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Transcript of Christian Business Review: Inaugural Issue - July 2012
WORK/LIFE BALANCE
JULY 2012
ResilienceERNEST LIANG
Transferrable Skills fromBusiness to ChurchDRU STEVENSON
Life Balance in the Vortex of ChangeWALLACE HENLEY
Why Business Matters to God - In the BeginningJEFF VAN DUZER
Life Balance and God’s PrioritiesFRED CALDWELL
A SPECIAL INAUGURAL ISSUE
CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEWA JOURNAL BY THE CENTER FOR CHRISTIANITY IN BUSINESS AT HOUSTON BAPTIST UNIVERSITY
July 2012 Christian Business Review 1
PUBLISHERS
Robert Sloan
Mohan Kuruvilla
CO-EDITORS
Ernest Liang
Leslie Haugen
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Richard Martinez
Wallace Henley
SUPPORT & DESIGN
Wes Gant
Justin Lacey
Alan W. Presley
Note to Readers:
The views ex-
pressed in ar-
ticles are the
authors’ and not
necessarily
those of the
Christian Busi-
ness Review,
Houston Baptist
University
(HBU), or HBU
School of Busi-
ness.
Issue 1
July 2012
A publication of the Center for Christianity in Business
School of Business, Houston Baptist University
The Christian Business Review, Issue 1. Copyright 2012 Houston Baptist University. All rights
reserved by original authors except as noted. Submissions to this journal are welcome. Email us
at [email protected]. To learn about the Center for Christianity in Business, visit www.hbu.edu/ccb.
IN THIS INAUGURAL ISSUE
2 Letter from the Editors
4 Living Cases
Life Balance and God’s Priorities One person’s spiritual journey of discovery about purpose in life Fred Caldwell
10 Feature Article
Work Life Balance – How Shall a Christian Professional then Live? Excerpts from a special panel discussion Mark Ammerman, Donna Draudt, Linda Headley, Bill Mearse, Gary Thomas, Brad Hays (moderator)
20 Book Excerpt
Why Business Matters to God – In the Beginning Does business have an intrinsic as well as instrumental purpose in God’s kingdom? Jeff Van Duzer
40 Life Balance in the Vortex of Change Knowing who we are as God’s image-bearers is essential to keeping life balance in an age of dizzying changes Wallace Henley
46 Transferrable Skills from Business to Church Professional skills offer opportunities for growth in the Christ-follower and his(her) church Dru Stevenson
52 Resilience Faith and biblical virtues anchor community and organiza-tional stability needed to weather life’s unexpected turbu-lences Ernest Liang
57 Guidelines for contributors
July 2012 Christian Business Review 2
FROM THE EDITORS
elcome to the inaugural issue of the Christian Business Review (CBR), a publi-
cation of the Center for Christianity in Business (CCB) at Houston Baptist Uni-
versity‟s School of Business. Although the CCB is a young ministry (founded in
2009), it has a clear vision and big aspirations. Along with conferences and luncheon se-
minars, it tirelessly seeks opportunities to challenge, equip, and edify present and future
business leaders, as genuine Christ followers, to integrate biblical values into their pro-
fessional lives.
The CBR is an ambitious venture to promote this mission. The journal is concerned
with both academic and business communities and views them as complementary to
building a distinctively Christian worldview for business. Accordingly, each issue of the
CBR will, when possible, take up a timely and relevant issue of special practical interest to
the Christian business professional. Please see our website, www.hbu.edu/ccb, for more
information.
In this inaugural issue, we examine the important if controversial topic of work-life
balance. In the secular academic literature, there is already a very well developed body of
research, with early inquiries making their most important contributions by merely fo-
cusing on imbalance as a problem. It wasn‟t until it became costly from both individual
and organizational perspectives that a concerted, often corporate-sponsored, effort to un-
derstand the issue was undertaken. Prescriptive initiatives to help rebalance the employee‟s
workload, acknowledging needs for personal and family investments, included strategies
ranging from organizational policy patches, to redesigned jobs, sabbaticals, and creative
and quasi-clandestine negotiations between supervisor and subordinates.1 Both academi-
cally and in practice this remains a vitally important topic because of the premium on in-
tellectual capital relative to physical capital, and the well-established maxim that a happy
employee is a productive employee (a topic, perhaps, for another issue!).
But in the intellectual sphere touching the world of the Christian professional, the
issue of work-life balance is relatively barren. Seen in the light of eternity, this discussion
in fact is far more critical as it has the potential to reshape the way we think about the role
of work as God intends it. It has the potential to impact countless others as we interact with
them in the workplace, at church, in our community, and at home. It is with this under-
standing that we humbly invite our readers to enjoy, and critically review the messages of
the articles that follow, each one an attempt to flesh out what it is to be an authentic
Christian living and working in a secular, and increasingly secularized, world.
Our inaugural issue begins with a personal testimony from Fred Caldwell, an entre-
preneur in the commercial real estate industry, in which he draws the key insight that life
balance is fundamentally about proper priorities as defined by God Himself. Fred‟s con-
clusion is echoed by several of the business leaders who participated in a Work Life Bal-
ance panel convened by the Center in the Fall of 2011. Their immensely helpful insights
and testimonies are summarized in an anchor article in this first issue entitled “Work Life
Balance: How Shall the Christian Professional then Live?” We trust that you will find these
conversations greatly edifying in your spiritual journey.
In the main articles section, we begin with an excerpt from Jeff Van Duzer‟s recent
book, Why Business Matters to God (And What Still Needs to be Fixed)(InterVarsity, 2010).
In this beginning chapter of his work, Van Duzer develops an argument for business as a
noble calling with roots extending all the way back to God‟s creation mandate. His sound
argument and wise synopsis aptly provide a solid grounding for the purposes of this new
W
July 2012 Christian Business Review 3
FROM THE EDITORS
journal and indeed, of the CCB. In a timely article alerting believers to the relentless forces
of rapid changes in 21st century living, Wallace Henley advances the thesis that the modern
day challenges to work-life balance can be met by a return to “first principles” – a recog-
nition of our nature as God‟s image-bearers and time as His gift and means of developing
that image.
Dru Stevenson turns the conventional wisdom upside down in his article on trans-
ferrable skills, in which he argues that professional skills possessed by believers constitute
a treasure trove for church enterprises – a fact that seems to have been lost on church
leaders but not by Jesus Christ our Lord. His analysis offers a new dimension to our un-
derstanding of balances in the life of a Christian professional: secular skills and spiritual
growth can indeed go hand in hand. Finally, Ernest Liang borrows the concept of resilience,
which has gained currency in the social sciences in recent years, to demonstrate how and
why the biblical values Christ followers are imbued with are inherently important to indi-
vidual and enterprise stability in times of severe turbulences.
We close with an extended quote from William MacDonald, who eloquently captures
what is meant by the Lord‟s appearing (2 Timothy 4:8) and how that relates to our fulltime
occupations:
“If you knew Christ were coming in a week, how would you spend the intervening
days? Does it mean you would give up your job, go to a mountaintop and spend all
day reading the Bible and praying? Does it mean you would go into „fulltime
Christian work,‟ preaching and teaching day and night?
If we are really walking with the Lord today and living in the center of His will,
it would mean carrying on as usual. If however, we are living for self, then it would
require some revolutionary changes.
It is not enough to have kind thoughts about the Savior‟s return. The crown of
righteousness is reserved for those who love it enough to let the truth mold their
lives. It is not enough to hold the truth about His coming; the truth must hold us.”
(William MacDonald, One Day at a Time, Gospel Folio Press (2007): 277)
Our prayer is that the content of this journal would bring glory to God as it serves to
strengthen, edify, encourage and make you wise for the work to which you have been
called.
Ernest P. Liang, Ph.D
Leslie K. Haugen, Ph.D. Co-Editors
1 See for example, MacDermid, S.M., Lee, M.D., & Buck, M.L, “Alternative Work Arrangements among
Professionals and Managers: Rethinking Career Development and Success,” Journal of Management
Development 20(4) (2001): 305-317; Lee, M.D., Lirio, P., Karakas, F., MacDermid, S.M., Buck, M.L. and
Kossek, E.E., “Exploring Career and Personal Outcomes and the Meaning of Career Success among
Part-Time Professionals in Organizations,” in Research Companion to Work Hours and Work Addiction, ed.
R.J. Burke (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2006), 284-309; and Lirio, P., Lee, M.D., Williams, M.L.,
Haugen, L.K., and Kossek, E.E., “The Inclusion Challenge with Reduced-Load Professionals: The Role of the
Manager,” Human Resource Management, 47(3) (2008): 443-461.
CBR Living Cases
July 2012 Christian Business Review 4
God’s Priorities and Life Balance
hat is my pur-
pose in life? This is a question pondered by perhaps
every man. Why am I on earth and what
am I here to accomplish? How do I bal-
ance my life so that I achieve the most
important goals? In answering these
questions, I have found that once we
discover our true purpose, the ability to
manage day-to-day life is much easier.
When I was four years old, my father
was called to enter full-time ministry,
following in the footsteps of his father
and grandfather. That calling took the
family to Del Rio, Texas where we lived
w
Living Cases Personal spiritual journeys of men and women in business
CBR Living Cases
July 2012 Christian Business Review 5
God’s Priorities and Life Balance
Fred Caldwell
is founder and
CEO of
Caldwell
Cos., a Hou-
ston-based
commercial
and residential
real estate
development
and invest-
ment firm.
The compa-
ny’s vision, as
stated on its
website, is “to
honor God by
stewarding
resources,
cultivating
relationships
and creating
extraordinary
communities
that enrich
lives.”
until I graduated from high school. While
in high school, I participated in many
sports and at the end of high school, had
some desire to continue playing my fa-
vorite sport, football. Thanks to a family
friend, I was invited by the coaches at
Texas A&M University to join their
freshman class of football players as a
walk-on.
I will always remember my first day
on the TAMU campus. I made a com-
ment to my roommate, John, that I
wanted to work very hard during the
two-a-day practices so I could make the
first away game trip to
Kansas. He looked me
straight in the eye and
told me that few if any
walk-on players ever
made the travel team.
He went on to explain
that after several years
as a walk-on, he had
not even had the op-
portunity to suit up for
a game on Kyle Field.
John’s comment woke
something deep inside
me and a determina-
tion developed to
prove that I could
make the team.
But John was right
about the initial trip.
The walk-on journey
was challenging at
best. The walk-on
players wore green
jerseys while the
scholarship athletes
wore maroon jerseys.
The walk-on players
had their names taped
on their helmets, while
the scholarship ath-
letes needed no names
on their helmets as the coaches already
knew their names. The green jersey for
me became a measurement of self-worth
and fed a feeling that I would never be of
value unless I could become a scholar-
ship player.
My desire to succeed had never been
so intense at any prior point in my life. I
put every ounce of effort into becoming
an athlete that was worthy of a maroon
jersey. I grew to have a strong hatred for
the green jersey and the walk-on title. I
became very determined to fight my way
out of the walk-on status.
My football background is a precur-
sor to my discovering the purpose for my
life apart from a game and from how
others might decide to “clothe” me with
their uniforms. Unfortunately, upon en-
tering college my relationship with God
was not secure and my identity was
rooted not in His purpose for my life but
in my ability to perform and achieve.
During the first year of my college
experience, three primary focuses
evolved for me to the exclusion of all
others – weights, school and football. I
did these things not out of any real joy but
out of a deep need to prove to myself that
I was worth more than being a walk-on in
a green jersey with my name taped to a
helmet. My focus left little room for an-
ything or anyone else. Accordingly, I
essentially lived in a self-created cocoon
of work.
Throughout the first year of college, I
masked the pain of my identity being tied
to a green jersey by becoming a very in-
tense young man. I was developing the
attitude of a fighter and acquiring the
toughness necessary to win battles on the
practice field. I determined that the only
way to get out of the green jersey was to
defeat all scholarship athletes who stood
in my way. Thus, my own teammates
CBR Living Cases
July 2012 Christian Business Review 6
God’s Priorities and Life Balance
became enemies by my narrow definition
of purpose.
In the second year, I was given the
opportunity to play special teams. I
played on Kyle Field, suited up in a game
jersey and was even listed in the program.
These things were a huge step forward in
my pursuit of the maroon jersey. I was
fulfilled in some ways by these small
steps. In the same year during Spring
practice, the head coach, Tom Wilson,
stopped practice one day and told me to
take off the green jersey and put on a
maroon jersey. The other players clapped
and showed great enthusiasm in what
would be one of the more memorable
events in my football experience. I so
enjoyed the moment but the desire to
press forward and achieve did not sub-
side.
After being given a scholarship that
Spring, I made it my goal to become a
starter on the team and once again my
focus increased, which led in turn to
longer workouts in the weight room and
on the field. I started my first game as a
junior and became a two-year starter in
my fourth and fifth years. That fifth year
as I carried a full load of graduate classes
while competing each day on the football
field was perhaps one of the most trying
times in my life.
Our new coach put the team through
grueling practice schedules in the Spring
and Fall. In every practice, we had nu-
merous fights and the game lost much of
its interest for me. During a game with
TCU, my left knee was planted to the turf
and my body pushed in the opposite di-
rection; most of the ligaments in my knee
were torn. As I lay injured on Kyle Field,
a strange relief flooded over me as I rea-
lized I would never play football again.
The battle of five years was over, and
with the end of that battle came great
relief. The hill I had been climbing sud-
denly vanished and I felt some temporary
relief from the pain inside me.
I graduated with my Masters in
Business Finance in 1983, married my
high school girlfriend, Susan, who had
stuck with me throughout college and
moved to Houston. Unlike my classmates
who mostly went to work for accounting
and banking firms, I elected to go to work
for my father-in-law’s home building
business. I became a construction super-
intendent and once again felt I was
wearing a green jersey as my peers
headed off in suits to downtown Houston
or Dallas. I was on construction sites in
boots and jeans, at that time feeling like I
was wasting time and my education; little
did I know then that God was preparing
me for a career in the development of
residential communities. After two years
and the market collapse in Houston, I
changed jobs and went to work for a
commercial developer and investor.
Simply outworking the competition
led to personal achievement but it did not
lead to any true satisfaction. In the mid
1980s, the growing insight that I was not
destined on earth to have the emptiness
left by hard work and success at sports or
business led me to make a decision to
turn to God. Because of my identity being
tied to a sport in college and in the first
few years of my business career, I had
made some poor decisions that had
damaged many relationships. Out of
these decisions came emptiness, regret
and the realization that there was some-
thing better.
Susan and I began attending a church
in northwest Houston and the pastor be-
friended me. His counsel coupled with
other things I was reading caused me one
day in the midst of a “green jersey” day to
simply tell God that I would submit to
Him and follow Jesus. From that point
forward, God began a healing process
CBR Living Cases
July 2012 Christian Business Review 7
God’s Priorities and Life Balance
that has been ongoing now for over 25
years.
In 1990, I took a leap of faith and
started a real estate company, with the
goal of one day being in the development
and investment real estate business. For
the first five to six years of starting the
business, I was seldom home as I worked
almost every day. My focus was once
again on being “successful.” However,
this time around, God was in the equation
and although my work ethic was poin-
tedly focused on the business, I also be-
gan to have a growing hunger to better
know God. The guilt I felt for not being
home with my family grew stronger over
time and drove me to consider the whole
issue of balance and priority. I was in
need of healing and God was the solution.
The healing that had to occur started
with an understanding of my purpose in
life. My purpose had always been defined
by achieving goals. My life was built on a
platform of goals, each goal leading to
the next bigger goal; and when a person
does not truly know God, goals can be-
come one’s purpose, as was my expe-
rience. The only time I seemed to be sa-
tisfied was when I was distracted enough
by work to not address the emptiness that
existed inside.
In 1999, my oldest daughter and I
attended a ministry focused on par-
ent-teen relationships known as JH
Ranch. This experience was a critical
turning point in my relationship with God,
my family and my career.
I learned many important concepts,
including a better understanding of the
“Law of Diminishing Returns”: the more
I worked and consumed, the less I was
fulfilled. Diminishing returns is an eco-
nomic principle that, in essence, implies
that we are fulfilled less and less by in-
creasing quantities.
As an example, the first scoop of
Bluebell vanilla ice cream on a hot
summer afternoon is outstanding. The
second scoop is very good but not as
good as the first, and if you were to eat
CBR Living Cases
July 2012 Christian Business Review 8
God’s Priorities and Life Balance
God's Priorities
"The key to a fulfilling life is not a desire to live in balance, but a
desire to live by God’s priorities"
four or five scoops, by the last scoop the
desire for ice cream would be highly di-
minished (and you would likely be feel-
ing a bit ill).
Such was my life of moving from one
goal to the next, hoping that the next,
bigger goal would satisfy. But the return
on each goal that is achieved loses most
of its value once it is achieved, thus the
need to move on to successively larger
goals.
The only case for which the Law of
Diminishing Returns does not apply is
the pursuit of God and His word. In this
case, and this case only, the more we
consume of Him who created us and His
word, the more we desire and thirst for
His presence in our lives.
In understanding the spiritual appli-
cation of the Law of Diminishing Returns,
I began to understand that the legacy I
leave in this world will largely be through
my family and other meaningful rela-
tionships rather than through my business.
I also began to better understand Jesus’
command to love God and people. By so
doing, we fulfill all the law and move
beyond mere religion.
