The Business as Mission Global Think Tank has released its first report:
“Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done… In Business:
Biblical Foundations for Business as Mission”
Click here for the downloadable report (in .pdf format)
I was honored to take part in this issue group and as a contributor to this paper. Please let me know your thoughts.
Other reports will be released over the coming weeks.
Last Friday (September 13, 2013), I presented a workshop at the annual national conference of the Christian Community Development Association entitled, “Will My Business Idea Work? – Contextual Small Business Development.” While, for me, that workshop was the focal point of my attending the conference, there were many things that transpired of greater or equal importance; mostly meeting new friends and the conversations we shared. But I walked away from the conference with one pressing line of thought.
The workshop I presented was included in the Economic Development track of the conference which included 124 workshop / seminar offerings, though a handful were core presentations offered more than once. On Friday, in the time slot I was assigned , one other Economic Workshop was taking place. I spoke with the presenters from that workshop afterward and between us, we had about 70 attendees of the roughly 3,000 conferees (if this year’s conference was consistent with attendance in recent years), or a little less than 2.5%.
There were 23 concurrent workshops in the same time slot as ours which included everything from Adult Learning and Financial Literacy to Families and Soul Care to Housing to Youth and Children. A flat distribution of attendees would have put an average of about 130 people in each room, or 260 in the two Economic Development workshops – nearly four times what we actually saw.
Lest I be misunderstood and before going further, I want to dispel any suspicion that I intend to detract from any of the other workshops’ content or importance. Community development is a complex, multifaceted undertaking and must be approached from a wide range of directions simultaneously. But I doubt that many, if any, of the workshops in a time slot more or less in the very middle of the conference saw 130 attendees in the room.
I do, however, want to speak specifically to the availability of the Economic Development workshops. The greatest practical cause (setting aside, if I may, the obvious dominance of spiritual causality) of the multitudinous issues afflicting the poor is, by definition, poverty. The fastest track out of poverty is the creation of new wealth, i.e., economic development, as has been witnessed as globalization of the last fifty years has lifted more people from poverty in a shorter time than at any other in history. I applaud the CCDA Board of Directors as the last three conferences have included Business-as-Mission or Economic Development tracks, beginning in Indianapolis in 2011. There were seven economic development workshops (about five and a half percent of all) offered during the entire conference. This is an encouraging step in the right direction but illustrates that we have a long way yet to go in addressing the single most impactful aspect of poverty, the lack of productive opportunity.
Economic development is just that . . . development. It is to help move those in poverty out of poverty, that is, by creating jobs, which in turn creates a myriad of other opportunities including access to better systems of healthcare, education, and other economic amenities like readily-available transportation, retirement planning, etc. For too long, the global Church has predominantly adopted a relief approach to serving the poor. As before, my intent is not to detract from the necessity or importance of relief. Many would suffer far more than they do without it.. But recent missiological study has shown time and again that we do not quickly enough move from a relief model of charitable work to a developmental model to put communities on their own way to long term economic health and sustainability. Haiti has proven an illustrative case study where Christian mission groups continue to displace native workers in rebuilding efforts, offering free labor where aid funds could be used to pay local workers a reasonable wage to rebuild their own communities.
There are, I believe, two primary causes for maintaining the status quo of charity models, both of which actually hinder the economic and social development of indigenous populations. The first is an adherence to the tried and true, even when the trying has shown itself to create dependencies rather than local autonomy. This adherence may be due to a couple of problems. One is the lack of creativity brought on by tunnel vision. Many missions workers (which goes for social services administrations, local “helps” ministries, etc.) are simply so busy trying to alleviate human suffering that they miss the harmful side effects (unintended consequences) until those side effects create a seemingly irreparable pattern. Another cause is, sadly, a god complex among some relief / aid workers. They find their personal value in helping others and may be, even if subconsciously, afraid of working themselves out of a job which would then leave them without usefulness and relevance as a human being. Neither of these (sub-category) causes – tunnel vision or god complex – are in any way justifiable to not continually explore new means, and embrace them, of improving the lives of those we serve.
The second great cause is a general distrust of business as a just means of alleviating poverty. My experience, and that of many, many others who profess a belief that God would use business in redemptive ways, is that poverty is enormously exacerbated by the victimization of business as a necessary evil. That portrayal, however, is a fiction perpetuated by the false dichotomy of the sacred / secular divide. In Christian worship, there is no separation between the profession of faith and vocational profession.
As a Christian entrepreneur I wrestled with the notion of being called to business as a means of salvific grace, that is, as a ministry practice toward Kingdom building in the world. It was that internal conflict that led me to attend seminary and begin my research on the role of business in mission. I did not necessarily expect to find business in the creation narrative of Genesis 1-2 but find it I did.
There has been a great deal of literature written in the last couple of decades on theologies of work and of stewardship as pre-Fall legitimacy of those callings is established in Genesis 2:15 – “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” Notice that God does not just give Adam a job. He gives him two, both as a laborer and as a manager. What we often miss is that the next thing God gave Adam was a co-worker.
The division of labor is the foundation of a market economy and that Eve was to work with Adam implies that exchanges between them will occur. This discovery was the focal point of the marketplace theology I developed in my book, Eden’s Bridge: The Marketplace in Creation and Mission (Wipf & Stock, 2011). But further, exchange is the foundation of all sociality, whether of material goods or convenient services or what we would typically consider social goods, the building and maintenance of infrastructure by government agencies or the compassionate spiritual and social support extended to those in crisis.
Every organization, from families and households to universities, hospitals, churches and corporations, operate on the same foundational economic exchange model where income may be called donation or revenues, expenses appear to be universal, value propositions ensure sustainability, and communications result in outreach or marketing. The only differentiations are in the particular lingua franca of each institutional category and the definitions of the offerings.
There is a great more said in Eden’s Bridge about the ethics of business practice, the role of profit making, and so on, but I wanted here to only offer the very foundation – God’s intention in the division of labor – of the biblical evidence for business as a practice God created and is now working more apparently than ever to redeem as ministry to the world and for witness to His glory.
My hope here has been to challenge CCDA’ers and other missions-minded folk to dig into understanding that business, when done according to the nature, character, and will of God, is inherently good and vitally important to building the Kingdom in the here and now, toward the shalom of all people. In fact, the marketplace is a vital function in the created order of a loving God, a God on the move in the marketplace (I have identified twelve distinct marketplace ministry models) who is inviting us to get on board.
