Is It Kingdom or Business?

on Jan 19 in Church, Faith, Leadership

Often times, when I’m having coffee or a meal with Christian business leaders, there will be an initial period of chatting about our personal lives.  We catch up on our families, our vacation plans, and the weather.  Once that’s finished, there’s the inevitable turn of the conversation toward the real reason we’re together Рour business relationship.  And at that turn, many people will say something like this:

‚ÄúLet me put my business hat on now…‚Äù

My business hat. I know what many of them are saying Рthey’re transitioning into a business discussion.  And that’s fine.  But many people aren’t simply bending the direction of a discussion.  Many Christian business leaders (and church pastors?) have become experts at segmenting their lives along the dividing line of “that which is Kingdom”, and “that which is Business”.

For these leaders, when they say, ‚ÄúI‚Äôm gonna put my business hat on now…‚Äù, many of them are really saying, ‚ÄúWe‚Äôre gonna talk about money now, and there‚Äôs no connection between the way I behave financially and the way I behave spiritually.‚Äù¬† Oftentimes, their behavior proves it.

I propose an alternative.  I would propose that every Christian business leader (and every church pastor) must always choose to wear his or her Kingdom hat.  It’s the only article of Kingdom clothing we never take off.  We wear it during the day, and we wear it with our families at night.  It informs and guides Every Thing, not just Sunday Things.  Every organizational decision we make comes with our Kingdom hat on Рwhether it’s financial, people, resources, salaries, or visionary Рit ALL needs to be done “as unto the Lord.”

And when we live like this, it will feel upside-down.¬† Our decisions won’t make sense.¬† We will give more grace than ever.¬† We will be branded as “nonsensical”, or as “lacking business or leadership skills”.

Welcome to the Kingdom.