The Marketplace Magazine July/August 2012

July August 2012

Where Christian faith gets down to business

Separate silos

Why do business & faith so often stand alone?

Street-level dining in downtown Kabul Peacemaker Paul makes it work Business chaplaincy sees lives changed 1

The Marketplace July August 2012

Roadside stand

Don’t Skype in Ethiopia If you have friends in Ethiopia, do them a favor and don’t Skype them. If you do, they could end up in jail.

MEDA workers and others in Ethiopia were shocked in late May to discover a brutal new communications clampdown. Thanks to new government legislation, a simple Skype call in that country could land someone in prison for 15 years. The new law makes it a crime to engage in audio or video communications using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services such as Skype, Google Talk and most other video chat platforms, according to media reports. Anyone in the country who uses an illegal phone service will face up to 15 years in jail and heavy fines. Simply making a phone call over the Internet is punishable by 3 to 8 years in prison plus fines.

The government claims the law was needed to protect against security threats. Critics say it is intended to protect the state’s telecommunications monopoly, as private service providers have cut severely into the monopoly’s international calling business. Another view is that the law aims to limit freedom of expression and the flow of information.

Ethiopia has a history of outlawing new technology (such as satellite dishes and credit cards) and later accepting it. In time, this recent clampdown may also be relaxed. In the meantime, it illustrates the kinds of constraints that hold the country’s citizens back, and make life Cover photo of farm silos by Bill Manning, iStockphoto

The Marketplace July August 2012

more difficult for development workers.

Pet peeves. What habits bug co-workers? Not taking ownership of actions, said 78 percent of 17,000 global workers surveyed by LinkedIn. Other high-ranking peeves were: constant complainers, dirty common areas; starting meetings late or going long; people who don’t respond to e-mails.

(CLAC Guide) Africa’s kids are living longer, and some experts are calling it “the biggest, best story in development,” says The Economist. Dramatic drops in child mortality have been recorded in numerous African countries, such as Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya. The child-mortality rate (the number of deaths of children under five per 1,000 live births) has been dropping by almost five percent a year in many countries, and up to eight percent a year in a few others. What has produced this happy scenario? Experts resist simple answers, but will say it is a combination of broad economic growth and specific public-health policies.

One such policy referred to frequently is the increased use of insecticide-treated bednets, which MEDA has been at the forefront of expanding (see “malaria day” article on page 22 of this magazine).

would highlight the issue of food security. “The idea was to describe the food system that we are all familiar with — milk — and then relate it to how MEDA works to right food systems/security in other countries,” says Penner. To watch his video Milk: From Cow to Consumer (under three minutes) go to http://vimeo. com/34509267

grew by 54 percent between 1997 and 2012, a rate 1½ times the national average, says a report commissioned by American Express.

Another report by The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute projects that by 2018 women-owned businesses in the U.S. are projected to generate a third of new jobs.

Weather worries. Sometimes the weather is just too good. A farmer told us that the planting season had gone very well and the crops looked wonderful. So wonderful, both here and wherever else his particular specialty was grown, that he was worried.

“Why? Because everyone in North America is having great weather. We are anticipating a big surplus and low prices. We need some bad weather somewhere! Where will we store all the produce we are anticipating we will harvest?”

A stunning Canadian example of a woman entrepreneur is Barb Stegemann, who will be a keynote speaker at this fall’s MEDA convention (see ad on the back cover of this issue).

She is the founder of 7 Virtues Beauty, Inc., a perfume company that makes a point of dealing with countries experiencing war and hardship. Her Nova Scotia company sources organic oils from Afghanistan, Haiti and other countries in turmoil to provide economic support and build peace. “Business has the fullest power, the biggest opportunity, to be a part of building peace and harmony in the world,” she says. — WK

The number of womenowned businesses in the U.S.

Got video? A Goshen College student from Harper, Kansas, produced a short video on milk production to help connect the dots in global food system. Daniel Penner, a history major with strong interests in communications, business and economic development, responded to a MEDA challenge to produce a video that 2

In this issue

6

Separate silos of business and faith

A hard-hitting new book claims the church has dropped the ball when it comes to ministering to people who work. The result has been a lot of under-performing assets and missed markets.

10

The money-wise pastor

12

Street eats, Kabul style

14

Hard-hat peacemaker

17

Chaplaincy celebrates 20 years

Making peace while restoring ruins. Page 14

Departments 2 4 18 20 22

Roadside stand Soul enterprise Reviews Soundbites News

Volume 42, Issue 4 July August 2012 The Marketplace (ISSN 0199-7130) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates at 532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114. Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2012 by MEDA. Editor: Wally Kroeker Design: Ray Dirks

He didn’t know a thing about business, and suddenly he had businesspeople in his congregation. A long-time pastor shares some tips on “shepherding the monied class.” By Marvin Hein

Here’s a side of Afghanistan you won’t see on the nightly news. Amid the strife and chaos, Afghans venture out for their own delicious array of culinary delights. By Scott Ruddick

Construction sites can be emotional hotbeds as various trades jostle to do their thing. When tensions rise it’s Peacemaker Paul who calms things down and facilitates collaboration.

Two decades ago Mennonite business owners in Paraguay had a vision to nurture employees.

Today, the venture they launched has 50 full and part-time chaplains in 44 companies.

Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 32C E Roseville Road, Lancaster, PA 17601-3681.

To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org For editorial matters contact the editor at wkroeker@meda.org or call (204) 956-6436 Subscriptions: $25/year; $45/two years.

Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 32C E Roseville Road Lancaster, PA 17601-3681

Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), whose dual thrust is to encourage a Christian witness in business and to operate business-oriented programs of assistance to the poor. For more information about MEDA call 1-800-665-7026.

Web site www.meda.org

3

The Marketplace July August 2012

Job gone sour?

Connecting in a taxi “What does my work have to do with religion?” the taxi driver asked Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin on the way to the airport.

The rabbi thought for a minute.

“You’re a taxi driver,” he said finally. “But you are also a piece of the tissue that connects all humanity. You’re taking me to the airport. I’ll go to a different city and give a couple of lectures that might touch or help or change someone. I couldn’t have gotten there without you. You help make that connection happen.

“I heard on your two-way radio that after you drop me off, you’re going to pick up a woman from the hospital and take her home. That means you’ll be the first non-medical person she encounters after being in a hospital. You will be a small part of her healing process, an agent in her re-entry into the world of health.

“You may then pick up someone from the train station who has come home from seeing a dying parent. You may take someone to the house of the one that he or she will ask to join in marriage. You’re a connector, a bridge builder. You’re one of the unseen people who make the world work as well as it does. That is holy work.

You may not think of it this way, but yours is a sacred mission.” — Jeffrey K. Salkin in Being God’s Partner: How to Find the Hidden Link Between Spirituality and Your Work

By the mid-30s most people have suffered a career blow that left them confused and depressed, says career expert Barbara Moses in The Globe & Mail. She suggests coping strategies to get over it and restore self-confidence.

• Take stock. Review your successes; remind yourself of things that have gone well.

• Learn from your accomplishments. Identify the common elements in your successes, and use them in your daily life.

• Neutralize the sting. Is this the worst thing that could have happened to you?

• Get support. Surround yourself with friends, get feedback, and savor their affirmation when you feel down.

• Don’t wallow. Move on. Others get tired of constant laments.

• Do something positive. Change your situation — look for a new job or have a sit-down with someone who is making you miserable.

• Do something different. Never gardened? Pick up a shovel.

• Fake it. If you act like you have the ability, the feelings will follow.

Showroom prayers When we pray about our work, do we pray for a promotion? Increased sales? Zoning approval?

Auto dealer Don Flow regularly prays about life on the showroom floor. What does he pray for — that the next couple through the door will pay sticker price without haggling? That Mr. So-and-so will trade up to a better model this year? That no one will see the dismal new car rating in Consumer Reports?