In many ways, since I am coming from a background of small business ownership and not specifically pastoral ministry or social services, I have felt like an outsider at the two CCDA conferences I have attended (Indianapolis and New Orleans). But again, I applaud the CCDA Board of Directors for their prophetic insight into the necessity of including economic development in the overarching community development conversation. I hope that I have created an opportunity for the mission-minded to move more freely toward economic development, small business incubation, and job creation as perhaps the most viable means of reaching one of their ultimate goals – the alleviation of poverty as ministry to the world for the glory of God.
Shalom,
Dave Doty
Eden’s Bridge
Filed under Faith
I wrote the following piece (Raphah) as a series of three devotionals but have thought about it increasingly while working through the process of planning for a new business launch. That process always calls for a great deal of thinking, data collection, working connections (especially setting up vendors), site scouting, playing with numbers, and, ultimately, finding investors (or digging thousands of dollars worth of change out of the sofa cushions).
As I have worked through this process over the last couple of months, as always, I have been most nervous about the last item: raising capital. I have watched incredulously as the other pieces have fallen quickly and easily into place – the emergence of a good working partner, the availability of desirable and affordable business locations, getting all six of our top targeted product vendors on board. But the money looms largest now, especially given we only have about a five month lead time until we want to open the doors.
And I continue to pray. If this is God’s will for us, the money will come. I want to be nervous about it. I want to doubt that we can get the final piece of the puzzle in place. At the same time, I know that if that piece does not come, this exercise, the time and energy invested, is all for naught. But throughout the process, Psalm 46:10a has been a constant whispering in my ear: Be still and know that I am God.
As the essay that follows will show “be still” means so much more than we might sometimes think it does. And in its depth, I think this very special verse in Scripture has a great deal to offer us as we face the challenges, the anticipations, the victories and defeats, and the never-ending work of professional life and of doing business in a fallen world.
Raphah
“Be still and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10a
Be still here is the Hebrew term raphah. It has several meanings which we will explore in three installments. I have tried to group twelve different nuances of raphah into subsets of four related meanings.
Raphah: Respite, Relax, Wait, Be Still
The central thrust of the verse above is toward the idea of resting. While it may pertain to both physical and mental activity, perhaps of greater importance is the release of anguish. We often think that a person who is grieving the loss of a loved one should “get some rest,” by which we mean, “go to sleep.” We know that deep rest rejuvenates the body. How often we set aside a problem until the morning and while the problem has not disappeared or diminished, when we are fresh and re-energized, we are more able to deal with it without the same levels of frustration or fear.
We are told of times when Jesus, feeling pressed by the crowds and the depth of their needs, slipped away, into the desert, across the water, or into a garden, to pray. He took a break to be rejuvenated by the Holy Spirit, and strengthened by an angel of God (Luke 22:43).
Western culture, and increasingly global culture, seems always to be speeding up but consistently we hear the sentiment of Psalm 46:10 reflected in Scripture but perhaps most importantly in Matthew 11:28-30:
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”
When I reflect on my surrounding culture here in North Atlanta, which is one of the busiest commercial centers in the U.S., I am reminded of Thomas Gray’s description, in Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, of the busy-ness of modern society, even in 1751, as the madding crowd’s ignoble strife. The frenzy of life easily makes us anxious, harried, and tired but Jesus says “Come away, rest.” It is as if He in himself is a place of escape from the insanity of the striving world, even in its midst.
When we can “get away from it all,” whether to a sunny summer hillside, or an overstuffed chair in a quiet corner, or a favorite secluded chapel, it is there that we can be still, and in our stillness wait to hear the voice of God, not in the rending of the earth, the roaring wind, or raging fire, but coming in the quiet moment, as it did for Elijah (1 Kings 19:11-12).
We often recognize the intense tiredness that comes after a long day of solving work problems or interacting with others in troubled relationships. Our bodies respond to the weariness of our minds. Getting away to clear our heads, especially in prayer or reflecting on ministering passages of the Bible, or perhaps to listen to favorite worship songs, re-sets our agendas, restores weakening faith, encourages the heart and gives us the opportunity to begin again, re-focused on Christ and the importance of pressing “on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” – Philippians 3:14.
In stillness, forcing ourselves to set aside all the intrusions and worries that life throws our way, we can commune with God, knowing that “those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength” – Isaiah 40:31.
Raphah – Abandon, Cease, Let Go, Fall Limp
The second grouping of meanings in considering raphah leans toward reaching an end, especially of our own strength to accomplish something, or moving beyond performance expectations. Perhaps it is best summed up when Jesus says, “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it” – Matthew 16:25.
When Adam and Eve fell from grace it was essentially due to the sin of self-determination. But self-determination, which is a product of pride, has a deeper cause. They chose to disobey God because they questioned whether what God had told them about eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was true. In essence, they removed the authority from God to decide what was best for them, taking upon themselves the mantel of moral authority. But that action was merely symptomatic of their loss of faith in the integrity of God. They distrusted Him. They stopped believing God.
Ever since the Fall and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, humankind, in one way or another, has striven to “re-gain” the lost intimacy with God, or pursued a variety of panaceas to replace His presence, whether through wealth, power, alcohol, drugs, sex, or fame. All those, without a relationship with God, end in the desperation of trying to fill the void left by His absence from our lives. Often those pursuits will bring us to a crash, recognizing enough is never enough, whether it is in the diminishing psychological returns of increasing wealth or the dissatisfaction and emptiness wrought from deeper and deeper addictive behaviors.
Unfortunately, we sometimes also strive after religion, which is nothing more than trying to achieve righteousness by our own actions, as one of those panaceas. We get in our heads that if we can be good enough, to discipline ourselves to perform the right way every day, we will be good enough to go to heaven, good enough to earn God’s love that saves us.
Even if we have turned from overtly sinful behaviors, we often put on religion as a new addiction and find we are drawn toward legalism, following the checklist of God’s commands to justify ourselves. God proved by giving Israel the Ten Commandments that they were a fallen people. We seldom think about the fact that He gave Adam only one law . . . and Adam broke it!
Because we cannot atone for our own sin, that is, to make right the wrongs we have committed against God. Our striving after holiness outside of the finished work of Christ on the Cross will fall short. But until we come to the realization that we cannot save ourselves, we strive on and become increasingly anxious wondering if we are yet good enough to please God.
In a word, literally, raphah in Psalm 46:10 speaks to abandoning any notion of our own righteousness or our ability to attain in. Be still tells us to release our agendas or false notions of our own holiness. Here raphah also encourages us to release the anxiety that comes from falling short of the glory of God . . . and we all fall short (Romans 3:23). It is not until we fall limp in our inability, in our weakness, to become holy, that God can manifest and we begin to understand how the power of Christ is “perfected in our weakness” – 2 Corinthians 12:9.
You see, it is not until we come to our own end, recognizing our utter lack of righteousness and ability to save ourselves, that we come to the recognition of our need of a Savior, one other than us who is able to atone for sin, one perfectly holy and willing to sacrifice self completely, in the very character of God, for the sake of the one fallen. Only Christ can take that position in our lives and only as we collapse under the crush of our indebtedness to God and abandon our self-justifying ego. In that moment of our coming to terms with our brokenness, His strength comes into the middle of our relationship to God and is made perfect for our restoration into the Kingdom of God.
Raphah – Become Discouraged, Lose Courage, Fail, Become Helpless
By now, I hope that you are beginning to see the richness of the word raphah, and why I consider the first phrase of Psalm 46:10 as pivotal in our relationship to God. But the meaning is deeper still as we take this last look.
It may seem odd that we can “know that God is God” when we are discouraged, or back away from following Christ, seeing only the pressing and demoralizing circumstances of life or the depth of our weaknesses when we fail, stumbling in sin. Can we “know that God is God” when we become helpless?
In Western thought, we are driven by a sense of self-worth based in our ability to perform. Individualism and our standards of success compel us toward independently striving for success, pulling ourselves up “by the bootstraps,” so to speak, to be recognized by our peers, our families, and by society as worthy of acclaim and respect. Our economic system is geared toward working harder and smarter to carve out our place in the world. As the saying goes, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone” (from Solitude by Ella Wheeler Cox).
When we fail or find ourselves discouraged, we also often find ourselves alone. It is easy to think that we are the only one suffering in such ways, that others in the church are surely more holy than we, or the folk down the street do not have the same depth of financial, career, or marriage struggles we face every day. Isolation deepens the darkness of our despair.
But we are not alone. Foremost, God is with us. When Isaiah prophesied of the coming Messiah, he said that the One would be called Immanuel, meaning God with us (Isaiah 7:14). A major component of the incarnational – in the flesh – presence of God in Jesus Christ was God condescending to share human experience with us. He faced the trials, tribulations, and temptations we all face. Life is hard and God knows it . . . firsthand.
So, when we are discouraged, or failing God, or recognize our helplessness to be holy, how is it we can “know that God is God?” Though Christ ascended back to heaven after the Resurrection, He did not leave us without resources, especially resources for the moments of our deepest spiritual needs. First and foremost is the gift and presence of the Holy Spirit within us. It is by the presence of the Holy Spirit that God helps and teaches us (John 14:26). The literal translation of helper (parakletos) is comforter. When we think of the gentleness of God, it is in the moments that the Holy Spirit invites us to look to God for our salvation and help rather than to self in the midst of our daily madness that we can perceive the comforting voice of God’s presence, calling to us, inviting our return, so “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need” – Hebrews 4:16.
God has also given us the Bible. There have been many verses that have been soothing to me over the years of my walk with God. One of my favorites in the times when I am mostly acutely aware of my sinfulness is 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When I read this verse, I am encouraged to be honest with God and myself about my weakness and my stumbling. There are a lot of promises in the Bible that encourage, such as Philippians 1:6: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” It reminds me to not try taking on God’s transformational work in my life and encourages me to reflect on times past when God has demonstrated His faithfulness in my life, even amidst my worst failings, and to think about His ability to save me when and where I am unable.
Finally, there is the church, which is instructed to “come alongside each other daily for encouragement” (Hebrews 3:13). There have been countless times that I have feared the vulnerability and possible rejection of revealing my true self to others. We are created to live in community and fear being put out of fellowship with others. But inevitably, if I confide in those I trust in Christ, I find encouragement, sometimes exhortation, prayer, restoration, and forgiveness, all by the power of God’s grace, present in His church.
When we are hard pressed by the world or our own weakness, we should be still before God and know Him as our loving, Heavenly Father.
Filed under Faith
– David B. Doty (© 2013)
The Marketplace and Prosperity in the Creation Narrative
The earth itself, by its abundant production of plant and animal life by reproductive multiplication, and its mineral content, serves as the primary means of production. All the products we create are made from materials either already at hand or by manipulating them chemically and in form. The Old Testament is rife with discussions of land rights, that is, access to the means of production and the opportunities it presents to be productive to support life for all people.
The multiplication of animal and plant life points to the prosperity (increase or profit) designed into creation. This is one of the four prosperity functions of God’s intention in the created order. The other three involve Adam and the introduction of Eve. The woman is first identified as helpmate, or coworker in modern parlance, to facilitate Adam’s immediate material prosperity via the division of labor. Shared labor and the resulting specialization of workers are the foundations of market economics. That Adam and Eve would share (exchange) the fruit of their labors must be assumed, and the birth of their progeny would add to their communal productive capacity. Hence, Adam could prosper materially. But Eve, and their offspring, represents two other ways in which she enhanced Adam’s prosperity. She helped him grow intellectually by the exchanges of collaboration and she helped him grow spiritually as he could exercise righteousness, or holiness, only in relationship to an equal.
The Functions of Business in Creation
In the design of the created order, value exchange, whether of material goods, services, or information, and its contribution to increasing prosperity on all fronts of human life, is central to God’s intentions for how our world operates. Creation has increase designed in toward abundance via increasing economic and social complexities. The more highly developed a society and its economic system, the more prosperity can serve additional needs, even wants, beyond mere survival. Business has been proven to decrease the potential for war between trading partners as each gains greater prosperity from the economic relationship and reduces losses of human productivity by the inevitable attrition of life due to war. The fruits of increase within a complex society contribute to value-added social goods like education, sophisticated government agencies, and public education. Business, in effect, funds an upward spiral of social well-being, even toward the Hebrew concept of shalom, which means far more than the term peace might imply as the absence of conflict. Shalom implies not only a complete well-being of the individual but for the entire community as well.
Business serves the purpose of God blessing his creation temporally. Additionally, business provides the opportunity for all humankind to practice righteousness, that is, holiness, in denial of egocentrism. Holiness cannot be practiced in isolation and in exchanges, in the space between us, whether those exchanges be economic, or familial, or for whatever other reason, God provides us opportunity to live unto the loving Spirit of the divine, to be fully human, made in the image of God. Business is a significant means along the path to human holiness.
The human search for truth, meaning, and significance is universal. Work and the product of our work, wealth, provide opportunities to grasp these concepts only as they are subordinated to the Truth of Jesus Christ. Business, as a vital component of human well-being and the opportunity for both material and spiritual blessedness, and as defined by the mutuality of interdependence, plays a substantial role in human spirituality, the fount of truth, meaning, and significance. Created in the image of God, humankind was designed with work and stewardship as fundamental elements of the nature of being human. Note that before Adam’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden that God did not command Adam to work and tend to the Garden. Rather, God created Adam to work and tend it as co-creator in communion with God to fulfill the functionality and abundance of the rest of creation. Humankind finds fulfillment in Christ and in this life as work, stewardship, and exchange are carried out according to the nature, character, and will of God.
