Disciple-Making Companies

Discipleship: Setting the Standard

“Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” —1 Cor. 11:1

“Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations …”—Matt. 28:19

“For as the waters fill the sea, the earth [including the marketplace] will be filled with an awareness of the glory of God [Jesus Christ].” —Hab. 2:14

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.”               —Heb. 1:3

 

 

What is a “disciple-making company”?

•    The culture results in…

•    Discipling the people within the company

•    Discipling the industry

•    Discipling the community

 

What is the prevailing culture in your company, industry, and community?

•     How are Christians viewed?

•     What are the worldviews of the leaders?

•     What are the ethical norms?

•     What gets celebrated?

•     How are the customers treated?

•     How is it perceived by the public?

•     What are the dominant beliefs concerning politics, religion, etc.?

 

 

Your marketplace is aligning with one worldview or another.

•     Theism: God is the supreme authority.

•     Humanism: Man is the supreme authority.

•     Dataism: The man-made algorithm is the supreme authority.

—Yuval Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

1969 Harvard Business Review article, “Is Business Bluffing Ethical?”

•     Albert Carr suggested that those who “win” in business are not those who seek to apply Christian ethics (e.g. the Golden Rule, etc.) but those who approach business as they would a game of poker.

•     He argued that “conscious misstatements, concealment of pertinent facts, or exaggeration” are all permissible in the business “game” just as they are in the game of poker.

•     Carr found no fault in the CEO who allowed his company to sell mouthwash made with a cheap and possibly harmful form of alcohol because the cost savings made the company more profitable. The CEO testified in Washington,

•      “We don’t make the laws. We obey them. Then why do we have to put up with this ‘holier than thou’ talk about ethics? It’s sheer hypocrisy. We’re not in business to promote ethics.”

Why Humanism is bad for businesses

•     No trust

•      The humanist cannot be trusted because his ultimate goal is to glorify himself … not his Creator.

•     No contentment

•      Leaves us always wanting more of what never can satisfy.

•     No rest

•      Leads to burnout, family breakdown, health decline, and hopelessness.

•     No relationship

•      When our aim is to worship our own self-interests, we know innately that we are alone in this effort.

 

 

“We must attack the enemy’s line of communication. What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects—with their Christianity latent. You can see this most easily if you look at it the other way around. Our Faith is not very likely to be shaken by any book on Hinduism. But if whenever we read an elementary book on Geology, Botany, Politics, or Astronomy, we found that its implications were Hindu, that would shake us. It is not the books written in direct defense of Materialism that make the modern man a materialist; it is the materialistic assumptions in all the other books. In the same way, it is not books on Christianity that will really trouble him. But he would be troubled if, whenever he wanted a cheap popular introduction to some science, the best work on the market was always by a Christian. The first step to the re-conversion of this country is a series, produced by Christians, which can beat the Penguin and the Thinkers Library on their own ground. Its Christianity would have to be latent, not explicit: and of course its science perfectly honest. Science twisted in the interests of apologetics would be sin and folly.”

—C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 91.

 

Where should businesses set Christ-centered standards?

•     Value-making, innovation, & competition

•     Organizational & process management

•     Profit-making and profit management 

•     Marketing & sales

•     Customer care & quality control 

•     Accounting and accountability

•     Human resource management

•     Business law

•     Risk management

What is a “disciple-making company”?

•     The culture results in…

•      Discipling the people within the company

•      Discipling the industry

•      Discipling the community

•     It’s about filling the earth with “an awareness of the glory of God [Jesus Christ].” (Hab. 2:14)