Influential Pastors are Breaking Down the Wall Between the Sacred and Secular
By Justin Forman - The most overlooked opportunity in the Church today is for Pastors and business leaders see work as an opportunity for worship. And sadly, I think too many business leaders have grown accustomed to “outsourcing” their faith to “professional pastors” and paying the pastor to do “real ministry”. We've lost sight of the simple idea that God is glorified when we use our God given passions and skills with excellence.
However, I've been especially encouraged to see influential voices like Andy Stanley and Erwin McManus preach on one of the most overlooked opportunities for the church (See the notes on Andy's sermon series - Taking Care of Business).
Many of you know that Erwin McManus, he is a popular author, speaker and pastor at Mosaic in Los Angeles. He's been a part of several projects with us at BluefishTV.com and RightNow.org. A few weeks ago, he gave a message called Making it work for You. You should be able to find it by clicking on this link or looking up their March 28th Podcast at Mosaic on iTunes.
Erwin has a refreshing way at looking at the issue and when you think that thousands of pastors regularly listen to their podcast you'll be encouraged to know that dents are being put in the wall between the Sacred and Secular.
I think you'll find it really encouraging. Give it a listen and email me to let me know what you think. Our ministry at RightNow will be leveraging a lot of our channels to make sure 20,000+ Pastors hear this message in person Nov 11-12th in Dallas and through the tape delay of the RightNow Conference.
Erwin has a refreshing way at looking at the issue and when you think that thousands of pastors regularly listen to their podcast you'll be encouraged to know that dents are being put in the wall between the Sacred and Secular.
I think you'll find it really encouraging. Give it a listen and email me to let me know what you think. Our ministry at RightNow will be leveraging a lot of our channels to make sure 20,000+ Pastors hear this message in person Nov 11-12th in Dallas and through the tape delay of the RightNow Conference.
Labels: Erwin McManus, RightNow Conference, Sacred and Secular Divide
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Does God Value Your Work Itself?
The Honeycrisp apple traces its ancestry to an Agricultural Experiment Station in Minnesota's Twin Cities. Researchers there crossbred the Keepsake apple with another variety, officially releasing the offspring, Honeycrisp, in 1991. From that beginning, that apple in your lunch bag may have arrived there via any number of routes. Let's imagine it happened this way.
An entrepreneurial couple in Wisconsin invests in land for a tree nursery. Seeing the market potential for such a long-lasting, taste-tempting apple, they gear up to propagate Honeycrisp trees for sale. They employ nursery workers who plant, fertilize, water and nurture the shoots to marketable size. Meanwhile, an ad writer in the nursery office prepares a catalog and website promoting the infant Honeycrisp trees.
In the Methow Valley of Eastern Washington, a farm family purchases 85 acres, with plans to turn it into an orchard. After reading the website on Honeycrisp, they order 1,000 plants. Then with a large tractor and trained crew, they plant their little “apple factories.” From their county extension agent, they learn how to fight bugs, diseases and weather.
Four or five years later they begin to reap the fruit of their investment and hard work. The apple that will eventually reach your lunch bag hangs on a tree in the north part of the orchard. A migrant farm worker pulls your apple off the branch and drops it in a box. A trucker hauls your apple to a warehouse, where technicians carefully control the temperature. Another truck driver transports your apple to a grocery store—the investment of another entrepreneur. A stocker puts your apple on display in the produce department. After selecting the apple, you take it to the counter, where a checkout clerk rings it up and bags it with your other groceries.
And after all those people put all that work into your apple, you're still able to buy it for right around a dollar! Through the everyday work of those people (and more too numerous to mention here), God has sustained you with fresh fruit for your lunch.
Now think of all the workers in everyday jobs who make it possible for you to wear shoes. To drive a car. To invest your money. To learn accounting. To stay warm in February. To drink pure water. To read a newspaper. To have a broken bone set. And on and on.
Yes this world will one day give way to a transformed earth. But in the meantime, God has an agenda for the here and now. He has purposes to carry out in the earth as it presently exists. And he has enlisted human beings as his crew to serve him by maintaining life in this planet—human life, animal life and plant life. He has gifted this one and that one with special talents and interests to carry out their diverse assignments.
Of all people, we who declare that Jesus is Lord should know that he is Lord not just of the religious but of all life and activity on planet earth. So we offer not just our witnessing on the job but our work itself as a service, a valuable “ministry,” to him.
About Larry Peabody- Larry has served in three Washington State agencies over a span of 11 years, primarily in the area of public information. For the next 17 years, he worked as a self-employed business owner. While still in that role, he led a team that planted a church, serving as a bi-vocational pastor for 8 years and then as a full-time, paid senior pastor for another 13 years. He retired from his senior pastor role in August 2007. Larry authored the book, SERVING CHRIST IN THE WORKPLACE. His book may be purchased on-line through Amazon.com.
Labels: Larry Peabody
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Five Things I've learned in Business as Ministry
1. Let the business lead the ministry- A faith venture has two bottom lines. It seeks business profits in order to support itself and grow. It also hopes to change lives by accomplishing its ministry. The great danger is that sometimes these two goals conflict with each other. In certain cases pursuing the mission will cost the mission and vice versa. I believe that if one is pursuing a Christ-centered business then all of business is ministry. So it then becomes acceptable to let the business lead the ministry because without a focus on the bottom-line this unique ministry opportunity disappears.
2. Stay true to your mission in the midst of the business- The second great danger facing a faith venture is losing sight of the ministry because of the focus on the business. Never forget the original God-purposed redemptive DNA of your particular faith venture.
3. Sell, sell, sell- An entrepreneurial organization must be about selling its product and mission at all levels of its organization to its target market. An organization that forgets to sell is an organization that is forgotten.
4. Cash Flow, Cash Flow, Cash Flow- Many a good faith venture or enterprise has died for lack of focus on cash. Knowing your cash position at any given moment drives your strategy and actions.
5. Trust God- In reality, when you combine business and mission, it is going to get messy. One must work hard toward your business plan and mission goals and then prayerfully trust God with the results.
These are five ideas that deserve more attention in future posts.
Labels: Belay Enterprises, James Reiner
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