Young Entrepreneur Society

2010-06-12T21:23:00.001-05:00

It's always interesting to attempt to detect God's providential hand in the direction he takes me. My love for gospel-driven business, something I've come to call "philanthropreneurship", is no secret. It's the wonderful, beautiful, harmonious dance between ministry and business for the sake of God's mission among the nations.

It's something I've abandoned recently in order to focus more heavily on planting and building the local church I am leading. But in God's providence, He's planted me in a cabin on vacation with some of the most amazing and interesting books that are like a spiritual IV to my arm.

Here's a list.

Tentmaking: The Life and Work of Business as Mission by Patrick Lai
Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role of Business in Missions by Steve Rundle and Tom Steffen
Business as Mission by Tom Steffen and Mike Barnett
On Kingdom Business: Transforming Missions Through Entrepreneurial Strategies by Tetsunao Yamamoto and Kenneth Eldred
The Gods of Business: The Intersection of Faith and the Marketplace by Todd Albertson
Profit for the Lord: Economic Activities in Moravian Missions and the Basel Mission Trading Company by William Danker

I've already begun scanning On Kingdom Business, and the preface and introduction alone were a steroid to my heart in this area. My mind is back on the race track of the business plans and models I've either already created or have at least begun planning.

Starting with my own children, I want not only to give them a business they can run themselves, but also the art and skill of business itself. I think that next to Jesus Christ and godly advice on a future spouse, this is the third greatest gift I could ever give them as a tool to glorify the first, provide for the second, and pursue the mission globally and locally.

We'll see where all this takes me this week!

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens

2009-09-18T09:07:00.002-05:00

Hey Guys! I just got done reading the Second Habit. It's called: Begin with the End in Mind.
This chapter gives you a description of you as a teen and it telld you about how almost every desision you make in your youth will effect your future in multiple ways. Like sex, your actions, language, and your education. All of it will decide thereputation you will bear in the future to come.

Thanx a bunch!
-Harrison
Wilkerson

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens

2009-09-17T09:11:00.002-05:00

Hey guys! I just got done reading the First Habit lesson. (Confetti!) And it was awesome! And it shows about being proactive and how just your normal, every day talking can effect someone! It also told me about how you can either learn, or despair from your mistakes.

Thanx a bunch!
-Harrison
Wilkerson

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens

2009-09-16T09:31:00.002-05:00

Hey guys! Harrison here. And I just got done reading the latest chapter of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens: Chapter 2. In this chapter, it teaches you how to have your own personal bank account. Not in a financial way but in life ways.
Like say you do a kind thing for another person, that would be making a deposit into your personal account.
In other words, the account of your reputation. There wasn't much else about it except that it taught you how to keep track of your reputation account.
Keep in tune tomorrow for the actual first lesson of the first habit. Be Proactive.

Thanx a Bunch!
-Harrison
Wikerson

The 5 Things You Need to Learn to do Business

2009-09-16T07:16:00.002-05:00

Adapted from the article, "Aspiring Managers: Learn to Behave Like Adults" by Steve Tobak.

Become adept at 5 things: finance, selling, presenting, negotiating, and business communications.

1. Finance. I don’t care if you manage engineering, human resources, technology, sales, grass-cutting, or laundry-pressing, whatever, you need to learn about finance, handling money - making it and spending it. Why? Because that’s how companies are run and how business works. Period. Fail to learn this boys and any business you start will fail within a matter of months...guaranteed.

2. Selling. To sell your own ideas, products and plans to people to you know you have to learn how to open doors, help friends and potential customers and other business friends to make informed decisions, and close deals and make money.

3. Presenting. It’s hard to imagine your career or business going anywhere unless you can deliver an effective presentation. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t born with the presentation gene. Do whatever you've got to do to teach yourself the trade of public communication. I promise it pays off in the end.

4. Negotiating. Negotiation skills are critical to resolving conflicts, getting agreement among friends and business associates, and other key contacts in your business. Make sure, however, that you are negotiating with them in mind, more than yourself, according to the gospel-driven principles found in Philippians 2:3-4.

5. Communicating. Great managers are also great communicators; it’s a critical success skill. Unfortunately, they don’t teach you about business communications in school. Learn it well, including verbal and nonverbal skills, body language, eye contact and movement, etc.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens

2009-09-15T08:39:00.003-05:00

Hey Guys! Harrison here! I just got done reading chapter 2 and it was all about Paradigms and Principles. Sean Covey (the writer of the book) says that Paradigms are like glasses. When you have good and bad Paradigms, they affect how you look at yourself and the world. And it also teahces you how to kick out your bad points of view and replace them with even mre of the good ones. Keep in tune tommorrow for even more descriptions of the book.

Thanx a bunch!

-Harrison
Wilkerson

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens

2009-09-14T08:02:00.003-05:00

Hey guys! We had a mix-up in the schedule. so today I read the welcome to the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.
In this book, I learned that life is not all about being a good person, it's about what makes you become a good person.
there wasn't much it tought me about after that. Like a said, there was a mix- up in the schedule, so we'll still be giving you more info about this book. So stay in tune!

thanx a bunch!

-Harrison
Wilkerson

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective teens

2009-09-12T09:32:00.002-05:00

Hey guys! Harrison here. Abd i'm here to tell you about the newest book I'm reading. It goes by the name of: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.
This book contains information like no other about how a normal teenager can turn his life into a planned-out and organized success. Personaly, my dad, Rob Wilkerson, made me memorize the seven habits and I'll put them up here for you.

#1-Be Proactive
#2-Begin with the end in mind
#3-Put first things first
#4-Think win-win
#5-Seek first to understand, then be understood
#6-Synergize
#7-Sharpen the saw

I can't tell you what those habits mean because I haven't read then entire book yet, but keep a look-out for the latest definitions of the habits. They'll be up on the blog every 2 days.

Thanx a Bunch!
-Harrison Wilkerson

Marcus Buckingham on What To Do if You Become Unemployed

2009-09-01T07:41:00.005-05:00

I want you kids to be able to own your own business, and be a God-centered, gospel-driven entrepreneur one day soon. Working for yourself gives you much more leverage and influence over others for the sake of the gospel, than working for someone else. You've got much more ability to change people's lives and influence them toward Christ when you oversee them. Of course you can most definitely influence as an employee, but not as much.

Should you find yourself influencing in that area, as an employee, then suddenly find yourself unemployed, here is a great article I found by Marcus Buckingham (author of the Strengths serires of books) on "Top 10 Things To Do If You Become Unemployed." I've reproduced it here below in case the link doesn't work one day.

Top 10 Things To Do If You Become Unemployed

by Marcus Buckingham for The ViewApril 14th, 2009

Losing one's job is never easy. Act your way into a new way of thinking. Don't get down, get a plan.

GET CLEAR:

1. Financial assessment

Begin by doing a thorough review of your current financial situation:

What are your monthly necessities? (rent, utilities, food etc..)

What is the amount that you will need to cover these necessities?

What choices do you have to make to ensure that you cover your necessities for at least three months?

What costs can you reduce immediately?

Hoard your cash. (This is dad speaking here...be careful on this point. God has promised that giving to the needs of others even if it leaves you with nothing will be blessed by God in a return that is pressed down, shaken together, and running over [Luke 6:37-38]. Count on that promise from God and never turn your heart away from providing for those in need. Remember 1 John 3:17-18 and James 2:14-17).

Look for opportunities to save money: eat at home, downgrade cable packages, buy less expensive brands, borrow books and movies from the library, consolidate debt into one low interest payment- there are myriad money saving tips – seek them out and apply them.

2. Self-assessment

Take this time to get really clear on what you want your next career step to be.

What are your strengths?

What are the activities that you want to be responsible for in your next job? What have you always (maybe secretly?) wanted to do?

What aspects of your previous jobs have you loved? Why?

What will you never do again?

Give yourself a chance to recharge and re-evaluate what you want to do in life and how you can best contribute. It can help a great deal to discuss this with someone who is objective: a coach, outplacement counselor, that friend who always listens without imposing their opinions.

GET READY:

3. Update your resume

Ensure your resume includes all relevant experiences and education, and then customize it for each specific job that you are applying for. Remember:

Keep it simple. Flooding your resume with inane details is distracting.

Highlight relevant experiences and describe them in quantifiable terms. Be specific about the results you have achieved and the contributions you have made to the business.

Incorporate Company Terminology from the job posting into your resume. You raise your chances of having your resume noticed when you demonstrate that you know the organization’s internal lingo.

Once you have updated your resume, connect with your references and let them know that you are job-searching. Only include those references that you are confident will give you a favorable review. If you’re unsure, ask them.

4. Hire yourself as a headhunter

You do have a job. You’ve just hired yourself as a full-time headhunter. Take the position seriously. This is a 9-5 job with daily objectives and weekly goals. That includes celebrating your successes with meaningful rewards. And, by the way, rejection is one of those successes. Use the interviewing process as a way to gain valuable information:

What did you learn from the interview?

What feedback did the recruiter give you for what you did well?

What feedback did he/she give you for doing better the next time around?

What did he/she say was missing?

Be Curious. This is your opportunity to learn valuable information about how people perceive you. If they don’t give you any tips, ask for some. This feedback will help improve future performance.

5. Network

It is part of your headhunting role but important enough to single out on its own. Now is not the time to feel sorry for yourself, or let pride get in the way of letting people around you know that you are looking for a new position. Instead:

Frame Your Situation Positively: When networking, you don’t need to share the sordid details of how you lost your job. You can say: “I am searching for a career that is going to allow me to contribute my best. I am letting you know because I trust you and I could use your help in making helpful connections. Here is my resume.” This will yield better results than: “Sigh. I lost my job. Do you know anyone who’s looking for people?”

Keep all channels open: Stay in touch with colleagues (particularly your manager) in your former organization as well as those who also lost their jobs. Re-hire opportunities may be more readily offered to those who’ve maintained contact, and people who’ve moved on could help you land a role at their new place of work.

6. Get your mindset right

Having a confident mental attitude serves one immensely in the process of finding a new role. This is not just about thinking positively, this is about acting positively. Part of your weekly goals should include removing things that you’ve been tolerating in your life that have added to your stress.

What are the 3 things you have been tolerating in your life?

What would have to happen to ‘fix’ these tolerances?

How would it make you feel to address them?

Whatever you’ve been putting off in other areas of your life because you’re “too busy working”- tackle it now. Not only will you feel productive when you tick these things off your list – it will also help reduce your stress. So, if every time you’ve stepped into your garage for the past seven years you’ve thought to yourself “I’ve got to get this place organized,” get to it. If you’ve been planning that backyard garden, start digging.

GET GOING:

7. Expand your skills

Now is a great time to build your competency. What are the activities that you have a natural penchant for and interest in but no formal training? How about finally finishing your degree, learning a second language, honing an area of strength? Future employers will value the investment that you made in enhancing yourself enormously.

