"Would you be willing to participate in my next 'Faith and Work' sermon?"
I asked this of a woman in her early thirties who, along with her husband, is very active in our church.
She is the third generation of her family to run an important regional business, a lumberyard and construction supply company. She's a tough-minded woman who thrives in an overwhelmingly male sector of the business world. The company enjoys a reputation both as a good employer and a supporter of community groups like Habitat for Humanity. She's also involved in local politics, serving on the town's board of finance.
This will be the seventh sermon in this occasional series over the last year. Each has explored issues that confront Christians working in a specific field. The sermons also provide members a chance to engage in the practice of testimony. My method is to preach the introduction, then invite the church member to the lectern for the long middle portion of the sermon. After they respond to interview questions about their experience as a Christian in their vocation, I draw it together with a brief conclusion.
Preparing for this sermon got me thinking about the rudiments of a theology of business. It's easy to go astray here. There is a long history of commercial boosterism in American Christianity, exemplified by Bruce Barton's 1925 bestseller, "The Man Nobody Knows," which portrayed Jesus as master entrepreneur. Barton, an ad exec, used Luke 2:49 (KJV) for the book's epigraph: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" I have no interest in promoting anything like a prosperity gospel.
What would a business model look like in order to qualify as an expression of the leader's Christian faith? Building on a "Christianity Today" interview with Jeff Van Duzer (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/january/21.24.html), I suggest that to embody the gospel, a company would need to incorporate four essential priorities, all of them of equal importance.
Produce goods or services that benefit human life . The primary questions should not be "Is there a market?" or "Can we create a market?" but rather "Do people need this?" and "Will this improve the quality of someone's life?" If so, a good marketing plan can be developed with integrity. Christians will also be concerned, of course, to manage the business according to the highest ethical standards.
Provide meaningful work and a good livelihood for employees. Christian business leaders will care for their employees, not as means of production, but as partners in the creation of the company's culture. Everyone knows that we bring personal problems to work and carry work problems home. Employers should provide the best possible support for workers, financial and otherwise. This is both ethical and practical -- confidence that my boss cares about me generally yields greater productivity.
Serve the wider community in which the company operates. Christian leaders recognize that any business exists thanks to the prior existence of the social structures of the region. Companies, therefore, have a responsibility to nurture the health of the wider community. They should provide direct support to agencies and ministries that address social issues and foster a culture that encourages employees, from the top down, to be active in community service.
Make a profit to sustain and grow the business. A company has to be profitable in order to fulfill the other three priorities. But making a profit must not be the number one, much less the sole, motivator for the Christian in business. A company that makes big money for its owners or shareholders will be an utter failure, from the Christian perspective, if it ignores the other priorities or even reduces them to secondary importance.
In my sermon I will ask our young business woman how she approaches these four priorities, how they can be in tension with one another, and how she makes difficult decisions to keep them in balance.
Charles Hambrick-Stowe is pastor of the First Congregational Church, Ridgefield, Conn. He was formerly an academic dean at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois.
