"Wealthy help humanity more as businessmen and women then as philanthropists"
"Bill Gates and Warren Buffett announced this month that 40 of America's richest people have agreed to sign a "Giving Pledge" to donate at least half of their wealth to charity. With a collective net worth said to total $230 billion, that promise translates to at least $115 billion. It's an impressive number. Yet some—including Messrs. Gates and Buffett—say it isn't enough. Perhaps it's actually too much: the wealthy may help humanity more as businessmen and women than as philanthropists."
"What are the chances, after all, that the two forces behind the Giving Pledge will contribute anywhere near as much to the betterment of society through their charity as they have through their business pursuits? In building Microsoft, Bill Gates changed the way the world creates and shares knowledge. Warren Buffett's investments have birthed innumerable profitable enterprises, making capital markets work more efficiently and enriching many in the process."
"While businesses may do more for the public good than they're given credit for, philanthropies may do less. Think about it for a moment: can you point to a single charitable accomplishment that has been as transformative as say, the cell phone or the birth-control pill?"
"I do not mean to belittle philanthropy...My point is simply that there is nothing inherently better or nobler about using one's resources for charitable purposes than for any number of other ones. If anything, the marketplace does a better job of channeling resources toward where they are most valued, and of punishing failure."
Labels: Bill Gates, Quotable, Warren Buffett
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Top 10 Things to know about Microfinance
Read the Full Article by James Allman-Gulino, KF11 Uganda on the Kiva Chronicles Website - For the regular visitors to the Kiva Fellows blog, I’m sure you have a good idea of how microfinance works and how Kiva fits in to the bigger picture. However, newer visitors may be less familiar with some of the basic characteristics of the field. With that in mind, I’ve created a “top 10” list of (hopefully) helpful facts about microfinance and Kiva’s operations:
1. Microfinance delivers financial services to poor individuals
Microfinance specifically offers services to those who don’t have adequate credit or who are otherwise “unbanked”, meaning they do not have access the services of a traditional financial institution like a bank. This may be because they lack the assets needed to get a loan, are deemed too poor to merit targeting, or live in a remote area where there are no financial institutions. Microfinance institutions (MFIs), however, adapt their services to cater to these populations and get them financial credit; MFIs also typically have an explicitly “social” goal of helping these people lift themselves out of poverty. Microfinance exists all over the world (including in the United States), but is focused on the developing world due to poorer populations and lesser penetration of traditional banks.
2. Microfinance includes more than business loans
As you can see if you browse around Kiva, most microfinance takes the form of business loans, where an entrepreneur asks for an amount of loan capital to start or expand a productive business. This is the prototypical image of microfinance that many people have. However, not all people are successful entrepreneurs just because they can get credit! Microfinance comes in many other forms as well. For instance, microsavings can afford poor individuals a secure place to keep their cash earnings, and actually earn interest on their savings. Other microfinance loan products might be specifically designed for housing (in a format like a traditional mortgage, just on a much smaller scale), or to pay for children’s school fees. This range of services helps provide clients with the products most needed to pay for (or save for) important things in their lives.
Labels: Kiva, Microfinance
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What is the purpose of your work?
Bradley Moore - One Sunday morning a couple of years ago, my church announced a new program discussing “Faith in the Workplace.” Although I had never thought much about this subject, I was intrigued and decided to check it out, along with many other career-oriented congregants.
My church is located in a bucolic, historically-preserved town that happens to be a stone’s throw from the pharmaceutical Mecca of the Northeast, and is also within commuting distance from both New York City and Philadelphia. Needless to say, we are a church community filled with our fair share of corporate management-types.
Once the appointed day arrived and the group had settled in to their seats, the speaker opened the session by asking a very simple question: “What is the purpose of your work?”
Labels: Bradley Moore, High Callings
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Success to Significance? Not A Message for Future Generations
Talk to a young 20 or 30 something today that has read the book and you may hear summaries that say "I don't want to get there" or "I don't want to wait until the second half of my life to find significance. I want to be a part of something significant right now!"