In the book Faith Goes to Work (edited by Robert Banks), Flow says he prays for his companies this way: • that customers and employees will experience “the aroma of Christ” as they are served; • that management and staff will have the discipline to look after the needs of others first; • that he will be faithful to his corporate mission as it relates to his call to Christian service.

“I pray for individual employees, their lives, their personal and professional struggles, and for them to come to Christ. I pray for us as a community where truth and grace might reign.”

He also prays about technology — “I pray for wisdom concerning how to integrate it into the human community, how to let it assist us in fulfilling our vision of service.”

Oh yes, and he prays for “the profits we need to sustain our commitment to our mission, vision, and core values.”

The Marketplace July August 2012

4

You’re hired! — download it now If you know someone just starting out on their career path, why not share a digital copy of MEDA’s career guide, You’re hired: Looking for work in all the right places. It’s available for free download on MEDA’s website — www.meda.org Here’s a sample of the many stories of people who are putting their values to work on the job: Ken startled some people when he decided to go into real estate after spending more than a dozen years with Mennonite Central Committee. For him the shift wasn’t that odd, for he saw it as moving from one helping profession to another. Both were “There is no limit to the creativity that can be “people” enterprises, he felt. As a successunleashed when people start thinking outside ful real estate agent, he enjoyed helping the nonprofit box,” write Steve Rundle and people attain shelter, one of the basic human needs. Tom Steffen in Great Commission Companies.

“People buying a home really want to see someone who has human Many entrepreneurs are taking this serifeelings,” he says. “After all, we are helping them with one of the largously by starting companies in Low Income est purchases they’ll ever make.”

Countries as their own form of mission. For Another similarity was the transcultural nature of both kinds of people who want to do this, the authors offer work, especially in his central California community with its mosaic of guidelines: Hispanic, African-American, middle-eastern and Asian minorities. His • Do no harm. GCCs should exemplify years overseas prepared him to cut through the misunderstandings that the best qualities of a socially responsible often occur when dealing with diverse ethnic groups. corporation and seek to minimize the direct There also are opportunities to minister to people in need. “Buying and indirect costs of its business to the host or selling a house is not always a simple economic transaction,” Ken country. says. Agents often deal with people who have been bereaved, who are • Choose the right industry. Think selling the home of a deceased parent, or have been recently divorced. twice about setting up a business that introThen there are young couples who may be starry-eyed about their first duces consumer goods to the local market, home and might get in over their heads. They need the restraining cauparticularly those that are already being tion of a realtor who is concerned with more than just a fast sale. produced by local firms.

For Ken, both working for MCC and selling real estate have pro• Help the local economy modernize. vided fulfilling ways to put his Christian values to work on the job.

There is little benefit from entering a country and doing what local entrepreneurs can already do. Bring businesses that will upgrade the technologies and skills available locally. Link up with “If [Jesus] were to come today as he did then, he could carry out local suppliers as quickly as possible, his mission through most any decent and useful occupation. He and take steps to raise their level of could be a clerk or accountant in a hardcompetence and efficiency. ware store, a computer repairman, a • Be an incubator. Take steps to banker, an editor, doctor, waiter, teacher, promote creativity and entrepreneurship farmhand, lab technician, or construcwithin the company as well as in the tion worker. He could run a housecleansupplying firms. Plan on doing at least ing service or repair automobiles. In some research and development locally. other words, if he were to come today Whenever feasible, create spinoff comhe could very well do what you do. He panies and/or satellite offices that are could very well live in your apartment or managed by nationals. house, hold down your job, have your • Be a local philanthropist. Plow education and life prospects, and live some profits back into the local econwithin your family surroundings and omy. Be as generous as possible with time. None of this would be the least wages. Repatriate profits sparingly. hindrance to the eternal kind of life that was his by nature and becomes available Overheard: “I am not young enough to know to us through him.” — Dallas Willard in everything.” — Oscar Wilde The Divine Conspiracy

Great Commission companies

Where would Jesus work?

5

The Marketplace July August 2012

Worlds apart Why do business and faith sometimes seem to occupy different silos?

Is the church hostile to business, or is it the other way around?

T

ry this sometime.

Visit a few church web sites and check out what images they use to describe themselves and their priorities. What do you see? Pictures of people assembled for worship? Clergy, youth activities, perhaps a missionary? Or do you see images of church members busily immersed in their daily work?

Chances are you won’t see much of the latter, says John C. Knapp in his new book, How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it). “Seldom will you see photographs or other descriptions of church members in their weekday work.”

That, he says, is not only a pity but also a lost opportunity to make the church more relevant to an increasingly detached generation.

“Too often,” he says, “we reduce the church’s rich story to a collection of programs, inevitably dampening the vitality of a community of believers serving Christ through their everyday living. How different might our understanding of discipleship be if the church’s narrative told of bankers, bakers, teachers, and truckers — the living body of Christ in action?”

But the church doesn’t do that, says Knapp. Its priorities “tilt heavily toward private faith and away from ministries that might equip believers for a robust public faith.... I believe the church has largely failed Christians who struggle daily to live out their faith commitments in their places of employment.”

ethical stresses of weekday work.

“Our researchers discovered a widely held perception of clergy being disinterested in church members’ work lives,” Knapp writes. “What’s more, no respondent could recall a sermon or lesson at church that specifically addresses business or workplace issues....”

Also troubling was that out of 230 respondents, only 18 had ever consulted a pastor for advice about workrelated matters. One wonders — were they too shy, or did they not feel welcome?

Alongside this seeming lack of connection with parishioners’ work lives, Knapp found evidence that working Christians truly want their work to amount to more than a paycheck. “Our weekday occupations are the primary venues where most of us serve others and develop our God-given abilities,” he notes.

Knapp spends considerable time tracing possible reasons for the church’s apparent unconcern with the working lives of its members.

Some of this dates back to Many of those the fourth-century political conversion of Constansurveyed felt tine who granted church great political and the church didn’t leaders economic influence and perhaps unintentionally really care about elevated their jobs above those of the masses. the stresses of Over time this calcified into a spiritual hierarchy of occupations — a “caste daily work. system” — where full-time clergy and missionaries ranked highest on the spirituality scale, the helping professions like teachers and healers coming next, followed at a distance by ordinary workers.

He contends there is plenty of mission work for people in regular jobs, and the church should equip them for it. Many are simply unaware of the impact they can have in their workplaces, or the breadth of their responsibilities for doing justice at work.

Knapp comes from a background of corporate communications and higher education. He is the founding director of the Francis Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership at Samford University.

His critique is buttressed by findings from a nationwide study of church life. After interviewing 230 people to find out more about how Christians experience work and church, Knapp’s researchers came to two striking conclusions. One, people had no trouble identifying ethical challenges they had faced in work (see sidebar). They were keenly aware of places where the pressures of work rubbed raw against the expectations of their faith. Two, they felt the church had done little or nothing to help equip them for faithful living at work. In fact, they felt that the church didn’t really care about the spiritual and The Marketplace July August 2012

“Must we really go to India or Africa to be

instrumental in meeting the world’s needs?” he asks rhetorically. “Could it be that God also needs Christians to

6

serve the world as factory workers, hairstylists, and bond traders?”

Churches often tend to be more comfortable as the church “gathered” rather than the church dispersed.

“Too often the church portrays itself as a place of refuge rather than a spiritual gymnasium to strengthen Christians for the transformative work they must do in the world,” Knapp says.

For some, it may be the path of least resistance. As one director of a charitable organization puts it, “It’s much easier to talk about living out your faith through volunteerism, community engagement, or financial giving than to talk about a faithful approach to work issues.”

Another issue may be a built-in prejudice of many pastors. As uncomfortable as it may be to say so, many prospective clergy who enter seminary may have a negative view of business or the working life. They may have two or three unsatisfying jobs behind them and are not likely to spend much time exalting the missional possibilities of toil in the trenches. “A great many career-changers at the seminary are all too eager to leave their past behind,” Knapp says.

In any event, the church is failing to make its Sunday exhortations live into the week. “By and large, the church is ill-prepared for the woman who wonders what Sunday worship has to do with her

hard hours at the chicken factory.”

