Rich Marshall is concluding a
talk at a Business Men's Fellowship (BMF)
conference in Los Angeles. After inviting several pastors
in the crowd to join him, the group kneels in the hotel
banquet room. Then the former pastor leads the group in an
apology for the way they have misused and misunderstood
businessmen.
"There is no division
between church and business, clergy and laity, ministers in
church and ministers in business," he says.
"In the name of Jesus, we release a new
creativity, power, anointing, authority and dominion over
you."
Later, the reaction from various
members of the group is pronounced.
"I broke down and wept
like a baby," says Ronny Svenhard, BMF's
national president and CEO of a family-owned bakery in
Oakland, California. "He articulated
what's been in my gut ever since the Lord called me
to a business vision, for us to use our business for the
kingdom of God."
Such emotion doesn't
surprise Marshall, who left the pulpit in 1999 to speak to
businessmen about God. He has seen similar reactions in
places as close as Nashville and as far away as Australia.
It isn't just that businessmen need affirmation, he
says, but that pastors need to understand the potential of
the army within their grasp.
"We need to get pastors
to walk in faith instead of fear," says the author
of
God@Work,
godisworking.com. "Their fear
is that if business people understand ministry outside the
church, they'll leave. That's not true.
They're going to want to be equipped.
"Number two,
they're afraid that their money will stop coming
in; if they somehow lose control over them, they'll
stop getting their tithe. The reality is they'll
probably get double or triple the amount of money they used
to get."
Another mistake pastors make is
expecting busy business leaders to set aside their
responsibilities for "church
work."
Marshall recalls meeting a
wealthy real estate developer he met in the Philippines.
The man ran a cell group for his church and faithfully
attended other services--and was on the verge of
burnout.
When Marshall warned the
man's pastor that he was pushing the developer too
hard, the developer and his wife burst into tears because
the pastor was making so many demands on their time.
"They don't
have time to spend hours [doing church work],"
Marshall says. "They're busy already.
Pastors shouldn't make it where they have to come
to meetings. Just go get their input. When we make them fit
our mold, we're chasing them out of the
church."
Another key misunderstanding is
the value of theological training as a prerequisite to
serving God, says Ed Silvoso, founder of Harvest
Evangelism.
The native of Argentina spent
seven years as a hospital administrator and financier
before entering ministry. Yet only recently did he discern
that God's anointing was on him as a businessman,
just as in evangelism. The problem today is that instead of
equipping members to do the work of ministry, pastors try
to do the work themselves, he says.
"A businessman
isn't going to do the same things as a
pastor," Silvoso says. "We need to equip
the saints to do the work so every believer is a shepherd
of a congregation of lost sheep."
The evangelist sees the story of
Zacchaeus in Luke 19 as a key passage in understanding what
was lost when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Not only were
human relationships fractured, the divine order in the
workplace was disrupted by God cursing the ground, he
explains.
Silvoso says that the
marketplace needs to be restored according to the order of
Luke 10, when Jesus sent out his disciples to spread the
good news. First they had to bless the lost, fellowship
with them and pray for miracles. Only then could they
declare that the kingdom of God was near.
"But instead of
blessing the lost, we curse them," says the author
of
Anointed for Business. "Instead of
fellowshipping with them, we avoid them. Rather than pray
for them to do well, we hope they go broke so
they'll see they need God. Instead of following the
pattern, we begin with preaching and get
nowhere."
The good news is that this is
about to change, according to Kent Humphreys, president of
Fellowship of Companies for Christ International, and CEO
of a company that manufactures medical testing kits.
In recent months, pastors have
asked him for help in relating to and equipping business
leaders--something they never learned in seminary.
Ministers often make up 10 percent of the audience at his
speaking engagements.
"The way we do church
and reach the community is changing," says
Humphreys, who has led people to Christ over lunch, in his
office and at nursing homes. "It's not a
new message. The church is just open to
it."
By Ken Walker, a regular
contributor to
New Man.
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