Category Archives: Exchange: The Journal of Mission and Markets

 –       Seth Asher

Any time we grapple with questions of dealing with Christian interactions with an increasingly un-Christian environment, we do well to bring these questions back to the person of Jesus Christ. Did Christ deal with a similar event within Scripture? If so, how did he act? If not, can we observe other instances of Christ’s actions and see if they shed light on the matter?

Bringing these questions back to the person of Jesus Christ remind us that we are agents of his Kingdom who seek to be his disciples, striving to bring about his Kingdom in the world in which we live.

This practice becomes all the more necessary when we begin to think about Christians working, playing, worshiping, and living in a broader world that seems to get smaller and more crowded all the time. As Christians, how do we engage “marketplace” environments where differing messages, diverse peoples, and unspoken expectations seem to govern the arena? Beyond that, how can we bring Christ’s Kingdom to such places?

The Gospels record an account of Christ entering just such an environment and acting boldly and redemptively. All four Gospels record the account of the event commonly known as, “Christ Cleansing the Temple” (Matthew 21.12-17; Mark 11.15-18; Luke 19.45-48; John 2.13-17). While each account differs slightly, the main event remains the same: Christ enters the Temple marketplace and violently disrupts it, driving away animals intended for sacrifice, and destroying the stations of those who exchanged currency. He quotes Isaiah 56.7 (“…My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”) and Jeremiah 7.11 (“‘has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I have seen it,’ declares the Lord.”).

After disrupting the local trade, Christ teaches and heals while the Temple leaders fume and begin to plot his death. What do Christ’s actions mean? In order to answer this question, we must acquaint ourselves a bit more with the significance of the Temple during the days of Jesus.

The Temple: The Hub of the Jewish World

Before its destruction in 70 A.D., the Jewish Temple enjoyed great status as a religious and economic center in the ancient world. This grand structure, constructed of gold and marble, stood brilliantly visible for miles. Thousands of people, Jews and Gentiles alike, passed through its gates daily, while a Roman garrison stood close by to keep the peace. In this place, worlds clashed: Jew and Roman, priest and commoner, buyer and seller, crippled and whole. The Temple stood as the hub of Jewish religion and commerce.

The proper observance of the Jewish faith remained the highest functions of the Temple. Pilgrims would come from all over the Empire to fulfill their religious obligations, and the Temple became filled with people during festivals. The outer courts of the Temple served as a marketplace and a kind of one-stop-shop for pilgrims. Those coming to the Temple could fulfill their religious duty of almsgiving by giving to the poor and crippled on their way into the Temple. Upon arriving at the outer courts, they could seek out a moneychanger to acquire the proper Temple currency, as foreign coin was not permissible for use; after getting money, one could seek out a livestock dealer to get a necessary animal for sacrifice.

If the pilgrim were unsure as to which animal to purchase, priests made themselves available for consultation. Other priests led worship songs and activities during the constant stream of sacrifice. Merchants sold and transported their goods across the Temple courts, taking advantage of the massive crowds that flocked there. Jews and Gentiles both could enter the outer courts and observe the events of the day. Beyond the business matters of the marketplace and the Temple proper, the outer courts became a gathering place for all people.

When one considers the marketplace atmosphere of the outer Temple courts, it comes as no surprise that the Temple also housed the wealth of the Jewish people. During the Temple’s construction, sizable donations and valuable gifts came in from other rulers around the Roman Empire. Monetary gifts were used to pay superior wages to workers and fund projects, while precious metals and other items contributed to the spectacular appearance of the Temple itself.

Each devout Jewish male across the world made a yearly donation to the Temple, and collection stations were erected throughout the Empire in order to take in the offerings and oversee the safe transport of the funds. The Temple also operated as a sort of bank, with safety-deposit boxes for local citizens who wanted to keep their valuables safe. The Temple housed the national treasures of the Jewish people as well.

Turning the Marketplace on Its Head

Now that we have gained a clearer picture of the significance and function of the Temple, we find ourselves in a better position to understand the magnitude of Christ’s actions in clearing the Temple courts. That day, by disrupting the business taking place, Christ attacked the religious and economic status quo. Everett Ferguson, in his work The Backgrounds of Early Christianity, says: “…Jesus’ action in cleansing the Temple looked revolutionary. It was an assault on the economic system and a challenge to the position of the Temple authorities” (pg. 565). How?

