Audio Transcript: "9 Ways Your Church Can Engage Business Professionals"

Welcome back to the theology of business podcast. I'm your host, Darren  Shearer, and this is a show that helps marketplace Christians to partner with  God in business to transform the marketplace and make an impact in eternity.  And here we go with today's episode, nine ways your church can engage  business professionals. I'm convinced that there is no better way to mobilize the  people of God for the work of ministry in the marketplace than through the local  church. But it can be easy for people to view their local churches as being like  cruise ships for rest, relaxation and all you can eat buffets, rather than like  aircraft carriers intended for rallying and deploying like minded people for a  specific mission. If you're not on the pastoral staff of your church, you may feel  like there isn't much you can do to help your local church get focused on  reaching the marketplace for Jesus. And of course, that's the place where 85%  of the Christian workforce spends 60 to 70% of our waking hours. Now, on the  other hand, if you're on the pastoral staff of your church, you may feel  overwhelmed by the calling to equip your congregation for ministry in their  workplaces. And after all, this stuff probably wasn't taught in your seminary, I can assure you that it wasn't taught in mine, although actually it is being taught in my university where I attended seminary at Regent University now has a  marketplace ministry track, whether you're in the ministry like all marketplace  Christians, or in the equipping as a local church leader. Here's some tips and  strategies that can help you to activate your church for ministry in the  marketplace. And just as a preliminary note here, before we get started, I tend to use the term marketplace when speaking of those who work in for profit  companies which account for approximately 85% of the Christian workforce, yet  have very little Discipleship Training customized for the nuances of the business environment in which they work. And then I use the broader term workplace  when including government employees, nonprofit organization employees,  students, retirees, stay at home, parents, etc, because all of our work truly  matters to God and certainly is ministry unto the Lord, but this is we're making a  distinction here. We're talking about marketplace in some cases, and talking  about workplace in a broader sense. So here's the one of the first ways that you  can help your local church to activate the people of God and your local  congregation for ministry in the marketplace, number one is to start a  marketplace oriented small group through your local church. It's likely that your  church has a small groups program, and by the way, one great approach here is to figure out what your church is already doing and then figure out how you can  dovetail or piggyback, or whatever idiom you want to use to to bring in the  workplace marketplace emphasis into some of those programs. So start a  marketplace oriented small group, because your church probably already has a  small groups program. This provides a perfect opportunity to start a marketplace oriented discussion group for business professionals through your church.  Almost one year ago, I started a group for Christian business professionals that 

meets at my church once a month, and at our first few meetings, I would pose a  question related to the theme of business in the Bible, and then each member of the group was then asked to give a 90 second response to the question of the  night. And after everyone had an opportunity to respond, we didn't have some  open dialog, because I really didn't want to do sort of a lecture, lecture  approach. I wanted to make sure that it was conversational, and certainly each  meeting was open and closed with prayer. Now, although those early meetings  went well, as they prayed about the meetings, I could sense that something was missing, so I asked the group members, one by one, on a particular meeting  night, I asked them, Why do you come to these meetings? You know what's,  what's in it? For you, what's, what are you getting out of this? Without exception, every person in attendance responded with something like, I come because I  want to learn how to build a business. They weren't coming for a Bible study.  They weren't coming for a lecture. They wanted to learn how to be better  entrepreneurs. And now our group is called the Christian entrepreneur  mastermind. And here's the exact agenda that we use for each meeting, from  the first 20 minutes it's we start. We actually do ours on a Thursday night once a month. And that Thursday night might be the third Thursday of the month, or the  second, whatever the case may be, for holidays going on, like there have been  lately, late in the month, then we'll bump that earlier in the month, but we start at  seven o'clock, so the first 20 minutes to meet and greet. And that, by the way,  that's seven o'clock in the evening, meet and greet, opening prayer, and then a  business related devotional, just kind of a quick thought from the from the  scripture to speak to something that is highly relevant specifically to business  people, because they're typically not going to get that when they come into sun  on a Sunday morning service, which is more of a general audience, and then for the next probably nine minutes, the pre one pre selected member will present  two to three key issues that that person is needing help with in his or her  business. So that's what we call the hot seat, a very familiar term for anyone  who is involved with what's known as a mastermind group. They're very popular  these days and super helpful, and then for the next 30 minutes, the Group offers feedback to that person, and we'll ask some kind of clarifying questions about  what's going on in their company, and really to help that person kind of arrive at  their own conclusions about what they need to do, maybe some changes they  need to make, and then kind of toward the end, we open it up, depending on  how much time is left. A lot of times we don't really get to this, because it's just  so engaging focusing on that one person, because it's not only for the benefit of  that one person, but especially if you have folks in your church come into the  group, or not just from your church, but from around the community, that they're  really just wanting to kind of get started in business, and to be able to hear some of the questions that are going forward, And just to get inspired by hearing  another real world Christian entrepreneur, business owner who is dealing with 