8. Take a platform job

There is no shame in taking on a job that helps you pay the bills even if it’s not your ideal role or if it pays you less than previous positions. You are doing what it takes to take care of yourself and your family. No matter what role you are in, frame it as an opportunity to learn new skills, hone existing talents, meet and network with new people. There are a lot of benefits to taking a platform job while you continue the search for your ideal role.

9. Volunteer

Many organizations understand when a person has been out of work following a lay-off, particularly during times like these. They do not understand when a person has nothing concrete to show for that time. On top of contributing to your community, volunteering is a great way to demonstrate that you’ve shown initiative and not let your skills atrophy while you searched for gainful employment. Volunteering is also a very effective networking tool. You may meet a fellow volunteer who will be so impressed with your abilities they’ll offer you work with their organization.

(Note: if you are receiving unemployment benefits, be clear whether volunteering impacts your eligibility. You may be considered “unavailable to work” on days when you’re volunteering so you have to be very clear about when you will be available.)

10. Start your business

Have you had an idea for a business that you’ve been working away on but never had the time to fully formalize? There are myriad free resources for individuals who want to start their own business and now you have the time to investigate and take advantage.

Unemployment Can Foster Laziness

2009-08-31T10:36:00.003-05:00

Unless you're injured or disabled, there should never be a good reason why you're not working, kids. And even when you're disabled or injured, there still may be some things you can do to earn a living, and add value to society and the kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul told the local church in Thessalonica he planted for about six months, that a person who doesn't work shouldn't expect to eat. Take it to heart. And take it seriously.

I ran across this article on CBS MoneyWatch. It was written by Robert Pagliarini, and it is entitled, "Are the Unemployed Lazy?" I've reposted it here below lest in the future it's removed and the link doesn't work.

Are the Unemployed Lazy?
By Robert Pagliarini Aug 18, 2009 37 Comments

If you’re unemployed, there’s a good chance you are completely blowing a huge opportunity. I just read the 2008 American Time Use Survey that was recently released, and I have to say, I was saddened and shocked.

Every year the Bureau of Labor Statistics issues this report that details how Americans over the age of 15 spend their time. For a productivity and time-efficiency nut like me, this is mouth-watering stuff — barely surpassing my delight of learning how President Obama spends his time.
If you’re unemployed (nearly 1 in 10 are in the U.S.), you have the unique opportunity of not having “the other 8 hours,” but the other 16 hours! So what do you do with this gift? How do you spend your time (other than reading superb articles like this one online)? The data shows you completely and utterly blow it.

In so many areas the unemployed mismanage their time:

Looking for Work

Big shocker here . . . only 1 in 6 actually look for work. On average, the unemployed spend a meager 30 minutes a day looking for a job.

It can be frustrating and demeaning to be told over and over “We’re not hiring.” If you’re in a good financial position, consider some alternative options. Otherwise, you need to spend more time each day hitting the pavement.

Sleep

With no need for an alarm clock, they sleep an extra hour a day.

Determine how much sleep you need and get just that amount. Don’t get into the bad habit of sleeping longer just because you aren’t working.

Housework and yard work

The unemployed waste, uh, I mean do twice as much house/yard work as their employed counterparts — two hours per day.

When you’re working, you see tangible results from your efforts. When you’re unemployed, you do busy work to fill your time and to get a feeling of accomplishment. Organizing your paperwork and clearing out the garage can be good uses of time, but if you find yourself re-organizing over and over, recognize this and find a more productive project.

TV/Movies

They watch an extra 70 minutes of TV/movies per day. For example, at 10:00am, the unemployed are twice as likely to be watching TV as the employed.

Resist the boob tube if you’re unemployed. Studies show that the more TV you watch the more you want to buy. TV also induces a sleep-like state. You need to be fresh and focused, not brain-dead from too many soap operas.

Socializing

They spend an extra 30 minutes a day socializing and three times as much time talking on the phone.

Misery loves company. Make sure you are filling your time with nurturing relationships and not socializing with negative people who drag you down.

Shopping

Even though they have less income, the unemployed shop an extra six minutes a day.
Save your money! It takes much longer to find a job. Make sure you have a nice emergency reserve.

Volunteering

Does extra time mean more time to help others? Survey says . . . nope. Employed? Unemployed? Doesn’t matter. Both camps spend the same amount of time volunteering.
Being unemployed can be an amazing opportunity to do those things that you’ve always wanted to do but never had time to do. Volunteering can lift your spirits and you just might network with someone who can help you find a job.

Education

Finally some encouraging news. The unemployed spend five times as much time learning (one hour and five minutes versus just 19 minutes).

Use the 40 hours a week you now have to go back to school. Get that designation or degree.
Remember, these are averages. Maybe you don’t blow an extra three hours a day sleeping, watching TV, and cleaning the house, but as a country, that’s exactly what the unemployed do each and every day.

So, are the unemployed lazy? The data shows that they are trying to fill a void but they are not doing it wisely. Without the structure of work, it’s easy to let a few minutes here and there slip by. To prevent this, your goal should be to create structure in your day. Schedule your day and your week in advance. Fill your “work” hours with activities and meetings. Schedule time to read, boost your skills, take a course, write a book, network, become a better public speaker, exercise, start a business, create something, etc. Do something that will get you closer to your goals.

Just because you are unemployed doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work.

Job Hunting, Part 5: Always Follow Through!

2009-05-12T23:59:00.002-05:00

A most neglected principle of job hunting is follow through. This simply means that you will do what you said you would do. You will be there at the exact day and time at which an interview was scheduled or an appointment was set.

It also means you will return phone calls from voicemails left for you while you were out job hunting. Whether you do that in between pursuits or at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter as long as you return the calls before the end of the business day. Remember, each phone call to you from a prospective employer is a potential job.

Another follow through tool is written communication. Always grab a business card from the person who will be interviewing you. And always communicate with them by the end of the business day at least by email, thanking them for the opportunity to talk further, or simply for the opportunity to pursue a job with their company. That makes you stand out. No one else does this sort of thing, and it's so simple and so courteous. A thank you card is also out of the ordinary and distinguishes you in their minds above the other potential candidates for that job.

If your conversation or interview with someone was particularly noteworthy or memorable, then follow through with something as memorable...something that shows you care about them as a person...and something that will mark you and make you stick out above the other candidates. There is a difference between bribing, brown nosing, and follow through. The motivation will be revealed in your heart, and you can always rest assured that God doesn't honor the first two, nor does He honor flattery (Proverbs 26:28; 29:5).

Job Hunting, Part 4: Keep Your Plan Organized

2009-05-12T23:40:00.003-05:00

As I stated at the end of part 3, the plan you implement must be organized. You may have identified companies you want to target based on your defined parameters. But if you don't organize that plan, you will start to wane and wander. Eventually, you'll feel like you're spinning your wheels, making no progress, which always ends up in frustration, anxiety, worry, stress, despair, discouragement, etc. I cannot stress enough that next to a plan, organizing the plan plays the most crucial role in in keeping your head in the job hunting game. As the old saying goes, if you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.

The goal here is simple: take the targets you've identified, and put them in a reasonable order. This would wisely be done by breaking down all your targets by similar location. There's no sense driving on one side of town for one company then driving to the other side of town to chase another company, while passing other companies on your target list to get there. Instead, group them together by location. You should be able to hit about four in a day, perhaps more. That's going from application process (picking it up, filling it out, turning it back in) to scheduling an interview. (And pack a lunch to eat on while you're out. Don't succumb to a lack of planning what you'll eat so that what little money you do have is sucked away by fast food on the go. You'll end up feeling stupid and lethargic at the same time...a perfect soil for the roots of discouragement.)

Now for the tool. You need an organizational tool of some sort. If you haven't got one already, purchase a planner. Spend wisely. The monthly or yearly planners at the dollar store work just as well as the $30 planners from OfficeMax or Office Depot.

Take your groups of targets and schedule them in pencil on the day you want to chase them. Doing it in pencil enables you to erase and reschedule in case the temp agencies call you to come in and work. (Again...better to take work when you know you've got it, then take a day without pay to chase a chance of getting something better. And furthermore, God loves you! And He will reward that diligence, so ignore Satan's stupid accusations and lies.)

The planner is also useful for the next significant item in this process. When you turn in that application or resume, the normal response you get is "Okay, thanks! We'll look it over and give you a call." This is generally translated, "Okay, thanks! We'll file it away and probably never look at it again." This is where you've got to stand out from the rest of the crowd. The rest of the crowd generally responds with a smile and a nod and walks out the door. That's so very foolish.

Instead, ask to speak to the person who sets up the interviews, to a manager, a supervisor, or someone who makes decisions and has influence in the company. You're only asking for a couple of minutes. Whether you can do this or not, the point I'm making is this: be forward and courageous about asking for a setting up an interview. This is where the planner comes in.

Take out the planner in front of the receptionist, or manager, or supervisor, or whoever, and ask them when they could schedule an interview with you. With the planner out and in your hand, open and ready to write, you communicate to them that you are serious about this and you're ready to get on with it. It also flushes out whether they are really even hiring or not. (And if they are not, perhaps they will when they see your fortitude and aggressiveness.)

Write down on your calendar the day and time they give you for an interview. If they don't give you one, write down on your planner the day and time you'll call them back to follow up, asking them if that's okay with them. More will be said about this on the subject of Follow Through.

After each pursuit, take a few minutes to sit down and write down what happened, and how things unfolded. This is where you'll also want to keep a journal of some sort handy. Start a fresh page for each day's work, so that you can record what happened as it unfolded. This is so very helpful for tracking what you're doing, so that you can later review it to discover what you may be doing wrong, or what you may be doing right so that you can repeat it for further success.

At the end of each day, do that very thing. Sit down with your planner and journal. Review what happened. Review what went right. Review what went wrong. Review additional appointments made.

Follow up with messages that were left for you while you were out. Return these phone calls before the end of the business day so that you can set up additional appointments and/or interviews.

Job Hunting, Part 3: Make a Plan

2009-05-12T23:10:00.004-05:00

4. Fourth, the most significant and yet neglected principle of finding a job is making a plan. Proverbs teaches that without a vision people perish (29:18), and without a vision for what you need to do, you will quickly grow weary and eventually "perish" in the job search. Emotions will go haywire and get all out of whack during this process, and you will be constantly tempted to be ruled by them. But if you have a plan...oh, how much easier things go. Perhaps the best part of having a plan is that when I created one and followed it, I was able to sleep much easier at night. Knowing I had a solid plan to follow the next day alleviated so much worry, anxiety, stress, etc.