Throughout his ministry, Jesus chastises the religious leaders of the times. In Matthew 23.23-24, in the midst of a strong diatribe against the religious elite, Christ condemns the Pharisees for upholding the precise details of the Law and while neglecting justice and mercy and engaging in extortion and self-indulgence. In Luke 20.46-47 Jesus warns his followers to beware of those who enjoy lofty appearances and positions of power while “devouring widows’ houses.” Jesus takes issue with the fact that the priests and Temple rulers cared more for their own comfort and influence than the causes of the oppressed and needy.

The Temple marketplace reflected this. The Law mandated that all must pay the Temple tax, and accounts exist of priests forcibly taking money from those who were poor; however, some wealthy religious leaders re-interpreted the command so as to count themselves exempt. The Law allowed for smaller offerings for those who were poor; however, in the Temple marketplace, the price of these supposedly cheaper animals would skyrocket, causing further financial distress to those who already found themselves with limited money.

To top it all off, the Temple marketplace maintained its own form of currency; to do business within the Temple courts, one must exchange for the mandated currency, often at poor rates. The profit would go directly into the Temple coffers. The priests gained immensely from the steady stream of money and sacrifice through the Temple gates, at the expense of those who could ill afford to pad the pockets of others.

Christ’s action paralyzed the normal economic business of the Temple for the day. Pilgrims could not exchange money and purchase animals, and the priests could not offer sacrifice. Even if only for a short while, the Temple business ground to a standstill. Christ denounced those operating there as thieves – the priestly class chose to neglect proper matters of faith, such as justice and mercy, in order to take financial advantage of the poor and needy for their own inflated egos and personal comfort. Jesus made the message clear: Such “business” has no place in the House of God.

The Gospel of John also contains an interesting epilogue to this event, in which Christ speaks to the nature of the Temple itself. John 2.18-22 tells of Jews who approached Jesus and demanded a sign of his authority, after seeing the Temple business had been disrupted. Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews thought Christ spoke of the physical Temple, but John tells us that Christ spoke of his own body. Christ makes a point: the presence and power of God dwells within people, not within structures. If people are being cheated and justice is being neglected in the Temple, the responsibility for these sins lies with the people in charge of the Temple instead of the Temple system itself. Christ’s assertion challenged the authority and spiritual condition of the Temple leaders as well as their worthiness to lead others in worship and true adherence to the Living God.

Christ’s actions cut deep into both the daily operation of the Temple and the basic understanding of the purpose that the Temple served. By disrupting the status quo, Christ could bring about a different set of activity within the Temple: redemptive acts of teaching and healing that bring about personal and corporate holiness.

Directly applying this passage to daily life appears difficult at first glance; the times have changed, and our interpretation and application of Scripture must take this into account. However, a couple of points emerge as we study this event. Christ’s changed understanding of the Temple itself challenges all those who seek to follow his teachings, while his willingness to disrupt the status quo of a deeply flawed marketplace sets a strong example of how Christians should engage contemporary settings.

One’s body serves as a Temple of the Living God. Christ brought a new understanding of the concept of Temple when he answered the Jews in John 2.18-22. Those questioning Jesus held that the true presence of the One and Only Almighty God lived within the Temple; however, Jesus spoke of his body as a Temple while the Jews spoke of the physical structure. The Apostle Paul develops this understanding in 1 Corinthians 6.17.20 when he exhorts the Corinthian church to avoid immoral behavior because the Holy Spirit lives in them. The religious leaders of the Temple may have upheld the Law and honored the presence of God within the Temple building, but they failed to understand and honor God’s presence living in them by acting unjustly and exploiting the poor. The actions of Christ condemn the leaders for being unworthy to act as stewards of God’s house.

Christ’s actions serve as a stark reminder for Christians who live and work in marketplaces today: we must honor the presence of God that lives in us by living accordingly. Just as the Temple should have been a house of prayer, we must be people of prayer. Our interactions must be guided by mercy and justice, while our decisions must be led by God’s Holy Spirit. Each marketplace will have understandings and norms that operate contrary to God’s Kingdom principles. As called ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven, we must live out this understanding of personal Temple-hood and not compromise God’s living presence for the sake of marketplace acceptance or operation. Will we heed Christ’s call to be people of integrity and justice who live only by the principles of His Kingdom?

Redemptively engage the marketplace. The picture of Christ that we see here provides us with an example of how to engage marketplace culture: redemptively, and even disruptively, if necessary. Christ knew that the marketplace status quo did not uphold the principles of God’s Kingdom. He acted by disrupting the current operations: overturning tables, driving away sacrificial animals, and bringing redemption into the marketplace through teaching and healing.

Christ calls us as his followers to redeem the marketplaces that we engage. Part of this redemption means having a full understanding of what takes place within the marketplace and not turning a blind eye to operations and causes that defy God’s Kingdom. Once aware of how the marketplace falls short of the Kingdom of Heaven, we can then engage the marketplace in ways that introduce Christ’s paradigms of justice, mercy, and redemption rather than paradigms of greed and consumerism. At times, this will mean breaking the status quo. In these moments, we should remember that we are acting as agents of God’s Kingdom, setting up shop in places that desperately need the presence of the Almighty to break in. Operating redemptively in marketplaces may fly in the face of how many think marketplaces should work. However, we, as disciples of Christ, live by a different paradigm.

As we seek to engage marketplaces in our day and age, the account of Christ cleansing the Temple provides us with an example of how the power of God can break into an environment, challenge the economic and religious status quo, and act redemptively in ways that bring about God’s Kingdom on Earth. In the power of the Holy Spirit, may we do the same.

Bibliography

Aland, Kurt., ed. Synopsis of the Four Gospels: English Edition. Broadway: United Bible Societies, 1982.

Jeremias, Joachim. Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus: An Investigation into Economic and Social Conditions during the New Testament Period. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.

Ferguson, Everett. Backgrounds of Early Christianity. 3rd Edition. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003.

Betz, Hans Dieter. “Jesus and the Purity of the Temple (Mark 11.15-18): A Comparative Approach.” Journal of Biblical Literature 116 (1997): 455-472.

Ferguson, John. “The Cleansing of the Temple.” Modern Churchman 24 (1981): 27-30.

Evans, Craig A. “Jesus and the ‘Cave of Robbers:’ Toward a Jewish Context for the Temple Action.” Bulletin for Biblical Research 3 (1993): 93-110.

Casey, Maurice. “Culture and Historicity: The Cleansing of the Temple.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 59 (1997): 306-332.

Dawsey, James M. “Confrontation in the Temple: Luke 19.45-20.47.” Perspectives in Religious Studies 11 (1984): 153-165.

Seth Asher received a Masters of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary in May 2011. He combines a passion for Scripture with a heart for practical application. He authors the seasonal devotional Continuum of Grace (available at http://continuumofgrace.wordpress.com). After being ordained in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Seth relocated to Newark, Delaware. Read more about the author here: http://continuumofgrace.wordpress.com/about-the-author/.

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By Hernando de Soto

(New York: Basic Books, 2003)

Reviewed by Rodolpho Carrasco

I was raised and educated in environments that viewed moneymaking as unrighteous and free markets as exploitative. Being poor and Mexican in Southern California meant that I had a hard heart toward rich, white capitalists who I perceived valued money over justice. As time passed, however, I changed my view of our economic system. My life was transformed by the educational and economic opportunities afforded me by our free-market system. I learned I was blessed to attend high school for free when I discovered that my counterparts in Mexico had to pay for the same privilege. That blessing was connected to the robust U.S. economic system, and toward this system, I felt gratitude.

My experiences as an urban youth minister have cemented my understanding of the magnificent potential of free markets to lift people out of poverty. I know Mexican immigrants who spent years living several families to one house while they saved the money to purchase that property and two others. I know young African Americans who built legitimate and sizable savings accounts while delaying gratification and working at multiple minimum-wage jobs.

