What makes a business ‘Christian’? Is it merely slapping a Jesus label on it? ‘A place where Christ is modeled, not preached’? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing all the time, anyway?
Or is it a business that tries to align itself with kingdom values, even if the name Jesus isn’t front and center? But what separates that from a good business run from a humanitarian standpoint?
What does it mean to have our identity and vocation impact our businesses?
“The impact of the fall is on both the individual and the social system and so the impact of the gospel of the kingdom must be on both.” (WWP)
Let’s look at an example of an industry that drives me crazy. ‘Christian’ coffee shops that serve coffee, but it’s not fair trade.
I did a little unscientific survey, and I called coffee shops around me, plus a few Christian ones I found online. Out of 12 coffee shops, 9 served at least some fair trade coffee. 3 of those 9 were openly Christian.
3 of the 12 sold no fair trade, and 2 of those were Christian.
So of the 5 Christian shops, 3 sold at least some fair trade. Of the 7 secular shops, 6 of them sold at least some fair trade, or 60% and 85%.
I also noticed, especially in the smaller, secular coffee shops, that if they sold Fair Trade coffee, they did so because it was important to them, and so it was front and center on their websites. The Christian sites made no mention of it, and when I called, the baristas didn’t know and had to go look.
The reason this is one of my big peeves is because it is so important to the growers, and it is such an easy switch for us! (And for churches, Equal Exchange makes it easy and financially feasible.)
If you have Christian music playing, and have verses scattered all over, but your main attraction is something that keeps people enslaved and oppressed, then what’s the point? What are those verses up there for anyway? Shouldn’t Christians be informed and leading the way on Isaiah 58 issues?
What does a Christian company look like? Is it having a CEO who’s a Christian? Having verses printed on the bottom of paper cups or store bags? Is it paying an employee a fair wage, treating customers honestly and with integrity?
How should a person who is working for the kingdom deal with a broken system? Do they leave? Or stay and work for the good of fellow employees and clients, trying to change things from the inside? How do you balance working for redemption and needing to make a living?
“If we act as if individuals are saved now and the kingdom is only in heaven when Jesus comes, then we in effect leave the social order to the devil. ‘Vast areas of human life are left out, unredeemed – the economic, the social and the political’. Into this vacuum other ideologies and kingdoms move with their seductive and deceptive claims of a new humanity and a better tomorrow – socialism, capitalism, globalisms, nationalism, ethnic identity, and denominationalism – shakable kingdoms all.” (WWP)
What is the right thing to do when you’re a part of a national company, who wants to appear as a local company to the clients, so the pressure is on to lie about which office you are working out of, to seem as if you are 1 hour away instead of 15?
Why does a Christian CEO tell his employees to fudge their time sheets so their overtime won’t affect their bonus metrics? If he doesn’t care, why not change the metrics, so you aren’t encouraging dishonesty in your employees?
Why is a Christian CEO such a good salesman that he brings those tactics to the employee negotiating table, sometimes waiting for an employee to give up and hand in their resignation before giving in and giving them the raise they are asking for and deserve, because they are already underpaid?
And what do you do when it’s a tough economy and jobs aren’t plentiful and you have a mortgage, student loans, and a family to support?
What is the right way to love and pursue the kingdom when you are keenly aware of the powers and principalities doctrine that keeps you trapped, and you get just a tiny glimpse of what other people around the world face on a much larger scale?
How can we pursue life for others, knowing that the coffee grower is dependent on market prices and honest middlemen, and knowing that we are ignorant of so many other global intricacies? How do we respond when people work unbelievably hard, but remain stuck in poverty?
How do we address the power inequalities in the system, when we all are trapped in our own way, and are yet complicit in so many other ways?
How does a person work for love and the kingdom when it seems as if the walls will never crumble? Why is it sometimes so hard to see Christians breaking down the walls?
Why do we reduce Christian financial practices to just getting the cheapest product, the cheapest cup of coffee, the cheapest employee?
What does it do to those people to be at the mercy of others?
