Christian Business Builder

When Jesus was preparing to assemble the twelve into a unit, he didn’t just take the first twelve who came along.

His choices were very exacting and were the result of time spent with God the Father in prayer. (And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor. Luke 6:12-16)

When looking at those that he chose, not all of them would have been the pick many would have made.

Some were loud mouthed and impulsive, some had enemies that would brand them as hypocrites, some were people who were to “goodie-goodie” for the sinful crowd, and one was a traitor looking for a chance to gain power for himself.

Yet, these were the ones Jesus chose out of all those who had accepted him as the Messiah.

What is the lesson we can learn from this kind of choosing?

1. We need to be selective in the building of our team. Having the people on board that God wants will far outweigh having everyone in who wants to join up. (I have a friend in Australia who was among the top 5 distributors in his company with only 5 personally sponsored front-line.)

2. We need to sponsor with much prayer and with the goal of serving God in mind. When God gets the glory for all we do in business we will be blessed for our efforts. (Don’t ever confuse “success” with God’s blessing. His blessings come when we are empty of self and are seeking his honor above everything else.)

3. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Remember, the twelve Jesus chose had a whole host of problems that they had to work through all the time they were with Jesus.

4. Accept the role as servant leader. Jesus took the twelve and began the process of training them for the work that they were to accomplish. His focus was their training and their skills and their knowledge. His greatest desire was their success. You should build your team that way!

As Jesus took these men aside and committed his life to train them, they gained an understanding of his vision of life and his world-view. When he left them to continue the work without him, they were ready to do all that Jesus had done and even greater things because Jesus built the right team.

You are not Jesus, nor do you have the insights that he has, but you should take care, as a believer, in the development of your team. When God is pleased with the team you build, you and it will accomplish things that would otherwise not be accomplished on your own.

Just a thought ….

I am on kind of a crusade these days. I see ads all the time that deal with the subject of sponsoring. These ads all tell us that if we just buy an ebook or learn social marketing that we can have an endless supply of leads and sponsor large quantities of new distributors (10, 15, even 20 per month).

We are then told to expect a 95% drop-out rate and to just keep sponsoring and the “cream will rise to the top.”

Then I look at the life of our Lord Jesus and see that when he built his team, that he did it with twelve (none of which could really be called the cream) rather than with the multitudes.

By building a smaller team, Jesus was able to teach them on a personal level. He could spend time with them and answer there questions, deal with their pride, correct their faltering faith, and just be there for them all the time.

It makes me wonder … should Christian networkers learn a lesson from our Master on this one?

I think so. I would rather work with a group of 12 close friends whose lives I can touch and who can touch mine than to sponsor so many people that I really don’t know who they are or what they are really looking for in life.

Could there be a Judas among my 12. Yes, but Jesus carried on and the gospel was still preached in spite of him.

I just don’t want to get to the end of my life and know that most of the people I told about my great business opportunity knowing that 95% of the people I sold on business ownership failed to be successful.

I know many will say, “I gave them a chance and their success is up to them.”

I am glad Jesus never determined that my spiritual success was to be left up to me!

Even as a believer, I can still know great success if I will just walk with the greatest teacher and mentor ever given. (The Holy Spirit)

My opinion is in the manority in the industry but I still hold to it.

If you wan to know more about why I think this way just email me and let’s get together and talk!

Dave