By Gary Johnson
Christianity “no longer enjoys the strong cultural supports that sustained it for many years.” This observation of Bishop Loya at our recent convention led him to offer us encouragement from the example of the Israelites in captivity in Babylon. Jeremiah urged the Israelites to settle in, “plant gardens, start families, engage and seek the welfare of this strange land where you have been placed”. I want to explore this further: How do we engage the Babylonians of our city through the workplace? Remember that Jeremiah also said: “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (NIV translation). How do Christians work for the prosperity and welfare of our non-Christian neighbors in Minnesota through our workplaces? Are we partnering with God through our work? And is it accurate that our world is a “zero sum battle of winners and losers”, as our Bishop suggested?
More humans have risen out of poverty in our lifetimes than any other period of civilization. This could not have happened without humans using their God given creativity (e.g., the Genesis creation mandate) and engaging collectively in businesses to provide useful services and products to our communities. The degree of well-being which society today enjoys would be unthinkable without the dynamic figure of the business person, whose function consists of organizing human labor and the means of production so as to give rise to the goods and services necessary for the prosperity and progress of the community.” US Catholic Bishops who in 1986. For me and many other Christians, a “zero sum” view of this world doesn’t match what we see. Nor do we discern God’s message through Jeremiah coming from a zero sum perspective.
“Think of God as an investment banker. He leveraged his resources to create a whole world of new life. In the same way, what if you see a human need not being met, you see a talent or resource that can meet that need, and you then invest your resources—at your risk and cost—so that the need is met and the result is new jobs, new products, and better quality of life? What you are doing . . . is actually God-like.” Fuller Seminary president Richard Mouw.
It has helped me in working in our modern day “Babylon” city to appreciate that God’s gifts of grace extends to everyone and God uses non-Christians as well as Christians to create a flourishing culture and city. “The doctrine of common grace is widely acknowledged as a teaching of the Bible. The idea is that God bestows gifts of wisdom, moral insight, goodness, and beauty across the human race, regardless of religious belief. Isaiah 45:1 speaks of Cyrus, a pagan king, who God anoints and uses for world leadership. Isaiah 28:23–29 tells us that when a farmer is fruitful, it is God who has taught him to be so. Romans 1 and 2 confirm that there is a primordial knowledge of God that all human beings have. In Romans 2:14–15, Paul says that God’s law is written on the heart of every human being—all people have an inward sense of morality, justice, love, the Golden Rule, and so on. All good and great artistic expressions, skillful farming, effective governments, scientific advances, etc., are God’s gifts to the human race (James 1:17).” Faith & Work by Missy Wallace & Lauren Gill.
I also recognize that empathy and humility are Godly virtues when working in businesses that have innately Godly purposes (e.g., the food industry) managed by humans born in the image of God but also separated from God. The late Dr. Rev. Timothy Keller often cautioned:
“An understanding of common grace, as well as an experience of God’s pardoning grace in Christ, should lead us to freely and humbly work with others who may not share our faith but can be used greatly by God to accomplish enormous good. At the same time, an understanding of the gospel worldview means we should at times respectfully pursue a different path or winsomely point out how our own Christian faith gives us powerful resources and guidance for what we are doing.”
“Christians’ disengagement from popular culture usually carries over into dualism at work. “Dualism” is a term used to describe a separating wall between the sacred and the secular. It is a direct result of a thin view of sin, common grace, and God’s providential purposes. . . (Remember how Luther railed against the separation of all work into the “spiritual estate” and the “temporal estate.”) This kind of dualism comes both from a failure to see the panoramic scope of common grace and the subtle depths of human sin. People with this view cannot see that work done by non-Christians always contains some degree of God’s common grace as well as the distortions of sin. And they cannot see that work done by Christians, even if it overtly names the name of Jesus, is also significantly distorted by sin.”
“The integration of faith and work is the opposite of dualism. We should be willing to be very engaged with the cultural and vocational worlds of non-Christians. Our thick view of sin will remind us that even explicitly Christian work and culture will always have some idolatrous discourse within it. Our thick view of common grace will remind us that even explicitly non-Christian work and culture will always have some witness to God’s truth in it. Because Christians are never as good as their right beliefs should make them and non-Christians are never as bad as their wrong beliefs should make them, we will adopt a stance of critical enjoyment of human culture and its expressions in every field of work. We will learn to recognize the half-truths and resist the idols; and we will learn to recognize and celebrate the glimpses of justice, wisdom, truth, and beauty we find around us in all aspects of life.”
(Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor)
A PRAYER FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Father God, we pray for those in our city and our church who are entrepreneurs. We pray for them to understand the new roles you are calling them to play in their community. We pray you would bless these ventures, allowing them to create new jobs and ask that you would protect the investments made by those who are starting new businesses. May you be at the center of these new ventures, directing their motivation and allowing the fruits of their work to be reinvested for your glory and honor.
We pray for those who feel a sense of loneliness or despair in the early stages of their new ventures. We pray you would surround them with loving community and support that offers them wisdom, guidance, and discernment to their new endeavors. We pray for those whose new businesses are in need of funding–fill their leaders with a reliance on you and comfort as they come to you to sustain them.
We pray as new businesses are being formed that you would provide a solid foundation for them. We pray the values of these organizations would be shaped by you as the cornerstone for the goals, vision, and objectives of the enterprise. May each new venture be a service to the community reflecting your love and your justice.
We pray you will give our entrepreneurs strength and humility as they face the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
© 2021 Global Faith & Work Initiative