Even so, I remain concerned about the pain that free-market capitalism causes around the world and at home. Admittedly, the rise of widespread health insurance and advances in medicine were principally driven by market forces, but there is something wrong when one episode in the hospital can create a hole from which a poor person spends years digging out.

There is also the ever present question of why a small percentage of the world’s population is as rich as Croesus while a great number remain as poor as Stone-Agers. Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto’s latest book echoes my conflicting feelings: an admiration for the free market tempered with concern about its inequities.

The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else (Basic Books, 2003) directs attention to the importance of property law in making capitalism work for poor people around the world.

De Soto, who runs a think tank in Peru that the ECONOMIST magazine considers the second most important in the world, delivers a compelling set of arguments that good property law makes all the difference:

• Capitalism is a tool that has improved the lives of millions and has the potential to improve living standards in every nation on earth. However, it has lost its way in developing nations and former communist nations.
• Capitalism’s failure in the two thirds world is not an issue of culture. WASP culture is not the magic ingredient that makes capitalism work, and the traditions of indigenous peoples are not inextricably at odds with capitalist tenets. De Soto puts it like this: “Is illegal squatting on real estate in Egypt and Peru the result of ancient ineradicable nomadic traditions among the Arabs and the Quechuas’ back and forth custom of cultivating crops at different vertical levels of the Andes? Or does it happen because in both Egypt and Peru it takes more than 15 years to obtain legal property rights to desert land?”
• The tipping point for the seemingly inexhaustible wealth of the United States is property law. Effective property law secures an asset, such as a home, in a way that allows it to be used for another purpose, such as getting a loan against that property. This is what we call working capital. Americans take for granted that we can obtain a loan against the value of our homes and thus acquire working capital. But such a means of acquiring startup money – the number-one method of funding a new business – is unavailable in most parts of the world.
• The United States was in the exact same mess 150 years ago – lacking a uniform property law that could title property in a way that a bank would make a loan against it – as most countries on earth are in today. The lack of uniform property law was a headache as the U.S. government and the Supreme Court contended with illegal squatter settlements throughout the Western territories. De Soto’s chapter, “The Missing Lessons of U.S. History,” details the transformation of competing land claims and hundreds of legal jurisdictions into a singular, coherent set of property statutes.
• Uniform property law is the difference between capitalism as a system accessible by the masses, as we have in the United States today, and capitalism as a tool only for a clubby elite, as prevails in most of the world.

De Soto’s ability to pinpoint capitalism’s shortcomings while glorying in its potential is rare. If your book club is populated equally by rabid free-marketeers and storm-the-gates anti-capitalist protestors, start with Mystery. Of course, I don’t know where one would find such a book club, given the radical divide that exists between the two groups. Nevertheless, I do not doubt that poverty fighters on both sides of the divide will turn to De Soto’s theses for years to come.

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Some food for thought. What do you think? How should this inform how we go about trying to alleviate poverty through marketplace mechanisms?

By Jeff Sandefer and Rev. Robert Sirico

(Grand Rapids, MI: Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, 2012)

I posted the following review for A Field Guide for the Hero’s Journey on Amazon this morning. Visit the book’s own website at  www.herofieldguide.com. – Dave

As I read this smallish volume I pondered how best to convey its content and value. In so doing, I was met with mental images of readers, absorbed in its pages: a schoolgirl faced with the daunting challenges of entering a new school and her teenage years simultaneously; a college freshman wrestling with the classroom deconstruction of values of his familial culture, a young couple, not long married, with a small child on the knee and a fledgling business plan on the kitchen table, the middle-aged executive troubled by his incommunicative wife and children and the emptiness of his material gain; the widow (always widowed far too young) pondering the paperwork piled high on the abandoned desk down the hall; or, the octogenarian putting pen to paper writing legacy letters for great-grandchildren still far too young to read.