Here's what the team at Inside Work recently wrote about the idea.
Labels: Bob Buford, Halftime
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OPEN Network Announces 2 Meetings in Dubai and Istanbul
Those you know living and working in the 10/40 Window may now register by writing Laura at Laura@OPENNetworkers.net or get more info at www.OPENNetworkers.net
Registrations for the Istanbul Huddle will be closed once 40 adult attendees have registered, and only 25 will be allowed to register for the Dubai Huddle.
At each Huddle there will be the usual break out groups focusing on our various businesses and how we can network better. Information on speakers may be found at the website.
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Churches in Colorado and California Getting Down to Business
Churches in Highlighlands Ranch, Colorado and Folsom, California share their resources and business expertise to advance the Gospel, train leaders and elevate the poor in Mozambique.
As four American businessmen gathered for prayer in Mozambique earlier this year, it happened—a “victory moment,” as Gene Kissinger calls it.
Kissinger, outreach pastor at Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch, Colo., had accompanied the group halfway around the world not to build houses, teach Bible school or provide health care. Instead, the men had taken five days from their busy schedules to go to Africa and do what they do best—look at accounting, assess spending and evaluate income for a missionary-run business.
The “moment” happened as Kissinger was leading the group in a spiritual debriefing at the end of the trip.
“One of the guys, almost with tears said, ‘I never thought God could use my business skills for His purposes,’” Kissinger says, his voice cracking at the
memory. “And we all said, ‘Thank you, Lord, for opening our eyes to that.’”
It’s this realization that motivates Bruce Swanson, director of Transformational Ventures, a WorldVenture initiative that seeks to connect businesspeople with
missions needs around the world.
“The church and missions have really squandered an incredible amount of resources in the businesspeople at churches,” Swanson says. “There are successful businesspeople that traditional missionary work just doesn’t touch.
So business as mission is a way to impact people economically, lift people out
of poverty, while showing God’s love to them in the way they’re treated.
And also, business as mission is a way to connect with and impact higherlevel
types of businesspeople.”
Swanson works with churches and individuals—an online survey at TransformationalVentures.com matches skills with needs—to better understand how business knowledge and ability can bring Christ to a community as effectively as more traditional methods.
“We look at it as really following Jesus’ pattern,” he says. “He didn’t only preach, He healed and dealt with people’s needs. We’re following in that trajectory of holistic ministry and paying attention to the economic
well-being of a person.”
Labels: Sacred and Secular Divide, Transformational Ventures
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Medical Manufacturing Company looking for GM to run Facility in Shanghai
Lumenous Device Tech is hiring a General Manager for its Chinese facility (greater Shanghai region) which currently employs 40 people. The General Manager has overall responsibility for the operations of the facility which serves medical device manufacturers with engineered nitinol materials, laser-cut specialty components such as stents, and precision cleanroom assembly. A technical/manufacturing background in a quality-managed industry is an important ingredient of leadership. An emphasis is placed on business development, sales, and marketing in the growing Chinese and near-abroad medical device industry. Contact: opportunity@lumenous.com.
Labels: Lumenous, Recruitment and Job Opportunities
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EC Group Featured on the Cover of Christian Computing for their Business Helping Speed Bible Translation
Read the Cover Story at the Christian Computing Website - In a remote jungle village, a bearded Wycliffe missionary sits close to a campfire. As mosquitoes buzz around, he listens closely to a tribal elder speak in an undocumented language, yearning to understand the dialect in order to bring them the Good News in their own tongue.
Thirty years later a Bible is produced - the missionary's effort of a lifetime.
Today another "missionary" sits in a cubical writing software that will forever change the process of how Bible translation is accomplished. These advanced and innovative programs address the full spectrum of the translation process from creating dictionaries through to final publication. Technology is the single most powerful factor in reaching the 350 million people who do not have God's Word in their own language. It increases the efficiency of the 6,000 Wycliffe team members addressing translation in over 90 countries.