The plan should not be too complex, or you'll be tempted to give up too quickly. K.I.S.S. is a simple rule to follow "Keep It Simple Son." Let me try to break this down for you as simply as I know how. What I'm about to tell you always worked well for me.

a. First, it is always wise to apply with temporary agencies or staffing agencies in town. The goal here is simple: generate cash flow (money coming into your hands) as quickly as possible. You won't make a "killer salary" with a temp agency, but a little money is better than no money. Or as the old saying goes, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

Getting on board with them generally takes about a half-day to go through all the paperwork and aptitude tests. You'll feel so dumbed down, but don't take it personally. The average staffing company caters to those who may have only graduated from high school (if at all), and are not great achievers. This means you'll easily and quickly stand out among the crowd. And that means you'll get work quicker.

Temp agencies call you the day before or the morning of to tell you of a company who needs temporary labor for the day. When that happens, take it and run with it. More than likely, you'll be doing mind-numbing labor, leaving you wondering why you are settling for this. But remember, you are not settling. You are working to the glory of God, providing for your needs, and the needs of others. God is in the little stuff. Plus, think of how much more time you'll have mentally to commune with the Savior. It's amazing how much communing you can do when your hands are busy doing things that don't require much brain power.

b. Search for Full-Time employment. You'll do this on the days the temp agencies don't call you or need you...or after you get off.

Now, on this note, as you begin implementing your plan, you will want to work with those interviewing you, as much as possible, so that the interviews are on the same days. The reason for this is that you are generating cash flow with the temp agency, and every day you are not working is another day you are not getting paid. So make that day count for all it's worth. And be honest with the temp agency and let them know what's going on when necessary. They will not want to lose you, and your honest communication with them makes you all that much more valuable to them.

Your plan for finding FT work is simple, as I said before. And i'll put it in this order for you.

WHAT? Based on your strengths, brainstorm on what kind of jobs would be a good fit for those strengths. Understand that on the one hand, God has wired you so that you can use your strengths in almost any job you get. Remember that godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Tim. 6:6). But on the other hand, there are jobs out there that will be the best fit for the way God has wired you. Brainstorming may be easy, but most of this will be a process of discovery and learning.

HOW MUCH? Determine your living expenses based on the budget you created. The costs of living are usually fixed (rent, water, sewer, phone, internet, etc.) and there is little variable to them. But estimate on the high side for those items that are variable (electricity, gas, etc.). The main reason you do this is so that you will know how much you need to make. And you'll need to know that because most companies ask what you expect to make. If your living expenses are $2000 a month, and the job only pays $1800, then that job is not for you because you won't be able to pay the bills.

WHEN? Determine when you can work. Presumably you can work whenever the company needs you to work. But if there are other schedule conflicts like school or ministry activities, make sure you measure them well and determine if they are absolutely necessary (pursuing the kingdom and righteousness first, and things like that [Matthew 6:33]). Then carve out an availability schedule. Realize on this point that on the one hand, the greater your availability, the greater your chances of landing that job. But on the other hand, the lesser availability may be for conscious choices you are making toward the kingdom and that you are also making a conscious choice to trust God for another job. (This will be one of the most difficult determinations you may make in this whole job-hunting process.)

WHERE? Determine where you can work. The concept here is simple: you don't want to spend the profits you are earning on gas to get you to and from work. For example, if you are making $2000 a month, and your living costs are $1,500 a month, but you have to spend $500 to get to and from work, it would seem much wiser to get a job making $1,500 a month that's closer to home. This would redeem your drive time and give you more time to pursue other part-time or as-needed work. With that said, get out a map of where you live, determine the maximum number of miles or minutes you are willing to drive to work, then draw a circle estimating that maximum mileage or time around your address, and you've instantly defined your job hunting plan. You'll only look for jobs within that circle.

WHO? With the WHERE determined, you can now determine WHO you will target. Within this circle, you will target companies that offer positions playing to your strengths, and paying salaries you can afford to live off of. That further narrows and defines your job hunting plan. You'll only look for jobs within that circle, that play to your strengths, and that more than likely can pay what you need to live off of.

One particularly important pursuit here under the WHO is for you to do a little internet research about the company before you apply. You may only think you want to work for them. But a little knowledge about what they actually do, what their company values are, where they are headed, what their vision is, how much money they earn in revenue, etc. can all go a long way in telling you (1) if you even have a chance there, (2) if they are even hiring at all, and (3) making you stand out among the myriad of other applicants who are generally clueless about what the company does. The employer wants to know that you know enough about the company to sort of envision how you would place yourself in the business. Always do this research up front before heading out the door to fill out an application, drop off a resume, or schedule an interview. You will stand head and shoulders above the other applicants in your knowledge about them before they know anything about you.

With your WHAT, HOW MUCH, WHEN, WHERE, and WHO parameters in place you can now begin hunting for a job. The thing you need next then is an organizational plan to keep it all together so you can track your progress.

(A side note must be made here, and it's simply this: the more desperate the times in the job hunt, the more interchangeable these parameters are. For example, if you are having an extremely difficult time finding a job, you will want to re order these parameters so that getting a job is a little easier. Reprioritize them so that you at least land a job somewhere, since again having a little something now is better than having nothing at all later.)

Job Hunting, Part 2: Know Your Strengths

2009-05-12T23:04:00.002-05:00

3. Third, know your strengths. Your strengths are your God-given personality wiring, woven into the fabric of your being by your Creator who loves you so much. This wiring is not to be confused with your spiritual gift, though they will certainly influence one another.

One of the most helpful tools I've found in getting a grip on my strengths and how to use them is the Gallup group's research and findings produced in the Strengthsfinder series of studies and tools. I've personally used the book Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton, as well as the book Strengths-Based Leadership which has helped me work my top five strengths through a leadership grid that is amazingly gospel-rooted.

Another helpful tool is Career Direct offered by Crown Financial Ministries. According to the website, "The Career Direct® Guidance System can help you along the path of educational and career fulfillment. By taking this one-hour walk of discovery on CD-ROM, you will gather a valuable collection of information about yourself you can use immediately. It allows you to profile your personality, interests, skills, and values and instantly generates over 30 pages of individualized reports."

There are several key reasons why you want to know your strengths.

a. It helps you know what you're good at. Knowing how God wired you is the first and wisest path to finding the type of job that best suits you...a job in which you can fully glorify God and be fulfilled.

b. It helps you sell yourself to a prospective employer. If you know how God has wired you, and what your strengths are, you can sell that to the one potentially hiring you. Even providing them with a copy of the results of your strength would be amazingly helpful. Do you know how many applicants provide anything else beyond an application or resume? Hardly any. This lets the employer know you are different. This makes you stand out above all the rest, because you've taken the time to get to know how God has wired you. It says, "I'm interested in figuring out how I can best serve God in the business world and make my employer successful."

c. It helps you know how you could best fit in the company for whom you work. When you do get the job, even if it is not the job you really wanted, knowing your strengths will help you quickly adapt to your new position in a way that plays to your strengths. Proverbs teaches that a man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men (18:16).

Job Hunting, Part 1: Expectations

2009-05-12T22:51:00.003-05:00

Work is a gift from God. And finding work is a gift from God...yet one that is often times not easily discoverable. It is like the treasure in a field...it takes an awful long time, sometimes, to find a job. How much more true is this in an economic recession in which we now life. I thought it prudent to help you think through some basics in finding work. And this is something I intend to pass along to the brothers at church who are (or should be!) looking for work.

1. First and foremost, expect that looking for a full-time job is a full-time job, in and of itself. Papa first taught me that a very long time ago. He once told me, "Son, if you don't have a full-time job, finding a full-time job should be your full-time job." How right he was, and how God has blessed when I applied myself to this principle of wisdom. Expect, then, to spend a solid forty hours a week (or more) asking, seeking, and knocking for this gift from God. He has given you a promise that you will eventually receive, find, and have the door opened for you.

2. Second, expect that you are competing with hundreds of other applicants. Therefore, try to differentiate yourself from them. You want to stand out amid the crowd. One of the ways you do that is not to be ashamed of what you know you can really do. But also don't lie about it either. Be honest, but also be bold and courageous.

Will You Be Found to Be a Faithful Steward

2008-08-12T20:46:00.005-05:00

Harrison, tonight after your first lesson we were able to talk about something so significant, that it will determine the course of the rest of your life. If you get the concept we were talking about, you will succeed and be very wealthy for the kingdom of God one day. If you don't get the concept...well...let's just stay you'll be pretty much like every other soul out there in the world...or worse yet...you'll be broke and on the street. Even worse, there'll be no "well done, good and faithful servant" welcome from God when you get to heaven.

Here's the concept in short: you are a steward of every penny that comes your way, and you manage every penny for God who gave it to you. That's it, plain and simple.

Consider this for a minute. How did you get the five bucks I gave you Sunday? I gave it to you. My boss gave it to me for working. The Servpro corporate office gave it to her. The franchises I work with gave it to the corporate office. The insurance companies that the franchises work with gave it to them. The insurance companies got the money they paid the franchise, from the customer when the customer pays their insurance bill every month. The customer got the money to pay their insurance bill from their job. If they had a job at Wal-mart, let's say, then Wal-mart paid that person for working. But customers who purchased items at Wal-mart, paid Wal-mart. Those people were able to buy things at Wal-mart with the money they made at their jobs. And so it goes on back further, and further, and further.

The point is simple. The money you received on Sunday has probably gone through dozens and dozens and dozens of peoples' hands. What kind of person handled that dollar before you? Did they have integrity in using it? Did they use it for King Jesus? Did they consider themselves managers of that dollar? This is where you come in. I want you to be the stopgap, the river dam, if you will, for every dollar that comes into your hand from now on.

People build dams in rivers because they want to stop the flow and harness all the water behind the dam. Do you know what they do with that water? They use it to force into the guts of the dam where it makes electricity, power for your lights and computer and games and t.v., etc. In like fashion, I want Harrison Wilkerson to be the money dam, where money is harnessed and forced into investments that yield all kinds of benefits for the kingdom of God.

The only way you can be this kind of person is to realize that you are a manager of that money...a manager for God. Forget this, and you've wasted a lifetime of money that could have been used to bless others and spread God's kingdom. Be faithful in this and...well...heaven only knows what kind of force you will become in this world for the good of King Jesus.

Financial Literacy for Teens - Chapter One Summary

2008-08-12T17:57:00.004-05:00

With over a million dollars passing through my fingers over the course of my life, it's my responsibility to figure out how to make it, keep it, and spend it wisely. From the time that you start a job in the mid-twenties, to the time until you retire, you will have accomplished a money making total of over $1,000,000. Why? The answer is very simple. If you correctly do the math, you will get the answer that will help you through your carreer. Over the year, you will probably earn about $30,000. Say you start a job at twenty-three, and you retire at the age of sixty-two, and in the years of your job you make $30,000 a year, you should probably end up with 1.17 million dollars in your entire career. Wow! That's alot of money!