The point is, A Field Guide for the Hero’s Journey, by Jeff Sandefer and Rev. Robert Sirico, intelligently captures the core lessons of many lifetimes, the secrets not only to success but the true meaning of success, then offers them up in compelling, manageable, and memorable short bits, easy to read and inviting to be read time and time again. I do not know Mr. Sandefer but find an immediate common ground in our entrepreneurial careers. I have met Rev. Sirico on several occasions and see in this new book the man I met in person . . . intelligent, concerned, gentle, and joyful. Sirico is also President of the Acton Institute (Grand Rapids, Michigan), the foremost think tank on the integration of faith, economics, and public policy.

After insisting that no one who buys A Field Guide for the Hero’s Journey is likely to be disappointed, then I would encourage them to plan on buying several more copies as gifts for anyone whom they truly love. Putting my money where my mouth is, I have purchased three copies today, having just finished my first reading, for my wife and my two grown children. They are too important to me not to share the principles and themes of this book . . . but I have no intention of one of them wandering off with my copy.

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[* Off the Shelf …On Books will be a regular feature of Exchange and will include short commentary on books that may or may not be faith-based but that offer sound insight into advancing the Kingdom, full-on book reviews (please limit to 750 words), and teasers about books coming soon to a bookstore near you…or Amazon as the case may be. Please feel free to submit pieces for inclusion in this section, especially those books which have had a profound effect on your thinking or methodologies in practice.  The point is to draw attention to books that are not necessarily in the limelight but are worthy of consideration. – Dave]

By Keith Sawyer

(New York: Basic Books, 2007.)

This book should be a standard in the library of every aspirant to leading change, especially those leading change for the cause of Christ. Sawyer’s thesis rests entirely on the premises that two heads are better than one, sixty four heads are better than two, and different heads contribute different perspectives and lead to more creative solutions. To tackle these in reverse order, the importance of each premise to the missional work of the Church should become fairly clear.

Different Heads

If you want nothing more than a simple engineering solution to a problem, gather a group of engineers and tackle the problem. If you want a market-oriented solution to an engineering problem, which will also appeal to the general public to promote sales and still come in under costs, gather a group of engineers, product designers, marketing and advertising specialists, and accountants. The solution to that ugly, dysfunctional toaster lever will emerge and serve a multitude of purposes. Amalgamating a broad diversity of thought promotes high levels of creative resolution.

For Example…

I work with a broad range of constituents in the interaction of the Christian Gospel and marketplace mechanisms and ministries. The players include business practitioners, missionaries, academics, prayer warriors, donors, pastors, and a range of other subgroup categorizations we might relate to the topic. Unfortunately, when a conversational group was convening, and I suggested that we draw together a diverse group from all these constituencies, I was rebutted because the group only wanted to include those from their own profession: academia. Well, okay, but all the input will be academic, the ivory tower doors will remain locked to everyone else, and everything inside will likely become unappealing and sterile to most outsiders. Theories are great and necessary but scientists still need engineers to create working products and accountants to keep the lights on.

A variety of inputs from a variety of perspectives allows what Thomas Friedman referred to as interdisciplinary, globalized thinking, an invaluable tool in an increasingly complex and integrating world. I believe Sawyer’s book is a thought provoking, must-read for any interested in most effectively moving the Church and the Kingdom forward in the coming decades.

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(Off the Wall and Off the Cuff is intended as a section for thinking outside the box. Most articles in this Journal will relate directly to faith-oriented discussions. However, the world often understands things and does many of them better than the Church. This section invites articles or commentary that lets us think more broadly and critically about our call to mission and accomplishing God’s aims in the midst of the world. – Dave)

–       Dave Doty

(This essay was previously published at www.edensbridge.org on March 18, 2012.)

I have become a fan of game theory. Since I believe I am physically allergic to mathematics (it makes my brain hurt real bad), it is not the application of formulaic minutiae that intrigues me so much as some of the defining concepts and understanding how to apply them to questions of moral importance. But before we get to far, let’s chat about what game theory is. I think the title of Roger Myerson’s book, Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict (Harvard University Press, 1991), goes very far. Game theory is a scientific approach to understanding the past and predicting future performance. It is a powerful tool to help overcome the downfall that besets those who refuse to understand history as it informs how to live into the future, i.e., informing wise decision-making.

