KSAM 

This is a composite of thought from articles I have read, people I have heard address the idea of bringing Kingdom minded business owners, particularly those who are either bio-vocational or those who do business as ministry. Not all the thought or verbiage is original with me, but I do not have a list of contributors who helped me to articulate the following. It is not my intent to plagiarize or receive undo credit. Read with that in mind please.

Are you a Kingdom minded business owner? Do you apply the principles of the Kingdom of God laid out plainly in the scriptures to your personal life and your business ventures? Would you like an opportunity to explore the principles of the Kingdom of God to multiply your business(es) beyond their natural capacities so that they have the understanding, the funding, the influence, and the affluence to reform the marketplaces of your city (Thomasville/Thomas County) and beyond?

There are proven principles of God that actually work in the modern marketplace that are impacting millions of people on every continent. These principles are not just taught because they are from the Bible, they are taught because they work. Jesus taught us in Matt.24:14 “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.”

The “Gospel of Salvation” has been taught in all the world, but the “Gospel of the Kingdom” is relatively new and has not been taught in all the world and certainly has not been taught from witness or proof. When a business begins to test out these principles and they prove to be reliable, sustainable, feasible and viable, they become infallible proof or a “witness” that these principles do work when applied properly.

There are now tens of thousands of significant businesses around the word which are funding their local churches, undertaking large Kingdom initiatives in their communities, and generating significant momentum towards creating whole cities that are becoming a witness for the Kingdom of God. They are using their influence and their affluence to grow the Kingdom of God in the marketplace to create a better world for all mankind.

For centuries Christians have benchmarked their faith on church attendance, piety, and mission minded charity. We have brought the gospel of salvation to communities all over the world and followed up with salvation-centric discipleship. There are not many places on Earth which the Gospel of Salvation has not reached.

But despite centuries of Christian evangelism, the “great joy, peace, and goodwill to all mankind” which the angles announced at the birth of Jesus in Luke 2 has never taken hold. We still live in a world which is saturated with social and economic distress. Unsustainable debt, unemployment, substance abuse, domestic violence, suicide, family breakdown, poverty, homelessness, starvation, rampant crime, recidivism, prostitution, sex-slavery, pedophilia, trafficking in children, fanaticism, tribalism, racism, terrorism, genocide, refugees, wars, rampant corruption and the unfunded liabilities of governments are prevalent to greater or lesser degrees in all nations.

As the social and economic distress worsens it becomes unmanageable, until eventually society implodes into recessions, depressions, civil unrest, wars, and revolutions. This insidious cycle has repeated itself every 80-100 years for the last 800 years. This does not reflect the Kingdom of God on earth.

The root cause of almost all social distress and human misery is the culture of greed and self-centeredness which has driven the marketplace for thousands of years; a culture of maximizing self-interest at the expense of others which still dominates business strategies and activities in the marketplaces of the cities of the world today.

The culture of the Kingdom is caring and sharing. Significant wealth is created by business owners who trade with their community’s interests at heart and as more and more businesses begin to trade this way tipping points are reached so that the social and economic distress is eliminated at its source and the entire community begins to prosper. Increasingly as the community recognizes the success of the new culture Christian evangelism is much more effective and the ensuing salvations are substantially more meaningful.

Over 90% of all businesses worldwide are small to medium in size. It is the culture, the beliefs, the values, and the activities of the owners of these businesses that have the biggest influence on the socioeconomic health and the overall wellbeing of our cities. If every time we do a deal, we seek to take everything for ourselves and we leave nothing on the table for our counterparties, they will eventually descend into financial hardship. As we continue to do this on a macroeconomic scale, we trigger systemic poverty and as humans become “dumbed down” into poverty their ability to create wealth is eventually nullified. At that point wealth becomes centralized and finite and a desperate population descends into anarchy.

If on the other hand we change the culture of greed and self-centeredness to one of caring and sharing in the marketplace, whereby whenever we do a deal we always leave enough “margin” on the table to ensure every party and stakeholder prospers, we begin to create people of means who can trade with each other and with ourselves over and over again.

If we do God’s will God’s way, God will apply His favor, and our businesses will move into that area of supernatural multiplication, so common in the Bible yet so rare amongst Christians in the modern marketplace.

It is the fruit of this multiplication which yields the excess funds for these businesses to enable them to deal with human misery. It is their influence and affluence, coupled with the Gospel of Salvation, which will reverse the culture of greed and self-centeredness and bring the Kingdom of God into the cities. The Biblical model for the marketplace is a holistic capitalism rather than the profit driven system in use today. When enough businesses are transformed into community minded companies instead of purely profit minded companies, the community itself will benefit in a tangible way for all to see.

Would you be interested in joining other likeminded business owners in our community to learn more about how to transform your own business and also have the support of other likeminded business owners in our community? This will involve fellowship, networking, and training by experienced leaders in their particular field. It will also be a platform from which those involved can begin to identify social distress issues in our community and collectively work out strategies and initiatives to remedy the problems. They would engage with community stakeholders, whether Christian of not, to collaborate on solutions. Part of the objective is for the Christian business people to become the leaders for social and economic reform and to do it in a considered and sensitive manner so that the whole community sees this group of individuals as leaders who can direct the community toward unity and brotherhood.

[Charlie Lewis with Kingdom School and Ministry, Dave Hodgson with Kingdom Initiatives, and Pedro Adao with 100x have influenced my perspectives on Kingdom Business over the last 5-10 years.]