Welcome back to the Theology of Business Podcast, the show that helps marketplace Christians to partner with God in business, to transform the marketplace and make an impact in eternity. I'm your host, Darren Sheer, author of the brand new book, The Marketplace Christian, a practical guide to using your spiritual gifts in business. And also the book Marketing Like Jesus. 25 Strategies to Change the World. You can get both of these books at either Amazon.com or of course at theology of business.com at paperback or ebook. Hope you enjoyed today's episode, and I'd love to have a discussion with you in the comments section for this episode at theologyofbusiness.com. Have you identified your personal role in the marketplace Christianity movement? I'm noticing that today an increasing number of Christians are becoming interested in launching initiatives, maybe businesses or nonprofits or coaching organizations or podcasts in my case. They're launching initiatives to glorify God in the business world. And if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably one of us. So what are the current trends in the marketplace Christianity movement and how can we get involved in what the Holy Spirit is doing today? And I'm gonna and I'm gonna address those questions in a future episode that I'm currently developing. But first, for the purposes of this episode, we need to understand and appreciate the origins of the various expressions of this powerful and exciting movement of the Holy Spirit. And especially for those of us who are called to be leaders in this movement, we really need to understand how it originated. Because I know that sometimes when I talk to people in this movement, it's it's almost as if they feel that they're the first person to ever realize that God wanted to be involved in the business world. But I I hope I can uh I can reveal to us today that there is there is quite a history that has brought us to where we are today in a lot of the exciting things and trends that are going on today in terms of the marketplace Christianity movement. And certainly God has been at work in the marketplace since the creation of economics in the Garden of Eden. That'll probably be a different episode. But for the purposes of this episode, we'll be tracing this movement's history starting from the 1930s. And so I'm gonna kind of break it down by identifying some of the general themes that I've noticed as I've kind of studied uh the brief history of this movement during the past hundred years or so. But we're gonna start in the 1930s. So between the 1930s and the 1950s, I'm gonna call that the men's evangelism focus. The founding of the Christian businessmen's connection, as it's called today, uh CBMC, it was actually renamed, but the CBMC in 1937, that founding generally is considered the beginning of the modern marketplace Christianity movement. The CBMC, which is still active today after all these years, has many of its 50,000 members attending weekly chapter meetings. And the CBMC began when a group of Christian businessmen facilitated a series of weekday evangelistic meetings in Chicago during the Depression era. And then in the and so it was, you can see that it was very much originated with a desire to win souls and win the lost and have these evangelistic meetings, and these businessmen were, I mean, there were there were meetings going on not in a church building, but out in the marketplace, like during a weekday. That was kind of a new development. Um sort of a Pentecostal expression with the founding of the Full Gospel Businessman's Fellowship International, kind of a long acronym there, FGBMFI. Uh, it was founded by Damas Shikarian. Shikarian was a prosperous dairy farmer whose farm became the largest in the world at the time. And this prosperous businessman, Shikarian, he used his influence and organizational abilities to help facilitate evangelistic crusades for Oral Roberts and others. And noticing that these crusades were primarily attended by women, he started the full gospel businessmen's fellowship to reach men with the gospel. And today there are at least 3,000 chapters in at least 160 countries that meet meet weekly or monthly. So in the 1930s and 1950s, this movement was really characterized by an emphasis on leading men to Christ. Uh, it was it was very much evangelistic in nature. These businessmen had uh a great deal of influence and resources, and they wanted to they wanted to use that for holding these evangelistic crusades. They wanted to have meetings where they could bring in lost people and introduce them to Jesus. Awesome, awesome stuff. So that that stream, that movement, that that piece really kind of um kind of got fueled and and supercharged in the 30s through the 50s. So then in the 60s through the 70s, uh what was what was happening? I'm gonna call that a charismatic and diversity focus. And because it was this time that the charismatic renewal of the 60s and 70s was really going strong. So during this time, an organization called Aglow International is is one that characterized, I think, this movement's predominantly charismatic emphasis on diversity during this season. A GLO International was originally known as Women's Agglow Fellowship. It was founded in 1967, interestingly, by four wives of the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International members. And these women wanted their groups to be a place where those, and I quote, those coming into the charismatic renewal could meet to pray fellowship and listen to the testimonies of other Christian women. And parting with a more traditional