Over the years as I have made the
Bible my friend and source of knowledge
of God’s purpose, I find the meaning of
each day to be much clearer. Through
study, the men and women depicted in
the Bible as examples of faith have be-
come models for my life. Common to all
of them is a calling that supersedes the
things of this world and a passion to first
and foremost glorify God. Looking at
Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David,
the first disciples, Peter, Paul and others,
little is said of the work required for
sustenance, yet all worked in some
manner.
The remarkable part of their lives was
their pursuit of God and His calling, not
the pursuit of things of temporal value.
They demonstrated that the work of this
world serves as a platform for true pur-
pose to be developed. Jesus made it per-
fectly clear that His time on earth was
invested in glorifying the Father. As the
author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus’
actions make it clear that my actions, also,
should bring glory to God.
Paul and Peter, especially, give me
understanding that God desires our work
to be our platform rather than our purpose.
Both disciples make it clear to me that a
balanced life is not the goal. With much
being written and discussed about living
a balanced life, it seems apparent to me
that Jesus and His disciples did not make
“balance” the key, at least not in the way
we define the term.
We tend to use it in the sense of a
scale, with equal amounts of weight on
each side of the scale. The weight we
measure is time, and a well-rounded life
CBR Living Cases
July 2012 Christian Business Review 9
God’s Priorities and Life Balance
balances time equally across the most
important things in life. For many, the
allocation of time is spread between
family, work, recreation and spiritual
matters.
If, for example, we are spending too
much time at work and not enough time
with the family, then we feel guilty and
determine to cut back time at work. The
problem, as I see it, is that our desire to
balance time evenly across the multiple
facets of our life is not necessarily in
keeping with biblical principles, nor is
this balancing act demonstrated by the
great men and women of faith.
The principle that removes the guilt
comes from the sixth chapter of Matthew,
where Jesus states plainly that the things
of this world will never satisfy, and that
worry and hoarding of material posses-
sions will lead to problems.
He makes it clear that we cannot
serve two masters, much less three or
four, as we will learn to hate the one and
love the other. The remedy is rather to
“seek first His kingdom and His righ-
teousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well. Therefore do not
worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
worry about itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:33-34
(NIV)).
Thus, the key to life on this earth as
God intended is priority. We are to put
God’s kingdom and His call first in our
lives and then, in an amazing promise,
Jesus says we will receive the blessing of
life on earth as He intended.
The early disciples and all the great
men and woman of faith in Scripture did
not seek balance but sought God. They
did not seek fulfillment by making allo-
cations of time to family, faith and
physical needs but by making God their
priority and following Him. I believe that
the key to a fulfilling life is not a desire to
live in balance [as the world defines it]
but a desire to live by priority – God’s
priorities.
Living a life ordered by the Lord’s
priorities is challenging, to say the least.
The world dictates that balance is to be
pursued and that we can diminish the
guilt we feel from unbalanced lives by
simply reallocating time to those areas
we have been neglecting.
The real solution, I believe, lies in
making Christ the priority each day. As
He promises, by focusing on the eternal
priorities of God, our temporal priorities
will become aligned with the right prior-
ities. Seek God first and He will direct
your paths and your priorities and give
you full joy and contentment – the kind of
balance that God intends. He will clothe
you in the perfect jersey, one designed
especially for you.
July 2012 Christian Business Review 10
CBR Feature Article
How Shall a
Christian
Professional then
Live?
*To offer business pro-
fessionals a first person
reflection on the issue of
work life balance by
Christian business lead-
ers, the Center for Chris-
tianity in Business at
Houston Baptist Univer-
sity convened a panel
discussion on Work Life Balance on September 30,
2011. Here are the high-lights.
*Excerpts from discussions of
leadership panel
T
H
E
P
A
N
E
L
Ammerman is
Managing Di-
rector of Scotia-
bank’s Hou-
ston-based
energy banking
operation, Head
of U.S. Energy,
and co-chair of
the global bank-
ing committee of
Scotia Capital.
During his
25-year career
with the bank, he
Mark Ammerman
has built the
energy practice
through acquisi-
tions and more
recently its ex-
pansion into
Latin America
and Europe.
Hays is an expe-
rienced Execu-
tive Coach and
the Houston area
chair of Con-
vene, a national
leadership train-
ing operation for
Christian CEOs
and business
owners. He has
over 35 years of
experience with
Honeywell and
Pennzoil as well
as CEO of two
technology
start-ups.
Work Life Balance
Draudt is Re-
gional President
of Woodforest
National Bank,
overseeing Hou-
ston area lending
operations and
the Treasury
management
sales team. She
has over 32 years
of commercial
banking expe-
rience and spe-
cializes in lend-
ing to
“non-profit or-
ganizations.”
especially
churches.
Headley is a
shareholder and
former managing
shareholder in
the Houston of-
fice of Littler
Mendelson, the
nation’s largest
specialized labor
and employment
law firm. A fre-
quent speaker on
employment law
issues, she has
been named a
Best Lawyer in
America by Em-
ployment Law
Management
from 2001-2012.
Mearse is Man-
aging Director of
Accenture’s
Houston office
and COO of the
firm’s Resources
Sector, a $5+
billion business
involving the oil
and gas, chemi-
cal, utilities,
metal, mining
and paper indus-
tries. He is re-
sponsible for the
growth and prof-
itability of the
Resources global
business and
participates on
several Accen-
ture management
committees. Donna Draudt
Brad Hays (Moderator)
Linda Headley
Bill Mearse
if God Designed
Marriage to
Make Us Holy
More Than to
Make Us Hap-
py?, Pure
Pleasure, Sa-
cred Pathways,
and the Gold
Medallion
award winner
Authentic Faith.
He serves on the
teaching team of
Second Baptist
Church, Hou-
ston, and is an
adjunct faculty
member at
Western Semi-
nary in Portland,
Oregon. His
books and min-
istry focus on
spiritual forma-
tion: how we
can integrate
Scripture,
church history,
and time-tested
Christian clas-
sics into our
modern expe-
rience of faith.
Gary Thomas
Thomas is an
internationally
acclaimed
speaker and au-
thor of over a
dozen books,
including Sacred
Marriage: What
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 11
Work Life Balance Panel
Hays: Let’s begin by having the topic
framed. How should we understand the
whole issue of work-life balance?
Thomas: I want to give my life to a place
that cares if I am gone, where I am not
replaced with just another number but
where it matters if I go. When I look at
the Bible, I see it as being so honest about
the human condition. I used to think
Genesis 5 was one of the most boring
chapters in the Bible but now I believe it
may be one of the more profound. It has a
huge start – the world was being created.
God was sprinkling mountains, creating
time, forming the first man and woman.
Then there was the drama of Adam and
Eve being naked and unashamed, the
great temptation, the Fall and the ba-
nishment, and then a homicide!
But then you come to Chapter 5. It is
nothing but a long list of genealogies:
Seth lived to be 105, had his first kid,
then lived another 807 years and died at
912; then Enosh and Kenan came, etc. It
is just a long, dull list. Yet I think this is a
shockingly honest picture of the human
condition. We have kids. We live a cer-
tain amount of time. We die and get out
of the way.
We don’t know anything about these
biblical characters. All we know is they
lived, had kids, these were the kids’
names, and they died. When I realize that
I couldn’t name my great-great grandfa-
ther or great-great grandmother, just a
few generations removed, I realize how
silly to think that my great-great grand-
children could name me. In one sense, I
have to embrace my historical insigni-
ficance so as to live a life of eternal sig-
nificance and relational purpose because
my kids do know who I am. So then if the
Bible presents that reality, and history
presents that reality, how does it affect
our view of work today?
I believe we find our significance not
in trying to become significant in our day
and age but by becoming significant to
the family that we have been called to
live with and to raise, and as far as our
service to the Lord. If we look at our
work as an offering to God - providing
jobs, offering services, feeding families,
beginning with our own - it becomes an
eternally significant work. When we get
lost in trying to have a false historical
significance that would be swallowed up
more quickly than we can believe, I think
in many ways we would have a wasted
life because of that. So for me, work-life
balance is really found in trying to see
work as one of the primary forms of
worship and offering it up in that regard.
Hays: Let’s look at that significance from
the first blending of life and workplace.
As part of God’s original design for man,
what should our proper response be to
work? How did the Fall affect the attitude
toward work?
Headley: I have dealt a lot with work-life
balance issues from a secular vantage
point, but until now, I have not really
approached it from a Christian perspec-
tive. As I ponder this question, it is
helpful to ask, what kind of work did God
give Adam to do before the Fall? It seems
pretty clear and simple: God gave Adam
a job! He was to be the CEO of the Gar-
den of Eden, which he is supposed to tend
and keep.
So work did not come after the Fall.
Work is a God-given thing. Work is not a
bad thing. It is all about how it fits with
the perspective and priority under Chris-
tian principles, and how it is done so that
we make a difference, being a light in the
darkness and not just more of the dark-
ness in this world. Our work is part of
God’s plan. We shouldn’t shy away from
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work or be lazy about doing it, yet we
must do it to God’s glory. This is a prin-
ciple that has stayed with me all my life.
After the Fall, the curses towards
Adam (and of course towards women as
well since they are in the workplace as
much as men today, but even if they just
labor in the home) – the toiling among
thorns and thistles and laboring by the
sweat of the brow – are sobering in that
there is no let-up until we return to the
ground. It is not like we get to check out
at some point, taking a sabbatical or re-
tiring and everything is going to be roses.
God says we are to work all of our lives.
There is no stopping! Is it any different
than Adam tending the garden? Well,
there weren’t any weeds, no poison ivy,
in a garden where there was no sin!
As an employment lawyer, I think
about how thorns and thistles and the
sweat of the brow would translate into
what I do. You know, we advise clients
all day long and you hear about all these
employment problems. The problems of
the employees are like the poison ivy.
The sin in the workplace that bubbles up
into problems and materializes into law-
suits - those are the thorns and thistles.
Interaction in the workplace with a dif-
ficult boss or a troubling subordinate
employee – those are the poison ivy.
There is the toiling and the sweat of the
brow. There is no smooth sailing. They
all give us our challenges and opportuni-
ties to do all we can to God’s glory.
Hays: What are the different motivations
that drive us to work so much, creating
problems with life balance?
Mearse: Motive is very important. I
started working when I was a teenager. I
went to work for my dad’s company. He
was an executive in a small chain of de-
partment stores in West Texas. I like to
say I started at the top, literally on the
roof, cleaning air conditioning towers.
One thing I remember was that before I
started working, my dad sat down with
me and said, look, there are some things
you need to understand as you go to work,
mainly because of who you are and who I
am. He continued to say that, number one,
everybody is going to know who you are
– you are the boss’s kid and, number two,
they are going to watch everything you
do – to see if you do earn your keep or are
you pulling your weight because your
dad is the boss. There is one more thing,
he said: everything you do is going to
reflect on me.
I have now lived in Houston for al-
most 32 years and I have worked as long
for Accenture, which was Arthur An-
dersen when it first started. I grew up in
Abilene, Texas and attended Baylor, so
my life was not a very wild life, [not a]
fast paced life by any means. I came to
Houston in 1980, went to work for Arthur
Andersen, and attended Second Baptist
Church – all huge places to me but of
course, nothing compared to what they
are today.
Those first years were wild for me –
not from an earthly standpoint, but just
that I had never experienced change on
that kind of scale. I struggled and kept
running into people at work who said
they worked hard in order to make a lot of
money or to get ahead of the game. I was
a Christian. I attended church, and I knew
God was involved in work and all that. So
unlike those people, I sensed that the
self-worth, the power, the money, etc.,
could not be the reason why I was
working. Then three years later, I was
studying the book of Colossians and got
into Chapter 3, where it says work as if
you are working for the Lord. Boom! The
light came on. It reminded me of the
conversation I had ten years earlier with
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July 2012 Christian Business Review 13
Work Life Balance Panel
my dad. I discovered I was working for
my father again – it just wasn’t my
earthly father but my heavenly father –
and yes, all eyes were on me.
After that my whole perspective
changed. I came to Houston, eager to
move on within a few years, not sure for
what purpose I was in Houston and on the
payroll of Arthur Andersen. With the
new perspective I said, okay, God, I ac-
cept why I am here – I am here to do
whatever You want me to do. Then things
started happening.
My dad was diagnosed with cancer
and ended up spending a lot of time here
in Houston going through treatment. If I
had not been here, I don’t know what
would have happened to my parents. Not
much later I met my wife, got married,
and was about to settle down when Ar-
thur Andersen decided to send me to
Anchorage, Alaska. Even before I ques-
tioned why I was sent there, I was
teaching a fast growing Bible study class
in an otherwise struggling local church. I
came back to Houston and made partner
when Andersen asked me to go to Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia for a few years. Now
that’s about where work-life balance
drew the line for me. After much prayer, I
left for KL and soon was teaching a big
Bible class in an international church
with people from all over the world.
What I have found from these expe-
riences is that we work to serve God. Our
work is not just a vocation but an op-
portunity to serve – to serve Him not just
at the workplace but, as my Alaska and
Malaysia experiences testify, in minis-
tries that God would open up for us out-
side of the workplace. God wants us to be
where we are to change lives and influ-
ence lives. Andersen and now Accenture
were, and are still, secular places, but I
would tell you that I have seen Christian
influence coming into our organization,
particularly here in Houston. It has not
been through overt evangelism...but ra-
ther through lifestyle witnessing and re-
lationships. At the end of the day, what
we have in this world is God and all those
who have been saved, and that to me
underscores what work is all about.
Surprisingly, when I discovered I was to
work to serve God and obey Him, I got
the promotions, the salary increases, the
self-worth, and all the other stuff people
told me they were striving for, as by-
products.
Hays: When the imbalance specifically
affects the family, how often do you take
family priorities and preferences into
your decisions about work, considering
the priorities of both your family and
your subordinates?
Ammerman: About five to six years ago,
I had my first conversation with our
then-new country head. He phoned,
complaining about the cost of flying into
Houston from New York, and said he was
going over the expenses [of my last Latin
American trip]. I said [the explanation for
the trip] was actually quite simple. I flew
down on Super Bowl Sunday so that I
could be there for a scheduled speech at a
conference on Monday morning and to
make some client visits during the week.
In the meantime, the CEO called and said
he was going to be there the week before
and asked me to go down and accompany
him on visits to oil and gas companies in
that country. So I was there the week
before and the week after, and it just so
happened there was an 8-year old girl
who had a birthday on Saturday morning,
so I went home between the two trips. I
waited for the response. There was si-
lence for a moment and he changed the
topic.
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Work Life Balance Panel
That fellow I had this conversation
with is now my CEO. That was the first
opportunity I had in a very direct way to
share with him my work culture. It is a
very distinct culture about how I deal
with my family – I am always home for
important events, period. I set the stage
with the people with whom I work. I will
tell them to just take care of the business
at home and we will take care of the
business at work, whatever it takes. Now
you can do this in such a way that will
make people feel guilty as they walk out
the door and regret they ever asked. The
key is to make sure they won’t regret
asking and your motive is genuine.
When we first moved to Houston
years ago, my dad worked as the ABC
Evening News anchor. During weekdays
I didn’t get to see him much because he
would be at work when I got home from
school and I would be asleep when he
returned. I made a commitment when I
started my professional career to do dif-
ferently than that…My employees know
I don’t want to see any email stamps on
Sundays because I don’t want them to be
at work on Sundays. Yet our group is one
of the largest and most profitable in the
entire global bank. As we know from the
story of Chick-fil-A, it is just amazing
how God prospers these things even
when people are in their sleep. The
Psalmist says, “It is vain for you to rise up
early, to retire late, to eat the bread of
painful labors; for He gives to His be-
loved even in his sleep” (Psalm 127:3). It
is so true.
Hays: Does work-life balance create
happier and more productive employees?
Can workplace programs and policies be
effective in promoting and encouraging
life balance?
Draudt: Most definitely. More compa-
nies are starting to recognize that balance
in people’s lives, more flex hours or
four-day workweeks, would make better
employees. I read recently that those
companies that are going this direction
are getting the very best employees.
When I first started working back in
the 70s, women’s role was much differ-
ent than today. I worked on and off
throughout my early marriage when I
needed to stay home to raise my children.
I was out nearly 10 years before I came to
Houston and decided to take my career
seriously. I got back into banking and
started working for a very large financial
institution. They were very good to me,
but as I went up the career ladder, there
came a lot of demands.
The firm was very bottom line driven.
I have three children and they are the
most important things to me in this world,
so balancing work and my children’s
needs, being there at the ball games, re-
cital, etc., was of utmost priority for me.
Incorporating demanding work into my
family life became more and more diffi-
cult and dealing with it required in-
creased suppression of my feelings.
Then seven and a half years ago I got
a phone call from my former boss, a fine
Christian man whom I enjoyed working
with before. He asked me to consider
coming to work with him. Instinctively I
said no; I had over 19 years with my
employer, satisfied clients, and a won-
derful peer group. I had everything, so I
thought. It was my life, my safety net. I
was actually ranked in the top 10 percent
in the nation at my firm. Yet he persisted
and said, “I really want you to think about
it and this is what I want you to think
about: balance in your life because I
know you don’t have it.”
Leaving something that is comforta-
ble to you is very hard. When my advis-
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July 2012 Christian Business Review 15
Work Life Balance Panel
ers and trusted friends were no help, I
turned to God in prayer and asked Him to
please send me a sign and knock me over
the head with it. Soon afterwards, I at-
tended a funeral of a Christian friend, a
young mother with boys in high school.
