Welcome back to the Theology of Business Podcast. This is episode 30. I'm your host, Darren Sheeran. This is a show that helps marketplace Christians to partner with God in business, to transform the marketplace, and make an impact in eternity. On Wednesday, October the 21st, depending on when you're listening to this, the book has already been released where I will be releasing my third book, The Marketplace Christian, a practical guide to using your spiritual gifts in business. And this book includes an assessment to help you identify what your spiritual gifts are, plus practical examples of marketplace Christians who are using each of the 23 spiritual gifts that I talk about in the book in a for-profit business setting. So not just in a church building or in a Christian-themed nonprofit program, but in a for-profit business setting. These people are using spiritual gifts, and I want to share their stories with you. But before I share how you can get involved in the launch of this book, and also I'm going to let you know about this special bonus that I'm offering to the first 50 buyers, I want to share some of my motivation for writing this book. What does it look like to do business as ministry? What does it mean to do marketplace ministry? These were the questions that prompted me to write this book, The Marketplace Christian. Approximately 85% of working Christians spend the majority of their waking hours, usually that's around 60 to 70% of their waking hours, working in a for-profit business setting. And yet, many marketplace Christians are unaware that their spiritual gifts have been given by the Holy Spirit to be used primarily in the marketplace, not only within the context of a church program or other charity program. Again, it's not either or, it's both and. But sadly, many of these marketplace Christians are mostly unaware of the spiritual gifts entrusted to them by the Holy Spirit for fulfilling the disciple-making and world-transforming mission of the church. So not only do they not realize that these spiritual gifts are needed in the marketplace, they don't even know what their spiritual gifts are. In local churches today that help marketplace Christians identify their spiritual gifts, the typical spiritual gifts assessment, at least in my experience and talking to others, this typical spiritual gifts assessment is being used almost entirely for the purpose of assigning these believers as volunteers to serve within their various in-house programs. So, for example, those who score high in the gift of hospitality are often appointed as greeters at the front door of the church on Sunday morning. And those who score high in the gifts of service or the gift of helps often are exhorted to use their gift primarily to help with duties such as setup and cleanup or just various odds and ends around the church building. But shouldn't marketplace Christians also be equipped to use their spiritual gifts in the marketplace, which is where they spend most of their time and have most of their influence? Often Christian teaching about marketplace ministry primarily emphasizes the application of timeless principles in business. For example, uh proverbs about finance and proverbs about leadership and integrity and all of these important uh proverbs. And so the emphasis is on applying timeless biblical principles in your business. And I'm all for that. I mean, we talk about that a lot on this show. In fact, I wrote a book about the marketing strategies that you can learn from the life and ministry of Jesus and apply those to your business or apply those to uh whatever organization you're working in. And then another focus of marketplace ministry tends to emphasize the need to provide financial support for Christian-themed charities. And yes, these things, both of these things are noble and important, but what do we mean when we say Christians working in business should view their work as ministry? In other words, what does it actually look like to do ministry in a business setting? A massive part of ministering in the marketplace involves exercising our spiritual gifts. These are the tools God has given to marketplace Christians for spreading the awareness of his glory throughout our workplaces and beyond. The hundreds of millions of marketplace Christians must be equipped with an understanding of their spiritual gifts and how to use them for ministry in a business setting. And as we do this, the saints, as it talks about in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 12, the saints will be equipped for the work of ministry, enabling them to fulfill the disciple-making, world-transforming mission of the church. Because it's not just about edifying the church so we can have bigger buildings and bigger budgets and bigger programs, but so that we can actually do the work of the church. That's the purpose of the equipping that Paul talks about in Ephesians. And a lot of that for the average person is is the potential for that being done is in the marketplace. And certainly we should offer our spiritual gifts in a way that helps our local churches have outstanding services and excellent program. This is an essential part of transforming our communities and discipling