Since I am much more interested in the moral issues of decision-making (which only sometimes make my brain hurt) than the migraine inducing wrath of higher mathematics, I engage game theory only as a framework for the discussion because, as said, its logic includes terminology that has enormous moral implications. I will not go deep into that terminology since derivations within the constructs of game theory introduce ideas that require proofs and theorems, which are precursive symptoms of my migraines and untowardly involve actually indulging in calculations and odd symbols that need too much explaining, so much that I refuse to have them explained to me. Frankly, proofs and theorems have no place in genteel discourse as they necessarily require at least everyone other than the speaker in most social settings being left feeling the fool and afraid to ask the detailed questions, nor take the years of additional education, necessary to grasp whatever it is the speaker seems to be rambling on about. I always nod, think of other things, and take her or his word for it.

However, all that rambling behind, there are some baseline concepts in game theory that are useful: there are two types of games (we all understand games, right?) which are actually three (and see already it is starting to involve mathematics so I will tread very lightly). The two types of games are zero-sum games and…wait for it, non-zero-sum games, the opposite of zero sum games…but not so much. Non-zero-sum games can be either negative sum games or positive sum games. Allow me to illustrate each simply.

A zero-sum game is one in which whatever reward one player achieves cannot be achieved by another player and the outcomes are of a fixed amount. For example, in a poker game, the sum total of all the bets are no more or less than the sum total of all the bets. The outcomes are simply a matter of who goes home with other folks money and who eats Ramen noodles until payday. If $100 comes to the table, that amount is exactly what leaves the table. If one person gains, another person loses. That’s the way we expect most games to be played…but it ain’t so!

There are games which result in negative sums. The classic example is war. While conquest may be yield tribute or immediate gain through loot, the downside is incalculable simply due to the long term lost productivity of those killed in the war and the productivity of all of their progeny into the unforeseeable future. The immediate loss of life in a war is only a small measure of the ultimate accumulation of losses. A lot of criminal activity is also negative sum, especially if it results in loss of life (same progeny issues as war) or physical harm (whether to limb or property), but also in the overall costs to society for legislative expenses, policing, jailing, courts, etc. A large portion of the costs of the legal system include the housing and attempts at rehabilitation of criminals. The accumulated losses of such games outweigh any measurable positive that may have resulted, though in war and crime it is difficult to justify that there is much in the way of positive gain other than some forms of immediate gratification (though the establishment of freedom and the removal of economic and political oppression can throw a monkey wrench into the calculations).

BUT! There is one type of game, the positive sum game, which holds real promise. In fact, throughout biological and cultural evolution, the proliferation of plant and animal life, as well as the advancement of creature comfort and security for humankind, it is the accumulation of positive sum games far outweighing the negative or zero sum games that delivers us to this day wherein, despite an increasing global population, material wealth is accumulating more quickly than population…and the world is getting better off.

The fundamental principle of God introducing Eve into the Garden of Eden as helpmate (before He called her Adam’s wife) is cooperation. The greater the cooperation (and the incumbent collaboration – the sharing of information, whether data, processes, or creative ideas), the greater the productive efficiency and economic growth and prosperity.

So, here the logic of game theory meets morality: we can choose how we play the game! That is, we can intentionally avoid zero and negative sum games, if we can muster up the will power, and focus entirely on how to craft positive sum games. Jeffrey Sachs, the author of The End of Poverty, makes clear that there is now more than enough wealth in the world to end abject poverty. Thus far, we (the human race) have not demonstrated the political will to make it happen.

In addition to the abundance that already exists, there is an upside potential among the global poor, of some two billion people, that remains largely untapped. The productivity of these folk, once unleashed, will enhance global economics to levels only dreamed of before. Now, for the first time in human history, we have the resources (beyond the purely financial, especially in information and communications) to make that change happen. Will we choose to do so?

I invite conversation on possible strategies that can far surpass the failed beliefs and practices of central planning, trickle-down economics (which has lent itself to deeper levels of disparities of wealth distribution), and dependency-creating aid models. What is most encouraging is that game theory models can prove that the upside of investing in small enterprises, especially among the poor and marginalized, creates a more decentralized system, which even creation bears out (look into the diverse, decentralized complexity of the global ecosystem) as holding the greatest potential, that will bear the much more fruit.