Wycliffe's "IT Missionaries"
Wycliffe generously shares its technology and translations with other ministries. As a result, Wycliffe's work is reaching hundreds of millions of people through products like the Jesus Film, audio bibles, radio broadcasts, television programs, and the new and exciting http://Bible.is project from Faith Comes by Hearing. A small elite team of dedicated IT professionals is reshaping how the Gospel is brought to the world.
"Before working with Wycliffe, I had no idea such 'IT Missionaries' existed," remarks Tom Sudyk, CEO and Chairman for EC Group International (www.ecgroup-intl.com). "I had only heard the 'missionary' stories of those joining organizations to go overseas and working on the front lines."
Labels: Christian Computing, EC Group, Tom Sudyk
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You remain in Church while you're at Work?!
Guest Post by Larry Peabody - Ruts pose two hazards for a bike rider. One, they're hard to get out of. Two, they take control of the steering. The words "go to church” create similar risks for Christ-followers. First, you can't escape the words. Everyone uses them. They've become part of our language—like "go for a walk.” Second, the phrase "steers” our thinking about church. Saying "go to” makes us think of church as an event. We "go to” meetings and parties and weddings. Events happen at set times and in specific places.
If I say I plan to "go” to a meeting, that means I am not there at the moment. Getting there will take some effort. And when the meeting ends, I will not be in it any longer, unless I "go” to another one. That's the problem with our saying that we "go to church.” The words condition us to think that most of the time—including our hours at work—we are not in church.
But such an idea is flat-out contrary to what the New Testament teaches us about the church. Scripture says the church is Christ's body, and each believer is a member of his body. Think for a moment about the members of your own body. Is it possible for your eyes, arms, or legs to "go to body”? Ridiculous! They are already in your body and stay there 24-7. In the same way you, as a member of Christ's body, are always in his body. You don't check in and check out like a hospital patient. Weekdays do not require an out-of-body experience.
So the truth is, you remain in church—a member of Christ's body—even while you're on the job. "But,” someone might object, "it doesn't feel like church!” No, the time in your office or shop won't feel like what you experience when believers get together in a service. That's because here on earth, in real time, the church operates in two forms: gathered and scattered.
The New Testament leaves no doubt about the importance of believers gathering together. "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another” (Heb. 10:25). Even in the first century, some tried to live the Christian life solo. But each of us needs to be encouraged, spurred on, and built up by other believers. And each of us needs to encourage, spur on, and build up those others as well. Jesus spoke of those who would "come together” in his name (Mt. 18:20). Paul expected the Corinthian believers to "come together . . . for the strengthening of the church” (I Cor. 14:26).
But the word "come” in "come together” tells us there are times when the members of Christ's body are not physically together. In those times, the church is to operate in its scattered form. When Paul wrote to wives and husbands about their right relationships to each other, he was telling them how to live as members of Christ's body in its scattered form. When Paul and Peter wrote to believing slaves, their instructions were to be carried out while those slaves worked as members of Christ's body in its scattered form. Seeds become fruitful after they get scattered.
As a member of Christ's body, you will spend most of your time in the scattered-church mode. Let's say you typically gather with other believers three hours each week—90 minutes on Sundays, another 90 in a midweek small group. That totals 156 hours a year in the gathered church. In that same year, let's say you spend 40 hours a week in your workplace. That's more than 2,000 hours on the job. To me, this suggests that much of our limited time in the gathered church should be spent equipping us for and encouraging us in our roles in the scattered church.
Although you don't "go to church," you do "go to work." And when you do, the church is there because you are still in it as a member of Christ's body. Even in that scattered mode, you can look for opportunities to gather with other believing co-workers before or after work, during breaks, or on lunch hours. Just this past week I received a very encouraging phone call from a Microsoft employee who meets regularly with fellow Christ-followers after work for prayer and encouragement. When even two or three believers assemble like this, the gathered church appears again—right there in the workplace!
