Christian Business Builder

You know I think that being actively Christian in this society is as difficult as I have ever known it to be in my 30+ years as a Christian. The reasons for this are numerous; Christianity has been rejected by the vast majority of the population, schools have taken an almost anti-Christian stance in educating students, and business leaders have embraced a quasi-Christian philosophy that values human effort over the wisdom of God.

With this backdrop it is difficult for we who are dedicated to the truth of God and his word to find place in our chosen professions. There is often lots of “God talk” without much “God seeking.” In this series of articles I am trying to reverse this trend. It is time for we “Christ followers” to look to him and his word for the answers to our business life as well as our personal relationship with God.

We have been examining the passage in Proverbs 3:5-10 to see where we might seek the Lord more directly in the building and operation of our businesses. This article will cover the third thought seen here:

“In all thy ways acknowledge him,”

For more than a century, we have been taught in school and in life that if we are going to be successful in life that we need to “pick ourselves up by our bootstraps” and “never quit.” We have been told that we can achieve anything as long as we stay focused and keep at it. We have been told to find something we love and do that thing. It is all up us and we are the only one who can make or break our success story.

Now, while the scriptures do surly speak to the subject of industry and hard work, they also speak to the subject of God’s direction and leadership in making directional choices in life.

I for one can tell you that listening to the voice of the Lord in making the right choices with regard to direction isn’t as simple as it sounds. There are so many voices in the world today with so much advice and so many options. How is someone supposed to make right choices in the midst of all that is out there in the world?

The answer to this question rests in this simple phrase from Proverbs 3, “In all thy ways acknowledge him …” Only when we acknowledge the Lord throughout the whole of our lives activities will he provide us with the wisdom to make the right choices at the right times in our lives. What is also so amazing about God is that even if we have made wrong choices, he is always willing to help us return to the right path by simply seeking his forgiveness and acknowledging him from this point on!

The little word “way” is the key to understanding this portion of scripture. According to Strong’s Concordance, “Way” means a course of life, mode of action. In other words our acknowledgment of God needs to be throughout our entire course of life and mode of actions, not just those we find easy, but also those we don’t want to release to anyone.

Only as you release more and more of your life and business to God will you have the power to know and understand the level of success God has in store for you. The only caveat that I need to make here is that God’s view of success may be quite different from yours. However, you will never find yourself in a better place as a Christian business owner than the place that God has called you to Think about it!

Talk more later …

Over the past couple months, I have been much in prayer about God’s leadership in the development of my business. It has been a very interesting time with the Lord as he has clarified many things to me. While the details of God’s direction are not really important as they pertain to the specific needs of my business growth, the principles can apply to everyone considering God’s will in their business.

God led me to a passage in Proverbs 30 to teach me two key principles about the development of my business:

“Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.”  (Proverbs 30:7-9)

The first thing I came to was that my business was to be operated with transparency and integrity. No business can operate successfully for long based in “vanity and lies.” While I understand that you must be seen as an “expert” in your field for people to consider you, your business, or your advice, to take self-promotion to the extreme heights seen in business today smacks of vanity.

God’s word tells us conversely, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7)

When we work hard at what we do with transparency and integrity, God will put us in the right position at the right time for our business to be as He wills it to be.

The second key principle in these verses deals with the question, “How much is enough?” The writer here asks God for something that seems a bit out of step for our modern western culture. He asks to be neither poor nor rich, to be fed with food convenient (an appointment of quantity) for him.

The idea here was that people who are “poor” and hungry will steal to get their food, thus declaring God of no value to them while the “rich” will gorge themselves with every delight, thus declaring God unnecessary in their lives. What the writer is then saying is that he wanted to have all that should be appointed to him while not forgetting his reliance on God.

Too much emphasis is place on “how much” money is made these days while too little emphasis is placed on who we depend on to make it. Along with this, people are often overcome by the opportunities that wealth brings while forgetting its responsibilities.

Andrew Carnegie once said “You should spend the first half of your life making money and the second half of your life giving it away.” While most of us don’t have this luxury, it does remind us that those who have been given much, of them shall much be required.

Talk more later ….

The Jesus Model - Part 4

In this post we are going to look at the fourth principle that we see in the life and ministry of Jesus. This fourth principle is that: Jesus lived in an environment of prayer.

In Matthew 14:22-25 Jesus had spent a day laboring in a dessert place. He had taught and then fed a large crowd of people and when he sent them away, he headed into the mountain alone for a time of prayer with his Father. It was after this time alone with God the Father that he taught the disciples the lesson of faith by walking to them on the water.

Jesus prayed before he named the twelve, he prayed to the Father for blessings on his disciples and those who would get saved throughout the ages to come, and he prayed for God’s will to be done in the garden before he went to the cross.

How about us? Do we bath our businesses in prayer? Do we seek God’s guidance in who we bring on to our teams? Do we pray about the needs and direction of our businesses? Is prayer a principle element of our business growth?

I know for me it has not always been so. I got into network marketing without much prayer and worked to grow my business through the counsel of my upline leaders. (Again without much time with the Lord.) When I was the most successful I was praying much more and when I struggled I was “doing everything I was told to do” by my upline.

This principle ought to cause us all to think a bit, and maybe even to reevaluate our current business practices. Without clear guidence from the Lord we are just really throwing darts in the dark.

Following the principles of  The Jesus Model will always place us in the best place possible to give God the greatest glory in our bodies and our spirits, which are his!

Just my thoughts ….

As we look forward to the coming of a new year, what are you planning for your business?

I have been watching (and commenting) on a forum discussion. The discussion is about who should be recruited and how many at one time.