The inequitable distribution of global wealth is THE moral issue of our day. Poverty lends itself to the proliferation of numerous evils, including crime, revolution, abortion, and so on. Much of the impact of these travesties can be mitigated by economic empowerment. I believe that changing how we do things economically is the standard by which this generation will decide if we see the next major movement in advancing God’s Kingdom in hearts, as the witness of economic justice, intentionally carried out by Christians, will gloriously demonstrate the love of God for all creation.

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–       Dave Doty

Caroline Mendez has a fascinating life story to tell. But more than that, she has her life to give for Christian women business leaders. A self-made woman professionally, Caroline literally rose from the mailroom to the executive suite as a vice president with an information technology company. She spun that and other professional experience into a consultancy coaching entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers financial planners, and business executives helping them develop leadership skills and redesign their organizations for greater performance. Then she came to Christ.

With the accumulation of her professional skills, Caroline joined the C12 Group (www.c12group.com) as a Chairperson of C12 North Georgia Leadership where she has fully integrated her expertise and her desire to advance God’s Kingdom through the women-led businesses in the Metro-Atlanta marketplace.

While it is recognized that equality for women in many parts of the world is a still a struggle, Caroline’s heart was turned by the realization that even today in the West, women often struggle to rise into the executive ranks of business. What stood out to Caroline was how natural it seemed for men to enter into mentoring relationships, even proactively taking younger colleagues under their wing. But most of the women she met have been flying solo and often felt isolated or abandoned. And, she noticed, women must work harder and smarter to achieve many of the same leadership goals and positions as men.

What she found at church to answer her professional questions as to why was not of much help either. The prevailing models the church seems to support are almost exclusively that of wives and moms. [I can attest, having moved to the North Atlanta area just over a year ago, there are dozens of local small groups meeting weekly tailored for men, including how their faith should integrate into their work lives. There appear to be almost none of those same groups for women. – Dave] That is what motivated Caroline to launch the Christian Women-Leader Advisory Boards with C12, the first of its kind nationally.

Her assessment of why women were not finding the same peer support as men at work led her to find that some women fear sharing what they have gained for fear that somehow it might lessen their success, or make them appear “weak”. Others, having toughed through a lengthy and tedious battle to rise in business, believed the benefits they gained by going the route of hard knocks would somehow benefit other women trying to reach the same goals . . . but only if those other women had to fight through the same way. And some women, like some men, were simply too competitive or prideful, to help anyone gain corporate ground, let alone another woman who might supplant them.

These experiences, coupled with God’s promptings, led Caroline to launch her personal ministry to women, through C12, to develop their leadership gifts and advance the reach of their organizations. She wants to foster a new dynamic and mentality:  that as Christian women, they are all in this together and, by extending themselves for other women, all women gain.

I have known Caroline for about six months now and I think what jumps out at me when we talk are several things. While Caroline is gregarious and transparent as a piece of rice paper, you can also tell she is a no-nonsense professional. If you are not interested in applying yourself to your God-given work, don’t waste her time. She even has clients sign covenants to toe the line in their commitment to their business and personal development.

At the same time, it is hard to imagine a more energetic and helpful shepherd than Caroline when you are ready to step up. But most of all, Caroline has the heart for making disciples of Jesus Christ in and through their business. Her faith in God, to be used as His tool, and to serve God’s Kingdom are at the forefront of her pursuits. She stands on the truth of the Bible that admonishes women to mentor younger women, such as Naomi, a righteous woman, advising her daughter-in-law, Ruth. And that the leadership roles of women in the Bible, such as the Prophetesses Miriam and Deborah, Esther, Mary Magdalene, and so many others, illuminate the important roles God has for women in ministry today, and for working women, that means today, in your place of work.

If you have the opportunity to meet Caroline, you will immediately be taken with the warm, joyful person before you. And if you spend any time with her at all, you will soon discover she is on a mission from God to change the landscape of women-led business, and one that she, through God’s grace, will accomplish!

Read more about or contact Caroline at http://www.c12northgeorgia.com/caroline-mendez-c12-chair.

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