Gospel-Centered Business Means Don't Offer Rebates

2008-05-15T19:02:00.003-05:00

One of the most frustrating things I want you kids to watch out for in your business dealings (whether you are running your own business one day or working for a company that offers them) are rebates. It is quite common for many business, especially in the electronics industry, to offer rebates. The offer is simple. An item costs $200. It comes with a $100 rebate. The product supposedly costs you only $100 (after rebate).

Rebates are hardly, if ever, anything but mail-in. And this is by design. Here's how it works, according to one article entitled, "Taking Control of Rebates" by Donna Montaldo:

Many companies contract with rebate-processing centers, or fulfillment houses,to pay customers' rebate requests, some of whom market themselves with their low rates of redemption. Many of these companies design complex rules, have very
short filing periods or ask for documentation that is nearly impossible to obtain - all in an effort to not give the consumer their money back.

The rebate companies will ask for copies of receipts multiple times or delay the rebate check for months. Applications will be ignored and consumers will have to redo the entire process. Many of the companies make the rebate check envelope look like junk mail so it ends up in the trash and consumers are stuck retracing all their steps to get the money again.

Often, months after a rebate application is sent in, the customer will be asked for other documentation to get their rebate such as codes off of the products box that was thrown out months before or original receipts that have already been sent away.

United States Senator Charles Schumer said the following about rebates.

“The bottom line is, rebates unfailingly bring in billions in excess profits for companies that offer them, but when it comes to saving the shopper a dime, as rebates claim to do, they fail the consumer more often than not. It really is a combination of scrambling to meet deadlines, reading the extremely fine print, following unclear instructions and then crossing your fingers in hopes that the rebate check ever gets sent.”

This is unethical and the gospel demands that our "yes" be our "yes." In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained to His disciples that when we say what we are going to do, we should do it. The application to business is simple. If you say you are going to offer a product at a final price of $100, there's no need to offer rebates. Make the price what it is going to be, plain and simple. Anything else is not honest, and is an attempt to bank on the customer's tendency to forget in hopes that you get to keep some of their money. You are engineering business to profit from people's mistakes. That is ungodly.

I can't see any reason at all to do rebates. But if on the out chance there is some legitimate reason why you need to offer one, here's what you do.

First, max out the rebate time to as long as possible. If the product is purchased on January 1, 2008, make the rebate last until December 31, 2008, or even better...December 31, 2009! There's a novel thought! A two year rebate time period!

Second, get a copy of the customer's information and send them a snail mail, email, and even regularly scheduled phone call...all in an effort to remind them that they can get more of their money back from the purchase they made.

These two principles, if and when you should offer a rebate, are driven by the gospel which forgives peoples faults, just like God does your faults. It is patient with people, just like God is patient with us because of Jesus' death for you. It is aggressive in helping people, just like God was aggressive in pursuing you to be one of His children.

In summary, don't offer rebates if you have to, and be wary of working for companies that offer them. If those standards, principles, and ethics are violated there, you can be sure that there are many, many other ethical and moral violations being committed throughout the company, all rationalized with worldly wisdom, and always in the name of good business.

Gospel-Centered Negotiating

2007-11-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

Negotiating is about discussing a matter until both parties come to terms of agreement that are a win/win for both parties. How in the world is that even possible, especially in a sin-filled world? This is a particularly important subject for gospel-centered business owners and employees.

One specific way sin reflects itself is in manipulation. This is the practice of working someone else to get what want, regardless of the expense to their well-being, or yours. Manipulation is motivated by sin. Negotiation can come very close to it. The business world is filled with education on negotiation. Much of the time, I've found that what's behind it is a mastering of manipulative communication techniques to get what you want. That said, negotiation is a fact of life, something that cannot be avoided. As such, therefore, it should be learned for two reasons: (1) because it is a necessity to doing anything in life, and (2) you need to be able to recognize when other people are trying to manipulate you or reasonably negotiate with you.

There are several things I want to pass on to you when it comes to gospel-centered negotiation.

First, remember the Golden Rule. Jesus taught in Matthew 7 that we are to do to others what we want them to do to us. We are also to do for others what we want them to do for us. Don't treat people in a way that would make you mad if they treated you the same way. This means not manipulating and deceiving. Many tactics in the art of negotiation are just that: manipulative and deceptive. Often times, what lies behind negotiation is steering the communication and conversation process to some particular thing you want. That's not negotiating with the Golden Rule. Negotiate with others in a way that is just as much about them as it is about you. This leads to the second thing I want you to remember.

Second, gospel-centered negotiating seems to be more guided by what the other person wants more than what you want. When you read passages like Philippians 2:3-4, it is very difficult to negotiate with someone else and have yourself primarily in mind. " Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too." Apply that to negotiating with others and you'll be a gospel-centered, God-glorifying businessman. This world is and always has been about each person getting what they want and doing whatever they can to get it. That's exactly the opposite of what Jesus taught us. Being gospel-centered is being about others and not about ourselves. That's exactly the way Jesus Himself lived and died. For us. This leads me to the third issue.

Third, understand that people don't always want what you want. When you negotiate, the way to be gospel-centered...the way to be about the business of Philippians 2:3-4...is to focus on what the other person wants. If gospel-centered negotiating is about focusing on what the other person wants or needs, then how we deal with them will be guided by that focus, caring for them, for their outcome, more than our own. This is a very difficult thing to do because it requires getting into the shoes of other people...getting inside their heads to figure out how they think, what they want, what they really want (because they don't always come right out and tell you). That said, remember that what they want may not necessarily be something good or godly, in which case you may have to say "no." But whenever possible, say "yes" and try to negotiate with them for their good, so that they benefit more than you. Again, this exactly what Jesus did (though of course, there was no negotiating at all going on between God and man and between man and the cross).

Fourth, never narrow down a matter to one issue. Humility demands that you and whomever it is you are negotiating with should each recognize all the issues at stake in a negotiation. You both are fallen and sinful. As such, you aren't perfect and aren't all-knowing. Therefore, you may be missing something, ignorant of something, or not mindful of something. So is the other person. Being gospel-centered means being humble. Only Jesus is perfect, all-wise, all-powerful, all-present, never-changing. You are not. And neither is the other person. So you must be humble, and lead in that humility, showing the other person that humility is a necessity in negotiation. (And by the way, when they see this attitude, they may follow your lead and admit to the need for humility and work harder at it than they were before.)

What is more, there are always motive issues at stake in negotiations. Again, as sinful human beings none of our motives are ever pure and without any sin at all. Sinful motivations must be identified and removed and submitted to the gospel in order to be successfully gospel-centered and Christ-exalting. When you care more about others than yourself, and when you care more about purity and holiness than to get what you want, God will bless you beyond imagination both in this life and in the life to come. And when you and the other person with whom you are negotiating see the real presence and reality of sinful motivations, you both will question those motives more carefully, seek to remove then, and each work hard to do what benefits the other person more.

As the Lord teaches me more, I will pass them along to you also.

Working WITH God's Sovereign Providence

2007-11-05T09:03:00.000-05:00

One of the most difficult features about working in this multi-generational, technologically-advanced, profit-pursuing society we live in today is how to "manage" our time. There's so much stuff happening around us, and so much stuff we have to get done, that when the two collide it often causes chaos and frustration and confusion...and setbacks. It seems that we have a hard time getting our work done because of all the work we have to get done.

Establishing and maintaining a high view of God in His sovereignty and providence is a significant component to managing your work and the time you have to do it in. And this begins with a basic study on key passages in the Bible which teach us about God's sovereignty, providence, and plans. He's on His "watch" and not ours. He's about putting His plan into play and bringing IT to fulfillment, and not ours. But by some mysterious and strange stretch our plans ARE included into His. But in the end as Proverbs teaches, man plans his steps, but the Lord directs his course.

What is needed in the Christian workplace is some sort of system which helps the gospel-centered Christian recognize and process what work needs to be done, with enjoyment. God made us to work. Sin means we work hard. But God always intended for us to enjoy our work and find a degree of satisfaction and fulfillment in it, for this is who God made us to be....workers in His garden, in His world.

Whatever this system looks like it must maintain this theology at its core. I've got my plan and my tasks, my objectives and goals, but God has His plan. Mine must submit to His. This alone provides a deeper level of enjoyment and satisfaction than most of us get right now.

In addition, God wants me to process my work and put my plan into place. Irresponsibility is sitting back and doing nothing while we wait on God to do whatever it is He wants to do. Biblical reality says that while we do what we need to do, God is using that to accomplish His ends. Our plans are a means to fulfilling His plan. So any system we use must be like water, which when it is penetrated with any object responds with natural precision to the weight and force and mass of whatever is penetrating its surface. After it responds naturally, rippling outward to the shores of the beach, the place in the water which was penetrated returns to normal and continues to flowing and ebbing and tiding as it did before.

If this theology is at the core of our being then our lives will be like that water, submitting normally and naturally to whatever forces God penetrates our lives with in His sovereign providence. And then, when His work is done and the ripple effects continue to flow outward, our hearts and lives return in natural submission to doing whatever it was we were doing before to the glory of God.

Develop a system for handling the flow of work and sovereign, providential interruptions throughout the day. Some will be small, like unexpected requests, emails, phone calls, etc. And some will be big, like employees quitting, someone dying, a vehicle crashing, a customer suing, etc. Regardless of what happens, develop a system for handling it all which is guided at the core by a theology of the sovereignty and providence of God. I'll have more to say on this later.

Gospel-Based Business Ethics and Products

2007-09-04T19:56:00.000-05:00

Last week the Boston Globe published an article by Stephen Mihm entitled, "A Nation of Outlaws." It compares the current business ethics and practices of China which drive the quality of product they produce down the toilet. And it does so by humbling America with a big dose of its own downfall in this area.

"As with China and Harry Potter, America was a hotbed of literary piracy; like China's poisonous pet-food makers, American factories turned out adulterated foods and willfully mislabeled products. Indeed, to see China today is to glimpse, in a distant mirror, the 19th-century American economy in all its corner-cutting, fraudulent glory."

"Taking a page from the British, who had pioneered many ingenious methods of adulteration a generation or two earlier, American manufacturers, distributors, and vendors of food began tampering with their products en masse -- bulking out supplies with cheap filler, using dangerous additives to mask spoilage or to give foodstuffs a more appealing color."

"Even worse was the meatpacking industry, whose practices prompted a trade war with several European nations. The 20th-century malfeasance of the industry is well known today: "deviled ham" made of beef fat, tripe, and veal byproducts; sausages made from tubercular pork; and, if Upton Sinclair is to be believed, lard containing traces of the occasional human victim of workplace accidents. But the international arena was the scene of some of the first scandals, most notably in 1879, when Germany accused the United States of exporting pork contaminated with trichinae worms and cholera. That led several countries to boycott American pork. Similar scares over beef infected with a lung disease intensified these trade battles."