As I sat there and watched those boys and
their father, it occurred to me that she had
all the dreams that I had - to see the kids
grow up, graduate from high school, go
to college, meet that special someone, get
married, be there for that first grandbaby,
and so on and so forth - but then how
quickly she was taken away from them! I
could not have asked for a clearer sign. I
made up my mind that day to make a
change in my life. It was all about bal-
ance in my life, something [my former
employer] could not give enough. I took a
leap of faith and went to my new em-
ployer. That was 7 years ago and I have
never looked back.
Not only have I found balance in the
life of my family – myself, husband,
children, grandchildren – but my career
has not faltered. Instead it has grown,
with nearly 90 percent of my clients
ending up following me. Even more sa-
tisfying is that I have developed a passion
to work with churches and non-profits,
which make up a good part of my port-
folio. I feel like I am doing God’s work
while doing my job. That big bonus that I
might have gotten from my former em-
ployer? I get a bigger one in more than
monetary terms and now realize I can be
successful without goals and lots of
pressure. I think working for the right
employer, taking that leap of faith, be-
lieving in God and that He’s got a plan
and a direction for you, opens all kinds of
doors.
Hays: What can we do to manage or
overcome the tendency or compulsion to
work too much so we can live a balanced
life? What are the biggest obstacles and
constraints to creating a balanced life
and what are the greatest facilitators?
Thomas: God often asks us to do the right
thing and lets us pay a price for it. God in
His sovereignty certainly has the right to
do that. So if we want to effect work-life
balance, sometimes we have to pay a
price for that – a missed promotion, an
income cut, a relocation to a different
community or employer, etc. When the
ideals of our family do not line up with
the ideals of the employer, our allegiance
is to the principles and teachings of
Scripture. The result may be earthly
prices we pay, the crosses we pick up
daily in our journey of obedience.
I had the opportunity of being asked
by one of the best-known churches in the
country to join their staff. I told the pastor
that I just told my children we wouldn’t
move again. From a vocational stand-
point, the offer was irresistible, yet I had
to say no to that amazing opportunity
because of my promise to the family. It
was just one of those (take-up-your-)
cross moments. Little did I know, of
course, that an even bigger church here in
Houston would make me the same offer
only a few years later. In hindsight, the
decision was a good one. So for those of
you who haven’t had understanding
bosses, I still think you are making the
right choice by not gauging your work
life on the basis of earthly influences,
finance or promotions, etc.
Turning to the second part of the
question, I am reminded of a family va-
cation we had in Hawaii. As we hiked up
to the top of a mountain, the guide
pointed to the plant next to us and said it
is the most dangerous plant in the island.
It had killed more people than any other
plant. Everybody took a step back when
we heard that, assuming the plant was
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July 2012 Christian Business Review 16
Work Life Balance Panel
poisonous. It turns out the plant is a fern
that only grows on a very steep incline. It
masks the fact that people close to the
plant are actually standing on the edge of
a precipice. People with a false sense of
security would step on the fern and fall
inevitably to their death.
Let me suggest that there are three
spiritual ferns when we look at work-life
balance. As a pastor, I would advise that
if you experience one of these it should
cause some concern. If you experience
two, you might as well be on the preci-
pice. If you experience all three, I would
suggest that you call a counselor or a
pastor before you head back to the office
just for self-preservation.
First, I find that people who are out of
balance tend to get very lonely. They lose
that relational identity. From a spiritual
perspective, Satan dines on lonely people
and spits them out. Loneliness denigrates
our ability to resist temptation. It is not a
sin to be lonely and it could happen to
anybody, but to allow ourselves to stay
that way is unwise. When we become
lonely, we become very vulnerable, and
most of us don’t manage loneliness very
well. So if you are consistently lonely, it
is a sign of being out of balance and it
should be taken seriously. Second is ti-
redness. When we are tired we succumb
to emotions like anger, treat others im-
properly, give less to our relationships,
and become more vulnerable to tempta-
tion. So a consistently tired body is
something to be concerned about. Last
but not least is a lack of joy. The mark of
a Christian is to have great joy with what
God has done for us. If everything ap-
pears like drudgery to us, then what kind
of gospel are we proclaiming? How can
we be bearers of good news when we live
with a sour face? The effectiveness of our
testimonies is compromised.
What I pointed out is nothing but
simple life management issues. Like spi-
ritual ferns, they are not necessarily poi-
sonous but they set us up for poisonous
acts, attitudes and desires. As such we
need to guard against them. After all, life
balance is not just about ourselves but our
families, too. If we go, our family goes
with it. The church will be affected and
so will be our fellow believers and their
witness in the business community.
Hays: What has been the result for people
who have been able to effect life balance?
What is the richest blessing you ever re-
ceived as a direct result of life balance?
What is the greatest price you ever paid?
Headley: All the research I have done on
Christianity and work-life balance con-
firms that the Bible does not address the
issue, at least not directly. Where the
rubber meets the road is this: God puts us
in this world to work and does not tell us
when to stop. Is that a bad thing? It can be
if we end up stepping on spiritual ferns
and fall over the cliff, as Gary pointed out.
1. Loneliness Spiritual ferns: 2. Tiredness
3. Lack of joy
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July 2012 Christian Business Review 17
Work Life Balance Panel
In passages that talk about working, God
gives us perspectives through nuggets
such as, masters, be kind to your servant,
or servants, give your master his due, or
fathers, don’t provoke your children to
anger, or wives, submit to your husband,
etc. These are principles that we can in-
tegrate and come up with a recipe for a
balanced life.
In our firm there are 840 lawyers in
50 offices all over the map and I have
been involved in a lot of leadership roles.
One of these roles I currently hold is
co-chair of women’s leadership initia-
tives with a subgroup called work/life
balance. I do think companies can have a
faith-based workplace without being a
Christian workplace, and ours, for ex-
ample, is an inclusive tent with adopted
policies on work-life balance that ac-
tually work.
A personal priority for me in the
leadership role of my company is to help
young women who came into the law
practice to avoid falling by the wayside
because of work-life balance issues.
These young women went through law
school and excelled. They might not be
married when they started with the firm.
The pressure was high, the time-off was
little. They got married, and they had
children. I have watched it happen too
many times when these young women
had no choice but to leave the profession
under the circumstances. In the early
days of my practice of law, there were no
alternative ways, such as some kind of a
flex schedule, to accommodate the needs
of these young mothers. But it does [ac-
commodate them] today. It is something I
have felt very keen about as I managed
the office.
So what is the richest blessing? A
dear friend who had left the firm earlier
this year sent me [a] personal note [ex-
pressing deep gratitude for my support of
her and her family]. What other blessings
do I need when such words and feelings
weigh far more than the money I have
made or the honor or prestige I ever re-
ceived?
I believe in my earlier years I did pay
a price monetarily and in terms of career
advancement. Law firms gauge you on
productivity, which is that all-important
billable-hour. Every law firm I have been
with, there is a threshold minimum. My
view was that what I owed my master
was that minimum. I didn’t owe one hour
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Ammerman
“The way we conduct ourselves tells people we are Christ followers…people know what we stand for even before
they meet us in person.”
Draudt
“I think working for the right employer, taking that leap of faith, believing in God and that He’s got a plan and a direction
for you, opens all kinds of doors.”
Headley
“My view was that what I owed my master was that (required) minimum. I
didn’t owe one hour more.”
Mearse
“God wants us to be where we are to change lives and influence lives.”
Thomas
“As Christians, how we finish is just as important as how we start. If we don’t
finish well, we sort of undercut our whole life of work as a witness for Christ.”
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 18
Work Life Balance Panel
more. If I got a performance bonus be-
cause of billable hours, then I felt I had
taken it away from my family. So I tried
to hit it and never tried to exceed it. My
employer can always expect me to do a
really good job meeting the minimum,
but I was not going to take away from my
children any more than I already did by
being here.
Hays: What has to happen in order for
work to become a daily act of worship? Is
it even possible? What poses the greatest
threat to victorious living day by day,
year after year?
Draudt: I believe it is important to sur-
round yourself with people who have like
values and morals. All my customers are
special to me but there are some who are
more relatable. I tend to associate myself
with Christian leaders in the community.
They are someone you can pick up the
phone and call, share your thoughts,
bounce ideas off and get good feedback.
To have an active act of worship, you
need to share things that are important to
you with people who are like you, har-
boring strong Christian values.
Ammerman: At church, we have visita-
tion nights when we go visit newcomers
to tell them about the church and get to
know them. I woke up one day and rea-
lized that is what I do as a banker, too.
We visit clients, cold call prospects, tell
them about our business, and get to know
them. In I Timothy 4:12, Paul tells us to
show ourselves an example of those who
believe. Just last week, I was in Europe
visiting clients, [and I had prayed] to find
a way to bridge gaps and build a rela-
tionship so that I could be an example
where not many are followers of Christ.
The way we conduct ourselves tells
people we are Christ-followers, and
people often know us (and what we stand
for) even before they have a chance to
meet us in person. I have strong rela-
tionships with fellow believers who
represent some of the very best clients I
have in this town. There are a lot of big-
ger banks than ours around the world.
How we get these clients into our portfo-
lio often has a lot to do with the glue that
holds our relationships, and more often
than not, it is the witness and the faith
they find in me. Trust is built on our
witness and God rewards that.
Mearse: I have found several truths about
work-life balance. First, work-life bal-
ance differs from person to person. I used
to work with a fellow who had very dif-
ferent work habits than I did, and only
much later did I realize we had different
life balances. We have to manage our
expectations and should avoid comparing
ours against others’.
Second, work-life balance changes
over time. Had you told me after joining
the firm that I had to relocate to An-
chorage or Kuala Lumpur, I would have
quit on the spot. Yet the assignments,
when they came, turned out to be bless-
ings.
Third, there will be times when there
won’t be any balance. I always say at
college recruiting events that we some-
times work under a term paper syndrome.
You’ve got to work a little harder and
later to get the paper done on the night
before it is due. In the business world,
that may not be the night before, but two
or three months before. So there will be
times when your life is out of balance.
The last truth I want to mention is that
you have to manage your own expecta-
tions as well as those of whom you are
working for. But also let them know what
true balance means to you. I remember
there was a time when I was working
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July 2012 Christian Business Review 19
Work Life Balance Panel
seven days a week while shuttling back
and forth between Florida and Houston.
It was about the time I was up for review
for partner, when I told my boss that if I
had to be working seven days a week
consistently I wouldn’t be here very long.
I had other commitments than just work.
We need to know and set our boundaries
and make them known to those we work
with.
Thomas: An out-of-balance work life is
sort of like smoking. You can get away
with an occasional cigar or a few ciga-
rettes, but eventually, if you get heavily
into it, you get hurt. You can cope with an
out-of-balance marriage for a while, but
if you stop working on your marriage,
you will end up spending a lot of time
working on your divorce. The same goes
for your children. If you don’t spend
the time raising them, eventually you
may spend a lot of time dealing with cops,
courts, and substance abuse counselors. I
am not saying it will happen, but it is
definitely more likely you would have to
deal with the fallout.
It is the same health-wise. If we keep
sacrificing our physical health by not
eating, exercising, or sleeping, our body
can handle that for a while. Yet our life
can be brought to a sudden stop when we
come down with any number of ailments
resulting from a life that has long been
out of balance. So just because the con-
sequences are not immediate does not
mean we should be blind to the effects of
imbalance. As Christians, how we finish
is just as important as how we start. If we
don’t finish well, we sort of undercut our
whole life of work as a witness for Christ.
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 20
Why Business Matters to God
*Taken from Why Business Matters to God
(And What Still Needs to Be Fixed) by Jeff Van
Duzer, Chapter One: In the Beginning.
Copyright(c) 2010 by Jeff Van Duzer. Used by
permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box
1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515.
www.ivpress.com.
A Note from the Editors:
As the Editorial Board of the Chris-
tian Business Review, we look for-
ward to building a great body of
scholarship, literature, and conversa-
tions about doing real business in the
real world, especially as we consider
our mutual challenges in the light of
the Christian scriptures and through
the experience of the Christian life.
In this inaugural issue, we are blessed
to be able to include the introductory
chapter of Jeff Van Duzer's book,
Why Business Matters to God. After
all, that is what we are all working to
understand, and to the extent that we
believe that business does matter to
God, then we are working together to
encourage and help one another to act
as if this is so. We appreciate Inter-
Varsity Press and Jeff Van Duzer for
giving us permission to reprint this
material, and we hope that it will be a
conversation starter for all of us.
Jeff Van Duzer is Dean
of the School of Business
and Economics and pro-
fessor of business law
and ethics at Seattle Pa-
cific University. For twenty years prior to
that, he practiced law in Seattle with an
emphasis on finance and natural resources.
He writes and speaks frequently in both
church and professional settings. He re-
ceived his J.D. from Yale University
School of Law.
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Why Business Matters to God
onsider an unfinished parable:
Three students make appointments
to ask a pastor for career advice.
The first student explains that she is
considering going to law school and asks
the pastor why God might want a Chris-
tian to be a lawyer. After thinking about
her question for a moment, the pastor
answers that Christians in law make
sense because God cares about justice.
By becoming a lawyer she can help ad-
vance God‘s desire for a just society. The
second student explains that he is consi-
dering a career in medicine and asks why
God might want Christians to serve as
doctors or nurses. ―That‘s simple,‖ the
pastor replies, ―God cares about whole-
ness, and by pursuing a career in the
medical field you can play a key part in
God‘s healing work in the world.‖ The
last student arrives for her appointment
and says she is considering a career in
business. She asks the pastor why God
might want her to pursue such a career.
At this point, however, the parable
remains unfinished. How should the
pastor respond? If law furthers God‘s
interest in justice and medicine furthers
God‘s interest in healing, what aspect of
God‘s work will a business career further?
Or, put differently, from God‘s perspec-
tive what is the purpose of business?
God’s Purpose for Business
Answering this question is not as simple
as it may seem at first. Indeed, on closer
examination, this one question raises
three other preliminary questions.
First, does it even make sense to talk
about God having a purpose for business?
Or does God only have a purpose for
people in business? Stated more gener-
ally, does God have purposes for institu-
tions? Or is it better to understand insti-
tutions (such as corporations, economic
systems, governments) as merely artifi-
cial human constructs that are in and of
themselves inherently neutral—they can
further or thwart God‘s desires depending
on the intentions and actions of the hu-
man beings within them, but as separate
things they are of no account.
Second, setting aside for the moment
the question of institutions, what do we
mean when we ask about God‘s purpose
for people in business?1 The Westminster
Shorter Catechism (1674) begins this
way:
Question 1. What is the chief end of
man?
Answer. Man‘s chief end is to glo-
rify God and to enjoy him forever.
Is this all that we can say about God‘s
purpose for people active in business?
Does God simply have a general purpose
for men and women—to glorify and en-
joy God—that they are to faithfully pur-
sue across all of their activities? Or can
we say something more? Are there any
unique purposes that God would like to
see accomplished through business ac-
tivities?
And finally, assuming that God has
unique purposes for people in business,
are these purposes intrinsic to the actual
business activity or only instrumental?
For example, businesses can make
money for their owners, who in turn can
use that money to support mission activ-
ities. In this sense businesses could be
said to serve God‘s purposes instrumen-
tally. They generate the funds necessary
to sponsor God‘s desired activity.
Businesses can also serve as a plat-
form from which Christians can share
their faith with others. Here too is a use
for business. Instrumentally, it creates a
forum for the sharing of the gospel. But
still, this is not intrinsic to business itself.
Christians are called on to ―be prepared
to give an answer to everyone who asks‖
C
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Why Business Matters to God
Does business have an intrinsic as well as instrumental purpose in God’s kingdom?
about their faith regardless of the setting
(1 Peter 3:15). In the supermarket, on the
sidelines of soccer fields, in PTSA
meetings as well as in work settings,
Christians are invited to share the good
news sensitively with all who might be
interested in hearing. This fact, however,
does not tell us much about how God
intends to use the practice of business
itself.
Specifically, can we say that busi-
ness activities—analyzing balance sheets,
manufacturing products, marketing
goods, providing performance re-
views—in and of themselves further
God‘s kingdom?2 Does business have an
intrinsic as well as instrumental purpose?
The Search for Purpose
Searching for biblically based answers to
these questions is not easy. In a narrow
verse-by-verse sense there is not much to
work with. One can find a handful of
ethical admonitions such as the Old
Testament‘s prescription against using
faulty scales to apportion out purchased
grain (Proverbs 11:1) or the New Testa-
ment‘s admonitions to pay a worker his
or her just due (Luke 10:7). Unfortu-
nately, even in the aggregate these prove
to be fairly thin threads from which to
weave a whole theology. While there is
certainly a great deal of teaching in
Scripture on economics and a regular call
to fair dealing, there is very little written
directly about the purpose of business
activities, the appropriate limits of busi-
ness and its role, if any, in God‘s work in
the world.
Consequently, rather than seeking to
construct a theology of business from a
handful of specific verses, I have found it
more useful to build on what has some-
times been called the ―grand narrative.‖
All of Scripture (through many writings
and in many genres) tells one basic sto-
ry—one basic story in four great move-
ments.
In the beginning God created a
world and placed human beings at its
center (creation). It was God‘s intent to
enjoy creation and live in a loving inti-
macy with humankind forever. This ini-
tial intent, however, was thwarted by
human disobedience (the Fall). All the
rest of the story is about reconciliation.
