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What Makes a Business Christian?

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What Makes a Business Christian
Article published in Christian Week
R. Paul Stevens
 
The presence of a Christian in a business does not necessarily mean the business is Christian, as some Christians keep their faith and daily work in separate compartments.
Here are 10 things that can mark a Christian business.
1. The presence of Christians with a sphere of influence. Owners, managers and employees can “incarnate” their values into every aspect of a business. Clerks, for instance, can draw an imaginary 30-foot radius around their work station and regard it as their “parish” where all people, structures, equipment and interactions are within their circle of prayer and influence.
2. A product or service in harmony with God’s creational purpose. Adam and Eve were called to be priests of creation, to “work it and take care of it” as trustees and stewards (Gen. 2:15). They (and all of us who are restored to our human vocation through new life in Christ) had three full-time jobs: communion with God, community-building, and co-creativity with God (the latter including productive jobs and trade). Almost no place in the work-world is so demonized that a Christian might not be called to serve there (exceptions being businesses that thrive on prostitution, drug traffic, weapons and the exploitation of the poor). ...

The Intrinsic Value of Work

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The Intrinsic Value of Work
In the Light of the Doctrines of Creation, Redemption and Eschatology
By Siew Li Wong

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to provide the theological bases for the intrinsic value of work by considering the doctrines of creation, redemption and eschatology. While noting that all Christian doctrines are relevant for all of life (Banks), the discussion in this paper is limited to three doctrines only. These doctrines were chosen for embodying the breadth of God’s action in history from beginning to end. They are important for our purposes because “if we are to understand what human existence is, and what human beings are destined or called to be, we must see these human beings as belonging within the allembracing coherences of God’s history with the world” (Moltmann, God, 189).

Reading the Bible in the Global Marketplace

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Reading the Bible in the Global Marketplace
R. Paul Stevens
Professor Emeritus, Marketplace Theology,
Regent College

“What do you teach at Regent College?” This seemingly innocent question was broached by the guest master of an Orthodox monastery. I had undertaken a four-day pilgrimage on Mount Athos, the monastic peninsula of the Eastern church. In the course of praying my way from monastery to monastery I struck up a soul friendship with one of the guestmasters. “Marketplace theology is what I teach.” “What’s that?” - his inquisitiveness now aroused by something foreign, he thought, to the spiritual life. “It is the integration of Christian faith with work in the world.” “It’s not possible,” he retorted.  “That’s why I am a monk.” I can understand how he came to that erroneous view. It has to do with how we read the Bible, how we regard the spiritual life and whether the God-coming of Jesus was really into the work-a-day world that we inhabit.

Profit

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Profit, as defined by the accounting profession, is the excess of a business’s total revenues over total costs. Economists define pure profit as the amount of money remaining after making all payments for productive services and raw materials after the going rate of payments for the capital invested has been deducted. Profit is the estimated claim on wealth that can be used as capital for new efforts to create wealth. A Christian perspective on profit requires a correct understanding of what profit actually is, how it is created, who has a just claim on it and what role it plays in a business, all in the context of a biblical understanding of human nature, stewardship, justice and community.

Organizational Culture and Change

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Culture is a dimension not only in the life of countries and ethnic groups but also in organizations. Every organization has a corporate “feeling” or environment that communicates to new and old members what is important and what is permitted. This is true of businesses, small groups, clubs, churches, nonprofit and parachurch organizations. The minute a person walks into the meeting room, the store, the office or the sanctuary, he or she picks up a nonverbal message that is more powerful than such mottoes as “The customer is number one”; “We exist to give extraordinary service”; “This is a friendly, family church.” Culture turns out to be profoundly influential in determining behavior, expressing values and enabling or preventing change.

Loyalty in a Short-Term World

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Loyalty in a short-term world
Peter Curran
In a bygone era of stable work structures, when the public sector held many jobs and industries looked invulnerable, loyalty was a two-way street. Many large organizations offered the deal of job security in exchange for loyalty and hard work. If you were loyal to the company by doing your job consistently and conscientiously, doing as you were asked, going the extra mile when necessary, then the company would reciprocate loyalty through security -- continued employment, career progression, and the benefits of lengthening service.

Business Ethics

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Business Ethics
by David W. Gill
 Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics (New York:Macmillan, 2005)
1. Introduction
“Business ethics” names both a phenomenon (“the ethics espoused and practiced in business”) and the field of study of that phenomenon (“the serious study of business ethics”). As a branch of ethics (or moral philosophy), business ethics is interested in how judgments of right and wrong, good and bad, moral obligation and responsibility, rights and duties, and the like, are made and justified. As a branch of applied ethics it explores how these judgments are carried out in a specific domain, in this case, that of work, commerce, and economic activity.

Accurate Weights and Measures

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Introduction
In Larry Burkett’s Business By The Book1, he opens his chapter on “Discounting Decisions” with a case study of a car salesman. Burkett concludes the case study by quoting Proverbs 11:1 (“The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight.”2) and submitting that the car salesman “has a different weight in his bag for different customers.”3
In this paper I will discuss the Biblical concept of “weights and measures,” and specifically the issue of unfair or differing weights and measures, and try to answer the question “what does it mean to use accurate weights and measures?” To do this I will identify and discuss biblical and background information in order to identify and reflect on essential principles that are contained within the biblical material.

Work

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Work, whether in its presence or absence, is a pervasive part of everyday life. One of the first things we want to know about people is what they do. The waking time of most adults is taken up with work, and a person’s passing is often noted in terms of their workplace achievements. Work and worth, industry and identity, are very closely related in contemporary culture. This article deals with work in this modern context. It will examine (1) a wider definition of work, (2) a biblically integrated view of work, (3) the disintegration of work and faith, (4) reintegrating spirituality and work and (5) redirecting Sunday towards Monday.

A Wider Definition of Work

Over the last two centuries work has become equated with a job.

This is a seismic shift in our understanding of ourselves, our world and even our God. It has had earthquake like effects on people’s emotional, family, social and spiritual life. The tremors have been felt hardest by the overworked, the unemployed, housewives, the forcibly retired and the attention-deprived children.

Wealth – Blessing, Temptation or a Sacrament?

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Wealth: A Blessing, Temptation, or a Sacrament?

R. Paul Stevens

Hardly anyone wants to be poor; most would like to be rich.  Wealth brings power, standing in the community, increased leisure, and freedom from worry--so it is thought.  Not surprisingly in the richest part of the world many Christians are preaching a "prosperity gospel"--that faithfulness to Jesus will lead to personal wealth.  Tragically, this distorted message is now taking root in some of the poorest countries of the world.  Is wealth a sign of God's blessing?  Is money the main measure of wealth?  Does the Bible endorse wealth, promote it or exclude it?  How are we to respond in spirit and action?  Our souls hang on our answers to these questions. 

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