July August 2013
Where Christian faith gets down to business
Toxic stress:
Video world’s shifting sands
Could your work end up killing you?
Pastor/CEO wears two different caps Soybean loop comes full circle 1
The Marketplace July August 2013
Roadside stand
Have chopsticks, will travel Want a great dish of Kung Pao chicken? Come to Canada, says David Chan, a third-generation American of Chinese descent. Chan, a California tax lawyer and accountant, has sampled cuisine in more than 6,000 Chinese restaurants around the world. Whenever he travels he visits Chinese restaurants and keeps a log of what he eats. He told a Globe & Mail reporter that if he were to rank the 10 top Chinese restaurants in North America, every one would be in Canada, not the U.S. The reason why U.S. Chinese food lags behind is more economic than culinary, he says. It all has to do with railroads and immigration. Back in the 19th century Americans were alarmed that too many jobs were being lost to Chinese immigrants who had been brought in by the railroad barons to lay track across the country. In 1882 Congress passed legislation banning further immigration from China. This ban was eased in the 1940s and later lifted completely by the Nationality Services Act of 1965. “The only Chinese food you had in the U.S. until the mid‘60s when they changed the immigration laws was this oldstyle Taiwanese, rural Cantonese food, from the early waves of immigrants,” says Chan. “In Canada, you had Hong Kong influence coming over earlier than in the U.S.” So there you have it, the law of unintended consequences applied to Peking Duck.
Credit check. A recent credit card invoice brought to our attention shows vividly how people can get in over their heads with plastic. The bill was for $5,800 plus change, with a minimum monthly payment of $122. The back page of the invoice carried this sober warning from the credit company: “If you only make the minimum payment every month, it will take approximately 60 years and 7 months to pay the entire new balance shown on this statement.” Wow. That means it will be fully paid up sometime in 2074, by which time the cardholder will have paid a total of about $88,000.
with economic activity than copper shipments. The reasoning, writes David Berman in Report on Business magazine, goes like this: “the stronger the economy, the more stuff we buy; the more stuff we buy, the more we jettison packaging and old stuff.” Household trash, known in the trade as municipal solid waste (MSW) reportedly plummeted during the financial crisis, then picked up after 2008. The downside, of course, is where to stash all this trash when the economy booms. No blame. Here’s some career advice from success coach Robin Sharma for those who want to get ahead — don’t blame others for performance failings in your company, instead model the behavior you’d like to see. You don’t have to be the boss to set a good example, you can be the CEO of your own job, he says. “Leadership isn’t about a title. Real leadership is about
Talking trash. Leave it to the economists to find economic value in anything, even garbage. We are now told that garbage is a good economic indicator — the more of it we have, the more likely the economy is, well, picking up. According to some experts, waste has a higher correlation
Safe job? In days of yore some people talked of a “safe desk job.” Not so much anymore. Long hours of sitting at a desk can be dangerous. “Sitting is killing desk jockeys — even those who diligently squeeze in 30 minutes of exercise per day,” says the Guide, magazine of the Christian Labour Association of Canada. “Various studies have found that sitting for long periods increases the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart disease — and an early death.... If your job keeps you moving, count your blessings. If not, look for ways to integrate more movement into your day.” The magazine quotes a Mayo Clinic professor as saying, “The human system is like a Ferrari. If you leave it to idle, it clogs up.” Buzzword bingo. Colleague Carol Eby-Good enjoyed the item in the last issue about the “10 most useless buzzwords.” She used her next work break to see if she could squeeze all 10 into a single sentence: “In a YOLO (“you only live once”) moment recently, I decided to utilize some low‑hanging fruit to reach a really epic, val‑ ue‑added, impactful solution and at the end of the day, it was a game‑changer.” — WK
Cover illustration by iStockphoto The Marketplace July August 2013
getting big things done in the face of challenges, being part of the solution versus the problem, and inspiring everyone around you even if you’re the janitor.” (Globe & Mail)
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In this issue
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Work that kills
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A vision for video
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Crossover values in church and in business. Page 10
Work is supposed to be good for us — it keeps poverty at bay and gives us a chance to creatively reach our potential. But it can also be dangerous as pressure and stress take their toll.
Bill Curtis is a man on a mission — to give Christians access to all the video resources they need to build their faith. In an age of free downloads and piracy, that can be a challenge.
A couple of hats On Sunday he’s a pastor — preaching and leading worship. On Monday he’s a CEO digging into website analytics. Both functions benefit from the two different hats he wears. By Jim Miller
Departments 2 4 18 20 22
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Roadside stand Soul enterprise Reviews Soundbites News
They spent their life tilling the soil in Nebraska. A historic convention in 1979 introduced them to MEDA, and now a large estate bequest is helping struggling farmers across the globe.
16 Volume 43, Issue 4 July August 2013 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 2013 by MEDA. Editor: Wally Kroeker Design: Ray Dirks
Soybean loop comes full circle
Breaking the “grass ceiling” When Margaret Rempel’s husband died 10 years ago, many of her neighbors expected her to sell their Manitoba hog farm. Instead, she turned to “work therapy.” By Bill Redekop
Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201, Lancaster, PA 17601-4106. 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 1891 Santa Barbara Dr., Ste. 201 Lancaster, PA 17601-4106
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
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The Marketplace July August 2013
A church decides to EnlightenUp
Tigist Tesfaye Gelagle: Helping keep Ethiopian children safe
Youth worker, day or night At just about any time of day you’ll find Tigist Tesfaye Gelagle working with youth. Her day job is with a MEDA project that curbs exploitation of Ethiopian children in the workplace. After-hours, she volunteers as a youth worker in her church and for the Mennonite World Conference. We caught up with her in late May in Akron, Pa., where she was helping plan a Global Youth Summit for the 2015 assembly of the Mennonite World Conference in Pennsylvania. The planning group comprises one young adult member from each of the MWC’s five continental regions, and Gelagle has the distinction of representing all of Africa. The group completed the planning and budget process, and began to think about the potential problem of visas for youth coming to the summit. A Mexican visitor was denied a U.S. visa for the planning meetings, and Gelagle and her cohorts wonder if such snags will be a problem in 2015. They expect 800 young adults (age 18 to 30) to attend. Gelagle belongs to one of the many Meserete Kristos congregations in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. She is a youth leader in her church and serves on the Anabaptist denomination’s national campus youth ministry. Before she joined MEDA’s Ethiopia staff, Gelagle worked at MCC’s United Nations office in New York City. Her education includes international relations, accounting and information systems. This summer she will complete a master’s degree in development at Addis Ababa University. At MEDA she works in monitoring and evaluation with E-FACE (Ethiopians Fighting Against Child Exploitation), where she relates to small businesses and farmers who employ young family members, often in poor conditions. Working through local partners, E-FACE offers a hazard awareness program called Keep Safe, and a referral system to get children into safer work or back in school. In some cases loan incentives are offered to improve workplace conditions and upgrade antiquated equipment. Now a little more than 18 months old, the program deals with 7,000 households — 1,000 weavers, 2,250 farmers, 3,000 financial services clients and 750 business owners. Altogether E-FACE works with 20,000 children (most under the age of 14; 3,250 in the 14-17 category). What attracted Gelagle to MEDA was its efforts to bring about business solutions to poverty using godly principles. “This is important to me,” she says. “The vision, the mission, is really good. And I’m learning a lot from using the value chain approach.” The Marketplace July August 2013
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Tim Stafford, author of many books and senior writer for Christianity Today, devotes a recent blog to a “remarkably successful” summer lecture series he has helped lead for many years at his church in Santa Rosa, Calif. Called EnlightenUp, it meets Sunday evenings with local people from various backgrounds talking about their work and/or passion. One Sunday they had a cellist from the San Francisco symphony. Then there was an engineer who spoke on the interaction of faith and innovation. A woman who sells real estate talked about how her work intersects with faith. “Once you start looking,” says Stafford, “you find all kinds of interesting people with interesting work.” People love the series because nowhere else are they ever asked to talk about what their work means to them, he says. While EnlightenUp doesn’t directly teach theology or the Bible, it celebrates the wide diversity of gifts and callings in the church. As the congregation’s bulletin noted, “God’s splendor is displayed as people talk about their work in music, medicine, sports, astronomy, science, business.” Says Stafford, “So much of church life is devoted to church life. But God’s interests are much wider! And so should ours be.”