God seeks to reestablish the love rela-
tionship that was intended from the be-
ginning (redemption). These efforts cli-
max with God‘s arrival in the person of
Jesus Christ, who breaks down the wall
of separation through his death and re-
surrection and inaugurates the new crea-
tion. The full implications of this victory
are revealed in the last Chapters of the
story, the final conclusion (consumma-
tion).
The choice of a narrative hermeneu-
tic and the identification of these four
great movements of Scripture is certainly
not the only option. Theology can be
shaped in a number of crucibles. For
example, many theologians work in
fields of moral, historical or practical
theologies. Even for those committed to a
biblical theology, there can be many
different organizing principles. And to
make matters more complicated, even
among those adopting a narrative ap-
proach to their biblical theologies, there
are differences over how to divide the
Scriptures into separate movements.3
My choice of narrative is partially
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Why Business Matters to God
What did God have in mind at the very be-ginning?
tactical, as ―story‖ seems to be one of the
most effective means of communicating
truth in our current cultural environment.
Hopefully it is also an ecumenical ap-
proach. While the creation – fall – re-
demption – consummation framework is
often associated with the Reformed tra-
dition, as a basic outline of the biblical
story it can be adopted by a wide variety
of Christian faith traditions. Indeed down
through the history of the church this has
been a standard way to describe the
Christian journey. The emphasis placed
on each movement may differ slightly
from tradition to tradition (and the im-
plications that follow from these differing
emphases may be nontrivial), but still as a
basic outline of the overall biblical narr-
ative, this approach should allow for
different traditions to find common
ground.4
In the context of this grand narrative,
then, it makes sense to begin our search
for purpose with a consideration of the
creation movement. After all, the creation
account describes the world as God
originally intended it to be. While the Fall
interfered with this plan (and will need to
be considered separately), it is still useful
to start by considering what God had in
mind at the very beginning.
The Brevity of the Creation Account
When we think of the Scripture story as
comprising four grand movements, it is
remarkable that the description of the
first two of the four movements is com-
pleted by the end of the third Chapter of
the first book. Creation is described in
Genesis 1–2.5 The Fall is described in
Genesis 3. Everything else in Scrip-
ture—the remainder of Genesis, the re-
maining thirty-eight books in the Old
Testament and all of the New Testa-
ment—is given over to the great third
movement of redemption and the fourth
movement of consummation.
For our purposes the very brevity of
the creation account should serve as an
important reminder. First, it reminds us
that God is most fully known in redemp-
tive activity. In some ways, virtually the
entire Bible tells the story of God‘s ef-
forts to restore the relationships that God
desired from the beginning. It is a story of
love—a love that is expressed in a con-
stant reaching out, a grace that seeks
communion with a rebellious people,
consistently offering them that which
they do not deserve. A theology of busi-
ness must be set, first and foremost, in the
context of God‘s desire to restore this
loving relationship.
Second, as we turn to the ―creation
movement‖ itself, the sheer brevity of
this section of Scripture must give us
pause as we seek to draw conclusions
about God‘s original plan. Here we find
only the slightest of hints, almost im-
perceptible nods toward various aspects
of divine truth. On the one hand, this
brevity invites us to speculate from the
tiniest of clues. On the other hand, it re-
minds us that for the most part we are
speculating. The terse account reinforces
our need for humility, reminding us that
we must wrap our conclusions in a cloak
of tentativeness. Much of the meaning of
the creation story will necessarily remain
shrouded in mystery.
Observations from Creation
With these cautions in mind, then, let us
consider what observations we might
make from the account of creation.
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Why Business Matters to God
1. The material world matters to
God. The observation that the material
world matters to God is so obvious that it
would be easy to overlook. Throughout
the Genesis account of creation God
makes material things, and each is de-
clared good. Clearly, the material world
matters to God. When God conceives of
human flourishing, it involves, in part,
the satisfaction of the material needs and
desires of men and women.6 Food that
nourishes, roofs that hold out the rain,
shade that protects from the heat of the
sun—these are all part of God‘s good
design. When businesses produce ma-
terial things that enhance the welfare of
the community, they are engaged in work
that matters to God.
2. Human beings are called to
steward God’s creation. The Genesis
account reminds us that the world was
made by God and remains God‘s creation.
God made the heavens and the earth. God
turned on the lights. God parted the wa-
ters to bring forth the sky as well as dry
land. God made plants and wildlife, and
for a finale, made human beings.
Nowhere in the account is there any
suggestion, however, that title to creation
was somehow then transferred to Adam
and Eve. The only things given to them
outright were ―seed-bearing plants‖ and
―fruits with seeds,‖ and these were only
made available to them as food (Genesis
1:29). By the double reference to ―seeds,‖
the account suggests that even in this
provision for them, God did not intend to
relinquish the ongoing productive capac-
ity of God‘s creation to human beings.
They could eat the fruit, and the plants
would continue to grow more fruit. In
effect, Adam and Eve were invited to
enjoy the income from God‘s trust
without invading the principal. God re-
mained the owner. As the psalmist re-
minds us:
The earth is the Lord‘s, and every-
thing in it, the world, and all who live
in it; for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters.
(Psalm 24:1-2 (NIV))
This is not to say, however, that Adam
and Eve were mere passive beneficiaries
of God‘s largesse. They were given a role
to play. In a short-hand way we can
identify this role as one of ―stewards‖ or
in more modern parlance ―trustees.‖ A
steward (or trustee) is ―a person who
manages another‘s property or financial
affairs; one who administers anything as
the agent of another.‖7 Human beings
were called to steward God‘s creation on
God‘s behalf. ―The Lord God took the
man and put him in the Garden of Eden to
work it and take care of it‖ (Genesis
2:15).
For Christians in business, ac-
knowledging their role as stewards is an
important first step toward understanding
God‘s intentions for business. Implicit in
this acknowledgment is the conviction
that the business does not belong to them
or to any other earthly owners. It belongs
to God. This sets the frame through
which any consideration of shareholder
or stakeholder rights must be viewed.
Of course, this is not the end of the
inquiry. It is not enough just to conclude
that we act as stewards of God‘s creation.
This conclusion invites the next question:
if we are to manage creation for God‘s
purposes, what end should we be pur-
suing? What does the owner want us to
do with the ―trust corpus‖?
Consider, by analogy, a family trust
established today. In law, the trustee who
agrees to administer the trust for the
family is bound to follow the instructions
of the one who formed and funded the
trust, the trust‘s ―settlor.‖ These instruc-
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Why Business Matters to God
tions are usually set forth in a trust
agreement. To the extent that the agree-
ment is silent on certain points, the law
will fill in the gaps by implying certain
duties for the trustee. For example, by
law a trustee owes the trust his or her
undivided loyalty. All self-dealing with
trust assets is strictly prohibited. The
trustee may not favor one class of bene-
ficiaries over another and must diversify
the portfolio to avoid unreasonable risk
and so on. Moreover, subject to all of
these constraints, the trustee‘s charge is
clear: he or she is to maximize the return
on trust assets for the benefit of the trust
beneficiaries.
By analogy, then, for Christians it is
not enough just to declare that we act as
God‘s stewards. It is an important first
step but not the end of the discussion. As
stewards/trustees we need to know what
our goal in managing the ―trust corpus‖ is
and what constraints we need to abide by
along the way. More specifically, as
stewards of God‘s businesses, we need to
know what our goal (or purpose) is when
managing the business and what limita-
tions we need to observe to manage the
business in accordance with God‘s de-
sires.8
3. Human beings are made in the
image of God. On three separate occa-
sions we are told that human beings are
made in the image of God.
Then God said, ―Let us make man
in our image, in our likeness.‖ . . .
So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he
created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
What does this mean? In what sense are
human beings stamped with God‘s im-
age?
This is a difficult question to answer
and Scripture gives few clues. Theolo-
gians have debated the issue at length.
The notion that we have been created in
God‘s image is not confined to the Ge-
nesis account but is repeated on a number
of occasions throughout the Scriptures.
Evidently it involves a close parallel
between the original and the image; on
two occasions—2 Corinthians 4:4; Co-
lossians 1:15—Christ is said to be the
―image‖ of God the Father. It suggests
that the image-bearer plays a role in re-
vealing the essence of the Other.
At a minimum, however, we should
find in the Genesis use of ―image‖ an
intent to reflect those characteristics of
God that have already been described in
the Genesis account. Specifically, two
such characteristics are important for our
purpose. First, God has been described as
inherently relational (―Let us make man
in our image, in our likeness‖ [Genesis
1:26]). Second, God has been described
as a worker. God makes things.
Relationship. The God in whose
image Adam and Eve were created is the
trinitarian God—Father, Son and Holy
Spirit—a God inherently relational from
before the beginning of time. The plural
pronouns in Genesis 1:26 remind us that
before God did anything, God in three
persons was. All of the mighty acts of
creation flowed out of that relationship.
Indeed, because the work of creation was
itself an overflowing of the love nature of
the Godhead, it was a tangible expression
of this relational character. The work
gave expression to the relationship.
Moreover, since creation was designed to
return glory to God, the work of creation
not only came out of relationship but was
intended to return for the benefit of the
Trinity.
As people made in God‘s image we
are reminded that human beings are also
inherently relational. We are only fully
complete in community. As God re-
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Why Business Matters to God
marked about Adam: ―It is not good for
the man to be alone‖ (Genesis 2:18). The
nurturing and building of community is,
therefore, one of the fundamental tasks to
be pursued by those seeking to be ge-
nuinely human. To be true to the Genesis
account, any theology of business must
be relational and communitarian in cha-
racter. Relationships in community must
precede labor and productivity. Business
must flow from relationship and be
shaped so as to flow back to support the
community.
Work. The God in whose image
Adam and Eve were created was also a
worker.
By the seventh day God had fi-
nished the work he had been doing;
so on the seventh day he rested
from all his work. And God
blessed the seventh day and made
it holy, because on it he rested
from all the work of creating that
he had done. (Genesis 2:2-3, em-
phasis added)
Men and women, then, were made in part
to work, and by so doing to reflect this
aspect of God‘s glory.
Christians often incorrectly perceive
work as having been assigned to human
beings as punishment for Adam and
Eve‘s disobedience in the Garden of
Eden. Nothing could be further from the
truth. The call and the opportunity to
work were embedded into the very fabric
of human beings as they were first de-
signed by God. Adam and Eve were as-
signed work in the Garden from the be-
ginning.
And it was not just any work. Since
Adam and Eve were created in the image
of God, they were made with an inherent
capacity for and need to be engaged in
creative activity. Of course, their creative
activities differed from God‘s in that only
God creates out of nothing (ex nihilo).9
Human creativity is always derivative,
always derived from the work of the
Creator. But still, to reflect God‘s image
is to create, to innovate—to bring new
things and new ways of doing things into
being.
In business terms God made the ini-
tial capital investment. He richly en-
dowed the earth with resources. Adam
and Eve were the initial managers called
to creatively organize (name the animals)
and manage these resources (take domi-
nion), to enhance the productivity of the
Garden (be fruitful and multiply) in a
sustainable (guard creation) manner.
Creativity is not just a gift given to some
artists or design engineers. It is inherent
in the very meaning of being human.
In addition, if the work that Chris-
tians do is to reflect the work of God, it
must also be meaningful work. After
each act of creation, God examined the
creative handiwork and pronounced it
―good‖ (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25)
and after the creation of human beings,
―very good‖ (v. 31). For our work to
mirror God‘s it too must aim for out-
comes that are good. Good work has
substance and meaning.
When humans engage in creative,
meaningful work that grows out of rela-
tionships and gives back to the commu-
nity they become more deeply human. Of
course, work became more difficult as a
consequence of the Fall (―Cursed is the
ground because of you; . . . it will produce
thorns and thistles for you‖ [Genesis
3:17-18]). But the pre-Fall picture is of
human beings gardening and farming on
land that readily yielded its produce
without demanding payment in sweat and
toil. Indeed, pre-Fall work was inherently
pleasurable.
One last thought about being made
―in the image of God.‖ While there is a
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Why Business Matters to God
sacred quality to all creation—it was all
made by God and God pronounced all of
it ―good‖—human beings were given a
unique status and dignity. They alone of
all the creatures were made ―in the image
of God‖ (Genesis 1:27). Down through
history the church has consistently taught
that the dignity of men and women must
be particularly respected in light of their
unique place in the created order.
4. Humans are made to live within
limits. A fourth observation follows from
the third. While human beings were made
in the image of God, men and women
were clearly not made to be gods. No-
where in the creation narrative are Adam
and Eve offered the opportunity to be-
come God, nor are they assured that as
originally created, they are already gods.
In fact, the narrative takes pains to
communicate just the opposite. God
preexists. It is God who speaks the world
into being, setting its boundaries and de-
fining its essence. God is beyond bound-
aries. God is unlimited.
By contrast, God places a limit at the
very center of human existence.
In the middle of the garden were
the tree of life and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. . . .
And the Lord God commanded the
man, ―You are free to eat from any
tree in the garden; but you must
not eat from the tree of the know-
ledge of good and evil, for when
you eat of it you will surely die.‖
(Genesis 2:9, 16-17)
Thus, to be fully human is to be inhe-
rently limited.
The serpent understood this. When
the serpent tempted Eve to eat from the
forbidden tree, he assured her that by so
doing she could be ―like God‖ (Genesis
3:5). The fundamental temptation that
Adam and Eve succumbed to was the
temptation to deny their limited nature in
an effort to be, for themselves, gods.10
5. God delights in variety. A fifth
observation that we can take from the
Genesis account is that diversity appears
to be built into the very fabric of God‘s
design. Even before God created human
beings, God created a wide array of other
creatures. Elsewhere in Scripture we are
reminded that God enjoys the breadth of
creation in all of its variety. It is enjoyed
for its own sake and not simply for any
utilitarian value that it serves.11
When God perceived that Adam was
inappropriately ―alone,‖ God did not
make a second Adam. Rather, God made
an Eve. Eve was different—a difference
that complemented and made whole
Adam, who was in himself incomplete.
God‘s love for diversity is reflected
throughout the Scriptures. One of the
more confusing passages in the Old
Testament relates to an early effort by
humanity to build a tower in the city of
Babel (Genesis 11:1- 9). What marked
these efforts was that all those engaged in
the building spoke with one language and
appeared to be motivated by a single
purpose. In this primordial story, God
intervenes in judgment, scattering the
peoples and giving them a multitude of
languages, which precludes them from
communicating with one another.
It is often noted that Pentecost was a
reversal of God‘s judgment at Babel, but
this is only partially true. It is true in that
through the out-pouring of the Spirit,
unity was once again made possible for
God‘s people. Everyone was able to un-
derstand each other and communicate
across cultural barriers (―each one heard
them speaking in his own language‖
[Acts 2:6]). It was not a reversal of Babel,
however, in the sense that it returned
everyone to a single language. Rather, it
appears that in God‘s intended design
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Why Business Matters to God
there will always be a multitude of
peoples speaking a multitude of lan-
guages. Even at the end of times we are
told that kings and nations from around
the world, consisting of different peoples
and different cultures, will come to
worship God (Revelation 21:24). God
delights in the diversity of the created
order.
6. The Garden was incomplete. Fi-
nally, in the first two Chapters of Genesis
humankind is assigned certain tasks.
Specifically Adam and Eve were to
―subdue‖ and ―rule‖ over the created
order (Genesis 1:28). They were to ―be
fruitful.‖ In this way they were to ―fill the
earth‖ (Genesis 1:28). They were given
an opportunity to name the animals, to
classify and bring order to creation (Ge-
nesis 2:19-20). They were called to ―take
care of‖ the earth and thereby protect
God‘s created order (Genesis 2:15).
These tasks were given by God to hu-
manity as a blessing. Performance of the
tasks allowed men and women to express
aspects of their very identities and to de-
light in the work itself. But the perfor-
mance of these tasks also served another
purpose.
The Garden of Eden before the Fall
is correctly described as an expression of
God‘s perfect will. Here the goodness of
the original creation prevailed. This
goodness was expressed in a flourishing
and harmonious peace. It would be in-
correct to say, however, that the Garden
of Eden as initially created by God was
complete—that had Adam and Eve only
avoided the forbidden fruit, humankind
would have lived to the end of time in this
unchanging idyllic garden setting.
In Genesis we are told that after
creating the necessary raw materials God
still did not cause the fields to flourish
because no humans were yet available to
work the fields.
When the Lord God made the
earth and the heavens—and no
shrub of the field had yet appeared
on the earth and no plant of the
field had yet sprung up, for the
Lord God had not sent rain on the
earth and there was no man to
work the ground. (Genesis 2:4-5,
emphasis added)
The Garden was created as a per-
fectly balanced and resourced starting
point. As originally designed, however,
the Garden of Eden was not God‘s in-
tended endpoint. God anticipated moving
on from the perfection of the Garden,
relying, at least in part, on the activity of
the men and women who God had placed
in the Garden. They would till the fields.
They would gather the fruit. They would
understand, organize and classify aspects
of the created order. They would create
new things. They would be fruitful. As a
people they would fill the earth and work
the created order to ensure that it was
fruitful in a like manner. In other words,
God anticipated partnering with human
beings to cause the Garden of Eden to
flourish.
Of course, God could have chosen to
provide for the world supernaturally.
