What Is Business?

What Business? is

By Suffragan Bishop Robert E. Martin, Jr.

The question that looms large is “What is Business?” Currently, this has never been a popular line of inquiry within the Church: discussing how we integrate the reality of Christian Business people within the framework of those who are also possessors of the Kingdom Promise. Let’s answer the aforementioned question: “What is Business? A person’s regular occupation, profession, or trade; synonyms: work · line of work · line of occupation · profession · career · employment. Let us now entertain a deeper dive into the question and glance at the four types of business.

4 Types of Business Structures:

1. Sole proprietorship: Most new businesses with only one owner start out as sole proprietorships, and many never become anything else. 2. Partnership: The IRS automatically considers any business started by more than one person to be a partnership. 3. Limited Liability Company (LLC): This business form falls somewhere between a corporation and a partnership or sole proprietorship in terms of protection by the law. 4. S or C Corporation: Corporations are separate legal entities, and their owners are protected from claims filed against the corporation’s activities. The Bible states in Ecclesiastes 5:3, “For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.” That is, as dreams are generally the effect of the business in which we have been engaged during the day; so, a multitude of words evidence the feeble workings of the foolish heart. It is my understanding, to put it mildly, that conversations that engage marketplace ministry and bi-vocational ministry have not been given the proper platform or attention within the modern day system of pastoral ministry, which in turn, often promotes the belief that full-time ministry is divorced of any outside professional business aspirations and pursuits! My own personal experience in the business arena allowed me to have a 20+ year career in the men’s and women’s high fashion clothing industry. While in the early stages of my retail career God called me to the ministry of preaching the Gospel of Christ. One of the greatest benefits within the ministry I was raised in, Zion Temple Church in Denver, Colorado, was the exposure that I received from my Pastor/Uncle the late Suffragan Bishop Roland B. Martin who walked in a bivocational world that included mortuary science. Also, my own father the late Pastor Robert E. Martin, Sr., while working for Ford Motor Company also had a cleaning business Sky-Brite of Denver, while also dabbling in network marketing. Those endeavors released an entrepreneurial spirit that was in direct contrast to the message from many within the church. One of my interests within our Christian Community, while not indicting the church is to bring to the attention of those within the Body of Christ, that there are among us as in Acts 6:3, “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.” Those who are qualified, talented and gifted professionals, who have been anointed for business and carry that anointing into the marketplace daily, deserve to be recognized and affirmed. While I was called to ministry with no doubts about it; I believe I was born to operate in the marketplace through the vehicle known as “Leadership Development,” not only in religious circles but also in secular systems of commerce. While I have not always operated in the Leadership Industry, I have always felt that leaders can obtain a greater skill set as they model the leadership of those whom they aspire to recognize as greater than themselves. I believe that the church now has an opportunity and responsibility to embrace business people who are anointed to do what they do!

Suffragan Bishop Robert E. Martin, Jr. is the Senior Pastor of Zion Temple Church in Denver, CO. In addition, he is certified as a life coach and is the Proprietor/Manager of Transformational Solutions, a leadership development and consulting company.