Silicon’s humanizing underground What do you build if the gospel has shaped your dreams, wonders Andy Crouch in Chris‑ tianity Today. He recently toured California’s Silicon Valley to chat with tech-savvy Christians who are creating technology to “make you more human.” Three startups had one common denominator: “They are all trying to solve problems that technology has helped create — our sedentary lifestyles, our isolation from one another — with more technology.” Sonny Vu’s Misfit Wearables produces “wearable technology” such as a wristband with a thin aluminum disk about the size of a quarter. It’s an “activity tracker,” a pedometer on steroids, which helps people stay healthy by recording how far they walk, bike or swim. A company called Fig makes apps for smartphone users to pursue wholeness of soul, spirit and body. “Fig helps its users set clear goals for physical and spiritual growth and follow through with the help of friends,” writes Crouch (“crowdsourcing the tasks of staying fit and pursuing personal and spiritual disciplines”). Kevin Adler’s inthis.co features an online potluck app which promotes potluck dinners to break down urban anonymity. “The average number of friends that a user has on Facebook has gone from about 150 to 300 in only two years,” he says. “We’re losing all sense of what a friendship actually means.” To remedy this he is devising technology to “reconnect people to actual communities of shared experience.” “Is there a creational redemptive view of business?” Vu asks rhetorically. “How about if we make the purpose of business to make communities flourish, and to create opportunities for people to Overheard: express their Godgiven capacities in meaningful ways?” 5
Want to move up? You gotta believe New research on how to get ahead in a competitive workplace shows it’s not who you know, but what you believe in. A Brigham Young University study finds that employees with strong belief in a brand’s mission or cause become more influential in important company circles, while those who simply punch the clock become more peripheral — regardless of formal position or performance. Researchers surveyed employees at “mission-based” companies such as a prominent outdoor footwear manufacturer committed to environmental sustainability. The “true believers in their company’s cause” were seen as idea leaders and influenced how other employees viewed their work, says BYU professor John Bingham. Past research on status in a company focused on personal traits — height, gender, race — and structural factors such as formal positions. While those factors remain strongly influential, especially in organizations without well-defined missions, Bingham believes more and more people entering the workforce are passionate about causes and are looking for employers that both “do good and do well.” Being mission-based provides great potential to recruit and retain talent, Bingham says. “But it has to be legitimate. If top management doesn’t believe it or is simply using it as a ploy, it doesn’t work.” The study appears online in management journal Organization Science.
“My calling is to serve, minister to, and love the entrepreneurs who will build the technology that will change the world.” — Silicon Valley venture capitalist in Christianity Today The Marketplace July August 2013
iStockphoto
Work that kills Overwork and stress can make a job dangerous ... and unproductive Warning: Work can be hazardous to your health.
(But then, so is the alternative — just ask anyone who is unemployed.) Work is supposed to be good for us. It prevents hunger and poverty. It’s an important way to make our contribution to the world. It bolsters emotional health by providing “self-actualization” so we can reach our potential. But when it comes to our health, work can be dangerous, according to David Posen in his new book, Is Work Killing You? A Doctor’s Prescription for Treating Work‑ place Stress. “Today’s workplace — the pace, the pressure, the long hours — is unpleasant, unhealthy, and unsustainable,” he says. “The irony is that it’s also less productive!”
care doctors are stress-related in one way or another.” More and more stress has become company-driven and organizations aren’t doing enough to own up to the damage they cause as a result. “Companies need to stop causing so much stress in the workplace,” he writes, adding that good management can help. “One thing I know for sure is that there’s a lot less stress in organizations that are run by good leaders.” A certain amount of stress is “a fact of life” and
A 2012 Canadian study on work-life balance found that 57 percent of employees reported high levels of stress, leading Posen to conclude that “the biggest threats to societal health today are the environment, the economy, and the workplace.” “One thing I know A different study found that 22 percent for sure is that there’s of Canadian workers think their job is a source a lot less stress in of depression but are reluctant to talk to their organizations that are superiors or colleagues for fear of stigma or discrimination. An estimated run by good leaders.” 500,000 Canadians miss work each day because of mental health issues, and the cost of treatment and lost productivity amounts to $51 billion a year. In the U.S., the business cost of employee burnout is estimated at $300 billion a year. Stress is inefficient and decreases performance, says Posen. People may run and work harder, but produce diminishing returns. As a physician, he finds that “70-90 percent of the problems for which people see primaryThe Marketplace July August 2013
Check it at the door?
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rontier lawman Wyatt Earp was known for making cowboys check their six-shooters at the door when they entered a saloon in his town. Some companies use a similar ploy to reduce cellphone interruptions during meetings or at work, writes David Posen. They have a “BlackBerry Basket” where people deposit cellphones and smartphones when they walk in the door and retrieve them as they leave. Posen suggests a way to hold people accountable for their devices during restaurant meals. “Whoever at the table checks their phone first (texts, tweets, emails, phone messages) pays the bill.” ◆
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“necessary for top per“Research shows that formance,” just as taut violin strings are needed the work-life balance to produce good sound, says Posen. “But when it’s of any worker is most excessive, it becomes a problem, and many cominfluenced by his or panies crossed that line a long time ago.” Making things worse, her immediate boss.” in some cases, is employees who either don’t get, or don’t take vacation time. In the U.S., nearly one in four employees (23 percent) has no paid vacation days, according to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. Even pleasurable work is inherently stressful, says Joshua Coleman, a California psychologist. “There are psychological demands of interacting with other people, meeting deadlines and performing,” he says. “We need breaks ... to recover, reboot.”
writes Posen, who pegs the optimal work week at 40-50 hours and recommends employers institute “recovery rituals and routines” such as timeouts. Managers play a role by what they do and what they don’t do. “The research clearly shows that the work-life balance of any worker is most influenced by his or her immediate boss,” says Posen. “That’s the person who can either facilitate or obstruct people’s attempts to have better balance in their lives and to reach their full potential.” One culprit is overwork, sometimes seen as a plus. After all, who wouldn’t want to be known for a sturdy work ethic. But, says Posen, anyone who consistently works long hours is either trying to do too much, has been given too much to do, or is working inefficiently. Studies have shown that overwork and stress can lead to sleep deprivation, which has the effect of lowering IQ. “CEOs take note: contributing to sleep deprivation is a great way to dumb down your workforce,” says Posen. He also cites a University of Florida study which found that employees with abusive bosses were more likely to slow down or make deliberate errors, hide from their bosses and take sick time when they weren’t sick. ◆
Juggling tennis balls
Tellingly, the longest
chapter of Posen’s book is on technology use. No wonder. He quotes a Newsweek report claiming that the average person sends/receives 400 texts a month; the average teen, 3,700. While technology, whether e-mails or phone or text devices, has been a great boon, it also has a dark side when it comes to stress. There is no shortage of research suggesting that today’s tech-savvy youth have shorter attention spans and are more easily distracted. E-mail itself can be stressful. A British study found that 83 percent of employees became more stressed while using e-mail, especially if the messages were irrelevant or demanded an immediate reply. (Those that came in response to completed work had a calming effect.) “For some employees, just getting through their inbox has become their main focus and daily mission in life,” Posen writes. Moreover, technology has made it possible for people to work anywhere and everywhere, thus “our jobs have become open-ended.”