"Food, of course, was only the beginning. In the literary realm, for most of the 19th century the United States remained an outlaw in the world of international copyright. The nation's publishers merrily pirated books without permission, and without paying the authors or original publishers a dime. When Dickens published a scathing account of his visit, "American Notes for General Circulation," it was, appropriately enough, immediately pirated in the United States."

"Counterfeiters of patent medicines were especially notorious. This was a bit ironic, given that most of these remedies were pretty spurious already, but that didn't stop the practice. The most elaborate schemes involved importing empty bottles, filling them with bogus concoctions, and then affixing fake labels from well-respected European firms."

These are all terrible yet genuine claims regarding the business ethics and practices of our country. But what is more terrible is the reason the author of this article proposes.

"Piracy, fraud, and counterfeiting, whether of currency, commodities, or brand-name electronics, flourishes at a particular moment in a capitalist society: the regulatory interregnum that emerges in the wake of fast-paced capitalist change. This period is one in which technology has improved, often dramatically, and markets have burst their older boundaries. Yet the country still relies on obsolete ways of controlling commerce. Until there's something to replace them, counterfeiters and other flim-flam operators flourish, pushing new means of making money to their logical, if unethical, conclusion."

"Indeed, the ease with which counterfeiters and corner-cutters operate in China today can be attributed to many of the same failings that plagued the United States 150 years ago: a weak, outdated regulatory regime ill-suited to handling the complexities of modern commerce; limited incentives for the state to police and eliminate fraud; and, perhaps most important of all, a blurring of the lines between legitimate and fraudulent means of making money."

The problem is not fast-paced capitalist change, or relying on obsolete ways of controlling commerce, or a weak, outdated regulatory regime ill-suited to handling the complexities of modern commerce. In short, it is the lack of the gospel. When this singular force - the power of God to save a person from their sin - is put into action by the Holy Spirit of God, people change. When people change their business ethics and practices change. Capitalism is only as good as the gospel-changed people who run it. Those who have been changed by it will not engage in the practices of the two countries mentioned above. They will instead meet the real needs of people with products that are created out of the hearts of those who genuinely love other people, not for the money which can be made off of them or money that can be saved, but for the love of God which flows in their hearts.

Never be duped by any theory which places the failure or breakdown of our economy on anything else but the need of the gospel...plain and simple.

Can People Change? The Gospel and Personnel Management

2007-08-20T17:29:00.001-05:00

Conventional wisdom teaches that on the whole people don't change. They have a natural bent, which is part of their personality, makeup, or wiring. That bent may be bulled in the opposite direction...though only slightly. It is with this knowledge that the best managers manage the people in their businesses. And those who know this well run great businesses.

Part of the method and style of a good manager is to create, provide, or foster an environment for their people to "grow." But on the whole, the ones who move up or promote actually move out...out of their previous position or department. Those who do not respond typically remain where they are despite the environment that could foster their growth.

Those who move out and up do so because their natural bent is toward responding with excellence. (This is ideology, of course, and does not account for things like office politics which is sometimes the source of promotions.) These persons have a desire to put their all into all they can. Those who remain do so because their natural bent is otherwise. And that may be for a variety of reasons, all of which I can usually sum up into one of two types of people: ants and grasshoppers.

As per the old fable there are hard, steady workers (ants) and there are lazy "workers" (grasshoppers). The environment a good manager creates, produces, or fosters within his business identifies and draws out what is in the ant or grasshopper, and it magnifies what is drawn out. In this context, a work environment fostering growth will then do three things to an ant or a grasshopper.

First, it draws out what is in the ant. And within the group of ants, it magnifies those persons who are bent toward management. Second, within the rest of the group, it draws out the natural bent in those persons who are steady workers. Third, it exposes the natural bent of laziness in the grasshoppers. In the case of the first two, a good manager will maintain or mature that environment so that their bents will continue to be drawn out and utilized for the betterment of the company. And in the case of the grasshopper, a good manager will attempt to utilize what he is able, but not necessarily spend much more time trying to change them. In summary, good managers spend time drawing out what's already in an employee rather than spending time trying to put something back into an employee they desire to be there or feel ought to be there.

Christian managers, however, will and should struggle with the application of the gospel to this conventional wisdom. There are two reasons for this. First, a Christian manager cannot avoid the inherent responsibility in such a position of being in some sense a shepherd to the Christians and displaying Christ to the non-Christians. Second, the Bible teaches us to obligate and expect change not only in ourselves but in those around us who claim to be Christians. These two statements are packed with meaning, though it is not the point of this post to unpack it all. But I will touch on the second point briefly.

Regeneration and sanctification are supernatural forces at work on the natural bent of a person. In these doctrines are the fundamental premise that the Holy Spirit of God is at work in a Christian renewing them to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:28-29). So while conventional wisdom says people on the whole don't change, God says they can't change. And that's because of their natural bent towards sin. It's called depravity, and it's total because it touches every part of our being - intellect, volition, and emotions. But...God also says He can and will change them to think, act, and feel like His Son Jesus (see also Philippians 2:12-13; Hebrews 13:20-21).

Connecting this together, the question then becomes, "How does a good Christian manager manage Christians who can, should, and will change as well as non-Christians who will be described with the conventional wisdom of hardly ever changing?" Flowing from this question there seems to be two general fields of answers, posited here as additional questions.

First, if the Bible teaches that there are expectations of change in each believer, what are those expectations with regards to roles and responsibilities at work? In other words, if God says they will be changed by the Holy Spirit, what changes should a Christian manager expect to see at work so that the quality of their role increases? Can a Christian manager expect to hold such a person accountable? Clearly such accountability is anchored to a job description, for example, where explicit roles and responsibilities are communicated. This is a job, after all. But to what spiritual changes can a Christian manager expect to hold Christian employees accountable? Exactly how does the one affect the other? And how should Christian manager and Christian employee think about these things? Since the Bible is the rule of faith and life for every believer, no matter where they are, what role does the Bible play in this matter? There are so many more questions to be asked like this before there is even a ground of thought big enough to analyze it all.

Second, what are the expectations a Christian manager should have with regards to the biblical, God-given responsibilities of a Christian employee in general? The Christian manager is not a pastor, so there is a clear distinction of spiritual roles here. But this does not diminish the level of accountability that Christian managers should bring to Christian employees as suggested in such passages like Ephesians 6:5-9, Colossians 3:22-4:1, and in the letter to Philemon. So what kind of accountability then does a Christian manager bring to a Christian employee? Since they are spiritual relatives in Christ, how does this play into the scene? Do the "one another" passages, for example, only have a context including the local church, or do they reach beyond to the universal body of Christ? Again, so many questions must be asked before even attempting to reach some conclusion.

In addition, with these two fields of answers there is also the question as to what the differences and similarities are between these questions. This complicates the matter more. Yet surely these are questions worth answering since something greater than management and employee is at stake here - namely, the gospel of Christ. This is the transcendent principle that superintends and overrules everything else in life, including business management. But applying it with some degree of biblical accuracy and precision will surely become very sticky at times. Yet again, if the gospel is the overriding principle, such "stickiness" can in fact be worked through in an attitude of forbearance, patience, forgiveness, and gentleness with each other (see Ephesians 4:1-3).

In summary fashion, here are a couple of thoughts on pursuing this field of study a little further.

1. As it applies to Christian managers managing Christian employees...

...if you know they are Christians, speak freely with them about it. That seems to be the most obvious place to begin.The gospel flows smoothest when it is flows often from our mouths. Being afraid of talking about it is a shameful shame which Christ Himself will judge when He returns (Luke 9:26-27).

...keep hope in front of them at all times. If the gospel promises change, and you're expecting change from your Christian employees, keep putting the hope of that gospel in front of them. God promises to transform them, and He does not lie. This seems to be the wisest method of placing work-related expectations before them and holding them accountable. That Christian employee may be in a role they must fulfill or be forced to transition within the company elsewhere or terminate their employment. If they realize that the necessity of their personal situation requires staying and working, God promises to give them to strength and wisdom to work hard, while simultaneously transforming them in the midst of that work.

...you must be able to connect success or failure to meet work expectations to spiritual issues wherever they can be. The reason they succeed or fail in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities may be tied directly to a "heart issue." That is, there may be some deeper issue God is working to identify in their heart, and He is using success or failure in their job to bring it to the surface. A wise, prudent, and caring Christian manager will be sensitive to this, will gently broach it with a Christian employee, and will patiently make attempts to help the employee see the connections.

2. For Christian managers who manage unbelievers...

...they must realize that because they cannot change (since they have no Holy Spirit), unbelievers must essentially be corralled and controlled. While they are certainly not animals, the fact that they are not regenerated means their basic instincts will control them all the time. Greed, survival, selfishness, pride, arrogance, hatred, slander, etc. are all primal reflections of a heart without the Spirit. Such a heart does whatever it wants to obtain and maintain its status and benefits.

...they must work hard to build an environment where the unruly behavior of unbelievers can be minimized and where the best of their working skills can be drawn out. In the end, they do, in fact, possess a host of remarkable work skills because they are made in the image of God. But until God renews that at salvation it will forever remain dormant, and on the whole ruled by their inherent, unrenewed sinful desires.

...they must shepherd the unbelieving employee towards the realization that the fullest expression of their vocational skills can only be enjoyed and experienced when they have found satisfaction in the person of Jesus Christ.

This is a huge subject largely undealt with, as far as I have found. Yet it is surely one worth deep consideration both in the workplace, but more so in the local church where it should all begin. If this post sparks an interest within you about how to manage people better, talk to your pastor, share your burden, and ask him to walk this journey with you.

Tales of Good Customer Service: Car Wash and Wal-Mart

2007-03-16T14:18:00.000-05:00

It seems as if God's providence desires tales of good customer service to even out the two tales of non-customer service earlier today.

The first report is from the new car-wash in town. It's one of the deals where you pick your car wash, pay with your card (or cash), pull through the automated deal, and wheel around to vacuum your vehicle. I bought the $6.99 double pass with top scrubber and wheel scrubber. Those were the trouble spots.

I pulled around to vacuum and the assistant manager met me there to inform me that she wanted to give me another wash free because the automated deal made an error. Somehow the little wheel that pushes the backwheel of the vehicle along the rail through the carwash went early and gave me a different wash. She noticed my wheels weren't shining and that's what tipped her off.

Now that's customer service. She informed me of the brushes at the front of the carwash entrance which I missed, due to my incredible observation skills. When I was done vacumming, pulling back through without paying again was a cinch, and her customer service skills are what will continue to bring folks back that way.

Notice what she did in summary. First, she paid attention to the outcome of the product I paid for. Second, she checked her intuition and assumption that I had paid for the $6.99 deal. Third, she tracked me down to tell me what her mistake was. Fourth, she gave me another wash for free, directing me to the services and products I could use to get the job done even better. Whether or not this woman is a Christian, the glory and image of God in serving others with excellence shined through.