Unfortunately the majority of the responses are about Network Marketing being a numbers game and that we should recruit as many as possible (as long as they have a pulse) and then let the leaders just rise to the top.

There have been many though that have responded by saying that care should be taken in recruiting the right people at the right time. (My opinion by the way.)

I think that God’s word makes our treatment of others more important than our ability to make money. We are commanded to love those that God loves. When recruiting people we ought to love our prospective team members with the love of God.

Contrary to the popular notion that “anyone can build this business,”  the truth is that only 10-12% will make it 10 years and only 25% will be around in 5 years. What that means is that many will be recruited with virtually no chance to be successful.

Another misrepresentation that is often perpetrated on the potential recruit is that there are no real skills or talents that you need to be successful in this industry. So, we bring people in who think that just because they got in that they are supposed to be making money. The truth is that, like any business owner knows, you have to either have or develop a set of unique skills that are necessary for business success.

I think that there are five basics that you have to know in order to be successful in Network Marketing:

1. You need to understand the basics of money.

2. You need to understand the principles of leadership.

3. You need to understand the basics of marketing.

4. You need to understand what it means to be an entrepreneur.

5. You need to continue to improve in the area of personal growth.

If you do not sense that a prospective team member can learn and grow in these areas, you should not recruit them.

In an upcoming video I am going to deal with the difference between building a team and recruiting a group. In this video I will be talking about the fact that a team mentality results in success for all whereas a group mentality results in success for the leaders.

I believe that as we look to the new year and the success we are praying for, that we remember that we and our teams will be best served if we make money by building people rather than by “playing the numbers game!”

Just my thought ….

In Proverbs 22:4 the Bible states, “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life.” This passage allows us to understand a basic truth about us, our lives, and our businesses.

The basic truth is that if we, as believers, want to enjoy these three most basic elements of life, we can only find them in a life of humlity and fear of the Lord.

Humility is an interesting concept and one not often associated with the hard charging world of Network Marketing. Yet, God clearly teaches here that, for the Christian, it is the way to riches, honour, and life. So, how do we engage in an industry like network marketing and at the same time live a life of humility before God and man?

1. We realize that our business is a calling from God and not just a money making venture.
2. We accept God’s leadership in our business and build it at his pace and according to his will.
3. We take on the role of Servant Leader. Realizing that this kind of leadership takes more time, energy and often times more resources than the traditional upline might be willing to invest.
4. We recognize that our business is relational and that as such our testimony for Christ is more important than our company “pin level.”
5. We desire to retain everyone we personally bring into our business model. If they depart, we want them to know we have done all we could to help them succeed. (No more, “some will, some won’t, so what, NEXT!)

The  fear of the Lord is the other key to riches, honour, and life. This fear refers to a reverence for the Lord. This reverence should be seen in all the aspects of your business model.

No “half-truths”, no bending the rules, no looking the other way. When we reverence the Lord all that we do is done to his honour and his glory. As we humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God, he will exhalt us in due time.

So … how are you growing your business? Is it growing with humility and the fear of the Lord or are we just building like everyone else? If you really want to distinguish yourself from the pack, build God’s way and he will bless!

When we consider the whole concept business ownership and prosperity, the Bible must be our principle guide. The biggest problem I see among God’s people is that we like the passages that deal with having lots of money and prestiege, but we are not so sure about the passages that deal with how we are to get and/or handle the success and prosperity.

I cannot find anywhere in Scripture where God is opposed to either success or prosperity. However, there are warnings upon warnings about success and prosperity becoming the gods of our lives. If we are going to build a successful business based on the truths of God’s word, we must understand what God says regarding these things.

Psalm 1 is a single passage that deals with all the aspects necessary to produce both success and prosperity. In this short Psalm we see several things:

• Be careful who you take your advice from.  Psa 1:1  “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” There are lots of “gurus” in the Network Marketing arena, but because they built a big business does not in and of itself make them the people you should listen to about building a Christian business.
• Realize that your wisdom and knowledge needs to come from your understanding of the word of God. Psa 1:2  “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” No one knows more about how God wants you to build your business. No one will give you better advice than him. He may use people to help you learn the tactics, but the basics all come from his word!

• Know that if you let God be the your primary teacher and mentor, that he promises you success and prosperity. Psa 1:3  “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” God can confidently make this promise because if you are meditating in his word and making it your primary source of business wisdom, you will always build your business in a way that is pleasing to him. You will also see success and prosperity through God’s eyes not those in the world.

God does not give anyone who is a Christian carte blanc, but he does tell us that we can be successful when we understand his word and follow him in all things. So … will you let God have that place in your business?

When people think about their businesses, more often than not, they don’t also think about the Bible as a principle source of knowledge. Over the years as I have worked to build my business, I have bought and read may books written by the hot authors of the day. Many of them did have insight into things that help with the technical aspects of business. However, until recently I didn’t really consider the volumes of wisdom available to Christians from the greatest book ever written on any subject, The Bible.

The Bible doesn’t have the latest email marketing techniques, or the “magic bullet” for sponsoring, or even the best way to choose a company (although I’m not a convinced about this one). What it does have though is God’s view of life for all people. What life is all about, how to be successful in this life, and how to pass on that success to succeeding generations.

Over the course of the next couple weeks I am going to be posting some principles from God’s word that I believe should motivate serious believers with regard to the development of their network marketing business. I hope that you will be blessed and challenged by these principles (as I have been in studying and thinking them through on my own).

Please feel free to comment and add your wisdom to the conversation!

Look for more throughout the next couple weeks.