Christian Business Review 2019: Workplace Practices That Glorify God (Issue 8)

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE
CBR PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
reminds us of the value work plays in our lives. He shares five
biblical principles regarding work that are drawn out of the
first five books of the Bible: 19
1. Work is part of our God-imaging dignity;
2. Work has been corrupted and degraded by human sin;
3. Work is to be undertaken with integrity and justice;
4. Work is limited by Sabbath;
5. Work can be virtuous when undertaken with faith, hope,
and love and is an expression of God’s call for all human
beings. 19
All too often, Christians hold on to point two in the list
above and use it as an excuse not to engage in various
aspects of society that, in reality, can be used to glorify God
and benefit our culture. Grudem reminds us that “in every
aspect of business there are multiple layers of opportunities
to give glory to God, as well as multiple temptations to
sin.” 20 Christians can use their occupation to glorify God even
if the industry doesn’t seem to be a God-honoring profession
on the surface.
Part of the task for the Christian manager is to model
Christlike behavior throughout their work experiences.
We are called to display genuine care for others. Both the
marketing function of promotion and the research that
garnered the insights gives the marketer the ability to truly
meet the needs of their customers. Philippians 2:4 exhorts
us to watch out for the interests of others: “Let each of you
look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of
others.” 21 An excellent management philosophy can identify
what the needs (interests) of others are and care for them in
a way that is God-honoring, benefiting both the consumer
and the company in the process.
Grimes and Bennett suggest Christ-centered leadership
should focus on a powerful obligation to practice ethical,
servant leadership: to serve, mentor, develop, and nurture
their followers. The authors discuss a leadership style that
embodies the approach of a servant as modeled by Jesus
Christ in the New Testament and is accomplished through
redefining who we are in relationship to God, versus a
general philosophy geared toward being kind and helpful.
They remind us of the many merits of servant leadership
and discuss ways to practice these principles of engaging
people. 22
Wrenn, Hoover, and Warwick have put together a scriptural
basis for the discipline of marketing. The first concept
they reviewed is that marketing is a way to “serve the needs
of others.” 23 As marketers strive to serve the needs of
others, they will be living out part of what we are called to
do as Christians. It will be a “challenge” for the marketer, 24
but to keep our commitment to follow Christ’s teachings,
we must rely on Christ and His strength when we are challenged
in our vocation.
2. EMBRACE OUR ROLE AS
CULTURE MAKERS
Crouch challenges Christians to take on the task of being
persistent when working with difficult cultures if ever we
are to change them. He proposes that there are five actions
Christians can take toward culture: condemn it, critique it,
copy it, consume it, or create it. He identifies creating culture
as the only way to truly change culture. As Christians, our
mandate should be to create culture. 25 Crouch proposes that
“Culture is what we make of the world.” 26 In addition, it is
where we express our meaning: “We make sense of the world
by making something of the world…Meaning and making go
together—culture, you could say, is the activity of making
meaning.” 27
Crouch argues that “changing the world” is a magnificent
and difficult task; especially when one considers how hard
it is to bring about change in our own personal lives. He
believes that we are made to change the world in “small
scales and (occasionally, and probably not as often as we
think, hope or expect) at large scales.” 28 However, the trouble
comes when we believe the “heedless rhetoric” to change the
world and fall into the temptation of interpreting what this
means, which then typically exposes us to pride as we set
out to accomplish this noble task. 29
If we are to listen to Crouch’s advice, we should find the
modern marketing environment a wonderful place to pursue
this change. Much of the work in these organizations
focus on finding ways to connect with audiences in “real”
and emotional ways and use stealth methods to persuade
people. Stories are a very popular means of making these
connections, as they have been proven to connect with
consumers in meaningful ways. 30 In fact, we propose that
in order to effectively create, one needs to connect. Without
connection, the creative process can be arduous and off
point. The concept of connecting through story is relevant to
both the work environments of the creative process and the
output of that process to consumers. In modern advertising,
we see this at work in high-profile ads that often convey
values through storyline, setting, character, and plot.
CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2019
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