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eople joke about multi-tasking. Some claim it as a badge of honor. Is it all it’s cracked up to be? Not according to David Posen. “We are built to focus, not to split-screen,” he writes, likening multi-tasking to playing tennis with two balls. You can give only “continuous partial attention” to each. Moreover, he says it takes an average of 15 minutes to return to the previous activity when you switch tasks. Worse, it can cause brain damage because it goes contrary to how the brain was created to function and thus causes stress. Recent California studies contend that material learned while multi-tasking is shallower and spottier. Students remember less and have trouble applying their learning to new contexts. Posen says multi-tasking is inefficient and leads to mistakes and accidents. “If you think it’s a good way to get more things done, the research — and my own experience — shows just the opposite.” He urges bosses not to expect or encourage multitasking. “You’ll save your workers a lot of wasted time and you’ll increase productivity, both of which will enhance your bottom line.” ◆
This all looms as an important management issue, as stress lowers output and productivity, increases absenteeism, and affects health and safety. Not only that, it tends to rub off on others. “Long hours and high stress are a formula for inefficiency, reduced performance, and lower productivity,”
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The Marketplace July August 2013
A vision for video From Augustine to adoption, he provides resources to build faith
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magine being in a business where products like yours are available elsewhere — for free. That’s the dilemma Bill Curtis faces with Vision Video. For 30 years his company has been one of North America’s leading providers of Christian videos. He wonders how long he can keep it up amid the onslaught of free downloads. It’s hard to imagine a Christian video that Curtis doesn’t stock. Want to know more about church history? Check out John Hus or Martin Luther. How about contemporary issues for Christians? Get a copy of Chal‑ lenge of Islam or Abuse in the Church. There’s even some Anabaptist fare, like The Radicals, or The Amish: A People of Preservation. Curtis is a man on a mission. He wants to give Christians access to all the video resources they need to better understand their faith and to live it out meaningfully. But in today’s chaotic video industry, that’s easier said than done.
gram most said would be of little interest — a church history feature on John Hus, an early church reformer who predated Martin Luther, John Calvin and the Anabaptists. “People thought we were crazy, but it had a great response, and that sparked Dad’s interest in church history,” recalls Bill Curtis, who is now managing director of Vision Video. Numerous other videos followed, dealing with the early church, the Reformation, missions and biblical themes. In 1986 Vision Video and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) co-produced the television drama Shadowlands, the story of famed Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. This award-winning production was followed by a stage adaptation and a 1993 movie version starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, both of whom received Academy Award nominations for their roles. One might have expected the cinema version to suppress sales of the original production but in fact the opposite occurred. “For us it worked great,” says Curtis. “When they came out with the theatrical movie seven years after we came out with the DVD, it opened the floodgates. Our sales boomed. In fact, our sales that year were as high as the previous seven years combined.”
Curtis — an eager, fortyish man
with a mop of curly hair — gestures to the shelves of scholarly books lining his office in a barn-red outbuilding in rural Worcester, Pa. “Most of these were Dad’s,” he says. His late father, Dr. Ken Curtis, founded what is now Vision Video. As an American Baptist staff member in the early 1970s, the elder Curtis got involved with making The Cross & the Switchblade, which features David Wilkerson’s outreach to New York City gangs and the dramatic conversion of notorious street fighter Nicky Cruz. The 1972 movie caught on not only Vision Video’s Bill Curtis: “It’s hard to Today Vision Video for its compelling content but also for profesis the go-to source for compete with free.” sional production qualities that were new to Christian videos, with a list Christian films at the time. It became wildly popular, and of more than 2,000 titles. Eighteen employees look after today is available in 30 languages. sales, administration, customer service, creative work, After some financial glitches with the initial producer, development, preparing DVD wraps and catalogs. LargeCurtis established Gateway Films to distribute the movie run DVDs are pressed elsewhere; smaller runs are burned and other films. This grew into Vision Video in 1981. VHS on-site. cassettes were taking off and a new market emerged for Programs come from three main sources. Some are videos that had been on 16mm film. in-house ventures which they produce entirely themselves. The elder Curtis was willing to take a risk on a proOthers are co-productions with networks like BBC or or-
The Marketplace July August 2013
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ganizations like Wycliffe Bible Translators. Then there are existing titles which they sub-license from major networks or independent producers and continue to distribute long after their normal “life” has expired. Vision also offers DVDs from other producers on its website and in its catalog. Some of these are overtly religious, like Fireproof, while others are non-religious videos with wholesome values suitable for a Christian market, such as Anne of Green Gables.
gram in 2009 and morphed into a journey of monumental paperwork, blood tests, background checks and six long trips to Ukraine. “God made it very clear that we were called to adopt,” says Curtis. With that conviction, it’s no accident that two new releases feature adoption. Bringing Home Joshua tells the story of a young boy being adopted from Russia. Faultless looks at orphans and foster care.
A visit to the latest catalog shows a wide topical and demographic swath, from biographies to sports to family dramas. Vision Video’s Torchlighters series offers 30-minute animations for kids eight to 12. Subject matter ranges from reformer William Tyndale to Olympic runner-turnedmissionary Eric Liddell. Curtis is not sure they’ll ever be a financial success, but they seem to meet a High on his to-do need by the metric personal inspiralist: reaching young of tion and have been translated into more people who like than a dozen foreign languages. “clippetts” on their While fiscal sustainability is important screening devices to Curtis, he learned from his father not to be driven only by the financial bottom line. “We’re here to serve God and to build the kingdom as he would show us,” he says. “We want to build the body of Christ by serving a wide diversity of believers.” That has led to some profit-limiting decisions, such as walking away from lucrative apocalyptic videos. “That wasn’t how my dad wanted to present the gospel,” says Curtis. “He’d rather love people down the aisle than scare them down the aisle.” Current new productions follow the themes of history and faith issues. These include documentaries on St. Augustine and John Wesley, and one titled Thank God for Football, which traces the religious origin of many teams in the English Premier Soccer League. Filming is currently underway in Nova Scotia on a docu-drama Vision is co-producing about converted slave trader John Newton.