By the interaction of divine power, human productivity, and exchange, God provides the opportunity for abundant life in the present. When productivity and exchange are aligned with the character, nature, and will of God, the grace, or outpouring kindness, of God is shed abroad to the world. Business conducted according to the righteousness of God, like charity, emotional and physical healing, and other human practices, reveals God’s grace and glory.
Business serves these four functions – abundant provision, the practice of holiness, human meaning and fulfillment, and revealing grace (witness) – in the created order.
The Function(s) of Business in the Mission of God
The mission of God in the world, instituted before creation and fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus Christ, is the redemption of all creation, to deliver it once for all from the ravages of sin and the power of death. Business, as a means of revelatory grace (witness), like the other ministries of the church and mission agencies, continues to draw humankind toward God as the church reaches out to the whole world via the marketplace to make disciples according to Jesus’ charge to the church, the Great Commission.
Business, conducted according to godliness, participates in this redemptive process in two key ways. First, by providing jobs and income for the poor, business is truly Gospel witness, that is, good news to the poor. By serving the needs of the poor, both economically and in the influence of public policy and institutions, business helps bring about social transformation. It does so by the influence of Christians in the marketplace bringing transparency and the order of law to commerce over the last several centuries. That influence is spreading as the legal accountability necessary for open markets to function helps overcome corruption in many cultures. Business also transforms the world as its economic impact allows for the development of institutions like sophisticated governmental policy, public education, and the advances of modern healthcare. All the world’s bills are paid by the productivity of work, by the innovations for gained efficiency in processes, procedures, and business practices, and by the wealth created by increasing complexity and exchanges of vocational specialization. Business is changing the world, even if by small increments, for the better.
The accountability demanded by the rule of law and necessary for sophisticated economic development serves a second purpose in the created order. It prioritizes relationships and common justice over barbaric enslavement, forced labor, and unmitigated abusive business practices. In effect, business practiced in highly ordered economies undermines the egocentric sin of both individuals and systems, such as illegitimate regimes ruling over poor countries or scofflaws cheating customers, vendors, governments, and their communities.
Filed under Faith
When God gave Adam a help mate in Eve, that act established the division of labor as normative for human productivity. It allowed Adam to prosper beyond the limitations of his individual capacity. The division of labor fosters key outcomes – exchanges, collaboration, specialization, and innovation – all of which contribute to an upward spiral of prosperity materially, intellectually, and, by the practice of righteousness (holiness) in exchange, spiritually.
The marketplace has prospered through time, especially in league with the scientific and sociological development of products, manufacturing and distribution processes, and managerial practices over the past several hundred years. What Adam Smith could not specifically identify, but labeled the “invisible hand,” is nothing less than the design of increase within God’s ordered creation, the “multiply” commands of Genesis 1:22 and 28.
While the marketplace has embraced the increase mandate, though too often sadly as self-serving profit mongering, the world has fared increasingly well in the last century as globalization has brought trade to higher levels of complexity and connectedness. [Lest I be called out on this, I do not believe that profit is bad . . . just too often sought for the wrong purposes.] Unfortunately, much of the wisdom for producing increase has been lost on the evangelistic and charitable efforts of the church and the pursuit of social causes by other not-for-profits.
I often meet operators of not-for-profit agencies interested in engaging in the current movement of social enterprise or, in church parlance, marketplace ministries. And often they relate that though they would like to help their organization move in that direction to enhance their effectiveness and sustainability, they simultaneously confess their ministry or social services training has left them bereft of business knowledge or experience. They do not realize the organizations they run operate on the same business model as commercial enterprises. It is simply the language of the business, church, and charity cultures that differs.
One of the keys to modern market proliferation is the complex organization of organizations, a meta-level application of the division of labor. Where a shoemaker and a baker may trade goods on a personal level, corporations exchange value on an institutional level. Hence, the business world language calls those we buy from vendors, those businesses we sell to customers, those we work with partners or joint ventures or even subsidiaries. The level of relationship is simply taken to a corporate from an individual level as we transcend the low level trade of local markets, barter systems, and such on a personal level.
The reason businesses act this way is the same principle of trade that fosters worker specialization and the comparative advantage of corporations, nations, and even regional trading blocs, like the Eurozone, which trade effectively within while leveraging the economic advantages of unity in the broader, global market. Gained efficiency is the only source of newly created wealth. That is, on the income statement, even while increasing revenues, operators must control expenses to increase profitability. Such principles are standard fare of business classes and corporate offices but not so in churches and not for profits.
Churches and not-for-profits are not looking to make a profit. But they are looking to make a difference. Unfortunately, since 2000, the number of not-for-profits in the United States has more than doubled. Churches and not-for-profits operate on donated funds (including grants) but those clamoring for the pool of available funds has grown while the pool of donors and funds has not kept pace.
The point is, churches and other not-for-profits need to realize and live into the reality of their business model, especially on the front of forming strategic alliances for cooperation, collaboration, and leveraging each one’s comparative advantage. But, alas, the blinders of busyness more often than not disallow the forethought required to carry this off.
This last point is a critical needs gap that coalescing agencies can fill by building communities of not-for-profit agencies and help guide them through the processes of increasing their collective effectiveness. Such an agency may well be an outside force or can be constructed “from within” by leaders of the various agencies coming together on their own. Very often it appears, however, this catalytic energy must come from outside, applying light (rather than heat), to raise the bar of cooperative vision across a coalition of mission statements, skills, capacities, programs, and workers.
Perhaps a few illustrative thoughts will help. I lived for many years in Montgomery County, Indiana. At the time, there were about 125 churches in the countywide community of 34,000 people, or one church for each 272 people. Significant research has shown that only about twenty percent of U.S. residents attend church weekly. Being generous, let’s say that is twenty five percent. Those 125 churches in Montgomery County averaged weekly attendance of just 68 people. Census data tells us that about twenty five percent of the population is under the age of eighteen so each church hosts just 51 adults. In Indiana, the average household is 2.6 people with a median household income of nearly $53,000. Dividing the 68 attendees by households means that if every household tithes ten percent of their gross income, the church will see annual donations of about $138,000. Unfortunately, U.S. church members only give three percent so the annual donations drop to a reasonably sustainable annual budget of a bit over $41,000, less than the median income of a single household! That $41,000 pays facilities costs (including rents or mortgages, utilities, insurance, etc.), supplies, and in many cases multiple salaries. Obviously, there cannot be much left for actual charitable work, whether in giving financial support or investing in ministering programs.