The church is not solely to blame for the

two separate solitudes of business and faith. The world of business has little room for the exercise of faith (see following excerpt).

Where there does happen to be a resurgence of moral sensitivity in the world of business, it seems to have come about completely independent from any churchly influence. In many (perhaps most) cases, the ethical standards — the “principal moral gauges for action — are more likely to be set by the profession itself, or by external regulation, than by personal moral initiative. “The moral terrain of our work lives is mostly defined by law and economics rather than theology,” says Knapp, and people who do make moral connections tend to do so without much help from the church.

Thus the state of integration faces two powerful constraints. “Business culture does its part to divide these spheres of life, but the church is also culpable for devaluing the daily work of Christians in ‘secular’ vocations....

Faced with these divisive influences, many believers learn to compartmentalize their lives, resigned to take faith At the end of his book, John Knapp lists 77 examples of ethmore seriously in priical issues recalled by respondents in his studies. A sample: vate life than in public 3 Closing a facility and laying off employees life.”

3 Failing to keep promises to customers The result, to use 3 Responding to cutthroat competitors business terminology, 3 Firing an older but under-performing worker is a lot of missed markets and 3 Feeling pressure from a boss to be dishonest with a customer non-performing assets.

“More believers than ever,” 3 Resigning a profitable client who verbally abuses employees says Knapp, “are seeking cre3 Becoming aware of an employee’s attempts to inflate an insurance claim ative ways to integrate their faith 3 Being asked to backdate transactions to the prior fiscal year to improve year-end results lives and work lives, and they are 3 Raising executive salaries when rank-and-file workers are losing benefits doing it with little help from the 3 Making potentially deceptive sales claims institutional church.... How much 3 Failing to disclose important product information to customers could we advance the gospel if each of us were encouraged and 3 Suspecting a pattern of sex discrimination in hiring equipped to live out our com3 Finding that the employer is indifferent to an unsafe work environment mon vocation of discipleship in 3 Protecting employees’ jobs while selling the business to a new owner the myriad contexts of our daily 3 Struggling with whether to confront and/or report a coworker for alcohol abuse work?

3 Objecting to the inequitable distribution of employee bonuses “What would it mean if 3 Falsifying time records for billing purposes we actually responded to God’s redemptive grace by loving every 3 Developing advertising for a flawed product person within our scope of influ3 Concluding that it is impossible to keep a prior promise of no layoffs ence at work? Are you capable 3 Being asked for a reference on an unsatisfactory former employee of this? Am I?” ◆

What would you do?

7

The Marketplace July August 2012

Park it at the door The culture of business has done its part to discourage expressions of faith

by John C. Knapp

H

ere is a little thought experiment. What comes In the parlance of business, words like love and humility to mind first when you hear the word business? may seem of little value when speaking of maximizing This morning’s financial headlines? Your bank profits or beating the competition. balance? If your daily work is in business, you may think of experiences and relationships that define In his book A Better Way to Think about Business, much of your life. the late business philosopher Robert Solomon, a student Now consider another word: faith. What images of business jargon, speaks of having been struck by the emerge? It is likely your mind turned in another direction, imagery that peppers many presentations and advertisetoward God, prayer, family, and church. ments. “Again and again we hear business described as a This simple exercise says much about the issues exjungle, a fight for survival, a dog-eat-dog world, a game plored in this book. During the seminars I have conducted defined by its so-called winners and losers.” This is how in churches since 1992, I have found it many of my business students see it, useful to divide people into two groups: There was awkward but Solomon rightly contends that if one generates a top-of-mind list of words such language actually reflected the and phrases associated with business, while silence when way most people experience busianother, meeting separately, jots down ness, society would have every reason concepts associated with faith. Neither to question its legitimacy. the CEO said, group knows what the other is doing, but Fortunately, business life is not the lesson becomes clear when everyone always so hard-edged, even if it is “These layoffs are reconvenes to post their work on large often portrayed this way. As Solomon sheets of paper at the front of the room. points out, “We hear too little about necessary, but let’s Seldom does even one word or phrase the virtues of business life, about the appear on both groups’ lists, though the ways in which business and personal remember that we items may number several dozen. Indeed, integrity support and reinforce one many of the concepts deemed most central another, perhaps because it makes to faith (e.g., God, love, prayer, forgivelove these people.” for such boring and uneventful stoness) are never associated with business, ries — just modest success and good underscoring just how far apart these worlds seem to be. feelings, camaraderie, mutual pride, and enjoyment.”

(See adjacent box for typical examples.)

Yet language does matter, for it not only describes reality — it shapes it. Several years ago, I was with the Is this just a matter of semantics, or is something management team of a large public company as they more at stake? What do these word associations say discussed cost-cutting measures in the face of mounting about the values and assumed purposes of each context? losses. For several hours, the firm’s financial executives presented their plans in a detached and clinical manner, showing that closing a number of operating locations would reduce “head count” and yield much-needed savings. As they finished, Bob, the company’s chairman and Business

Faith CEO, drew his chair closer to the conference table, leaned Money

God forward, and said firmly, “I know we have no choice but Workplace, Customers Church, Family to proceed with these layoffs. But in deciding how to go Meetings, Memos Prayer, Reflection about it, let’s remember that we love these people.” An Ambition Humility awkward silence fell over the room, as if an unexpected Sources of Stress Refuge from Stress guest had intruded on a family discussion. Love? I could Competition Love of Neighbor not recall ever hearing the word in a corporate meeting,

Different worlds?

The Marketplace July August 2012

8

and I suspected I was not alone. of religion is a potential source of Business culture I thought about Bob’s words for weeks conflict or litigation. To be sure, afterwards. They reminded me of the mantra inappropriate religious conduct discourages of management sage Peter Drucker: “Mancan lead to claims of discriminaagement is about human beings.” In effect, tion and harassment, and in recent religious expression years employee lawsuits on these Bob had taken a straightforward plan for cutting costs and complicated it immensely grounds have outpaced all other in the workplace, by insisting that people losing their jobs complaints against employers under should be treated with love. Still, the tone of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act not so much out of the meeting was entirely different from that in the United States. But notable moment on. The conversation turned from within this trend are growing calculations of head count to creative ways hostility to faith but numbers of cases alleging failures to ease difficult transitions for real people by employers to allow the exercise with real families and financial needs. Later, of faith at work. Religious freedom to avoid risk. when I asked Bob about this, he shrugged enjoys a special place in American it off as unremarkable. “I’m a Christian,” he said. “That’s jurisprudence, and the law places an affirmative burden no secret around here. I remind our managers that faith, on employers to “reasonably” accommodate religious hope, and love should define the way we do business. But expression and practice. Thus, employers now face the at a time like this, that’s easier said than done.” conundrum of how to prevent discrimination and harassment while leaving room for the reasonable exercise of Many believers have discovered that taking religion as more employees of all faiths insist on bringing faith seriously at work can indeed make life more diftheir beliefs to the office or the shop floor. ficult. This is due in part to a business culture that often discourages religious expression in the workplace. ExecuOver the last decade, many large employers have tive search consultants and university career offices advise established formal diversity programs, complete with job seekers to purge their resumes of any mention of dedicated staffs and budgets, to deal proactively with faith interests, even church-related humanitarian projects. differences in race, ethnicity, gender, and other workplace Employer policies restrict or prohibit religious symbols and demographics, usually in hopes of promoting inclusion activities. The prevailing culture suggests that faith is a and removing barriers to participation and advancement. private matter that should not be taken too seriously in Yet few of these programs address religious issues effecpublic life. “The consistent message of modern American tively. I led a workshop for The Conference Board, a global society is that whenever the demands of one’s religion association of businesses, where chief diversity officers conflict with what one has to do to get ahead,” says Yale of major corporations admitted they had yet to address law professor Stephen Carter, “one is expected to ignore religious diversity with coherent policies or training. “Relithe religious demands and act ... well ... rationally.” gion is the final frontier,” said an executive with a Fortune A national study of spirituality in corporate America 50 company, explaining that its place in the workplace is

by Ian Mitroff and Elizabeth Denton found that most comuncertain and poorly understood. These executives agreed panies believe in “walling it off as strictly as they can.” that leaders of their firms were more likely to see religion as a threat to workplace harmony than as an essential The usual way in which organizations respond to and inseparable dimension of many employees’ lives, even spiritual matters and concerns of the soul is by declarthough studies say the vast majority of business leaders in ing them inappropriate or out of bounds. Conventional the United States adhere to some religious faith. wisdom holds that spiritual matters and concerns are far It is not the purpose of this volume to delve too too personal and private to be broached directly in the deeply into issues of law or corporate policy. Our point workplace, the most public and communal of settings. here is that the cultures of many workplaces effectively Moreover, because people differ sharply in their responsrelegate faith to the private, off-hours sphere, contributes to such concerns, merely raising them will lead only ing to the individual’s inner difficulty in holding these two to acrimony and division and not to the ultimate end of bringing people closer together at work. worlds together. ◆