Keeping pace with breathtaking media
change is high on Curtis’s to-do list. “The shifts have been huge,” he says. “In cable alone, we went from six or seven cable companies to hundreds. With YouTube, the media is just everywhere. “It’s very concerning. We handled the shift from 16mm to VHS, and we did okay with the transition from VHS to DVD. But DVD to digital is kind of scary. We have programs on iTunes, YouTube and Amazon, but sales aren’t what they used to be.” Part of his market is congregations (Curtis estimates up to 40,000 churches in the U.S. have video capacity). Another segment is home use, which is shifting. Many people may still enjoy their video fare sitting on a couch in front of the TV. But young people want to watch YouTube or Vimeo on their screening devices. Plus, attention spans are shorter. “Young people tend to watch clippets,” and in his business that can be frightening. “YouTube was a game changer with its mentality of ‘Why should I pay for this, I can get it free.’ A lot of our customers are older, which is good for the moment, but trying to reach the younger set is really difficult.” He perceives dwindling interest in Christian media, even among committed church-goers. When he sneaks a peek at the shelves of Christian friends he sees few Christian DVDs. And many favorite inspirational stories don’t arouse as much market passion as they used to. Then there’s piracy. Only a few years ago a third of Vision’s sales were to the Spanish-speaking market. “Then the pirates jumped on board during the recession in 2008 and now our Spanish sales are off 90 percent.” He sells very little to South Korea, despite its huge Christian population. Piracy is thought to be a primary reason there, too. Solid overseas markets remain, however, in Britain, Brazil, Australia and South Africa. Curtis remains firmly convinced that his product is vital to helping Christians nurture and apply their faith. But keeping up requires ongoing agility. To that end, the company’s website (www.visionvideo.com) now lists many titles available by Video on Demand, allowing viewers to download programs directly to their computers and portable electronic devices. It’s hard to compete with free, but Curtis has found a niche and is working hard to maintain it, despite the market’s shifting sands. ◆
A Baptist by background, Curtis encountered Mennonites when he attended Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in his youth. He has been in the Mennonite community ever since, and attends Souderton Mennonite Church. He and his wife, Linda, have two daughters (Michelle, 20, and Sharon, 15) and two sons they adopted from Ukraine, Sergey, 16, and Joshua, 14. The adoptions began with a one-month hosting pro9
The Marketplace July August 2013
A couple of hats On Sunday he’s a pastor; on Monday, a CEO by Jim Miller
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ast week, my work schedule was and conscientious person and fairly typical. On Sunday morning working for peace and justice in I delivered a sermon, served comour world. munion and, after church, led a These ideals often compete home dedication for a young couple in for space in my mental frameour congregation. On Monday, I went to work, producing a tension that my office and reviewed my priorities for can be distressing but strangely the week, dug into website analytics, helpful. Many of us likely feel and called my business partner to dissimilar tensions as we seek to cuss critical issues facing our company. reconcile our call to follow Jesus Afterwards, I had coffee with a local with our desire for success, or reporter who interviewed me about at least survival, in the marketan Anabaptist perspective of the Lord’s place. Supper; then it was back to the office So I studied both business to hire a new employee and direct the and Bible and religion in colreorganization of our warehouse. After lege, and got about halfway catching up on e-mails and looking over through seminary before I our financial reports, I left the office and changed course and picked up on the drive home phoned a congregant a graduate degree in organizawhose mother had recently died. tional management. I worked Thus began my week as a bi‑vocaas an associate pastor in a large Jim Miller preaching during Lent: “We fotional pastor — or perhaps a distracted congregation and simultanecused on a Lenten theme of sustainability, CEO. ously owned and managed connecting our spiritual wilderness to the My wife worries about my heavy rental properties with my father suffering of the earth.” schedule. My peace and justice congreand brother. gation may think I’m corrupted by the dirty profits of the But my dream for many years was to launch my own marketplace. My business associates wonder if I’m foventure, which I did in 2003 with a partner from graducused enough. They’re all probably on to something. Am I ate school. Our business, JMX, is an ecommerce company confused about my calling? that retails about 15,000 products on four websites. Our flagship brand is DutchCrafters, the leading Internet How did I get here? retailer of Amish furniture. Business has been good for us. We were able to grow Since my youth I’ve been inspired to lead and have felt a throughout the Great Recession, earning a spot on the Inc fierce drive to achieve and compete. As un-Mennonite as 5000 and Internet Retailer Magazine’s top 1000. We’re that may sound, saying it helps me own up to my deprofitable and bullish on our growth potential. After a desires to succeed, to win, to function within our capitalist cade in business, we have a solid team of 17 employees. society. It seemed I had finally found my At the same time, I’ve always taken “As a pastor, I’ve learned groove. my faith seriously. I find deep meaning Then things got complicatin my faith heritage, my spiritual joured. I was faced with an opporimportant congregational tunity to lead our small conney, and the opportunity to participate in a community that offers significance gregation in 2011. Covenant lessons from the CEO beyond the “rat race.” For me, followMennonite Fellowship (CMF) ing in the way of Jesus has meant bewas experiencing some difficult within me” coming a more compassionate, aware, times. Our beloved pastor of a The Marketplace July August 2013
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At CMF, we see ourselves as progressive. We’re sometimes a little skeptical about the jungle of the marketplace. We’re not big on organizational charts or committees. We raise a lot of questions and are more comfortable with art than data. And yet, every organization must grapple with common questions. What is our mission? What values shape our identity? How do we lead, and how do we empower people to follow? Where do we meet and how do we pay the bills? At CMF, I’ve led us to ask some of these critical questions, and it has CEO Jim Miller with Valerie Roberts (center) and Alicia Ochoa, JMX’s leading sales associhelped us to better engage ates (furniture specialists, to customers). “We maintain a library of thousands of finish our vision. In fact, my most samples that we mail to customers to make sure the finish is exactly what they had in mind,” says Miller. “Valerie and Alicia are educating me on the collection.” valuable gifts to CMF have been in organizational decade had left. A couple of months later, we split with leadership, and I’m grateful our congregation sees this as our conference over differing views on homosexuality. Our important to pastoral leadership. attendance and financial giving dropped by a third, our 2. Healthy congregations have healthy bottom lines leadership team felt discouraged, and our brand was seIn the fall of 2011 CMF’s finances were a mess. Being verely damaged. Aware of our fragility, I became pastor to in the red had become a way of life. The treasurer roufocus on what I might call an organizational turnaround. tinely waited to write checks until he could deposit the Working in both realms has brought me to the interSunday offering. Our bank account dipped into three or section of faith and work in a very real way. Odd as it may even two digits, and yet we continued the same patterns seem, my work as pastor has given me new insights in and borrowed money to make up the difference. That fall my role as CEO. And the organizational competencies I’ve we had no cash and a debt equal to 65% of our annual honed at JMX are useful in leading our congregagiving, which had fallen by tion. about 30% from its high. In both church and I started by focusing on CEO at CMF the financials, perhaps not business, being true to a very pastoral approach. As a pastor, I’ve learned important congregationOur leadership team was core values is a great al lessons from the CEO within me. eager for the change. 1. Organizations can benefit from organiza‑ We slashed expenses and tional competencies forced a financially sustainway to build a brand 11
The Marketplace July August 2013
able model — something I learned from my early business days. We invited renewed ownership, shared the financial situation often and talked about financial pledges as an expression of stewardship and membership. We began a disciplined effort to put money in the bank and pay off our debts. Today, we are still fragile but way ahead of where we were. Of the last 18 months, only one has been in the red. Our debt is down by more than half and our bank balance is not two digits, not three digits, but five digits. Even more important than the money is the change in attitudes and perceptions about what is going on. The financials describe that reality and in some ways reinforce it, but they didn’t create it. By rolling up our sleeves and tackling the problem Having a pastor head‑on, we’ve been able to regain our momenat the company tum. I expect we will be debt‑free within a year. 3. Being true to core helm has helped values is the best way to boost morale and build a brand Stepping in to lead this congregation was productivity probably not my best career move. A lot of folks in our community saw us in a very negative light. (We were the “gay church.”) Attendance was abysmally low and our leadership team was disheartened. Our brand was damaged. The way forward began with a look back. My wife Linse and I began by listening, which is what we do at JMX with our customers, employees and vendors. We met for meals in small groups with all of our congregants, took our leadership team out to dinner, and even extended an olive branch to other Mennonites in our community. We got people to talk about what they loved about CMF and what inspired them to be a part of it. From there, we focused on core strengths and found new ways to tell our story and celebrate what makes us special. We employed activities and themes that reinforced our core values. We used social media and fine‑tuned our Internet presence. We built bridges with those in the community who distrusted us. In short, we used our story and core values as a differentiator in our marketplace. We didn’t focus on our crisis, The Marketplace July August 2013
A DutchCrafters marketplace differentiator is the appeal to American-made craftsmanship, in which an Amish furniture maker passes along a time-honored tradition of excellence to his sons.
