This week, C.S. Lewis's Marketplace Strategy for Transforming a Nation. Welcome back to Theology of Business. I'm your host, Darren Shearer, author of the book Marketing Like Jesus, and the forthcoming book, Your Spiritual Gifts in the Marketplace, which will be released in September of this year. And this is the show that helps marketplace leaders to partner with God in business to change the world and make a difference in eternity. The Theology of Business Podcast is proudly sponsored by High Bridge Books, which provides professional book publishing 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. I've noticed that many Christians who sense God calling them to do business as ministry often assume that this means selling Christian-themed stuff to Christian people. For example, you hear about Christian themed coffee shops or Christian-themed books or Christian-themed music. This approach is simply one marketing model, and it's not necessarily more or less righteous than any other marketing model. In fact, in most parts of the world, people who identify as Christians represent a massive percentage of the population. So it makes good business sense to have Christ-centered companies serving an explicitly Christian market by providing Christian-themed goods and services. But at the same time, we're called to disciple entire industries. And you can go back about two episodes, I believe it's episode number 19, which is titled Four Steps to Making Your Industry a Disciple of Jesus, to get more information about how to how to make disciples of all nations by starting with your industry. And this requires that we as Christians in the marketplace set our sights on broader market shares than just those that are explicitly Christian themed. Legendary Christian author C. S. Lewis has provided an incredible model of how to disciple an industry while at the same time allowing for the fullest expression of his personal faith and identity. The Times, which is the main British national daily newspaper, ranked C. S. Lewis as number 11 on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. He wrote books explicitly for a Christian audience, but at the same time he wrote others, notably the Chronicles of Narnia series, which of course was made into a series of movies. He made those books for more of a general audience, not just for Christian readers. And explaining how his industry, which what was his industry? It was book publishing, explaining how his industry could be used for the quote unquote reconversion, he said, of the entire nation of England. He wrote in his book God in the Dock a passage that I'm gonna share with you now. He said, and I quote, we must attack the enemy's line of communication. What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects, with their Christianity latent. You can see this most easily if you look at it the other way around. Our faith is not very likely to be shaken by any book on Hinduism, but if whenever we read an elementary book on geology, botany, politics, or astronomy, we found that its implications were Hindu, that would shake us. It is not the books written in direct defense of materialism that make the modern man a materialist, it is the materialistic assumptions and all the other books. In the same way, it is not books on Christianity that will really trouble him, but would be troubled if whenever he wanted a cheap popular introduction to some science, the best work on the market was always by a Christian. The first step to reconversion of this country is a series produced by Christians which can beat the penguin and the thinker's library on their own ground. Its Christianity would have to be latent, not explicit, and of course its science perfectly honest, science twisted in the interest of apologetics, would be sin and folly. So let's unpack this passage which is incredibly powerful. C.S. Lewis stated that we must attack the enemy's line of communication. What did he mean by that? He recognized that Satan has been using secular humanism, which is a godless worldview operating under the guise of a non-religion, as a primary tool for leading people and cultures away from God. Secular humanists organize and operate as dogmatic disciples of their religion. And what is their religion? It's the worship of oneself, is how you could define the religion of secular humanism. So so they're able to organize and operate as dogmatic disciples of their religion without the stigma of being known as followers of religion. Because the major religions like Christianity and others inhibit them from expressing this worship of themselves, they preach that religion itself is the problem. And at the same time, they are organizing and operating much like a religion. They preach the separation of not just church and state, but the separation of church and Christianity and everything. So preaching the separation of church and everything, they've been free to infiltrate and indoctrinate the major spheres of influence in society with their religion. And what are those major spheres of society? Family? And we've seen this in the news here lately, and how this worldview, this religion, has invaded the Supreme Court, and there's been some legislation that has attempted to redefine marriage, at least in the United States, business, government, entertainment, media, religion, and education. And when they preach that God is irrelevant to these spheres of influence, really what they mean is that worshiping God inhibits our freedom to express the worship of ourselves. Because in secular humanism, what's right for me is right for me, don't infringe on my uh on what I feel like is right for me, even if what I think is right for me, for example, abortion, if I think abortion is right for me, uh then I'm going to value that above all else, even though just by definition, when you allow abortion and say that this is my right, you're taking away the rights of the unborn. And so it's a value system that that absolutely does not hold up in its integrity. In every sphere of cultural influence, C.S. Lewis wanted Christians to challenge the weak foundation, inconsistencies, deceit, and we see a lot of this, and selfish agendas of secular humanism, lest Christians continue to be marginalized in Western society. Lewis's statement about keeping our Christianity quote unquote latent has been taken out of context many times. I've seen this happen. I've seen it used several times as an excuse for Christians to be undifferentiated and lukewarm among non-believers in the culture. When Lewis spoke of the need for latent Christianity, he wasn't encouraging Christians to put the light of the world, the glory of Jesus, under a basket or under a bushel so that it would be hidden from the world. Actually, it was just the opposite. Because as we read this entire passage that I just shared with you, and you can go and read this at theology of business.com. As we read this entire passage, we understand that latent Christianity was part of Lewis's strategy for the quote unquote reconversion of this country. And of course, he was referring to the nation of England. In other words, he wanted to see his entire nation become a disciple of Jesus through Christians influencing the culture from the tops of their fields, not merely from Christian-themed fields and niche sub-industries. C.S. Lewis envisioned a day in his industry, which again was book publishing, when, quote, the best work on the market was always by a Christian, unquote. For Lewis, this vision of discipling an entire nation couldn't be realized only by marketing explicitly Christian ideas, products, and services to Christian people or a Christian market segment. It would require Christians to create and market outstanding ideas, products, and services built on their Christian faith and expressed through their spiritual gifts that would cause them to rise to high positions of influence in their respective fields and industries. And that's why he admonished Christians by saying, quote, what we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects. And by other subjects, he's referring to politics and science and business and all of these other topics. Pulpit ministers have the calling and freedom to be explicit about their faith because they're almost always ministering to a captive audience of like-minded Christian believers in a religious setting. But as marketplace ministers, on the other hand, we're called to a more latent and covert expression of our faith because we're almost always ministering to unbelievers in a marketplace setting. And I think Jesus was referring to this when he said, The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough. And likewise, we're called to be the yeast that permeates and transforms the dough, that transforms the world from the inside out, and we have to get inside these spheres of influence in order to make this impact, in order to be the yeast, in order to be the salt and the light that Jesus has called us to be. That's all for this week. Our discussion question is what stands out to you about C.S. Lewis's passage that I just shared from the book God in the Dock? And do you agree with C.S. Lewis that marketplace Christianity should be latent or covert? I hope you've enjoyed this episode, and I hope to hear your feedback at theologyofbusiness.com, where you can also get more information about spiritual gifts in the marketplace, marketing like Jesus, and Christ-centered leadership and entrepreneurship. And at any time, feel free to email me at Darren at hybridgebooks.com if you have any questions or comments related to the theology of business. Always love to hear from our listeners. Thanks for listening and keep partnering with God in your business.