How do you believe we in the gathered church can help equip each other for the battles we face out there in the scattered church? How have you seen that happening already? What still needs to happen?
Labels: Larry Peabody, Sacred and Secular Divide
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God at work in Africa
Guest Post by Kevin Pate - I want to give you a quick update of the Africa trip I returned from last week The team of Doyle Duran, Carece Slaughter and me began the week in the capital city of Accra teaching accounting and finance to a group of 30 business and ministry leaders. As a group, we marched through financial statements, budgeting, analysis and other "fun" topics. I commend all involved for persisting and gaining much knowledge that will help propel their respective organizations to new heights for God's Kingdom.
After Accra, the team moved quickly to Kumasi, Ghana to lead an exciting Marketplace Conference for Christian business leaders on a university campus. The 350 plus people who registered for the event were challenged to get God involved in their businesses and see themselves as people of influence who God wants to work through to reach the nations. Practical business topics concerning sales, management, customer service and entrepreneurial principles were taught to a group who is hungry to take their businesses to the next level and function as Kingdom Businesses.
This trip was confirmation that God is working in a big way on the continent of Africa and using willing Christian people to carry out His purposes in the Marketplace.
Put your time and talent to work on a trip with Kevin and the team at Global Advance. Learn more on their website here.
Labels: Africa, Global Advance, Kevin Pate
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Who's going to the TimeOut Conference in California?
For those of you who don't know Dave, he lives at the intersection of faith and work. In addition to his insurance company Dave is also in the midst of launching a new business called Premier Legacy Films with Michael Corwin. Dave also hosts the TimeOut Conference that has previously hosted speakers like Rick Warren, John Ortberg, Bruce Wilkinson, Os Guiness and Ken Eldred.
This year, I'm looking forward to being at the conference with 150-200 other businessmen who are journeying to combine their faith and work. We're going to be talking a little bit about Next Generation Leadership and our experience working with young adults at RightNow and how that plays into their desire to combine business and ministry.
I just booked our tickets. Would love to hear from anyone else that's planning to be out there. Shoot me an email and we'll plan a time to meet up.
Labels: Dave Dias, Events and Conferences
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"You don't waste your life by where you work, but by how and why"
I was exchanging a few emails with a new friend and I noticed the quote at the bottom of his signature from John Piper. What a great reminder that ministry isn't defined by location, in the walls of the church or by what country you live in. Its all about the how and why we do what we do.
Labels: John Piper, Quotable
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PASTORS, GO TO WHERE YOUR MEN WORK
Pastors, go to where your men work.
During my past 4 years as a pastor in the Bay Area I quickly discovered that one of the most important things for me to do was to hang out with men in my church at their workplace.
This helped the men. It showed them that I care about their callings, how they spend 50+ hours of their week, and the people they work with.
This helped me. It taught me about the unique opportunities & challenges men were facing in their different workplaces, it opened my eyes to a world bigger than our church, and it helped set new trajectories for my preaching and discipling.
This is how I did it (and how I will continue doing it once I get started in Phoenix):
-Schedule a lunch-time visit with a man in your church. The best use of your time is to make most of these visits with men who are leader types. Schedule to meet the guy at his office, not at the lunch spot.
-Once you show up have the guy show you around his workspace. If you’re naturally curious like me, you’ll quickly have 20 questions about all that you’re seeing around you. Ask your questions. Learn the man’s world.
-Introduce yourself to his co-workers. Don’t tell people you’re a pastor, unless asked or introduced that way. They will find out eventually and they’ll be incredibly surprised that a pastor looks and talks like a normal person and doesn’t spend all his time on church property.
-Once you get the tour, take the man out to lunch (if there’s a lunch place on the work campus, go there, it will lead to more learning about the workplace) and let him talk to you at length about his work. You’ll quickly discover how you can best encourage and empower the man in his calling.