Let’s look at the labor impact of each church. In volunteerism, Indiana ranks 24th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Let’s allow that Indiana is very close to the national averages finding itself near the midpoint of the rankings. Nationally, each resident volunteers 29 hours per year. For each of those 125 churches in Montgomery County that multiplies out to be 1972 hours per year, or 37.9 weekly (less than one hour per week per adult attendee), less than one fulltime employee’s expected work schedule. That means the equivalent of less than 120 people are carrying out the annual ministry (including teaching Sunday school classes, conducting outreach programs, etc.) to the whole community of 34,000, or just one person for each 283 people, trying to know them, understand their needs (material and spiritual), formulating a plan for ministering to them, and executing that ministry. Each “active” participant has (using the forty hour week model) a little under nine minutes and three dollars ((($41,000 church income x 125)/34000), as if all of the budget of each church could be dedicated to ministry programming) a week to minister to each of their constituents. Nine minutes and three dollars a week for each man, woman, and child in the community. (This looks to be a good takeoff point for stewardship training!)
But let’s put those numbers into a collective view of the 125 churches: 6375 adults; 3269 households; 246,500 annual work hours; church giving (staying with the three percent) of $5.2 million. It is easy to imagine how impact could be increased if the efforts of all those churches and adults were coalesced and organized. Admittedly, it is an uphill battle but we must keep in mind that Jesus’ cross had to be carried up a hill to Golgotha.
There is no endeavor in the history or breadth of human experience more critical to this world than the cause of Christ, advancing God’s Kingdom. There is likely no worthwhile endeavor in that same experience more disjointed and disorganized as that same cause. God gave Adam a co-worker and a wife in the person of Eve. The role of wife, as co-creator of progeny, is a future, productive, hopeful role. The role of co-worker is for advancement in the present . . . today.
The church needs its leaders to step up, to lay down their agendas and egos and to embrace the cooperation, collaboration, and specialization God designed into creation if we are, as the church, to become the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We must remove our blinders and join forces and much of the organizational skill set needed is already in the church but relegated to pew sitting and check writing.
The army of God is in disarray and, on some fronts, even in retreat. Today, as on every day in history, there is a clarion call to pursue the unity of the church, to be one as Christ and his heavenly Father are one . . . unified in thought and deed, leveraging the wisdom available on humbled, bended knees, and rising that the world would see the church and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people” (Deuteronomy 4:6).
Filed under Faith
Considering Faith is a collection of 21 essays designed to help readers “get under the surface” of the Bible. The author has been a business practitioner, a seminarian, and remains a lifelong learner. Considering Faith includes essays that are part devotional, part Bible study, part theological survey, and sometimes provocative. These are intended to be used as personal devotional materials, conversation starters for small groups, or sermon fodder.
Considering Faith is currently available only in Kindle format and can be ORDERED HERE: just $4.99 (100 pages)
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– Dave
Filed under Faith
The title above is a working title but I am compiling a short book (about 100 pages) of twenty essays that are an amalgamation of nearly fifty devotionals (most were two or three installations) written over the last year or so. These explore a range of topics – holiness, authority, God’s name, mercy, faith, hope, and love, empathy, justice and righteousness, and so on – in biblical and theological perspective. The first edition will be out shortly in Kindle version via Amazon. Let me know if you are interested in a print version.
Filed under Faith
AUTHORS INVITED: Submit your article or idea for inclusion in the next issue. See writer’s guidelines here.
– Timothy Stoner
(Reprinted with permission from Doug Seebeck and Timothy Stoner’s My Business My Mission, 2009, pp. 225-33.)
Over breakfast at the Hampton Inn in Vicksburg, Mississippi, one of the founding board members of Partners Worldwide, Milt Kuyers, is sharing with me a memory that determined the trajectory of his life.
It happened in his family’s kitchen. Milt was 11 years old. His parents were talking, and several of the children, including Milt, were listening in. Their father said he had decided to ask for a bank loan because he believed God wanted him to give $1,000 to the capital fund drive of a local Christian school. At that time, he was a factory worker making $80 a week. Although Milt’s parents understood and practiced faithful biblical stewardship, Milt’s mother was taken aback by her husband’s desire. Paying their bills was already difficult, and since the family had no savings, she knew that they were simply incapable of raising that money. Milt never forgot the depth of his dad’s emotion at being prevented from giving what he believed God wanted him to give.
The next day Milt’s father met with the bank manager. Milt recalls, “That evening, Dad came home and my mom asked him what the manager’s response had been. He didn’t say a word. He just dropped down on a kitchen chair, bowed his head, and began crying. Through his tears he told her that the bank had not granted him the loan because the officer did not believe they were able to pay it back.”
Milt never forgot the depth of his dad’s emotion at being prevented from giving what he believed God wanted him to give. As he tells me the story I can feel its impact on him, 60 years later. It has been imprinted on his mind and has served as an example and a motivation throughout his life. Today, after having started and sold six companies, and currently owning 12, Milt and his wife, Carol, live on less than 10% of their income. What his father was unable to give, Milt and Carol have given hundreds of times over.
Family Debt and Reconciliation
After graduating from the University of Michigan in 1958 with an MBA, Milt worked for seven years in private practice as a CPA for a large international accounting firm. He admits he was “on a single-minded mission to become highly successful.” In pursuit of this goal he believed that he was ignoring his family and his relationship with God. He recognized that he needed to strengthen both areas.
As he was doing this soul-searching, an attorney from a leading law firm in Milwaukee called to ask if Milt would be interested in becoming the CFO of a manufacturing company that was poised to grow through acquisitions. Milt discovered that the CEO was a man who valued family, so he accepted the position along with its 40% pay cut. Four years later, at the age of 33, Milt was named president of the company’s first acquired subsidiary.
Milt’s dreams of financial success were being fulfilled, but a telephone call from his younger brother, Cal, derailed the trajectory of his comfortable life. It would put a halt to his plans for expansion and prosperity and would cause a wound that would take years to heal. The purpose of the call was to inform Milt that Cal was in serious financial trouble. The banks were getting ready to call in the loans on his businesses. He was facing bankruptcy. Milt agreed to go to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to talk things over.
At their face-to-face meeting Cal admitted that he had talked their father into guaranteeing his business loans. If his businesses folded it would take down their father, whose only asset was his home. Milt was furious but felt his only choice was to take responsibility for the notes.