nor apologize for our values, nor waste energy arguing with others. Rather, we built upon our strengths. This has both galvanized our congregational identity and helped as we’ve invited others to join us. We still have a long way to go, but there is renewed enthusiasm for our vision. Attendance is rising. Relationships in our community are much improved and we are in the process of joining another conference.
Pastor at JMX Just as the pastor within me has learned from the CEO, so has JMX grown from having a pastor at the helm. 1. Corporations have spirits too (sort of) Mitt Romney got an earful in the last US presidential election when he suggested that “corporations are people too.” I’m not going to evaluate his position, but I think it raises some interesting questions. Organizations are not the sum of their data, systems and processes. They are, in fact, made of people. I was struck recently by the language another CEO used to describe his employees. He called them “assets.” Really? Is this where we’re going? As a pastor I’ve seen that private struggles often exist 12
beneath the surface, and I’m compelled to care more deeply about people. There is a spiritual dimension to organizations and a spiritual quality in the work we do. I’ve been asking recently, where is love within our company? It is not just a feel‑good question, but a prompt toward how we value one another. I’ve become a better listener, more compassionate and more giving, in the last 18 months. This is most evident in my relationships with employees. Being more attentive to their humanity has led to high morale, very low turnover, and high productivity. When we truly see people as people, our companies will be more than machines that make profit. If there is to be integrity in the movement from Sunday morning to Monday At church we morning, we must see our work within the context pass the peace of a community of faith — a prophetic community. This raises big questions: and sing our Why am I doing this? songs. Businesses How can my business help others? Are the profits Living in this tension also have rituals just? — between prophets and profits — can be difficult and stories that at times, but it helps keep me grounded and spirituimpart a sense of ally aware. 2. Motivate as if ev‑ shared meaning eryone was a volunteer At CMF I work primarily with volunteers, which to customers and reminds me that real leadership does not depend vendors on paychecks to motivate and inspire people. If you are a CEO, imagine trying to get your team to perform at high levels, show up faithfully, and do what you ask them to do — all without paying them. That is what it is like to lead in a congregation, and that is how you should aspire to lead in your organization. Compensation is generally a satisfier, not a motivator. To really inspire, I need to go to the next level. This includes learning to say “please” and “thank you” and “you really did a great job with this project and made a big differ-
ence for our customers.” It also involves thinking carefully about non‑monetary incentives, meaningful work, and communicating mission. 3. There is tremendous meaning in the organizational culture As pastor, I lead our congregation in various rituals every week. We pass the peace, receive the bread and wine, sing our songs, light our community candle. Businesses have rituals too, but we don’t often think about their importance as cultural artifacts that carry meaning and value to our organizations. As pastor of our company, I need to take these seriously. That doesn’t mean they are serious occasions — one of ours is going to dinner every time we hit a record month — but they are important reminders of who we are and what we’re about. Every organization has stories that help us remember our values, which are often passed along from previous years or generations. These stories can impart a sense of shared meaning to customers, employees and vendors. As pastor, I often tell biblical stories or stories about our congregation that help to bring out CMF’s values of peacemaking and justice. These stories serve as differentiators in the marketplace. Our companies have stories, too. One that’s been important for DutchCrafters is the appeal to American-made craftsmanship, in which an Amish man passes along a time‑honored tradition of excellence to his sons. The story includes my own Anabaptist heritage and conveys certain values in Amish furniture and integrity in our customer service, a unique differentiator in our market. Paying attention to these cultural dimensions has helped make our company a better one that stands in contrast to our competitors. Our customer reviews are high, our employee morale is strong, and our revenues are up 103% over last year. I think the wider church could benefit from having the kinds of conversations I often have with myself — the dialogue between pastor and CEO, between church and business. Congregations could do a better job of tapping into the gifts of business leaders — and not only when it’s time for another fundraiser. Business leaders, meanwhile, could be more open to receive the gifts of pastors, learn from the leadership challenges they face, and think about the spiritual dimension of the organizations they lead. ◆ 13
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Soybean loop comes full circle Began at 1979 “courtship” convention
F
or many a spring, Willard and Elsie Penner planted soybeans in the Nebraska soil and looked forward to a good crop. Today their diligent toil is reaping another kind of bounty — in the lives of struggling soybean growers in Africa. The Penners, who spent their life raising soybeans, corn, grain, and some dairy in the Beatrice, NE, area, left a million-dollar bequest to MEDA in their estate (he died in 2009, she in 2011). Their gift points to a loop of engagement that covers three generations. The couple began their MEDA involvement in 1979 when they attended a historic convention in nearby Lincoln. At that time, MEDA was an economic development organization with 330 members. It had begun holding joint conventions with Mennonite Industry and Business Associates (MIBA), which had 840 members and focused on bringing a spiritual focus to business. Despite their sep-
Historical flashback
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were needed by local congregations and in the church’s wider institutional work. Moreover, Christian businesspeople could be trendsetters by hiring minorities, the disadvantaged, the handicapped and the ex-prisoner. “By this we can show we operate by a different set of principles,” Kreider said. MEDA’s overseas emphasis was encouraged by the late Fremont Regier, a development specialist at Bethel College in Kansas. He said many oppressed people in Low Income Countries saw only two options — maintaining the status quo or armed revolt. A third option was for MEDA’s programs to help “little people” become productive farmers and businesspeople. Media coverage said the speeches “fortified the widespread MIBA/MEDA recognition that Mennonite entrepreneurs have a powerful role to play in making the good news reality in the corporate marketplace.” The outcome of the convention was a “joint relationship committee” to further study ways to work together. The actual merger took place two years later in Lancaster, PA. ◆
he idea of merger was high on the agenda when members of MEDA and MIBA gathered for a joint convention Oct. 18-21,1979 in Lincoln. MEDA, then 26 years old, was well-known for investing money with overseas entrepreneurs who had difficulty obtaining regular loans. The much-younger MIBA had been formed to bring a Christian perspective to business. The two had courted for several years, holding joint conventions and collaborating on the MIBA-MEDA Newsletter (which became The Marketplace). Financial details of the proposed merger still needed some work. MEDA’s overseas projects required dues of $600 per year; MIBA asked for only $25. Another concern was whether both organizations’ purposes could be covered by one umbrella. The 286 attendees joined vocational interest groups, took bus tours to local industries, and heard speeches on the convention theme of “The Christian entrepreneur in the marketplace.” The late Carl Kreider, economics professor at Goshen College, told businesspeople their management skills
