Wrestling With Business And Ministry

In Business as a Calling, Nelson Cooney helps young men and women wrestle with their life calling and encourages them to consider glorifying God in business. Many read this message and find that their thinking is completely changed in the area of business. Most have always thought of business as something you do to make money, and church as the place you really glorify God. Now, obviously serving in your local church is a great way to glorify God. But, Nelson Cooney says, so is pursuing business. And Cooney’s passion is infectious. Yet, the message doesn’t just point you to business. Instead, Cooney points young adults to pursue whatever vocation God has called them to with a passion that glorifies their creator.

Here is something to ponder, using business is a viable way of bringing the gospel to many countries in the world, and business is a great way to model lives of integrity and discipleship. We can look to the apostle Paul as one who lead in this area by example. He sometimes accepted support from other churches (See Philippians 4:10-20), but he also worked as a tentmaker. In Corinth, he chose to work in order draw a distinction between him and the false teachers, who lived off of those to whom they preached. In Thessalonica, Paul worked day and night in order not to be a burden to any of the Thessalonians while he preached the gospel to them (See 1 Thessalonians 2:9). Paul was able to pack up shop—so to speak—and go into all the world to minister and preach while using his skill as a tent maker.

Why should Christians be involved with business? There are many good reasons for doing business and certainly we will not do justice to this topic. But here are a couple thoughts:

First, business glorifies God. Wayne Grudem, for example, has written Business for the Glory of God, which is a good primer on how we can use business to worship God. Grudem’s thesis is that we can glorify God through business since we can imitate His character in how we conduct ourselves and the operations of a company.

Second, Christians should work in business because that’s most of where the world lives—the world in which Christ calls us to be salt and light. Mark Greene has written a helpful book called Thank God it’s Monday: Ministry in the Workplace. There he discusses many ways in which we as believers should be looking at the workplace as a mission field of its own, in which we can live out our faith and share the Gospel.

Yes, business can be terribly misused—just as can anything God created for good. But, even in our fallen world business can and should glorify the One who created it. Grudem uses scripture to show that what we think of as “secular” tasks like ownership, production, and employment glorify God as they reflect His character.

So be encouraged to share in Paul’s joy in taking the Gospel to parts of the world where it has not yet gone so that God can be glorified in those new places:

It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: ‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.' Romans 15:21

Let it be understood that business done unto the Lord is valid ministry in and of itself. Business done unto the Lord will change lives and economies at the same time, and there doesn't need to be a distinction between business and church planting. If the Kingdom business is done correctly, then church planting will be a natural result.