The debt load took all of Milt’s excess income and more. For several years he and his wife drove older cars. He recalls overhearing a conversation by a church member who clearly believed he had taken the infamous Dutch frugality to an extreme. Eyebrows were raised by those incapable of reconciling Milt and Carol’s lifestyle choices with his position and salary as president of an apparently successful company. It comes as no surprise to hear him admit that he was extremely angry at his brother.
It took several years, but finally Milt was able to get Cal’s debt paid off. During all that time there had been no contact between the two. Unaccountably, three days before his brother’s 35th birthday Milt began finding it impossible to sleep. He was convicted about his deep resentment of his brother.
On the evening of his brother’s birthday, Milt dialed Cal’s number. He requested forgiveness for the anger that he had been harboring. As he spoke, Cal began to weep. He asked Milt’s forgiveness for what he had done, and soon the two brothers were crying together. They forgave each other, and Milt’s burden was lifted.
Three weeks later, Milt was at work when a phone call came. The message was that his brother had just died. Though deeply grieved, Milt was thankful that God had pushed him to reconcile with his brother three weeks before.
Heart on Fire
In 1984 Milt decided it was time to go out on his own. He began to look for a company he could purchase and turn around so that, as he puts it, he could “live happily ever after.” While doing this, he was introduced to Star Sprinkler, a manufacturer of fire protection equipment that was on the ropes and needed new leadership. It was perfect for developing his skills in “turn-around” work.
Not long after, John DeHaan, a college friend and president of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), asked Milt to join eight other Christian Reformed businessmen at a MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Association) conference in Charlottesville, Virginia. This Mennonite group was at the forefront of a movement to enlist businesspeople to get involved in building businesses and creating jobs in the developing world.
After the day’s session, the nine men would go to John’s hotel room and brainstorm how they could put the principles they had heard about into practice. Sometimes the discussions would extend almost to midnight. Their conversations centered on one question: how can businesspeople address the problem of poverty? Though focused internationally, they did not overlook the reality that there were serious local needs as well.
The late-night talks triggered something deep within Milt that was waiting to be awakened. He went back home with his heart on fire. He had been given an entirely new and ennobling vision of his role in the world. He now understood that he existed to do more than write checks for the church. For the first time he recognized that his position and skills as a businessperson were gifts from God, entrusted to him for a significant function in God’s kingdom.
Milt now saw himself as a steward with unique, divinely bestowed abilities that were intended to have an impact beyond his family and even beyond his church. With that new awareness came a compelling sense of mission and a conviction that he was to begin in Milwaukee, where his business and his home were located. The task would be straightforward: providing work for the unemployed in the inner city.
Forming a Partnership Model
As he prepared his strategy and studied the challenges of poverty, Milt became convinced that the major problem for the poor was not finding jobs, but holding on to them. He concluded that it was essential to partner with an organization in the inner city that could provide the accountability to help unskilled workers develop the practices and habits needed to become valued employees.
Milt contacted several ministries in Milwaukee, but none had an interest in partnering with a businessperson. They were willing to receive his financial support, but they suspected his motives. He tried for six months, but the doors kept closing in his face.
Finally someone encouraged him to speak with Pastor James Carrington of Light House Gospel Chapel, a church in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. Before calling, Milt discovered that about 20% of the congregation was unemployed. He phoned Pastor Carrington and briefly explained his idea. The pastor agreed to meet and hear him out. He left with his heart on fire. He had been given an entirely new and ennobling vision of his role in the world.
A few days later Milt drove down to the church building at 35th and North to share his vision of partnering to provide jobs, accountability, and assistance so workers could succeed in their work. Pastor Carrington listened carefully. But when Milt was done he did not mince words. “I don’t think it will work,” he said. He was convinced Milt was a white employer on the lookout for cheap labor and good press. The pastor’s experience had taught him that while white do-gooders might start strong, they usually failed to persevere when things became difficult. “The truth of it is,” he explained, “I don’t know whether I can trust you. If I went out on a limb with my people and then you decided to give up, I would lose significant credibility. I don’t want to risk that you will give one member a job and then if it doesn’t work out you’ll just bail on the whole community.”
Milt dragged himself back to his car feeling drained of his last hope. But at home he began to think the conversation over more calmly. A question struck him: Why did the pastor even agree to see me? Why invite me to come to his office just to tell me he didn’t trust me?
Milt went to see Pastor Carrington a second time and repeated his idea almost verbatim. Again Pastor Carrington expressed his unwillingness to partner with Milt. He repeated his fears: “You will probably try this once and then when it gets hard you’re gonna give up.”
Milt left more discouraged than before. On his way back home he protested: “God, it was you who gave me this idea, but no one wants to help me bring it about. Why make me excited about something so wonderful if nobody is going to come alongside?” He again thought the conversation through. Something about it seemed almost staged, as if the rejection were somehow a test. He decided to call Pastor Carrington one more time. The afternoon of the meeting, as he was again winding his way through the narrow streets of Milwaukee’s danger zone, Milt was battling anxiety mixed with the fear of being shot.
Once more Milt found himself sitting across the desk from the African American pastor. For a brief moment Pastor Carrington did not say a word. Then he leaned back in his swivel chair and said, “Mr. Kuyers, you are for real.” It was a statement of fact laced with genuine surprise. Without pausing for any further discussion, the pastor told Milt that he could identify the unemployed members in his congregation who could make good, faithful employees. He told Milt he would call a meeting and invite them all to attend. But, he added, “I’m not sure how many will show up.”
A few days later Milt and Pastor Carrington met with 19 people in the church auditorium. Pastor Carrington briefly introduced Milt and told them that this business owner had a great idea “and,” he said, “I trust him.” As Milt looked out at the group he saw hope in their eyes. What he did not tell them was that he had no idea what he was going to do with all of them. He had come to the meeting having identified only one job opening at Star Sprinkler. A question struck him: Why did the pastor even agree to see me? Why invite me to come to his office just to tell me he didn’t trust me?
Milt pressed forward and asked the group to write down their names, addresses, past work history, and job preferences. He thanked them, put the resumes in a folder, and drove home with them in his briefcase. Though he had arrived at the chapel with a sense of excitement, he was leaving it in a panic. “What in the world am I going to do?” he groaned out loud. He had intended to hire one person, but now he’d created a sense of expectation for 19 people. What had seemed like an excellent idea just hours earlier appeared now to have been a huge error in judgment.
But in the next two weeks something unprecedented occurred. Orders came in so fast that Star Sprinkler needed to hire new workers immediately. All 19 members of Light House Gospel Chapel were put to work. Stable members of the church agreed to provide the accountability assistance needed to help their newly-employed members succeed. Transportation was offered for those who ran into difficulties getting to work. Light House began a daycare center to serve the single mothers who became part of the program.
