Editorial: Spring 2012

Business people in the church sometimes feel like things are stacked against them, starting with the gospels themselves. Jesus commanded Simon Peter and Andrew to give up their fishing business in order to follow him, as though discipleship and business are two entirely different enterprises. Jesus also privileged the poor woman who gave all she had over those who could give much more than she could. Most devastating of all was Jesus's comment that it is easier for a rich person to get through the eye of a needle than to get into the kingdom of God. Have you tried recently to wiggle your way through the eye of a needle?

Business people aren't necessarily rich, of course. I have known business people who have worked hard all their lives without ever becoming wealthy. I have known others who have experienced both success and failure, sometimes several times over. Some business people may have quite a bit of capital in the form of property, equipment or supplies, but they may also not have much liquidity.

Whether in business or another vocation, the church is justifiably concerned about how we use the resources God has given us and what we've earned through our own hard work, ingenuity and good luck. That should be just as true of me as an editor as it is my brother or sister who has been successful in business—or not.

The complaint often heard from business people is that the church and its leaders want their money, and yet the church reserves the right to criticize how much money they've made or how they've made it. A common stereotype is that businesses care about nothing other than the bottom line. But businesses must make money. Otherwise, they cannot stay in business.

Business people have gifts that are needed in our congregations and communities: the gifts of organization, financial management, people leadership, and especially entrepreneurship.

I suspect the church's suspicion of business people isn't entirely pure. Rather than being motivated by Jesus' demand to be prepared to give up all we have for the sake of the kingdom, the church's suspicion of business people can grow out of a need for group conformity. We don't want some people to get too far ahead of the rest of us in terms of wealth or lifestyle. Suspicion toward business people can also be the result of ignorance. We're inclined as humans to be critical of what we don't understand, and many people, pastors included, quite frankly don't understand the world of business.

As you will read in this issue, Christian business people typically do want the church to help them be better stewards of their calling as business leaders. Unfortunately, the church is often ill-prepared to offer what they need. In one survey of Christian business people, all the respondents readily shared examples of ethical challenges they've faced in their work. Yet an overwhelming majority of them said their congregation had done little to prepare them for faithful living in the business world.*

While business leaders need the church, we also need them. Business people create a common good on which we're all dependent. They create jobs, they produce products and services that we need and sometimes just enjoy. Business people also have gifts that are needed in our congregations and communities: the gifts of organization, financial management, people leadership, and especially entrepreneurship.

To flourish the church needs the spirit of free enterprise. The Apostle Paul was a tentmaker—a business person, actually. If ever a church leader had an entrepreneurial spirit, Paul had it. Indeed, he had the vision and the organizational skills to start up churches around much of the Mediterranean world. He was perhaps the first person in a franchising business.

Recently I was in a discussion with the two founders of The Village Church in the city of Chicago, a new church associated with the United Methodist Church. Previously, they had both served as pastors in suburban churches. But they discerned a call to start a church in the city. Their vision is to keep starting churches in different locales and to allow each one to develop its own character. After just several years they have churches meeting in three different areas with plans for several more. This vision entails identifying additional leaders, mentoring them and allowing their unique gifts to flourish. After hearing their story, which seemed to me a success story, I said to them: "It sounds like you're entrepreneurs." The thought surprised them, but upon reflection they agreed.

Yes, the church needs the financial resources of its business people, just like it needs my tithes and offerings. But more than their money, I believe the church needs the entrepreneurial gifts of business people.

—Richard A. Kauffman

* How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it) by John C. Knapp (Eerdmans, 2012).