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19: Do Everything In Love · Finding God at Work

0:03
(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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course.
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Check it out at findinggodatwork.org.
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Our current series is A Mysterious Business, bringing
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ministry and marketplace wisdom together.
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Back when I worked at a mortgage company,
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there was a moment between a senior manager
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and a new hire that I'll never forget.
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The senior manager was explaining something related to
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company policy or interactions with another business.
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I forget exactly what, but he interrupted himself
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and said to the new hire, do you
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know the golden rule?
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And it's not the one you learned in
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Sunday school.
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And I forget what the new hire said,
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but the manager went on to explain, he
1:00
who has the gold makes the rules.
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Now I found this exchange, as brief as
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it was, so disturbing for a couple of
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reasons.
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One is that the statement, he who has
1:13
the gold makes the rules, is itself a
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pretty cynical take on life and business.
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Kind of defies the idea that there might
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be a rule of law that applies to
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everyone equally regardless of wealth or status.
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And of course, it's good to be savvy
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to how often people with wealth can make
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their own rules and skirt accountability and things
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like that.
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But I would say that's a bug, not
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a feature.
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Exalting that insight about how often people with
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wealth can get away with things to the
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status of a golden rule, it's like, is
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that really the way we want to frame
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reality?
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But the second reason I found it so
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deeply disturbing is that the senior manager who
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said this was a Christian.
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And I knew him, I knew his faith,
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I knew his faith was genuine.
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And yet the way he said, it's not
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the one you learned at Sunday school.
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You kind of got this vibe that he's
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like, oh, you learned some nice things in
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Sunday school, some important things.
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But now we're going to tell you how
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the world really works.
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Now we're going to tell you what business
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life is really like.
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Here's the real golden rule.
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He who has the gold makes the rules.
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And it was so disturbing to me because
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I realized that this man, this businessman, even
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though he was a Christian, he did not
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see how he was letting the business world,
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the business culture of our nation, disciple him
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more strongly than he was letting Jesus disciple
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him.
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The idea that any Christian could say, oh,
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here's a golden rule you might've learned in
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Sunday school, but here's the real golden rule.
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What does that say about your attitude toward
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Jesus, the one who said what we call
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the golden rule?
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It says you think Jesus is nice, but
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maybe not very smart, that Jesus gives you
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some good values, but he doesn't really tell
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you how the world really works.
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And if that's your attitude towards Jesus, how
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can you really become his disciple?
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How can you live in reality as a
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disciple of Jesus, unless you are persuaded that
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Jesus knows best, that Jesus knows the way
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the world really works and that his teachings
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express the most fundamental truths about reality.
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So as we're kind of wrapping up this
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series about bringing ministry and marketplace wisdom together,
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I want to talk about the ways that
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that relationship can be really fraught, the ways
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that sometimes business culture and church culture intersect
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in unhealthy ways, ways that are unhealthy for
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both business and church.
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And then I want to look at, is
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there a way that's better?
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Is there a way that as disciples of
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Jesus, we can have a wholly healthy vision
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of life in the church and life in
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the business world that really does reflect the
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golden rule, that really does reflect what Jesus
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taught, do to others as you would have
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them do to you.
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I think there is, I think there's a
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way forward.
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But first, before I dig into all of
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that, I want to do a teacherly thing,
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which is to review.
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Since this is the last episode in the
4:06
series, I want to review some of the
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kind of salient points that we covered.
4:10
So this series was a mix of me
4:13
just talking into the microphone, but then also
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some really wonderful interviews.
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So some of the points that I shared
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were this idea of a mysterious business, the
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idea that business can contain the mystery of
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God's presence in Jesus Christ.
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Or as Dallas Willard said, that business is
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a fundamental structure of love in the kingdom
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of God, that there's a structure there, something
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that contains the deeper substance of God's reality,
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his life and his love.
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And we see this taught in the Bible
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itself, like in Proverbs 31, that woman who
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works with her hands with pleasure, she takes
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joy in the work she's doing as a
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business person in her community in a way
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that blesses the whole community.
