Welcome back to the theology of business podcast, the show that helps  marketplace Christians to partner with God in business to transform the  marketplace and make an impact in eternity. I'm your host. Darren Shearer,  author of the brand new book The Marketplace Christian a practical guide to  using your spiritual gifts in business and also the book marketing, like Jesus-25  strategies to change the world. You can get both of these books at either  amazon.com, or, of course, at theologyofbusiness.com at paperback or ebook.  Hope you enjoyed today's episode, and I'd love to have discussion with you in  the comments section for this episode at theologyofbusiness.com Have you  identified your personal role in the marketplace Christianity movement? I'm  noticing that today, an increasing number of Christians are becoming interested  in launching initiatives, maybe businesses or or non profits, or coaching  organizations, or podcasts. In my case, they're launching initiatives to glorify  God in the business world. And if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably one of us. So what are the current trends in the marketplace Christianity  movement, and how can we get involved in what the Holy Spirit is doing today?  And I'm gonna, and I'm gonna address those questions in a future episode that  I'm currently developing. But first, for the purposes of this episode, we need to  understand and appreciate the origins of the various expressions of this  powerful and exciting movement of the Holy Spirit, and especially for those of us who are called to be leaders in this movement, we really need to understand  how it originated, because I know that sometimes when I talk to people in this  movement, it's it's almost as if they feel that they're the first person to ever  realize that God wanted to be involved in the business world. But I hope I can, I  can reveal to us today that there is, there is quite a history that has brought us to where we are today, and a lot of the exciting things and trends that are going on  today in terms of the marketplace Christianity movement, and certainly God has  been at work in the marketplace since the creation of economics in the Garden  of Eden. That'll probably be a different episode, but for the purposes of this  episode, we'll be tracing this movement's history starting from the 1930s and so  I'm going to kind of break it down by identifying some of the general themes that  I've noticed as I've kind of studied the brief history of this movement during the  past 100 years or so. But we're going to start in the 1930s so between the 1930s and the 1950s I'm going to call that the men's evangelism focus, the founding of  the Christian businessman's connection, as it's called today, CBMC. It was  actually renamed, but the CBMC in 1937 that founding generally, is considered  the beginning of the modern marketplace Christianity movement, the CBMC,  which is still active today after all these years, has many of its 50,000 members  attending weekly chapter meetings. And the CBMC began when a group of  Christian businessmen facilitated a series of weekday evangelistic meetings in  Chicago during the Depression era and then in the and so it was. You can see  that it was very much originated with a desire to win souls and win the lost and 

have these evangelistic meetings. And these businessmen were, I mean, there  were, there were meetings going on, not in a church building, but out in the  marketplace, like during a weekday. That was kind of a new development. And  then, but then in the 1950s the movement took on sort of a Pentecostal  expression with the founding of the full gospel businessman's fellowship  International, kind of a long acronym there, FGBMFI, it was founded by Demas  Shakarian. Shakarian was a prosperous dairy farmer whose farm became the  largest in the world at the time. And this prosperous businessman, Shakarian,  he used his influence and organizational abilities to help facilitate evangelistic  crusades for Oral Roberts and others, and noticing that these Crusades were  primarily attended by women, he started the. A Full Gospel businessman's  fellowship to reach men with the gospel. And today, there are at least 3000  chapters in at least 160 countries that meet, meet weekly or monthly. So in the  1930s 1950s this movement was really characterized by an emphasis on  leading men to Christ. It was, it was very much evangelistic in nature. These  businessmen had a great deal of influence and resources, and they wanted to,  they wanted to use that for holding these evangelistic crusades. They wanted to  have meetings where they could bring in lost people and introduce them to  Jesus, awesome, awesome stuff. So that that stream, that movement, that that  piece really kind of kind of got fueled and and supercharged in the 30s through  the 50s, so then in the 60s through the 70s, what was what was happening? I'm  gonna call that a charismatic and diversity focus, and because it was this time  that the Charismatic Renewal of the 60s and 70s was really going strong. So  during this time, an organization called aglow International is is one that  characterized, I think this movement's predominantly charismatic emphasis on  diversity during this season. Aglow International was originally known as  women's aglow fellowship. It was founded in 1967 interestingly, by four wives of  the full gospel businessmen fellowship international members. And these  women wanted their groups to be a place where those, and I quote those  coming into the Charismatic Renewal, could meet to pray fellowship and listen  to the testimonies of other Christian women and parting with a more traditional  approach to marketplace Christianity, much of the organization's emphasis has  been on empowering women, economic impact, charismatic experience,  apostolic ministry, prophetic ministry, and international impact. They have  meetings that are going on in the marketplace, not just in homes and and places like that. But actually in the workplace, women are gathering and again, it does  have to this day very much a charismatic, Pentecostal kind of DNA. But that  really got going in the 1960s and 70s, and each of those things that I just  mentioned about the apostolic ministry, the prophetic ministry are very much  hallmarks of Pentecostal charismatic theology and practice that really saw a  renewal in the 60s and 70s and today, aglow. International has more than  200,000 people, and these are, of course, primarily women, meeting monthly in 