The second story comes from Wal-mart where I stopped to get an oil change before heading out of town. The quick lube wasn't quick enough for me, so I parked to run in and get some wiper blades. I also was perusing the aisle with the floor mats. My children ruined our carpet about a month ago during a rain storm after tracking through some Georgia red clay. So I was considering purchasing a horizontal length rubber mat of some sort to protect the carpet from further damage. I happened to find one...the last one on the shelf, to be exact. It was barely hanging on the rack with a torn label.

When arriving at the checkout station at the automotive department the department manager asked if there were any others that looked in better shape. Nope. It was the last one, I told him. I prompted him, "Now, if you wanted to give me a discount because the mat is not in brand new shape, I'd be up for that...what with you being the manager and all." He didn't think for more than a nano-second. He replied, "I'll give it to you for ten dollars." It was originally price $16.98.

In summary, this fellow paid attention, like the gal at the carwash, to the product for sale. God's image shined through because he applied the Golden Rule. He wouldn't want to pay full price for a used-looking brand new floor mat. So he wouldn't charge me either.

In short, the image of God shines through people whether they realize it or not. God is out to get glory for Himself....with or without their cooperation. The gospel, however, provides renewal to that image of God, so that such customer service is done in a gospel-motivated attitude with a Godward aim. It seems, then, that a perfect witnessing bridge next time is to point out their customer service, show how God's image shines through them in that way, and explain how the gospel can renew that and everything else about them...asking them if they want to know more.

Tales of Non-Customer Service: China Delight and Jittery Joe's

2007-03-16T11:03:00.000-05:00

Customer service is based on the gospel, plain and simple. We serve others with our resources because God served the world with His resources. His were two-fold: nature and Jesus. He serves everyone with nature, and He serves His elect with the person and work of Jesus. To be sure, we aren't customers, for we don't buy anything from God. We have nothing God wants. There is nothing we have which would spark a desire in God to want to trade or "do business" with us. He needs nothing. Anything we could offer Him is something He already made.

However, that HUGE difference aside, the core of the gospel is as much about the transcendence of God (pointing out the differences between Creator and creature) as it is the example of God. He gave. He served. And gospel-based businesses serve others.

The line of stories we'll report here serve two purposes. First, humor. That's important. I love to laugh. And I love to laugh at the incredulous line of reasoning employees and managers and owners offer for their customer service "policies." Second, teaching. This is more important. Watching how others practice non-customer service provides an illustration of how to form our customer service later on in business.

I have two stories for today.

The first is from last night at the China Delight. This is a little chinese restaurant in Watkinsville where we live. The place was empty when we got there. A sign? Perhaps. I counted the seating capacity: 61. I counted the employees: 4. I counted the ones working: 2. I counted the ones not working: 2 - 1 reading the paper with his legs propped up at the front counter, and the other hunched over two plates of food like a stray dog.

We listened to a combination CD of Christmas music and Kenny G favorites - both reproduced with Chinese sythesizers. And we were tempted to order from the Weight Watcher's portion of the menu. In a Chinese restaurant? What's up with that? That's a first for us.

Finally three more people came in, a dad and his two sons. We felt safe now.

Oh yeah, the Health Inspector's score was proudly posted in the front walk, facing customers as they walked in. A 100 in both categories. That's good. The chinese restaurant I ate at two days ago made an 80, with three major areas of impending health hazards checked...like employee cleanliness, covering and protecting food, etc. Main Moon is not even a Pluto for me anymore...well...except for the egg-drop soup. I'd be smart though if I just said no.

Back to China Delight! We spotted the Po-Po appetizer plate for 2. It contained 2 of this, 3 of that, 4 of this, etc. It was a combination of appetizers. We weren't that hungry and were already late for our care group. I noticed that the Crispy Shrimp Balls were $4.25 and the boiled/steamed Pot Stickers were also $4.25. My wife wanted Pot Stickers instead of Shrimp Balls, so I did what any loving husband would do. I asked to substitute.

I think that's like swearing or cursing at a chinese restaurant manager or something. I pointed out to the waitress that they were the same price, and explained the logic of substituting. She looked puzzled. That's why she's an employee and not an owner. She went to ask the manager who sent her back with a firm "No susuhtooshins!" And that's why he's not a good restaurant owner. People like that generally understand customers not as a means of business but as a persons trying to gyp him from making as much money off them as he can. I'm more than willing to bet it is a cultural thing for him.

But I'm willing to cut some slack because the Health Inspection Report was clean. In the end, the gospel would say two things. First, of course you can substitute since it's the same price. We are here to serve you. Second, if the one was more than the other, the owner could practice grace at his discretion and give a more expensive appetizer to the customer as a substitute. The gospel says service is about giving, not taking. God is honored in this, even at the loss of an additional 75 cents.

Second, this may be more a story about communication than customer service. I was at Jittery Joe's this morning for my usual cup of dark drip. I was missing a nickel to complete the transaction in change. She reached in the little flower bucket in front of the register, filled with ones and change and made up the difference. I like that little bucket!

Later, upon leaving, I took my cup back up there, half filled now, and asked for a "warm up." In other restaurants when the chipper, flirtacious waitressess call me "Sugar" and ask if I want a "warm up" they usually top it off for me. I've never heard "warm up" refer to anything other than a "top off." But this gal didn't understand that. She replied cheerfully to my request, walked around the corner, and presumably fulfilled my request.

A couple seconds later I heard a ding and the distinct sound of a microwave door open and shut. I got my coffee back with a reply, "if it's not warm enough let me know!" I learned my lesson. Ask specifically for what you want and don't assume that a chipper college gal at a local coffee shop can speak the normal lingo for coffee drinkers.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The owner of the franchise was standing right behind her the whole time. Think he might have corrected it? Or did he not speak coffee lingo either?

New Business Book Acquisition

2007-03-15T16:00:00.000-05:00

The Good Provider: H. J. Heinz and His 57 Varieties

by Robert C. Alberts.

After some dear friends left a comment on a post below, we were made aware of a businessman who seems to have implemented some gospel-based business principles which propelled him to the height of industry leadership in his day. That man was H. J. Heinz. On that comment we ordered a biography and intend to work through it slowly, gleaning what we can, and posting any significant items.

Gospel-Based Business Philosophy, Part 3

2007-03-15T09:12:00.000-05:00

Offering the Best to Customers as God Has Already Done in Christ

Gospel-based business philosophy ought to provide a foundation for economics, production, industry, etc. The posts by this title are simply an effort to observe an aspect of the gospel, and based on the two greatest commandments, apply that aspect to business wherever and whenever possible. Today's aspect is giving our best.

This is what God did. He gave His very best. He gave His only Son. And while on earth His Son gave His very best, for He gave Himself as a sacrifice for our sins.

If then we are to do to others as we want them to do for us, and if we are to love one another as we love ourselves, we should do for them what God has done for us in Christ. We ought to give them our best. Yes the comparison breaks down in that God gives perfect things in a perfect way, and we do not. But the perpetituity of this same attitude is what honors God since we are made in His image.

In industry this means making the best product we can, offering the best service we can, and not stopping at anything or for anything to do so. Cheaper quality products may mean cheaper prices. But it ultimately means more expenditures for the consumer who has to buy more of it because it keeps breaking. Disposable products are helpful in some areas, particularly where health concerns are present. But by and large, disposable products contribute to waste because more is produced and more is consumed and more is disposed of. God never does this. The Holy Spirit never does this. He gives the best which can be reused over and over again, and be appreciated more and more.

Perhaps more thought should be given here to how the gospel helps industry produce only appreciating products. This is going from one extreme - a disposable society (of disposable cars, disposable appliances, disposable electronic equipment, disposable computers, and disposable food disposals!) - to the other - a society of appreciating production industry. This is difficult, to be sure, since the gospel's effect does in fact work largely in industry by always driving people to make better, faster, more efficient, useful products. It makes sense then that when the newer is produced, the older becomes obsolete, thereby seemingly creating the necessity of waste. But what if companies purchased back obsolete products from customers, at a fraction of the purchase price of course, in order to use it to make the newer products? Some say that this would mean the cessation of our fascination with asthetics. The next product doesn't always have to look more pretty and sleek. But if the gospel says we are trying to make the best product we can, art is always a part of that. So the repurchased products could be utilized in some creative way to be just as creative in the production of the newer product. All in an attempt to offer the customer our best products and services.

Will making only the best quality products and offering the best quality services cost more in production? Absolutely. Will less people buy these products because our country is so trained to buy as cheap as they can? Absolutely. Won't our market penetration be smaller? Absolutely. Won't we be able to grow our business if we cut corners and still produce a decent product? Absolutely. Can't we make more money if we produce cheaper quality products at cheaper prices? Of course.

But if the gospel is our foundation, these questions become meaningless. If the gospel is the basis it is not about making money, but serving others with a product that serves their needs. What do they need? They need a product that will benefit them for the long run, not the short run. They need to spend money once on a product that will last as long as humanly possible, and not spend less money more times on a product that will break often.

Is it too foreign to think that if everybody produced the best products and services money could buy, that eventually the best would become the mean average and everybody in the mean average income bracket still be able to afford it? The point is that the average priced product is determined by what people pay on average for that product. But if the product is only offered at its best quality, people will have to buy it. But because the average income may be less, the prices have to come down, or the national average of income has to come up. Either way, it is sacrificing quality now to make money now at the expense of industry later. Offering cheaper quality products and services now only creates waste in the future.

The gospel shows us that God gave us His best, and therefore demands the same from us. The gospel redeems us and uses us for His glory, working to make us more holy, more like Christ and thereby glorify God. In like fashion, gospel-based business seems to point in the direction of redeeming what we have and working hard to make it better and better, in order to serve the customer and thereby glorify God.

Offering less than the best does not reflect the image of God renewed in us through the cross.

When serving and loving others, doing for them what we want done for us, becomes the dominating philosophy in business practice, there is no end to means we will create and formulate in order to make the best possible product and offer the best possible service.

Advice to My Children: Time Management According to the Gospel

2007-03-14T08:35:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately kids, we live in a Western culture. The way of thinking where we live seems so very different from the way of thinking in the days of the Bible, doesn't it? There's so much that's different, yet so much of that so much seems to revolve around the concept or understanding of time.

Time is something God created. It didn't exist before He created the universe. He doesn't live inside time, and He doesn't live by it. Time doesn't manage God. But time seems to manage us. It makes us grow. It makes us grow old. It makes us grow sick. It makes us grow tired. It also makes us grow up. It makes us wiser. Sometimes you'll hate time. And other times you'll love it. The difficulty in business, kids, is remembering that you cannot manage time. Time always manages you. But God always manages time.

