Why Christian businesses are so important to God’s Kingdom

Christian businesses are an important part of the Kingdom of God for 2 main reasons:

1. Your business is a vehicle of provision and the transfer of wealth from God to you (Kingdom economy) 

2. Business is a source of influence that allows God’s message of salvation to reach the Marketplace (Kingdom strategy)

Let’s examine these further.

Reason 1: Business success is a source of blessing for us and funding for the ministry.

God has given us promises of financial blessing and success through the work of our hands, which is for us, our business. In the Old Testament God blessed His people through their productive efforts by multiplying their crops and herds. Today He blesses His people with inspiration and favor to succeed in business. Your business is as important to God as it is to you. It is the means by which He provides for us and our families, creates generational wealth for His people, and releases funds for the work of the ministry.

While God is willing and able to bless us, we have a role to play in the process. Financial success does not come by wishing it, it comes by owner discipline, proper management and sound strategy. Ownership requires leadership. I have seen business owners delegate the managing of their business to “trusted” individuals and relegate themselves to focusing on their particular strength (winning customers, making the product, providing the service) with disastrous results.

For your business to succeed, you must take an active role in leading strategy and management decisions. The challenge sometimes is that we do not know enough about finances or numbers and prefer not to engage in those conversations. Too many business owners abandon financial decisions to their accountant or financial manager and sit back only wanting to hear good news. These supporting roles are there to help you, not to run your business for you. This is your business; have those who support you explain financial results, whether good or bad, in simple terms without complicated accounting jargon. Tell them: “Explain this to me as you would to a 10-year-old child.” It is what I do when someone tells me something that I don’t fully understand.

I am making this point here because developing your leadership and management skill is critical to achieving business success. Without this your business will not establish a foundation for long term success and while God in His goodness may still bless you, you will not be able to retain it, or build on it.

Reason 2: Christian entrepreneurs are important because of their influence in business:

In my recent blog post “The Reality of the Kingdom and the battle to save the world” I said that we are in the middle of an unseen battle over the lives and destinies of each person on this planet. The two sides to this contest are the Kingdom of God and the “power of darkness”. God’s agenda is to seek and save the lost while the ruler of darkness is intent on keeping mankind in bondage to sin and subject to eternal judgment.

Influencers for darkness:

One of the strategic weapons used on both sides of this battle is influence. “Influencers” are used by the power of darkness to create “followers” and to cultivate in them thoughts and desires which feed the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. “Ticktock” for example is clearly being used as a tool to influence and corrupt the young. But the targets are not just young people.

Much of the adult programming and “reality” shows being offered as entertainment, glamorize excessive lifestyles, outrageous behavior and fake emotions in fake relationships. Again the objective is to delude viewers into thinking that what they see on the screen is how real life is, or should be, and to acclimatize us to accepting sensuality and selfish behavior as a norm. This pulls us further away from true morality, integrity and decency and it programs us to accept sin as a normal part of life.

Influencers for darkness are not just in the world of entertainment, but also in product design and promotion, music messaging, social ideologies and even in the examples set for us by some of our political, religious and community leaders. The objective again is to normalize sin and create indifference and resistance to God.

Kingdom Influencers:

But what about the Kingdom of God? Does God use “influencers” to reach the lost? Absolutely. Here are some references to show that God expects us to use our personal influence to serve Him.

• “Let your light so shine that they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Mat 5:16)

• You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men

  (2 Cor 3:2)

  
  

We are to let our light shine, (use our influence) so that people will see a reflection of God’s goodness in us and be pointed to Him. We are the living gospel that people read and understand, and our behavior and testimony influence how the unsaved process what they hear about God. It is one thing to tell someone “God loves you” and its another thing for them to see that love demonstrated in how we treat them. If we respond to insults with insults, hate with hate, disrespect with disrespect, then our testimony is tainted, and the gospel is of no effect.

Our conduct and testimony as believers influence how the world responds to our message, and we are called to both speak and live the gospel in plain sight. As a Christian entrepreneur, you have influence in one of the most important areas of modern human endeavor, business.

Business makes the world go around. Remove commercial activity and trade from the global economy and everything else grinds to a halt. In addition, a significant portion of the world’s population is employed in business either directly or indirectly and it is there that our influence becomes useful to the Kingdom.

When Jesus told His disciples “Go into all the world...” the world then was defined by geography. It meant go from nation to nation. Today the world has changed, and we now have worlds within the world. There is the world of entertainment, politics, science, arts, music and of course business. The world is no longer just geography, but it is spheres of influence. We are called to the world of business. This is where our relationships, connections and influence with those who “live” there, are so important.

The ‘Marketplace” then, is not just where we meet to conduct trade, it is our mission field.

Summary:

Business is a vital part of the Kingdom's economy and strategy. As Christian business owners we have dual roles to play. The first is to address ourselves to the leadership and financial management of our business to the best of our ability, and by the grace of God. We may not be business experts (now) but if we are willing to learn, and to seek God on this, I believe that He will send the right help to us. The second role is as a “Kingdom influencer,” willing to stand for what it right in the eyes of the Lord and to represent His message to the world.

I pray that this helps inspire you to build a successful business and to use it to advance the Kingdom.

Robert.