More often than not, park-it-at-the-door thinking has less to do with hostility to faith than with the avoidance of risk, for many employers fear that any hint

Excerpted with permission from How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it) by John C. Knapp (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2012) 9

The Marketplace July August 2012

The money-wise pastor Thoughts on shepherding the business class

by Marvin Hein

I

He was asking counsel from me about where and how to make his contribution. After he told me that he had bought 10,000 shares at 16 and that day they were quoted at 23, it was only seconds before I concluded this man was talking about giving the tenth of a $70,000 profit.

So what have I learned about shepherding businesspeople? Let me make several suggestions, directed especially to pastors, but hopefully helpful to businesspeople as they relate to pastors.

1. Pastors should become “money wise” if they want to minister to people whose lives are so involved in finances. In our congregation in the city, whenever we interview candidates for youth pastor one of the first questions is: “Are you street-wise?” In other words, does this person know what’s going on in the youth culture? Similarly, I’m convinced pastors need to know what’s going on in the financial world. If Jesus said more about money than he did about heaven and hell, then finances shouldn’t be a foreign matter to his shepherds. I’m not prescribing how that wisdom should come. Perhaps a wise church member could be the “discipler.” Perhaps a financial club where members join to make investments and study them would be helpful. Do something!

2. Pastors should realize they will likely be seen “I didn’t know as novices or non-experts in finances by their busithe difference nesspeople parishioners.

Perhaps my inferiority between a nocomplex works overtime, but I have often felt that load fund and my views on money were not readily accepted by an empty wagon. some businesspeople.

Preachers aren’t supposed to know anything about But I read and money. And those who do, the TV evangelists, I listened.” always louse things up!

But stick in there, pastor. Learn and listen and speak.

3. Pastors should understand that businesspeople may make poor church officers. The “mills of the gods grind slowly” but the government of the church often barely crawls. The more entrepreneurial businesspersons usually don’t have the patience for the processing so often necessary in the church to come to a decision. In their business-

am the last person who should have been prepared to relate to businesspersons. I was reared on the farm.

My first 18 years were nurtured in a country church where almost everyone was a farmer. One, maybe two persons in a congregation of over 200 were businessmen. The rest of us were dyed-in-the-wool farmers.

Wheat and cattle and hogs and chickens were business, too, but it was small-time stuff. We had not heard about “agri-business.”

I had my first encounter with businesspeople when I accepted the pastorate in the Mennonite megalopolis of Hillsboro, Kansas (population 2,500). The congregation was about evenly divided among farmers, educators and businesspeople. I was at home with the farmers, though I’m aware my seminary sheepskin may not always have made them feel at ease with me. I worked rather closely with educators, both in the public schools and in the church college. But businesspersons were certainly not my cup of tea.

Two things happened early on that influenced my ministry with people in business: One, I befriended an enterprising business executive in my new congregation.

Though intimidating at first, it was my baptism into learning at least a bit about the business world, and made me less fearful of befriending others in business.

Two, I got talked into investing in the stock market by a retired grocer who sold mutual funds. It was in the early sixties and the stock market was making loud noises. I didn’t know the difference between a no-load fund and an empty wagon. But I bought into a mutual fund and made almost minuscule monthly investments.

The end result was not much financial profit from a half-dozen funds, but a wealth of learning about business and finance. I was fascinated by this new world of business — so much so that at one point I had to make a spiritual decision not to follow the daily quotations on the business page of the daily newspaper because I was getting hooked. But I read and I listened. I entered into discussion when businesspeople talked finances. I got at least a smattering knowledge of stocks and bonds, splits, futures, hedging, dividends and what the Dow Jones was all about.

I am not a financial wizard, but at least I can converse with the parishioner who told me that he had promised the Lord the tithe on some stocks he had purchased.

The Marketplace July August 2012

10

es they weigh the options, use their best judgment, make a decision and if it turns up wrong tomorrow, they make a new decision.

It doesn’t work that way in the church and such people have a difficult time sitting through a three-hour commission meeting that results in a $100 decision.

4. Pastors should realize there are dangers in becoming intimately involved in the lives of monied businesspersons. Money can become addictive, even for pastors. We who shepherd flocks are not immune. There is the danger of favoritism, and some pastors have literally lost their credibility and were forced to leave churches because they had formed such close relationships with monied interests. There is always tension between those who have some wealth and others who have less, and the pastor can easily get caught in the middle.

5. Pastors should know that businesspersons ordinarily will not approach them “Pastors should about problems or questions regarding their businesses or finances. There’s nothing know that more private about us than money-life. The pastor businesspersons our will need to take the initiative with businesspeople. won’t take the But that initiative needs to be more in the form of esfirst step in tablishing relationships than in speaking directly about money or business problems. sharing about 6. Pastors should realize they have a unique opportheir business tunity to talk with businesspeople about their financial problems or stewardship. Many people in the church feel the pastor finances.” should know nothing about members’ incomes and giving. I disagree! I’m supposed to deal with every other moral issue in the life of the church (adultery, divorce, lying, homosexuality, etc.). But some-

how greed and selfishness, often mentioned in the same breath with the “serious” sins in the New Testament, are “out-ofbounds” for the pastor. I can’t buy that.

If the love of money is indeed the root of all evil, I have some responsibility to speak and confront if and when that sin exists in the life of the church. And I can’t do that very well if I remain ignorant about people’s incomes and contributions. It has always seemed strange to me that the pastor’s salary is posted in the annual report but the pastor shall know nothing about the finances of others. I am aware of the dangers in such counseling, and it cannot be done unless there are established relationships, but the pastor has the responsibility and privilege of speaking “the whole counsel of God” and that surely does not exclude financial stewardship.

It’s been my pleasure to sit down with more than one person to map out a spiritual strategy for more faithful financial stewardship. That hasn’t been 100 percent successful but I recall two letters from people in my first little church of decades ago who commented about my influence in bringing them and/or their children to the practice of proportionate giving (tithing).

Businesspeople and other people really aren’t all that different — except that with financial prowess can come increasing loneliness. Each profession has its temptations and a money-oriented enterprise surely has its share. But the lack of money and the luxury of money both have their hazards. Some of us handle these issues better than others. We all need help — pastors, too. For the pastor the secret of shepherding the monied and the un-monied is the same — living with people, becoming involved in their daily lives, and generating a confidence that will enable and encourage all alike to bare their struggles and victories. ◆ The late Marvin Hein pastored Mennonite Brethren churches — small and large, urban and rural — in Kansas and California.

This article was excerpted from a previous piece he wrote in The Marketplace.

11

The Marketplace July August 2012

Street eats, Kabul style Bustling with flavor and enterprise, here’s a side of Afghanistan you won’t see on the nightly news.

by Scott Ruddick

Faghat seyr mikonam.

to $2.50 U.S.). Busy times are lunch, the main meal in Afghanistan, when office workers and laborers are on the prowl for a cheap meal, and again in late afternoon as workers head home, and stop to pick up takeout for the evening meal.