Every morning, for example, God could
have dropped manna flakes from heaven,
and our responsibility would have been
limited to running around with our
mouths open and our tongues out. But for
most of history God did not do this. Ra-
ther, human beings were created with a
capacity to pool their resources (what we
now call ―capital‖), to design and build
an oven (technological innovation), to
order and receive shipments of flour
(supply chain), to bake bread (operations),
to put it on trucks (logistics) and to de-
liver it to a hungry world. As Martin
Luther once said, as we do the work to
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Why Business Matters to God
God intended that men and women would
take the raw materials that had been pro-
vided and, in partnership with God, help to
grow and construct the kingdom here on
earth.
which we have been called we become
the hands of God.12
We actually take the
bread that God intended to provide for a
hungry world and make delivery on
God‘s behalf.13
This work has intrinsic
and not just instrumental value in the
kingdom of God.
In God‘s economy, to say that
something is perfect is not to suggest that
it is done. The Garden was perfect, but it
was not static. In fact, even the ―end of
time‖ is probably not best conceived of as
a static destination where we will some-
day arrive. As stewards we are not aiming
for a fixed endpoint, just for a further and
more robust flourishing, an ever-growing
and deepening intimacy.14
At the begin-
ning God didn‘t deliver a finished prod-
uct; rather, God provided a setting in
which human beings, working with and
enabled by God, could cause the created
order to flourish.
Thus, to summarize so far, God
created the world and everything in it. It
belongs to God. As a part of this creation
God created men and women and en-
dowed them with a unique dignity. They
alone were created in God‘s image, de-
signed from the beginning to reflect
God‘s glory. They were created for rela-
tionship, with one another and with God.
They were created as diverse creatures
with differences that complemented each
other and delighted God. They were
called to work as co-creators with God, to
steward the creation. God intended that
men and women would take the raw
materials that had been provided and, in
partnership with God, help to grow and
construct the kingdom here on earth. Men
and women were not, however, created to
become God. At the center of their exis-
tence were to be limits and God called
them to live from that place of limited-
ness.
God’s Purpose for Humankind: Nar-
rowing the Question
Let us now return to one of the original
questions. Does the Westminster Ca-
techism say all that can be said about
God‘s intended role for humankind (to
glorify God and enjoy him forever)? Or
can we identify a more specific charge to
Adam and Eve from the Genesis ac-
count?
There is no doubt that the Genesis
account confirms that our primary voca-
tion is to glorify God. Created ―in his
image,‖ our lives are intended to reflect
or reveal the divine glory—God‘s es-
sence and character. But the creation
mandate adds specificity to this general
calling.
For one, we reflect God‘s glory
through nurturing our relationships with
God and with one another. The Garden
narrative in Genesis 3 provides us with a
tantalizing hint of the intimate friend-
ships that must have existed before the
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Fall: Adam and Eve walking and chatting
with God in the Garden ―in the cool of the
day‖ (Genesis 3:8). As we model this
loving intimacy in our relationships with
God and with others we reflect an aspect
of the triune Godhead and give God
glory.
But we also glorify God by engaging
in the work we have been called to un-
dertake. Already we have seen that this
work is to be meaningful, engage our
creativity, reflect our diversity, and grow
out of and give back to the community.
These are characteristics of God‘s work;
when our work reflects these characte-
ristics, we reveal God‘s glory.
But we have also seen that our work
can glorify God in another way. Our
work is actually used to accomplish
God‘s purposes on earth. In addition to
exhibiting God-like characteristics, we
are invited to participate in the bringing
about of God-desired results. In Genesis
God assigns particular tasks to humanity.
Adam and Eve were told to ―subdue‖ and
―rule‖ over the created order, to work the
fields, to ―multiply‖ and ―be fruitful,‖ to
―fill the earth,‖ to give order to creation,
and to guard the earth. One aspect of
these tasks was to involve Adam and Eve
in partnering with God to cause the land
to bring forth its crops so as to provide for
the material well-being of God‘s people
and the created order. In the performance
of these tasks, Adam and Eve advance
God‘s agenda and thereby give God glory.
Collectively, these activities enable the
community to flourish as God intended.
They are to be undertaken for God and, as
it is sometimes said, ―for the common
good.‖15
The Role of Business In the Creation
Mandate
But what does this have to say specifi-
cally about business? Business is, of
course, not the only institution that hu-
man beings operate in. Christians in
business are also members of families,
citizens of nations, congregants in local
churches and participants in various other
institutions of civil society (e.g., book
clubs, intramural sports teams, food
kitchens and environmental groups).
What then is the relationship between the
work of any one institution and the
overall creation mandate?
One possibility, of course, is that
each person is called to perform each
Genesis task in each institution or role. If
this were correct we would conclude that
every Christian in business must through
business engage in every one of the Ge-
nesis activities. But surely this cannot be
the case. Consider one obvious example.
Adam and Eve were called to multiply.
That is, they were to enjoy sexual rela-
tions and produce off-spring. For this
―task‖ there is a corresponding institution,
the family. Presumably, during moments
of sexual intimacy, neither Adam nor Eve
was expected to be tilling the ground or
naming animals.
To house the production of offspring
in the institution of business (or any-
where else other than in the family)
would be a perversion of God‘s intent.
Rather, it would seem that certain insti-
tutions are better suited for certain tasks.
The family is a better institution in which
to situate the bearing and raising of
children (be fruitful and multiply). The
church and neighborhood might be the
best settings to nurture community.
Universities may be the best setting for
the study and analysis of the created or-
der (naming the animals). The govern-
ment, with its coercive powers, may be in
a better position to assume primary re-
sponsibility for guarding creation.
In his letter to the church at Corinth,
Paul talks about all of the different func-
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tions that the church is to perform. These
include teaching, preaching, prophesying,
administering and a number of others.
But was each individual Christian called
to perform all of these functions? Cer-
tainly not.
There are different kinds of service,
but the same Lord. There are dif-
ferent kinds of working, but the
same God works all of them in all
men. Now to each one the manife-
station of the Spirit is given for the
common good. . . .
The body is a unit, though it
is made up of many parts; and
though all its parts are many, they
form one body. . . .
Now you are the body of
Christ, and each one of you is a
part of it. And in the church God
has appointed first of all apostles,
second prophets, third teachers,
then workers of miracles, also
those having gifts of healing, those
able to help others, those with gifts
of administration, and those
speaking in different kinds of
tongues. Are all apostles? Are all
prophets? Are all teachers? Do all
work miracles? Do all have gifts of
healing? Do all speak in tongues?
Do all interpret? (1 Corinthians
12:5-7, 12, 27-30)
In an analogous way, all of humanity is
charged with all of the Genesis tasks, but
each individual and each individual in-
stitution is only one part of the body.
Each institution has only a part to play in
the whole.
Of course, there is no reason to as-
sume that any given institution will al-
ways be responsible for the same aspects
of the creation mandate. As the nature of
these institutions and the societies they
are found in change over time, various
aspects of the creation mandate may be
reallocated between institutional spheres
of activity in different proportions. At
some times aspects of the mandate might
be best furthered by government action.
In different times the same tasks might be
best pursued through private enterprise.
Sometimes a university should take the
lead in advancing research. In other cir-
cumstances it might best be conducted by
the state or a corporation. A considera-
tion of which tasks make the most sense
for which institutions at any given mo-
ment is ultimately a time-bound and
culturally embedded decision.16
So the question boils down to this: In
our twenty-first-century context, which
aspects of the creation mandate are best
suited for business to handle? Or using
Paul‘s language, what is the unique gif-
tedness of business at this time and place
in history?
In my judgment, the answer is two-
fold. First, business appears to be uni-
quely well situated to work the fields, to
cause the land to be fruitful, and to fill the
earth—what we might in modern par-
lance characterize as ―to create wealth.‖
Second, business is also the dominant
institution (although obviously not the
only one) equipped to provide organized
opportunities for meaningful and creative
work. With the collapse of the Soviet
Union and its state-managed economies,
it now appears beyond question that in
the twenty-first century private enterprise
operating in a relatively free market sys-
tem will be the institution best positioned
to efficiently deliver the goods and ser-
vices desired by worldwide consumers
and the most prolific source of new job
creation.
From this I would conclude that at
this time in history, there are two legiti-
mate, first-order, intrinsic purposes of
business: as stewards of God‘s creation,
business leaders should manage their
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Why Business Matters to God
Provide opportunities for meaningful work,
allowing employees to express their
God-given creativity
Provide community with
goods and services,
enabling it to flourish
businesses (1) to provide the community
with goods and services that will enable it
to flourish, and (2) to provide opportuni-
ties for meaningful work that will allow
employees to express their God-given
creativity. One goal for the Christian bu-
sinessperson who is stewarding God‘s
business is focused outward—providing
goods and services that enhance the
quality of life. One goal focuses in-
ward—creating opportunities for indi-
viduals within the company to express
their vocation in the performance of God-
glorifying work.17
When managers pur-
sue these particular goals for their com-
panies, they participate directly in God‘s
creation mandate. They engage in work
of intrinsic and not just instrumental
value.18
Before we press on, let me clarify
something about this purpose statement.
So far, I have attempted to identify God‘s
purpose for business as a whole. In effect,
I have been trying to identify those goals
that God might set down were God to
write a corporate mission statement for
the whole institution of business. I have
suggested that the mission statement
would focus on the twin goals of pro-
viding appropriate goods and services
and providing meaningful and creative
work. Of course, by negative implication,
I have also left some things out. For
example, I don‘t believe that ―fostering
of relationships in community‖ or ―pro-
tecting the environment‖ would make
Two Intrinsic Purposes
of Business
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Why Business Matters to God
God‘s list of fundamental purposes for
the institution of business as a whole.
This does not mean, however, that these
tasks are not essential for human flou-
rishing or even that they are of no im-
portance to business. As we will discuss
at length in the following Chapters, all
faithful businesses will need to take these
and a variety of other similar concerns
into account—if not as their purpose,
their raison d’être, then at least as con-
straints on their operations. We have
much more work to do. But we begin
with the notion that pursuit of these par-
ticular purposes—providing appropriate
goods and services, and meaningful and
creative work—is a piece of, a starting
place for, what it means to be a faithful
steward of God‘s business.
Three Related Observations
Three closing observations are in order.
First, note that this formulation of the
purpose of business makes the particular
goods and services to be produced a re-
levant consideration. Specifically, are
they goods and services that God would
want to make available to the world at
this time? Many times I have met with
Christians in business who have sug-
gested that the specific output of their
efforts is irrelevant. All that counts, they
argue, is how they engage in their busi-
ness activities (e.g., with honesty and
compassion). I disagree. Virtually eve-
ryone would agree that a pimp or prosti-
tute (even one who does his or her work
with integrity, compassion and caring) is
unlikely to be furthering the kingdom of
God through these professions. A full
understanding of the creation mandate
should extend this further. In certain
times and places, faithful obedience to
God‘s kingdom values might require that
we invest less of our aggregate capital in
the production of violent video games
and more in the development of sanitary
water facilities for developing countries,
less in weapons of mass destruction and
more in quality wood products, less in
fossil fuels and more in renewable re-
sources.
Under the business model that op-
erates in most corporations today, de-
ciding which product should be produced
comes down to assessing which of the
products that the company could produce
would yield the highest return on in-
vestment (ROI). While this is not always
easy to calculate (and is often calculated
incorrectly), it has the seductive quality
of mathematical certainty.19
It does not,
however, necessarily lead to operations
that accord with kingdom values. Online
betting and pornography may yield
higher rates of return but are unlikely to
lead to human flourishing.
Of course, it is not possible to come
up with a particular formula that will
clearly dictate which goods or services
should be produced. There is no single
litmus test. Each of us faithfully listening
to God may come up with a different
answer. But even if we may end up with
different answers, we are called to start
by asking a common question: Instead of
asking in the first instance, Which choice
will maximize my ROI? we ask instead,
Given the core competencies of my or-
ganization and the assets under its con-
trol, how can I best direct the organiza-
tion to serve? Which products or services
could we produce that would best enable
my community to flourish?
And this leads to a second observa-
tion. Note that nothing in this Genesis
model supports the conclusion that
business should be operated for the pur-
pose of maximizing profits. In fact, this
model turns the dominant business model
on its head. In most business schools to-
day and in most corporations (particu-
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Why Business Matters to God
The Genesis model views employees and cus-tomers as the actual ends of the business. It places profit in a proper perspective. It be-comes the means to service rather than the
purpose of the enterprise itself.
larly larger, publicly traded corporations)
the sole legitimate purpose of business is
said to be maximizing profits for the sake
of the shareholders.20
Indeed, influential
economists have argued that business
managers have a moral obligation to do
everything within their power (short of
breaking the law and violating conven-
tional norms of society) to maximize
profits.21
Under this model, providing
meaningful work to employees and being
honest and straightforward with custom-
ers are good business practices to the
extent, and only to the extent, that they
enhance the bottom line. In other words
employees and customers become a
means for achieving the goal of max-
imizing shareholder wealth.
Under the Genesis model, however,
the employees and customers become the
actual ends of the business. The business
is run for their welfare. Profit is not im-
portant as an end in and of itself. Rather,
it becomes the means of attracting suffi-
cient capital to allow the business to do
what, from God‘s perspective, it is in
business to do—that is, to serve its cus-
tomers and employees.
Of course, this doesn‘t mean that
profit is unimportant. Generating profits
is critical. ―No margin, no mission.‖
Without profit a business dies. But the
Genesis model places profit in a proper
perspective. It becomes the means to
service rather than the purpose of the
enterprise itself.22
To turn shareholders‘ needs into a
purpose is to be guilty of a logical
confusion, to mistake a necessary
condition for a sufficient one. We
need to eat to live; food is a ne-
cessary condition of life. But if we
lived mainly to eat, making food a
sufficient or sole purpose of life,
we would become gross. The
purpose of a business, in other
words, is not to make a profit, full
stop. It is to make a profit so that
the business can do something
more or better.23
And one last observation. Some-
times I worry that to suggest that one of
the fundamental purposes of business is
to ―produce goods and services that ena-
ble the community to flourish‖ might
conjure up some image of a cookie-cutter
manufacturing process whereby the same
goods are just repetitively stamped out by
machines year after year and handed out
to customers who come by. But this
would be a mistake.
I intend a far more robust under-
standing. Indeed the Genesis model
statement of purpose assigns a very high
calling to business. Business is to be in
the business of ―value creation‖ or
―creating wealth.‖ Put simply, successful
businesses find ways through innovation
to make more or better things from less.
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Why Business Matters to God
In so doing, business generates the eco-
nomic capital that sustains the entire so-
ciety.
At the very heart of capitalism . . .
is the creative habit of enterprise.
Enterprise is, in its first moment,
the inclination to notice, the habit
of discerning, the tendency to
discover what other people don‘t
yet see. It is also the capacity to act
on insight, so as to bring into real-
ity things not before seen. It is the
ability to foresee both the needs of
others and the combinations of
productive factors most adapted to
satisfying those needs. This habit
of intellect constitutes an impor-
tant source of wealth in modern
society. Organizing such a pro-
ductive effort, planning its dura-
tion in time, making sure that it
corresponds in a positive way to
the demands it must satisfy, and
taking the necessary risks: all this
has been a source of new wealth in
the past 200 years.24
As Bonnie Wurzbacher, a senior
vice president with Coca Cola put it in a
recent interview, ―As the sole source of
wealth creation in the world, [business]
enables every other social, civic and even
spiritual institutions [sic] to exist.‖25
In
economic terms, all other institutions are
funded (through taxes or philanthropic
giving) by the wealth first created by
business. This can be seen when a new
business moves into a community, and is
often felt acutely when a business closes
or departs.
The call ―to produce goods and ser-
vices that enable flourishing‖ is a call to
participate in this innovative and indus-
trious work. It is a call to constantly be
looking for ways to deliver more or better
goods and services. In fact, it is the
combination of the two purposes I have
identified previously—enabling creative
work (innovation) and producing com-
munity-flourishing products (productiv-
ity)—that really brings businesses‘
unique contribution into sharpest focus.
Conclusion
Let‘s finish the parable we started with.
What can we tell our student considering
a career in business? In short, we can tell
her that she is considering a noble calling
that will involve her in delivering on key
aspects of God‘s creation mandate. If a
Christian lawyer seeks to advance God‘s
justice, and a Christian doctor seeks to
administer God‘s healing, a Christian
businessperson seeks to serve a hurting
world by providing it with the material
goods and services that will enable it to
prosper. The Christian in business
enables individuals to express aspects of
their God-given identities by affording
them the opportunity to participate in
meaningful and creative work. In short,
the Christian in business is in the busi-
ness of rendering service that will enable
humanity to flourish.
Notes 1For convenience and flow of argument, I have
elected to treat the question of God‘s purpose for
institutions as a stand-alone discussion in Chap. 6. 2I make repeated references throughout this book
to the ―kingdom of God,‖ ―God‘s kingdom‖ or
words to that effect. By this I mean simply the
place or places where God reigns, where God is
king. The characteristics of this kingdom are the
subject of numerous parables and other biblical
teaching. While perhaps not all-encompassing,
Paul Stevens identifies four key features of God‘s
kingdom: ―First, [the kingdom of God] brings the
forgiveness of sins. . . . Second, the kingdom
brings healing and recovery of full life: ‗the blind
receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and
the poor have good news brought to them.‘ . . .