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So business at its best is this structure
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that contains the living life, the presence of
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God and expresses God's love for people in
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the community in very concrete ways.
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We looked at how there's some concepts from
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the business world that can kind of help
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us think about how we do our work
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as Christians, whether we're in a quote, unquote,
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secular context or in a ministry or church
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context.
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So this idea of like the five dysfunctions
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of a team from Pat Linceone, that trust
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actually leads to healthy conflict, which then leads
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to commitment.
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And if we're struggling with commitment towards something
5:30
in our life with God, well, maybe we
5:32
need to have some healthy conflict with God.
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Maybe we need to trust God enough to
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engage that conflict and then to that will
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lead to deeper commitment to God's way in
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our life.
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We talked about this idea of lead measures
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versus lag measures, which is often used in
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the business world when, when something fails, don't
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just look at the outcomes.
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Also look at, well, what were the lead
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measures?
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What were the things you did ahead of
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time that you had direct control over that
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maybe didn't lead to the outcome you had
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hoped for and yet how as Christians we
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should have a multi-generational view of lead
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measures and lag measures that as Jesus said,
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I sent you to reap that which you
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did not labor on, that we might have
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really great lag measures, right?
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A harvest, impressive results that actually doesn't really
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have that much to do with our effort.
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It has to do with the efforts of
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people in previous generations and their faithfulness to
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God.
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Or similarly, we might be faithfully putting in
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some lead measures of showing up where God
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has asked us to show up, of doing
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our darndest to make sure that things become
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what they're supposed to be in a given
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ministry or work context.
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And the results might not be very impressive,
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but that might be because the results are
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going to come in a subsequent generation.
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And so what matters is faithfulness, still being
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honest about how outcomes look and whether there's
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any way we can adjust what we're doing
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to, to foster greater fruitfulness, but trusting that
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God's purposes will carry the day even beyond
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what visible results we can measure.
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Speaking of measurement, one of the ideas we
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talked about is that we can't always measure
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everything that counts in our life with God.
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We looked at, uh, Sky Jitani's book, Immeasurable.
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And this idea that even in the business
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world, right?
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Like Ed Catmull of Pixar said this, you
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can't actually measure everything, but you want to
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measure what you can.
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You want to pay attention to the numbers
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so that you can treasure that kind of
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immeasurable heart of what the business is really
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about, right?
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That numbers can't ever fully capture what business
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is about because business is about love, business
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is about what's happening in a community.
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And yet the numbers matter.
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And so we want to measure, but not
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trust the numbers to trust the presence of
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God who brings about immeasurable and mysterious things
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in our midst, even in the business world,
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we talked about this idea of sacramental work
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that God gets things done through humble everyday
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stuff.
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And just like he does that literally through
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the sacraments, like baptism and the Eucharist, he
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can also do it through our everyday work.
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He can make our work, a conduit of
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his grace, someplace where his life and love
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is made known in the world.
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Similarly, we talked about how, as we deal
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with new tools that exist in the working
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world, like AI, we need to maintain that
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vision of God's life and love through human
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persons being what work is all about and
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not let a new technology displace the purpose
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of work.
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So we want to think about what it
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means to keep pace with God and with
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other people in our work that we can't
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just choose efficiency above all else.
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Even if AI might help us do that,
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we need to think about limits that might
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be placed on our work in order to
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honor human dignity, just like in the gleaning
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law and the Torah.
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And Pope Leo helped us kind of look
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into that with his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, where
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he talked about the true transhumanism being participation
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in the divine nature.
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As people kind of look at AI as
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this thing that will bring in change in
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the future, they might be underestimating the power
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of human sin.
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Both individually and culturally to, to continue things
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like poverty and injustice and disease.
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New technology by itself is not going to
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help us overcome all these things.
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What we need is the grace of God.
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And we can become more than human in
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the sense of participating in the divine life
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by grace, because of Jesus Christ, that's what
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we need to focus on.