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Large gift will support soy production and family nutrition in Ghana, plus internship programs for young people
my grandparents have been members and supporters of MEDA,” she wrote in a letter that accompanied her check. “They believe in its mission of helping people to support themselves rather than giving free donations. I have recently graduated from high school, and I feel that I have been very fortunate. Knowing what I do about MEDA, I felt it was a very admirable organization with a great cause.” Elizabeth continued her studies and is completing an MD/MPH degree at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine/Harvard School of Public Health. Her grandparents’ gift to MEDA will support a new women’s soy production and family nutrition project in Ghana, as well as several years of internship programs for young people to get involved with MEDA’s work. Elizabeth noted that the way the gift is being used “fits our family’s interests and values.... MEDA’s values and objectives are very much in line with the global work I aspire to do in healthcare; healthcare and economics of a nation (and an individual) go hand‑in‑hand, and make such an impact on one’s livelihood and quality of life.”◆
arate purposes, the organizations drew from the same membership pool and had some thematic overlap. The Lincoln convention became pivotal as the place where “courtship” was discussed in preparation for an actual “marriage” two years later (see sidebar). The Penners evidently liked what they saw and
became members. “That’s where it started,” says son Roland, who is in agricultural land sales and management in Omaha. Many years later, in 2004, the zeal for helping the needy was passed on to Willard and Elsie’s granddaughter, Elizabeth. As she completed high school in Beatrice, Elizabeth decided to donate some of her graduation money to MEDA. “Both my parents (Roland and Duveen Penner) and
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The Marketplace July August 2013
Breaking the “grass ceiling” They expected her to sell the hog farm when her husband died. She turned to “work therapy” instead. by Bill Redekop
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It’s not just single women who are farmers. People overlook the fact many women, if not most, are full partners on today’s farm. “There are lots of husband-and-wife
The Marketplace July August 2013
Photo by Boris Minkevich/Winnipeg Free Press
veryone grieves differently, and Margaret Rempel’s way, after her husband, Ron, died of a brain hemorrhage 10 years ago, was to ramp up her workload. She would work late into the night on the hog farm near Landmark, Man., 25 miles southeast of Winnipeg. “The barn was spotless,” said Rempel. “I have been accused of being a workaholic. I call it work therapy,” she said. Single, white, female, hog farmer — to riff on a movie title from years ago. “Lots of people assumed I would sell the farm (after Ron died) and do some other thing. But I enjoy farming or I wouldn’t be doing it,” she said. “I’d always fed the sows, tilled the fields, hauled finished pig....” Selling the farm “wasn’t the right psychological option,” she said. Others thought she would at least take a leave away from the farm. “When you’re self-employed, you don’t get to take a leave of absence,” she said. Today, Rempel runs Rempelco Acres, a 500-sow farrow-to-finish operation, and 1,600 acres of cropland. She is part of a small but growing number of women running farms on their own in Manitoba. Farming is changing with society where more women are breaking the “grass ceiling.” Andrew Dickson, Manitoba Pork Council general manager, knows of one or two other single-female hog producers in the province who took over after their husbands died. More women tend to run cattle or horse ranches. One reason more women are farming is there isn’t as much “brawn” required as 50 years ago, thanks to modern technology, said Rempel. “We’re not feeding animals by hauling pails around. It’s automated,” she said. Her oldest son, Jason, is now coming back to the farm, too. Her situation was also different because farm wives are usually older when they become widowed, so it makes more sense to sell the farm and retire. But Rempel was just 50.
It’s not for 9-to-5 folk, says Margaret Rempel, who often puts in 14-16 hours a day. 16
People overlook that many women, if not
teams. If one doesn’t have off-farm work, they automost, are full matically divide up the farm work,” she said. Women in farming can partners on get interesting reactions. “The thing that happens so today’s farm. much when you’re part of a farming couple is people assume it’s still the man who’s responsible for making decisions. When Ron and I were farming together, salesmen would say, ‘Can I speak to the boss?’ I’d say, ‘Go ahead, you’re speaking to her.’” Running a mixed farm (crop and livestock) is intensive. Rempel’s morning, before the 9:30 a.m. newspaper interview, included bottle-feeding a baby goat rejected by its mother, feeding the chickens, putting the goats out to pasture, hauling culled sows into a stock trailer and relocating them to a collection pen, and 45 minutes doing email — and not to chit-chat. Her email includes placing a premix feed order, checking grain prices and clearing up business with Canadian Agrifood Policy Institute board members, of which she is one. “Farming allows such a large spectrum of job descriptions,” she says. It’s not a nine-to-five job, either.
“In winter, I try to keep it to12-hour days. The rest of the time, it’s 14 to 16-hour days. Lots of mixed farmers work those hours.” There are always internal deadlines to meet, such as regular feeding of animals and shipping to market. Mondays are shipping days, when finished hogs are transported for processing. Rempel, who grew up on a dairy farm near Brandon and is a few credits short of a bachelor of arts degree in English and history, has distinguished herself among her peers. She has been a Keystone Agricultural Producers director, a founding board member of the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council, an international trade advisor and served on the Canadian Foodgrains Bank board. Hog farming has had enormous struggles the past five years due to country-of-origin labelling (COOL) in the U.S., which has slashed Manitoba exports to that market from nearly five million weanlings per year to just one million. High feed prices, and the province’s moratorium on hog expansion, which Rempel believes is a government response to urban misconceptions of the tightly regulated hog sector, have also set back producers. ◆ Republished with permission from the May 9, 2013, edition of the Win‑ nipeg Free Press.
Comments? 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
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A first-century “lens” for modern managers A lot happens when we understand Luke’s “oikos” not as a household, but as a kind of company by Elden Wiebe Management and the Gospel: Luke’s Radical Message for the First and Twenty‑First Centuries. By Bruno Dyck (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 302 pp.)
by anecdotes. This book is meaty, well‑researched and deeply thoughtful. But don’t let that scare you off — it is still very accessible. The author has crafted the book in digestible chunks with frequent brief summaries that will help readers move through and connect the ideas.