nations. However, marketplace Christians are called to use their spiritual gifts to fulfill the mission of the church primarily in the marketplace. It's where the unbelievers are. It's where approximately 85% of Christians spend the majority of their waking hours. It's where discipleship can happen on a daily basis, because discipleship is relationship. That's what Jesus modeled by being with his disciples in their daily work, in the marketplace, out fishing on boats. I mean, so many of his parables had a marketplace context because that was the environment with which the people he was discipling were most familiar. And the marketplace is also where the culture primarily is shaped. Today, marketplace Christians all over the world are using their spiritual gifts for ministry in the business world. For example, I know a real estate developer using the gift of faith, business consultant using the gift of intercessory prayer, a professional athlete using the gift of healing, an author using the gift of worship, a department store owner using the gift of hospitality, a venture capitalist using the gift of cross-cultural ministry, a manufacturing company's CEO using the gift of compassion. I want to talk about how spiritual gifts transcend natural abilities in business, because this is a question I get asked often. Most of us would agree that a non-Christian can't operate with the spiritual gifts of miracles or healing, which are spiritual gifts Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians twelve. And at the same time, few of us would say that a non-Christian can't operate with the gifts of administration or leadership, which also are listed as spiritual gifts in the Bible. Many of the Fortune 500 companies are run by non-Christians that possess extraordinary administrative and leadership abilities. I mean, you look at the Forbes 400 richest people in the world, many of them have incredible leadership or administrative giftings. But here are six ways in which natural abilities differ from spiritual gifts. The first difference is that spiritual gifts are only for born-again Christians, they are gifts to the church through individuals. So they're not gifts just for your company or or for your career so that you can get ahead in the marketplace. They are for the church and for doing the work of the church in the marketplace, which is all about discipleship. And then spiritual gifts, unlike natural abilities, are fueled by the fruit of the Spirit. Spiritual gifts are governed and directed by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts enable us to worship God through our work, and spiritual gifts can pr produce eternal results and rewards. Because it takes spiritual abilities to do spiritual things and reap spiritual, eternal rewards that will last for eternity. So, in short, a spiritual gift is a special ability given by the Holy Spirit through a born-again Christian to the people of God for the purpose of spreading the awareness of the glory of God throughout the earth. Every spiritual gift is essential in the marketplace. Once we realize spiritual gifts are needed in the marketplace, we must activate the varieties of gifts, which is the term that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 12, the varieties of gifts that have been entrusted to marketplace Christians. Although marketplace ministry often is defined through the lens of one particular spiritual gift, marketplace ministry has many different expressions beyond the ones that come most naturally for each of us. For example, one whose primary spiritual gifts are pastoring or compassion likely would view marketplace ministry as a calling to care for the personal needs of his or her employees and coworkers, kind of like a chaplain would. And marketplace chaplaincy organizations such as Corporate Chaplains of America and Marketplace Chaplains USA are doing incredible work for God's kingdom in this regard. But at the same time, this is only one expression of marketplace ministry. It's not the end-all be-all. So if you don't have this gift or you don't, this isn't necessarily your most dominant uh gift, then there are other opportunities for you to do marketplace ministry. One whose primary spiritual gift as a marketplace Christian is apostleship, might tend to view ministry in the marketplace as a calling to become like Joseph or Daniel or Esther, rising to the upper echelons of the seven mountains of culture to make an impact for God's kingdom. And this currently popular emphasis of marketplace ministry is yet another expression, a unique expression of what God is doing in the business world. So not all of us are called to uh necessarily ascend the tops of to the tops of our mountains because some roles are just by definition kind of more behind the scenes. And of course, we do influence people in all spheres, all echelons of society with our spiritual gifts. But some people, that's kind of their grid. That's the way that they approach marketplace ministry, is I'm going to exert my spiritual authority, I'm going to rise to the cream of the crop, to the top of my mountain for the glory of God, and be like a Joseph, be like a Daniel, be like an Esther. But that's one expression of marketplace ministry and certainly a