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And that can break through in our everyday
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work.
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So we talked about how, uh, when we're
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using AI just in practical ways, we probably
9:24
shouldn't use it for writing.
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I mean, I kind of made that case
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that both for developmental reasons, as we're becoming
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human beings who communicate, we use AI at
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our peril because we might not learn how
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to write well.
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Uh, but also it changes the purpose, the
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meaning of communication among persons, when you throw
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a machine in the middle there, uh, in
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a way that I think is, is unhealthy
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for most work applications.
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We talked about character change and how, uh,
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in our culture, we've lost the language of
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character.
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But that's part of what God does is
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he, he transforms character.
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That's part of his life and love coming.
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And that, that true more than humanity is
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our character being transformed.
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And because of that, we should have an
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attitude like Pete Leonard of I have a
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bean coffee that somebody's record.
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Isn't the only thing you see about them,
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but that you can see what their character
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is like today.
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It's like Pete Leonard says to post prison
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people, uh, have you been to prison and
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are you living differently now than you were
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then, and he hires people into his company
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to make great coffee.
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Okay.
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Pete Leonard is one of those business leaders
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we looked at.
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So we also got to see other wonderful
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examples of business leaders living this out, like
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Eddie Smith jr.
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Who's putting a Grady white boats into a
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perpetual purpose trust instead of selling it for
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$400 million.
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Uh, we got to interview Joe Slawek of
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flavors of North America, who literally put Bibles
10:44
in the foundation of the building that they
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built for that business.
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We got to talk with Alyssa Krause, who
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uses massage therapy as a kind of healing
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ministry in a for-profit business context.
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And similarly, Ben Andrews doing therapy.
10:56
And even though he never intended to be
10:58
an entrepreneur, finding that starting a business was
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the way for him to love and serve
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both his clients and his family, because he
11:06
needed to pay the bills.
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So he needed that structure of the business.
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And he realized that it was possible for
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him to do that.
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And he would say to others who might
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be kind of unintentional entrepreneurs.
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Yes, you can do this.
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You can use business as a way to
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love other people.
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We got to talk with Tim cool.
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Um, who talks about, uh, how, uh, business
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facilities are tools, um, how their assets of
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ministry, um, and how in, in his own
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work, he's trying to help churches understand that.
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But then also in, in his business, the
11:35
way he runs it, he's trying to practice
11:37
this structure of love by doing profit sharing,
11:40
by being generous in the community with the
11:41
profits that they make that he views profit,
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not as an end in itself, but as
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a mean student, as a fuel that helps
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the machine of the business run.
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We had a couple other interviews in there
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too, not with business leaders, but with others
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speaking about business, like Justin Mertis, uh, from
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made to flourish, talking about the scatter tool
11:58
and trying to help pastors ask the question,
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does the average person see themselves as part
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of God's story?
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Um, and those kind of this time tomorrow
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interviews that they do at his church, where
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somebody, an average worker from the congregation will
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share what they're doing this time tomorrow and
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how that's part of their life with God.
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We talked with Bonnie Christian recently about how
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business is part of public life.
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And sometimes that might have a point of
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tension with public policy, but more often we
12:23
might just kind of feel awkward about our
12:24
faith, but Bonnie saying we don't need to
12:25
be ashamed about our faith.
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We don't need to be ashamed for those
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of us from this tradition about being evangelicals,
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but we can be winsome and bold and
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confident knowing what's going on in our churches
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in general is of the Lord.
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It's a good thing.
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Um, even as we're very honest about the
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flaws that need to be corrected and that
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the sins that need to be repented of.
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Okay.
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So that's our review.
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Those are some kind of like the ideas
12:49
that we talked about in this series and
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some of the interviews that we did and
12:53
the people we talked to, I hope some
12:54
of this has been helpful for you in
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terms of thinking through what does it mean
12:58
for you to steward that mystery, mystery of
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God's presence.