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his is a profound book. It will engage you, enlighten you, challenge you, confront you, maybe even anger you, but ultimately, whether you agree with its conclusions or not, it will equip you to better exercise your faith as you daily make governance and policy decisions, manage and operate your business, or simply go to work and do your job. Management and the Gospel provides solid ground on which to stand as you put your faith into practice in the marketplace. It is not a quick‑read “airport book” that will be done by the end of your three-hour flight. It will not give you a “top 10” list of key engaging‑your‑faith‑in‑the‑workplace success factors supported
At its heart, Management and the Gospel is counter‑cultural. Management scholar Bruno Dyck seeks to transform current business practices by drawing on the wisdom of “a new prophet” (to use the phrase of Max Weber, one of the most influential management thinkers). This “new prophet” is Jesus, whose ideas and words have the power to reshape how we conceive the important tasks of managing and doing business. Dyck does so by striving to understand the biblical text, in particular the Gospel of Luke, in a holistic manner — that is, in its literary and historical context. This approach leads Dyck to some startling conclusions. For example, a favorite parable for Christian business people is the Parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11‑27). The meaning of this “Unfortunately, the word oikos is usually translated as ‘house’ or ‘houseparable is very clear from a 21st century hold’ in contemporary translations, and thus oikonomia becomes ‘houseperspective. Managers who use money hold management.’ This misleading translation of oikos may be the to make more money are examples of single most important reason why modern interpreters of biblical writings faithful servants who will be rewarded generally overlook their implications for management. Understandably, by the Lord. The one who doesn’t put twenty-first-century readers think of ‘house’ in terms of their own biohis money to work to earn more (the logical families and homes. Unlike the first century, the modern idea of a third manager in the parable) is un‘house’ would seldom include a multinational organization that maximizes faithful and will be punished. This fits its profits with dealings in distant markets. Nor does the modern idea of a our society’s current capitalist orienta‘house’ include a business organization that produces goods and services, tion quite happily, and we assume that nor would it even include small-scale agricultural or fishing companies. we “get” the parable. In short, the word ‘house’ makes virtually invisible the goods and services But do we? When interpreting the producing function of the first-century oikos, and as a result modern readBible, it is very easy for us to utilize our ers become ‘blind’ to the organizations that produce goods and services current understandings as the basis of in biblical times. More to the point, it makes readers blind to the fact that interpretation; hence the assumed supthe Gospel of Luke says a lot about how to manage organizations producport of capitalism in the parable mening goods and services.” — Bruno Dyck in Management and the Gospel tioned above. While the case can be
Excerpt:
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made that capitalism arose out of Protestantism, it is also true that capitalism has long since shed its Christian roots and become secularized. To remedy these problems, Dyck focuses on the Gospel of Luke, which is the most relevant gospel for the issues of money and management. Not only does he dig deep into this gospel, but he digs deep into the historical milieu of the first century. Together, this provides a first-century “lens” by which to interpret and understand what Jesus communicates regarding money and management. Three concepts are particularly important. First, “oikos,” usually translated “house” or “household,” is better understood much broader as encompassing many people (not just a family) and being a unit that produces goods and services. Luke has much to say about how to manage an “oikos” — a goods/services producing organization. Second, “chrematistics” deals with finances/money. Using money to facilitate the trade of goods and services, referred to as “natural chrematistics” or “sustenance economics,” is contrasted with using money to We assume we make money, referred as “unnatural “get” the Parable of to chrematistics” or “acquisitive economthe Ten Minas, but ics.” It turns out that Luke also has a lot to do we really? say about money and how it is used. Third, patron‑client relationships dictated how management was in fact practiced. For the most part, through these relationships the patron gained control over the client and created greater wealth disparity between rich and poor. In contrast, another form of relationship — benefaction — was characterized by patrons helping others without demanding anything in return. Luke’s Gospel has
over 200 allusions to these two fundamental relationships between the “ “oikoi” of patrons and those of clients, and again a great deal to say about how to manage these relationships. Going back to the Parable of the Ten Minas, as Dyck places it within its first-century context, we now This book is not see that this parable seems to mean something anti-capitalist, quite different. It appears that but seeks to the third manager is actureform capitalism ally the faithful one since he through the challenges the exploitive nature of his master’s gospel message “oikos,” he does not use money to make more money (i.e. he challenges “acquisitive economics”), and he challenges the typical exploitive nature of patron-client relationships. In other words, this parable is actually counter-cultural, challenging exploitive behavior prevalent in the first century, and by extension the same exploitive behavior in our 21st century as well. Our society’s profit maximizing capitalist orientation is now perhaps not quite as happy!
At this point it is worth saying that Manage‑ ment and the Gospel is not an anti-capitalism diatribe, but rather seeks the re-formation of capitalism through the gospel message. This book is about putting faith to work, not only in terms of personal piety but also in addressing and changing systems and structures that lock us into the service of Money rather than God. In this way, the book is also surprisingly practical. Dyck shows how to apply a four-phase model of change which is derived from the “Journey Narrative” in Luke (Luke 9:51-19:40). He also illustrates how some business leaders have intuitively used this model to facilitate astonishing changes in their businesses. Finally, Dyck also links the conclusions of the study with current business practices and management scholarship. For example, he addresses (1) how to manage relationships within organizations (dealing with organizational structures, employee motivation and leadership), (2) how to manage money (dealing with economics, finance and accounting), and (3) how to manage relationships between organizations (dealing with marketing, supply chain management and strategy). All in all, you will have tools, and by faith the courage, to make a difference in your workplace, and even in our society. ◆ Elden Wiebe is associate professor of management, The King’s University College, Edmonton.
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Soundbites
Empowered and energized Simply giving employees a sense of agency — a feeling that they are in control, that they have genuine decisionmaking authority — can radically increase how much energy and focus they bring to their jobs. One 2010 study at a manufacturing plant in Ohio, for instance, scrutinized assembly-line workers who were empowered to make small decisions about their schedules and work environment. They designed their own uniforms and had authority over shifts. Nothing else changed. All the manufacturing processes and pay scales stayed the same. Within two months, productivity at the plant increased by 20 percent. Workers were taking shorter breaks. They were making fewer mistakes. Giving employees a sense of control improved how much self-discipline they brought to their jobs. — Charles Duhigg in
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
I think running a business well is an honorable thing to spend your time on. — Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden in an interview with Ethix, published by Seattle Pacific University
Flying with honor I love what we do. I think what Alaska [Airlines] does is important. We connect communities, we connect people. If you run a business, we help you by getting you to San Francisco for a meeting. If you have grandkids in Burbank, we help you get down there to see them. So what the company does fundamentally is important, and it’s important that we do it well. If we do it well, we can continue to have 25 million or 30 million people a year flying with us. And that provides 13,000 livelihoods for our employees as well. Investors can also get a good return. It’s a pretty cool system, this American free enterprise system. We play a role in it.