Third, the kingdom restores community by pro-
viding an open table for sharing meals with sin-
ners, with poor and rich. . . . Finally, Jesus de-
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Why Business Matters to God
nounced collective, institutional and structural
sin . . . especially for the effect it had on the poor
and the oppressed‖ (R. Paul Stevens, Doing
God’s Business [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006],
pp. 84-85). 3See, for example, N. T. Wright, ―How Can the
Bible Be Authoritative?‖ NTWrightpage
<www .ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Bible_Authori
tative.htm> (creation, fall, Israel, Jesus, church). 4My choice of this particular approach is also a
reflection of my own heritage. I have grown up as
a Protestant primarily in evangelical Presbyterian
churches. Consciously or otherwise, I‘m sure that
I bring a Reformed perspective to this project,
hopefully tempered in part by my current happy
assignment in a Wesleyan institution. 5Additional poetic accounts of God‘s creation can
be found in the Psalms and are alluded to else-
where in the Scriptures. Still Genesis 1-2 remains
the primary account of God‘s initial work at cre-
ation. 6In this book I make repeated references to ―hu-
man flourishing,‖ but this is a difficult concept to
reduce to a simple definition. At its heart, a hu-
man being flourishes when he or she moves to-
ward becoming more the person God designed
him or her to be. As such, this notion has a de-
velopmental character. It implies growth and
change. Human flourishing also taps into the
notion of biblical abundance. Jesus assures his
followers that he has come ―that they might have
life, and have it to the full‖ (John 10:10). But it is
a multidimensional abundance. It includes the
spiritual, physical, intellectual, aesthetic, emo-
tional and social aspects of our lives. It does not
consist of the mere accumulation of more
things—particularly when such accumulation
comes at the cost of the development of other
human dimensions. On the other hand, it is not
merely a spiritual concept. It is not just limited,
for example, to the cultivation of the gifts of the
Spirit. As I have argued in the text, the material
world (and the physical goods derived therefrom)
matters to God. Our physical well-being is a part
of human flourishing. It is also not a solitary
concept. It contextualizes individual well-being
within a community. A rich understanding of
human flourishing acknowledges that individuals
are made for relationships. While it recognizes
the value and dignity of each individual, it also
affirms that individual development must be
grounded in community. 7Dictionary.com, s.v. ―stewardship,‖
<www.dictionary.reference.com>.
8In her book Believers in Business, Laura Nash
describes her findings based on extensive inter-
views with evangelical business leaders. She
notes that the ― ‗good steward‘ was the most
frequently cited metaphor for personal leadership
among the group. For these CEOs it implied ser-
vice, quality, a responsibility to be fiscally pro-
ductive and a detachment from self-serving mo-
tives‖ (Laura Nash, Believers in Business [Nash-
ville: Thomas Nelson, 1994], p.74). 9There is no need here to enter into the debate as
to whether it is best to characterize human beings
as co-creators or subcreators. For our purposes it
is sufficient to affirm that to be human is to be
intrinsically wired for creative work. See the
discussion in Stevens, Doing God’s Business, p.
24; and Stephen Bretsen, ―The Creation, the
Kingdom of God, and a Theory of the Faithful
Corporation,‖ Christian Scholar’s Review 38
(2008): 115-54, 138-39. See also John Paul II,
Laborem Exercens, §§13, 113. 10
Of course, this observation has immediate ap-
plication to business. As I will discuss in much
greater detail in Chap. 2, many of the conse-
quences of Adam and Eve‘s unwillingness to
accept their limited nature show up in broken
aspects of business. Moreover, the institution of
business itself is often unwilling to accept a li-
mited role and is tempted instead to exalt itself to
God-like status, a consequence that I take up in
greater detail in Chap. 6. 11
― ‗Rejoicing,‘ ‗delighting,‘ and even, as some
translations have it, ‗playing‘ in creation charac-
terize God‘s involvement in the cosmos‖ (Loren
Wilkinson, ―Christ as Creator and Redeemer,‖ in
The Environment and the Christian: What Does
the New Testament Say About the Environment?
ed. Calvin B. DeWitt [Grand Rapids: Baker,
1991], p. 35, commenting on Proverbs 8:27-31). 12
―So we receive our blessings not from them
[other human creatures], but from God, through
them. Creatures are only the hands, channels, and
means through which God bestows all blessings‖
(Martin Luther, explanation of the First Com-
mandment, ―Large Catechism‖ [1529], in The
Book of Concord, ed. Theodore Tappert [Phila-
delphia: Fortress, 1959], p. 368). Luther saw a
very close tie between human work and the work
of God. ―God Himself will milk the cow through
him whose calling it is‖ (quoted in Gordon Preece,
―Work,‖ in The Complete Book of Everyday
Christianity, ed. Robert Banks and R. Paul Ste-
vens [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press,
1997], p. 1126).
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Why Business Matters to God
13―Between 1950 and 2000, grain land produc-
tivity climbed by 160 percent while the area
planted in grain expanded only 14 percent. This
extraordinary rise in productivity, combined with
the modest expansion of cultivated area, enabled
farmers to triple the grain harvest over the last
half-century. At the same time, the growing de-
mand for animal protein was being satisfied
largely by a quintupling of the world fish catch to
95 million tons and a doubling of world beef and
mutton production, largely from rangelands.
These gains not only supported a growth in pop-
ulation from 2.5 billion to 6.1 billion, they also
raised food consumption per person, shrinking the
share who were hungry‖ (Lester R. Brown, Plan
B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civili-
zation in Trouble [New York: W. W. Norton,
2003], p. 131. 14
Isaiah 65:21-22 seems to suggest that work will
continue even in the new heavens and the new
earth. 15
The notion of the common good has a rich her-
itage. It shows up in the writings of philosophers
down through the ages. It is also one of the central
features of Christian, and particularly Catholic,
social teaching. In a very simplistic fashion,
pursuit of the common good can be understood as
making decisions and taking actions that are
beneficial to the community as a whole. But as I
use the concept in this book I intend a slightly
more nuanced understanding. The Catholic reli-
gious tradition defines the common good as ―the
sum of those conditions of social life which allow
social groups and their individual members rela-
tively thorough and ready access to their own
fulfillment‖ (emphasis added). This definition
makes clear that it has both an individual and
communal element. ―Historically, a common
good is considered to be a human perfection or
fulfillment achievable by a community, such that
the community‘s members all share it, both as a
community and singly, in their persons. A com-
mon good then, is neither a mere amalgam of
private and particular goods nor is it the good of
the whole that disregards the good of its members‖
(Helen Alford and Michael Naughton, Managing
as If Faith Mattered [Notre Dame, Ind.: Notre
Dame Press, 2001], p. 41, emphasis added). Ac-
cording to the catechism of the Catholic Church,
the common good concerns the life of all. It con-
sists of three essential elements. First, it respects
the fundamental and inalienable rights of the
human person. Specifically, it respects and fosters
individual human development. Second, it re-
quires the social well-being and development of
the community as a whole. And finally, it requires
the peace and stability needed in order to allow
for this personal and collective development.
Simply put, the common good allows for the
flourishing of the community and the individuals
who make up that community. 16
Here I am siding with Nicholas Wolterstorff in
his critique of a neo-Calvinists‘ position that
holds that there are certain abiding ―types‖ of
social formation—that is that certain institutions
are divinely endowed with certain functions in an
immutable ontological sense. Wolterstorff argues
that ―we must ask how the functions performed
are best parceled out among the institutions of
society: which should be assigned to different
institutions, and which to the same. When we
look at the various societies to be found in the
course of history, we find certain basic functions
regularly performed, but we find them parceled
out among institutions in all sorts of different
ways. Functions that we assign to one institution
may in other societies be assigned to different
ones. . . . Is our assignment a good one for us?
That must be our question‖ (Nicholas Wolters-
torff, Until Justice and Peace Embrace [Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983], pp. 62-63). 17
―Their view of work is that it has both intrinsic
and extrinsic meaning and purpose. That is, the
particular work someone does, in and of its own
right, is of theological value. Work has the larger
role of serving greater societal purposes and
needs. Discovering that work can be a calling, and
finding meaning and purpose in work are often
significant motivators that draw businesspeople
to the [Faith at Work] movement‖ (David Miller,
God at Work [New York: Oxford University
Press, 2007], p. 135). 18
From time to time I am challenged to consider a
third purpose for business: specifically, that a
business exists to ―nurture relationships,‖ to
―foster community‖ or words to that effect. And I
am almost persuaded. In our twenty-first-century
global economy, business does indeed play a
central role in community-building. Many em-
ployees spend the majority of their waking hours
on the job, so their opportunities for nurturing
relationships outside of work are limited. More-
over, much of the work that business does de-
pends on individuals working in teams rather than
alone. And technology is increasingly enabling
teams to gather in virtual spaces so that online
relationships can be cultivated in the work place
even between individuals who are geographically
dispersed. Consistent with the observations
drawn from the Genesis creation account I can
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 38
Why Business Matters to God
also readily affirm that the tasks to be undertaken
by business must be grounded in community,
flow out of community and be designed for the
community‘s common good. Having said this,
however, I am ultimately not convinced. If I were
asked by a Christian entrepreneur to explain why
he should start a new business, it seems sensible
and straightforward to explain to him that he
should pursue his business because he has a
product that can help the world or because he can
employ individuals looking for life-giving work.
These purposes fit the character of business ac-
tivity. Making products and hiring workers are
aspects of a business‘s DNA. I would also have
no problem telling him that his work must in all
cases be respectful of relationships and that he
should nurture a healthy work community. But
this is different than telling him that he should
start a business for the purpose of nurturing rela-
tionships or fostering community. Making com-
munity-building a first-order purpose of every
business stretches the institution of business too
far from its fundamental character. This does not
mean that healthy work communities are unim-
portant. They are critical to healthy businesses.
They are just not its reason for being; they don‘t
rise to the level of a foundational purpose. 19
Al Erisman, long-time head of research and
development in technology and mathematics for
the Boeing Company, has argued that while the
promise is seductive, achieving this certainty is
often not even mathematically possible: ―The
second thing we learn from optimization is that
these problems are very difficult. No one really
knows how to truly solve most nonlinear,
time-dependent mathematical optimization
problems (which is the nature of the problem as
formulated). So we do in practice what any good
mathematician would do—we approximate the
problem by something we can solve. In practice,
what this means is that while it is very difficult to
maximize shareholder value subject to constraints
over the long term, we can likely be more effec-
tive in doing this over the short term. The pres-
sures from Wall Street for short-term results only
support the solution to this problem rather than
the stated problem. It is generally not the case that
a sequence of best solutions for the short term will
together lead to the best solution in the long term.
Anyone hiking in the mountains knows that to get
to the peak you sometimes have to move lower
before climbing higher. Similarly, short-term
thinking in business may look good at the mo-
ment, but it often has very significant longer-term
issues‖ (Al Erisman, ―The New Capitalism?‖
Ethix 66 [2009]: 4-5). 20
Setting my proposed Genesis-stewardship
model against the shareholder-maximization
model presents the most dramatic contrast. Of
course, the shareholder-maximization model is
not the only existing option for describing the
duty of a corporate manager (and the corres-
ponding purpose of the firm). Since the publica-
tion of R. Edward Freeman‘s seminal work
Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach
(Boston: Pitman, 1984) a competing approach to
understanding management‘s responsibilities has
been advanced under the heading of ―stakeholder
theory.‖ There have been almost as many defini-
tions of this theory as there have been articles
written about it, but in general terms this theory
assumes that management owes duties not just to
shareholders but to other constituent groups that
have a stake in the company, typically including
at least employees, customers and suppliers.
While this is an overly simplistic statement, in
general this theoretical approach calls on man-
agement to make decisions in the interests of all
stakeholders and to balance competing interests
(in one fashion or another). As such this theory
would certainly allow for a consideration of the
business purposes that I am advocating, although
this theory is not without its own theological
shortcomings (see Alford and Naughton, Man-
aging as If Faith Mattered, pp. 55-60).
There is no doubt that the stakeholder
theory has gained in acceptance since it was first
introduced, although the extent of its adoption in
practice is difficult to assess for several reasons.
First, management focused simply on increasing
shareholder wealth may nonetheless adopt poli-
cies and make pronouncements that outwardly
appear to be focused on other constituencies. For
example, a company might adopt em-
ployee-friendly strategies ostensibly to respond to
legitimate employee desires but actually do so
because it desires to reduce turnover, lower costs
and enhance profits. Conversely, management
actually operating under a stakeholder framework
may nonetheless choose to justify its actions as a
means of maximizing shareholder wealth. Man-
agement might engage in this obfuscation be-
cause claiming benefits for shareholders would
allow management to invoke the ―business
judgment‖ rule and reduce the chance that it
might be the subject of lawsuits alleging viola-
tions of its fiduciary duties. Complicating matters
further, most articles written about stakeholder
theory are theoretical rather than empirical in
nature and are tipped heavily (and disproportio-
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 39
Why Business Matters to God
nately) in the direction of large public companies
(André O. Laplume, Karan Sonpar and Reginald
A. Litz, ―Stakeholder Theory: Reviewing a
Theory That Moves Us,‖ Journal of Management
34 [2008]: 1152-89, 1160, 1172). In short, it is
simply hard to tell how much ground the stake-
holder theory has actually gained on the share-
holder maximizing model. 21
See, e.g., Milton Friedman, ―The Social Re-
sponsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,‖
New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970,
pp. 122-26.
22Chapter 8 contains an in-depth discussion of the
importance and role of profit in a company oper-
ating under the Genesis model of business pur-
pose which I advocate for in this Chapter. 23
Charles Handy, ―What‘s a Business For?‖
Harvard Business Review 80, no. 12 (2002): 51. 24
Michael Novak, Business as a Calling (New
York: Free Press, 1996), p. 120. 25
Telephone interview with Bonnie Wurzbacher
reported on Worldview Matters, October 9, 2009
<http://biblicalworldviewmatters.blogspot.com/s
earch/label/Bonnie%20Wurzbacher>.
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 40
Life Balance in Vortex of Changes
Wallace Henley is the author
and collaborator of over 20
books, including his latest
Globequake: Living in the Un-
shakeable Kingdom While the
World Falls Apart (Thomas
Nelson, 2012). Journalist, leadership consul-
tant, and former White House aide, Henley is
the founder of Headwaters Leadership Institute
and Associate Pastor of Houston’s 57,000
member Second Baptist Church. He regularly
blogs at www.ChristianPost.com
he velocity, scope, and magnitude
of change in the contemporary
world threaten the equilibrium of
individuals and the institutions of their
engagement, including church, family,
education, government, business -
workplace.
Change is the “new normal,” as
Peter Drucker noted at the beginning of
the 21st century, when he wrote,
"Everybody has accepted by now
that change is unavoidable. But
that still implies that change is like
death and taxes — it should be
postponed as long as possible and
no change would be vastly pre-
ferable. But in a period of
upheaval, such as the one we are
living in, change is the norm."1
Velocity is the speed by which the
information that ignites change rushes at
people in the contemporary world.2 The
accumulation of information is the fastest
increasing quantity in the world.3 Re-
searchers at the University of Califor-
nia—Berkeley, examined the total pro-
duction of all information channels in the
world for two different years, 2000 and
2003.4 In 2000, the total production of
new information in a 12-month period
amounted to 37,000 times the informa-
tion housed in the Library of Congress.
By 2003, the accumulation of informa-
tion was growing by 66 percent per year.
The total amount of scientific knowledge
has been doubling every 15 years since
1900.
Information alters existing realities,
and also creates new phenomena. The
velocity of information therefore accele-
rates change. The Industrial Age shows
there are certain periods of mega leaps,
when technologies, systems, and
processes morph seemingly overnight
into radically new forms. An 18th
century
T
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 41
Life Balance in Vortex of Changes
balloon and the Wright Brothers’ flying
machine shared the goal of enabling
humans to fly, but the airplane was a leap
into a new category.
Information is a primary catalyst of
change. No previous historic period has
experienced the present velocity of the
increase of information; therefore, the
contemporary period is unique—up to
this point of history. This is why change
is the new normal.
The scope of upheaval is worldwide.
Old values are displaced in the quest for
new globally “shared” values. Individu-
als find the traditional belief systems that
constituted the foundations of their lives
shattered by the often novel alterations of
the spiritual, ethical, and social land-
scapes. Churches that have defined and
sustained core values and worldview are
shaken by the contemporary transitions.
The vision of families who pass revered
truths across generations has been buried
in the rubble of a world in turbulence.
Educational philosophies and sys-
tems seem to have been blinded in the
dust of upheaval, and lost their way. The
principles that have secured governments
have been shattered. Businesses and the
workplace have rocked with the turmoil.
Employees are struck with new tensions
including concerns over job security and
career longevity, as well as balancing the
demands of their total lives with the need
to cling to their employment.
The velocity and scope of change
impact people in at least three ways. First
is the increasing sense of insecurity.
Many people are haunted by vague, un-
identifiable anxiety, manufactured within
their own turbulent souls. Both the real
and imagined threats of the turbulence
around us drive us deeply into ourselves
in the effort to fend off the gremlins of
fear and anxiety. The outcome is what we
experience presently: self-absorption
resulting in what Harvard sociologist
Pitirim Sorokin called the “sensate” stage
of a culture, when feelings and emotions
govern.5 The more we view the world
through the lens of our own emotions, the
greater loom the threats to our security.
