This week's episode 11 Spiritual Gifts Being Used in Business. Welcome back to Theology of Business. I'm your host, Darren Scheer, author of the book Marketing Like Jesus: 25 Strategies to Change the World, 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 brought to you by High Bridge Books, which provides professional Christian book publishing services for inspiring thought leaders. You can take the next step toward getting your leadership, business, or personal growth book published by requesting our free three video author training course at highbridgebooks.com forward slash course. What is marketplace ministry look like? In other words, what does serving God in a business setting look like? As Christians working in the marketplace, I think most of our initial responses to these questions likely would depend on what our spiritual gifts are. And if you don't know what I mean by spiritual gifts, you can go back and listen to a couple of episodes that I've done previously on spiritual gifts where I explain what they are and what they're not, and actually interviewed somebody that is using their spiritual gift in business, and so you can really get a deep dive into what that looks like with one particular spiritual gift that's mentioned in the Bible. But here's my short answer to the question of what does marketplace ministry look like? Marketplace ministry looks like your spiritual gift, whatever that gift or gift mix might be. And here's what I mean. As an example, a Christian with the spiritual gift of wisdom, which is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 8, and I won't read all of the scripture references, you can actually get that at theology of business.com for this particular episode. But a Christian with the spiritual gift of wisdom would likely say that marketplace ministry means applying the wisdom of God to specific business situations. After all, God has given to us the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, which would include the truth about particular business situations, and he's given us his word, which is full of timeless business wisdom. On the other hand, a Christian with the spiritual gifts of miracles or healing might say that marketplace ministry is about pursuing supernatural science and wonders in a business setting. And there's an organization named Heaven and Business, which comes out of Bethel Church in Redding, California. Heaven and Business trains marketplace Christians in the area of these gifts. A believer with the spiritual gift of pastoring would likely view marketplace ministry as a calling to meet spiritual and emotional needs of my coworkers. There are Christian-run marketplace chaplaincy organizations that are actually companies called one is marketplace chaplains and another is corporate chaplains of America. And these organizations provide excellent opportunities for Christians with this spiritual gift of pastoring to serve the Lord in the marketplace. Now, someone with the spiritual gift of evangelism would probably say that marketplace ministry means sharing the gospel with your coworkers. So it's all about friendship, evangelism, and building relationships so that you can share the gospel message, share your testimony in a business setting. A Christian with the spiritual gift of intercession, which is another way of saying prayer, where you're really going before God on behalf of people, on behalf of the world. I think somebody that has a spiritual gift of intercession, for them, marketplace ministry would likely mean interceding before God on behalf of my company, my coworkers, and my clients. There's an organization called Marketplace Rock that's a consulting service that prays for business executives and their companies while teaching these executives how to intercede on behalf of their companies. A Christian with the spiritual gift of worship leading might say that marketplace ministry is all about inviting the presence of God into my workplace and encouraging my fellow believers in business to view their work as sacred worship to God. Because the Bible teaches us to do our work as unto the Lord, as it says in Colossians 3.23, and so our work is a primary means by which we worship God. A believer with the spiritual gift of discernment might view the marketplace ministry as protecting my company from spiritual attacks that might come in the form of bad business partners or poorly vetted bad business deals. My friend Paul Williams, who I interviewed on this podcast a few episodes ago, he has this spiritual gift and he uses it in his business to help companies and government agencies prevent cybersecurity breaches. Somebody that has a spiritual gift of apostleship would probably see marketplace ministry as a mandate to exercise their God-given authority and dominion, uh the authority and dominion of Jesus Christ in business, in a business setting. And they might use a time, you know, for such a time as this, God has strategically placed me here, and in a man's, as it says in Proverbs, a man's gift brings him before great men. And so somebody that has a gift of apostleship might view their ministry, they might view marketplace ministry as a mandate to walk in that authority and dominion. Lance Walnow, he emphasizes, he's a teacher, he emphasizes this particular dimension of marketplace ministry as he encourages Christians to take dominion on the business mountain, as it's called, which is one of the seven mountains of cultural influence. If you're not familiar with that teaching, I recommend that you look it up. A Christian that has a spiritual gift of cross-cultural ministry would likely view business primarily as a platform for reaching foreign lands with the gospel. Ken Eldred, who I interviewed a few episodes ago, he emphasizes this aspect of marketplace ministry. He finances, if you remember, if you heard that episode, you heard that he finances and builds multimillion dollar kingdom businesses in India and China to transform these nations with the gospel. There are other organizations like Business's Mission and Skybridge community, which I recently got introduced to, who are also dedicated to this mission of using business as a platform for cross-cultural ministry overseas. Somebody that has a spiritual gift of giving might say that Marketplace Ministry is about meeting people's needs through creating value in business or andor making money to fund the Lord's work. Chick fil A's founder, Truett Caffey, he used his spiritual gift of giving to donate sixty-eight million dollars to over 700 educational and charitable organizations during his lifetime. A Christian that has a spiritual gift of creativity might see the marketplace, uh might see marketplace ministry as a means to reflect the creativity of our creator God in business. Because who's more creator mo who's more creative than the creator of the heavens and the earth? So in this episode, I've only mentioned eleven of the spiritual gifts that God has distributed among the millions of Christians working in the marketplace throughout the week. And I'm aware of at least 12 others that I'm actually I'm gonna be I'm working on an assessment where if you don't know what your spiritual gifts are, if you don't know what your uh your spiritual gift mix is, you probably have a combination of areas where you're very uh where you're very gifted. And by the way, no Christian has all of the gifts. You can again you can go back a couple episodes and get a brief introduction about spiritual gifts. I'm not gonna go into that into that here, but nobody has them all. Your pastor doesn't have them all, you don't have them all. We all have spiritual gifts that are vital to the overall body of Christ, and they're for the building up of the church and doing the work of God in the world. And and so these gifts are to be used by God's people primarily in the marketplace. And why do I say primarily? Well, that's because we spend about 85%, uh 85% of the Christian workforce spends a majority of our waking hours in the marketplace. That's why I say that we are to use our spiritual gifts primarily in the marketplace. I mean, can you imagine what would happen if every Christian in the marketplace was aware of his or her spiritual gifts and actually started using them in the workplace daily for the glory of God? Do you have any of the spiritual gifts that I've mentioned? Or maybe some others that you're aware of? If so, how are you using them for the glory of God in the marketplace throughout your work week? In other words, what does marketplace ministry look like for you and your workplace? I want to pray for you as you go about your business today. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the listeners of this podcast. Thank you for just bringing us together, that they would take the time out of their day to just grow and learn more about how to partner with you in their business. I pray that you would awaken their spiritual gifts, any gifts that are dormant, God, as your word says, to stir up the gift that is within you. God, I just we just stir up those gifts that are out there in the marketplace, God, that your church would arise in the marketplace, that we would truly fulfill the calling, the ministry that you have laid out for your church in the business world, that we would be your salt and light, that we would be your hands and feet. In the name of Jesus, amen. Well, that's all for this week. Again, as I mentioned, sign up for the Spiritual Gifts Assessment, which again, I'm creating this in a way that's tailored for you, for you Christians that are working doing ministry in the marketplace. You can sign up to get a hold of that at theologyofbusiness.com. It's going to be ready within just the next couple of weeks. And I also need some input from you, the listeners of this podcast. This show is for you, so I need to know what are the topics that you'd like to hear discussed on this show regarding the intersection of God and business, and who are the guests that you'd like to hear from? You can contact me at any time through the contact form at theologyofbusiness.com, or you can email me personally at Darren at hybridgebooks.com. Thanks for listening and keep partnering with God in your business.