Change my what? Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. — Economist John Kenneth Galbraith
Indispensable me To practice Sabbath is a disciplined and faithful way to remember that you are not the one who keeps the world running, who provides for your family, not even the one who keeps your work projects moving forward. Entrepreneurs find it especially difficult to believe this. They have high levels
of competence and very few team members. If they don’t put in the hours, things don’t get done. How easy to fall prey to the temptation to believe that they alone are holding up their corner of creation! — Timothy Keller in Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work
Entrepreneur’s joy I feel so alive! I just love what I’m doing. Absolutely the best part is building a team. I’m proud of the fact that there are 36 people in the world whose livelihood depends on Prairie Girl Bakery. That’s an amazing feeling. — Prairie Girl Bakery founder Jean Blacklock enthus‑ ing about the joys of entre‑ preneurship in The Power of Why by CBC business journalist Amanda Lang
Investing with God An investor asks God how much he values a million dollars at. God replies, “A cent.” He then asks how long does he regard a millennium as being and God says, “A second.” The investor says, “Could I please have a cent?” God says, “Certainly — in a second.” — Colin Mayer in Firm Commitment: Why the corporation is failing us and how to restore trust in it
Saving labor? The amount of genuine leisure available in a society is generally in inverse proportion to the amount of labor-saving The Marketplace July August 2013
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machinery it employs. — German‑born economist E. F. Schumacher
Trolling for trouble I think anybody who’s checking email at bedtime is trolling for trouble. It’s like you’re getting tired and you start stretching and yawning and you say, “I think I’ll go to bed now.” And then suddenly you say, “I wonder if there’s anything to get upset about? I wonder if there’s anything to keep me up for another hour! I know. I’ll check my email!” Stop doing that. — David Posen in Is Work Killing You? A Doctor’s Prescription for Treating Workplace Stress
“Wow,” said God After each creative act God says, “It is good,” which is roughly equivalent to saying, “Beautiful! Wow!” There is a significant entrepreneurial dimension of God’s activity: envisioning, inventing and implementing. This activity is ongoing. Jesus, speaking centuries later, said, “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working” (Jn. 5:17). One of the most creative things God has made is a rough facsimile of himself — human beings! — Richard J. Goossen and R. Paul Stevens in Entrepreneurial Leadership: Finding Your Calling, Making a Difference
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News
Fundraising executive heads MEDA engagement staff David Warren has been appointed the new chief MEDA engagement officer (CMEO), overseeing the departments responsible for engaging supporters, securing private financial contributions, managing the organization’s brand, and expanding awareness of MEDA. “He brings a wealth of experience in fundraising, branding and marketing that will serve us well as we face the challenges of rapid growth in the coming years,” says MEDA president Allan Sauder. Warren succeeds Sid Burkey, who will rejoin MEDA’s board of directors to complete the term he interrupted to become the first CMEO two
fundraising and management, he most recently was VP of core markets and philanthropic planning at Everence Financial Advisors, where he was responsible for 110 financial planners, banking staff and other support staff across the U.S. Warren has also been an adjunct faculty member (teaching psychology and marketing) at Messiah College, Grantham, Pa. He is president of the Susquehanna Valley Planned David Warren
Survey shows preference for gradual retirement
years ago. Warren has a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s in clinical psychology. A certified fundraising executive with 15 years’ experience in
A Canadian survey shows three-quarters of workers plan to transition into retirement over time, rather than stopping work suddenly. This is particularly true for people aged 18 to 39 (76 percent) and 40 to 64 (66 percent), while more than one-half of those aged 65 and up said they planned to retire gradually. “The traditional notion of retirement — of packing up your office at the end of your last day and completely changing your life — is ending,” says an official with Desjardins In-
Why are the poor more generous than the rich? Those who study philanthropy are often puzzled by who gives the most — percentage-wise — to charity in America. The people who can least afford to give are the ones who donate proportionally more of their income, writes Ken Stern in The Atlantic (“Why the Rich Don’t Give to Charity”). “In 2011, the wealthiest Americans — those with earnings in the top 20 percent — contributed on average 1.3 percent of their income to charity. By comparison, Americans at the base of the income pyramid — those in the bottom 20 percent — donated 3.2 percent of their income.” Adding to the confusion: most lower-income givers, unlike middle-class and wealthy donors, can’t get a charitable tax break because they don’t The Marketplace July August 2013
Giving Council and serves on the boards of the Central PA Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Philhaven Behavioral Health, and Grantham Brethren in Christ Church. “I look forward to creating more awareness for MEDA and to encouraging a new generation of supporters to join us in this important work,” says Warren, who will be based in MEDA’s Lancaster, Pa., office. ◆
itemize deductions on their income-tax returns. Research suggests that “exposure to need drives generous behavior,” concludes Stern. Those who themselves struggle to meet daily basic needs are more likely to have empathy for others in the same boat. Conversely, affluent people who surround themselves with other wealthy folk may be less likely to empathize. “It seems that insulation from people in need may dampen the charitable impulse,” according to Stern. Such insulation can be offset by exposure to poignant messages about need. In one sample, when wealthy people were exposed to a sympathyeliciting video on child poverty, their sense of compassion rose to become almost identical to those who were poorer. ◆ 22
surance, which commissioned the survey. “Smart organizations will support this change in their workplaces to help address the huge pressures that will be created as Baby Boomers make this shift.” Facilitating gradual retirement will benefit both companies and employees, the official says. “Supporting the most experienced, knowledgeable staff to remain in the workforce in a transitional way allows employers to take advantage of their strengths, while they mentor younger workers who bring new skills and energy. Demographic patterns will soon create a critical shortage of experienced workers that transitional retirement can help address.” The survey found that financial standing wasn’t a big factor in wanting to retire gradually. Even those with excellent, very good or good financial security were as likely to prefer this method as those whose financial security is fair or poor. (Canadian HR Reporter)
Feds honor Ohio firm for huge export surge Venture Products, Inc., a leading U.S. producer of compact tractors, has won the President’s “E” Award for Exports, the highest recognition any U.S. entity can receive for expanding U.S. exports. The award was presented in Washington in late May to Venture president Dallas Steiner (also a member of the MEDA board of directors). Venture Products, located in Orrville, Ohio, manufactures Ventrac compact tractors and equipment for slope mowing, golf courses, municipalities, and landscape and snow contractors. Over the past three years the company’s export sales have grown 80 percent, which has allowed it to double its work force and build a new manufac-
Award recipient Dallas Steiner with a compact tractor produced by his company, Venture Products, Inc.
Goshen team wins entrepreneur awards When a group of Goshen College business students got together to put their education into practice to help others, they had no idea of the recognition and awards that would quickly follow. A group of eight students formed a team through the international non‑profit organization Enactus. Enactus brings students together with academic and business leaders who are committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need. The organization works with student teams to create projects fitting these criteria. Goshen College competitors worked with Meals on Wheels
ing them to move on to the national competition in Kansas City, where they again won “Rookie of the Year” in a competition against 150 other collegiate teams. Team members included senior accounting major Corine Alvarez (Goshen, Ind.), sophomore business major Marcos Castillo (Nappanee, Ind.), junior accounting major Derek Johnson (Prineville, Ore.), senior business major Danielle Klotz (Goshen), sophomore business major Jenna Ramseyer (Wooster, Ohio), junior accounting major Chelsea Schmucker (Wauseon, Ohio), sophomore business major Jordan Weaver (Lanark, Ill.) and senior business major Jan Zawadzki (Berlin, Germany). “Student teams range widely in number of student members and in budget, but all teams have the same goals
Goshen, a program of the non‑profit organization The Window. They performed a variety of tasks focused on what would benefit the program most in the future. These included teaching accounting basics, establishing requirements for meal delivery, organizing boxes of files, creating marketing materials and helping find grant opportunities. Student participants gather at regional, national and international competitions to present their cases. In April, in their first regional competition held in Chicago, the Goshen team won “Co‑Champions” in their league. It was also awarded a “Rookie of the Year” award and a $1,000 prize, allow23
turing facility in Orrville. “Exporting has enabled us to diversify our revenue streams and weather changes in the marketplace,” says Steiner, whose products go to more than 20 countries such as Sweden, Japan, South Korea and Australia. In presenting the award to Steiner, U.S. Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank said U.S. exports hit an all‑time record of $2.2 trillion in 2012, and supported nearly 10 million American jobs. Businesses like Venture Products, she said, were “strengthening the economies of local communities, creating jobs, and contributing to the worldwide demand for ‘Made in the USA’ goods and services.” ◆ — to help others help themselves,” said Alvarez. “At the competitions, each team has about 15 minutes to present their projects from the year to a panel of executives and managers at various sponsoring companies.” The suggestion to begin an Enactus team this year at Goshen came from Carlos Gutierrez, assistant professor of business, who himself had participated on such a team in college. Michelle Horning, professor of accounting, who traveled to the competition with this year’s Enactus team, said goals for next year’s team include increasing participation and adding students from majors outside the business department, and creating an advisory council of local business leaders to provide support for the team. — Lexi Kantz, Goshen News Service The Marketplace July August 2013
The Marketplace July August 2013
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