approach to marketplace Christianity, much of the organization's emphasis has been on empowering women, economic impact, charismatic experience, apostolic ministry, prophetic ministry, and international impact. They have meetings that are going on in the marketplace, not just in homes and places like that, but actually in the workplace, women are gathering. And again, it does have to this day uh very much a charismatic, Pentecostal kind of DNA, uh, but that really got going in the 1960s and 70s. And each of those things that I just mentioned about the apostolic ministry, the prophetic ministry are very much hallmarks of Pentecostal charismatic theology and practice that really saw a renewal in the 60s and 70s. And today, a GLO International has more than 200,000 people, and these are, of course, primarily women, meeting monthly in about 171 nations. So then in the 1980s, it was really characterized by what I'll call a timeless business principles focus. A major trend in the 1980s was the emphasis on the application of biblical business principles. So, for example, proverbs about money and proverbs about decision making, but very much an emphasis on the book of Proverbs and the wisdom of Solomon as it relates to uh business and leadership and so forth. And this trend can be observed through the emergence of the primarily white-collar Christian networking groups such as the Fellowship of Companies for Christ International, which is still uh going very strong today, the FCCI, and the International Chamber of Commerce that emerged in the late 1970s and uh also the mid-1980s, respectively. Larry Briquette's classic book, Business by the Book, communicates many of the ideals that emerge during this season of the movement. Christian thought leaders in business today, such as John Maxwell and Dave Ramsey, continue to demonstrate this what I'll call a latent expression of marketplace Christianity. It's it's not necessarily when they're doing their seminars, like I went just went and heard Dave Ramsey speak um at one of his entree leadership uh one day meetings, and and he does, I mean, you'll everybody knows he's a Christian, but he doesn't necessarily wear it on his sleeve when during the during the teaching, because it the emphasis is really on applying the principles to your business. And then in the 1990s, what emerged is what I'll call the search for meaning focus. In 1994, Bob Buford published a book titled Halftime, and I had uh one of the leaders of Halftime, Jeff Spatafort, on this podcast uh several weeks ago. But Bob Buford published a book titled Halftime, which marked a new emphasis of the marketplace Christianity movement. So as people were retiring from corporate America, Buford was noticing that many of them felt unfulfilled with the decades of work they had performed in the marketplace. And these marketplace Christians were now embarking on a search for greater significance in the second half of their lives. And for most of them, this meant doing nonprofit work or what has been referred to traditionally as ministry work. But for many of them, this meant remaining in corporate America with a fresh sense of eternal purpose, having discovered their Ephesians 210 calling. And you can hear more about that in my interview with Jeff Spatafora. Uh the it's interesting because something he said something like 80% of them come to halftime thinking they're going to go into doing nonprofit or church work, but many of them do go back into business, like I said, with that fresh perspective that business is also a calling and a ministry unto God. And in the pursuit of this search for meaning and calling and work, groups of marketplace leaders like the Pinnacle Forum were formed during the 1990s. And these leaders have come together in the Pinnacle Forum, for example, to leverage their skills, resources, and influence to make an impact for God's glory. For example, approximately 80% of the investors in Pure Flix entertainment, as I was told by their chief operations officer, about 80% of the investors in Pure Flix, which is the largest Christian film production and distribution company in the world, are members of the Pinnacle Forum. Pure Flix, you're probably familiar with the movies they produced, like God's Not Dead, and more recently Woodlawn, and uh also God's Not Dead 2, which is going to be coming out. Highly recommend going to support all of these movies. Incredible uh quality that is being produced. So that was that was kind of another expression of this search for meaning focus. Another way is the way in which many of these business leaders began to hire corporate chaplains to provide spiritual and emotional support for the employees in their companies. And two leaders in corporate chaplaincy, marketplace chaplains, USA, and corporate chaplains of America, both emerged during this time are doing incredible work in that regard. And then in the 2000s, there I've noticed that there seemed to be sort of uh I won't say a split, but sort of uh a multiplication or kind of a specialization among that that really kind of was defined along denominational lines. So in the 2000s, I'm gonna talk about three different streams. One is the Neo-Calvinists, and and I'm gonna explain a little bit of what I mean by Neo-Calvinist if you're not familiar with that term. Um, but but this is more of a Genesis chapters one and two focus. Emphasizing the creation story in Genesis chapters one and two, they have drawn heavily from the teachings of Neo-Calvinist theologian Abraham Kuyper, who asserted that human beings have been appointed as God's priests