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So on that note, as we conclude a
13:08
mysterious business, I want to focus on the
13:11
mystery of God's presence and how that's so
13:13
important to keep front and center, even in
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the business world.
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Uh, so the unusual take that I want
13:19
to make here is that the church can
13:22
be a business school.
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The church can be a business school.
13:25
Now I don't mean for the how of
13:27
business.
13:28
I don't mean in a traditional sense that
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like you should go to church to get
13:30
an MBA.
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Um, although maybe there are some churches out
13:33
there that do something like that.
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Uh, what I mean is that the church
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is a business school for the why of
13:38
business.
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A lot of young women, a lot of
13:41
young men go and get MBAs at business
13:43
schools all over the world.
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And they learn a lot about the how
13:46
of business, but they don't ever learn about
13:48
the why.
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They come away knowing how to get things
13:51
done, but often doing it for very poor
13:53
reasons with, with visions that might not be
13:55
any more noble than simply making a lot
13:57
of money.
13:58
And they don't have that sense of that
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end.
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Um, that, that, yeah, profit is good.
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If it's a means to a good end,
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if it's a way to love others, if
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it's a way to love the community, but
14:10
unless you have that, why, what's the point
14:13
of the business that you're doing?
14:15
So I think that the church can be
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a business school for the why of business.
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And in a couple of different ways, one
14:21
is we can think about the church as
14:23
a community.
14:24
So the church includes a lot of business
14:27
people, a lot of business people who love
14:29
the Lord Jesus, who are members of the
14:31
church, a great way to learn what it
14:34
looks like to follow Jesus is to watch
14:37
someone who loves Jesus run a business.
14:39
You can learn lessons about life and business
14:42
from the Christians.
14:44
Like we've had a chance to do in
14:45
this series, look at people like Joe, look
14:48
at people like Tim, look at people like
14:50
Alyssa, look at people like Eddie Smith, Jr.
14:52
And learn from them.
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What does it mean to love Jesus?
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As you run a business, you can catch
14:58
the why of business from others who have
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already gone on that journey in the church.
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So in that sense, church can be a
15:05
business school, but then also even church as
15:09
institution, right?
15:10
Like Sunday morning church, the, the things that
15:12
we do in the structure of the church,
15:13
uh, the local church, that can also be
15:16
a business school for the why of business
15:18
in the sense that the local church at
15:21
its best bears the mystery of God's presence.
15:26
When you participate in the institutional local church,
15:29
when you go to church on Sunday, when
15:30
you listen to preaching, when you hear the
15:32
word of God, when you partake in the
15:33
sacraments, when you submit to institutional authority in
15:36
the, in the form of elders and deacons,
15:38
and depending on your tradition, bishops or apostles,
15:41
you are participating in the community that bears
15:47
the mystery of God's presence in the world.
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And that is so important because as you
15:54
listen, as you pay attention to the mystery
15:57
of God's presence in the world, that will
15:59
shape how you do business.
16:02
That will shape how you do your everyday
16:03
work, regardless of whether it's in a business
16:05
context or a nonprofit context or, or some
16:08
other kind of unpaid work.
16:10
And I have this quote, I found it
16:12
in Sky Jatani's book, Immeasurable, uh, which we
16:15
quoted earlier.
16:15
Um, but it's from Richard Halverson, who was
16:18
a former chaplain of the United States Senate,
16:20
and he once said this, in the beginning,
16:24
the church was a fellowship of men and
16:26
women centered on the living Christ.
16:29
Then the church moved to Greece where it
16:30
became a philosophy.
16:32
Then it moved to Rome where it became
16:33
an institution.
16:35
Next it moved to Europe where it became
16:36
a culture.
16:37
And finally it moved to America where it
16:40
became an enterprise.
16:43
Do you see what Richard Halverson is saying?
16:45
He's saying the original vision of the church
16:47
is a fellowship of men and women centered
16:49
on the living Christ, the mystery of Christ,
16:51
the mystery of God's presence right there in
16:53
the community.
