Welcome back to the Christianity and Business Podcast, an initiative of the RGW Dunham College of Business at Houston Christian University. I'm your host, Darren Shear, and this is a show that helps Christian business leaders to integrate biblical values into business. Today I've got some big news. I'm excited to announce the official release of my third book for Marketplace Christians, which is titled The Christ-Centered Company: 37 Biblical Business Habits to Build a Thriving Company that honors God and blesses the world. In the Christ-centered company book, I've provided practical biblical commentary and real-world best practices solely from other Christ-centered companies for 37 biblical business habits that characterize the culture and operations of a Christ-centered company. And these are the same habits surveyed in the Christ-centered company assessment. You and your company's influencers can take at theology at business.com forward slash CCC. The Christ-Centered Company book establishes a comprehensive biblical business operating system for Christ-centered companies, helping you to learn what the Bible says about each of the following major aspects of the company you influence: corporate purpose and culture, marketing, sales, and customer care, accounting and accountability, people management, business law and conflict, risk management, and philanthropy. And I'm asking you, the Theology of Business podcast listeners, to join my book launch team by doing the following right away. If I would be so grateful if you would go purchase the paperback ebook andor the audio book on Amazon right now, and also leave a rating and review for the book on Amazon after you read it. And you can do that by scrolling to the bottom of that product page and clicking write a customer review. If you do those two things right away, it'd be so grateful. And on this episode, you're going to hear the full length of the book's introduction to give you a sense of what's in store for you and your company, you influence as you read and apply what's in this book. So please enjoy this excerpt from The Christ Centered Company, which is now available at theology of business.com and on Amazon in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
SPEAKER_01Introduction. A Christ-centered company is a value-making, profit-producing, and law-abiding organization dedicated to spreading the awareness of God's glory through exhibiting Christ-centered biblical business habits. At a pivotal moment in Israel's history, God and God's prophets were put to the test. The question in everyone's mind that day was this Is the God of Israel more real and powerful than all other gods? Only the one true God would answer by fire and set the altar ablaze. The prophets of Baal were so convinced of their God's superiority that they cried out with a loud voice and began cutting themselves with swords and lances until blood gushed out on them to demonstrate their conviction, hoping their God would display his power by igniting their altar. As during the time of Elijah, a culture war is waging in the world today, and for profit companies are at the center of it. Considering more than 85% of working age people spend around sixty five percent of their waking hours working in a for profit company, it's clear that the marketplace is the central battleground for competing narratives and ideologies that seek to steer a culture in a particular direction. For profit companies profoundly influence all levels of society. Employees and their families, customers, suppliers, contractors, and vendors, shareholders, communities, markets, to industries, to economies, to nations. Like the prophets of Baal, the lost world is convinced that their self-obsessed, godless value systems reign supreme in the marketplace, mutilating themselves with values and business practices that suggest our God is dead and irrelevant. Sadly, many professing Christians also conduct business in this way. Sure, marketplace Christians are occasionally told well meaning platitudes, like these. You don't have to leave the business world to do work that glorifies God. God cares about business. The Bible is the best handbook for business. However, few of us have seen actionable biblical proof that these things are indeed the case, other than perhaps a proverb here and there. Of course, the false god Baal never responded. Elijah ridiculed the false prophets, saying, Call out with a loud voice, since he is a god. Undoubtedly he is attending to business, or is on the way, or is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and will awaken. But then it was God's and Elijah's turn. Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down by their godless enemies, prepared an offering, drenched it with twelve large jars of water, and asked the Lord to display his glory. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood, and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Upon Elijah's order, the prophets of Baal were then executed for high treason, having attempted to hijack the culture God had established for his people through Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and the other patriarchs and matriarchs of our faith. As was the case in Israel three thousand years ago, our God is the only one who can answer by fire. He wants you, marketplace Christian, to devote your company to him as an altar for his glory by centering it on his Son, Jesus Christ. Brightly will it shine in these dark days. Center your company on Christ. Yes, a for profit company cannot be considered as born again, for that unspeakable joy and privilege is reserved for individual people who possess a spirit, soul, and body. However, insofar as certain gospel promoting charities and legal entity church institutions, that is, the physical location where you show up on Sunday mornings, can be considered Christian organizations, despite that not every person sitting in its rows is truly a born again follower of Christ, for profit companies may also be labeled as Christian in this regard. But rather than using Christian as an adjective to label a business, or for that matter any other organization, perhaps it is more theologically and biblically consistent to label such organizations as Christ centered. My goal with the teachings and process outlined in this book is to help you discover and apply God's will for your business through centering your company on Christ and His Word. As we begin, allow me to offer a working definition of what it means to be a Christ-centered company. A Christ centered company is a value-making, profit-producing, and law-abiding organization dedicated to spreading the awareness of God's glory through exhibiting Christ-centered biblical business habits. Companies won't remain companies at all if they're not making value, producing profit and abiding by the laws of the land. The biblical habits found in this book will help you achieve all three regardless of your company's core purpose or habit. The Christ-centered company definitions aspect of being dedicated to spreading the awareness of God's glory is the key differentiator between a Christ-centered company and those that are centered on something or someone else. This dedication requires that we recognize and seek to reveal the glory of God through every aspect of our companies, acknowledging Him in all our ways, Proverbs chapter three, verse six, which we will seek to do through the Christ centered company process. In the definition, what is meant by God's glory? The writer of Hebrews said The Sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being. There is our answer Jesus Christ is the glory of God. Thus we can interpret Habakkuk chapter two verse fourteen as follows for as the waters fill the sea, the earth, including the business world, will be filled with an awareness of the glory of God. Jesus Christ. In this verse, Habakkuk has prophesized the fulfillment of the great commission Jesus entrusted to his disciples, in which he charged his followers to make disciples of all nations, Matthew chapter twenty eight nineteen. The mandate wasn't merely to go and make profit, go and plant churches, or go and make a difference, although these are strategically significant in our primary mission as God's people. Instead, it's to go and make disciples. Collectively, individual disciples of Jesus are called to disciple entire groups of people, that is, to reveal Jesus, that is, the glory of God, throughout all spheres of all cultures in all societies. Companies market culture. Culture makes disciples. Influencers' habits make culture. Your company's culture is the primary thing your company is marketing. The products, services, operations, values, and policies of your company flow from your company's culture. Team members come and go, but the culture of your company will remain. Your company's culture will be influenced and defined by every team member's habits for as long as the company endures. If you want to carry out the Great Commission by making disciples in the world, center your company's culture and habits on Christ. Culture can be defined as the defining habits of a group of people. People's habits shape the culture of your company. And if those habits are Christ centered, the culture will make disciples of Jesus Christ. As this corporate disciple making happens in a company, the company becomes increasingly Christ-centered. In a Christ-centered company, Jesus is revealed through the leaders of the company and ultimately throughout its entire culture and prevailing habits. When aligned with this disciple making mission in word and deed, Christ-centered companies can be used as tools to help individuals, communities, nations, and industries recognize the glorious image and character of Jesus. This process usually begins when one person of influence in a company decides to partner with God in his disciple-making mission. Will you be that person on behalf of your company? What gets measured gets done. Either before, during, or after you listen to this book, please take the Christ-centered company assessment online at theologyofbusiness.com forward slash CC to assess the extent to which your company's culture and habits are currently consistent with the Christ-centered company habits taught in this book. This book provides real-world best practices and practical biblical commentary for all 37 habits surveyed in the assessment. Each is categorized into one of the following seven parts. 1. Corporate purpose and culture. 2. Marketing, sales, and customer care. 3. Accounting and accountability. 4. People management. 5. Business Law and Conflict. 6. Risk management. 7. Philanthropy. You will be asked to rate your company, and in a few cases yourself as an influencer within the company on a scale of 1 to 5. If you give yourself or your company a score of five, this means you and or your company always demonstrate adherence to that particular habit, while a score of one means you and or your company never demonstrate adherence to that particular habit. How different would your company be for you, your team members, your customers, and every other stakeholder who encounters your company if you could honestly give yourself and your company a five out of five rating in all thirty seven habit statements in the Christ-centered company assessment? Does this sound unrealistically utopian, impossible, excessive? More on these objections in a moment. Having studied Christ-centered companies and God's word concerning business for more than a decade, interviewed hundreds of Christian business leaders and academics active in faith and business integration, and implemented these habits to varying degrees as a full-time small business owner and CEO myself since 2013, I have observed that these 37 habits are the most consistently applied best practices among companies whose influencers deliberately aim to use their companies as platforms for revealing God's glory to impact culture. Rather than giving examples in the book from today's companies for whom Christ is unwelcome and decidedly irrelevant, the real-world examples in this book have been deliberately restricted to companies whose leaders have publicly indicated that their companies exist for God's purposes. Whereas I focused on marketplace Christians' individual marketplace callings and assignments in my previous book, The Marketplace Christian, this book focuses on God's will and ways for a for-profit company corporately. The approach I have taken in developing this book is similar to the one I took with writing Marketing Like Jesus, except this book focuses on more aspects of business than just marketing, and the scope of biblical application encompasses the whole Bible rather than being limited to the earthly life and ministry of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Before we begin this book, allow me to address some of the objections that could hold some Christian business influencers back from fully committing to the process of partnering with the Holy Spirit to transform one's own company into one that is Christ centered. Objection one. Fortunately, you can work toward implementing all thirty-seven of the Christ-centered company habits across your company without ever publicly announcing to the entire company that your objective is to partner with God to transform the whole outfit into a Christ-centered company. You don't have to put a Christian fish