about 171 nations. So then in the 1980s it was really characterized by what I'll  call a timeless business principles focus. A major trend in the 1980s was the  emphasis on the application of biblical business principles. So for example,  Proverbs about money and Proverbs about decision making, but very much an  emphasis on the book of Proverbs and the wisdom of Solomon as it relates to  business and and leadership and so forth. And this trend can be observed  through the emergence of the primarily white collar Christian networking groups  such as the fellowship of companies for Christ International, which is still going  very strong today, the FCCI and the International Chamber of Commerce that  emerged in the late 1970s and also the mid 1980s respectively, Larry Burkett,  classic book, business by the book, communicates many of the ideals that  emerge during this season of the movement. Christian thought leaders in  business today, such as John Maxwell and Dave Ramsey continue to  demonstrate this, what I'll call a latent expression of marketplace Christianity.  It's, it's not necessarily when they're doing their seminars, like I went, just went  and heard Dave Ramsey speak at one of his entree leadership one day  meetings and and he does, I mean, you'll everybody knows he's a Christian, but  he doesn't necessarily wear it on his sleeve when during the during the  teaching, because the emphasis is really on applying the principles to your  business. And then in the 1990s what emerged is what I'll call the search for  meaning. Focus. In 1994 Bob Buford published a book titled Halftime. And I had  one of the leaders of halftime, Jeff Spadafore, on this podcast several weeks  ago, but Bob Buford published a book titled halftime, which marked a new  emphasis of the marketplace Christianity movement. So as people were retiring  from corporate America, Buford was noticing that many of them felt unfulfilled  with the decades of work they had performed in the marketplace, and these  marketplace Christians were now embarking on a search for greater significance in the second half of their lives. And for most of them, this meant doing nonprofit  work, or what has been referred to traditionally as ministry work. But for many of them, this meant remaining in corporate America with a fresh sense of eternal  purpose, having discovered their Ephesians, 2:10 calling. And you can hear  more about that in my interview with Jeff Spadafora the it's interesting because  something he said, something like 80% of them come to half time thinking  they're going to go into doing nonprofit or church work, but many of them do go  back into business, like I said, with that fresh perspective that business is also a  calling and a ministry unto God, and in the pursuit of this search for meaning  and calling and work groups of marketplace leaders like the pinnacle forum were formed during the 1990s and these leaders have come together in the pinnacle  forum, for example, to leverage their skills, resources and influence to make an  impact for God's glory. For example, approximately 80% of the investors in Pure  Flix entertainment, as I was told by their chief operations officer, about 80% of  the investors in Pure Flix, which is the largest Christian film production and 