Kabul’s street food stalls are both a cheaper alternative to more expensive sit‑down restaurants — and a respite from the heavy fare of traditional Afghan household cooking. A typical Afghan meal is centered around rice. Qabeli Palau — basmati rice with chopped carrots and raisins and pieces of meat — is often the centerpiece, served with flat bread. While a well‑done palau is a wonderful meal, the sheer ubiquitousness of it drives Afghanis — and ex pats when they have been in country long enough — to seek out different fare. The tabang wallah are only too pleased to fill this void in the Afghan diet.

Kabob (left photo) is the preferred takeout food for Kabul’s denizens, and open‑air kabob shops are to be found in every part of Kabul. Mutton, lamb, beef or chicken, lightly seasoned, is skewered on to rough iron spikes, then broiled over glowing charcoal. The kabob meat is wrapped in nan, lightly leavened bread that is baked by being slapped against the inner wall of a clay oven, which is in turn wrapped in old newspaper. The experienced kabob eater knows that nan serves as both a plate and an accompaniment. The rough side of the bread is always placed facing up, the meat piled on top of it. Chunks of the bread are ripped off and used to scoop up the meat.

Business is brisk: a typical mid‑sized kabob stall will serve 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of meat a week.

For the adventurous eater venturing into Kabul’s street food scene, these three Dari words, which roughly translates to “I’m just looking,” are key. To stroll by Kabul’s street food stalls is to run a gauntlet of aggressive vendors, stepping into your path and thrusting samples at you. However, the reward for wading into this chaotic scene is a foray into the varied cuisine of Afghanistan.

To the outside world, Kabul has become synonymous with the strife and conflict afflicting the whole of Afghanistan. Yet beyond the headlines, the capital city is a vibrant community of three million people, and a thriving street food scene.

The influx of foreigners and money since the fall of the Taliban has gradually transformed the Kabul restaurant scene, including street food. Enterprising local street chefs — tabang wallah in the local parlance — serve up a variety of local cuisine.

Kabul’s food stalls are unpretentious.

They are often no more than a tin roof held up by a rough‑hewn wood timber frame covering a cooking area. Electrical connections to run refrigeration are nonexistent: supplies are kept in coolers, lugged back and forth from the homes of the stall staff every day.

The best stalls are found around Shahr‑e Naw Park, a large park in central Kabul that is popular with the locals for pick‑up soccer matches and Friday bird fights. The stalls are clustered together along the wide sidewalks. In keeping with the business model of successful street food vendors everywhere, each stall will specialize in one or two food types, and build their business by offering a consistent, quality product at a reasonable price.

Each dish costs between 50 and 100 Afghanis ($1.25 The Marketplace July August 2012

12

Other tabang wallah serve up steaming plates of delicately spiced raviolis (at left). Indigenous to northern Afghanistan, mantu (stuffed with minced meat) and ashok (filled with leeks) are steamed over large open‑air pots and served with a tangy yogurt sauce.

Whatever your choice of entrée, add doogh, a carbonated yogurt drink seasoned with salt and mint, to wash it down.

A typical Afghan food stall (below) will open late morning, and shutter around dusk Sunday to Thursday.

This schedule is reversed during the religious month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. During this 30‑day period, which falls roughly in the month of August,

Boloni (above), stuffed pancakes filled with either shaved potato and onion (sabzi) or squash (kadu) and deep‑fried in bubbling cauldrons of oil, are a perennial favorite.

The carb‑heavy Afghan burger, a recent Kabul concoction, is a favorite with the city’s teenage boys (above right). It is common to see groups of them gathered on street corners, scarfing down spiced ground beef patties with a smattering of onions, tomato and lettuce, wrapped in a pita‑like bread, with French fries jammed into the sides.

Shor nakhod, stewed chickpeas, served on large plates with an accompanying mint sauce (below), serves as either an accompaniment or a stand‑alone meal.

the stalls will open for iftar, the fast‑breaking meal that takes place at sunset, and close at around sunrise, when the last meal before the dawn‑induced fast begins. ◆ Scott Ruddick, a frequent visitor to Afghanistan, is MEDA’s director of Integrated Support Services.

13

The Marketplace July August 2012

On-site mediator Meet Paul Hiebert, the go-to guy when emotions fray

“T

hat Paul, he’s a real peacemaker.”

It’s a compliment many Mennonites would die for. When it comes from an industry colleague, and refers to daily toil in the trenches, it means all the more.

The young woman who made the comment has worked closely with Paul Hiebert and watched him in action. By her account, when his tall, lanky presence enters the work site, ripples of well-being begin to emanate. If tensions exist, everyone knows they will diminish now that Hiebert is there.

in the city’s downtown momentum, but by the 1990s had become a groaning symbol of decay.

Then it caught the imagination of two developer brothers, Rick and Mark Hofer, with whom Hiebert has worked extensively. When they announced plans to restore the building, the city’s main newspaper declared, “Core eyesore gets new life.”

Urban officials saw great potential in the project, envisioning a new downtown demographic, increased local tax revenues and reduced crime. One said it would “change the whole psyche of Portage Avenue.”

Now, the building has been reborn as a 75-unit block featuring 400 to 800-square-foot one-bedroom openconcept New York-style apartments. The dreary facade has been transformed, with funky chrome balconies perched smartly over the street.

The main floor will be occupied by Manitoba Start, an immigrant employment service that has helped put Manitoba on the map for its progressive immigration policies. There will be more than a dozen classrooms to train newcomers for resettlement and job preparation, as well as other satellite programs. “It really will put the business of immigration on our block,” says Hiebert. “Some 400 to 500 people a day will enter this building. That all feels good, to think this place will be screaming with life after

For much of his career Hiebert has been “a drawer of houses,” as he puts it, but more recently has applied his skills to urban redevelopment. He works with a special breed of folk who, perhaps like a sculptor approaching a block of raw marble, can look at a derelict building and imagine life-giving possibilities behind rotted frames and scarred bricks. Something bred in their bones makes them wonder, as did the writer of Joshua, “What do these stones mean?” (4:21) “We are all called to Getting a second wonder,” Hiebert says, “to about the world and chance at life is a think our place in it.”

His quirky business good thing, even card has the word JUST on one side with a wrapfor run-down around WONDERING on the flipside. When he showed it to his mother, buildings. she didn’t get it. “Why,” she finally asked, “would anybody pay you?”

To Hiebert it makes perfect sense. “I love the wonder of life,” he says. “I am always just wondering (wondering about justice).” His daily work has evolved to meeting after meeting about design, lease negotiations, budgeting, scheduling and project management. “All of this requires a range of wondering, coming up with ideas and being willing to express them.”

Style with substance

P

aul Hiebert is known around Winnipeg as a thinking person’s designer, a philosopher with a drafting pen, a guy who can tastefully meld style, structure, community and spirituality.

Numerous charitable projects around the city bear his imprint. One close to his heart is Holy Names House of Peace, which creates space for prayer, worship, counseling and healing from addictions. As chair of its building committee he is helping enlarge a structure that shelters recent refugees, immigrants and women in transition.

Hiebert was also one of the early movers of Habitat for Humanity in Winnipeg. He became a workmate of Jimmy Carter’s at the 1986 Chicago blitz build, and helped organize the 1993 Jimmy Carter Work Project in Winnipeg, during which the ex-president famously said “I’d like to visit a Mennonite church” (which he then did, secret service entourage in tow).

His major recent preoccupation has been a

reclamation project on Winnipeg’s main thoroughfare, Portage Avenue. Called the Avenue Building, it has a distinguished history, but fell on hard times.

It was built in 1904, when Winnipeg was dubbed “Chicago of the north.” Eight years later its owner would perish in the Titanic. For decades the structure was a gem

The Marketplace July August 2012

14

The wonder of restoration: Paul Hiebert in Winnipeg’s downtown with former “core eyesore” behind him.

guy when things get frayed.

Being called a peacemaker may stretch Hiebert’s modesty, but he does acknowledge that mediation is a big part of the role that he and his team share.

