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SfK Ministries
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Newsletter - July 2017
Friday, July 7, 2017
Shalom
Excerpt #3 from The Missional Entrepreneur by Mark
Russell
The spiritual mission of business is not to establish a
kingdom of wealth and power but to bring the kingdom of God into tangible
reality. The kingdom of God can be most simply defined as God’s reign. So, the kingdom is the manifestation of God’s ideals,
principles, values, and will. It can also be understood as a physical
expression of a spiritual reality.
The
kingdom of God is not an esoteric, abstract concept; rather it is observable and
concrete. When we see expressions of love, generosity, and grace these can be
said to be a glimpse of the kingdom of God. This is not to say that everything
about the kingdom of God is observable and physical. The kingdom of God refers
to God’s reign over all things, both visible and invisible, both physical and
spiritual, throughout all of creation. But it is, as Methodist missionary and
theologian E. Stanley Jones pointed out, realism and not idealism.
Jesus came
preaching the kingdom of God. It is His primary message as well as the message
of Scripture. It is something real that has been happening for all eternity and
since the beginning of time. Thus it has a historical quality. It is the
unfolding story of God throughout creation. It is seen through the Old
Testament, particularly in the concept of shalom,
which is typically defined and translated as peace. However, it carries a
stronger connotation than peace. It is more of a worldview where all things
function in harmony.
Like
shalom, the kingdom of God is a holistic paradigm, meaning that it covers every
area of life. It is not simply about church activities or Sunday sermons,
although these are definitely a part. It is focused on God’s redemptive plan of
reconciling all things unto himself (Colossians 1:20).
God’s
enemies oppose His kingdom. They are attempting to establish their own kingdoms
and seek through antagonistic and antithetical practices to bring harm to the
kingdom of God. Human beings
choose which kingdom they will promote. Though they may not be aware of the
importance of their choices, they are responsible for them.
The kingdom
of God is one of grace, mercy, love, justice, righteousness, and judgment.
Though these may seem like mutually contradictory aspects, they are not. God in
His wisdom and sovereignty rightfully balances these aspects and the tension
involved in human responsibility and the results of our moral choices.
Many
Christians think of the kingdom of God purely in future terms. However, there
is biblical warrant for understanding the kingdom of God as being manifested on
earth in the current age, at least in part. Christ prayed for the kingdom to
come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
Would it not be odd for Christ to pray for the kingdom to come if it were
purely a heavenly reality? Failing to understand the present reality of the
kingdom of God has caused many Christians to become withdrawn or inactive.
Business
can be at the forefront of creating chaos or it can bring spiritual good into
physical reality. The integration of economic and social systems transpiring in
the world today is most commonly referred to by the term globalization. The reality of globalization means that we are more
interdependent than ever before. Now, when we call a customer service line we
are likely to be connected to someone in another country. But it is not just
offshore call centers. It’s everything. Businesses of all types are integrated
around the world. Supply chains spread across continents and wire transfers
unite financial institutions just as fiber-optic cables across the ocean floor
enable us to communicate broadly and quickly.
Nearly
every day I relate with people in several different countries. For the most
part I use email, but I also frequently have video conference calls over the
Internet. On some days I’ll communicate directly with people in more than ten
different countries. Most of it I’ll do through the Internet, without any fees
charged to me. We are living in interesting days, indeed.
As the
world is becoming increasingly integrated, we are becoming more aware and
knowledgeable of various illnesses, injustices, problems, and suffering around
the world. The population in developing countries is growing exponentially.
Sadly, suffering instead of success is accompanying this increase. Every day,
almost 2,000 babies are infected with HIV, either during pregnancy, at birth,
or through breastfeeding.1 A sixth of the world’s countries receive
two-thirds of the world’s income. For every $1 created through exports, $0.03
goes to low-income countries.2 More than 2.8 billion people live on
less than $2 a day, and 1.2 billion people live on $1 or less.3
Business
can be a means of bringing justice to the poor and disenfranchised around the world.
Or it can be a way to exploit them and/or the natural resources of their land.
Jesus called us to love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39). In our new global
reality, our neighbor can be rightfully understood as numerous people groups
scattered around the globe.
This love
for God and neighbor needs to be the foundational principle on which the
missional entrepreneur stands. Christ said this love for God and neighbor was
of utmost importance (Matthew 22:37–39). Paul said that love was the greatest
attribute (1 Corinthians 13:13). John wrote, “Dear
friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves
has been born of God and knows God…If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his
brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has
seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen”
(1 John 4:7, 20). We must emphasize the importance of love in all
that we do, including business.
Business
as mission reflects a desire for the kingdom of God to be manifested in a
substantive way in the present age. When business fulfills its spiritual
mission it can contribute significantly to creating economic shalom for many of the world’s peoples.
Missional
entrepreneurs can have an important and vital role in an age of economic globalization.
They can serve as practical extensions of the church to relieve people’s
sufferings, and they can demonstrate physically the love of God by loving their
neighbor. In doing this they can extend the kingdom of God, God’s reign on
earth, and spread the shalom of God
around the world.
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