distribution company in the world, are members of the pinnacle forum, Pure Flix. You're probably familiar with the movies they produce, like God's Not Dead, and, more recently, Woodlawn. And also, God's Not Dead 2 which is going to be  coming out. Highly recommend going to support all of these movies. Incredible  quality that is being produced. So that was, that was kind of a another  expression of this search for meaning focus. Another way is the way in which  many of these business leaders began to hire corporate chaplains to provide  spiritual and emotional support for the employees in their companies. And two  leaders in corporate chaplaincy marketplace, chaplains USA and corporate  chaplains of America both emerged during this time, are doing incredible work in that regard. And then in the 2000s there, I've noticed that there seemed to be  sort of, I won't say, a split, but sort of a multiplication, or kind of a specialization  among that that really kind of was defined along denominational lines. So in the  2000s I'm going to talk about three different streams. One is the Neo Calvinists  and and I'm going to explain a little bit of what I mean by Neo Calvinists, if you're not familiar with that term, but, but this is more of a Genesis 1-2 focus  emphasizing the creation story in Genesis 1-2, they have drawn heavily from the teachings of Neo Calvinist theologian Abraham Kuyper, who asserted that  human beings have been appointed as God's priests of creation, and this  doctrine has led to the development of a robust theology of work that teaches us that the marketplace Christians work itself can be worshiped to God, so it's not  as if you have to Come in and have a Bible study to do work, to do ministry in  your workplace, but your work itself is worship, and should be worship unto God, and they have taught us that every helpful job in society is a means by which we can participate consciously in the universally Good economic system God  established in the Garden of Eden. And the theology of work project, you can  you can check out their work at theologyofwork.org Redeemer churches, Center for faith and work. Redeemer church, up in New York City, Pastor by Tim Keller.  And also the Institute for faith work in economics emerged during this during this decade, all having this Genesis 1-2, creation, stewardship, focus as the  foundational basis for what they've labeled the theology of work. And many  books with this Genesis 1-2, work is worship. Focus. Emerged during this  decade. So if you do a Google search for work as worship, chances are the  book came out during that during that time, and then also in the 2000s in  addition to what the Neo Calvinists were really were emphasizing was what I'll  call the Evangelicals focus, and that was on Business as Mission. Business as  Mission is a phrase that emerged during the 2000s to refer to Christians  missionary callings, to the marketplace, especially to the international  marketplace, a mission field for evangelism and sharing the love of Jesus and  Ken Eldred 2006 book interviewed Ken a couple weeks ago. His book, God is at work is one of the most informative books on this subject of how to do cross  cultural ministry overseas as a business professional, and as many nations 

around the world are officially closed to missionaries. Eldred points out that  Christian business professionals have an open door to these countries as long  as they can contribute economic value, and so that's what Business as Mission  is all about. Is, yes, you're a business person, but you're doing it with and  businesses mission does tend to have more of overseas, international focus,  but, but doing missions work with with business as sort of the platform teaching  on businesses mission that emerged during this decade, and there's, there's  much more coming out now in this present decade, but, but the business's  mission teaching that emerged during this decade has helped to chart a course  of international marketplace ministry for many millennials and others today who  are seeking to gain economic influence, make a significant social impact in the  world and also Make an eternal impact for God's kingdom. And then also the  third stream that that seemed to emerge during the 2000s was the Pentecostals  stream, and I'm going to call that the cultural transformation focus. Toward the  end of the 2000s the seven mountains mandate teaching emerged from  charismatic Pentecostal leaders such as Lance Wallnau and Oz Hillman had Oz  on the podcast a couple weeks ago. You can go back and hear his teaching  about seven mountains and in short, this mandate is a strategy for transforming  culture by Christians becoming change agents, scaling the mountains of culture, business, government, and transforming the culture from the tops of those  cultural mountains. Now, although certain expressions of the marketplace,  Christianity, movement, mentioned in today's episode, may resonate with each  of us more or less than others. I want to make it clear that every expression of  the marketplace Christianity movement that I mentioned has been essential to  the Holy Spirit's work through the church in the marketplace, and I've shared this teaching with others and and the Catholics are like, you know, what about us?  Well, I need to include that, and I need to learn. I need to hear from you. What  am I missing? What is missing from this brief history of the marketplace  Christianity movement in terms of the themes and the streams that have  emerged that you have noticed throughout history, what are some other  expressions of the marketplace Christianity movement that have, that you've  observed throughout history, and also, what are the current trends in this  movement today? And that's what the next actually a forthcoming I'm not sure if  it's going to be the very next one, but it's coming very soon. I'm going to be  talking about the current trends in our present decade, and kind of what we can  expect over the next 10 years or so with this marketplace Christianity movement and what the Holy Spirit is doing through marketplace Christians, this episode of the theology of business podcast was sponsored by high bridge books, which  provides professional book publishing and author coaching services for inspiring thought leaders, you can take the next step toward getting your book published  by requesting our free three video author training course  

@highbridgebooks.com/course. Hope you've enjoyed this episode, and I'd like 

to hear feedback on this episode at theologyofbusiness.com be sure to leave a  comment and let's have a conversation. And also at theology@business.com,  you can get more information about marketplace ministry, spiritual gifts in the  marketplace marketing like Jesus and Christ centered leadership and  entrepreneurship. Feel free to email me at darren@highbridgebooks.com If you  have any questions or comments related to the theology of business, I'd love to  hear from you. Thanks for listening and keep partnering with God in your  business. 



Last modified: Friday, March 21, 2025, 2:29 PM