If we live in a state of insecurity long
enough, after a while we drift into the
second phenomenon threatening life
balance, insanity. This problem is at ep-
idemic proportions, concluded E. Fuller
Torrey and Judy Miller in their 2002
book, The Invisible Plague.6 From 1955
into the 21st century, many medications
had become available, but the number of
people diagnosed with mental illness had
increased six-fold!7
Insanity is “reason used without root,
or reason in the void,” wrote G.K. Ches-
terton.8 “The man who begins to think
without the proper first principles goes
mad; he begins to think at the wrong
end.” Cultural, societal, and national in-
sanity occurs when people destroy their
roots and forget their first principles. The
velocity and scope of change in our time
tears out the root-system and brings down
Change
Insecurity
Insanity
Instability
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 42
Life Balance in Vortex of Changes
the edifice of first principles. That’s why
whole societies as well as individuals
lose their balance, lapse into insanity and
lose their stability.
Instability is the third impact of con-
temporary upheaval threatening the bal-
ance of the human psyche. The devas-
tating destabilization of global redefini-
tion is its impact on the foundations on
which all strength and order rest. Ches-
terton was reflecting the theme asserted
in Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom, and yet the tremors
of the present age seek to destabilize the
very idea of God. This leads to decon-
struction of the concept of humans hav-
ing inherent dignity because of being
made in God’s image. What follows is
the loss of the confidence that arises from
belief in a transcendent God to whom all
are accountable, but also the God who is
immanent in space and time, and engaged
with His image-bearers and their world.
How, then, does one maintain balance
midst the upheaval? The question is es-
pecially pertinent as it relates to business
and the workplace. According to the
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the average American spends 16.4 hours
of every 24 working or sleeping.9 The
rest of the available hours must be allot-
ted to many other tasks—caring for oth-
ers, household activities, leisure and
sports, eating and drinking. Imbalance
arises as the demands of the urgent dis-
place the essentials for equilibrium in the
individual’s life.
We can group these essentials into
three categories:
1. the need for the “otherness” of tran-
scendence;
2. the need for linking transcendence on
the immanent scale of the self;
3. the need for a clear philosophy of
time and its use.
Understood and applied properly these
three elements comprise a proverbial
“three-legged stool” on which one can
rest in confidence because of its balance
and stability.
One of the distortions of contempo-
rary culture is blurring the boundaries
between the transcendent and the imma-
nent. In an age of self-absorption people
increasingly worship on the horizontal
level. They lose the sense of a God who is
wholly other, external to themselves and
their worlds. Such an attitude cuts off two
legs from the stool, which becomes in-
capable of offering balance and rest.
“If the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?” asks the
Psalmist, rhetorically (Psalm 11:3
(NASB)). His thought is drawn imme-
diately to transcendence, and the writer
answers his own question through
awareness and focus on the Most High
God: “The LORD is in His holy temple;
the LORD’S throne is in heaven…”
(Psalm 11:4). God’s throne symbolizes
His serene steadiness, His immovable
authority, and the potential for all under
the rule and protection of that throne to
enter its peace, even midst thundering
upheaval. Balance begins by resting
oneself on the immutability of God.
This requires linking transcendent
reality with immanent experience. Thus
the Psalmist also writes,
My soul waits in silence for God
only;
From Him is my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be greatly
shaken.
(Psalm 62:1-2)
One of the characteristics of our time
is an aversion to waiting and silence,
especially in the West. Many are under
compulsion to push ahead in lines, to
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 43
Life Balance in Vortex of Changes
dash under changing traffic lights, to
speed toward destinations. We have been
conditioned to be uncomfortable with
silence in a culture that has gone from
static-charged radio music to elevator
music, to blaring television in doctor’s
and dentist’s waiting rooms, to boom
boxes, I-Pods, and scores of other media
delivering a constancy of noise.
Our penchant for noise has come at a
great cost. It has robbed us of the beauty
of silence in which we can hear the “still,
small voice” of God. The disappearance
of silence has taken away the connection
on the immanent scale of the soul with
the transcendent. The loss of that con-
nection impairs our balance, and its re-
covery is essential for the restoration of
our personal equilibrium.
This requires an understanding of the
nature of time and managing it effec-
tively. The Greek New Testament
presents two levels of time:
Chronos expresses time on the
existential plane. It is the ticking
of the clock, the passing of the
calendar. It is wholly linear, with
a point of beginning and termina-
tion. It is a metric, enabling us to
measure the segments of our days
and lifetimes.
Kairos is the “opportune time,”
the content of chronos. If linear
chronos is the track, then kairos is
the train, moving along the track
on his spinning wheels. There-
fore, kairos has a cyclical motion.
The biblical view of time there-
fore synthesizes Western linearity
with Oriental cyclical movement.
Kairos are opportune moments that unveil the
eternal, disclosing God’s ultimate purposes
within the long sweep of time
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 44
Life Balance in Vortex of Changes
Life balance requires us to engage in a rhythm that allows for inward evaluation, and outward and upward focus
Life-balance requires that one get
time in balance. There must be opportu-
nity along the linear sequence for the
recognition of the presence and impact of
the kairotic. One must reflect and con-
sider the events and circumstances trav-
eling along the “tracks” and their deeper
meanings, significance, lessons, and
principles. This
calls for a rhythm
of time sequencing
that allows for
regular meditation,
inward evaluation,
and outward and
upward focus.
Such balance
comes as we con-
template our own
nature as God’s
image-bearers. He
is triune—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—and
we are triune—spirit, soul, body. Paul
prays that “the God of peace Himself
sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit
and soul and body be preserved com-
plete, without blame at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians
5:23)
The body is that dimension of our
being created for interaction with the
external world, on the horizontal plane.
The soul—the psuche, from which we get
“psyche” and its family of words—is the
facet of our whole person capable of in-
trospection and self-awareness. Our spirit
is made for interaction with transcendent
Being. We are “preserved complete”
when there is a balance in our personal
lives between spirit, soul, and body. Im-
balance occurs when we lop off “legs”
from the “stool” and try to stand on the
“body” alone, or cast all our weight on
the “soul,” or fail to link the “spirit” with
the other parts of our being.
And we lose our equilibrium when
we neglect the wholeness of time, ex-
pressed in the chronos-kairos linkage. It
is the recognition of and participation in
the rhythm of time that can bring our
whole being into balance. “Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” says the
Commandment. That is, there must be
specific regularity in
the linear flow of our
routines when we
pause, and engage
with God, the tran-
scendent One. We
must thrust our souls
outward from the
self and the hori-
zontal, and open
ourselves to the
kairos of God that
gives us meaning
and purpose.
Ben Young says he was impacted by
insights from Lauren Winner, an Ortho-
dox Jew who became an evangelical
Christian. She said that what she missed
from her routine as a practicing Jew was
the Sabbath observance, “a cessation
from the rhythm of work and world, a
time wholly set apart, and, perhaps above
all, a sense that the point of Shabbat, the
orientation of Shabbat, is toward God.”
Young agrees. Modern humanity is
missing something through its loss of the
Sabbath concept, and “we are missing it
because we don’t understand what we
have lost.”10
The promise attached to the Sabbath
Command is that we will find “rest”
precisely because of the balance, and
resulting peace and confidence that
comes from living in the wholeness for
which God designed us. Jesus Christ
freed us from a rigid conformity to the
Law as the means of salvation, but He did
not set aside the overarching principles
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 45
Life Balance in Vortex of Changes
God’s “way” provides for healthy, ba-
lanced living.
Balancing the demands of life and
work necessitates, as Chesterton said,
beginning with “first principles,” and that
means recognizing how we are made and
how we relate to the time God has given
us.
Notes
1 Peter Drucker, Management Challenges for the
21st Century, New York: Harper Business, 1999.
2Material used here relating to velocity, scope,
and magnitude is drawn from the author’s book:
Wallace Henley, Globequake: Living in the Un-
shakeable Kingdom while the world falls apart,
Nashville: Thomas Nelson, July, 2012.
3 “The Speed of Information,” The Technium,
2006. Retrieved from: http://www.kk.org/
thetechnium/archives/2006/02/
the_speed_of_in.php. 4 Ibid.
5 Pitirim Sorokin, Social and Cultural Dynamics,
Transaction Publishers, 1985, 622-623. 6 E. Torrey Fuller and Judy Miller, The Invisible
Plague, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press, 2002. 7 “Anatomy of an Epidemic,” Robert Whitaker,
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol.
7, Number 1, Spring, 2005. 8 G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy. Published origi-
nally in 1908, with numerous subsequent edi-
tions. 9 “Time use on an average workday for employed
persons ages 25 to 54 with children.” Retrieved
from http://www.bls.gov/tus/charts. 10
Ben Young & Dr. Samuel Adams, Out of
Control: Finding Peace for Physically Exhausted
and Spiritually Strung Out, Nashville: Nelson
Books/Thomas Nelson, 2006, 65.
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 46
Transferrable Skills
Dru Stevenson is professor of
law and Helen and Harry
Hutchins Research Professor
at the South Texas College of
Law in Houston, Texas. A graduate of Wheaton College (B.A., Biblical
Studies), the University of Connecticut (J.D.),
and Yale University (LL.M.), he served in
full-time ministry before becoming an Assis-
tant Attorney General for the State of Con-
necticut. His writings cover criminal law to
civil procedure, with an emphasis on the in-
tersection of law with economics and linguis-
tic theory.
uch of the discussion of “Chris-
tianity in Business” focuses,
quite naturally, on how a Chris-
tian businessperson’s faith can influence
one’s secular work – in the way we treat
others, the ways we conceive and execute
our business mission, and the way we
make our faith known to others. Less
attention goes to the intricate relationship
between the successful businessperson’s
secular work and involvement in spiritual
activities and events, like church. Our
secular enterprise is part of who we are,
part of the person God loves, redeems,
sanctifies, and uses to do His work. Not
only should our faith impact our work life,
but our work identity can positively im-
pact our spiritual pursuits.
Transferrable Skills and the Body of
Christ
Most evangelical Christians in business
are members of a church. For many,
unfortunately, their involvement stops
there – successful people are usually busy
people, and often feel too busy to be
“involved” in their church. Even those
who are devout enough to attend, give,
and appreciate the services often leave
the work of organizing and leading to the
church staff and leadership.
This essay presents a dual challenge
to Christian businesspersons and to the
leadership of their churches, as both have
M
How believers’ pro-
fessional skills and
knowledge can be
used to build up the
church and their own
spiritual lives.
By Dru Stevenson
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 47
Transferrable Skills
a role to play in helping professionals in
the congregation better integrate their
spiritual and secular lives. For the Chris-
tian in business, it may require a greater
commitment of time – and perhaps a
more proactive approach to one’s faith –
in order to achieve the goal described
below. For the leaders, there may be a
need to break from the norm and take an
innovative approach to utilizing the skills
and talents of the
believers in their
flocks.
Yet the New
Testament
presents a very
different model
for the church.
All the members
integrate and
synergize as
“living stones”
comprising a
“spiritual house”
(1 Peter 2:5
(NIV)). Each bu-
sinessperson in a
congregation
brings a unique
set of expe-
riences, talents,
perspectives, and skills related to their
secular employment outside of church.
Many of these traits and abilities are
transferrable skills that are incredibly
useful in furthering the work of the min-
istry.
Transferrable skills are a common
topic in the secular workforce. Workers
and prospective employers are very
aware that skills, knowledge, and expe-
rience acquired in one job can be useful
in the next job, even in another industry.
Experience as a delivery driver can make
one a better dispatcher; experience in
procurements can make a salesperson or
marketer more effective, and vice-versa.
The best managers often are those who
know how to do the jobs of the workers
they supervise.
The same is true when we enter a
church. Churches and religious organi-
zations desperately need input from
people who understand accounting, or
who are experienced builders, or who
grasp insurance concepts, or who under-
stand liability and
risk management.
Every skill, ability,
or talent of a
member is part of
the intangible
wealth of a church,
just as the aggre-
gate skills, know-
ledge, and expe-
rience of em-
ployees are part of
the assets or
wealth of a corpo-
ration.
Pastors and
ministry staff often
have little training
in finance, insur-
ance, IT, risk
management, or
legal issues. They rely on advice for these
matters either from minimally educated
support staff, or from expensive outside
consultants and contractors (who know
they are dealing with unsophisticated
clients). Overlooked are the people in the
pews who have relevant knowledge or
skills.
The modern model of the church
tends to ignore this fact, instead imposing
an unhealthy dichotomy between “God’s
work” and secular work. This dualistic
thinking results in leaders who view
members as clients/customers – people
who come to receive what the church
“Instead of thinking of
church members as a
walking coupon for profes-
sional services, church
leaders should include
them in the affairs and de-
cisions in the church so
that each individual can
positively influence the in-
stitutional culture and
practices.”
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 48
Transferrable Skills
offers, and who tithe in exchange for
what they receive.
Worse, the instances where ministers
approach professionals in the congrega-
tion for help often border on inappro-
priateness, such as trying to squeeze free
legal advice from a lawyer in the con-
gregation, either for the church’s litiga-
tion or for another member’s legal prob-
lems, or imposing on a mechanic in the
congregation to work on the pastors’
son’s car. For free.
Instead of thinking of church mem-
bers as a walking coupon for professional
services, church leaders should include
them in the affairs and decisions in the
church so that each individual can posi-
tively influence the institutional culture
and practices. Unfortunately, church
leaders may not grasp the concept of
transferrable skills. They expect the
lawyer-member to be useful when there
is a legal problem, but are unaware that
lawyers usually have a sophisticated un-
derstanding of insurance concepts, nego-
tiation practices, mediating disputes, or
that lawyers are highly trained in ex-
temporaneous public speaking and for-
mal writing.
Ministers may not fully understand
that insurance agents in their church
know a lot about social and family net-
works, how people make major decisions,
the best time of day to contact people,
and what types of consequences result
from making exceptions to established
policies – all of which are very important
for the tasks that churches and ministries
undertake. Instead, they naively hope that
a computer network specialist will be
able to fix the bugs in the PowerPoint
presentations used on Sunday – because
the member “works with computers.”
Overlooked is the network specialist’s
unique ability to plan and schedule in
advance for staggered upgrades,
phased-in purchases, and ever-changing
norms about privacy, accessibility, and
security; again, issues that come up in
seemingly unrelated domains of ministry
work.
Change must come from the ground
up. It is incumbent on the businessperson
in the pew, therefore, to step forward, to
take initiative, to sacrifice the time it
takes to get involved. A major asset of
religious organizations currently goes
unused, essentially dormant.
As mentioned in the introduction to
this essay, the challenge here is twofold.
Church leaders may need to change the
way they think about the businesspersons
and professionals who attend their
churches, to foster better integration of
their members’ lives and skills. At the
same time, members will often need to be
proactive in offering their services and
finding ways to serve. It could revolu-
tionize many ministries, churches, and
denominations if we could release the
treasure-trove of knowledge capital
among the membership.
These traits must operate in tandem
with the member’s spirituality. Many
intangible spiritual characteristics affect
how “effective and productive” we are in
our faith activities (2 Peter 1:8): spiritual
gifts, anointing, Christian charac-
ter/virtue, prayer life, depth of faith, and
knowledge of the Bible are all factors that
contribute to our spiritual fruitfulness.
Yet most Christians hear plenty of
teaching on these points, without any
word about how to integrate the rest of
our personality and identity with our spi-
rituality. Many believers simply dicho-
tomize in their minds, and assume that
nothing from their life outside of church
is relevant once they enter the sanctuary.
Peter and Paul provide examples of
this integration of life within the com-
munity of Christ, and the “outside” world.
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 49
Transferrable Skills
Peter was, of course, a fisherman –
probably with little formal education –
before he found himself thrust into the
top leadership of the early church. Most
believers have heard the oft-repeated idea
that Peter illustrates God’s sense of irony,
in that Jesus picked seemingly unquali-
fied (unsophisticated) people to groom as
Apostles. Acts 4:13 recounts the religious
leaders of the day making a similar ob-
servation about them. Many believers
today see Peter as an illustration of the
promise, “God’s power is made perfect in
weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
The reality is more complicated. We
glean from the gospel narratives glimpses
of Peter’s work life. He and his brother
Andrew were not anglers – they caught
tilapia and other lake fish in nets cast
from the side of small boats. It was in-
credibly uneven work, with long fru-
strating periods of catching nothing,
punctuated by large catches of hundreds
of fish at once. The unpredictable large
catches required Peter and his three
partners to spring into action quickly, to
coordinate their motions, to exert full
physical strength in a frenzy, then to get
the fish ashore and to market while still
fresh. Along the way, they had to sort the
fish. During lulls, they attended to the
tedious work of mending the nets. This
was a lifestyle that spanned decades. Ga-
lilean fishers grew accustomed to spurts
and lulls in activity, doing well in emer-
gency/crisis situations (a full net) and
making effective use of the downtime to
prepare for the next round of catching,
hauling, and sorting fish. Month after
month, year after year.
Now consider the first ten years of the
church in Jerusalem. In one day, it ex-
ploded from 120 members huddled in an
all-night prayer meeting to 3,000 new
adherents (see Acts 2:38-47). Then there
seems to have been a respite, then another
surge that brings the number to 5,000
(Acts 4:4). There was no professional
staff, no church facilities, no Christian
curriculum for small groups or Sunday
School. Somehow, the Apostles managed
to sort people overnight into small, ma-
nageable meetings in homes, organize
large public teaching events for full au-
diences, arrange for meals to be provided
to (apparently dozens of) widows, and
accommodate hundreds of people re-
questing prayer for their infirmities and
other personal problems. Then there
would be a lull, then another round of
crisis mode. Retention of new converts
seems to have been much higher than we
see today.
