As Christian business leaders, the values we use to run our businesses impact everything. Our values have the potential to define our company culture. They guide our decision-making and drive our performance.
In our modern world, technology’s rapid evolution has changed many business sectors and practices. Communication is instant, production is faster, and digital tools for marketing, campaigning, and networking are more advanced than ever.
Facing business struggles, setbacks, conflicts, and hard financial times is something that business leaders and CEOs expect to experience.
I enjoy unhurried conversations where joys, hopes, dreams, and fears bubble to the surface of our often too-busy lives. As a pastor and frequent speaker on faith, work, and economics, I not only really like a bold cup of coffee but enjoy catching up with congregational members at a favorite coffee shop.
The book arrived on my doorstep unrequested. It was going to go in the “TO READ” pile that never actually gets read. There was one show stopper, however. It contained a note from a dear friend. He was endorsing a book by his friend Jay Stringer. The book was entitled, Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing.
How is it with your soul? That’s a question the Puritans asked each other in the 16th and 17th centuries. Today, if someone came up to you at the office water cooler and asked you how it was with your soul you might expect they’d be prying… but why? Why don’t we want to know how someone is doing with what the brilliant Christian writer Dallas Willard said was “the hinge on which the rest of your life hangs.”
“If you can dream it, you can do it!” said Walt Disney….and then came Disneyland!
“I have a dream” shouted Martin Luther King on the Washington mall to 250,000 people.
“Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.” wrote Dr. Ben Carson whose life was one of hardship before becoming a surgeon.
God made us to work. If you’re a Christian professional, chances are you’ve heard the phrase. Maybe from a pastor, a conference speaker, or someone in the office. But when it comes right down to the first minutes of our morning on Monday, the abstract does us little good. How do we take the idea of work as worship and make it a reality? The work as worship idea says that the five days (or more) we spend each week at work give us the opportunity to expand God’s kingdom. We can use the talents and skills God has given us to worship Him on more than just Sunday. It’s a compelling message—but what does that look like lived out?
