Before we dive into the content for this episode, I want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor, High Bridge Books. If you're a Christian and you want to write, publish, and sell a book, you really need to contact us. In fact, you can contact me directly because this is my company. You can reach me at Darren at highbridgebooks.com. Our authors have sold many tens of thousands of life-changing books for the glory of God, and we're always looking for more Christian thought leaders to work with. You can take a look at our publishing package and some of the other services we offer at highbridgebooks.com. And you can also learn about some of our incredible authors and their books. So go to highbridgebooks.com. All right, let's jump into this amazing episode. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Theology of Business Podcast. I'm your host, Darren Shear, and this is the show that helps marketplace Christians to partner with God in business to help you make disciples of your company, your industry, and your community. And that's what marketplace Christians are called to do. We're not just called to make a profit, we're called to make disciples. All right, this episode has been a long time coming. As you know, this show is called the Theology of Business Podcast, but we've never actually done an episode with the goal of defining this concept of theology of business or business theology. And this episode is going to sound sort of like an episode that should have been episode number one, or know what some shows do, episode zero, but it's taken several years of study through research, interviews, writing, and speaking on this subject to even get close to explaining this concept in such a short monologue. What is a theology of business? Why does theology matter in business? What I really what is theology to begin with? That's what I want to talk about in this episode. When I attended a theology school, some people call it divinity school or seminary. And I'll just for a frame of reference, this was 2008 to 2010, uh, when I was in divinity school, the professors never discussed business. And I really mean never. Although most of my former seminary classmates are now working in for-profit companies. Uh in seminary, we were just really being prepared for pulpit ministry or to become seminary professors. And it's really uh interesting to see so many of my classmates, you know, working as uh wealth managers or in so many other facets of the marketplace, because that's ultimately where God uh led so many of us. And when I attended business school, so this was right after divinity school, the professors never discussed the Bible. And although I didn't attend a quote unquote Christian business school, I've since learned that one could scarcely tell the difference of the teaching in a Christian business school classroom from that of a secular business school classroom, unfortunately. Usually Christian universities are simply content to find someone who can teach business who will identify as a Christian by signing a statement of faith, uh, just ensuring that the professor is at least a Christian in name only. And I really can't blame my professors. And I would also add that my uh the the school that I went to where I attended Divinity School has since added a marketplace ministry uh concentration in the divinity school, which is certainly commendable. This is a regent university, it's really an incredible school, so many different great programs there. Um, but but I really can't blame my professors for not helping me to develop a well-formed theology of business. In most cases, they simply didn't have one themselves because they were trained by uh professors that kind of had very similar experiences, whether in academia or in pulpit ministry. Their own professors probably didn't have one, and their pastors likely didn't have one either. And it wasn't until after my theology and business schooling that I realized I hadn't yet done the deeper work of discovering what the Bible says about business matters. And since then, I've written two books, recorded well over a hundred podcast interviews with uh with Christians in the marketplace and people writing and speaking on this subject. People have done a lot of research and practitioners. I've written dozens of blog posts and produce an entire course to highlight what the Bible teaches about business. And just a plug for that course is called the Biblical Standards for Businesses course. If you haven't already gone through it, I recommend checking that out at theologyofbusiness.com forward slash course. You can learn all about it. And during this time, I've discovered that many others share the same hunger to know what God's will is for the marketplace and for our individual assignments within it. I know that because you're listening to this podcast, and I know you're one of those people who has that same hunger to know what God's will is for the business world. So, a question that may uh come up in a lot of people's minds is what is theology? If if there's a theology of business, what is theology? Richard Hooker, uh, he was a prominent 16th century Anglican priest, he defined theology as quote, the s the science of things divine. It's a great quote. Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent theologia as reasoning or discussion concerning the deity. Theology literally means the study of God, and none of us will completely figure out God on this side of eternity, no matter how much we study Him. What's important is that we never stop our pursuit of knowing God. We must never settle for assuming we've reached some sort of enlightened nirvana state or something where we don't need to keep learning and growing and pursuing God. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13 9, we know in part. And this limited part is what you know about God and how you view the world in relation to Him. And as a Christian, this part is your theology, and my part is my theology. None of us has it all figured out because we know in part. Within the framework of your theology, there there's a certain way you view the issues of life in relation to God. And that's why we have political theology and we have biblical perspectives on parenting and education and congregational worship, a lot of church, you know, local church matters. And of course, because so many of us, in my estimation, at least in the United States, is about 85% of us work in a for-profit uh vocation and around the world, because there aren't such large public sectors and social sectors. Uh, in most cases, nearly everybody is working in a for-profit company. And so there's a certain way you view the issues of life in relation to God, and that's your theology. This is why medieval scholars viewed theology as, quote, the queen of the sciences. Logically, they believed they couldn't master any other fields of study in creation, whether in business or otherwise, apart from knowing our creator. And neither can we. How we see God is how we see business. So, what are some elements of a well-formed theology of business? Because you you you can have a theology of something, but if it's not well formed, then uh it's really going to be lacking and potentially destructive as we've seen throughout history. The theology of business is the study of God in relation to business. That's just a very simple definition. While we all have a theology of business, far fewer of us have what could be considered a well-formed Christian theology of business in relation to the Bible. A well-formed theology of business must include a robust, Bible-based perspective on issues such as these. And I'll just list them out here: the purpose of business, how marketplace Christians fit into church structure, government, and mission, how spiritual gifts apply to the marketplace. And we've talked about that a lot on this show, uh, because uh there are some who believe that spiritual gifts only belong in a church building, which is pretty bizarre and pretty telling of uh kind of how we've come to this point in church history. The intrinsic value of work, a biblical framework for all business disciplines. What does the Bible say about economics, innovation, management, marketing, sales? Those are all things that are covered in that course I mentioned, which you can check out at theology of business.com forward slash course. The Holy Spirit's activity in the marketplace. Again, these are these are aspects of what it takes to truly have a well-formed Christian theology of business in relation to the Bible. Another one of those is evangelism and apologetic strategies and methods for the marketplace, church history that highlights key marketplace Christians, Christ-centered companies, and marketplace movements. You know, often if you ask somebody who are the heroes of the Christian faith, they'll list out pulpit ministers like the great, you know, Billy Graham and D.L. Moody and Mother Teresa, who had kind of that traditional sort of um, you know, philanthropic type uh charitable organization. But what about the for-profit business people? You almost never hear of those people mentioned as the heroes of the faith how to approach ethical quandaries in business from a Holy Spirit-led, Bible-based perspective, biblical teaching for business owners, managers, customers, investors, advisors, consumers, and all other stakeholders of a company. And another item would be the role of business in shaping culture. Those are just that's just a list of some of the, and again, if you want this list, you can go to theology of business.com. Uh, I have a lot of this content written out in the form of a blog post. You can get this, uh, share it with others, share it with your classes. I know we have um business schools and seminaries that are using some of this content. What are some of the modern expressions of business theology? If you were to interview Christian business professionals as I have and ask them how God, the Bible, and the Christian faith relate to business, many different concepts would emerge, whether explicitly or implicitly. Going further into the interview, you might be able to categorize the Christian's predominant theology of business into one or more of these seven categories I'm about to mention, which tend to emphasize certain elements of business theology over others. And I'll list them out here. I would say evangelism focus would be one of the big ones. And some of the expressions of that would be business's mission, business's ministry, marketplace ministry. Typically, those are going to have an evangelism focus. Number two, an ethics-focused expression of business theology. Uh, some of the expressions of that would be ethical capitalism or biblical business. Number three, philanthropy focused. You may have heard the term strategic philanthropy or kingdom builders. I know some churches, uh, and I'm referring to the the uh the gathering on Sunday morning at a in a building, uh, kingdom builders organizations are typically a ministry of an institutional church aimed at increasing donations to the local church, you know, where they're gonna gather the business people and kind of rally them around building projects and and things of that nature. Number four would be goodness of work focused. Some expressions of that will be theology of work, work is worship, uh, typically a strong focus on the creation mandate. And, you know, let's look at kind of how God created work as a good thing before the fall, and a lot of emphasis on uh those first couple of chapters of of Genesis there, and and showing how this kind of work is matters to God and that kind of work matters to God, and and everybody's work matters to God. You know, these are these are all expressions of that goodness of work focus. And number five would be social justice focused. Some expressions would be social entrepreneurship, community capitalism, liberation theology. I will say I did hear um a bit about the liberation theology in seminary. So when I said that I didn't hear much about business, or I said I didn't hear anything about business, um, somewhat indirectly, I did hear about liberation theology. It's a very popular teaching in um in a lot of seminaries nowadays that that really is on the offensive against capitalism uh and so on. So this would be just one of those those social justice uh focuses. Number six, culture shaping focused. Uh, some expressions of this would be the Seven Mountains mandate. We've had some people come on the show talk about that. When you hear the term kingdom business, you know, the uh the dominion of of God in the marketplace, typically this is gonna have a culture-shaping uh emphasis. Number seven would be the employee care focus. Some expressions of this would be servant leadership. And often when people are rallying um leaders to to dive into what the Bible says about business, it's often going to take on kind of a HR theme. You know, what are your employee care programs and and so on? And certainly there are more than these seven that I've mentioned here, but these are some of the categories that seem to be the most commonly espoused by Christians, I would say. And as you'll notice, some of their expressions are more consistent with Orthodox Christian theology than others. How would you categorize your personal theology of business? And it's probably going to be a mashup or a blend of some of these seven. And, you know, we would like to say that we have a proper blend of all seven of these, but you know, chances are we're going to default to uh one or more than than the others. What are some of the factors? Now, I don't know, I've talked about what are some of the modern expressions of business theology that are out there? What are some of the factors that that have kind of led to the emergence of some of these focuses? What are some of the factors that form a person's theology of business? Even if we're not aware of it, we all have a theology of business, which is shaped or warped, as the case may be, by many different factors. And here are a few of the major ones, and I'll list these as well. Family upbringing, religious, denominational, and church background, political affiliation and background, your conversion story, spiritual gifts, negative experiences in business, positive experiences in business. I mean, if you think business is a good thing, uh, you know, looking at the the theology of work and and the creation mandate, and that work is a good thing, you know, and you had some very bad experiences in business or or at the uh that that was perpetrated by business people, you know, you may have that may have reinforced for you the idea that work is not a good thing or that business is not a good thing in the eyes of God. So those positive and negative experiences in business are going to be very uh formative when it comes to someone's theology of business. And your personality, the presence or absence of an admirable or dishonorable Christian business owner in a person's life, socioeconomic and cultural context. Many of these things are going to, these aren't just shaping our political views. These are um, I think more deeply affecting our views of business and our theology of business, which then in turn tends to inform our political views. To be sure, once theology of business also makes a sort of a reciprocal impact on many of these items that I've just listed out for you. So here's our opportunity with the Theology of Business Institute in this podcast. And many of you I know who are listening to this podcast, your writing, you're speaking, your practitioners out there in the business world, leading companies. Um, we the this field of business theology is both fertile and somewhat uncultivated presently. And the people of God are in great need of Christians who are equipped with a robust Christian theology of business. And I'm not aware of an area with a more urgent need for disciple making than the marketplace. And currently, the aim of the Theology of Business Institute going into this new decade of 2020 is to present a biblical framework for every major topic that's taught in MBA programs today. That's the goal of the course we've created for Marketplace Christians called the Biblical Standards for Businesses course, which you can learn more about at theology of business.com forward slash course, as I've mentioned. And we're also focused on developing a more robust perspective on the courses being taught in today's seminaries and Bible schools to ensure that the marketplace receives the the theological attention it so desperately needs. And I know I've been uh getting here, we're in January, the start of college semesters, been getting a lot of orders for this book that I've written, Marketing Like Jesus. And it's exciting to see that uh books like this are now being used in seminaries and Christian business schools. Now, I want to hear more from you in the comments section for this episode on theologyofbusiness.com. Would you consider your theology of business to be well formed? And uh another question to tackle is which aspects of business theology do you believe are the most underdeveloped for most Christians? Let us know. Thanks for listening and keep partnering with God and your business. And don't forget to check out our sponsor at highbridgebooks.com and feel free to contact me directly about your book at Darren at highbridgebooks.com if you're interested in writing, publishing, and selling a book.