The one thing you'll hear so much of as you begin your journey in the marketplace somewhere, especially if you're in America, is that to be successful you've got to manage your time right. Time management is a topic you'll find generating billions of dollars each year through books that time management "guru's" write, conferences and seminars people pay to sit through, and CD's, DVD's, and MP3's to help you remember all the principles regularly.

I've been through Franklin-Covey seminars, Day-Timer seminars, read books on time management, listened to motivational speakers on time management. They all sound very similar, saying much the same things but in different ways. Much of it sounds good and is in fact very helpful. But those are not the places to start. Please listen to me carefully. If you do start there and think somehow that given all the responsibilities you have you need to manage your time better, you will fall into a trap that leads to depression, discouragement, and guilt, all of which lead to failure in business. They eat away at your mind like a cancer.

What some Christians do, however, is find a way to make sure they don't get depressed or discouraged or feel guilt. They do this in two ways, I've seen. They take medicine to make their bad feelings go away. Or they form some line of reasoning based on the Bible that tells them they don't have to manage their time and priorities. I've noticed that line of reasoning in my own mind, from time to time. It becomes easy, very often, to tell myself that if I didn't live in a Western society where time, priorities, management, and business (as we know it in America) life would be easier.

If I lived in a place like the Middle or Near East their understanding of time is different there. I remember preaching a series of meetings in Jamaica, for example, when I was fresh out of high school, getting frustrated that it was 9:00 am and hardly anyone had arrived for the preaching of the Word that morning. It was not until later that afternoon that someone explained to me that Jamaica is on Jamaica time, not American time. 9:00 am was the suggested time to begin. People actually didn't show up until around 10:30 or 11:00. And worship didn't end until around 2:00 or 3:00, best I recall.

Two things have created the culture we live in today in our country: the enlightenment and industrialization. They carry blessings and cursings. The enlightenment opened up to the world the utilization of the mind. To be sure it was only a revival of the age of the Greeks and Sophists where those engaged in thinking and philosophy had the most reputable and famous jobs in society. Something similar has happened again over the last two hundred years, where the people who talk the smartest are the most famous and make the most money. That's primarily because people, by and large, are stupid, like sheep, and go wherever they are led, and do whatever they are told. And that's why the motivational speaking circuit, time management gurus, and publishers make so much money today. People continue buying what sounds so good to them. In reality kids, I've found it terribly elusive. It's like a huge bag of cotton candy that tastes so good while you're listening or reading, but then quickly melts away when you get back home and find yourself amid the responsibilities and roles God has put you in.

Industrialization has also helped create this culture. Building more and building better and building cheaper are the three things that drive business in our society. Thank God....truly thank Him for the radio, airplane, car, internet, phone, and especially the laptop computer and PDA! But along with this has come such a flood of things to listen to and watch, things to read and see, and places to go and stuff to do that our lives get filled up with "stuff." I thank God for industry. It is surely the means He is sovereignly using to subdue His creation. But depraved and sinful humans with fallen hearts use industry day and night to further their own causes, dreams, hopes, and visions.

This is where the biblical counsel comes in, guys. Ephesians 5:15-17 says, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Unless I've missed something in all my Bible reading and study, that's about the only passage in the whole Bible that tells us about "time management." And in this passage Paul gives two commands to remember.

First, "look carefully then how you walk." That means to live your life carefully, diligently watching what you do, where you go, when you do things, how you do them, etc. "How you walk" is a phrase that mainly points to how you are to behave and conduct yourself. But it touches so much more than that, since everything is connected to how we behave and conduct ourselves, like what we eat, how long we sleep, how we spend our money, etc.

Paul says that we are to behave and live our lives with wisdom. And Paul further explains what that means with the phrase, "making the best use of the time." God creates time. He gives it to you. He gives you 168 hours a week. He wants you to use it wisely and make the best use of that time. The method of time management in this verse is a method that helps you look carefully how you walk. So with all the methods out there, find one that helps you watch how you live. Pick a method or make your own that gives you a unique vantage point from which to see your life, your behavior, your conduct, your words, etc.

The second command God gives us through Paul is "do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." The first command had a positive sense, and the second has a negative sense. Don't be foolish. Foolishness, based on the verse that just came before, is unwisely using time and not watching your life carefully. In other words, eating, drinking, going, listening, watching, doing, playing, reading, sleeping and doing basically anything else mindlessly without thinking carefully about it is just plain dumb. It's foolish. Don't be foolish.

Instead, understand what God's will is. Now there's a lot to this, kids, don't fool yourself. God's will is huge. It's found in the Bible. And this means it takes alot of time to understand it all, doesn't it? If God's will is in the Bible, and if I've got to find out what God's will is, then I've got to make time to understand what's in the Bible to understand God's will.

These are where your priorities come from. Managing time is wisely using the time God gives you. Wisely using the time God gives you only comes from understanding His will. When you understand His will you will know God's priorities for your life. Then it becomes easier to schedule and arrange and organize your life around those priorities God says are important. And this is where keeping a notebook or journal of some sort is helpful. Since God's will is huge, and since it's found in God's Word, and since you'll have to make time to read it and study it often, you'll want to have a place to record those things you learn so that you can remember them and actually use them in managing your life and behavior and business.

Let me give two examples and then we'll call it a day. First, when you turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:3 you find something that could not be any clearer when it comes to God's will. "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality." Pretty basic. If you plug this into Ephesians 5:15-17, then being careful how you live and doing so with wisdom means prioritizing your life in such a way that holiness is your aim in life, and avoiding sexual immorality is one of the biggest means to that aim. It's God's will that you be holy. You become holy by avoiding sexual sin. So arrange, organize, and manage your time in a way that such temptations are few and far between. Don't be like the idiot in Proverbs 5 who mindlessly walks along the way without paying attention to where he's walking. He ends up walking right by a prostitute's house and he ends up getting killed. That's being foolish. But if you understand that God's will is your holiness and sexual purity, then the way you live your life and run your business will help you meet these priorities.

A second text is in Romans 8. This is a huge passage when it comes to time management, because the passages teaches us that God is working behind time, in time, and through time to orchestrate our good since He loves us and chose us before He created the world. Verse 29 says, "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son..." God's will is that you be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That is, God wants you to be like His Son in everyway possible.

Therefore, to be careful how you live, making the best use of time, and to do so in wisdom (as Ephesians 5:15-17 taught us), means to manage your life and time in such a way, kids, that becoming like Jesus is your priority. That means so very many things. But understanding what the will of God is means understanding the Scriptures. Understanding the Scriptures means finding out what Jesus Christ is like. Understanding what Jesus Christ is like means being able to conform yourself to His image. And all of this requires making the best use of your time.

These are the basics of time management then. It starts with a philosophy, a reason for doing time management, and not with a method itself. The method you use will reflect the reason you are using it. Let me leave you with this hymn to help give my advice some clarity and resonance in your heart. It was written by William Longstaff in 1882 and I'd encourage you to memorize it. You can sing it in the tune of "Be Thou My Vision."

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;

Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.

Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,

Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;

Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.

By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;

Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;

And run not before Him, whatever betide.

In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,

And, looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.

Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,

Each thought and each motive beneath His control.

Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,

Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

Gospel-Based Business Philosophy (Part 2)

2007-03-10T22:25:00.000-05:00

Applying a Theology of the Suffering Servant

This is not the blog to discuss a theology of the Suffering Servant. This theology is rooted in two primary places: Isaiah 53 and the Gospel of Luke.

Luke emphasizes how Jesus, in his ministry and death, is identified with the "suffering servant" prophesied in Isaiah. Although Luke affirmed the atoning aspect of Jesus' death, he focused on how Jesus' death fulfilled the role of the suffering servant. In this theological model, Jesus' death not only established His church, but, much like the role of the servant in Isaiah, the church's central mission was to gather the nations.

Pointing our attention back to Isaiah, we read specifically in chapter 53 that the role of Messiah would be to enter in among His creation, and more specifically His people and those associated with them, in order to live among them and identify with them. This is called incarnation. He entered into humanity to suffer with them and most especially for them. This role of suffering encapsulates the very glory of God which the world in Isaiah's day, Jesus' day, Paul's day, and our day continues to look upon as foolishness. A deity...a divine being...a God who suffers is pitiful and laughable. Yet this is the Messiah Isaiah prophesied. This is the role Jesus fulfilled. And this is the way in which Paul proclaimed the glory of God in the gospel (see 1 Corinthians 1-2).

If Jesus' life and ministry can be summed up in Mark 10:45. "...the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many." In short, He came to serve by suffering for us.

I cannot think of a more God-glorifying, gospel-saturated, cross-centered concept which seems to provide the best foundation for doing business. In short, like Jesus Christians must serve humanity by entering into their community to identify, empathize, and hopefully sympathize with their burdens and sufferings in order to do our best with the skills and gifts God has given us to at least alleviate if not completely relieve those sufferings.

Jesus did this on the cross once and for all for those who would come to Him for such relief (Matt. 11:28-29; John 6:35, 37). His work of grace provides a continuing outpouring of this supernatural grace through us toward others. The work of the cross, through the work of the Holy Spirit, can continue to be reflected to others when we live and minister in our work the same way Jesus did in His work.

Consider Hebrews 4:15. "This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin." Jesus entered into humanity as a human and experienced and comprehended and felt the very same sort of weaknesses and burdens and suffering that we do. He faced the same sort of temptations we do. Yet in his weakness and temptation He did not sin. He conquered sin. The source of suffering was conquered.

In like fashion, Christians minister at work in the power of Jesus, their High Priest. They are representatives of this High Priest, and this means three things. First, it means living like the High Priest, attempting to love and serve by identifying, feeling, comprehending, and sympathizing with those around us who suffer. Second, it means pointing the attention of everyone around them to this High Priest who can relate to them more than we or anyone else. Third, it means doing both toward the ultimate aim of relieving the source of their suffering which is sin...with the gospel-promise of ultimate removal of that source altogether one day.

Consider then Hebrews 5:7-9, for this is the consummation to which we point those around us. "While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him out of death. And God heard his prayers because of his reverence for God. So even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him."

Does this not provide the hearbeat of gospel-saturated business philosophy? While we are on earth, offering prayers and pleadings with those around us, with loud cries and tears to the One who can deliver us all out of suffering and death? Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered, and we learned obedience to Him through the things we suffer. Further, we walk with others in obedience through the things they suffer in order to lead them the perfect High Priest, who has become the source of eternal salvation.

It seems then that business must seek to do this, if it is to be a gospel-based business. Business is about exchanging goods and services. But in this exchange, there is a heart and mind and soul and attitude called "gospel" which must permeate such activity eternally more than money does. Money is a means to an end. It is a God-given tool to live the gospel in the way we exchange goods and services. And living the gospel means exchanging goods and services in a way that identifies, understands, sympathizes and suffers with those God has put around us.