or cross on your company's logo. Verbally announcing such a commitment from the outset won't reveal God's glory nearly to the extent that stealthily and shrewdly implementing the thirty seven Christ-centered company habits will. Christianity might even be illegal in the place where your company operates. Again, you don't have to broadcast your Christ centered motives to everyone, for example, the government, your employees, etc. Just apply the habits and watch God display his glory however he desires. Objection two. My business partner isn't a Christian. If your business partner is truly against your commitment to apply the thirty seven Christ centered company habits, it's likely that you are unequally yoked with an unbeliever. It might be time to part ways. But if your business partner isn't actively against you and your efforts to apply these habits, why not assume he is for you? As Jesus said, whoever is not against us is for us. Mark chapter nine verse forty. Don't allow your business partner's lack of devotion to God to sabotage the work he wants to do in your company. Who knows, this could be your greatest opportunity to show your business partner that God knows and cares more about your company than he does. Objection three. I'm neither the owner nor the co owner of the company. To be sure, it's easier to apply these habits in your company if you're the company's sole owner, or at least there are fewer excuses for not applying them. Even if you're not the owner or co owner, that doesn't mean you don't share responsibility for applying many of the Christ centered company habits to some degree. You have some level of influence in your company, or else they wouldn't be paying you. For this reason, I will generally refer to the listener of this book as a Christ centered company influencer, lest it be assumed I'm only speaking to the senior leaders of your company. Regardless of your job title, consider accepting at least partial responsibility for everything that happens in your company. Even if you're the lowest ranking entry level employee, you still have God given authority and influence to pray for your company, advocate for necessary changes, and demonstrate the changes you desire to see across your company. As you do so, you will likely find yourself getting promoted within your company. If you aren't in senior leadership within your company, but know of a senior leader who desires to see God's glory revealed at your place of work, consider giving a copy of this book to her and see if she would be interested in committing to the Christ centered company process with you. Imagine how God might use such a step of faith to impact your company and its stakeholders. Objection four. My company is too small to do all these things. Many of the company leaders who have already taken the Christ centered company assessment have proven that every Bible-based business habit you're going to hear about in this book can indeed be applied in a for-profit company. With that said, this will be a long-term process for you and your company, with frequent recalibration required to stay on track. I suggest that if you are committed to the process of growing yourself and your company in all 37 habits and have surrendered ultimate control of your company to the Holy Spirit, relying on Him as your source of power and wisdom to apply these habits from God's Word, your company is operating as a Christ-centered company. Growing your company to maturity. One generally accepted definition of a mature company is one that is well established in its industry with a well-known product and loyal customer following. Aside from the number of employees it has or the level of its gross revenue or profitability, I suggest that a mature Christ-centered company is one that averages at least a 90% rating in all seven parts of the 37 Christ-centered company habit statements. When you stand before God one day, he's likely not going to ask you, how many employees did you have? Or what was your gross or net revenue? However, among many other things, he will likely ask something more like this, by the standard of my word, how mature was the company I entrusted to you? How to listen to this book. Every Christian business influencer, for example, business owner, leader, senior manager, middle manager, etc., should take the Christ-centered company assessment, discuss the results with their teams and peers, learn the biblical business operating system presented in this book, and commit to forming biblical business habits throughout the companies they influence. To get the most out of this book, I suggest listening to it with your leadership team and or peer advisory group of other Christian business influencers. Ask each person in the study group to take the online assessment on their own, and then be ready to report their results to the group as your group's study moves from one habit to the next. Discussion questions have been provided at the end of each habit's commentary to help you facilitate your group's conversation. As other members of your company's leadership team take the assessment, find out if different people gave different responses. Identify and discuss what your company is doing well and which areas need improvement. If you are studying the book with a group of peers from other companies, identify best practices from the group members' companies that you may find helpful to implement in your own company. As you identify areas needing improvement, delegate the responsibility for those improvements to your team members who are accountable for those areas. Of course, bear in mind that the leader is ultimately responsible for your company's past and future performance regarding each habit. Most of all, invite the Holy Spirit, your helper and guide into all truth, John chapter 16, verse 13, to give you the wisdom and power to grow in each of these 37 habits? Now, let's begin. Reflect, discussion, and application. How do for-profit companies fit into God's mission to redeem humanity? Are any of the four objections holding you back from cultivating a Christ-centered company at your place of work? From a biblical standpoint, which areas of your company are mature, which are immature?
SPEAKER_00We hope you've enjoyed this episode, and if so, we would greatly appreciate it if you'd leave us a quick rating and review for the Christianity and Business podcasts on iTunes. You can get more information about HCU's Center for Christianity and Business, and sign up to receive free access to all issues of the Christian Business Review Journal by visiting our website at Christianityandbusiness.com. Thanks for listening and remember to keep integrating biblical values into your business.