Pastor Carrington remained personally involved. He made regular phone calls to Milt, alerting him when one of the church-member employees was having unusual difficulties. Through this partnership Milt and his friend James Carrington were able to impact more than 100 members of the Gospel Chapel.
As Milt finished his cup of coffee, he smiled at me. “That was the beginning of Milt the businessperson seeing there is a lot more to life than running your own company and becoming financially successful.”
Hope, Purpose, and Transformation
A few years later John DeHaan called again, this time with an invitation for Milt to accompany him and some others on a “discovery trip” to Central America. Milt recognized that as executive director for the CRWRC, John might have a hidden agenda behind the call. “I knew that John was trying to build a stable donor base of businesspeople,” he said, but he agreed to go anyway. The trip opened his eyes to the impact of Christian community development. The group was exposed to the dramatic contrast between a village with hope and purpose and one where the atmosphere is clouded with despair. Seeing with his own eyes profound economic, material, and spiritual transformation only deepened Milt’s excitement. “That was the beginning of Milt the businessperson seeing there is a lot more to life than running your own company and becoming financially successful.”
In 1992 Milt and Carol traveled with John and Alice DeHaan to Kenya on another “discovery trip.” Also joining the group were Tony Betten, Marv and Joan Cooper, John and Margaret Vander Ploeg, Ed and Marcie Muller, Doris Tuinstra, and Meg Van Tol. Walking through the garbage dumps of Nairobi, which are home to hundreds of people, made a profound impression on them. They were used to seeing problems as challenges to be solved, but what they saw in the slum was overwhelming.
However, as they observed the substantial economic impacts in areas where CRWRC was making inroads, this oppression began to lift. They began to see the potential for businesspeople like themselves to make a significant contribution.
At each project the team would ask the development workers the same questions: “What happens when these microenterprises become successful? What is your strategy when they expand beyond meeting their immediate needs and begin hiring employees?” In each case the answer was the same: “There is none. They don’t need us anymore. They are successful.” The business owners were stunned. Not always as tactfully as they might have, they responded, “But, you need them!” They came to see that relief and development workers often looked at poverty through the lenses of social sciences rather than business. As a result, their focus tended to be on meeting the immediate basic needs (a good thing!), but not on broader economic sustainability.
These businesspeople understood immediately that successful businesses and business leaders are essential engines to ending poverty. Not only will an expanding business create jobs, it can also help pay the bills that the agencies depended upon donations to cover. But as owners of companies and as hard-headed realists, they also recognized that if a project cannot sustain itself there will come a day when the outside resources dry up and those who have been trained to be dependent will be worse off than before.
Milt and John Vander Ploeg decided to partner with John DeHaan in developing a funding arm for CRWRC comprised of businesspeople who wanted to do more than give money. Partners for Christian Development would be an organization that would measure success not by profit but by the number of jobs created. The vision was to link arms with capable entrepreneurs to help them succeed so they could in turn help their neighbors succeed. Ultimately, success would be achieved not when a family was able to feed itself, but when an entire community was freed from both poverty and charity.
It became obvious to Milt and to John Vander Ploeg that their first priority was to change the mindset of businesspeople. The revolutionary message needed to be delivered emphatically and unapologetically: business is not just business; in reality it is an outstanding Christian calling.
In 1997 Doug Seebeck took Milt and some of the other business people back to Kenya to investigate a pilot project. They met with a group of successful business people in Nairobi who had been gathering for weekly Bible study. The Kenyans described the unique cultural issues and needs of their country. Following these sessions there was an agreement that a real partnership as Christians for business development was possible.
The business people broke up into two groups to hammer out the details. The North Americans sat under one shade tree in the Lanana House courtyard and the Kenyans under another. When they came back together they agreed to establish a $100,000 loan fund to be administered by an organization that would be called the Kenyan Investment Trust (KIT). It would be overseen by trustees from both sides of the partnership. The Kenyans committed to identifying trustworthy Christian entrepreneurs who needed loans to grow their businesses.
Looking back, Milt concedes that there might have been a strategic error in the formation of this first partnership. Despite its promising start, KIT was exclusively a loan organization, and the members were encouraged only to borrow, not save. That caused great difficulties, but it was an important lesson that resulted in a savings plan being hard-wired into all future agreements. It was implemented by Simon Ngeru in a new organization: CHESS (Christian Entrepreneurs Savings Society). It began with 25 businesspeople pooling their savings and has grown to include over 400.
James Gitao, a Kenyan trustee and KIT’s chairperson, had a coffee farm that was facing financial difficulties. That same year James asked Milt if he would be interested in partnering directly together on his coffee farm. This called for a drastic re-evaluation of the role of the North American affiliate and its members. Prior to this time, the affiliate partnered by providing loans, advising, mentoring, and encouraging. There was no personal, individual financial risk involved. This invitation to become a viable partner “with skin in the game” caused no small consternation within the organization.
As Milt thought over the proposal, he explains to me, “It was obvious that there was no good, logical, or compelling reason to invest in the high-risk, culturally volatile, and business-unfriendly climate of Africa.” But despite what his head told him, he felt convinced that the Lord still wanted him to do it. This was the first investment in what he would later call “heart entrepreneurship” or “leading with the heart.” That heart investment has helped to save and sustain around 400 jobs in the coffee industry in Kenya.
More Than Playing Shuffleboard
Now in the latter decades of his life, Milt is a very content and fulfilled man. “At the age of 72 I have more joy than if I were spending six months in Florida playing shuffleboard and planning where to go next to eat out. I want to be doing something productive in God’s kingdom.” I sit up. He has gotten my complete attention. I am not used to this kind of language from a multimillionaire.
“There is no biblical precedent for self-indulgence,” Milt continues. “That has nothing to do with God’s kingdom. God nowhere encourages his people to ‘eat and drink and take it easy now that you have reached your golden years.’ In fact, Jesus spoke harshly about the wealthy businessperson who embraced that lifestyle. He warned that he will return when people least expect it and declare: ‘This night your soul will be demanded since there is no place or purpose for you in my kingdom.’” This 72-year-old philanthropist takes a deep breath. He looks steadily at me and says, “I don’t want to be one of the people Jesus has to speak to in that way.”
Milt picks up his cup and finishes the last of the coffee. He shifts gears. “The strength that businesspeople bring to the table is that they have had a lot of experience with failure. They have learned to struggle and to overcome through dogged perseverance and a hard-won dependence on God. They understand that problems and obstacles are unavoidable. Success in only 1 out of 10 ventures is not grounds for discouragement; it is better than never having made the attempt. God makes it so hard. But, I’ve come to see that the struggles are God’s way of saying: ‘Milt Kuyers, do you know who is in control? You think you are so smart and that you can do all these things, but I’m the one who pulls the trigger. Although you have to keep pushing and struggling, I am going to open doors and close doors.’”