“The developers say my job is to keep them from killing the architects,” he jokes, adding quickly that he has great respect for architects and what they try to achieve.

He is also quick to note that he has the good fortune to work with people who over time have evolved an effective team-based management style. This makes it much easier to bring calm when tensions run high over tight timelines, or when numerous trades overlap.

A construction jobsite can be fraught with emotion, he notes. A tweak in the plans can add complexity to each trade down the line. Or maybe the plumbers have come and gone and then the duct guys come in and want a pipe moved. It can be as mundane as one crew playing the radio too loud, or leaving a mess behind that slows things down for the next crew.

It falls to Hiebert and his team to facilitate collaboration at all levels, and, when necessary, defuse emotions between trades.

Hiebert is the primary contact with the city planning and permit offices. Zoning variances, plan reviews and permit applications all require multiple layers of approval. Respectful relationships are critical to advancing a project and maintaining any kind of schedule.

“Every day new challenges rewrite the agenda,” he says, “and the impact of each new decision ripples through the community of workers on each site – each of whom is looking to make some contribution to our world.”

In their own way, Hiebert and the Hofer brothers are reclaiming “ancient ruins” and being “a restorer of streets,” as the biblical prophet wrote (Is. 58:12).

“You start with a building that’s not right, that no longer fits into any code model, and you make it right,” says Hiebert. “You take something that’s broken and you mend it. And then celebrate it. Getting a second chance at life is a good thing.”

Quality on the job — whether in design or relationships — is rooted in values that Hiebert nourishes from deep wells. He quotes his father, Joe, who died last summer at the age of 93: “Nothing is just good enough. It’s good, or it’s not finished.”

Associates testify to how Hiebert treats everyone with dignity. He quotes Plato, “Be kind, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

“God is present in everyone,” he adds. “We simply need to find the connecting points.” ◆

sitting vacant all these years.”

Such transformations don’t come without cost. Many Winnipeg developers are eager to tackle heritage projects but can be stymied by hoops and red tape. Old buildings typically aren’t code-compliant. They may have asbestos insulation, ancient piping or any number of other surprises lurking behind ancient walls. Lenders are super-careful to protect themselves if problems arise.

All this makes restoration an adventure — or nightmare.

And the psychic wear and tear of 60 workers from half a dozen different crews — from plumbers to drywallers to electricians — can tax the most even-tempered soul.

At the Avenue Building, the on-site mediator is

Hiebert. After decades of designing buildings, and experiencing firsthand all facets of gruntwork, he is the go-to 15

The Marketplace July August 2012

Guess who?

A Bible jeopardy quiz of workplace characters Each of the following people are biblical characters described in their work environments.

Can you identify them in these roles?

in human history — the cattle business, the musical world, and iron work. But he then resorts to murder and lives in constant fear of retaliation.

1. A building contractor for one of those Middle Eastern cities that gets blown up regularly, he faces tough opposition. He must meet the demands of materials acquisition internationally, a very mixed labor force, sabotage on the project and night-time site inspections.

7. They decided to improve on the operations handbook, being skeptical of the designerowner’s wisdom. So they wrote their own rules and lost their job-sharing role as joint managers and co-developers. They end up in constant, sweaty toil.

8. She defied the standards of her day — women were baby factories and must produce males, at that. But she managed a varied operation including real estate, food production, textiles and even had employee training. She labored night and day, only to be described as the perfect mom in Mothers Day sermons.

2. Raised in the family cattle business, his jealous brothers sell him to Egyptian truckers who then sell him into slavery.

There he emerges as a leader, deals with sexual harassment, is jailed again, yet ends up being the world’s greatest grain futures trader.

3. As a leader in agri-business, he mysteriously loses it all and faces certain bankruptcy. As his children are destroyed and his health declines, the stress of it all causes his friends, even his wife, to turn on him. But in the end he emerges twice as rich.

9. A herdsman who teaches his son-in-law about the dangers of centralized management and decision-making after watching him through a day of wearying dispute settling. He recommends delegation and management selection criteria.

4. In the portable living unit manufacturing industry, this couple takes in one famous preacher as a business associate, teaches a young evangelist a more correct theology, and begins a church in their home in three different cities.

10. Always seeking to get ahead, this notorious bureaucrat in the tax industry resorts to cheating, becomes wealthy but remains unfulfilled. His conversion leads to care for the poor and major financial restitution. ◆

6. As the great-great-grandson of a family murderer, he marries and his three sons pioneer three major industries The Marketplace July August 2012

16

Answers:

The late Pete Hammond, a devoted friend and supporter of this magazine, was director of marketplace ministries for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

1. Nehemiah 2. Joseph (Genesis 37:39-50) 3. Job 4. Priscilla & Aquila (Acts 18) 5. Lydia (Acts 16) 6. Lamech (Genesis 4) 7. Adam and Eve 8. Woman of Proverbs 31 9. Jethro (Exodus 18) 10. Zacchaeus (Luke 19)

5. She runs an upscale clothing business while hungering for God. As a Gentile, she meets Jesus through a Jewish prayer meeting, invites an evangelistic team to live with her, and begins the first church in Europe in her home.

Paraguay business chaplaincy passes 20-year mark

I

Photo by Hildi Amstutz

t was a scene to strike fear into any manager. A distraught man burst into a business, pistol in hand, apparently there to kill his wife.

A quick-thinking co-worker promptly called the company’s chaplain, who rushed over and managed to calm the man down. The chaplain offered to meet with the couple to see if they could reconcile. They accepted, and met with him monthly for six months. The end result — a life and a marriage saved.

Such drama is not typical, but the Business Chaplaincy (Capellania Empresarial) in Asuncion, Paraguay, has seen plenty of lives changed in two decades of operation.

It was 1991 when a small group of Mennonite business owners in Paraguay asked C. Paul Paul Amstutz (left) mentors Juan Santander, a business chaplain.

Amstutz, a Mennonite Mission Network as“Several Christian employees have told me, ‘You’re sociate living there, to create a chaplaincy program. They my second pastor’,” says Amstutz, who now spends half wanted to reach out to their unchurched employees, but his time mentoring other chaplains and half as a chaplain didn’t think it was appropriate for people in supervisory for a local business. “Some say, ‘You’re my pastor, and situations to proselytize. my pastor on Sunday is my second pastor, because we Over the years Amstutz has developed a cadre of see each other more often at work than at church.’ We trained business chapcomplement each other.” lains whose mission is to The chaplain may show God’s love in the Many employees appreciate having a space at work to worship and support each other in prayer. “We need this workplace. There are be the only pastor now 24 full‑time and 26 time to share our faith together,” say employees of one business. part‑time chaplains servan employee ever ing 44 businesses – the Amstutz has also seen improved ethical behavior among the businesses that participate. largest one with more knows.

He feels the chaplaincy is making a difference in how than 1,900 employees. businesses are run throughout the country, partly beThe chaplains reach cause of the positive influence of this group of business employees through weekly devotionals, relationship‑buildowners. ing seminars, home visits, and in‑house Christian librar“These businessmen made some courageous deciies and DVD lending services. Some businesses sponsor sions in deciding to operate their businesses differently employee retreats on topics like biblical foundations for than they had in the past, because they knew that having child‑rearing and healthy relationships. a chaplain sharing the gospel at work meant that their Chaplains have intervened in crises, like the one way of doing business would have to agree with what above, and have counseled employees on sexual bound[their chaplain] was preaching,” Amstutz says. aries. More routinely, they try to greet each employee at Capellanía Empresarial also trains future chaplains least briefly once a week to build trust and provide spirithrough a one‑year curriculum that includes Anabaptist tual nourishment. The goal is to connect them with Christ theology, crisis intervention, family counseling, and the and a church, Amstutz says. workplace as a platform for evangelism. Amstutz says The chaplain may be the only pastor an employee some 60 percent of the chaplains come from a Mennonite ever knows, though many Christian employees appreciate background and the rest from other evangelical backhaving an onsite pastor as well as one in the congregation grounds. — Andrew Clouse, Mennonite Mission Network they attend.