This, then, is a gospel-based business philosophy.

Advice to my Children: How the Gospel Should Affect Your Choice of Vocation

2007-03-07T09:37:00.000-05:00

Vocation is a narrow road running between two ditches. The individualism so rampant in our American culture has inbred an inherent expectation that we ought to be able to work at what we are good at. But the gospel of Jesus Christ inherently teaches promotes the expectation that we ought to work at what is good for others.

The narrow road of vocation is a perfect harmony between doing what God has skilled and gifted us to do while at the same time doing it for others. That narrow road says that we will be able to work best for others when we are working at what we do best. Tim Keller (pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NY City) teaches that work is that place in which what God has gifted me to do meets my sincere desire to work for others.

We will never be able to navigate the road of vocation with precision accuracy. We will probably spend much of our lives driving with the right side of the car in the ditch of looking at work as slavery to "the man" or with the left side of the car in the ditch of looking at work as the end-all-be-all fulfillment to my desires. If not, we will at least be swerving back and forth on this road, throughout our lives, nearing one ditch or the other.

The Christian navigates this road with the gospel. The gospel is a package which includes a spiritual gift(s) given to us by the Holy Spirit. These gifts are to function as tools with which we minister to others and advance God's kingdom. These gifts function within the context of the local church as well as the marketplace.

The gospel also teaches that just as Jesus came to serve and not be served, our vocation is to be about the business of serving others and not merely finding something we like to do. We must never have the attitude that Lloyd, of Dumb and Dumber infamy, had while driving a limo. He turned around to the passenger behind him and responded with a degree of inferiority complex: "this is not my real job...my friend and I are going to start a pet store one day....I've Got Worms! That's the name of the pet store..." How often have we said this or heard it said: "this is not my real job...this is not what I really want to do...this is not my passion...etc." That very well may be. But it is the place where God would have you serve right now. And since serving others is gospel-nobility, work at it with all your heart.

When it comes down to a choice between the two, serving others in a job you're not as good at is more noble than spending your life working at a job which fulfills all your hopes and dreams while serving only yourself. At such an early age in life, Harrison and Eli (and later on Sophia and Kirk), let's work to find what God has gifted you to do. But let's work hard to find out what serves God's creatures and then work harder to find out how we can meet those needs. Maybe one day God in His sovereignty and pleasure will make these two elements meet for you somewhere in life. But for now He promises to meet you where you are when you are committed to serving others.

Investing: An Example Using Cows

2007-03-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

The other day my dad was teaching us about business and investing. He drove by a field of cows. He started showing us how cows are investments.

If a person buys cows and raises and cares for cows for about a year, and some of the cows have baby calves, then he can raise those cows and have more cows at the end of the year. He bought cows and used cows to make more cows.

With those cows he could get, sell or use their milk for himself or to make money. When the baby calves are bigger, he could also get milk from them too. Some could also be used for selling meat and steaks.

It is better to raise them to multiply them than just buy them to eat them. If we buy them to eat them, and we eat all of them, we don't have anymore cows. But if we use some of the cows to have more cows, then dad says we are investing not consuming.

Four Things We Do With the Money we Make

2007-03-06T17:36:00.000-05:00

My dad taught me that there are four things we should do with the money we make.

1. We provide for ourselves.

2. We provide for others. Jesus taught us that the two greatest commandments are to love Him and love others. We love others by blessing them with the money we make.

3. We give to the LORD. This is advancing God's kingdom in the church.

4. We invest. Investing is using the money we make to make more money. It is using the resources we produce to produce more resources. Investing is actually reproducing.

When we work, we should make enough money to do all four. If we only make enough money to provide for ourselves (to pay the bills), three bad things happen.

First, we won't have enough money to bless others and provide for their needs.

Second, we won't be able to have enough money to advance God's kingdom.

Third, we won't have enough resources left to make more money.

Most people usually work just to provide for themselves only. Some people work to provide for themselves and invest. Fewer people make money in such a way so that they can provide for others and give to the Lord.

What we should do is increase the average amount of money we make as much as possible. The better we do this the more we can do all four things above.

If a person has one job, they can get a second job to help them do more of the four things above. But if they can't do all four, they should work smarter and not harder.

Teaching Children About Entrepreneurship

2007-03-06T07:51:00.000-05:00

While not necessarily a gospel-based article on business, there are many practical things in this post which come to us from God's common grace. These are excellent thoughts for teaching our children about doing business God's way.

Teaching Entrepreneurship
by Mia Cronan

With all of the attention, both national and international, that our country and its government are getting at the moment, one gets a strong sense of what our country is really all about. As Americans, we are guaranteed through our Constitution to have opportunities...not necessarily outcome, but opportunities.

I find it interesting that in this day and age, many people no longer regard the American dream as the house, the car, and the picket fence. Now, the American dream represents, for some folks, the chance to start a company and a business, oftentimes, in the comfort of one's own home.
My parents were not entrepreneurs, in the usual sense of the word. My father did the 9 to 5 thing for a large corporation with occasional out-of-town travel, while my mother cared for us at home full-time. I give them both a lot of credit for the hard work that they exhibited on a daily routine, unfailingly.

However, when I think about the term "entrepreneur," they actually had an entrepreneurial spirit, which not everyone has. They had to think of innovative ways to save money as our family grew. They had to offer innovative ways to "sell" us on things that were good for us, even if we wanted to turn our noses up at them (i.e. vegetables.) My mother had to adjust accordingly to growing appetites and growing bodies, steering her to mass production of food and clothing, which she hand-sewed or hand-knit for the most part.

So what is it that we can do to teach our children these values, if we so choose? How do we show our children that sometimes necessity is the mother of invention, to use an old cliché? Is it possible to foster the drive to make something out of nothing and feel great about it, even if failure impedes the path at times? Here are some things to consider.

1. It's OK to stumble, and everyone does it. Just pick yourself up and start over. Remember, if you keep doing what you've been doing, you'll keep getting what you've been getting. Take a moment to stop and think before acting. Plan your work, and work your plan. These are all good phrases that pop up in life periodically, and they really do mean something. This teaches determination.

2. When something breaks, the answer is not always to run out a buy a new one. Sometimes the solution lies in pulling up a chair at the kitchen table, taking it apart to see how it works, then fixing it with new parts, if at all possible. This teaches resourcefulness.

3. Talking prices and value with children at an early age show them that money is not to be worshipped, but instead respected. Wasting our many resources and blessings is wrong and irresponsible. This teaches frugality.

4. Discussing how you handled a situation when you felt you were treated inappropriately by a business or store is a good way to help your child understand the nature of the customer/business relationship. Oftentimes, the customer is right, but sometimes that's not the case. Humanity plays a role, as well as treating others how you would like to be treated. That goes for both the customer and the business. This teaches professional relations.

5. Children usually come home from school with loads of papers and projects that need to go somewhere other than your kitchen table or counter. Help them find a suitable place to file these things so that they can put them away without your assistance, they know where they are, they can get their hands on them easily, and they are out of the way of everyday living. This teaches organization.

6. Every child has a talent. You may not know what that talent is, for a long time. Allow your child to try his hand at as many things in which he shows an interest as he can. Encourage him and tell him you see some talent there if he masters something. Look for projects that encourage the use of that talent. And take him seriously when he says at the age of three that he wants to be a rocket scientist. He just might! This teaches confidence.

These are all very simple concepts, but they all matter to our children so they can grow up feeling secure and ready to face the world. They may accept positions in large companies, small companies, educational institutions, the medical field, the law field, etc... They may want to start something on their own. Whatever they choose, a lot of what they can accomplish sits on our shoulders today as loving parents.

Mia Cronan is a married full-time mother of three girls, ages 5, 3, and 1, living in Pennsylvania. She owns and edits www.MainStreetMom.com, the magazine for modern mothers with traditional values. Mia can be reached at mia@mainstreetmom.com.

A Gospel-Based Business Philosophy, Part 1

2007-03-05T18:05:00.000-05:00

How Business Should Reflect the Gospel...

(Why we do business, and what guides the business we do)

A gospel-based business philosophy says...

1. A business ought to provide something for people in need.

Business is about meeting people's needs, not necessarily wants. God provided what we needed which was not what we wanted. We needed a righteousness of God but we wanted our own righteousness. God had the foresight to plan before eternity on giving us what we needed. What we needed corrected what we thought we wanted.

In a similar fashion, gospel-based business ought to provide for what people need and not what they want. People get the two confused all too often. But gospel-based entrepreneurship ought to focus on a legitimate need and seek to meet it, trusting that over time the proven need and its solution will correct perceived wants.

2. A business ought to alleviate burdens.

Is this not what God has done for sinners in Jesus Christ. We were burdened with a load of sin and God alleviated it in the work of Jesus, and continues to do the same today through the person and work of the Holy Spirit. As a God of mercy, He continually intercedes for us day and night to alleviate our burden of sin and the consequences it brings.

As such, a gospel-based business ought to focus primarily on alleviating the burdens of others. What do people lack which if they had would enable them to be more productive, more fruitful, more God-glorifying? A gospel-based business will seek to answer these and other similar questions through applying the gospel.

3. A business ought to relieve pain and suffering.

The gospel of Christ preaches to us that Jesus came to end pain and suffering once and for all. For some He did so while ministering on this earth. For others He does the same today through miraculous healing and deliverance. For most, however, He will do this through death which transforms us forever into people who will be unable to suffer or be touched by suffering. This is the promise of the gospel for those who believe in Him.

A gospel-based business, by comparison, ought to make primary the task of ministering mercy to others by relieving their pain and suffering. If Jesus calls us to come to Him to find rest (Matt. 11:28-29), a gospel-based business calls others to come, and indeed goes out to them to minister mercy to them toward relief of their pain and suffering, whatever form that may take.

What is Gospel-Based Business?

2007-03-05T17:56:00.000-05:00

A gospel-based business, in short, is a business that is motivated and guided by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Simply put, the gospel is God extending saving benefits (such as mercy and grace) through the person and work of Jesus Christ to undeserving recipients, who cannot save themselves.

The gospel applies to business by providing a proper foundation and motivation for business. It is gospel-based when it extends benefits to those who did not work to obtain those benefits. It is providing something to others who could not or do not provide it for themselves.

If the gospel teaches that the Son of Man came to serve and not be served, gospel-based business teaches that our work is to serve others, first and foremost.

Why must a business be gospel-based? Because without the gospel, a business is self-motivated, self-focused, self-driven, and self-consummated. And with the gospel, the giver and the recipient are both blessed.

Any business therefore must be about the business of three important functions, all of which reflect the act of God in the gospel of Christ: giving and serving and solving. God gave His Son to us, to serve us by dying for us, thereby solving our sin problem in us. Gospel-based business gives of its resources, to serve the needs of others, thereby solving their problems for them.