necessary one. A marketplace Christian whose most dominant spiritual gift is evangelism probably would be more inclined than most other marketplace Christians to evangelize in his or her workplace. And those with this gift might wonder why other marketplace Christians are not as zealous for winning souls among their co-workers as they are. We all are called to evangelize, but for some this is their most prominent spiritual gift. One with the gifts of miracle working and healing might say that marketplace ministry is about pursuing supernatural signs and wonders in a business setting. Annie Mason leads an organization named Heaven and Business at Bethel Church in Redding, California, which trains marketplace Christians to use these spiritual gifts in the marketplace. A marketplace Christian with a gift of cross-cultural ministry likely would view marketplace ministry as a calling to reach foreign lands with the gospel. The relatively new phrase business's mission is the tagline for how this spiritual gift operates in the international business world. Ken Eldred emphasizes this aspect of marketplace ministry as he finances and builds multi-million dollar kingdom businesses in India and China to transform these nations with the gospel. So to fulfill Jesus' mandate to make disciples of all nations, all of the church's spiritual gifts must be activated. That's why I wrote this book. That's why I created this assessment. I'm so passionate about using spiritual gifts in the marketplace because it makes marketplace ministry practical. It shows us what it looks like. Can you imagine the impact that could be made if every marketplace Christian identified his or her spiritual gifts, understood how to use them for ministry in a business setting, and use them every day in the marketplace? Now I want to encourage you to pick up a copy of this book. Again, it's going to release on October the 21st. So depending on when you're listening to this, the book may have already been released in paperback and also an ebook format. You can get it at theologyofbusiness.com, and the first 50 buyers of the book will receive something that I've created. I kind of told you a little bit about this a couple of weeks ago that there was going to be a special gift for the early buyers, and I'm calling it the master's business coin. So it's it's a simple coin. If you're familiar with the military's tradition of challenge coins, that's kind of what this is. It's uh two inches in diameter. It's something that you can carry around in your pocket or in your purse to remind you to view your work as ministry to the Lord and to others. And it also includes a gift pouch. So if you buy multiple copies, you're gonna have multiple copies of the book as well as multiple coins in those gift bags to give out to people. Of course, we're approaching Christmas, so this is a great time to pick up a copy of the book as well as the coin. And if you're listening to this before the 21st, I'll give you a hint. You can pre-order the book today and get one gift coin for each book you buy. The book includes an assessment to help you identify your spiritual gifts, plus, it includes practical examples of marketplace Christians who are using each of the 23 spiritual gifts that I talk about in the book in a for-profit business setting. So if this message about marketplace Christians using spiritual gifts to transform the world excites you, I want to encourage you to pick up at least one copy. You can buy multiple copies at a discount one, three, five, ten, or twenty or more. You can email me at Darren at highbridgebooks.com if you're interested in getting more than 20 copies of the book. And also want to encourage you to leave a quick rating and review for the book on Amazon. That's gonna help with uh showing others the the value of this book and also gonna help with the discoverability of the book in the Amazon search engine. You can share the page for the book. If you go to theology of business.com forward slash the marketplace Christian book, you're gonna see the feature page for the book that you can share on social media if you feel so inclined. Again, if this is a message that you're passionate about, I would uh be so grateful for your support in this endeavor. Uh, thanks in advance to all those of you who have already made contributions uh to the book and um and pre-ordering the book and writing endorsements and just uh sending your your well wishes and prayers for the book. Uh all of your support is is so appreciated. If you have any other ideas for how I can get the word out about the book, I would love to hear that. Again, feel free to email me at Darren at highbridgebooks.com. And that's all for this week. This episode of the Theology of Business Podcast was sponsored by Hybridgebooks, which is the publisher of the book, The Marketplace Christian. Hybridge Books 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 free video author training course at hybridgebooks.com forward slash course. Hope you've enjoyed this episode and I would like to hear your feedback at theology of business.com where 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 any time at Darren at hybridbooks.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.