Walking with the Poor calls this playing god in the lives of others: “The results are patterns of domination and oppression that mar the image and potential productivity of the poor while alienating the non-poor from their true identity and vocation as well.”
We are responsible for as much as we can be responsible for, and how we handle our work, whether it is a career or a role, paid or unpaid, is important. Loving others has to, in some way, mean that we become conscious of the people who make our way of life possible. Because the values we pursue in our lives affect the quality of theirs.
“It also follows that we have a responsibility to enable or allow others to work so they can fulfill their purpose.” (WWP)
Are we being responsible and ethical business owners? Employees? Customers? Are we living so that we can empower other image-bearers to pursue their vocation as well?
Check out the other posts in this series: Identity and Vocation Defined Being an Image of God What Does Christian Vocation Look Like? Is It Who You Are, Or Just What You Do?
There are so many dichotomies in the workplace and in vocation. I think sometimes its about speaking up and provoking change, whereas at other times its to silently pioneer a different way of being/doing by personal accountability and actions. Most likely both are needed in equal measure. Maybe there are issues around awareness that need to be identified and addressed.
Great questions! We need to be having this discussion in the church, but we don’t because we don’t want to have to change how we live. So we remain superficial or ignore the questions altogether.
Those are definitely some great and tough questions. When I go about my life not thinking deeply about things, I can allow things to go on that I shouldn’t, but as a Christian, so many things need to really be thought about. I wonder if sometimes people just allow themselves to justify by not thinking deeply enough. We should all take a deeper look at these different issues and how important they are and how we need to adjust our lives as Christ would. Thanks for making me think!
Yeah, and it’s so hard to try and figure out what is needed when. We have this issue right now, and my husband has decided to try and speak up and provoke change, which is kind of scary.
agree. :/ Or we split it into christian/secular issues and just write off secular as bad.
Oh I’m sure that’s part of it. I’ve had people tell me ‘I don’t want to think deep.’ And I get that some of it is personality type. If everyone was an INFJ the world would be hurting, haha. But that’s where my pushback comes more against the preachers and leaders and Bible study groups, etc…places where people are speaking and other people are listening…why aren’t they talking about this stuff more, if ever? I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sermon on this kind of thing.
It definitely seems like something that should be more on the radar. Kind of like human trafficking–finally getting momentum and some women in our church are getting involved, but it’s kind of small groups, not our whole church. When there are some amazing organizations nearby and Houston is a hub for trafficking–seems like we should ALL at least be talking, if not also praying and doing.
yes! It should be normal to be talking about what all of this stuff actually means and how it impacts us and what we can do….it should be just as natural as talking about mommy stuff or tv shows, or whatever……..the cry of my heart:)
Matthew 20 has some counsel for those workers who agree to work at a certain wage, and also some counsel for those who think they’ve been treated unfairly. John told the Roman soldiers to be content with what they were paid.
BUT Jesus also had some things to say about the rich. “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.” And… “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.”
BUT the biggest injustice today in the USA and the world is being perpetrated by the money changers at the Federal Reserve and the central banks all around the world. Inflation means a false balance, and an abomination. The only “violence” Jesus himself ever did was with that long mean biting lash that he used to give those thieves and vipers a painful exit out of the temple.
“Social justice” causes are a Trojan horse, and the way it is often used today is as a way to sneak some collectivist thinking in. “Fair” coffee? That’s one little thing, but I see a Wilberforce-type mission field in telling the truth.
There is another injustice being done, and that to all. Jesus Christ himself also talked about it, but most of today’s pastors and Christians are oblivious to it. In Matthew 18, you’ll find what Jesus said about the group that says how much the rest of us will pay in taxes. “Render unto Caesar” was a “trick answer” to a “trick question”, because “The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”. Everything Caesar owns belongs to God first.
Therefore, Romans 13 only applies when the governing authorities act accordingly, as the ministers of God –the ones that rule by means of a monopoly on the use of force enforced by their own force (whether those that enter at the wide gate, the majority, “voted” for them or not).. When the authorities act as ministers for the money changers, they deserve the same painful exit Jesus gave to them back then.
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