some of the things that they would hope that at some point they would be able  to deal with in their own business, that they might start one day. It's it's beneficial for everyone who comes and and so that does tend to be the the makeup of our  group. Are people that are very new entrepreneurs. We have some they're  they're quite seasoned, but for the most part, they're people that are wanting to  get something off the ground. They just haven't really taken that first step. And  then we close out in prayer, and particularly focus on praying for that person  who is in the hot seat and just praying that God would give them wisdom, give  them insight and bless the the works of their hands and their minds and and any other specific needs that they might have. And so yes, we pray and discuss  something biblical at each meeting, but the simple fact of helping people with  the nuts and bolts of their businesses inside our church building, sends a  powerful message to our people in our church that God cares about and has the best insight concerning their business aspirations and challenges. And so we  probably will experiment with having our meetings at like a local coffee shop or  something like that. But for now, it's, it's really been neat to see God at work in  the business people, meeting, in our church building. Okay, so that's the first  one that you could do, is to start a marketplace oriented small group. Might not  need to be a entrepreneur mastermind group. You could even just do a book  study on a business book. Or, you know, there's plenty of books on faith and  work integration, on faith and Business Integration and and maybe just taking a  particular might not even be a quote, unquote Christian book, but you could  bring to bear your Christian worldview in that discussion, that discussion forum  and and find that it's a an incredibly beneficial thing for the business people in  your church. So the second thing you could do is to integrate a workplace  oriented spiritual gifts assessment into your church's newcomers class. Most  churches have some sort of class for newcomers to the church, they might call it a new members class, or connect class, or a growth track, and it typically will  consist of maybe three to four sessions. That's kind of a popular way to do it.  Now, where the beginning? You know the ideal, desired outcome of these  classes is that the newcomer would begin volunteering in an area of the church  that's compatible with his or her spiritual gifts. So start out talking about the  vision of the church, the history of the church, maybe some basics about Bible  study, prayer life and commitment to the church, and then kind of the big  crescendo is that we're going to get you to volunteer. Some place in the local  church, because that volunteerism is often used as a means to validate that  person's commitment to the local church. Really find out how committed they  are, and this class presents an ideal opportunity to mobilize your church family  for marketplace ministry from the moment people start attending your church.  So it's really a win win, where you not only are going to be able to help to get  them involved in maybe working the nursery or as a greeter or whatever it is, but also then help turn the corner to show them that you know what that gift of 

teaching or that gift of administration, God is wanting to use that, and probably  already is using it out in their workplace for ministry to reveal what Jesus looks  like, which is seen through the parts of Jesus, which the apostle Paul, of course, refers to as the the different gifts of the Spirit. That's, that's what makes up its  one body, many parts. Those different parts are the different gifts of the Spirit.  So to help newcomers discover their spiritual gifts and where they might  volunteer in our church, my church has adopted the your spiritual gifts in the  marketplace assessment that I created as part of the book that I wrote, The  Marketplace Christian a practical guide to using your spiritual gifts and business. And my pastor has allowed me to administer this assessment during the final  session of what we call our Connect class for newcomers. And this is very  important. We use this assessment as an opportunity not only to encourage the  people to volunteer as greeters, nursery workers or on the worship team, the  you know, the music team, the the on the sound crew, or whatever, but also as  an opportunity to help them discover how God wants to use their gifts for  revealing Jesus in their workplaces throughout the week. And by the way, you  are welcome to download and use the your spiritual gifts in the marketplace  assessment that I created. And it's, it's part of the book The Marketplace  Christian. But you don't have to buy the book if you just want to get the  assessment. But you can get the assessment make copies to be used at your  church or in your small group. Maybe you don't just want to do this through your  local church, but through your small group, you can access that through the  show notes in this episode, and definitely comment on the show notes for the  episode if you are going to start using this. So I would love to find out what's  happening in your local congregation, just how you're using the assessment,  and this assessment includes access to examples of how 23 spiritual gifts have  been used in a marketplace setting. So you'll have the links to get access to that a third way, in addition to the small group, and then also integrating the spiritual  gifts assessment into your church's newcomers class. I mean, I would say,  really, those are kind of the biggest kind of low hanging fruit. I would say,  encourage your church's workplace Christians to make a list of five people in  their workplaces they'll commit to reaching with the love of Jesus, following  some basic evangelism training during your church's newcomers class, again,  kind of working with some of the programs that are already in place in your  church. So use that newcomers class, and during that time, I recommend  distributing a card with five blank spaces in which people can write down the  names of five people and their workplaces who they'll commit to reaching with  the love of Jesus. So those could be their clients or coworkers or bosses,  vendors, whoever it might be, and they should commit to praying for, caring for  and sharing the gospel message with each of these five people. And if each  workplace Christian get this reached just five people in his or her workplace with the love of Jesus by 2020, the entire workplace in the United States of 

