutiny like the award-winning documentary The Corporation, which argues that firms make good people do bad things…and are thus psychopathic!

Nevertheless, I am persuaded that God is not put off by Commerce. I am convinced God is actually partial to—dare I suggest even loves—Commerce. I understand I must prove my case. I believe I can, employing three propositions that, taken together, seem to me to be persuasive.

I believe God chooses Commerce as a principle sphere of his involvement and a primary vehicle for his purposes because Commerce presents:

1. A prime opportunity to reflect the relationality of God Himself.
2. A primary channel for the Gospel to spread among the nations.
3. An expression of our mandate to live in His image, for His glory.

PROPOSITION 1

Commerce—even with the pressures and profits of the marketplace—is enduringly relational.

Commerce: Exchange of the products of nature or art…buying and selling together…exchange of merchandise…interchange… intercourse…communication.
— from Shorter Oxford Dictionary

Note how Commerce is defined as interactive…relational…connectional. Indeed, the term Commerce, several centuries ago, was used for the most interactive of all human activities, sexual intercourse!

Commerce is exchange or interchange…buying and selling together…transactions.

In a popular dot com text of the 90s, The Cluetrain Manifesto, the first point the authors make is that Markets are Conversations. They are inherently communicative.

Incidentally, the relational origins of our commercial vocabulary are fascinating in other ways. Two examples:

1. The word company comes from two Latin roots: com and panis, “together” and “bread.” Hence, it meant associates or companions close enough to share meals together.
2. The word corporation comes from the Latin root for a body. Hence, it meant persons authorized to act as one body. It reminds us of Paul’s metaphor of the Corpus Christi or Body of Christ.

Commerce is an opportunity to reflect the relationality of God himself because it is ordered to the high model of the Trinity: Commerce is essentially relational—interactive…social…communicative. We experience relationality as the core of divine reality. Our doctrine of the Trinity is simply an account of the internal love of God.

A century ago, G. K. Chesterton celebrated this Trinitarian conception of the cooperative and compassionate God in contrast with the Unitarian conception.

Unitarians (a sect never to be mentioned without a special respect for their distinguished intellectual dignity and high intellectual honour) are often reformers by the accident that throws so many small sects into such an attitude. But there is nothing in the least liberal or akin to reform in the substitution of pure monotheism for the Trinity. The complex God of the Athanasian Creed may be an enigma for the intellect; but He is far less likely to gather the mystery and cruelty of a Sultan than the lonely god of Omar or Mahomet.  The god who is a mere awful unity is not only a king but an Eastern king. The heart of humanity, especially of European humanity, is certainly much more satisfied by the strange hints and symbols that gather round the Trinitarian idea, the image of a council at which mercy pleads as well as justice, the conception of a sort of liberty and variety existing even in the inmost chamber of the world. For Western religion has always felt keenly the idea “it is not well for man to be alone.” The social instinct asserted itself everywhere as when the Eastern idea of hermits was practically expelled by the Western idea of monks. So even asceticism became brotherly; and the Trappists were sociable even when they were silent. If this love of a living complexity be our test, it is certainly healthier to have the Trinitarian religion than the Unitarian. For to us Trinitarians (if I may say it with reverence)—to us God Himself is a society. It is indeed a fathomless mystery of theology, and even if I were theologian enough to deal with it directly, it would not be relevant to do so here. Suffice it to say here that this triple enigma is as comforting as wine and open as an English fireside; that this thing that bewilders the intellect utterly quiets the heart….
— G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p. 250-251

Before the beginning of time, we glimpse the Trinity as a planning group.

Then, starting with the Big Launch in Genesis 1, we see the Trinity as a working group:

The Spirit is active… “hovering over the waters” — Genesis 1:2.

The Son is active… “through whom God made the universe” — Hebrews 1:2

The Father is active…orchestrating the whole project, speaking reality into existence and evaluating the results. “And God said…” — Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26…

Human beings are to be creatures in relationship…persons. God is already in relationship…Father, Son and Holy Spirit…and deeply desires to be in relationship to the beings he has created. Without cultivating our relationships with God and with each another, we are less than fully human. We are less than true images of God.

I believe God favors Commerce because it is a marvelous theater for us to express and pursue relationships. It links people synergistically. It connects and fosters community.

I struggled with this as a teenager. So introverted was I that I hoped for a career as a lighthouse keeper, protected from the social pressures of relationships yet doing something useful. I was a talented individual but a dysfunctional person. In keeping with an old saying: I believe God loved me then exactly as I was…and far too much to leave me that way.

PROPOSITION 2

Commerce is a primary channel for the Gospel to spread among the nations.

The apostle Paul traveled on the ships of Commerce. He was “constantly on the move” — Corinthians 11:26. Indeed, the early Gospel spread along trade routes.

“The fullness of time” into which God sent His Son Jesus contained a unique convergence of conditions that allowed the Gospel to flow easily:

1. Peace…The Pax Romana surrounding what they called Our Sea.
2. Superb Roads…standard rail gauge…two Roman horses.
3. Postal System…not made better until end of 18th century.
4. Common Language…koine Greek.
5. Legal Framework…updated in the 6th century in the Code of Justinian.

And they had Money. Coinage. The first coins were minted in the city of Sardis in what is now Turkey around 650 BC, where precious ivory from Africa was traded with grain. They took electrum nuggets, beaten into a standard weight, from the local river and stamped them with an official design. Coins! Immediately, trade boomed…and the kings of Sardis promptly invented the retail marketplace, lined with small shops…the ancestor of today’s shopping mall. Soon the people of Sardis had a King named Croesus, whose trading wealth has passed into legend.

Incidentally, our word money came from an incident several centuries later. One dark night, in 269 BC, Gauls from the North attacked the city of Rome…but the Romans were warned by the honking of geese around the temple of the goddess Juno…who thus became celebrated as Juno Moneta, Juno the Warner. That same year, the Romans introduced a new coin, the Denarius, manufactured in Juno’s Temple…and carrying her new name Moneta. Hence comes our word money, from the honking of geese!

Buying and Selling are richly human activities, whether by barter or for money. Trade diffuses the fruit of the earth and the work of our hands…and nourishes culture. Free trade will stimulate the good side of globalization.

In today’s world, I see three great Transnational Systems:

• Government
• Commerce
• Religion

Each is pervasive…each contributes to globalization…each has entry fees and elites and concepts of success.

THREE TRANSNATIONAL SYSTEMS

(It is worth noting that the sign Pontius Pilate fastened to the Cross, labeling Jesus as King of the Jews, was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek (John 19:20). These were respectively the languages of Religion and Government and Commerce. Could Pilate have had an inkling that the kingdom of God Jesus proclaimed extends over all three systems?)

Of these three Transnational Systems, I believe Commerce is the most ripe for God’s use. Leaders of Commerce cross all borders and find a welcome everywhere. Business people, more than religious leaders or politicians, have access to every culture, every nation without regard to spirituality and creed.

PROPOSITION 3

Commerce is an expression of our mandate to live in God’s image, for God’s glory.

Does this make your restless? Do I sound too idealistic? After all, I’ve not even mentioned the bad news: We crashed.

The Fall in the original Garden radically damaged our relationships and turned much of our work into toil. We live in a disordered world.

The Fall was a reversal of the purposeful ordering of creation: the universe became abnormal.

From order back to chaos

From obedience back to disobedience

We lost innocence…intimacy…initiative.

We acquired division…drudgery…death.

We now live in such a setting…yet the coming of Jesus Christ redignified work and brought fresh significance to us as workers.

Because we are committed to Christ, we are also committed to work with a purpose…knowing that soon enough, “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” — Romans 8:21.

Work which is done in faith, hope and love is what continues the work of Christ Himself. This is captured in Paul’s words at the start of 1 Thessalonians:

We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
— 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

We cannot deny the drudgery, but we can transform it into redemptive service…through the rejuvenating power of God within us.

We are to work in His image, for His glory.

We need not so much to “do church” as to “live Jesus” in the marketplace. We are called to be outposts of the kingdom of God in daily contexts where, if we withdraw, we leave Satan to run rampant.

Let me offer from my side of the Atlantic two marketplace leaders who brought shalom to their contexts through the way they made and sold their products:

Arthur Guinness…the Brewer

Jesse Boot…the retail pharmacist

• Arthur Guinness believed he was led by God to adopt the mission: “make a drink that men will drink that will be good for them.” He gave it his own name. One used to be able to get it from the National Health Service in Britain. It is almost impossible to get drunk on Guinness because it is so heavy. Guinness used his business as a way of reducing alcoholism on the streets of Ireland. He also financed much of Hudson Taylor’s missionary work in China and accomplished significant changes in the British legal system.

• Jesse Boot…Boots being the oldest chain of retail shops in Britain. He set about making medicines as cheaply as possible for the poor people who really needed them…he saw that people needed a better diet and did not know how to cook. Progressively, he added food to the medicines, sold pots and pans, added lending libraries, sold children’s clothes. It was a holistic approach to business…a business that was a mission. As a child, I recall borrowing a book a week from Boots.

Which of us is tackling his or her business like Guinness or Boot? Commercially successful. Living out God’s glory in the marketplace:

Hallowed be thy name in industry:

God be in my hands and in my making

Hallowed be thy name in commerce:

God be at my desk and in my trading

Holy, Holy, Holy; Lord God of Hosts;

Heaven and earth are full of thy glory.

— The Coventry Cathedral Prayer

Designing and Producing and Selling and Servicing things, in the marketplace, is good in itself…when pursued for God’s glory. This is why we can pray, with Moses, “…establish the work of our hands for us” — Psalm 90:17 — “Yes, establish the work of our hands.

Donald McGilchrist, InsideWork’s history maven, lives and works in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Donald is a presenter at the More Than Money conference, July 17-19, 2009 in San Franciso.

Richard Koch
The 80/20 Individual, (p. 31), Currency
To thine own self be true - but which self should you be true to? The self that spends a huge amount of time and sweat getting nowhere? The self that engages in destructive patterns of behavior? The self that follows the crowd (all of us, saints and lunatics only excepted, spend much or most of our time conforming to the dictates of others)? Our automatic self? The self that achieves nothing out of the ordinary? The self that could just as well not be a self at all?

No. The self to which we must be true is our distinctive and productive self, our unique self, our imaginative, positive, and creative self, the 20 percent or less of ourselves that contributes more than 80 percent of our impact and happiness.

I Peter 4:10
The New International Version
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.