16:54
But then what the church tends to do
16:56
is to be shaped by the culture around
16:58
it and become like the culture around it,
17:00
regardless of what that culture is.
17:02
So in Greece, it's a philosophy, in Rome
17:04
it's an institution, in Europe it's a culture,
17:06
and in America, it's an enterprise.
17:09
So we, we run this risk in both
17:12
business life and church life of letting the
17:15
business culture around us tell us what success
17:19
means.
17:20
We run the risk of letting what, what
17:23
Sky Jotani calls church ink take over.
17:25
Thinking about success in business terms without reference
17:31
to the mystery of Christ.
17:33
In other words, we can get a bad
17:34
why for business life and for church life
17:37
that deforms us.
17:39
So often in the business culture that surrounds
17:42
us, what's prized is measurable results and profit,
17:46
measurable results and profit.
17:47
Can we measure all the business deals we
17:49
did this year?
17:50
Can we put numbers on everything we accomplished
17:52
and how much money did we make?
17:54
That's success.
17:55
And when you take that mentality and you
17:57
apply it to church, you get that buildings,
17:59
butts and bucks model of church.
18:01
How big are our buildings?
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How many people are in them?
18:03
How much money are they giving?
18:04
And if that becomes your definition of success,
18:06
then church gets deformed.
18:07
Right.
18:08
But, but it's not just church that gets
18:09
deformed.
18:10
Running a business like that is also deformed
18:12
because the essence of business cannot be captured
18:15
in a bottom line.
18:15
The way that business is a structure of
18:17
love has to go beyond that.
18:20
And so this is why church is a
18:21
business school.
18:21
As you go to church and when that
18:24
church is stewarding the mystery of God's presence
18:26
faithfully, you learn that that's what matters.
18:28
And that gives you a why, not just
18:30
for church life, but also for business life.
18:33
That what ultimately most deeply matters about business
18:36
is does this business convey the presence of
18:39
God in the world?
18:41
Does this business communicate God's love?
18:45
And if so, that is the why.
18:46
And then you apply all of your savvy
18:48
how as best as you can to be
18:49
a profitable business that serves that why of
18:52
love in the community.
18:54
So at its best, a mysterious business is
18:58
a business that has learned the mystery of
19:00
Christ, the mystery of God's presence from the
19:02
church.
19:03
Church is a business school.
19:05
It's a place to learn the why for
19:06
business and for life.
19:09
So I want to conclude with just a
19:11
kind of a commissioning prayer.
19:12
This is from Paul's epistle to the Corinthians
19:17
chapter 16.
19:18
And as we think about the true golden
19:20
rule, right?
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Do unto others as you would have them
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do unto you.
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I love this line that Paul ends on
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do everything in love, everything.
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It means do your business in love.
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Do your for-profit work in love.
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Do your nonprofit work in love.
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Do your unpaid work in love.
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Do everything in love.
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That's not just a nice statement.
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That is a statement conveying the deep truth
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of reality that we have access to in
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Jesus Christ.
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The mystery of the age is revealed in
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Christ that it is possible to live in
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God's presence in participation in his nature, living
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life of love for him.
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And for others.
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So with these words, we conclude our series.
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First Corinthians chapter 16, starting in verse 13,
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be on your guard.
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Stand firm in the faith.
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Be courageous, be strong, do everything in love.
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Lord Jesus.
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Thank you that we can do everything in
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love.
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Teach us how to bring insights and wisdom
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from the ministry world and the marketplace together.
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Whatever our context is, teach us what it
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means to be faithful, to steward that mystery
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day by day.
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Jesus, do your work in us as we
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do our work with you.
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Thanks for listening.
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Finding God at Work is a production of
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Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
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dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
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life.
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You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you
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listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
20:52
of teaching on faith and work every Thursday,
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to get resources, to go deeper with each
20:57
podcast series, read our blog and get info
20:59
about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace.
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Go to our website, missioncentral.church.