17

The Marketplace July August 2012

Reviews

Searching for the sweet spot Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work. By Tom Nelson (Crossway, 2011, 221 pp. $15.99 U.S. $17.99 Cdn.)

That work, even if “ordinary,” is thick with purpose, says Nelson. It has intrinsic, not merely instrumental value. It is “not about economic exchange, financial remuneration, or a pathway to the American Dream, but about God-honoring human creativity and contribution.... our specific human contribution to God’s ongoing creation and to the common good.”

Part of that ongoing contribution is to serve others by providing the goods and services they need — by helping sustain the world as God’s

L

ucky are those who attend Tom Nelson’s congregation in Leawood, Kansas. Lucky because their senior pastor has an invigorating sense of what their daily work means to God. If your view of work needs a theological makeover, this book is for you. In Nelson’s hands, the daily job is not just a means to earn a paycheck, it’s a way to fulfill your spiritual destiny.

Like many recent books of this type, Nelson roots daily work in God’s design for humanity, visible in the depiction of “God the worker” on page one of the Bible. The grand story of redemption includes our daily toil, and culminates in God’s eventual restoration of all things.

We are created to work, Nelson says, and we are image‑bearers of “One of the primary God in both the work we do and how we do it. Work ways we tangibly is not something that exists aside from our love our neighbor faith but something that both expresses is to do excellent, and extends our faith.

This doesn’t mean God-honoring we use our jobs as a pulpit but that we work in our various conduct ourselves in a way that brings honor to God. vocations.”

Clearly, this lofty vision that vocational theology is part of an integrated Christian faith has been lost in a world where some people merely endure their work as drudgery and others worship it as an idol. Nelson tries to show a better way.

He shows a biblical perspective that helps us make the most of our vocations and be a partner with God’s work.

Like a good pastor, he speaks to the hearts in the pews, the same folks who will go back to the trenches the next day. He tries to answer the question, “what difference will it make?” By the time he is done, many readers may be eager to drop the book and hurry back to jobs that have been newly imbued with divine meaning.

The Marketplace July August 2012

“yoked apprentice.”

“One of the primary ways we tangibly love our neighbors is to do excellent, God-honoring work in our various vocations.... Your vocational work is your specific and invaluable contribution to God’s ongoing creation and an essential aspect of God’s Great Commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.... God is transforming us in our work and transforming the world through our work.”

Nelson encourages workers to keep searching for their vocational “sweet spot,” that place on the racquet or bat where the ball can be hit perfectly for maximum power. “Your vocational sweet spot is that place where your creativity is most unleashed, your passions most engaged, and your work makes the greatest contribution to advancing the mission of the organization or business you serve. Identifying your vocational sweet spot is an ongoing process, requiring growing self-awareness through a good conscience and the coaching of wise counselors in your life.”

He offers practical tips on ethics, temptation and burnout. “An exercise that I have found helpful is to regularly make a to-do list as well as a stop-doing list.

Sometimes in my workplace I find myself doing things I really do not need to do — things that are not leveraging my workplace calling and contribution to the mission of the organization I serve.”

18

Sprinkled throughout are sidebars where others describe their journeys to greater workplace meaning (like the following excerpt).

One way Nelson’s book is different than many other recent books on faith and work is his bold linking of vocational awareness with church growth. “Our gospel mission really advances when we faithfully embrace our vocations, whatever and wherever that may be,” he says.

Nelson asserts that the surge of gospel mission in Thessalonians was rooted in robust workplace activity.

Those early believers had embraced the gospel and “were honoring Christ in the various vocations and stations of life they were in when they were called.” The gospel at

the time was spreading like wildfire in an increasingly mobile Roman world brimming with commerce. “The early church did not just gather together for fellowship and teaching on the first day of the week, but it was scattered the rest of the week in various vocational workplaces.

It was in these workplaces that the gospel dynamically spread.”

The bottom line for Nelson is that work indeed matters — not only to individual believers made in the image of “God the worker,” but also to the future expansion of the church. “One of the highest stewardships for local church leadership is to encourage and equip apprentices of Jesus for their work,” he says. — Wally Kroeker

Excerpt:

Pleasing God with our work

by Dave Kiersznowski

M

We know

y wife, Demi, and I started our company in 1991, and I think, like many people, we had good intentions. We wanted to create a decent company, make a decent living, and perhaps do some good. At that point, we thought the “good” would come mostly at the end of the year when we figured out what our profits for the year had been and, therefore, what we should tithe. In the midnineties we started to study the fullness of the Christian story more, including the biblical narrative on vocation. I remember it seemed like water to a dry soul when we began to realize that we were made in the image of a God who worked and who created us to work. I remember for the first time understanding that I could feel God’s pleasure in and through my work every day, not just when the accounting books were closed at the end of the year. And this idea that my Monday through Friday could be a sweet aroma to him, that the essence of my work could be pleasing to him, helped me make the transition from a job to a vocation. And it colored my world, literally.

Demi and I no longer have a sense that there are other more significant or “spiritual” vocations. God made us the way we are, and therefore, as entrepreneurs, we are doing that which he alone determines is our most sacred response to him. And so we try to create a place where every decision matters, where the way we negotiate contracts matters, where the beauty of the buildings we build matters, where the freedom or lack thereof that we create for our colleagues matters. We understand that each and every gift item we create has a story, and that we are implicated in the story it tells. We know that how we and our colleagues treat our partner factories, our UPS or FedEx drivers, the artisans we work with, and the kind of team that cleans our facility every night matters; it’s a reflection of our beliefs and view of work. Each and

that how we and our

every day, in the sacred of the mundane, we understand that our vocations matter to God, as he is the one who created and ordained us for those specific roles in life. None are more “spiritual” than others.

Rather, we determine daily, through our thoughts and words and actions, whether we choose to honor him through our work. And what a joy it is to sense his pleasure when we do. ◆

colleagues treat our partner factories, our UPS or FedEx drivers, the artisans we work with, and the kind of team that cleans our facility every

Dave and Demi Kiersznowski own DEMDACO, a gift company based in Kansas City.

night matters; it’s a reflection of our beliefs and view of work.

19

Taken from Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work by Tom Nelson, © 2011, pp. 32-33. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org

The Marketplace July August 2012

Soundbites

Think twice about that volcanic memo The trouble with the memo as a way of expressing anger is that it’s unchecked by the restraints of civilization that usually govern in-person office fracases. Generally, people do not throw punches, or leap across desks and stick fingers in the eyes of those who disagree with them. And, with any luck, after the anger of the set-to has subsided, the intensity of the moment tends to be forgotten. The angry memo, however, can act as a breeder reactor — the satisfaction of venting your ire on paper can be so keen that you don’t want to stop, and after waxing wroth for a few pages, you apply another coat, and another. — Owen Edwards in Upward Nobility: How to Succeed in Business Without Losing Your Soul

education. The crippling and unambiguous message is that 10 days of volunteer work are more important to the church — and, by implication,

earned 14% less — or about $10,000 less — per year than those who were employed as young adults. — Michael Schuman in “The Jobless Generation,” TIME

Crippling message

Working hard?

Working hard?

Jobless virus In many cases, those who fall behind in the job market at an early age never fully recover.

Deprived of skills and experience in their first years in the workforce, they have trouble competing for good jobs for the rest of their working lives.

