Author Profile
Derek Brown
For the past ten years Derek has worked in publishing. He was the editor and publisher of a nationally distributed Christian newspaper called the Alternative with a readership of several hundred thousand.
Derek's background in church leadership has seen him speak regularly to church congregations, lecture in Bible Colleges and speak at seminars both within Australia and other countries. His passion for the Kingdom has led him to develop a website www.rediscoveringthekingdom.info and has seen him speak to leadership groups within Australia and overseas on the principles of the Kingdom. Derek also runs a Internet marketing business called Using the Net at www.using-the-net.com and lives with his daughter Samantha on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia.
Article Archive here
Business As Mission - Derek Brown
Just came across an excellent article on the theme 'Business as Mission'.
The greatest "unrealized potential" in the Christian movement for the next 20 years probably rests on the shoulders of Christian business people. That's great news for every Christian person who loves business. Talk about a life of adventure. What more could you ask for when your faith and your love for business intersect?
The marketplace is the only institution that touches virtually every person on planet earth. Pastors are very limited in their direct exposure to the marketplace. At the same time, the marketplace in general terms doesn't look to professional church staff for guidance on managing their business. They do look to their pastors to help disciple them on how to live out their faith, but most haven't showed them how to connect it to the marketplace.
Here is the $70 billion question. What is our strategy to reach this world for Christ? Do we try to hire another 600,000 pastors, missionaries, worship leaders,etc?? Or do we unleash 6 million business people to take the Christian movement to the next level?
For too long, many faithful Christians have "out sourced" their responsibilities as believers. They give generously to the church and then allow the "organized church" to do the work. Honestly, it's easier. You can live your life in compartments. There's your task driven, results oriented, hard charging business world. Then there is your church world.
But what happens when you are asked to combine your sacred activities and your spiritual activities? Have we been indoctrinated to believe that oil and water do not mix? No wonder many successful entrepreneurs and business owners can't wait to "cash out" when they are 50 or 55. For them, perhaps business was all about business.
There is a new generation of business leaders who see the world differently. For them, God has called them into business. Their company is to be used by God for His purposes. They are passionate about creating products or services. They love marketing and sales. They are always mindful of the bottom line. But there is a higher calling. Everything that the church stands for is actually expressed in "real terms" in their business.
Most people today, don't think this way but we need to see that more do. I'm convinced that we can discuss terms like Business as Mission and Marketplace Ministry and so many other subtleties until we are blue in the face but unless the bridge between our sacred spaces of Sunday morning is bridged with our work, then we'll continue to struggle in living a segmented life.
Bridging The Sunday-Monday Gap - Derek Brown
For many Christians the highlight of their week is the Sunday service. Sadly many believe this is where the Kingdom of God is primarily expressed. Ministry is confined to that which is done within the church. This is demonstrated in the true story of a young lawyer who was asked what her ministry was. She replied “I teach Sunday school at my church” What a travesty!! Nothing she did during the week in bringing justice, compassion and resolution to the world in which she worked counted, in her mind, as having any spiritual value. How can we change people’s thinking to break free of this Sunday/Monday dichotomy?
Simply put we need to disavow the concept that divides the world into secular vs sacred, private vs public, faith vs work and charity vs justice. When we understand the Kingdom of God it is evident that everything is sacred because God is the creator of all things and nothing exists outside of His love and compassion. Our faith makes us responsible to bring the Kingdom into every area of life. In the words of Justine, a Burundian living in Rwanda, "I see what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God. I see that it's about changing this world, not just escaping it and retreating into our churches. If Jesus' message of the kingdom of God is true, then everything must change. Everything must change."
What a profound insight – when the Kingdom is expressed – everything must change. The change begins in us and then it finds its expression in the world in which we live and work. It is about bringing God’s mercy, compassion, justice and righteousness into every sphere of His creation. So our lawyer friend has the opportunity and responsibility to bring about change in her chosen field of endeavour by using her gifts, training and experience to be an agent for change – an agent for the Kingdom.
One of the reasons many people switch off from Christianity is that we represent a faith that has no relevance to them. Henry Drummond, writing to his own generation many years ago put it powerfully. “It is because to large masses of people Christianity has become synonymous with a Temple service that other large masses of people decline to touch it…..what they cannot follow, and must evermore live outside of, is a worship which ends with the worshipper, a religion expressed only in ceremony, and a faith unrelated to life.” What a challenge – our faith has become self-centered and irrelevant to the real world.
What we are looking at is a rediscovery of Kingdom theology. This has many aspects but one of the starting points is the doctrine of the Trinity. In a recent Lausanne paper on ‘Market Place Ministry’ the following conclusion was presented. ”To bridge the gap in our partial perceptions of God’s work we need to be more thoroughly trinitarian instead of having in practice a unitarian (one person) theology playing favourites with the Trinity. We need to develop a three mandate/commission theology (see diagram)”
In these three commissions we see that the breadth of the Kingdom. “We are called to be part of God’s new creation, called to be agents of that new creation here and now. We are called to model and display that new creation in symphonies and family life, in restorative justice and poetry, in holiness and service to the poor, in politics and painting.” (Wright) The Kingdom is expressed in a wide variety of passions. Once we see the vastness of the Kingdom it helps understand how other people can be equally passionate about a range of issues that may not stir our hearts. This passion is an expression of the heart of God for His creation. We are to pursue the passion God has given us but equally to validate and appreciate the passion He has put in others.
So from a Kingdom perspective there is no difference between Sunday and Monday. It can be argued in fact that what happens on Monday is more important.
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