Business Matters!

Article by Rev Bridget Adams

Business woman and Chaplain in the Business community in Watford.

What is the role of business in God’s purposes?  If you thought it didn’t have one then think again!  Business people have always been involved in God’s mission; in the New Testament we are introduced to Paul, Lydia, Dorcas, Priscilla and Aquilla amongst many others.  And since then Christian business people have played key parts in spreading the gospel.  These days, Business as Mission (BAM) is being used to bring about transformation across the world.   Let me explain why business is so well placed to do this today.

Broadly, and perhaps crudely, speaking, in the pre-modern period the Church shaped society, in the modern period the nation state shaped it and in the contemporary, or post-modern, world society is shaped by businesses. And they shape it across the whole world, operating across national borders in globalized markets. By the end of the last century, neo-liberalism, where market forces are given precedence over all other considerations, had created a society where economics had replaced science, which the century before had replaced theology, as the main way in which society attempts to explain the world. From Church to nation to business; from theology to science to economics. Our world has changed and the Church can no longer shape the world around it directly. But people haven’t changed, their need for God hasn’t changed and God’s plan hasn’t changed.

If it is business that shapes the world, then why can’t the Church work in and through business to shape it for good and for God?   Shaping it for good brings greater justice and relief from poverty for the world’s poor, and the dignity of useful labour for all those who want it.  Shaping it for God brings “life in its fullness”, a life reconnected with the One who made us and loves us.  And all of that is good news.

In October 2009 I joined 29 other people at Wheaton College, near Chicago.  Theologians, business leaders, financiers and church leaders from across the world took part in a global consultation on Business as Integral Calling, discussing these opportunities.  During that week we generated what has now become a Wheaton Declaration., which has just been published on
www.businessaic.com

It makes interesting reading and I urge you to take a look.   In the opening section of the declaration,  it affirms the role that business can play in alleviating poverty and laments “ that the church and business itself have undervalued business  as a vehicle for living out Christ’s calling, and have relied excessively on non-profit approaches that have resulted in dependence, waste, and an unnecessary loss of human dignity”. It refers to the “sacred calling of a life in business” and asks the Church to consider how it might encourage and support Christian business people to live out this calling.

The Wheaton Declaration concludes; “It is our deep conviction that businesses that function in alignment with the core values of the Kingdom of God are playing and increasingly should play an important role in holistic transformation of individuals, communities and societies.”

This matters greatly to me, as I work with Kingdom businesses operating various Business as Mission models.  Through the Kingdom Business School and working in The Hub in Watford, we see the effect of businesses run to help build the Kingdom at first hand. But it also matters to the whole Church.  Most local churches will include business people, and from a parish perspective the question might be “how can I best encourage and support these people”.  Because business really can be a sacred calling.

Background and links
Originally from the hi-tech business sector, Revd Dr Bridget Adams has extensive experience in general management, marketing and sales management, all at director level. She has been a consultant for the past 17 years, and as part of that work holds non-executive directorships. Her consultancy work has also included writing, including many years of specialist journalism. More recently she has developed roles in spiritual leadership in business and as a pioneer minister in the Church of England. She is on the faculties of the Watford School of Leadership and the Kingdom Business School.  Bridget is also a specialist in the theology of work and spirituality in the workplace, and is the author of Christ in the Marketplace.
www.workplaceinspired.com
www.thehubwatford.com
www.wsol.org.uk

In Solidarity with Christ.

Kate Stacey’s Reflection

The gospel reading where a woman anoints Jesus with oil, defying a plethora of codes, [Mark 14:1-11] came on Monday 5 October, a week after the start of the Awesome conference in Derbyshire.
I treasure this beautiful story of a brave woman, anointing Jesus, and recognise the proximity of Jesus receiving this ministry from her, and Judas going to the chief priests. Having listened at the conference to stories of suffering and exclusion from some women in ministry, then reading this passage afresh I was struck by the cost to Jesus of including and affirming women.
The woman in the passage comes into the place of men, where she is not welcome. She comes bringing with her the riches that she possesses, and, against all odds, pours out those riches in the service of Christ, to the scandal of the men present. For these men, who up until this point had not had to consider what women might bring to their space, suddenly feelings of uncertainty and insecurity arise.
I imagine this would be, for her, a little like walking into the lion’s den, cutting across all manner of social norms and accepted ways of being and behaving, clutching her most precious possession, a jar of ointment that would have cost her approximately what she would have earned in a year. There is nothing else she can do, because that is where she has to go to serve her Lord, and she is compelled to take with her the very best she has. But then, she finds she is not alone. Jesus, recognising her value and that of what she brings, does not stand at the side, waiting for her to take all the risks to come to him. He goes and meets her at the centre of the lion’s den. He affirms what this woman has bought, the prophetic and audacious ministry that she has provided that was lacking when she was not there.
It seems here that this risk that Jesus took, meeting her, responding to her ministry, is what finally pushes Judas over the edge. He cannot believe that someone who knows the heart of God would accept what this woman offers. This encounter with this woman is more than Judas can take – he goes to betray Jesus. In this way, Mark suggests that Jesus’ acceptance of her ministry leads directly to his death.
Of course, this does not make the experiences of some women in the church today, still walking into lion’s dens for the sake of Christ, acceptable. However, it does assure us that as we take these risks, we do so standing in a long tradition of risk takers, in memory of her, and in solidarity with Christ.

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