A study ... tracked young Danish workers who were jobless for at least 10 months in 1994 and discovered that 15 years later they were almost twice as likely to be unemployed and

Imagine someone saying, “Let me do it. I don’t have enough to do.” Couldn’t happen in this age when “I’m too busy” is a badge of honor. Some thoughts on our national addiction: • “Workaholism is one of the only addictions in society that we boast about, that we’re proud of, that we actually support.” — Diane Fassel, Working Ourselves to Death • “When someone says they got rich through hard work, ask Whose.” — Donald Marquis • “Most people like hard work. Particularly when they are paying for it.” — Franklin P. Jones • “Though proponents of a kinder, gentler workplace stress family values and the importance of relaxation, most firms still like to have a workaholic at the helm.” — Carol Kleiman • “Times have changed. Forty years ago people worked 12 hours a day, and it was called economic slavery. Now they work 14 hours a day and it’s called moonlighting.” — Robert Orben • “Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” — Ecclesiastes 4:6 • “If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.” — Lane Kirkland • “Don’t brag to me about routinely putting in 12-hour days. It tells me that: (a) you are inefficient; (b) you take on more than you should; or (3) you’re trying to escape a problem.” — E.W. Eppworth • “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.” — Proverbs 23:4

We should ask ourselves what is being communicated when a church allots time on Sunday morning to commission a short-term mission team for 10 days in Mexico, yet does nothing to commission new college graduates for their careers in business or government or

Opportunity for Group Travel A few seats remaining with a guided tour

Oct 2 ‑ 16 Travel with other Anabaptist Christians and meet with Church Planters in Barcelona and Madrid Call Alfa Tours/John and Nancy Leaman (717) 656-6612 johnleaman@juno.com

The Marketplace July August 2012

to God — than a Christian’s lifelong occupation. — John C. Knapp in How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it)

20

What they really mean

Power of trust If you trust people, they start leaning in and you see their best selves. You see their best work. They bring the best of their abilities to the party. You get 50,000 people working like this, it’s going to be great.

— Frito-Lay CEO Al Carey

Nobody cares that the CEO says that quality is first, but they notice that the only number he ever comments on is revenue. People are always in search of their corporation’s gospel, and they read it not in the words of the leadership but in its behavior. — John Cowan in The Common Table: Reflections and Meditations on Community and Spirituality in the Workplace

tion and church attendance].

What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables....

Let the Church remember this:

that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade — not outside it.... The only Christian work is good work well done.

— Dorothy Sayers in her essay, Why Work?

Comments?

A table for God?

Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith? Feel free to send your thoughts to wkroeker@meda.org

The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to [moral instruc-

21

The Marketplace July August 2012

News

MEDA checks progress on World Malaria Day For MEDA staff in Tanzania, every day is “malaria day.”

The rest of the world marks it on April 25, selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) as World Malaria Day. It’s a time to celebrate gains in the battle against malaria and to gauge progress on the Millennium Development Goal of “near‑zero” malaria deaths by 2015.

When the world paused on April 25, there was much to cheer about. Advances are being made in the struggle against malaria, the leading killer of African children and pregnant women.

Part of MEDA’s role in the battle has been to extend the supply of insecticide treated mosquito nets to far-flung regions and to ensure a steady supply is available to keep coverage rates high as new babies are born and old nets wear out. All this is done through MEDA’s management of the Tanzanian National Voucher Scheme (TNVS), known locally as Hati Punguzo, which issues mosquito net vouchers in health clinics.

Pregnant women and mothers of young children who visit the clinics are issued vouchers that, with a small top-up fee, can be redeemed for a bed net that protects against malaria-bearing mosquitoes which are most active at night.

An important feature is that the commercial component provides an incentive to small retailers throughout the country to maintain a steady supply of nets.

“Voucher programs provide cost effective net distribution, while stimulating consumer sales and improved use and ownership,” says Faith Patrick, MEDA Tanzania country manThe Marketplace July August 2012

A young mother rejoices in her new mosquito net, acquired through MEDA’s voucher program. ager. “At $8.33 per net, MEDA can ensure that pregnant women and infants — those at highest risk — have access to this simple, yet critical, tool. Almost 9,000 lives will be saved in 2012 alone.”

MEDA’s network now includes 7,000 retailers throughout the country. With some 33 million nets now in use since

the beginning of the program, the effort is credited with saving more than 180,000 lives, mostly children and pregnant women.

More recently, MEDA has developed mobile phone technology that delivers vouchers electronically to health clinics and redeems them from retailers via text messa-

A clinic worker (left) uses her cellphone to access/authorize a mosquito net eVoucher for patient and her child.

22

ging. A pregnant woman only needs the voucher number to redeem her voucher for a net at a nearby retailer. Electronic distribution not only saves on printing vouchers and physically sending them over long distances to remote locations, but also reduces the risk of fraud.

The e-Voucher channel is catching on, say project officials. Electronic vouchers represented 11 percent of redemptions in February, 12 percent in March. They are expected to reach 20 percent by year-end.

The focus on pregnant women and infants offers an important “keep up” component, says Ann Gordon, MEDA’s senior manager for the project. “It increases ownership and allows the commercial sector to thrive, while saving thousands of lives each year and reaching a target group that other campaigns, such as those in schools, do not.” ◆

CMU business school adds second faculty Jeff Huebner has been appointed to the faculty of the new Redekop School of Business at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.

He joins Craig Martin as the school’s second full-time faculty member.

Huebner For the past five years Huebner has taught international business at Ambrose University College in Calgary. At CMU he will be associate professor of business and organizational administration.

Huebner holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary.

Prior to teaching, he worked for over a decade in management and corporate consulting, including research on international business and trade.

He has a strong interest in developing international study opportunities and organizational partnerships for stu-

dents to expand their global cross‑cultural learning experiences.

“I want students to be able to see and experience firsthand how their business knowledge and skills can be applied overseas,” he says. “I encourage my students to apply their business skills to positively impact others, both locally and globally.”

Last year Huebner introduced students from his Ambrose course on International Microfinance to MEDA’s MiCredito program in Nicaragua. He arranged for them to conduct research and develop consulting reports on a number of topics and operational

issues.

Eight students accompanied him to visit MiCredito and deliver their research findings.

They learned about field operations, visited loan recipients and their businesses to see how their lives were being improved, conducted interview surveys with clients for an accounting audit, and met with local church and development leaders.

MiCredito CEO Veronica Herrera said she appreciated the students’ fresh ideas on delinquency management, client retention, microinsurance services and cellphone banking, and planned to implement some of their suggestions.◆

business owners incentives to improve workplace conditions and update antiquated equipment such as looms through access to loans. MEDA will also link rural textile families to high‑end market buyers so they can improve the quality of their products, increase their incomes and send their children to school, instead of to work.

In agriculture, MEDA has a two‑pronged approach targeting youth in subsistence farming families. E-FACE will

encourage farmers to supplement their income with the addition of low‑intensity crops such as apples and bamboo. Since these crops require less labor to produce higher incomes, there is less reliance on children to work. MEDA is also training 250 youth aged 14‑17 as agricultural sales agents. Equipped with seeds, fruit tree saplings, supplies and information, they can work in safer jobs, and ensure that farmers in their region have access to needed agricultural inputs.

MEDA expects E-FACE to have a direct impact on 7,000 families and more than 2,200 youths, improving their livelihoods, workplaces and hope for the next generation. — Linda Whitmore, MEDA News Service

New MEDA project fights child exploitation in Ethiopia Ethiopian child laborers can look forward to a better life thanks to a new four‑year MEDA project called E-FACE – Ethiopians Fighting Against Child Exploitation.

Some 18 million Ethiopian children aged 5‑17 work – almost a third of the population. More than half of rural children work, many about 33 hours a week.

Although the country’s policies and legislation aim to protect children from exploitive labor and support their education, the incidence of child labor is still very high. Most work in the informal sector, where it is difficult to enforce safe practices.

As part of a larger initiative with World Vision, E-FACE will target child laborers in two critical economic sectors — textiles and agriculture — where MEDA has already

has an active program called EDGET (Ethiopians Driving Growth, Entrepreneurship and Trade).

Children who work with weavers, spinners and dyers often do so in poor conditions, earning less than $1 a week and working 14‑hour days that prevent them going to school.

They risk physical deformities from bending over the loom, eyesight problems due to poor lighting, and skin diseases from unsanitary conditions.

Working through local partners, MEDA is offering child weavers a program of hazard awareness sessions called Keep Safe, and a referral system to get children into other areas of employment or back in school. E-FACE also offers 23

The Marketplace July August 2012

The Marketplace July August 2012

24