Business as a Holy Calling? Stewardship of the Sacred
T
im A. Dearborn is one of the keynote speakers at MEDA’s upcoming convention: Taking the Leap, to be held Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 at the Westin La Paloma in Tucson, Arizona. The excerpt below is from his book: Business as a Holy Calling: A workbook for Christians in business and their pastors. One Sunday, our church was commissioning its youth group to go to Tijuana to build houses. Professional carpenters, an owner of a construction company, a bank manager, and an ER doctor were commissioned with them. It occurred to me, “Why were we commissioning them for this volunteer ministry, but we’ve never thought of commissioning them for their work in our own city?” Was the same work they did in their daily business now “mission” because it was an “official” church program? As a pastor, I realized that I was more interested in people’s volunteer time and their charitable giving than in their professional lives. I focused on people’s personal lives, family life, and spirituality — and on recruiting them to volunteer in church-sponsored ministries. The financial fruit of their work interested me more than how they made that fruit. I could value business as a means to other ends: earning an income, expressing gifts and abilities, creating employment, building caring relationships, maybe doing a little Christian witness, and certainly contributing to charitable causes (like my church). But intrinsically, I wasn’t clear how business contributed to the purposes of God. The Marketplace September October 2019
No wonder many Christians in business feel unsupported and unvalued by their churches for their actual work in business. For the past 30 years, I’ve had the privilege of working with businesspersons and students around the world to discover more fully God’s broad pur-
“The crux of biblical economics is the truth that God owns everything. We are stewards but not owners — of God’s resources.” 14
poses of business. Often, business has a far deeper impact on human well-being than churches or NGOs ever will. Some of the most effective measures to alleviate poverty and enhance human flourishing occur through microfinance and other enterprise solutions. Business isn’t automatically a holy calling. There is a question mark attached to the phrase. Rather than being merely a means to other ends — providing goods and services, creating employment, making money — business can be a form of fulltime Christian service. Thus, it’s no surprise that 3,000 years ago, in the ancient Hebrew law, God outlined a complete economic system and precise guidance for how business should be conducted. The foundation of this is summarized in Psalm 24:1: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” Simply put, God owns everything. We own nothing. We are stewards, but not owners. In all our work, economic activity, and business we are stewards of someone else’s (God’s), resources. Whatever resource we employ, whether time, money, natural resources, creativity, customers, competitors, or employees, we are surrounded by resources that belong to God. Therefore, business is conducted on holy ground, for we are surrounded by the sacred. Our calling as stewards has many practical implications that shape our business practices. Stewarding Time, People, and Creation Beginning with Sabbath rest each