approximately 156 million people would be reached. And that's probably going to also apply in your country, wherever you might live, just a couple of people and  just committing and just being faithful, to just sow into their their lives, and just  be intentional about revealing Jesus. We'll see our workplaces reached all  across the world. So no matter what nation you live in, your nation can be  reached for Jesus through the workplace. And if you in the workplace Christians  in your church would be willing to join this movement, I encourage you to sign  up at love2020.com/workplace. You can get more information there. A fourth  thing you can do is to formally commission your church's workplace Christians  for ministry. In the workplace as each group completes your church's  newcomers class, where they'll receive basic evangelism training, discover their  spiritual gifts and explore how God wants to use them for ministry in their  workplaces, as well as in the volunteer areas at church, I recommend facilitating a brief commissioning ceremony for these graduates during a Sunday service,  you know? Because often what happens is the people will come through these  classes, and then on the other end, the follow up and the recognition, all of that,  that ball just kind of gets dropped, and the people just kind of disperse into the  congregation, or they disperse out of the congregation, as is often the case. And so here's an opportunity to recognize these people, and also during this, what I  would call a commissioning ceremony, not all, not just that, we're going to say,  hey, great job for completing the newcomers class or the Connect class, but  we're going to call this a commissioning ceremony, where we're going to bring  each graduate in front of the church, ask each person to say his or her name  and occupation, commission that person, present to them a commissioning  certificate or a special coin or something to just something tangible that you can  put in their hand, and then emphasize that these people are commissioned  ambassadors of Jesus in their workplaces, functioning as extensions of your  particular local body of Christian believers. The fifth thing you can do is to  partner with or start a local job support ministry, and it's difficult to do  marketplace ministry and be fulfilled in one's calling while being unemployed. So where do you connect? You know? Where do you direct people in your church  who are in need of work every week? Northwest Bible Church, here in Houston,  where I live, provides a place for employers to meet people who are looking for  work. It is a phenomenal ministry called between jobs ministry. Every week,  hundreds of out of work people attend their weekly job search training and job  fair event in addition to helping them land jobs. This church, Northwest Bible  Church, uses the opportunity to help the attendees explore God's purpose for  which he created them. If there isn't a Christian jobs at work, ministry like this in  your area, maybe God's calling you to start one a sixth way that you can engage the business people in your church is to have the congregants share workplace  testimonies in front of the church. In front of the church, I mean, to really affirm  the testimonies of what God is doing beyond just the four walls of the building, 