of creation. And this doctrine has led to the development of a robust theology of work that teaches us that the marketplace Christians' work itself can be worship to God. So it's not as if you have to come in and uh have a Bible study to do work uh to do ministry in your workplace, but your work itself is worship and should be worship unto God. And they have taught us that every helpful job in society is a means by which we can participate consciously in the universally good economic system God established in the Garden of Eden. And the Theology of Work Project, you can you can check out their work at theology of work.org, Redeemer Churches, Center for Faith and Work, uh, Redeemer Church up in New York City, pastor by Tim Keller, and also the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics emerged during this ec that during this decade, all having this Genesis one and two creation stewardship focus as the foundational basis for what they've labeled the theology of work. And many books with this Genesis one and two work is worship focus emerged during this decade. So if you do a Google search for work as worship, chances are the book came out during that during that time. And then also in the 2000s, in addition to what the Neo-Calvinists were really were emphasizing, was what I'll call the evangelicals focused. And that was on business as mission. Business as mission is a phrase that emerged during the 2000s to refer to Christians' missionary callings to the marketplace, especially to the international marketplace, a mission field for evangelism and sharing the love of Jesus. And Ken Eldred's 2006 book, interviewed Ken a couple weeks ago. His book, God is at Work, is one of the most informative books on this subject of how to do cross-cultural ministry overseas as a business professional. And as many nations around the world are officially closed to missionaries, Eldred points out that Christian business professionals have an open door to these countries as long as they can contribute economic value. And so that's what business as mission is all about is yes, you're a business person, but you're doing it with and and businesses mission does tend to have more of overseas international focus, but but doing missions work with business as sort of the platform. Teaching on business's mission that emerged during this decade, and there's there's much more coming out now in this present decade, uh, but but the business's mission teaching that emerged during this decade has helped to chart a course of international marketplace ministry for many millennials and others today who are seeking to gain economic influence, make a significant social impact in the world, and also make an eternal impact for God's kingdom. And then also the third stream that that seemed to emerge during the 2000s was the Pentecostals stream. And I'm gonna call that the cultural transformation focus. Toward the end of the 2000s, the Seven Mountains Mandate teaching emerged from charismatic Pentecostal leaders such as Lance Walnow and Oz Hillman. Had Oz on the podcast a couple weeks ago. You can go back and hear his teaching about Seven Mountains. And in short, this mandate is a strategy for transforming culture by Christians becoming change agents, uh, scaling the mountains of culture, business, government, and transforming the culture from the tops of those cultural mountains. Now, although certain expressions of the marketplace Christianity movement mentioned uh in today's episode may resonate with each of us more or less than others, I want to make it clear that every expression of the marketplace Christianity movement that I mentioned has been essential to the Holy Spirit's work through the church in the marketplace. And I've shared this teaching with others and the Catholics are like, you know, what about us? Well, I need to include that and I need to learn, I need to hear from you. What am I missing? What is missing from this brief history of the marketplace Christianity movement in terms of the themes and the streams that have emerged that you have noticed throughout history? What are some other expressions of the marketplace Christianity movement that have that you've observed throughout history? And also what are the current trends in this movement today? And that's what the next uh actually a forthcoming, I'm not sure if it's gonna be the very next one, but it's coming very soon. We're gonna be talking about the current trends and our present decade and kind of what we can expect over the next 10 years or so with this marketplace Christianity movement and what the Holy Spirit is doing through marketplace Christians. This episode of the Theology of Business Podcast was sponsored by High Bridge Books, which provides professional book publishing and author coaching services for inspiring thought leaders. You can take the next step toward getting your book published by requesting our free three video author training course at highbridgebooks.com forward slash course. Hope you've enjoyed this episode and I'd like to hear feedback on this episode at theologyofbusiness.com. Be sure to leave a comment and let's have a conversation. And also at theology of business.com, you can get more information about marketplace ministry, spiritual gifts in the marketplace, marketing like Jesus, and Christ-centered leadership and entrepreneurship. Feel free to email me at Darren at hybridsbooks.com if you have any questions or comments related to the theology of business. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening and keep partnering with God in your business.