He smiles, but his eyes are very serious. “Through the adversity the successful businessperson has been taught the importance of not giving up. You still have to continue plowing forward through disappointments and discouragements. But if you have one success in the face of 10 failures, that’s more than you would have had had you given up or not even made the attempt.” Now he speaks more expansively as a member of the Partners board. “The businesspeople who are drawn to Partners Worldwide are folks who have learned through hard struggles to trust in God. These struggles have served to break them of their independence. Now they can joyfully celebrate what God has done, knowing that it was him, not them, that caused the success. This 72-year-old philanthropist takes a deep breath. He looks steadily at me and says, “I don’t want to be one of the people Jesus has to speak to in that way.”
“The reality is that God needs moneymakers in his kingdom who will be faithful and responsible with the wealth he allows them to create. They are the ones who realize that stewardship is not really so much about what you give but what you allow yourself to keep.” He continues describing the kind of stewards God is looking for. “Their goal is not to give a tithe and live comfortably on the rest, because they know that all their money is God’s. They understand there is coming a day when they will have to give an account for what they justified to themselves they could live on.”
I am stunned and convicted by the depth of this successful capitalist’s commitment to a lifestyle I usually hear spoken of in the abstract. This son of a factory worker who could not give as much as he wanted is destined to hear the same words undoubtedly spoken to his own father: “Well done, good and faithful servant: enter into the joy prepared for you.”
The beauty of it is that because of the wise choices Milt and Carol Kuyers are making now, they are experiencing that joy already.
Doug Seebeck serves as the President of Partners Worldwide which encourages, equips, and connects business and professional people in global partnerships into more than 20 countries to grow sustainable enterprises and jobs. Doug previously served 19 years with the Christian Reformed Relief Committee in twelve countries initiating and managing relief and development programs. He co-founded Partners Worldwide to expand the business as ministry model pursuing the quadruple bottom line: profit, people, planet, and purpose. Doug co-authored My Business, My Mission: Fighting Poverty through Partnerships, a book now at the forefront of the global business as missions (BAM) movement.
Timothy Stoner was born in Michigan but grew up in Chile and Spain, the child of missionary parents. After college, Tim received Masters of Divinity and Juris Doctor. He spent several years as a bilingual staff attorney with Michigan Migrant Legal Services. He now has a private law practice in Grand Rapids, Michigan specializing in estates and trusts. Tim is the founder of Orphan Justice Mission which is committed to caring for more than 450 Ugandan children, most of whom are AIDS orphans.
– Steve Marr
Most change in business is incremental. That means that one small change or improvement builds upon another. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Tipping Point (Back Bay Books, 2002), makes the case that small incremental changes can reach a point where they tip to unleash a flood of success. The result isn’t so much about the last step, but about the culmination of many steps.
Think about the straw that broke the camel’s back. Each piece of straw had limited impact. Eventually the camel collapses, not because of a bit of straw; but from many bits of straw continuously piled on top of him.
In Scripture we learn that Absalom led a revolt against his father, King David (See 2 Samuel 15-18). While Absalom launched the uprising on a certain day, over time he had been meeting with the people and turning away the people of Israel one person at a time. If the revolt had started much earlier, nothing would have happened. Few would have followed Absalom. The key was the incremental day-by-day change that reached a tipping point that made the revolt possible.
Many skills require 5,000 hours of work to master. Consider the road to becoming a professional athlete. At a young age some have far more natural talent than others. However a 12 year old doesn’t compete with professionals. Step by step, with good coaching and practice, a young player gets better day by day and week by week. When a star emerges we respond as if they came from nowhere. Most often they came from years of hard work, gaining incremental improvement over time.
During my business career, I was thrust into selling part time. It was in the mid 1970’s. Business was down during a recession and all managers were dispatched to get new business. I was assigned to make customer calls four to five days a month. I had very little experience in sales. Over time I learned the basics. However in the beginning I tried to make the most calls possible with little success. Then I learned how to qualify prospects. That led to more effective calls and more business.
I needed to understand how to get to the point quickly. I learned that I had less than five minutes to hook a customer. I had to fine tune how to best use that time. I needed to understand how to respond to customer questions in ways that would help move toward a sale. I needed to ask good questions that would draw out possible opportunities for a sale. I also needed to learn how to close a sale and follow up.
Over time, I was able to develop competency in sales work. To move from being a newbie to achieving competency in sales took several years and many hours of work. I had to improve a little bit every week. After the recession passed I focused most of my time on operations. However I maintained a prospective customer contact list. I made sure to carve out time to meet with customers and new prospects regularly. Incremental change and improvement was my friend.
Another example comes from a Phoenix restaurant. Business had been growing slowly. Then after an outstanding review of the restaurant in the local paper there was a major increase in business. Many people ascribed the boost to the newspaper article. However, looking deeper, the owner and chef had worked for several years to improve the menu items using fresh ingredients and sauces. They also addressed attentive service. While service had been good for the three years before the restaurant had consistently made improvements. Had the dining critic reviewed the establishment three years earlier, the feedback may have been mediocre. It probably would not have generated such an increase in business. Because of small step-by-step improvements the restaurant had delivered food and service at a much higher standard.
The Lord told the people, “Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.” (Exodus 23:30, NIV) When Israel was taking possession of the Promised Land progress was slow because moving the people was a slow process. While they made some progress each day, you would have seen little change most of the time. However within a generation they occupied the land.
Often I work with a business owner who is looking for that big breakthrough that will change everything. Over and over I must remind business leaders that it is the daily details that eventually make the big differences. Incremental change is your ally. Make sure your business plan addresses this important principle.
Steve Marr has learned from 40 years of business experience that God’s way works. As an author, speaker, radio host, and business consultant, Marr helps companies and organizations apply the ancient wisdom of the Bible to avoid the common mistakes and headaches of growing a business. Steve is the CEO of the fourth largest import-export firm in the United States.Through one-on-one consulting, Marr connects with business leaders and helps them apply the Bible’s wisdom. He offers practical advice and solutions that help business owners get started, move to the next level, or respond to a crisis that threatens their company. Marr has written several books and also shares his insights through a syndicated monthly business column. He can also be heard on through the one-minute radio feature “Business Proverbs,” heard on over 1,200 radio stations internationally.Marr also speaks at conferences and offers seminars for businesses and organizations. He’s worked with the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, The Salvation Army, appeared on The 700 Club and 100 Huntley Street, consulted for Family Life Radio Network.
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Eden's Bridge 