Assuming that Jesus foresaw this
rollercoaster phase of the early church,
his selection of the launch team now
seems strategic instead of ironic. The first
church leaders had to be able to respond
rapidly, had to stay focused on not losing
anyone from the latest “catch,” had to
work together well, and had to make ef-
fective use of downtime between the
waves of influx. The religious culture of
first-century Jerusalem would instead
have picked leaders based on seniority,
sagacity, family name, and patronage.
Yet the apostles succeeded at rap-
id-response ministry work, crowd man-
agement, and retention. They success-
fully managed a mega church without
buildings, staff, sound systems, media, or
spreadsheets. This gives deeper meaning
to Jesus’ prediction to Peter, Andrew,
James, and John that He could turn them
into “fishers of men.” Lake fishers were
perfect for the job in Jerusalem, it turned
out.
Phase Two of the early church was
the shift from being an obscure localized
phenomenon to being an international
organization. This meant jumping a cul-
tural barrier – from Aramaic-speaking
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 50
Transferrable Skills
Jewish converts to Greek-speaking pa-
gans throughout the Roman Empire.
Someone would need to cover huge dis-
tances, pitch the message to polytheistic
Gentiles (instead of Jews already ex-
pecting a Messiah), and organize cells
that would be self-replicating and
self-sustaining. The task fell to Saul
(Paul), an ultra-orthodox Rabbi who had
led a vigilante effort against the first
Christians in and around Jerusalem. This
choice seems as ironic as Peter running
things in Jerusalem: a super-strict rabbi is
going to remove the Jewishness from the
faith enough to have pagans embrace it.
Again, there was a strategic advantage
beneath the apparent irony.
Paul, though tutored for years under
premier rabbis in Jerusalem, had been
born in a Roman colonial city called
Tarsus (in modern Turkey). Anyone born
there had Roman citizenship – as if they
had been born in the city of Rome itself –
analogous to American citizenship con-
ferred on babies born on U.S. military
bases overseas. Paul was probably the
only rabbi in Jerusalem who could travel
freely throughout the Roman Empire
with special legal rights and protections.
Childhood in Tarsus would have made
Paul fluent in Greek and some local di-
alects. Paul had first-hand experience in
Jewish synagogues functioning far from
the homeland, as branches in remote lo-
cations. His reputation as a stickler for
kosher rules and traditions gave him
gravitas when insisting that those rules
and rituals were unnecessary for Gentile
converts. He was single, which made
constant travel much more feasible. Fi-
nally, Paul had a purely secular skill –
tent-making – that enabled him to support
himself in any urban center he visited
while he planted a church there; he did
not need to depend on the members of the
new church for his livelihood. These
traits turned out to be incredibly helpful.
Ending the Compartmentalization of
Our Spiritual Lives
Unfortunately, many believers tend to
separate their spiritual lives from their
secular routines. Helping believers bring
their faith into their work is essential in
breaking down this mental compartmen-
talization – we must be actively Christian
everywhere we go, in everything we do.
Many other writers have made this point.
Less common, however, is the ob-
servation that bringing our secular lives
into our spiritual activities also breaks
down the unhealthy compartmentaliza-
tion. Our “secular” abilities and talents
are resources within the local and global
church. Learning to deploy our skills and
abilities in faith-based endeavors makes
it easier for us to “walk in the Spirit” even
when we are using those skills at our
workplace. Believers become integrated
individuals who see God permeating
every area of their lives, rather than
churchgoers who have a spiritual side and
a worldly side.
The concept of transferrable skills
may prompt some Christian business-
persons to rethink the question of where
to attend church. We can think strategi-
cally about advancing God’s purposes.
Many factors weigh into the decision
about which local church to join: geo-
graphic proximity, doctrinal beliefs,
worship style, preaching quality, etc.
These are valid considerations, but an
additional dimension merits discussion.
Conclusion
It is wonderful to see so many Christians
today thinking about how to bring their
faith into their work. They are learning to
live out their Christianity in practical
ways by treating coworkers honorably,
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 51
Transferrable Skills
being exemplary in integrity and trans-
parency, and trying to be more altruistic,
“doing good while doing well.”
The other side of the equation, how-
ever, is to bring more of our work into our
faith activities. Instead of dichotomizing
our spiritual and secular pursuits, we
should recognize that God sees us as an
integrated person, a person whose career
gives us special insights into Christian
faith, practice, and outreach. We all ac-
quire transferrable skills in our jobs, and
these are useful not only for our future
career, but for our efforts to serve God
and spread His Word as well.
In John 17:6, as Jesus prays in the
Garden of Gethsemane, he thanks the
Father for his disciples:
I have revealed you to those
whom you gave me out of the
world. They were yours; you gave
them to me and they have obeyed
your word.
There is a deep mystery contained in
these words – disciples are a gift that the
Father gives to his Son. Salvation as
God’s free gift to us should be perfectly
familiar to believers; but perhapswe need
to add to that belief the idea that each of
us is a gift from the Father to Jesus, in-
tended to be an asset to his work. In verse
4, Jesus says that the Father entrusted the
Son with a mission, a “work to do” in this
world – the project of salvation. Toward
this end, the Father gives the Son a gift,
dedicated followers who will serve him
and further the work.
Suppose that as an expression of the
perfect, eternal love between the Father
and the Son, the Father gave His Son a
gift. We would assume that such a gift
would be wonderful, eternally valuable,
and quite significant. That gift was you
and me.
It may be appropriate to think of
ourselves as helpless, and even passive,
when we contemplate the forgiveness we
receive for our sins. Yet in terms of the
“other” gift involved in our salvation –
the gift from the Father to the Son – we
are the handpicked members of his dream
team, a task force carefully selected to
bring the work of Jesus toward the ful-
fillment of its goals and objectives.
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 52
Resilience
Ernest P. Liang is Director of the Center for Christianity in Business and Associate Professor of Finance at
Houston Baptist University. Prior to his academic career, he spent 25 years as a finance executive in firms
ranging from technology start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, as chief economist of an economic consultancy,
and as a principal of an advisory for middle market transactions and executive recruitment. Trained as an
economist but practiced as a finance professional, he holds a Ph.D. and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
“In the day of prosperity be happy, but in
the day of adversity consider — God has
made the one as well as the other, so that
man will not discover anything that will
be after him.” - Ecclesiastes 7:14 (NASB)
dversity is a fact of life. While
occasional mishaps in the course
of life or business are usually
well tolerated by the afflicted, severe and
unpredicted perturbations could threaten
the very sustainability of the productive
functioning of organizations or individu-
als (Christians included) on otherwise
smooth paths of success.
Given the random nature of severe
disturbances, preparedness is often inef-
fective and costly to implement. Rather
the ability to return expeditiously to a
functioning state of equilibrium is
strongly related to the notion of balance
or stability. Individuals exhibiting bal-
ance, physically, psychologically, and
spiritually, define stable families,
organizations, and communities in the
face of shock and turbulence. They build
resilient entities.1
Resilience is a concept that has re-
ceived much attention from researchers
in a wide variety of disciplines since the
turn of the new millennium. At the indi-
vidual level, the concept refers to the
human capacity to deal with and over-
come the adversities of life.2 A broader
interpretation that applies to entire insti-
tutions and organization systems is of-
fered by the U.S. Department of Ho-
meland Security, which defines resilience
as “the ability of systems, infrastructures,
government, business and citizenry to
resist, absorb, recover from, or adapt to
an adverse occurrence ... of national sig-
nificance.”3
The ability to deal with and triumph
over unexpected disturbances in life is
obviously important in maintaining the
mental and physical health of anyone
who experiences life’s inevitable adver-
sities. Similarly an organization’s or a
corporate entity’s ability to adjust and
thrive in the face of serious challenges
A
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 53
Resilience
defines its financial health or survivabil-
ity in the competitive marketplace. In
addition, since actions and interactions
among organizational members underpin
the entity’s collective capacity for effec-
tive response, the resilience of an organ-
ization or a firm is characterized by that
of its individual members.
The surge in interest in the concept
of resilience has been a response to a
cascade of events that are by nature rare,
unpredictable, yet cataclysmically con-
sequential. “Black swans,” as mathema-
tician Nassim Taleb would refer
to these unpleasant, hugely dis-
ruptive surprises.4
The AIDS
epidemic, 9/11 attack, SARS
outbreak, subprime financial cri-
sis, Haiti earthquake, Japan tsu-
nami, and the ongoing European
sovereign debt crisis are all ex-
amples of sudden, intractable
turbulences that test the resi-
lience of individuals, families, entire
communities, and indeed, the global
economy because of their contagious
nature in an integrated, complexly net-
worked new world order.
The exposure to risks, particularly
low probability but high consequence
risks (what statisticians call “tail risks”),
is necessary in determining the capacity
for resilience. Risks that recur with suf-
ficient frequency are better managed.
Risks that are rare and cause certainty of
significant loss could induce irrational
responses.
The works of Nobel laureate Daniel
Kahneman and Amos Tversky suggest
that, when faced with the prospect of
certain loss, people will choose to gamble
on the slight probability of gain and not
focus on the greater probability of loss,
often exacerbating the adverse outcome
when disruptions strike.5
Resilience
therefore not only requires the capacity to
react positively to mishaps, but also the
wisdom to make principled choices that
transform accepted practices and beha-
viors. Indeed the capability to self-renew
over time through innovation is a key
aspect of resilience in organizational
strategic management.6
Under challenging and desperate
conditions, the animal spirits in us would
render impotent the self-will to persist
and adapt, let alone to thrive and renew.
Therefore it is not surprising to learn that
researchers across disciplines have iden-
tified faith and spirituality as a key con-
tributor to resilience.7 For the Christian,
the transcendent purpose of life is not
anchored in the transient and the de-
structible, but in the eternal promise of
Creator God who is our refuge and
strength (Psalm 46:1), and from whom
we receive the strength to overcome
(Philippians 4:13) all sufferings that pale
in comparison with the future glory
awaiting believers (Romans 8:18). Jesus
himself assures his followers that “in the
world you have tribulation, but take
courage, I have overcome the world”
(John 16:33).
The Apostle Paul reminds believers
that the secret to triumphant living under
these promises is to be transformed by
the constant renewing of our mind (Ro-
mans 12:2), giving the Holy Spirit the
dominion over our will and action instead
of the animal spirit. Pastor and leadership
expert Wallace Henley, commenting on
the global turbulences that engulfed
Research shows faith and
spirituality to be a key
contributor to resilience
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 54
Resilience
Psychological Safety
Accept-ance
Respect
Deep Social Capital
Integrity
Loyalty
Diffused Power and
Accountability
Account-ability
Interde-pendence
Accessibility of Resource
Network
Brother-hood
Love / Share
How Christian Virtues Support Contextual Conditions
for Organizational Resilience
much of the world in recent years, writes,
“there is much travail and panic as people
look at the devastation the turbulence has
brought to individuals, homes…and
businesses. But men and women who
have a biblically based worldview know
there is immense opportunity for trans-
forming all these spheres by reestablish-
ing them on the rock-solid truths and
principles of the kingdom of God.”8
Christians who believe in God’s
trustworthiness live a life suffused with a
strong sense of moral purpose, core val-
ue, and vision. At the organizational lev-
el, especially for small and medium size
businesses where individual leadership
and small group dynamics strongly in-
fluence enterprise adaptiveness and
flexibility, these become the critical
success factors for the creation of orga-
nizational resilience.9
Researchers have also identified
several contextual conditions that support
resilience with particular implications at
the group and organization levels.10
These conditions include:
psychological safety, where
people perceive their personal or
work environments as conducive
to taking interpersonal risks –
risks of being ignored, rejected,
or ridiculed;
deep social capital, where inte-
ractions are rooted in trust, ho-
nesty, and self-respect;
diffused power and accountabil-
ity, where a strong sense of in-
terdependence, individual and
group accountability, and shared
goal governs the deci-
sion-making process; and
accessibility of broad resource
network, where relationships
with external sources of re-
sources can be readily and stra-
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 55
Resilience
A balanced individ-
ual or community of
individuals is the
mooring of organi-
zation, institution
and system resi-
lience.
tegically deployed to support
adaptive initiatives.
While secular entities work hard to
design and cultivate these infrastructures
and modes of behavior, it appears the
community of genuine Christ followers is
naturally positioned to function within
these contexts. Whether in the family unit
or within a community, the psychological
aspects of relational Christianity are
rooted in the virtues of humility, gentle-
ness and patience (Ephesians 4:2). The
dictates of Christian conduct, in harmony
with God’s will, are vividly illustrated by
Romans 12,11
where acceptance
(v. 16), respect
(v.10), integrity (v.
9), loyalty (v.10),
accountability (v.
6), and interde-
pendence (v. 5) are
the requisites of
healthful relations.
In such a ge-
nuine community
of brotherly love,
where the believer
is to serve the
community before
his/her own inter-
est, a trusted network of external re-
sources is readily available to the des-
pondent when disasters strike. Gene
Getz, writing in Building Up One
Another, summarizes Paul’s teaching
about unity this way: “Not one of us can
function effectively by ourselves; we
need each other. Not one of us is more
important than any other Christian, even
though one of us may have a more ob-
vious or more significant position in the
body. We are to be clothed with humility,
remembering that even the one who has
the greatest responsibility is to be the
greatest servant.”12
In all these there is a
shared purpose, to build up the body of
Christ so that all become mature and at-
tain the fullness in the knowledge of God
(Ephesians 4:12-16).
A balanced life for a Christian is a
life in harmony with God’s will, knowing
that the one who has created us will al-
ways answer and revive us when in
trouble (Psalms 86:7, 138:7), and that we
can do all things through Him who
strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). A ba-
lanced individual or community of indi-
viduals trusting in the same divine source
of strength and striving toward the same
moral purpose is
the mooring of or-
ganization, institu-
tion and system
resilience.
Entities under
Christian leader-
ship or amenable to
the influence of
Christian beliefs
should nurture
values, cultivate
networks, and build
infrastructures that
harness the strength
of biblical ethics in
every layer of the
local community. Even in entities that are
not, the Christ follower needs to be the
salt and light, influencing the larger
community by being a true testimony for
resilience in a world that would despe-
rately search for balance and stability
when maelstrom strikes.
CBR Articles
July 2012 Christian Business Review 56
Resilience
1Denis Smith and Moira Fischbacher, “Changing
nature of risk and risk management,” Risk
Management 11 (2009), 1-12. 2 Suniya S. Luthar and Laurel Bidwell Zelazo,
“Research on resilience: An integrative review,”
in Resilience and Vulnerability: Adaptation in the
Context of Childhood Adversities, by Suniyar S.
Luthar (ed.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2003), 513. 3 U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Risk
Steering Committee, Risk Lexicon (2008), 23. 4 Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The
Impact of the Highly Improbable (New York:
Random House, 2007). 5
Kahneman and Tversky’s work (“Prospect
theory: An analysis of decision under risk,”
Econometrica 47 (1979), 263-291), has wide
applications in business and finance. It explains
why investors have loss aversion (i.e., hanging
onto loss positions in hope of a recovery which
may never come, thus ending up with un-
der-diversified portfolios) and why firms or pol-
icy makers have myopic focus when dealing with
failed products, projects, or policies. The mis-
guided response often results in prolonging the
adverse outcome and seeding more pronounced
future risks. A good case in point is the ongoing
European credit crisis which exploded as a result
of the long neglect by national leaders of desta-
bilizing fiscal deficits and public sector indeb-
tedness. 6 Patrick Reinmoeller and Nicole van Baardwijk,
“The link between diversity and resilience,” MIT
Sloan Management Review 46(4) (summer 2005),
61.
7 See, for example, David Bosworth, “Faith and
resilience: King David’s reaction to the death of
Bathsheba’s firstborn,” Catholic Biblical Quar-
terly 73 (2011), 691-707; Helen Herrman et al.,
“What is resilience,” Canadian Journal of Psy-
chiatry 56(5) (2011), 258-65; Cynthia A. Leng-
nick-Hall, Tammy E. Beck, and Mark L. Leng-
nick-Hall, “Developing a capacity for organiza-
tional resilience through strategic human resource
management,” Human Resources Management
Review 21 (2011), 243-55; and Kenneth I. Par-
gament and Jeremy P. Cummings, “Anchored by
faith: Religion as a resilience factor,” in J.W.
Reich et.al., Handbook of Adult Resilience (New
York: Guilford Press, 2010), 193-210. 8
Wallace Henley, Globequake: Living in the
Unshakeable Kingdom While the World Falls
Apart (Nashville, TN.: Thomas Nelson, 2012),
69. 9 Steven F. Freeman, L. Hirschhorn, and M. Maltz,
“Organizational resilience and moral purpose:
Sandler O’Neill & Partners, L.P. in the aftermath
of September 11, 2001,” University of Pennsyl-
vania Center for Organizational Dynamics
Working Paper (2004). 10
Lengnick-Hall et. al., “Organizational resi-
lience,” 247. 11
See also related themes in 1 Corinthians
12:12-37 and Ephesians 4. 12
Gene A. Getz, Building Up One Another
(Wheaton, IL.: Victor Books, 1976), 11-12.
Notes
July 2012 Christian Business Review 57
Contributor Guidelines
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