-Always speak out against the “higher calling of ministry” idea if it surfaces. Three out of five times when I meet a man at his work he talks to me about how the work I’m doing as a pastor is “so much more important” than what he’s doing as a software engineer, financial analyst, etc. I always immediately crush and correct this unbiblical view of vocation. Your men need you to tell them that all work is a means of glorifying God, and that working for a church is not superior to working for Google. It’s your job to empower your men, to help them see the nobility of the work God has called them to do.
Men need pastors to jump into the fire of their work world with them and empower them to keep their eyes on Jesus and do their work in Jesus’ honor, whatever that work might be.
Also, at least for me, doing this is a whole lot of fun. It’s been a blast visiting men at their work here in the Bay Area. I’ve been able to see:
-The financial analysis & game development sector at Electronic Arts.
-The inner workings of a Secret Service office.
-A two-person flower shop in the financial district of San Francisco.
-A small architect firm’s hip office quarters.
-A contractor’s truck-office.
-The sprawling, impressive campus at Google.
-Several software companies who do things I still don’t fully understand.
-The venture capital world on Sand Hill Road.
-Several impressive work-from-home offices.
-(And when I didn’t have a man working there, AnneMarie gave me a great tour of Facebook).
Pastors, if you’re not already doing something like this, start incorporating it into your schedule. I think you should aim for a minimum of 1 workplace visit per week. Doing this is part of what keeps my calling fresh and alive, and what keeps me connected to men and the larger working world.
And make sure you budget for this. This is just as important as your book budget. Budget funds to cover meals and mileage for these crucial visits.
(PS. I’ve written this post from an architect/contractor’s home office)
Photo: Took this shot last week of Boston firefighters fighting a 3 alarm fire in Beacon Hill.
Labels: Justin Buzzard, Sacred and Secular Divide
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Looking for CEO to run Dallas Based Business as Mission Commercial Bank
"Our company is in the process of chartering a BAM focused commercial bank. It will be a wholesale only bank. It is very well capitalized and will have a “built-in” set of depositors and borrowers.
We need an experienced medium to large bank CEO. He or she must have been a bank CEO in the last five years. This person should have business finance experience and cash management experience (in the Billions).
You’ll have to hear the story to appreciate the uniqueness of this opportunity. We expect the bank to be operational in the next sixty days. It will be located in the Dallas, Texas area.
Please contact Rick Knight @ (903) 876-4492 or at eagle02@Libertas-American.com.
Labels: Recruitment and Job Opportunities
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Christian Research Guru George Barna talks about Faith at Work
Last year we were thrilled to have George speak at our RightNow Conference in Dallas and I'm looking forward to having Dave Kinnaman at our upcoming conference Nov 11-12th. Last week I was encouraged to see George write about the intersection of Faith and Work.
Here's a few quotes, but click through to read the whole article and how their research tackled the question of whether or not "marketplace churches" provide adequate enough teaching compared to what you find in organic churches.
"Several years ago I wrote a book entitled Revolution that suggested a new wave of faith expressions was becoming increasingly popular in America. One of those expressions was faith-centered gatherings at places of work. The popularity of such meetings has continued to grow in recent years.
An article in the Wall Street Journal published earlier this month pointed out that there are now thousands of businesses who employ chaplains to facilitate on-premises faith activity. While some of those chaplains serve primarily as on-site counselors, a large share lead groups of employees in times of worship, Bible study, prayer, and service activities. One of the reasons that businesses foster the blending of faith and work is that it produces a better work environment, higher productivity, and a deeper sense of team engagement. These outcomes, of course, enhance the bottom line, causing many business leaders to conclude that a faithful workforce can be a more profitable workforce. Organizations such as Tyson Foods have led the way in this regard, employing about 120 chaplains to minister with Tyson’s 117,000+ employees across the nation..." Visit George's Blog
Labels: George Barna, Sacred and Secular Divide
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