Can Business and Ministry Connect?

Business Today

Brought to you by: Community Partner Convene, www.convenenow.com 

While many people talk about doing business-as-ministry (BAM), the reality is that business IS ministry (BIM). Ministry is simply serving and caring for others. The best Christian-led companies do both implicit and explicit ministry: 

• Businesses implicitly serve and care for others through excellence of products and services, the way customers, vendors, and team members are led and served, and by building high performing companies that create opportunity and financial provision for many. 

• Businesses can also do explicitly ministry by being strategic and intentional about pointing people to Jesus, helping believers grow in their relationship with God, giving financially to support God’s work, and serving their community and the less fortunate in distant lands. 

Work is where most people spend the majority of their waking hours. It’s where you’re watched, followed, emulated, or possibly even discounted or resented by others. That’s where you’re a city set on a hill, and where you can have a tremendous impact on others. Like it or not, we’re held to higher standards than non-believers, and we’re always influencing people – either toward God or away from Him. Matthew 5:14-16 NLT reminds us, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” 

Think about the opportunity we have to be used by God in such a strategic way! Your church gets people for about an hour a week. Your business interacts with people for many hours each week, some for 40 hours or more. And many of those your business touches may never go to church. Just as it’s important and necessary that we pray, strategize and plan for business growth and success (implicit ministry), as followers of Christ we need to do the same for the explicit ministry aspects of our business. 

There’s no “one-program-fits-all” for explicit ministry through business – that would be legalistic and would dishonor your God-given passions, abilities, uniqueness, and the special circumstances of your business. Be encouraged, though, to seek God’s will for the explicit ministry aspects of the business He’s entrusted to you. Get ideas from others and create an explicit ministry action plan. Doing the explicit ministry part of our business well will bring great joy and satisfaction to our lives and to the people God touches. It can be an awesome part of the exciting adventure of walking with God in business! 

-Convene

www.convenenow.com 

To learn more about using your business as ministry, contact: