5 Essentials for Christian Businesses

I hope you enjoy this series of posts as I have a really busy week - going to be doing some painting! The five essentials for any Christian business is from an article I found on Crown.org. The article was short and succinct so I expanded it with my thoughts and reflections.

5 Essentials for Christian Businesses - Part 1

Leading People to Christ

Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. 17 Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (MSG)

The NIV says in verse 17, "so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good Work." I like how both of these versions clarify this verse. Being equipped requires us to be teachable. This means we listen to advice even if we do not agree. Listening helps us to understand the whole situation not just our interpretation of a situation.

Every task we attempt should become a task we use to honor God. Being equipped with God's Word empowers us to start doing the right things, and in business, doing the right things will sustain our future. Do not always try to be right. Just do the right thing. You will be amazed how your business relationships will begin to flourish.

Guard your heart by reading God's Word daily. Take a moment after each reading to reflect upon what you read or journal how you believe God is communicating to you.

Paul emphasizes doing what is good in 2 Timothy 3:8 by saying that doing the right thing requires us to make a conscious decision to devote ourselves to the right thing.

Part of doing the right thing means we take opportunities to build relationships with anyone we have contact with through our business. These relationships become key in allowing the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us.

Salvation is the territory of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that He is the one who draws people to God. As we spend time reading God’s Word on a daily basis, we become more sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit and more available to participate in that work.

So who do we target?

Each of us in business has some main contact with people whether as customers, vendors, or creditors. Each person is a potential person to lead into a relationship with Christ. Our responsibility is to lead a life that honors God and puts us in a position to lead that person to Jesus.

This series is not about how to lead people to Christ. It is about discovering principles for Christian business, so I will not get into that topic, except to say this:

• Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. This happens as you care for your own spiritual walk.

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2 (NKJV)

• Read the Bible and pray on a daily basis (didn’t I already say this – must be important).
• Learn a simple plan of salvation. Do not come on too strong. Remember this is a business and you need make sure you are not driving your business away. A good resource is Just Walk Across the Room Participant's Guide: Simple Steps Pointing People to Faith By Zondervan
  

When do I find the time to do this?

Time. The only thing that truly remains constant for most of us is that time keeps moving, and we often do not know how our day will flow for that time. This makes being intentional in creating relationships with others all that more important.

The most important aspect of sharing our faith is to recognize that you cannot lead everyone to Jesus. Once we accept this fact, we can begin to focus our attention on the possibilities that exist.

This doesn’t mean we cannot put someone on our prayer list. We should also realize that everyone we meet is somewhere on a faith journey. They may already have a stable and growing relationship with God. This is where relationship becomes important.

But this does nothing to help us find time. Time has to come under our control. The answer is time management.

Here are some time management secrets:

• Only plan 60% of your day. This allows buffers for the unexpected and for being spontaneous.
• Learn to be flexible. This means you may have to move an appointment or change the time for non-critical business tasks.
• Pace yourself. You know how much you can get done. You will only create headaches and other physical problems by packing more into a day that you can handle. This also means that sometimes you may have to wait when it comes to sharing your faith.
• Do not be afraid to put off to tomorrow. Some things can wait.
• Create “discretionary or personal” time into your weekly schedule. Use that time to build relationships.
• Someone once said that we should all learn to say no with finesse. I agree.
  

Time management is a stewardship issue. The more concerned you become with being intentional with your schedule (in a way that honors God), the more God becomes involved in our time process.

God moved time in the Bible and held time still. When we honor Him, He makes up the difference.

So how do I do it?

As I said before, I am not going to cover how to lead someone to Christ. I want to cover a few topics we sometimes overlook in how we can build relationships in business circles.

• Take care of your job – people will tend not to listen to you when you have not taken care of your responsibilities at work. If they sense that you have a job or business just to share your faith, you may not have contact with them very long. To be able to introduce God to others, you need to introduce God into your work. Influence comes from how you are influenced.
• Take care of your character – how does the “fruit of the Spirit” operate in your everyday life? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control all reveal your character. Take action here and you begin to influence others with something they would like to know more about. If you do not have anything to offer, they will not care to hear about it.
• Take care of how you treat others – “Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.” (Ephesians 4:29 (MSG)) Or I could add, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4 (NKJV)) Enough said? Treating other well goes beyond just our physical treatment of them.
• Take care of how you say what you say – Just living it is not enough (no one is that good). In fact, to just live a Christian life and think that is enough communicates a self-righteousness attitude. Something will eventually have to be said. Peter tells us, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear…” (1 Peter 3:15 (NKJV)). With preparation comes opportunity.

Listen to this timely advice:

“When is it appropriate to share your faith? Here is what we suggest:

1. It's fitting to talk about your faith when it arises out of the relationships naturally built around your work with another person. As you discuss work and life with your coworkers, informal mention of spiritual truth will happen naturally, just as other topics of personal importance pop into your conversations.
2. It's appropriate to share you faith when it naturally fits into the topic of conversation. Your conversation should be organic, not mechanical—not contrived, not crafted or calculated to divert discussion into another totally unrelated area. You may have tonight and stood before the gates of heaven, and God asked you why he should let you in, what would you say?" This can have a chilling effect on a conversation—as well as on a budding relationship.
3. It's always appropriate to talk about your faith when you are asked. A question is an open door to address a person's spiritual concern. It is not, however, an invitation to dump all of you spiritual knowledge on someone in one sitting. Give enough information to answer a person's question, but also be sure to look for ways to create more curiosity and questions that can be addressed as time goes on.”

From the book Going Public with Your Faith: Becoming a Spiritual Influence at Work by William Carr Peel and Walt
Larimore (Zondervan, 2003)

Going Public with Your Faith: Becoming a Spiritual Influence at Work By William Carr Peel / Zondervan Revolutionize your view of evangelism and let your actions speak for you. Everyone will be wondering what's different about you as you practice a biblically based view of evangelism specifically suited for today's workplace. Learn how your skills and God-given gifts can impact lives and be used to draw customers, clients and co-workers to a personal relationship in Christ.