one of the best ways to help people realize that the Christian faith and your local church are not disconnected from their everyday life in the workplace is to have  your people share testimonies from the workplace in front of the entire church,  at least monthly, in front of the entire church. I keep emphasizing that because  it's very important that they get the opportunity to that the entire congregation  has the opportunity to hear testimonies of what God is doing out there. That do  you have at least one to two workplace Christians share testimony of how God  is using them for ministry in their workplaces. And these testimonies can be pre  recorded on video, and I recommend doing a dry run with these people before  they actually get up and speak to the entire congregation. So you can help to  kind of help them refine their message and what they're going to share. Because I know that oftentimes that goes kind of back to back with the announcements  time, and you know, time is of the essence, so definitely help them to really  clarify what they're going to be saying when they get up there. A seventh way  that you can engage the business people is to get your church involved in  workplace emphasis month, which is happening in July. This is a great time to  launch many of the initiatives that I've been talking about here on this episode,  and also for pastors to preach workplace themed sermons or to invite guest  speakers who are experts on the topic of workplace ministry. And one of the best times to do this is during church wide workplace emphasis month in July. I  encourage you to put it on your church calendar. Encourage your pastor to take  this seriously and commit to making workplace ministry the overall theme for  that month. Because frankly, if you're like most churches, it there really is not an  emphasis placed on this at all during the year. So let's just take one month and  really focus on mobilizing the workforce, the Christian workforce, to go out and  represent. Jesus in their workplace, where they spend almost all of their time.  An eighth way that you can engage the business people is to educate your  pastors about the needs of marketplace Christians. Periodically, my pastor and I, we have lunch together, where I have the opportunity to share with them what  marketplace Christians are actually facing and how the local church can help if  you're a marketplace Christian, I strongly recommend having this type of  conversation with your pastor about how the church can disciple Christians for  their work in business. You might consider inviting your pastor to lunch or to  meet with you in your place of work, and you may even want to share this  episode with your pastor. Also you could share the show notes from  theologyofbusiness.com Your pastor doesn't need extra work, so be sure to  reassure your pastor that you're willing to put forth significant effort toward these workplace discipleship initiatives. A ninth and final way that I'll mention on this  episode, and I know that there are many more, and I'm looking forward to  hearing some of the examples of what's happening. Maybe in your church is to  identify a point person for marketplace oriented discipleship in your church, and  most of today's pastors simply aren't qualified to spearhead marketplace 

discipleship and if initiatives. And when I attended seminary from 08 to 2010  there was no teaching on how to mobilize Christians for ministry. Specifically in  the business world, there was no course on the theology of business or theology of work or marketplace ministry. They have those now, but they didn't just a few  years ago, not only that, most pastors spend almost all their time engaged and  other essential duties, such as preparing sermons, primarily to help people with  their private life matters. You know, their marriage and their thought life and  those sorts of things going on, hospital visits, leading church staff meetings,  providing counseling sessions and figuring out how to facilitate better church  services on Sundays. And with all of that, they usually aren't focused on  discipling their people, specifically concerning marketplace related issues. And  so for these reasons, I recommend that the person who spearheads the  marketplace oriented discipleship initiatives and your church not also be  responsible for church duties that would take his or her focus away from the  marketplace in the public life of the people in the church, there are already  enough church staff focused on the inner workings of the church, and your  pastor is probably praying for even more people to help out with the internal day  to day operations, unless someone in your church takes responsibility for  discipling people, specifically for their work and business and also for other  types of everyday good work environments, these marketplace Christians will  either leave your church or simply won't discover God's will for their work. And if  you're listening to this episode, there's a great chance that you're probably the  one God wants to use to disciple the business professionals in your church, and  God wants to use you to help transform your local church from a comfortable  cruise ship to a mission focused aircraft carrier so that your church can  transform your community and disciple nations. So in conclusion here, and by  way of discussion, I would love to hear your thoughts on this at  theologyofbusiness.com look for this episode on the nine ways to engage, nine  ways that your local church can engage business professionals. And the  question is, in what specific ways is your local church engaging discipling and  mobilizing the business professionals and your church for marketplace ministry? Or if maybe this is new for your church, or new for you to even consider and you end up going to start to have some of these conversations with your local church leadership. You know, let me know how it goes, and feel free to comment. Or  you can just contact me through theologyofbusiness.com I would love to hear  from you. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. You can share your feedback and  get more information about marketplace ministry, spiritual gifts in the  marketplace marketing like Jesus and Christ centered leadership and  entrepreneurship at theologyofbusiness.com and the theology of business  podcast is sponsored by Highbridge books. If you're interested in publishing a  book to make an impact for God's glory in the culture. Head over to  Highbridgebooks.com/course to sign up for a free free video author training 

course. In this course, you'll learn how to write a great non fiction book, how to  market your book, and how to start a blog to build your platform as a thought  leader. Thanks for all. Sitting and keep partnering with God in your business.