Christian Business Review 2022: Pressing On Toward God's Goal

Christian 

Business Review 

A PUBLICATION OF THE CENTER FOR CHRISTIANITY IN BUSINESS 

ISSUE 11 

ARCHIE W. DUNHAM COLLEGE OF BUSINESS, HOUSTON BAPTIST UNIVERSITY FALL 2022 

IN THIS ISSUE 

4 

10 

15 

22 

42 

Living Cases 

Gaining Perspectives the Tough Way 

by Mike E. Rome 

Biblical Business Goals 

by Larry Burkett 

A Theology of Cultural Intelligence 

by Darrell Bock 

Motivations in Faith-Based Organizations 

by Ronnie Chuang -Rang Gao and Kevin Sawatsky 

Business in a Time of Escalating Lawlessness 

by Marjorie J. Cooper 

50 

Ethics in the Age of AI 

by Jason Thacker 

PRESSING ON 

God's 

TOWARD 

GOAL 

1 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2019




ISSUE 11 


PUBLISHERS 

Robert B. Sloan 

Mike E. Rome 

EDITOR 

Ernest P. Liang 

Houston Baptist University 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Richard Martinez, Dallas Baptist University 

Darrell Bock, Dallas Theological Seminary 

Andrew Babyak 

Messiah College 

Michael Cafferky (retired) 

Southern Adventist University 

John Cragin 

Oklahoma Baptist University 

Timothy Ewest 

Houston Baptist University 

David Gill (retired) 

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary 

Doris Gomez 

Regent University 

REVIEW BOARD (2020-2022) 

Lenie Holbrook 

Ohio University 

Kenny Holt 

Louisiana Christian University 

Greg Jordan 

Union University 

Blaine McCormick 

Baylor University 

Steven McMullen 

Hope College 

Billy Morehead 

Mississippi College 

Will Oliver 

Sattler College 

Walton Padelford (retired) 

Union University 

Bob Roller 

LeTourneau University 

Eric Schansberg 

Indiana University Southeast 

Yvonne Smith 

University of La Verne 

Michael Weeks 

The Citadel 

The Christian Business Review, Issue 11. Copyright 2022 Houston Baptist 

University. All rights reserved by original authors except as noted. Submissions 

to this journal are welcome. Email us at cbr@hbu.edu or eliang@hbu.edu. To learn 

about the Center for Christianity in Business, please visit www.hbu.edu/ccb. 

Library of Congress Cataloging Data 

Christian business review (Print) ISSN 2334-2862 

Christian business review (Online) (www.hbu.edu/cbrj) ISSN 2334-2854 

DISCLAIMER 

The views expressed in the articles or commentaries in this publication are solely the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the 

Christian Business Review, Houston Baptist University (HBU), the HBU Archie W. Dunham College of Business, or the Center for Christianity in Business. 

CENTER FOR CHRISTIANITY IN BUSINESS 

MISSION 

The mission of the CCB is to equip and encourage leaders to carry their faith into organizations by developing and delivering a distinctively Christian 

worldview for business. 

INITIATIVES 

RESEARCH 

Consulting Engagements 

Scholarly Journals 

Research Seminars and Symposia 

Resident Scholars Program For Faith 

and Business Research 

COMMUNICATION 

Speaker Series 

Christian Business Leadership 

Video Series 

Christianity in Business Podcast 

and Live Webinar Series 

EDUCATION 

Annual Mentoring Conference 

Executive Education Programs 

2 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2019




ISSUE 11 


IN THIS ISSUE 

4 Living Cases 

22 Motiviations in Faith-Based 

Gaining Perspectives the Tough 

Organizations 

Way 

CBR PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE 

How trials bring new perspectives and purpose 

for a God-honoring life 

by Mike E. Rome 

A study on motivational factors in faith-based 

non-profits using survey data 

by Ronnie Chuang-Rang Gao and Kevin Sawatsky 

10 

Biblical Business Goals 

BOOK EXCERPT 

Reminders of God’s purpose at the core of 

business strategies 

by Larry Burkett 

42 

Business in a Time of Escalating 

Lawlessness 

CBR PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE 

A critical look at spiritual lawlessness and its impact 

on the marketplace 

by Marjorie J. Cooper 

15 

A Theology of Cultural 

Intelligence 

BOOK EXCERPT 

Biblical wisdom for engaging the spiritual battles 

in and out of the marketplace 

by Darrell Bock 

50 

Ethics in the Age of AI 

CBR ARTICLE 

A survey of the ethical challenges of AI and a 

biblical response 

by Jason Thacker 

59 

Special Acknowledgement of 

Calvin University Award for Jonsen 

article (CBR, 2021)

LIVING CASES: PERSONAL SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS OF 

MEN AND WOMEN IN BUSINESS 

GAINING PERSPECTIVES 

THE TOUGH WAY 

MIKE E. ROME 

O 

ne thing I have learned during my 69 years on 

earth is that looking at death changes your perspective, 

especially when it’s your life that is 

in the front row. I know because I was looking 

straight on at death, and you know what, the 

whole episode got my attention as it should. No one wants 

to die, even if you know for sure you are going to Heaven! 

A 2% CHANCE OF 

SURVIVAL 

On February 18, 2008, I attended the memorial for a 

19-year-old girl from my son’s high school class. About 

midway through the service, I lost all sense of myself and 

have no recollection of how I got to my son’s baseball game 

that afternoon. I do not remember driving from the funeral at 

Second Baptist Church in Houston to my son’s baseball game 

at Memorial High School. 

How in the world was I able to not only navigate my way 

to the game but also apparently go home and change clothes 

after the service? Since all of my actions were told to me later, 

what I did and didn’t do can only be verified by those who 

were around me that day. 

The craziest things that happened in the sequence before 

actually going down from the heart attack ended up being a 

prelude that kept me from joining my many friends in Heaven. 

That storyline started with me talking with a father from 

4 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2022

LIVING CASE 

the other team that I did not know, whose wife was a nurse, 

who was watching from the stands thinking that something 

wasn’t right. In her mind, she thought I was having a seizure 

and then watched me collapse. It was like getting hit by a 

bolt of lightning on a clear blue sky day. My daughter, walking 

up the steps for the game, saw me go down and caught my 

head before it hit the ground. She probably saved me from a 

traumatic brain injury. 

The nurse saw me fall and sprinted out of the stands. 

She got the defibrillator, which was brand new and had never 

been used because it had just been purchased, and—for 

the first time in her 21-year career—shocked a dying person 

back to life in a public setting. 

Fast forward a bit, I was eventually life-flighted to Houston’s 

Methodist Hospital, where my doctor inserted a defibrillator 

and a pacemaker into my chest over the period of a 

week. You never know where the statistics come from, but I 

was told that my chances of living were less than 2%. 

That is where my perspective starts to gather steam. 

STILL NOT SLACKING OFF 

Apparently, I had caught a virus while on a golfing trip to 

South Africa many months before. In a very short time 

frame after arriving home from the trip, it became very difficult 

to breathe, and subsequently, the collapse of my left 

ventricle created a blockage. 

Moving forward after the hospital visit, I did what I loved 

best—I went back to work. Why not, right? I had just come 

off the best year of my career, and I couldn’t afford to slack 

off now. 

In my world, my job was helping build a company that 

was giving away 50% of its net profit to charity every year. 

Knowing that I was doing work that was making a difference 

in many people’s lives gave me a sense of pride and worthiness. 

And oh yeah, the money was very good! 

Little did I know that God wasn’t finished with his message 

to me. Within a few months of going back to the office, 

the financial markets started a downward spiral, and fear set 

into the company from every angle. About the same time, my 

father had his third stroke, and I was with him when he fell. 

He passed away that August. 

Not long after we buried Dad, the Great Recession started 

wiping out the markets. The global economy spiraled downward 

in a dramatic fashion. As I was one of the more seasoned 

folks in the firm and always there for everyone, they 

kept coming to me looking for advice, answers, or anything to 

stop the financial pain. It was a brutal year. 

People kept asking how I was holding up. I was fine, I told 

them—just fine. 

I wasn't. I was hurting, and I was about to prove it to them 

all. 

HOW I LOST RESPECT AND 

GAINED PERSPECTIVE 

Shortly thereafter, in the fall, a young woman who worked 

with me made a simple mistake, and I erupted on her. I 

lost all self-control, and it was ugly. When I cooled off, my 

business partner took me aside. “Mike, you’re one of the best 

I’ve ever seen at what you do,” he said. “But if you don’t start 

treating people with respect, we can’t be partners anymore.” 

His words hit me deeply. I was making plenty of money, 

so I knew I excelled in my profession. But was I excelling as 

a person? In the deepest parts of myself, was I excelling at 

being the human being God had fashioned to serve Him on 

earth? 

Even as a child, I knew I was blessed. God gave me a good 

mind, and he gave me an incredibly athletic body. I was always 

a strong kid, so it was a surprise when I got sick in the 

fifth grade. The doctor diagnosed me with the Russian flu. 

He was wrong. 

In fact, my appendix had ruptured. Within five days, I was 

paralyzed from the waist down. It took multiple months for 

the medical team at the hospital to pump out the poison so I 

could walk again. 

Brushing so close to death at that young age gave me 

my first perspective shift. I learned that no matter how bad 

things looked, they would get better if I kept going. Did life 

get tough? Keep going. You’re sick? Keep going. In pain? Keep 

going. 

Perseverance was my new perspective. As an athlete, 

I persevered through three knee operations, a dislocated 

shoulder, a chipped hip bone, ulnar nerve surgery, and who 

knows how many concussions. But I knew that if I kept going, 

I could make it as an elite athlete. And I did! 

In high school, I played quarterback on the football team. 

We never lost a game. In my senior year, the University of 

Kansas recruited me to play baseball and football for them. 

My first major accomplishment as a collegiate athlete was 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2022 

5

LIVING CASE 

blowing out my knee freshman year in football. 

But I remembered my perspective, and I kept going. Little 

by little, I worked my way back to the top ladder for my position. 

The top, as you may have heard, is a precarious place to 

be. You’re visible, but you know what—I liked that! 

People noticed me, and they wanted me to notice them. 

All of a sudden, I was in demand for parties. For the first 

time, I became the life of the party, but not because of being 

a scholar athlete. 

As an athlete, I was still performing sometimes at an elite 

level, but as a scholar, I started to decline. By my junior year, 

I realized that if I didn’t quit alcohol and get my focus back on 

the things that mattered, I wouldn’t have enough brain cells 

left to be successful at school or anything else. So I went cold 

turkey, and I haven’t touched alcohol since. That equation 

works for me! 

Quitting alcohol changed my perspective once again— 

people and friends became my priority, not parties or social 

and sports performances. That was tough, but I wouldn’t be 

blessed today with a lot of friends, great family, and a wonderful 

piece of mind if that change had not happened. I am 

sure of that! 

TRANSITIONING FROM 

STUDENT-ATHLETE TO 

BUSINESS LEADER 

As a student-athlete, I developed strong people management 

skills. I knew how to strategize, follow a process, 

educate myself about my opposition, and put together 

the pieces of an ever-changing puzzle. Subsequently, I was 

taught what it takes to be a winner. 

That’s a skill the business world values highly. Successful 

business executives are winners who work their tails off. 

Corporations need team players, not kingpins, and I learned 

the difference on the football field. 

Not everything transferred as easily from athletics to 

business, though. For instance, how do you measure success? 

I’d always used a single metric—winning a game. The 

bigger the game, the bigger the win. The bigger the win, the 

bigger the success. 

And when you’re young, you tend to correlate your value 

as a person with how popular you are! 

One reason I love and appreciate my time as an athlete— 

it’s a great way to learn how to deal with both success and 

failure. It teaches you to measure more than a single moment 

in time. You have to be a complete person. You have to 

build your character and the other areas of your life. 

During my career, I hired a lot of folks. The interviews were 

always interesting because there is a tendency to give answers 

that you know are not truly how someone feels about 

the subject matter. I would ask two questions: Have you 

played a team sport? And did you play an individual sport? 

Whether they played a sport or not didn’t alter my hiring 

practices, but it gave me insight into the people themselves 

and how they operated. I suppose it revealed something 

about me, too: I like things to be done right and with high integrity. 

Finding out how someone stands up under adversity 

is so important for the team because you need to know if you 

can trust that they will do their role with the precision and 

refinement needed. 

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON 

MONEY AND POWER 

remember when I wanted to quit once though. I was ready 

I to drop out of football in college. I called my dad to announce 

my decision. 

“That’s wonderful,” he told me. “What are you going to do 

instead?” 

“I’m going to play baseball and nothing else.” 

“Mike,” Dad said. “You’re in college on a football scholarship. 

How will you pay for school?” 

“You’ll just write a check to the college for me, right?” 

You can probably guess my dad's answer to that question, 

so I won’t repeat it here. I’ll just say that on that day, Dad 

gave me another new perspective. This one was about money 

and decision-making. 

Having spent my career in the finance world, I know the 

way money changes people and how it breeds a sense of entitlement 

and greed. I’ve seen people do things they didn’t 

want to do—things they swore they’d never do—but they 

cracked under the extreme pressure of gaining money and 

power. Integrity cracks under the right amount of pressure. 

Money cannot trump ethics. 

I’ve watched people chase money as far as they can, as 

fast as they can. Every time they do it, they wind up exhausted 

and unfulfilled. The author of Ecclesiastes (1:14) summed 

it up beautifully: “I have seen all the things that are done un- 

6 


LIVING CASE 

der the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the 

wind.” 

Money should never trump ethics! 

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON 

ETERNITY 

Near the end of the movie Gladiator, Maximus says, “What 

we do in life echoes in eternity.” As a corporate executive, 

I too had to wonder, “What would be my echo in eternity?” 

Sitting in my corporate office at Merrill Lynch or Invesco, 

that question never seemed relevant. In the hospital after 

I nearly died at the baseball field, however, that question 

seemed like the only relevant one to ask. 

As mentioned previously, my near-death experience 

changed me at the heart level. In 2007, I enjoyed the best 

year of my career, and in 2008, it all went up in smoke. We 

can never get too comfortable. We have to stay attentive to 

what God is doing. That’s why prayer is so important. 

Your conversations with God are where you can get quiet 

and strong in the deepest places of yourself. Isaiah 30:15 

says, “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” 

After that nearly fateful time in 2008, my prayer discipline 

changed. My relationship with God is still spiritual, but it’s 

more personal. I ask Him directly, “What do you want from 

me today? You saved my life, so what do you want from my 

life on this day?” 

To me, praying is like talking to a friend I trust. The integrity 

of prayer lies in its realism. It’s not something “out there.” 

It’s personal. God expects me to open my heart to Him. He already 

knows what I need, what I want, and what’s not going 

to go my way that day anyway. 

The law of probability says that every day of your life, 

something isn’t going to go the way you want. I’ve learned to 

keep my perspective. When one hard thing happens, I don’t 

drop it in the mental basket where I keep nine good things. I 

would spoil all ten. Instead, I focus on the big picture. 

I try to keep my perspective where it belongs. 

Jesus addressed the problem of perspective in Luke 13:18. 

He had just healed a bent-over woman on the Sabbath, and 

the religious leaders rebuked Him for it. Jesus asked why the 

teachers of the law allowed a man to untie a donkey and lead 

it to water but not to set free a crippled woman. It’s a question 

of perspective. 

Then Jesus asked them, “What is the kingdom of God like? 

What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a 

man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a 

tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.” 

If you are only looking at the mustard seed as it is, you’ll 

miss the tree that the mustard seed can become. I knew that 

I needed to become something more than I was. So I traveled 

to Cuba. 

MY BRAND-NEW HEART 

GETS A WORKOUT IN CUBA 

East-West Ministries took a group of Dallas-based CEOs 

on a mission trip, and they asked me to go with them. I’m 

not a confident evangelist, but I very much wanted to visit 

Cuba. So I agreed to go with them, and I took my youngest 

son along. 

When we arrived, immigration officials hounded me. 

“What are you doing in Cuba?” 

We made it through the official check-in, however, and 

East-West Ministries took us to a church in a little community 

on the coast. The minister looked over the crowd of American 

CEOs, and then he pointed straight at me. “Come here.” 

I walked over to him, knowing that whatever happened 

next would at least be interesting. 

“I want you to walk across the street,” he told me, “and 

talk to the family that lives there. Ask them to come to church 

with you.” 

Why me? I thought. 

“I have been trying for three years to get them to come to 

church,” the minister continued. “I can't get them to come, so 

see if you can.” 

I wondered if God was talking to the right guy or if my gray 

hair had somehow made me appear wiser than I really was. 

The minister assigned me an interpreter, and together, 

we headed across the street. I knocked on the people’s door, 

scared to death the whole time. I had never done anything 

like this before. Sure, I’d had leadership roles my whole career. 

I had been in Christian leadership groups my whole life. 

But to share the gospel face to face? That was new for me. 

The entire family came to the door and invited us in after 

a brief introduction. At least a dozen family members 

and whoever else crowded into the main room. They all fixed 

their eyes on me. I was uncomfortable and entirely out of 

my skin. So I did what you’re supposed to do when you’re 

uncomfortable and out of your skin: I prayed. Just incredible! 


7

LIVING CASE 

Praying was easy. It was the talking part that was hard. 

What am I going to say to these people? 

WHERE GOD CHANGED 

ME FOREVER 

took a deep breath and started: “The minister from the 

I church across the street wanted me to come by and say 

hello.” 

I babbled for a while, but before long, I found myself telling 

this family the story of my near-death experience on the 

baseball field in 2008. I told them how it gave me a new perspective 

and how I believed God had a purpose for my life. 

I didn’t share a fairy tale. Instead, I told them that I struggled. 

It was hard going through this. My life was affected in 

many ways. With my new heart, I couldn’t play tennis, snow 

ski, run, throw a baseball, or do most things athletic. I was 

so frustrated and angry in my heart, and it had boiled over to 

affect other people. 

But then, I also told them that God had taken away my 

old heart and given me a much kinder and gentler heart. I 

explained that I believed part of my purpose was to come and 

tell them about my new heart that loved people. 

The family started asking me questions. For the next hour 

and a half, the interpreter and I answered their questions and 

talked with them. All of a sudden, they all headed to the back 

room for a family meeting. 

Alone in the room with my Cuban interpreter, I noticed 

him shaking his head. He was studying to be a minister, and 

he understood the family and the situation better than I did. 

“This is incredible,” he told me. 

Minutes later, the family re-entered the room. “Okay,” 

they told me. “We'll try church.” 

I had no idea that my story could have that kind of effect 

on a whole family in a totally different country. Right away, I 

realized that I hadn’t done anything special. When I had my 

near-death experience, I didn’t go to heaven, see angels, or 

sit at the foot of God’s throne. I didn’t experience anything 

out of the ordinary. My story alone couldn’t have accomplished 

anything, but my story told with God’s power could 

change a family forever. 

For the rest of the time we were in Cuba, I went door-todoor, 

just talking with the families who lived in that village. 

I told everyone my story of nearly dying and getting a new 

heart and a change in perspective. Not every family came to 

Christ, but we did have meaningful conversations about our 

struggles and about God with all of them. 

God changed me forever during my trip to Cuba. 

LIFE OF PURPOSE 

After I finished my last role as CEO of a company, I knew 

I wanted to do purpose-driven consulting work for the 

rest of the time God gave me on earth. A friend of mine who 

owned a firm rang me up and said he needed some help. 

“I’m going to give up all this stuff,” I said, referring to my 

corporate life. “I’ve had multiple heart attacks. If I don’t quit 

this, I won’t be here much longer because I am about to have 

another one.” 

Not sure about all of you, but one thing I do know about 

myself is that it is really hard for me to accept that it is God’s 

plan, not mine. About a week later, Houston Baptist University 

(HBU) asked me to take a look at its entrepreneurship 

program called The McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and 

Free Enterprise. 

The McNair Foundation instituted five of these centers 

at various universities across the country. HBU was home to 

one of them, and frankly, it was struggling. The school wanted 

to know why their center wasn’t thriving and—more importantly—what 

they could do about it. 

Very quickly, I figured out that the center had been put 

in motion before its foundation had been laid properly. Consequently, 

the foundation was splintered and was not student-centric. 

After I shared what I’d learned and my recommendations 

for the future, the provost, in a surprise move, asked me, 

“Would you be interested in being the interim director of the 

entrepreneurship program?” 

I had never thought about doing something like this at a 

university, but it appealed to me almost immediately. At the 

McNair Center, we weren’t just teaching academic concepts 

to business majors. We were also equipping an entire campus 

with entrepreneurial skills. As someone who does a lot of 

coaching, I knew the job was the perfect fit for me. 

Right away, I began pulling in students from across a 

swath of different majors, the student life people, and even 

the deans of different schools. At one point, I began advising 

the interim dean of the business school about how he could 

assume the role full-time. During one of our conversations, 

he stopped taking notes, turned to me, and said, “Mike, you 

8 


LIVING CASE 

need to be the dean. Let me work with you and learn from 

you.” 

Never once in my career had I dreamed of serving as dean 

of a business school. It wasn’t even in the realm of possibility. 

Nevertheless, we took the idea—along with a plan to restructure 

the school and its operations—to the provost and 

the president. 

To my complete shock, they agreed with the interim dean. 

I was the man for the job. They were certain, and back to 

what I said earlier, it truly is God’s plan for us. 

With all my God-given perspective, I now truly believe that 

God prepares you to make hard decisions. All my career and 

life experiences up to this point have prepared me to come 

here with a unique way of thinking. I don’t think I’m special. 

I know that God uses me to tell stories that people can embrace. 

As a quarterback, I had to know all the plays and positions 

and be nimble and strategic against the other team. A 

dean has to do much the same thing. I decided to say yes to 

the deanship of the Archie W. Dunham College of Business. 

Serving as dean has been fantastic. I lead the business 

school with the same skills I learned as a football quarterback 

and a corporate executive over multi-operational divisions. 

I just keep learning and growing, and I look forward to 

staying here as long as they’ll have me, knowing that I am 

making a difference. 

When I nearly died 14 years ago, it fueled my quest to be 

a better person and a better believer of Jesus’s teachings. I 

felt like I got a second chance to do something meaningful 

with my life. God was gracious to give me that chance and 

let me work with a diverse group of students at a Christian 

university. As often as I can, I tell them that faith comes first, 

family comes second, and the firm comes third—and by the 

way, you better take care of yourself if you want to be effective 

for others. 

Working with college students has given me yet another 

new perspective—the future doesn’t look as young as it 

used to. In the U.S., people over age 64 will soon outnumber 

kids under 18 for the first time in history. That’s going to 

radically reshape the dynamics of our country right alongside 

all the other social and economic factors getting attention 

these days. 

Fresh, well-trained business leaders will be a critical commodity 

in the days ahead. At HBU, we are creating leaders 

who will build that future and do so with the perspective of 

Jesus Christ. I’m proud to be part of it. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

MIKE ROME currently serves 

as the Dean of the Archie W. 

Dunham College of Business 

at Houston Baptist University. 

Prior to beginning his service 

as Dean at HBU, Rome served as 

Senior Partner at Allen Austin, where he was a 

central figure in the firm’s growth, culture, and 

dedication to superior client service. Mike has 

a distinguished business career, having served 

as CEO and Principal at Chilton Capital, CEO 

of Texan Capital, Senior Partner at Bridgeway 

Capital, Executive Vice President of Institutional 

Marketing at AIM/Invesco, Senior Vice President 

of Capital Markets at Merrill Lynch, Executive 

Vice President of Capital Markets for Kidder 

Peabody, and Executive Vice President of 

Institutional Sales for Oppenheimer. He has also 

served higher education throughout his career, 

having taught courses in entrepreneurship at 

the University of Houston and serving on the 

boards of the City of Houston Higher Education 

Finance Corp., the University of Kansas School 

of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the University of 

Texas Libraries System, and HBU’s own Center 

for Christianity and Business. Rome received a 

Bachelor of Liberal Arts as a football and baseball 

letterman at the University of Kansas and has 

studied portfolio management at the University 

of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and 

behavioral finance at Harvard University. 


9

Biblical 

Business 

GOALS 

LARRY BURKETT 

A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS 

In the Call for Paper for this issue, we asked how must Christians 

press on and lead so that God’s purpose in us, through 

our testimonies in the marketplace, can be fulfilled. We suggested 

that it is time to have a laser focus on God’s purpose 

at the core of strategies in businesses where Christians lead 

or influence their execution. To lead off this discussion on the 

purpose driven strategy of Christian-led or influenced organizations, 

we would like to hearken back to the insights of the 

late Larry Burkett, perhaps one of the most influential Christian 

financial writers ever lived. The following excerpt from 

one of Burkett’s best known works, Business By the Book, is 

a timeless reminder of the Scripture informed mission (albeit 

with a financial tinge) for business organizations. We are 

deeply grateful to the publisher for permission to this reprint. 

1 Taken from Business By the Book by Larry Burkett (Copyright © 1998 

by Larry Burkett), Chapter 5. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson 

(www.thomasnelson.com). 

LONG-TERM GOALS OF 

A CHRISTIAN BUSINESS 

I 

n reality there is one primary purpose for a Christian’s 

business: to glorify God. But there are various 

ways to glorify Him. “Whether, then, you eat 

or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of 

God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). 

These become the functions of business – literally, 

the service provided by the business. So, the purpose of 

a business is to glorify God. Its functions are as follows. 

1. FUND THE GOSPEL 

An important function of a Christian’s business should 

be to help spread God’s Word. The Bible says that 

we are to honor the Lord from the first fruits of all our 

produce (see Proverbs 3:9). For Christians who have the 

authority to do so, this means giving a portion of a company’s 

earnings to Christian ministries. 

10 


BIBLICAL BUSINESS GOALS 

BOOK EXCERPT 

2. MEET NEEDS 

Another important function for a Christian business is to 

supply the physical needs of those who depend on it: 

your own family and your employees. God’s Word puts it this 

way: “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially 

for those of his household, he has denied the truth, and 

is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8). I believe this 

Scripture applies not only to providing for our own families, 

but also to a businessperson providing for his or her employees…. 

A good rule of thumb is to consider whether you would 

be willing and able to live on what you’re paying the people 

under your authority. If not, and you are able to pay more, 

you need to consider James 5:4: “Behold, the pay of the laborers 

who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld 

by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did 

the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” 

This verse indicates that God holds us responsible for providing 

for those under our authority. 

3. BE A DISCIPLE 

The apostle Paul wrote, “The things which you have heard 

from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust 

to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 

Timothy 2:2). On several occasions I have encountered Christian 

businesspeople who spend thousands of dollars a year 

to share faith with people in other countries; yet, often their 

employees have never heard the Gospel in a meaningful way. 

One Christian businessman I’ll call Alfred shared his concerns 

with me after going through our business seminar. He 

said, “I really thought I was a sound Christian businessman, 

but I’m not doing even a third of the things presented here. 

How do I get started?” 

My response was, “Please don’t go back and tell your employees 

how they should apply these principles. You just focus 

on the principles that apply to you and demonstrate to 

your employees that you care about them.” 

Alfred went back and called a company meeting. His employees 

thought, Oh no, he’s been to another one of those 

religious seminars. Now he’s going to tell us what we need 

to be doing to serve God. I’ve seen this happen many times. 

A businessperson becomes enthusiastic about something he 

or she learned at a seminar and decides, I’ve got to go back 

and get this started in my business. Usually the employees 

dread it, thinking, It’s going to be three weeks of misery again 

until this works out of the boss’s system and we get back to 

normal. 

But Alfred took a different approach. He told his employees, 

“I attended a seminar that changed my life, and I’d like 

to try to share with you what God is teaching me. So once a 

week I’m going to shut down our plant for an hour, and I’m 

going to share what God’s Word says I should be doing for 

you. The meetings are voluntary, but everyone is welcome. 

From this point on, I want you to hold me responsible to be 

the kind of Christian employer that God expects me to be.” 

The next Monday, when the plant stopped for the meeting, 

every one of Alfred’s employees was there. He began to 

share what he should be doing as a Christian businessman. 

Sometimes he would say, “I can’t implement this immediately 

or it would ruin our company, but eventually, I am going 

to do this to the best of my ability.” One of the programs 

Alfred wanted to implement was a benevolence program to 

help employees with special financial needs, such as medical 

bills, family crises, or special education expenses by providing 

company-sponsored grants. 

To do this would first require re-educating the employees 

so those who didn’t receive this benefit would not resent 

those who did. It also would require establishing an employee 

committee to oversee the fund and evaluate the candidates. 

But Alfred was determined to get it started. 

About a year after the meetings began, Alfred asked me to 

speak to his employees. At one point in my talk I asked, “How 

many in this room have personally accepted Jesus Christ as 

your Savior?” Out of more than 100 employees, about 25 

hands went up. 

A year later I went back. This time I asked, “During the last 

year, how many of you have personally accepted Jesus Christ 

as a result of the influence of your boss?” Hands went up 

throughout the room. In one year, more than 60 people had 

come to the Lord through Alfred’s influence, and he didn’t 

even know it. Evangelizing his employees hadn’t been his 

goal. His goal had simply been to become more Christ-like in 

his business. 

The apostle Paul tells us we reap in the measure that we 

sow (see 2 Corinthians 9:6). Alfred learned that truth when 

he ran into some business and financial difficulties. During an 

economic downturn, business got so bad he needed a large 

infusion of money in order to continue operating. The high interest 

rates at that time made borrowing out of the question. 

Word of the company’s financial problems spread to Alfred’s 

employees, several of whom got the idea of banding together 

to lend Alfred the money (almost $300,000) themselves. 

They raised the needed funds from among the other employees 

and provided Alfred with an interest-free loan. 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2022 112


BOOK EXCERPT 

Alfred was simply reaping what he had sown. When he 

began following God’s principles, he didn’t know that more 

than half of his employees would accept Christ as their Savior 

through his witness or that his employees would decide to 

lend him $300,000 interest free. He had simply sown biblical 

principles such as “Do unto others as you would have others 

do unto you,” and he reaped the benefits of those principles. 

Employees, especially unsaved employees, have the tendency 

to believe what they see rather than what they hear. 

If what we do doesn’t match up with what we say, they will 

usually discount our words. This principle is acknowledged in 

the following: “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and 

not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22). 

4. MAKE A PROFIT 

Contrary to the opinion of some, there is no biblical admonition 

against making a profit. Profits are the normal 

by-product of a well-run business and should be considered 

as both normal and honorable…. 

Every Christian in business, employer and employee alike, 

should work to maximize profits, but not to the exclusion 

of other key elements of a biblically based business. For an 

employer to maximize profits by underpaying employees, for 

instance, is a violation of the second function of a Christian 

business: meeting needs. 

Christian employers must also acknowledge that, since 

God really owns the business, all of the profits cannot accrue 

to them alone. Profit sharing is thought to be an innovation 

of the late twentieth century. Not so. “There is one who scatters, 

yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds 

what is justly due, but it results only in want” (Proverbs 

11:24) …. 

SHORT-TERM OPERATIONAL 

GOALS FOR A CHRISTIAN 

BUSINESS 

SET PRIORITIES FOR THE USE OF 

MONEY 

How we use our money is the clearest outside indicator of 

what we really believe. The Lord said, “No servant can serve 

two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the 

other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You 

cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). 

The priorities we establish for the use of our money can 

give us good insight into where we are spiritually. Just as a 

thermometer doesn’t make a room hot or cold but measures 

the temperature, so money doesn’t make us spiritual or carnal; 

it reflects who we are. 

I have felt that way many times. I doubt there is a believer 

who hasn’t questioned his or her salvation at one time or the 

other; I know I have. I am a very pragmatic person and I have 

asked myself, “Is salvation a real experience?” I have long 

since concluded that salvation is based on the Lord’s promise, 

not on how I feel. 

I have always been comforted by the apostle Paul’s confession: 

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, 

in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing 

of the good is not. For the good that I wish I do not do; but I 

practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the 

very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but 

sin which indwells in me” (Romans 7:18-20). I believe Paul 

was saying that he couldn’t always depend on his feelings or 

reactions, only on the promises of God. 

If someone is a true disciple of Jesus Christ, the evidence 

will be visible in that person’s everyday life, including his or 

her use of money. I find it difficult to believe that a follower 

of Christ can deliberately cheat, steal, and lie in the normal 

course of business. I also find it hard to believe that a person 

who refuses to share in the needs of others has the spirit 

of Christ within. The measure of true giving is to share with 

someone who has no platform from which to speak and may 

never benefit us in any way. After all, isn’t that what true love 

is all about? 

As the Lord said, “And the King will answer and say to 

them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one 

of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it 

to Me’” (Matthew 25:40). 

FINANCIAL PRIORITIES 

PRIORITY 1: PAY SUPPLIERS. 

Without a doubt those who provide materials on credit have 

the first right to any available income from a business. I realize 

this runs contrary to current business logic, which says, 

“When money is tight, string out your accounts payable.” But 

consider this verse, “Lying lips are an abomination to the 

Lord, but those who deal faithfully are His delight” (Proverbs 

12:22). When you order materials, there is an implied promise 

to pay. A Christian’s promise is his or her bond (word). 

Jesse was in the wholesale shoe business on a large scale. 

He would often order $100,000 to $200,000 worth of ath- 

12 



BOOK EXCERPT 

letic shoes to be sold to various discount stores around the 

country. As competition increased, Jesse found that he had to 

give deeper and deeper discounts to get business. 

Ultimately he found himself offering the shoes at less 

than cost many times. Initially he justified this practice as 

a necessity to maintain his customer base until prices rose 

again. But as time went by and he continued to order more 

and more shoes he couldn’t pay for, he got further behind. Only 

the oldest bills got paid, and then only when the suppliers 

refused to ship him 

any more merchandise 

until he paid. 

Jesse’s priority 

of paying was simple. 

He took what 

he needed to pay his 

personal bills (which 

was not excessive); 

then he paid the basic overhead costs, such as lights and 

rent, to keep the door open. Then he paid a small portion to 

his church. Last, he paid the suppliers what was left from his 

sales, which was often less than 50 percent of the cost of 

the shoes. 

I met Jesse through a mutual friend who had helped to finance 

his business initially. Jesse had gone back to him twice 

in the previous year to ask for additional capital. The lender 

realized the third time that something was wrong and agreed 

to help only on the condition that Jesse seek counsel, which 

is how I became involved. 

When I saw Jesse’s progressive accumulation of debt, I 

asked him to describe his business plan… Jesse went on to 

say something I have heard countless Christians say under 

similar circumstances: “I know God put me in this business, 

and I believe He will work out a miracle if I just have faith.” 

I believe in faith and I believe in miracles, but the line between 

faith and presumption is very thin. For Jesse to trust 

the Lord is faith. But to put the burden of debt on his suppliers 

was presumption. It was the suppliers who needed faith. 

Jesse willfully violated God’s principles and then expected 

God to bail him out…. 

I then asked Jesse to prioritize his payment system in 

conformity with God’s Word. According to Proverbs 3:27 we 

are not to “withhold good [payment] from those to whom 

it is due.” Since the suppliers have provided the materials, 

they have already invested their time and money, and they 

hold the position of highest honor, financially speaking. “So,” 

I said, “make a commitment to pay your suppliers first out of 

any cash that comes into the business.” … 

Jesse sank back into his chair, thinking about what I had 

said. Finally he replied, “God told me to start this business, 

and nobody will talk me into quitting unless God tells me to.” 

And with that, he left, 

It’s unfortunate that many well-meaning Christians stubbornly 

refuse to follow the principles in God’s Word. Instead 

they adopt the same attitude the Jews displayed in the desert 

when they complained about everything Moses told them 

to do. Ultimately God 

passed them by and 

The priorities we establish for the 

use of our money can give us good 

insight into where we are spiritually. 

waited for others who 

would obey Him. 

God’s Word says, 

“If I regard wickedness 

in my heart, the 

Lord will not hear” 

(Psalm 66:18). If you 

know something you are doing is wrong and persist in it, God 

will not listen. 

PRIORITY 2: PAY EMPLOYEES. 

Once the creditors are paid, the next priority is to pay the 

employees what is due them. This also runs contrary to common 

business practice. After all, the owner has a right to get 

paid first, since he or she owns the business. Right? Wrong. 

Remember, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, 

but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another 

as more important than himself” (Philippians 2:3). 

More often than not, the owner/manager of a business 

can better afford to lose a paycheck than the employees can. 

In addition, scripturally speaking, Christian leaders are admonished 

to humble themselves. In other words, put others 

first. 

PRIORITY 3: MEET OWNER’S NEEDS. 

Once you are sure that the creditors have been paid and 

the employees have received their due compensation, then 

you should draw your portion… It is not unusual for people 

who start businesses to feel that they sacrificed to build the 

companies, so they have the right to any and all proceeds. 

Clearly, that is not what God’s Word teaches. 

The critical decision in this and other matters becomes 

whether to obey God’s Word or to adopt the common practice 

of our society. That choice is what separates Christian 

businesspeople from all others. That’s why we can be called 

“followers of Christ”; we follow His principles, regardless of 



BOOK EXCERPT 

the costs. We know that God is watching even when others 

are not. 

SET PRIORITIES FOR THE USE OF TIME 

There is no biblical principle that sets normal business hours 

at 40, 60, or 80 hours a week. The preponderance of evidence 

in Scripture seems to indicate, however, that a six-day work 

week is not excessive. 

We seem to have developed two opposing perspectives 

in business today. Employees tend to think that anything 

beyond 40 hours should be a bonus (overtime), and owners 

think that anything less than 80 hours is being lazy. Both 

sides have adopted extremes. 

When a business owner adopts an excessively long work 

day that seldom provides any time for relaxation and other 

outside activities, he or she establishes an unwritten policy: 

“If you don’t work long hours, you won’t get ahead in this 

company.” This puts the employees (particularly managers) 

under great stress and eventually makes them less productive. 

The attitude in such companies is known as the burnout 

mentality. Owners work their best people until they drop, 

then find someone else to replace them. The turnover in such 

companies is usually enormous, with high salaries the necessary 

enticement to attract more workers. 

Other owners who adopt this style in their own lives think 

that if they pay the good people enough, they will be able 

to keep them. I have found that money is only a temporary 

motivator. It is true that too little pay will usually force good 

people out, but too much pay will not keep them on a job that 

totally dominates their lives. In fact, as soon as they have 

accumulated enough money to live on a lesser salary, they 

will leave and trade dollars for time. 

SET ETHICAL PRIORITIES 

Once you have established money and time priorities in your 

business you need to establish some ethical priorities. A few 

of the common areas of business ethics violations are taxes, 

fraud, and misuse of company assets. We will examine 

each of these areas before outlining the biblical principles for 

dealing with unethical conduct. 

TAXES. Perhaps nothing represents a Christian businessperson’s 

spiritual values more clearly than that person’s attitude 

toward paying taxes. No one likes to pay taxes; even 

the people who recognize the necessity of collecting taxes 

for roads, schools, and defense rarely count taxpaying as a 

privilege. But to actually cheat on income taxes or any other 

tax is a sin, and sin separates us from God. 

Unless you believe that your relationship with God is the 

most important asset you have in this world, sin will easily 

ensnare you. I personally believe that cheating on income 

taxes is the most common sin among Christians in business. 

Much, if not most, of it is so well concealed that even the 

best auditors cannot detect it. But God already knows. 

Over the years I have probably heard just about every 

possible way to cheat on taxes. I have met professing Christians 

who never paid their apportioned amount and rarely, if 

ever, thought of their evasion as a sin. Many of these people 

were generous givers to God’s causes. Many did wonderful 

jobs of speaking out for the Lord and working to spread the 

Gospel. Yet all of them had one characteristic in common: a 

lack of peace and fulfillment in their spiritual lives. 

These people might fake being dynamic Christians when 

they are out among others who feed their theatrical abilities, 

but when they are alone they realize that something is missing 

from their relationship with Jesus. … 

FRAUD. I am constantly amazed by the degree of dishonesty 

in our society that the average American accepts as normal. 

We often see clear evidence of politicians’ dishonesty, and 

yet we reelect them to public office. We hear of athletes who 

break the rules, and yet fans organize campaigns to keep 

them in sports. One area in which most Americans will not 

tolerate dishonesty is in the business world. It’s not that 

Americans demand more of their business leaders; it’s that 

they see themselves as the victims of business fraud. 

Many studies over the last several years have attempted 

to measure the honesty index of the average American, both 

consumers and merchants, and the results are saddening. 

Consistently, the most acceptable kind of fraud is practiced 

against insurance companies. Many businessmen surveyed 

felt they had the right to collect from an insurance company 

once they had paid into a policy for several years. They saw 

insurance policies as something like annuities, from which a 

person who pays a certain amount in has the right to draw a 

certain amount out. 

One common area of fraud is medical fraud. Even 

well-meaning Christian doctors sometimes conspire to cheat 

an insurance company on behalf of their patients. The procedure 

is simple: increase the bill based on the patient’s deductible 

amount. Then discount the bill and the entire amount 

is paid. Many Christians … are concerned about this practice 

14 



BOOK EXCERPT 

but are fearful of confronting the doctors. When someone 

cheats, even with the best of intentions, everyone loses. … 

Clearly God’s Word says that a deception will always be 

found out: “He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who 

perverts his ways will be found out” (Proverbs 10:9). Total honesty 

is the minimum acceptable standard for a Christian. If a 

business cannot survive in total honesty, then it’s time to do 

something else. 

MISUSE OF COMPANY PROPERTY. Most business owners 

go to great lengths to reduce and eliminate employee 

misuse of company property. It is estimated that employee 

theft accounts for the loss of nearly $160 billion in American 

businesses each year. In total numbers it is probably less 

than the employee theft but, on a per capita basis, I imagine 

it is considerably higher…. Owners of businesses tend to believe 

they can treat company assets as their own personal 

property. Since the current laws don’t agree with that perspective, 

to do so constitutes sin (missing the mark). 

CONFESSION AND RESTITUTION 

It’s usually far easier to avoid the temptation to lie or steal 

from your company than it is to confess and make restitution, 

because confession and restitution almost always 

involve some unpleasant consequences. Many times Christians 

think that all God requires of us is to give up the sin, but 

that isn’t true. God asks that we give up the sin, confess it, 

and then offer to make restitution whenever possible. 

The Bible contains hundreds of examples of confession 

and restitution. One that often comes to mind when I think of 

this principle is that of Zaccheus: “Zaccheus stopped and said 

to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give 

to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will 

give back four times as much’” (Luke 19:8). When he came 

face-to-face with the truth, he repented of his sins of cheating 

people, confessed, and offered to make restitution above 

what Jewish law required, which was double the amount. 

Some years ago I met with a Christian businessman who 

could have profited by following Zaccheus’ example. This 

man, who operated a large cosmetics packaging company, 

was having some financial problems because of investments 

in several unsuccessful businesses. It was clear that his financial 

problems would clear up if he would just stop investing 

in these side ventures. The packaging company itself was 

profitable and had the potential of growing much larger. So 

my recommendation to him was simple: Stop wasting good 

money in the side ventures. 

A few months later I received an urgent call from this 

man. Another business he had started was in trouble to the 

tune of nearly $1 million. Over the next several days we talked 

many times by phone. After looking through the financial 

statements on the new business, I determined that it was 

hopelessly in debt and that, although a very good idea, it was 

doomed to failure. 

I asked, “Why in the world would you risk over a million 

dollars on a venture like this? If you’ll just concentrate on 

making the packaging company as efficient as possible, you’ll 

make all the money you’ll ever need.” 

In all honesty I thought it was the case of another small 

businessman who wanted to become a conglomerate. What 

puzzled me was that this man didn’t seem to have the huge 

ego that normally accompanies someone with this motivation. 

He seemed to be subdued and humble – in other words, 

a nice guy. 

A few days later he called me at home to ask if he and 

his wife could fly to Atlanta the next morning for a personal 

meeting. Sensing urgency in his voice, I agreed. Then I called 

my secretary and asked her to adjust my schedule. 

In my office the next morning, this Christian businessman 

related one of the most remarkable stories of dishonesty in 

business that I had ever heard. 

“I inherited the business from my father,” he told me, 

looking down at the table. “Dad had run it for 20 years and 

was well respected in the industry, but the business never 

seemed to reach its potential. So I started a shipping company 

to transport raw materials and finished products to and 

from the distributors. But we lacked the capital to develop a 

large enough fleet, so I had to borrow against the business. 

“The costs associated with the transport business were 

much higher than I anticipated, and since we already had so 

much invested I borrowed even more against the business. 

Within a year I found myself in financial trouble, and it looked 

like I could lose the business and, with it, my mother’s livelihood. 

“The company we package for has never been able to 

break into the discount store market because its products 

are too costly. I could see a sizable potential for increase in 

our packaging business if their products could be sold there. 

So I hired a chemist to analyze their formulas, and we began 

to manufacture their cosmetics, using less costly ingredients. 

We then mixed the new formula half-and-half with 

the old and marketed them to this new outlet. They were an 

instant success, and our volume doubled. 



BOOK EXCERPT 

“We did this for over a year and got totally out of debt. 

Then I began to really feel guilty about what we were doing 

and stopped.” 

“Didn’t the company have any idea what you were doing?” 

I asked. 

“I’m sure they did,” he replied, looking at his wife who 

nodded her head in agreement. “Since we mixed the product 

half-and-half, our orders for their products increased substantially, 

and yet our sales to their normal outlets didn’t 

change proportionally. I think they knew what we were doing 

but turned their heads. After all, it was new business for 

them too, and they didn’t have to pay the royalties that made 

them noncompetitive in this market. 

“Unfortunately, with the oil price increases, the trucking 

company again became unprofitable, and we had to restart 

the old mixing practice again to bail it out. Now we find that 

the business is dependent on that source of income and we 

can’t stop.” 

I asked if he realized the practice he was engaged in was 

not only unethical but probably illegal as well. 

“I know it is,” he replied uncomfortably, “be we’re so far 

into it now, I just don’t see a way to get out. Over a hundred 

employees and their families depend on our business.” 

The man was presenting the needs of others as justification 

for continuing an unethical practice, often called “offering 

a red herring,” which means it is supposed to divert attention 

from the primary problem. I realized the decision had to 

come from him, not from me. But I did recommend that he go 

to the parent company, confess what he had been doing, and 

take the consequences whatever they were. 

“Eventually something will happen to bring this to light, 

and you won’t have the chance to confess it first,” I said. 

“Take the opportunity to do so now.” With that our session 

broke up, and they returned home. 

A few weeks later I received a frantic call from the husband, 

saying that one of the employees involved in the illegal 

mixing process had been dismissed and, out of anger, 

had gone to the parent company and revealed the entire operation. 

He also submitted a written report to the board of 

directors, who initiated a mandatory audit of the packaging 

company. 

At the conclusion of the audit, the directors of the parent 

company withdrew its contract with this so-called Christian 

businessman, demanding that he sell off all his company’s 

assets and send them the proceeds. They contended that his 

profits had been made at their expense and that they were 

the true owners of the asset. 

Ultimately, the packaging company survived, because the 

parent company was shown to have made substantial profits 

from the illegal business. They refused to prosecute because 

they wanted to avoid the adverse publicity that a public trial 

would have generated. But the real loss in this process was 

the loss of credibility on the part of an outspoken Christian 

businessman. 

REMEMBER: “HE WHO WALKS IN INTEGRITY 

WALKS SECURELY, BUT HE WHO PERVERTS HIS 

WAYS WILL BE FOUND OUT” (PROVERBS 10:9). 


LARRY BURKETT (1939-2003) 

was born in Winter Park, Florida. 

After serving in the U.S. Air Force, 

he and his wife, Judy, returned to 

central Florida, where he worked 

in the space program at Cape Canaveral. While 

working at the space center, Larry earned degrees 

in marketing and finance at Rollins College in 

Winter Park. In 1972, Larry put his trust and faith 

in Jesus. In 1973, he joined the staff of Campus 

Crusade for Christ as a financial counselor. During 

his time there he began an intense study of the 

biblical teaching on money and led small groups 

around the country through that material. In 1976, 

Larry Burkett left CCC to form Christian Financial 

Concepts and in September 2000, CFC merged 

with Crown Ministries, creating Crown Financial 

Ministries. Larry published more than 70 books, 

sales of which now exceed 11 million copies and 

include several national best-sellers. (Taken from 

Moody Publishers: https://www.moodypublishers. 

com/authors/b/larry-burkett/). 

16 


A THEOLOGY OF 

DARRELL BOCK 


CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE 

BOOK EXCERPT 

A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS 

In today’s post-Christian world, Christ followers 

find themselves increasingly drawn into situations 

where their dearly held values and beliefs are being 

challenged or compromised in the marketplace. Often 

they feel helpless or even fearful in engaging in 

fruitful responses. Noted theologian and author Dr. 

Darrell Bock in his recent book, Cultural Intelligence: 

Living for God in a Diverse, Pluralistic World, offers a 

fresh look at the components of an effective strategy 

to engage in this spiritual battle (which he calls 

cultural intelligence), by reminding believers of some 

basic principles from the Scripture. We are excited to 

reprint a brief excerpt from Dr. Bock’s book as a resource 

for marketplace Kingdom warriors (or in his 

words, GIAs) in this ongoing spiritual battle and as 

they “press toward God’s goal.” We are deeply grateful 

to the author and his publisher for permission to 

this reprint. 

*Excerpted with permission from Chapter 1, “A Theology of 

Cultural Intelligence” of Cultural Intelligence: Living for God in 

a Diverse, Pluralistic World (B&H Academic, 2020) by Darrell 

Bock. 

C 

ultural intelligence requires knowing our calling 

as well as the real nature of our battle. The 

spiritual nature of the conflict means we must 

utilize both a spiritual perspective and divinely 

appointed resources. We will consider six of the most significant 

texts on the cultural places and spaces we find ourselves 

occupying, as well as how the resources we have enable 

us to engage wisely. 

EPHESIANS 6:10-18 

(KEY - V. 12) 

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but 

against the rulers, against the authorities, against the 

cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual 

forces in the heavens. 

Christians fight a battle in a fallen world. Scripture often 

speaks of the world as being opposed to the things of God 

and, as a result, opposed to believers. 

In a battle, it is essential to understand the calling and 

the mission. For decades the church fought a culture war 

where we often made other people the enemy. But this text 

reminds us that our real battle is spiritual. It requires spiritual 

resources, and we are armed with those in response to the 

conflict. 

Paul is telling the Ephesians to stand strong as they resist 

the devil. Ground has already been won. That ground is 

spiritual and is tied to things such as our theology and our 

character…. We need to hold our ground, not take over new 

territory. 

Both a guide to the battle and a description of the battle 

are present in this text. Strength is to come from the Lord, 

and we are to equip ourselves with what he provides: his armor. 

There is nothing about circumstances here. There is nothing 

about political ideologies here. The resources are our theology, 

our faith, and the quality and character of our lives as 

believers. 

We are members of the GIA (God’s Intelligence Agency). 

Our assignment is to rescue people … from the clutches of 

unseen enemies. Those people walk “according to the ways 

of this world” (Eph. 2:2). It is unrealistic to expect people who 

are not connected to God to live in ways he directs. This is 

why the gospel is so important in this struggle. The gospel 

equips people with ability and capability that they otherwise 

do not possess. 

Our assignment is to engage in this spiritual battle using the 

spiritual resources we’ve been given so that, by the 

distinctive way we live and love, others will be drawn in. 

18 



BOOK EXCERPT 

Our assignment is to engage in this spiritual battle using 

the spiritual resources we’ve been given so that, by the distinctive 

way we live and love, others will be drawn in . That 

distinctiveness is most evident when we love our enemies as 

Jesus called us to do. 

In 3:17, Peter explains why we can conduct ourselves in 

this way… We are not to respond to the world in kind, even 

in the face of unjust responses. Disciples engage and show 

a different way of relating, even to those who reject them. 

1 PETER 3:13-18 

(KEY - VV. 15-16A) 

But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any 

time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for 

the hope that is in you. Yet do this with gentleness and respect. 

Peter had one word he could choose to summarize everything 

that faith comprises, and he chose “hope.” That hope is 

about understanding and appreciating why we are on Earth 

and how we can connect 

to the Creator 

who made us. 

If we do good 

to others, things 

should go well. Simple 

enough…. Only we 

live in an upside-down 

world. 

The tension of 

sharing the gospel 

and engaging with 

our culture is always a 

balance between the challenge the gospel presents to people 

about their sin and failure to live rightly and the gospel’s 

invitation to enter into hope and a new kind of life. As we 

engage, we have to simultaneously challenge and invite. 

Often, we stop reading 1 Peter 3:15 right there at the 

mention of being prepared to give a defense for our hope. 

That is a major mistake. We don’t merely offer our content, 

but the tone we present it with matters: 

1. Our engagement should come with gentleness and 

respect; 

2. Our good behavior will be slandered; 

3. We are to maintain a good conscience while knowing 

God is fully aware of the wrong we have experienced. 

COLOSSIANS 4:5-6 

As wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let 

your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you 

may know how you should answer each person. 

Two terms are fundamental in this text: “always” and 

“gracious.” 

First, “always” is an emphatic time marker. “Always” is all 

the time. 

Second, our tone always matters. “Gracious” is like the 

gentleness and 

respect we read 

about in 1 Peter 3. 

We should always 

be ready to share 

our hope, but always 

do it with 

this gracious tone. 

The idea of salt 

as a preservative 

reinforces the imagery. 

Our speech 

should help things 

to settle – and to settle down. It should be constructive in 

dealing with issues, not destructive by engaging in personal 

insult. 

Cultural intelligence calls us to 

see ourselves as ambassadors 

representing God, not so much as 

citizens of a particular earthly nation 

or political view. 

GALATIANS 6:10 

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of 

all, especially for those who belong to the household of the faith. 

Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25- 

37) – to make clear that our call is to be a neighbor, not worry 

about who is our neighbor. 

Our call is to be a neighbor and to know that neighbors 

come in surprising packages, and Jesus underscored the 

point by presenting a hated Samaritan as the example. 



BOOK EXCERPT 

So, in Gal. 6:10, Paul ends his exposition on loving our 

neighbor with … a call for us to actually do good. Engagement 

is not left to words alone. We have to show through our 

actions what we declare. 

A technical term in this verse is the word “all” … Cultural 

intelligence says our love is most distinctive when it includes 

all people. 

2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-21 

(KEY – V. 20) 

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making 

his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled 

to God.” 

There is a provision that comes with faith – an enablement 

that a person who does not know Christ lacks… a new 

kind of life, a life that honors God and has access to the indwelling 

Spirit of God to live that way. 

Paul’s one word to summarize what his ministry is about 

is reconciliation. God saves us to reconcile us to him and to 

others. 

Now, an ambassador represents a country. He also is a 

foreigner in a strange land. An ambassador’s calling is to represent 

his home country and its values. He or she works for 

peace between the people the ambassador represents and 

the people among 

whom the embassy 

resides. All 

those things are in 

play. 

Christians are 

always ambassadors, 

visibly representing 

the One 

whom they serve 

back at home, that 

is, our heavenly 

home. 

Now, the people we’re pleading with are accountable to 

God for their response, but that also means their response 

is not part of my responsibility. The response is between 

that person and God, and so is the accountability for that response. 

The call within engagement is to be faithful in message 

and tone – to be a faithful representative of God, an 

ambassador who is worthy to be heard. 

Reconciliation is an important theme in engagement … 

Without being reconciled to God, we cannot be fixed. Our human 

brokenness – and its estrangement from God – overshadows 

everything: politics, ideology, world circumstances. 

This is why the gospel is so central to our mission. How 

we represent God in word and tone sets the stage for our 

credibility about the gospel. What we care about and how we 

care for others is part of building a bridge to the gospel. 

We show our care for people by engaging with their lives 

and what is going on inside them, being aware of what troubles 

them and why. We help people when we do not just argue 

but show them that there’s a different way to live. One of 

the best ways to do that is to listen and care. 

Cultural intelligence calls us to see ourselves as ambassadors 

representing God, not so much as citizens of a particular 

earthly nation or political view. Our mission is to offer an invitation, 

pleading with any tribe and every nation to reconcile 

to God, showing love to any and all people. 

2 TIMOTHY 2:22-26 

(KEY – VV. 24-26) 

The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, 

able to teach, and patient, instructing his opponents with 

gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them 

to the knowledge 

of the truth. Then 

We are only called to be faithful in 

sharing what we have experienced and 

what we understand by God’s grace. 

Winning an argument is not a goal 

because it is not in our control anyway. 

they may come to 

their senses and 

escape the trap of 

the devil, who has 

taken them captive 

to do his will. 

Two 

themes 

that we have 

seen before reappears 

here. The 

first is being kind toward all. Kindness is not selective. The 

second theme is gentleness. 

Nothing about this is necessarily easy. Thus, it takes spiritual 

resources and maturity to develop such responses. It’s 

all too common to want to snap back during a disagreement. 

Paul tells Timothy not to go there. 

20 



BOOK EXCERPT 

First, the person’s response to God is tied to something 

God does. The ambassador is not responsible for the response 

of someone’s heart. Still, in a battle of ideas or actions, 

we don’t want to give someone cause for rejecting 

what we are saying. It may be unavoidable due to a difference 

of opinion, but we should never seek conflict. In fact, 

we should be careful not to descend into debate, but instead 

work to have a fruitful discussion. 

Second we are only called to be faithful in sharing what 

we have experienced and what we understand by God’s 

grace. Winning an argument is not a goal because it is not in 

our control anyway. 

Third, the remark about escaping the devil’s trap is another 

allusion to the spiritual battle of Eph. 6:12. …. The members 

of the GIA are skilled at balancing challenge with hope. 

Fourth, the result is a liberating escape. Rather than being 

trapped and captive, … the result for that individual is a flourishing 

life and walk with the Creator. 

Cultural intelligence avoids unnecessary disputes and engages 

in ways that are gentle. It also allows God to own the 

results of a conversation and trusts that by engaging faithfully 

and patiently, we are offering the non-believer an opportunity 

for a life-changing escape. 

CONCLUSION 

Engagement can lose its effectiveness when we lose 

sight of the primary objectives of our mission. 

In shifting times such as ours, we need a biblical agility 

that sees what is needed, alongside a relational ability to 

read and react. As we develop cultural intelligence, we gain 

this agility, guiding us to carefully listen and pursue gentleness 

while balancing challenge and hope. We also learn to 

appreciate the spiritual nature of the challenge of engagement 

and how to use those spiritual resources that allow us 

to stand. Skillful engagement means having a sense of our 

security in God so we do not fear no matter how grave the 

circumstances may look. Finally, cultural intelligence teaches 

us to understand that the gospel is the real answer for ultimate 

human transformation. Every other answer has severe 

limits. 

Such engagement also grasps that not only is what we 

say important, but so is how we say it. …the call is to humbly 

remember where we came from when God drew us to Himself. 

Engagement cuts against the grain and does not react as 

the world does. It requires a love that extends to all people 

at all times. 

In the end, even if the world sometimes pushes back (as it 

did against the Savior), biblical engagement reveals the presence 

of God, who empowers us to live distinctively and speak 

to others with wisdom and skill. The result is a cultural intelligence 

that images God’s character in our individual relationships, 

our church communities, and in our society. When 

we mirror him, we honor him. 


DARRELL BOCK is Executive 

Director of Cultural Engagement 

and Senior Research Professor of 

New Testament Studies at Dallas 

Theological Seminary (DTS). Dr. 

Bock has earned recognition as a Humboldt Scholar 

(Tübingen University in Germany), author of over 

40 books (including a NYT non-fiction best-seller), 

and as host of DTS’s Table Podcasts. He was a past 

president of the Evangelical Theological Society, 

is a consulting editor for Christianity Today, and 

serves on the boards of Wheaton College and Chosen 

People Ministries. He holds a Th.M. from DTS and a 

Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen. 


MOTIVATIONS 

IN FAITH-BASED 

ORGANIZATIONS 

AN EMPIRICAL INQUIRY 

RONNIE CHUANG-RANG GAO 

AND KEVIN SAWATSKY 

22 


MOTIVATIONS IN FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS 

CBR PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES 

ABSTRACT 

This paper fills a gap in research on job satisfaction 

and motivational factors in faith-based organizations. 

Drawing on motivational theories, we present 

a conceptual model that hypothesizes the effects of 

three factors (personal faith, perceived fit between 

personal faith and organizational faith, and transformational 

leadership [TL]) on job satisfaction and the 

mediating effects of motivation. A statistical analysis 

of survey data from four Christian institutions of 

higher learning in Canada concluded that personal 

faith is positively related to job satisfaction, but only 

among employees high in perceived fit. We also confirm 

that motivation fully mediates the relationship 

between perceived fit and job satisfaction. In addition, 

TL has a direct effect on job satisfaction and an 

indirect effect through the partial mediation of motivation. 

Managerial implications of these findings are 

also discussed. 

INTRODUCTION 

N 

ehemiah is often viewed as a Biblical example 

of transformational leadership. He faced 

seemingly insurmountable, complex problems, 

while dealing with difficult people, yet was able 

to effectively motivate the team around him 

to achieve a vast rebuilding project. While the project was 

successful due to God’s providence, it was also successful 

because Nehemiah understood the factors that motivated 

the people with him. He understood the yearning to correct 

the historical disgrace from captivity and a destroyed Jerusalem 

(Nehemiah 4:17). Nehemiah understood the need for 

hope and the desire of his team to improve the future for 

their families (Nehemiah 4:14). He understood the economic 

challenges demotivating some of the people (Nehemiah 5). 

Similarly, successful leaders of modern faith-based organizations 

(“FBO” or “FBOs”) must understand their employees 

and the factors that motivate them. It is surprising, that 

while much has been written with respect to motivational 

factors in corporations, little exploration has been done with 

respect to such factors in FBOs. In this research, we seek to 

begin this exploration by examining the effectiveness of just 

three motivational factors within the context of FBOs: employees’ 

personal faith, the perceived fit between personal 

and organizational faith, and transformational leadership. 

First, does personal faith itself make employees more satisfied 

with their jobs? If so, will motivation mediate this relationship? 

In other words, will stronger personal faith lead to 

higher employee motivation levels, which in turn will result in 

higher job satisfaction? Although research in organizational 

behavior has examined personal faith, this has largely been 

in the general work environment. Remarkably, we could not 

identify research that has explored the link between personal 

faith and job satisfaction and the possible mediating effect 

of motivation in FBOs. 

The second motivational factor examined is the perceived 

fit between personal faith and organizational faith. This is a 

new construct introduced in this study, which we define as 

the extent to which an employee perceives personal faith as 

consistent with that of the organization. Employees in FBOs 

often share the same religion but are not necessarily from 

the same sub-group within that religion and thus may have 

considerably different beliefs and practices. For example, 

Christianity comprises six major groups: Church of the East, 

Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, 

Protestantism and Restorationism. Protestantism alone includes 

many denominations that have diverging beliefs and 

practices, such as Adventism, Anabaptism, Anglicanism, 

Baptists, Lutheranism, Methodism, Moravianism, Pentecostalism, 

and Reformed Christianity. 1 Organizations may also 

have varying commitment levels to the beliefs and practices 

of the religious sub-group they are affiliated with. Some may, 

therefore, perceive a high level of fit between their personal 

faith and the faith of their employer, while others perceive 

a low level of fit or no fit at all. Will the different levels of 

perceived fit lead to different levels of job satisfaction? If so, 

will motivation mediate this relationship? Again, no previous 

research seems to have examined these possible effects. 

Third, considering the proposed motivating effects of 

personal faith and perceived fit, we examine if transformational 

leadership still impacts motivation and job satisfaction 

in FBOs. Prior research confirms the strong relationship 

between transformational leadership and job satisfaction in 

secular organizations. 2 However, in FBOs, where people generally 

put God ahead of leaders, will the normal link between 

transformational leadership and job satisfaction still exist? If 

so, will motivation also mediate this relationship? 




Drawing on three motivation theories, expectancy theory, 

3 two-factor theory, 4 and job characteristic theory, 5 we 

present a conceptual model in which we assert that personal 

faith, perceived fit, and transformational leadership are 

each positively related to job satisfaction and that motivation 

mediates each relationship. We then test our conceptual 

model with a survey among faculty and staff in four faithbased 

colleges in Canada. (We are cognizant that there are 

many different types of FBOs and faith based colleges may 

not perfectly represent all such organizations. We acknowledge 

this limitation and encourage further research across a 

broader range of FBOs.) Finally, we endeavor to provide theoretical 

contributions and managerial implications. 

LITERATURE REVIEW 

AND HYPOTHESES 

DEVELOPMENT 

FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS 

While most people intuitively understand what a FBO is, there 

are varying definitions. Bradley argues that, for an organization 

to be considered faith-based, faith needs to be embedded 

in its operational structure. 6 Bielefeld and Cleveland 

refer to FBOs as religiously influenced organizations with 

an explicit goal to provide social services. 7 Clarke proposes 

that FBOs rest on two pillars: a conceptual-ideological pillar, 

which promotes social justice, peace, and development, and 

a programmatic pillar, which imbues ideology into practical 

social activities. 8 Smith and Sosin identify three characteristics 

of FBOs: relying on religious entities for resources, affiliating 

with a religious group, and having a religious culture 

that creates a niche for the organization to pursue its religious 

values. 9 In our research, an FBO simply refers to “an organization 

with a main purpose other than worship, but with 

some significant connections with a religious organization or 

tradition” (p. xi). 10 

PERSONAL FAITH 

Personal faith has been shown to impact various job-related 

outcomes, including: work attitude; 11 satisfaction with intrinsic, 

extrinsic, and total work rewards; organizational commitment; 

11, 12 meaningfulness of work; 13 ethical decision-making; 

14 engagement in organizational citizenship behavior and 

less burnout; 12 and accountability to the organization. 15 Job 

stressors have more negative effects when employees have 

lower personal faith levels. 12 Note that these faith-related 

studies took place in general work settings rather than FBOs. 

The personal faith literature remains surprisingly silent 

on one question: in FBOs, is personal faith related to job satisfaction? 

We believed this relationship should exist. For employees 

high in personal faith, work is about searching for 

deeper meaning and expressing inner life needs and wants. 16 

Previous research shows that when people’s work-related 

wants, desires, and expectations are met, they are more 

satisfied with their jobs 17 and that intrinsic influences, such 

as meaningfulness of work, have positive effects on job satisfaction. 

18, 19 In addition, employees high in personal faith 

are more likely to experience a sense of community when 

interacting with coworkers with the same religion. In other 

words, mental, emotional, and spiritual connections are likely 

to occur among these employees, which in turn will lead 

to a deeper sense of connection, mutual support, freedom 

of expression, and genuine caring among them. 19 Linge and 

Mutinda found that good relations with coworkers are positively 

related to job satisfaction in FBOs. 20 Thus: 

Hypothesis 1 

In FBOs personal faith is positively related to job 

satisfaction. 

MOTIVATION 

We believed, based on expectancy theory, that in FBOs motivation 

would mediate the relationship between personal 

faith and job satisfaction. That is, personal faith is positively 

related to the level of motivation, and this level is positively 

related to job satisfaction. Vroom’s expectancy theory of 

motivation proposes that people are motivated to select a 

specific behavior over others because they expect certain 

results from the selected behavior and that the motivation 

of the behavior selection is determined by the desirability 

of the outcome related to the behavior. Expectancy theory 

has three components: expectancy, instrumentality, and 

valence. Expectancy refers to belief that effort will result in 

attainment of desired performance goals, as determined by 

past experience, perceived self-efficacy, perceived difficulty 

of the performance goal, and perceived control over the 

24 




goal attainment process. Instrumentality refers to belief 

that meeting performance expectations will be rewarded by 

financial incentives, recognition, promotion, or sense of accomplishment. 

This belief is determined by the level of trust 

in those who decide on rewards, perceived control of how 

the reward decision is made, and understanding of the policies 

that connect performance and reward. Valence refers to 

the value put on the rewards received, or satisfaction with 

the rewards, which is related to factors such as needs, goals, 

value systems, and sources of motivation. The product term 

of expectancy, instrumentality, and valence is called “motivational 

force.” When selecting among multiple behavioral 

options, people will select the one with the highest amount 

of motivational force. 3 

We posit that in FBOs, personal faith is positively related 

to each of expectancy, instrumentality, and valence. First, 

for expectancy, employees high in personal faith should 

have higher levels of meaningfulness and sense of purpose 

in their work, which will motivate more involvement in their 

work. Personal faith can also lead to greater cooperation and 

mutual support among coworkers. These factors will bring 

both higher levels of perceived self-efficacy and lower levels 

of goal difficulties, leading to higher expectancy. Second, 

instrumentality is determined by the level of trust in managers 

who make reward decisions. Employees and managers 

working in FBOs often have the same religious background, 

which should create greater trust because employees are 

likely to categorize their managers as “in-group”, rather than 

“out-group” and thus trust them more, according to social 

identity theory. 21 Managers, following personal religious beliefs 

(e.g., honesty), are more likely to keep reward promises 

by honoring reward policies, which will lead to higher instrumentality. 

This effect should be stronger among employees 

high in personal faith because they are more likely to trust 

their managers more as mentioned above. Third, for valence 

in FBOs, employees high in personal faith are more likely to 

value rewards because they believe the rewards ultimately 

come from God (Psalm 16:2; James 1:17). 

We further posit that in FBOs, motivation is positively 

related to job satisfaction. Herzberg's two-factor theory of 

motivation distinguishes between motivators and hygiene 

factors. Motivators, such as achievement, recognition for 

achievement, the work itself, responsibility, and growth or 

advancement, lead to job satisfaction. By contrast, hygiene 

factors, such as job security, work conditions, and salary, do 

not lead to job satisfaction, but their absence can lead to dissatisfaction. 

As discussed, more motivated employees are 

likely to believe that they are able to achieve tasks and will 

be rewarded and recognized, which, according to two-factor 

theory, will lead to higher job satisfaction. 4 Previous research 

confirms a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation 

(e.g., achievement, recognition) and job satisfaction in general 

work settings. 22 Thus: 

Hypothesis 2 

In FBOs, motivation mediates the relationship between 

personal faith and job satisfaction. That is, 

personal faith is positively related to motivation, and 

motivation is positively related to job satisfaction. 

PERCEIVED FIT BETWEEN 

PERSONAL FAITH AND 

ORGANIZATIONAL FAITH 

Within a particular religion there is substantial diversity 

in beliefs and practices. This diversity makes it possible 

for employees in an FBO to have different levels of perceived 

fit between personal faith and organizational faith. We posit 

that in FBOs, this perceived fit between personal and organizational 

faith is positively related to job satisfaction for two 

reasons. First, how workers perceive the spirituality of their 

organization can affect their work attitudes, beliefs, satisfaction, 

and capacity to overcome work challenges. 23 When 

employees perceive a good fit between personal and organizational 

faith they will identify with the organization, which 

will make them feel more involved with the organization’s 

mission 24 and their own job. 12 These higher levels of identification 

and involvement should lead to higher levels of job 

satisfaction. Previous research confirmed the link between 

organizational identification and job satisfaction. 25 Second, 

employees with a high level of perceived fit are more likely 

to experience a spiritual calling to their jobs when there is 

consistency between their own faith and that of their organization. 

Neubert and Halbesleben confirmed the positive link 

between spiritual calling and job satisfaction. 15 Thus: 

Hypothesis 3 

In FBOs, the perceived fit between personal faith 

and organizational faith is positively related to job 

satisfaction. 

We anticipated that motivation would mediate the re- 




lationship between perceived fit and job satisfaction. First, 

as discussed, when employees perceive a good fit between 

personal and organizational faith, they will be more involved 

with their work and organization. The sense of spiritual calling 

may make them believe that they are blessed when doing 

the work. These factors should lead to a stronger belief that 

they are able to complete tasks. These employees should 

have high levels of expectancy. Second, a higher level of perceived 

fit will lead to greater perceptions that the organization 

will keep its promises by honoring the reward policies 

when employees complete tasks. These employees should 

have higher levels of instrumentality. Third, employees with 

a higher level of perceived fit may have a sense that by doing 

their work, they are actually glorifying God. As a result, 

they will put a high value on whatever rewards they receive 

because they are likely to believe that these rewards are not 

just from the organization but also from God. Their valence 

level will be higher. These higher levels of expectancy, instrumentality, 

and valence will lead to higher motivation levels. 3 

As discussed, more motivated employees will be more satisfied 

with their jobs. Thus: 

Hypothesis 4 


perceived fit of personal faith and organizational 

faith and job satisfaction. That is, perceived 

fit between personal faith and organizational faith 

is positively related to motivation, and motivation is 

positively related to job satisfaction. 

TRANSFORMATIONAL 

LEADERSHIP 

Transformational leadership has four dimensions: idealized 

influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, 

and individualized consideration. Idealized influence, or 

charisma, refers to the extent to which leaders behave so 

admirably and inspirationally that followers identify with 

them. Inspirational motivation refers to the extent to which 

leaders articulate a vision that is inspiring to their followers. 

Intellectual stimulation refers to the extent to which leaders 

challenge existing assumptions and solicit creative ideas 

from their followers. Individualized consideration refers to the 

extent to which leaders care about individual needs and listen 

to specific concerns. 

2, 26, 27 

Transformational leadership has been found to impact 

organizations, including: subordinates’ trust in leaders, 28 

team members’ development of shared values with their 

leaders, 29 moral judgment, 30 perception of higher levels of 

core job characteristics, 27 follower motivation and perceived 

leader effectiveness, 2 and job performance. 31, 32 A few studies 

have also examined transformational leadership’s impact 

in FBOs. For example, transformational leadership positively 

impacts affective, continuance and normative organizational 

commitments among faith-based university employees. 33 It 

also affects employees’ engagement with the organization 34 

and emotional intelligence. 35 To our knowledge, however, no 

study has extensively examined transformational leadership’s 

effects on motivation and job satisfaction in FBOs. 

As proposed, in FBOs both personal faith and perceived fit 

are positively related to job satisfaction, mediated by motivation. 

Will transformational leadership have the same effect? 

Job characteristic theory posits that jobs should be designed 

with five core characteristics in mind: skill variety, task identity, 

task significance, autonomy, and feedback. These core 

characteristics produce the critical psychological states of 

experienced meaningfulness (the extent to which employees 

believe their jobs are meaningful, valued, and appreciated), 

experienced responsibility for the outcome (the extent to which 

employees feel accountable for the results of their work), 

and knowledge of the actual results (the extent to which employees 

know how well they are doing). These psychological 

states lead to positive outcomes, including job satisfaction. 5 

We suggest that transformational leadership does produce 

the five core job characteristics in FBOs. Specifically, leaders 

with inspirational motivation will communicate task significance 

to their employees, leaders with intellectual stimulation 

will nurture skill variety and autonomy, and leaders with individualized 

consideration will provide employees with individualized 

feedback, equipping them with skill variety and nurturing 

autonomy. These core characteristics will lead to the 

three psychological states, which will eventually lead to job 

satisfaction. Thus: 

Hypothesis 5 

In FBOs, transformational leadership is positively related 

to job satisfaction. 

We further propose that motivation mediates the positive 

relationship between transformational leadership and 

job satisfaction. First, leaders high in inspirational motivation 

will bring optimistic attitudes toward goal attainment, and 

leaders high in intellectual stimulation will stimulate creativity 

26 




FIGURE 1 

CONCEPTUAL MODEL WITH HYPOTHESIZED ROUTES 


PERCEIVED FIT 

TL 

H2: a 1 

b a 1 

H4: a 2 

b a 2 

H6: a 3 

b a 3 

H5 

H3 

H1 

MOTIVATION 

b 

JOB SATISFACTION 

among employees. Furthermore, leaders high in individualized 

consideration care about the specific needs of employees 

and listen to their concerns. All these factors should increase 

belief in the ability to complete assigned tasks. Thus, the expectancy 

dimension will be high. Second, leaders high in idealized 

influence are able to make employees trust and identify 

with them, while leaders high in individualized consideration 

care about their employees on an individual basis. These factors 

should make employees believe that leaders will honor 

the organization’s reward policies. Thus, the instrumentality 

level will be high. Third, leaders with inspirational motivation 

will articulate an appealing vision. In FBOs, this vision is more 

likely to be related to employees’ faith. As a result, employees 

will likely put organizational vision and benefits ahead of 

their own. These factors should lead employees to value the 

rewards given to them, whether they are extrinsic rewards 

(e.g., financial incentives) or intrinsic rewards (e.g., recognition). 

Thus, the valence level will be high. High levels of 

expectancy, instrumentality, and valence indicate more motivated 

employees who, in turn, will be more satisfied with 

their jobs. Thus: 

Hypothesis 6 


transformational leadership and job satisfaction. 

That is, transformational leadership is positively 

related to motivation, and motivation is positively 

related to job satisfaction. 

Fig. 1 presents our conceptual model based on the six hypotheses. 




TABLE 1 

SAMPLE PROFILE 

DEMOGRAPHIC ATTRIBUTE N (%) 

GENDER 205 (100) 

Male 90 (43.9) 

Female 115 (56.1) 

AGE (YEARS) 205 (100) 

25 and below 18 (8.8) 

26-35 29 (14.1) 

36-45 53 (25.9) 

46-55 47 (22.9) 

56-65 49 (23.9) 

Over 65 9 (4.4) 

EDUCATION 205 (100) 

High School 9 (4.4) 

College (including Bachelor's) 67 (32.7) 

Master's 66 (32.2) 

Doctorate's 63 (30.7) 

YEARS IN THE CURRENT ORGANIZATION 205 (100) 

Between 2 and 3 40 (19.5) 

Between 3 and 5 44 (21.5) 

Over 5 121 (59.0) 

ROLE IN CURRENT ORGANIZATION 205 (100) 

Staff 110 (53.7) 

Faculty 95 (46.3) 

28 




METHODOLOGY 

RESPONDENTS AND PROCEDURE 

We tested the six hypotheses in a cross-sectional online 

survey in four Christian colleges in Canada, using an internet-based 

survey. All four are attached to a religious organization 

or tradition, have strong statements of faith and 

deeply embed faith in their operational structure, meeting 

Torry’s FBO definition. 10 The link to the survey was sent to 

faculty and staff in each university, after permission from 

management. The respondents were informed that the purpose 

of the survey was to examine various motivational 

factors in FBOs. We added two screening questions to ensure 

that only faculty and staff (not administrators) would 

be included in the survey and that only employees who had 

been working at the university continuously for at least two 

years would be included (recognizing that it may take time 

for the three motivating factors to have an effect on job satisfaction). 

Questions in the survey included measures of job 

satisfaction, personal faith, perceived fit between personal 

and organizational faith, TL, motivation, demographics, and 

job-related questions (i.e., age, gender, education level, and 

years in the organization). 36 

Three hundred and five respondents attempted to participate, 

resulting in a response rate of 43.70% (cumulatively, 

the four universities have 698 employees). 37 We removed 98 

responses because of either the two noted restrictions or 

missing data. We eliminated two more responses because 

of unengaging behaviors (too short a time to complete the 

survey). As a result, the final sample size was 205. As some 

questions asked respondents to evaluate the transformational 

leadership of their immediate supervisors, we anticipated 

there would be some unwillingness to provide accurate 

answers out of a concern that data would be disclosed. 

To overcome this possible response bias, we purposely did 

not ask respondents to identify their university, in addition 

to providing confidentiality guarantees. We were then unable 

to compare response patterns across the universities as well 

as leaving university management unexamined as an exogenous 

variable; however, the discrepancies in responses are 

likely to be low because of similar mission and organizational 

faith. A random drawing for three gift cards was offered as an 

incentive to participate. Table 1 provides the sample profile. 

MEASURES 

There are various schools of transformational leadership. 

For example, Anthony and Schwartz identify five characteristics 

of transformational leaders (e.g., they tend to be 

“insider outsiders”, and use cultural change to drive engagement). 

38 Lancefield and Rangen describe four actions that 

transformational leaders often take (e.g., sharing leadership 

more systematically, and making empowerment live up 

to its promise). 39 In this research, we adopted the 15-item 

seven-point scale to measure transformational leadership 

from Bass and Avolio’s Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, 

40 including four, four, three, and four items for idealized 

influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, 

and individualized consideration, respectively. The fit indexes 

for the four first-order factors plus one second-order factor 

fell within an acceptable range (χ 2 (86) = 240.31, p < .001; 

comparative fit index [CFI] = .95; Tucker–Lewis index [TLI] 

= .94; root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 

.09 (slightly higher than the .08 cutoff value); standardized 

root mean square residual [SRMR] = .04), suggesting that 

the dimensions we used reflected the transformational 

leadership construct. Based on the definitions of expectancy, 

instrumentality, and valence, we developed four, four, and 

three measurement items to measure the three concepts, 

respectively. We dropped one item each for expectancy and 

instrumentality due to low factor loadings, which resulted 

in a nine-item seven-point scale to measure motivation, 

including three items each for expectancy, instrumentality, 

and valence. The fit indexes for the three first-order factors 

plus one second-order factor fell within an acceptable range 

(χ 2 (24) = 65.13, p < .001; CFI = .98; TLI = .97; RMSEA = .09 

(slightly higher than the .08 cutoff value); SRMR = .06); thus, 

the dimensions we used reflected the motivation construct. 

We used a four-item seven-point scale to measure personal 

faith, adapted from the Spiritual Transcendence Index. 41 We 

drafted four measurement items based on the definition of 

perceived fit between personal and organizational faith. We 

dropped one item with low factor loading, which resulted 

in a three-item seven-point scale to measure perceived fit. 

We measured job satisfaction with a three-item seven-point 

scale adapted from the satisfaction with overall job scale. 42 

All variables had good Cronbach’s alpha values. All constructs 

demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity. Average 




TABLE 2 

CONSTRUCT FACTOR ANALYSIS 

CONSTRUCT(RELIABILITY, M, SD) 

FACTOR LOADING 

IDEALIZED INFLUENCE (α=.93, M=5.29. SD=1.15) 

1. S/he instills pride in me for being associated with her/him .82 

2. S/he goes beyond self-interest for the good of the group .92 

3. S/he acts in ways that build my respect .95 

4. S/he considers the moral and ethical consequences of decisions .83 

INSPIRATIONAL MOTIVATION (α = .94, M = 5.53, SD = 1.19) 

1. S/he talks optimistically about the future .90 

2. S/he talks enthusiastically about what needs to be accomplished .92 

3. S/he articulates a compelling vision of the future .89 

4. S/he expresses confidence that goals will be achieved .86 

INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION (α = .89, M = 5.19, SD = 1.08) 

1. S/he re-examines critical assumptions to question whether they are 

appropriate 

.84 

2. S/he seeks differing perspectives when solving problems .89 

3. S/he gets me to look at problems from many different angles .85 

INDIVIDUALIZED CONSIDERATION (α = .87, M = 5.17, SD = 1.12) 

1. S/he spends time teaching and coaching .71 

2. S/he treats me as an individual rather than just as a member of a group .79 

3. S/he considers me as having different needs, abilities and aspirations 

from others 

.84 

4. S/he helps me to develop my strengths .90 

TABLE 2 CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 

30 




TABLE 2 

CONSTRUCT FACTOR ANALYSIS (CONT'D) 



EXPECTANCY (α = .65, M = 3.62, SD = 1.60) 

1. If I work hard, I will have good job performance .47 

2. Normally the employees in my organization are able to achieve their 

assigned goals through hard work 

.88 

3. I am able to achieve my assigned goals if I work hard. .68 

INSTRUMENTALITY (α = .96, M = 3.41, SD = .58) 

1. If I do well on my job, I have a good chance of being rewarded and compensated 

for that success 

2. I think I will be rewarded and compensated by my organization if I perform 

well 

3. The better I perform, the better my chance of being rewarded and compensated 

by my organization 

.97 

.97 

.88 

VALENCE (α = .94, M = 3.71, SD = 1.39) 

1. The reward and compensation system in my organization is attractive 

to me 

.87 

2. I like my organization’s current reward and compensation system .98 

3. It is good for my organization to have the current reward and compensation 

system 

.91 

PERSONAL FAITH (α = .91, M = 5.11, SD = .74) 

1. I maintain an inner awareness of God’s presence in my life .84 

2. I try to strengthen my relationship with God .88 

3. God helps me to rise above my immediate circumstances .87 

4. I experience a deep communion with God .83 

TABLE 2 CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 




TABLE 2 

CONSTRUCT FACTOR ANALYSIS (CONT'D) 



PERCEIVED FIT BETWEEN PERSONAL FAITH AND ORGANIZATIONAL FAITH 

(α = .88, M = 5.45, SD = 1.08) 

1. There is a good fit between my own religious belief and that of my organization 

.91 

2. The faith in my organization well reflects my own faith .96 

3. There is no difference between my own faith and the one of my organization 

.73 

JOB SATISFACTION (α = .91, M = 6.08, SD = .86) 

1. My job gives me a sense of accomplishment .87 

2. My job is satisfying .89 

3. I am really doing something worthwhile in my job .86 

TABLE 3 

CONSTRUCT CONVERGENT VALIDITY, DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY. AND 

INTER-CONSTRUCT CORRELATION MATRIX 

AVE 

HIGHEST 

SQUARED 

INTER- 

CONSTRUCT 

CORRELATION 

TL 

MOTIVATION 

PERSONAL 

FAITH 

PERCEIVED 

FIT 

JOB SATIS- 

FACTION 

TL .77 .18 1.00 

MOTIVATION .57 .18 .43 1.00 

PERSONAL FAITH .73 .18 .29 .25 1.00 

PERCEIVED FIT .76 .18 .37 .37 .42 1.00 

JOB SATISFACTION .77 .14 .37 .36 .11 .15 1.00 

The inter-construct correlations are all significant at p < .001 (two-tailed), except for three correlations: between personal faith and motivation (p = .002, 

two-tailed), between perceived fit and job satisfaction (p = .058, two-tailed), and between personal faith and job satisfaction (p = .164, two-tailed). 

32 




variance extracted from each construct ranged between .57 

to .77. 

Table 2 provides measurement items for each construct, 

Cronbach’s alpha values, means, standard deviations, and 

factor loadings. Table 3 provides convergent and discriminant 

validities for each construct and inter-construct correlations. 

RESULTS 

We used structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS 

26 to examine the hypothesized model. We employed 

a second-order hierarchical model because of the multidimensional 

nature of transformational leadership and motivation. 

SEM offers a simultaneous test of an entire system of 

variables in a hypothesized model; as a result, it can assess 

the extent to which the hypothesized model is consistent 

with the data. 43 

MEASUREMENT MODEL ASSESSMENT 

We conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to estimate 

the quality of the factor structure and loadings. 43 We entered 

the second-order variables transformational leadership and 

motivation (including the four dimensions of transformational 

leadership and the three dimensions of motivation), 

personal faith, perceived fit, and job satisfaction in the model. 

The measurement model revealed a good fit to the data 

(χ 2 (510) = 834.12, p < .001; CFI = .95; TLI = .94; RMSEA = .06; 

SRMR = .07), meeting the cutoff criteria when sample size is 

less than 250 and the number of measures is more than 30 

(i.e., χ 2 /df < 3, expected significant p-values, CFI > .92, TLI 

> .92, RMSEA < .08, SRMR < .09). 44 All factor loadings were 

equal to or greater than .68, except .47 for one item in the 

expectancy dimension of motivation. 

COMMON METHOD VARIANCE 

The cross-sectional survey research design and self-reported 

nature of our data could lead to the threat of common 

method variance (CMV). We took ex ante remedy strategies to 

reduce possible CMV, including assurance of anonymity and 

confidentiality, informing that there were no right or wrong 

answers, and encouraging that questions be answered honestly. 

We asked criterion variable questions (i.e., job satisfaction) 

first, followed by filler questions unrelated to this 

study and then predictor variables questions (i.e., personal 

faith, perceived fit, TL, and motivation). 45 We also took ex post 

remedy strategies by using Gaskin and Lim’s CFA approach 

during data analysis to test for possible CMV. 46 Specifically, 

we compared two CFA models, with a common latent factor 

added. In the first model, we set all the paths from the common 

latent factor to all the indicators to zero (i.e., the constrained 

model), while in the second model, the path coefficients 

are difference test revealed a significant difference 

between the two models (χ 2 difference = 106.06, df difference 

= 

33, p < .001; constrained model: χ 2 (510) = 834.12, p < .001; 

unconstrained model: χ 2 (477) = 728.06, p < .001), indicating 

that CMV did exist. As a result, we needed to account for the 

bias in the structural model. Following Gaskin and Lim’s approach, 

in the unconstrained CFA model, we performed data 

imputation, which generated adjusted scores for the five 

variables in the conceptual model (personal faith, perceived 

fit, TL, motivation, and job satisfaction). 

STRUCTURAL MODEL ASSESSMENT 

We performed SEM to determine whether the data collected 

support for the six hypotheses. 43 Iacobucci posits that SEM 

models perform well even with small samples (e.g., 50 to 

100). 47 Bentler and Chou (1987) propose a rule of thumb that 

the ratio of sample size to number of free parameters should 

be higher than 5:1 in order to get trustworthy parameter estimates. 

48 A sample size of 205 and 26 free parameters in 

our SEM model resulted in a ratio of 7.9:1, higher than the 

5:1 threshold ratio. In the structural model, in addition to the 

five variables in the conceptual model (now with adjusted 

scores), we added role (faculty and staff) and years in the 

organization as control variables. We did not include gender, 

age, and education level as controls, because previous 

research shows that these variables are not related to job 

satisfaction. 49 The results indicated that the hypothesized 

model fit the data well (χ 2 (2) = 3.19, p = .203; CFI = .99; TLI = 

.94; RMSEA = .05; SRMR = .02) (Hair et al.).44 Fig. 2 presents 

the overall structural model with path coefficients. The results 

show that neither personal faith (β = –.08, p = .272) nor 

the perceived fit between personal and organizational faith 

(β = –.07, p = .341) affects job satisfaction, thus rejecting H1 

and H3, respectively; however, transformational leadership 

is positively related to job satisfaction (β = .37, p < .001), in 

support of H5. 

Mediation effects were tested using Preacher and Hayes 

(2004) bootstrapping method. This method provides point 




FIGURE 2 

OVERALL STRUCTURAL MODEL WITH PATH COEFFICIENTS 


PERCEIVED FIT 

H2: a 1 

b=O.O, p=.961 a 1 

H4: a 2 

b=.04, p=.005 a 2 

H6: a 3 

b=.10, p=.002 a 3 

H1: β=-.08, p=.272 

H3: β=-.07, p=.341 

H5: β=.37, p .05). 

DISCUSSION 

We found that in FBOs, (1) personal faith has no effect 

on either motivation or job satisfaction, (2) perceived 

fit has no direct effect on job satisfaction but has an indirect 

effect through the full mediation of motivation, and (3) 

transformational leadership has direct effect on job satisfac- 

34 




tion and indirect effect through the mediation of motivation. 

Contrary to our hypotheses, personal faith was not related 

to either motivation (β = .00, p = .999) or job satisfaction. 

At a cursory glance, this finding is difficult to understand and 

counterintuitive; however, it becomes more understandable 

when we consider the positive relationship between perceived 

fit and job satisfaction. Among employees with higher 

perceived fit levels, a higher personal faith level may lead to 

greater perceived meaningfulness of their work and identification 

with the organization, which in turn will lead to higher 

levels of motivation and job satisfaction. By contrast, employees 

with lower perceived fit levels are more likely to disagree 

with the organization’s faith, perceive less freedom to 

discuss their own faith at work, lack meaningfulness in work, 

and not identify with the organization. All these factors could 

diminish job satisfaction. It is possible that among employees 

with low perceived fit levels, the higher their personal 

faith the lower the job satisfaction, because employees high 

in personal faith are then more likely to disagree with the 

organizational faith. Consequently, in a group of employees, 

high levels of job satisfaction from those with high personal 

faith and perceived fit may be balanced out by low levels of 

job satisfaction from those with high personal faith but low 

perceived fit. 

We ran a forward stepwise regression (with two models) 

to test this speculation. In the first model, personal faith and 

perceived fit were the independent variables and job satisfaction 

the dependent variable. In the second model, we 

added the interaction between personal faith and perceived 

fit as one more independent variable. We standardized all 

the independent variables in the models to reduce potential 

multi-collinearity between the interaction term and their 

FIGURE 3 

PERSONAL FAITH × PERCEIVED FIT INTERACTION EFFECT ON JOB 

SATISFACTION 

7.5 

JOB SATISFACTION 

7 

6.5 

6 

5.5 

LOW FIT 

HIGH FIT 

5 

LOW FAITH 

HIGH FAITH 




FIGURE 4 

THE FINAL MODEL 


PERCEIVED FIT 

TL 

High fit: β=.20, p=.071 

Low fit: β=.04, p=.917 

H2: a 1 

b=O.O, p=.961 a 1 

H4: a 2 

b=.04, p=.005 a 2 

H6: a 3 

b=.10, p=.002 a 3 

H1: β=-.08, p=.272 

H3: β=-.07, p=.341 

H5: β=.37, p



(a correlation analysis confirmed that the two variables are 

indeed correlated; r = .14, p = .039); however, when motivation 

is inserted, the significant relationship disappears. The 

full mediation indicates that when employees in FBOs perceive 

a higher level of fit between their faith and that of the 

organization, they will be more motivated, leading to higher 

job satisfaction. Furthermore, as analyzed, perceived fit is a 

condition for personal faith to have an effect on job satisfaction. 

Only when employees with strong religious beliefs and 

practices believe that their faith matches that of their organization 

are they likely to be more satisfied with their jobs. 

As hypothesized, transformational leadership is positively 

related to job satisfaction in FBOs, and this link is mediated 

by motivation. This finding indicates that the transformational 

leadership practices that are effective in secular 

organizations, such as being charismatic, articulating a vision, 

soliciting creative ideas, and taking individual care of each 

follower, 2 are also effective in motivating employees in FBOs. 

In other words, whether working for God or not, these transformational 

leadership practices are effective. Furthermore, 

the higher path coefficient from transformational leadership 

to motivation (β = .45, p < .001) than that from perceived fit 

to motivation (β = .20, p = .003) indicates that transformational 

leadership may be even more effective than perceived 

fit in motivating employees in FBOs. Furthermore, the finding 

that transformational leadership has both a direct effect 

on job satisfaction and an indirect effect through motivation 

indicates that transformational leadership practices will motivate 

employees, which in turn will lead to job satisfaction, 

and that motivation only partially mediates transformational 

leadership’s effect on job satisfaction. That is, in addition to 

motivation, there should be other mediators in the link between 

transformational leadership and job satisfaction in 

FBOs. These transformational leadership related findings are 

particularly inspiring because they indicate the necessity to 

explore the possible effects of other management practices 

and leadership styles in faith-based work environments. 

Other practices effective in secular organizations may be 

just as effective in FBOs. Exploring such endeavors would 

advance the literature on both leadership and FBOs. Finally, 

we find that neither role nor years in the organization have 

an effect on job satisfaction. These findings suggest there 

may be limited need to differentiate between roles when developing 

motivational strategies in FBOs, and longer service 

does not necessarily lead to higher job satisfaction. 

THEORETICAL 

CONTRIBUTIONS 

This research makes five theoretical contributions. First, 

we advance the transformational leadership literature 

by empirically confirming that transformational leadership is 

effective in FBOs. Specifically, we confirm that transformational 

leadership leads to more motivated employees, which 

in turn results in higher job satisfaction. Given that employees 

in FBOs put God ahead of a human leader we questioned 

if this would reduce transformational leadership’s effectiveness. 

However, our results indicate that transformational 

leadership was effective in FBOs. Furthermore, the partial 

mediation of motivation found in our research indicates that 

the mediating mechanism in the link between transformational 

leadership and job satisfaction in FBOs is complex; 

other variables have a mediating effect in this relationship 

as well. 

Second, we advance the motivation literature by empirically 

confirming that expectancy theory is applicable in faithbased 

work environments. Our results show that both transformational 

leadership and perceived fit have positive effects 

on motivation and that motivation positively affects job satisfaction 

(β = .25, p < .001). Specifically, both transformational 

leadership practices and perceived fit will lead to employees’ 

stronger beliefs that they are able to complete assigned 

tasks (expectancy), that managers will honor the reward policies 

(instrumentality), and that they value the rewards given 

to them (valence). These factors will make employees more 

satisfied with their jobs. Given that rewards and compensation 

included both non-financial (e.g., recognition, promotion) 

and financial (e.g., pay increase, commissions) incentives, the 

findings further indicate that even if employees in FBOs have 

the religious belief that they should not focus on personal 

gain, financial incentives are still effective motivators leading 

to job satisfaction. A possible explanation for this seeming 

contradiction is that employees may view the rewards 

as God’s recognition for their work. We did not examine this 

speculation in the study, but leave it to future research to 

explore empirically. 

Third, we introduce the construct of perceived fit between 

personal faith and organizational faith and find that it positively 

affects motivation and job satisfaction and moderates 

the relationship between personal faith and job satisfaction 

(that is, personal faith affects job satisfaction only among 

employees high on perceived fit, but not among employees 




low on perceived fit). In addition, motivation fully mediates 

the relationship between perceived fit and job satisfaction. 

This finding provides a clear picture of the underlying mechanism 

in the link between perceived fit and job satisfaction. 

Fourth, although research has examined personal faith in 

general work settings, 12 to our knowledge, our study is the 

first to explore the effect of personal faith on job satisfaction 

in FBOs. We find that this relationship is more complex 

than expected. When not differentiating employees by high 

and low perceived fit levels, personal faith was not related 

to job satisfaction in FBOs. However, when we add perceived 

fit as a moderator, the picture became clearer: personal faith 

indeed positively affects job satisfaction in FBOs, but only 

when employees perceive their faith as matching that of 

their organization. When employees do not perceive such a 

match, the relationship between personal faith and job satisfaction 

disappears. 

Fifth, we show that in addition to expectancy theory of 

motivation, the other two motivation theories used in this 

research, two-factor theory 4 and job characteristic theory, 5 

are applicable in FBOs as well. We empirically confirm the 

two relationships (between motivation and job satisfaction, 

and between transformational leadership and job satisfaction) 

as we hypothesized. 

MANAGERIAL 

IMPLICATIONS 

Motivating employees in FBOs has been explored in 

some ways. For example, through Employee Engagement 

Survey and 360 Leadership Review, the Best Christian 

Workplaces Institute helps Christian organizations improve 

their effectiveness. 52 Based on our research we would make 

three key recommendations to further assist management in 

FBOs. First, transformational leadership works in FBOs and 

when hiring managers, FBOs should select applicants with 

strong transformational leadership traits. In daily operations, 

FBOs should also encourage and promote transformational 

leadership practices among managers through training and 

performance evaluations. These practices will lead to higher 

motivation and job satisfaction. Second, when hiring employees, 

FBOs should consider not only whether an applicant 

has strong personal faith within a broader type of religion 

but also whether there is a perceived fit between personal 

faith and that of the organization. Furthermore, after employees 

are hired, organizations should offer training and 

communications in the faith of the organization for the purpose 

of increasing the perceived fit levels. These procedures 

are important because our results show that perceived fit, 

but not personal faith, positively affects employees’ levels 

of motivation and job satisfaction. In addition, these training 

and communication programs should be helpful in fulfilling 

the organization’s mission, which ultimately is to glorify 

God. 53 Third, in addition to transformational leadership 

practices and perceived fit, if FBOs find out that other factors 

or policies are effective to motivate employees, they should 

promote them because our results show that motivated employees 

in FBOs are more satisfied with their jobs. 

LIMITATIONS AND 

FUTURE RESEARCH 

Whis paper has several limitations that we plan to address 

in future research. First, we surveyed only faculty 

and staff in four Christian colleges. In addition, we only 

examined the role and years in the university, not whether 

employees in different disciplines have specific response 

patterns. We also did not examine other types of FBOs affiliated 

with other religions, or FBOs in other countries, and 

question whether the motivational factors we examined 

would have different effects in those circumstances. We also 

did not examine commercial companies with Christian leadership 

and mission which may have some similarity to FBOs. 

A much broader future study will determine the generalizability 

of our findings. 

Second, we did not explore the effects of other possible 

motivating factors in FBOs (e.g., servant leadership, transactional 

leadership). For example, personal commitment 

to serving God may in itself motivate employees in FBOs. 54 

Erisman and Daniels also find that many corporate job performance 

appraisals tend indirectly to measure Christian 

scriptural values (e.g., faithfulness), 55 which should provide 

motivational incentives for employees even in non-FBOs. 

While not the focus of our research, management in Christian 

organizations may be able to motivate by simply highlighting 

the alignment of these scriptural values with employees’ 

personal faith. We also did not examine the possible 

effects of the three motivating factors on other attitudinal 

and behavioral outcomes (e.g., organizational identification, 

organizational citizenship behavior, turnover intention, orga- 

38 




nizational commitment, job performance). These issues were 

beyond the scope of this study and future research is needed 

to determine the overall motivating mechanisms in faithbased 

work settings. 

Third, although we took ex ante remedies in our questionnaire 

design, our data analysis shows that some CMV existed. 

We note that as an ex post remedy we performed data 

imputation, 46 before analyzing the structural model. 

Fourth, in our model we did not test the possible relationship 

between transformational leadership and perceived fit 

between personal and organizational faith. However, trans- 

formational leaders may be able to improve their employees’ 

perceived fit level with inspirational motivation activities 

such as articulating a faith-based vision that is appealing and 

inspiring. Finally, in our model we proposed, and empirically 

verified, that motivation mediates the relationship between 

perceived fit and job satisfaction. However, it is also possible 

that perceived fit mediates the relationship between motivation 

and job satisfaction and this warrants future exploration. 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

RONNIE CHUANG-RANG GAO is Associate Professor of Marketing in the School of Business, 

Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. Ronnie’s research focuses 

on several different areas including cross-(sub)cultural consumer behavior, sales management, 

and green consumer behavior. His work has been published in Journal of Business Research, 

Association for Consumer Research (ACR) North American Advances, and American 

Marketing Association (AMA) Proceedings. Ronnie holds a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering 

from Tongji University in Shanghai, China, an M.B.A. from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D. in 

Business Administration from Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

KEVIN SAWATSKY is Dean and Professor of Law in the School of Business at Trinity Western 

University, Langley, British Columbia, Canada. Kevin has been a lawyer in B.C. for twenty nine 

years with a focus on charities law, thus having acquired a deep understanding of charitable 

organizations. He has researched and written about charitable organizations with a particular 

focus on human rights law and faith-based organizations. Kevin holds a Juris Doctor 

degree from the University of Victoria, an MBA from the University of British Columbia, and a Bachelor of 

Commerce degree also from UBC. 




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We did not measure respondents’ ethnicity out of a concern about 

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universities. 

37 

Out of identification concerns, we report the cumulative number 

rather than the workforce size for each university. 

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June 13, 2022) 

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(2013): 27-34. 


BUSINESS IN A TIME OF 

ESCALATING 

LAWLESSNESS 

* 

And because lawlessness 

will abound, the love of many 

will grow cold. 

ABSTRACT 

MATTHEW 24:12 

MARJORIE J. COOPER 

The escalation of spiritual lawlessness in American society, as well as in many parts of the world, fosters an increase in poverty, 

crime, and disrespect for other human beings. This rebellion is particularly serious as it is directed toward God Himself, 

but its detrimental effects inevitably extend to every domain of life, including economies. As a result, effective business 

communication, planning, projects, and supply chains become disrupted and inefficient. Costs rise, performance deteriorates, 

and people are less and less civil in their public discourse and interpersonal interactions. Christian businesspeople are 

uniquely qualified to address many of the business and social ills brought on by such lawlessness if they are willing to consciously 

stand against it and implement redemptive strategies to alleviate the effects of lawlessness. Whether in marketing 

communications, financial matters, or employee and supplier relationships, Christians can bring to bear the mind of Christ 

and love for those that oppose them in ways that are not common in the world system. Christian businesspeople, wherever 

they work, can have a positive influence on their environment and a dampening effect on lawlessness. 

42 


BUSINESS IN A TIME OF LAWLESSNESS 

CBR PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES 

“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did 

what was right in his own eyes” 

(Judg.17:6; 21:25). 

INTRODUCTION 

S 

uch is the essence of spiritual lawlessness. If everyone 

does what is right in his own eyes, then 

people have made themselves their own gods, 

unrestrained by accountability to an all-powerful 

deity. In a society dominated by such lawlessness, men 

and women claim unlimited self-determination strictly as a 

function of their own predispositions and preferences; they 

grant no one else the moral authority to dictate otherwise, 

including the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. 

Not only is such belief destructive to the individual, if pervasive, 

it signals escalating decline and ruin throughout a 

culture via a variety of symptomatic manifestations. We can 

expect the deleterious effects of this spiritual lawlessness 

and impoverishment to be felt in every domain of human 

endeavor: family, law, government, medicine, education, religion, 

and others. One such symptom of spiritual lawlessness 

is the deterioration of factors conducive to a prosperous 

economy. As this condition escalates, it leads to losses 

that threaten the very basis for capitalism. Freedom under 

God creates opportunities that—in varied forms—reduced 

poverty and brought higher standards of living through enhanced 

economic success and productivity to many countries 

around the world. Freedom apart from God inevitably moves 

toward anarchy. 

In this article, I first examine the biblical perspective on 

spiritual lawlessness, which results—both in the case of the 

lawless individual and in the case of a society made up of a 

critical mass of spiritually lawless citizens—in a variety of 

undesirable effects across all human domains. I then briefly 

cite some evidence that spiritual lawlessness is an increasing 

threat to US society. Finally, I discuss some possible ways 

that Christian businesspeople might frame their responses 

to mitigate the damage inflicted by rampant lawlessness and 

to advance redemptive measures for customers, suppliers, 

and employees as well as the culture at large. 

BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES 

ON THE NATURE AND 

PRACTICE OF 

LAWLESSNESS 

LAWLESSNESS DEFINED 

The concept of lawlessness is expressed in the Old Testament 

by more than 20 different Hebrew words. However, the 

notion of unbelief and disobedience toward God pervades 

the underlying thrust of these words, demonstrated in that 

the Septuagint (LXX) uses only one Greek word, and in each 

case the word is the same word for lawlessness as used in 

the New Testament. 1 That word (Gr. ἀνομία) means a “state 

or condition of being disposed to what is lawless” or “a lawless 

deed.” 2 It is important to note that necessarily a dependency 

exists between spiritual lawlessness and overt acts 

of lawlessness: A spiritually lawless mind produces overtly 

lawless deeds. 

However, biblical teaching on lawlessness is more all-encompassing 

than merely cases of breaking civil or criminal 

law. Lawlessness, which makes its first appearance in the 

garden, is, at its core, the condition of the human heart, 

which acts both in unbelief toward the word of God (Eve) and 

in conscious disobedience to God’s instruction (Adam) (1 Tim 

2:14). 3 As the Lord himself said, “The good man out of the 

good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the 

evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for 

his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart” (Luke 6:45). 

Scripture gives us more detail about the nature of lawlessness. 

For example, John tells us that “Everyone who practices 

sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness” 

(1 Jn 3:4), so we do not have to look very far to find lawlessness. 

It thrives in each of us, barring a faith commitment to 

Jesus Christ and the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit 

within each believer. Thus, lawlessness as defined biblically 

does not merely refer to obvious overt transgressions, although 

it certainly includes those. Rather, lawlessness is the 

manifestation of a sinful heart and mind that rejects God’s 

word and instruction to pursue independence and disobedience 

instead. 

In contrast, believers in Christ, who are also his ambassadors 

to a world that increasingly advocates and portrays 

lawlessness, should present a completely different character 

and orientation to all aspects of life, including how they 




do business. Paul in Rom 12:2 commands a renewal of the 

mind; the natural tendency of the flesh is toward lawlessness 

apart from the renovation work of the Holy Spirit. This 

is especially true if we seek to be conformed to the image of 

Christ in every area of life. As Heb 1:9a says in highlighting 

our Savior’s antipathy toward lawlessness, “Thou hast loved 

righteousness and hated lawlessness.” 

EVIDENCE OF ESCALATING 

LAWLESSNESS 

The thesis of this paper is that escalating lawlessness will increasingly 

impact the health of businesses and the economic 

prosperity that Americans have come to enjoy and expect. 

This thesis in no way claims that lawlessness is worse now 

than it has ever been throughout history nor that it is yet as 

bad as it could be. But it is the contention of this paper that 

we are seeing an increasing departure from the knowledge of 

God in our culture as well as an increasing rejection of human 

responsibility to know 

and heed his precepts 

and commands. These 

departures portend 

increasing overt manifestations 

of lawless 

minds, which appear 

to this author to be 

obvious to anyone 

who engages with the 

culture. However, that 

contention is merely 

anecdotal; there 

is also research that 

supports the ongoing 

rejection of biblical truth, which results in lawless beliefs, attitudes, 

and actions. 

In contrast to operating under the assumption that 

we as human beings are at least somewhat accountable to 

God, the influence of religion in general and Christianity in 

particular appears to be waning in modern western societies. 

4 In contrast to the prevalence of the Protestant Ethic bestowing 

considerable advantage on the economies of western 

society 5 , countervailing opinions increasingly question 

the positive influence of religion, notably, for our purposes 

herein, throughout the domains of economics and business. 

Callum Brown documents how in the span of less than forty 

years Britain sent “organized Christianity into a downward 

spiral to the margins of social significance.” 6 Hugh McLeod 

documents a similarly precipitous decline in Canada. 7 

Although the trend toward secularization in the United 

States, especially in the South, has been slower than in Canada 

and Europe, by the early 1990s, the overall percentage 

of declared secularists in the United States virtually mirrored 

the percentages of secularists in Canada and Britain and 

shows no sign of abating. 8 Such a trajectory does not bode 

well for economic prosperity, which depends on a moral and 

ethical populace for its long-term viability. 

In George Barna’s American Worldview Inventory 2021-22, 

a variety of trends indicate an increasing rejection of God and 

his truth. 9 Integrated Disciples is Barna’s term for those that 

believe “the Bible is the accurate and reliable words of God”; 

believe that an omnipotent, omniscient, and holy God rules 

the universe; and recognize God’s personal purpose for them 

as well as their obligation to make moral choices that honor 

God. 10 This is Barna’s definition of a biblical worldview, and, 

though one might quibble about the details, Barna’s definition 

is certainly a minimum 

for a genuinely 

Lawlessness, which makes its first 

appearance in the garden, is, at its 

core, the condition of the human 

heart, which acts both in unbelief 

toward the word of God (Eve) and 

in conscious disobedience to God’s 

instruction (Adam) 

“Christian” worldview. 

Unfortunately, 

only six percent of 

Americans evidence 

these characteristics. 

Additionally, a 

biblical worldview 

shows consistent 

downward trends 

by younger age cohorts, 

lending credence 

to an escalating 

departure from 

adherence to biblical truth over time. 11 An absence of these 

beliefs indicates not just a lack of biblical orientation but also 

the intrusion of an orientation toward lawlessness in belief 

and practice. 

Among those that self-identify as born-again Christians—28% 

or more than 1 in 4 Americans—56% say that 

having faith matters more than which faith you pursue, and 

51% say that all religious faiths are of equal value. Such belief 

logically implies that the substitutionary atonement of Christ 

for sin is unnecessary for relationship with God. More than 

half, 54%, accept feelings, experience and the input of friends 

and family as their most trusted sources of moral guidance 

rather than the Scriptures as ultimately authoritative. 12 

44 




We have ample evidence that a mindset of lawlessness 

is increasingly manifest even within the Christian community. 

A LifeWay Research study found only 45 percent of those 

who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once 

a week, and almost 20 percent of these churchgoers admit 

they never read the Bible. 13 If one is not familiar with the 

word of God, one can hardly be expected to obey it, and biblical 

illiteracy hampers the exercise of discernment and godly 

skill for living, again leaving the door open for the intrusion 

of lawless thinking. 

SOME PERVASIVE 

CHARACTERISTICS OF 

LAWLESSNESS 

LAWLESSNESS MEANS NO FEAR OF 

GOD 

One defining characteristic of lawlessness is a lack of healthy 

fear of God. Although to “fear” in the Old Testament can simply 

mean a visceral fright that is unconnected to true faith, 

these instances number fewer than a dozen, and some of 

those are disputed. However, according to Albert N. Martin, 

there are between 150 to 175 explicit references to the fear 

of God in the Old Testament. Coupled with instances in which 

the fear of God is illustrated, though not explicitly stated, 

these examples can be counted in the hundreds. 14 In each 

case the idea is one of faith and obedience toward God, as, 

for example, in the case of the Israelite midwives in Egypt 

(Exod 1:17, 20) or when Nehemiah promotes Hananiah (Neh 

7:2), because he demonstrated fear of God. Similar usage can 

be found in the Second Temple literature and in the New Testament 

up to and including Acts 13. 15 Thus, Scripture gives 

unequivocal testimony that a spiritually healthy person and 

society will exhibit the fear of God by adhering to his commands 

and respecting his moral authority to govern all human 

institutions. 

The fear of God is the opposite of each person doing what 

is right in her own eyes. Instead of being accountable to no 

one, people who fear God recognize their accountability to 

the transcendent judge, whose rule is both authoritative and 

essential for human well-being. The fear of God thus constrains 

behavior and, at a minimum, causes people to curb 

their worst impulses, deeming it foolhardy to run afoul of the 

Judge of the universe and suffer the consequences he dispenses. 

In practice, then, the fear of God reflects an understanding 

of Paul’s warning in Gal 6:7, “Do not be deceived, 

God is not mocked; for whatever a [person] sows, this [he 

or she] will also reap.” Rather than reap the consequences, 

those who fear God will often (but not always) choose to 

adhere to his moral standards and norms, even when under 

pressure to do otherwise. 

By coupling lawlessness with impurity (or uncleanness) in 

Rom 6:19 16 , the Apostle Paul verifies the linkage between a 

state of individual sin and widespread moral corruption. He 

also portrays the repetitive choice to be a slave to impurity 

and lawlessness as a recipe for an escalating downward spiral 

in terms of more and more lawlessness. That uncleanness 

is associated with lawlessness shows that moral impurity 

has consequences beyond the corruption of the individual 

alone. Rather, moral impurity is associated with the lawlessness 

that tears away at the fabric of society, ripping apart 

God’s established institutions and provisions for human 

flourishing. Impurity or uncleanness and lawlessness are 

contrasted by Paul in Rom 6:19 with righteousness leading 

to sanctification, which is the desired end-state of Christ’s 

work in believers. 

Therefore, in view of these very real pitfalls, Christian 

businesspeople do well to cultivate honest messaging to 

consumers, honoring their promises as well as ensuring good 

value in the products they produce and market. If Christians 

in the business community mislead their customers and 

suppliers and cannot be trusted, they have bowed to cultural 

lawlessness, because research shows that trust and cooperative 

behavior is essential for business relationships to 

prosper. 17 

LAWLESSNESS RESULTS IN CHAOS 

A general axiom is that God is not a god of confusion and 

chaos (1Cor 14:33). Wherever we find genuine fear of God 

and respect for God’s rule, we also find God’s people at work 

restoring peace and order. Lawlessness foments chaos, 

darkness, and hopelessness. From an economic perspective 

its presence also thwarts order, stability, and efficient 

production processes as well as reliable delivery and scheduling. 

Many of the current disruptions in supply chains are 

the result of chaos, bottlenecks, and lawless disruptions. 18 

Businesses cannot thrive under conditions of chaos; in 

fact, virtually no human enterprise thrives in the presence 

of lawlessness and its accompanying disruptions in order, 

productivity, and logistics. The Christian’s redemptive role in 




response to lawlessness is partly to restore order, reliability, 

and improved functionality to various entities that have 

been contaminated by the destructive effects of lawlessness 

and rebellion against God’s order. As an example, Christian 

businesspeople who have been trained to assess disruptions 

in the supply chain, reduce the variability and uncertainty of 

supply chain performance, and improve coordination and cooperation 

are doing a great service. 

LAWLESSNESS AND NO COMPASSION 

FOR THE DISADVANTAGED 

Proverbs 21:10 reads, “The soul of the wicked desires evil; 

his neighbor finds no favor in his eyes.” Lawlessness does 

not deal in compassion and sacrifice for others. Its every expression 

reflects self-seeking and personal agenda, even evil 

intent. That, of course, is one of the reasons lawlessness is 

so deceptive and persuasive to the naïve and those without 

spiritual discernment. The plans of the lawless often sound 

reasonable, rational, and positive in a utilitarian sense. But as 

Isaiah declares, the lawless one is disposed to keep the hungry 

person unsatisfied and to deprive the thirsty person of 

drink (Isa 32:6). Therefore, Christian businesspeople need to 

exercise godly wisdom in choosing their business associates 

that they may not become caught up in a web of selfishness 

and exploitation. Christian businesspeople can also use their 

well-honed business skills to organize efforts to afford the 

disadvantaged genuine hope and assistance. 

LAWLESSNESS AND POOR DECISION- 

MAKING 

In Romans 1, Paul delineates a process by which rejection of 

God and moral corruption begets a downward spiral in both 

spiritual sensitivity and in mental acuity. First is the suppression 

of the truth in unrighteousness (v. 18); next is the 

conscious rejection of what human beings naturally know 

about God (v. 21), which leads to those becoming fools who 

believe they are wise (v. 22); and finally results in believing 

a lie (v. 25) and having a depraved mind (v. 28). Under such 

conditions, human beings are incapable of seeing situations 

clearly and rationally; they are also impaired in everyday decision-making, 

including business decisions, because they 

have rejected reality to embrace that which is not real. 

Faulty decision-making is the inevitable consequence. 

One of the more humorous examples of inability to foresee 

the logical conclusions of action initiatives is Seattle’s recent 

soda tax. In 2018, Seattle mandated a tax on soft drinks and 

other sugary drinks. The intent was to improve the health of 

Seattle residents. Within two years, it became evident that 

many residents had forsaken sugary drinks for beer. Alcohol 

consumption, as we know, contributes to a wide range 

of health problems, not to mention the social problems fostered 

by excessive beer consumption. But the problem of 

obesity, which the tax was originally intended to address 

remained unaffected. 19 This situation, although trivial, illustrates 

the flaws in using utilitarian objectives as the criteria 

for action. Apart from the omniscient hand of God directing 

human planning and solutions, the consequences are often 

“unintended” and more destructive than the initial problem. 

When human beings reject what they know to be true 

about God and embrace instead lawlessness and sin, the 

solutions they propose are likely to lead to even more disruption 

in business, government, medicine, and every other human 

endeavor. In contrast, Psalm 119:98-100 offers these 

encouraging words, “Thy commandments make me wiser 

than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight 

than all my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation. 

I understand more than the aged, because I have observed 

Thy precepts.” 

HOW CHRISTIAN 

BUSINESSPEOPLE CAN 

RESPOND 

RESPONSES THAT REFLECT THE 

LORD’S COMMANDS 

As a first step toward responding to lawlessness in the 

business community, Christian businesspeople might take 

personal inventory and check their response to perceived 

injustice and unethical behaviors. A good place to test oneself 

for godly response is in the context of daily business activities, 

where cooperation and mutual respect are essential 

for success, but where many disagreements and complaints 

are aired. Incivility in the workplace is on the rise 20 and has 

been shown to have numerous deleterious effects. For example, 

nurses report incivility can even impact patient care 

in a medical setting. 21 Incivility is one symptom of escalating 

lawless predisposition in society, since it conveys disrespect 

for others made in the image of God and ignores God’s mandates 

for doing unto others as we would have others do unto 

46 




us. Incivility is a classic example of violation of the second 

commandment and thus qualifies as an overt expression of 

lawlessness. The workplace with its tensions and pressures 

can be an open opportunity for believers to exhibit graciousness 

and kindness (Gal 5:22-23) amidst these disruptions. 

Unfortunately, many Christians respond in anger and 

frustration to various aspects of lawlessness, which is an 

understandable human response. However, the Lord’s people 

are called to evince a demeanor that owes its self-control 

to Someone greater than ourselves. We must go well beyond 

the natural human responses to external threats. Regrettably, 

the emotional tenor of discourse from Christians in many 

business settings is frustration, aggression, and even retaliation, 

which constitute overt acts of lawlessness. 

In contrast, Paul writes in 2 Tim 2:24-26, “And the Lord’s 

bondservant must 

not be quarrelsome, 

but be kind to all, 

able to teach, patient 

when wronged, 

with gentleness correcting 

those who 

are in opposition, if 

perhaps God may 

grant them repentance 

leading to the 

knowledge of the 

truth, and they may 

come to their senses 

and escape from the 

snare of the devil, 

having been held captive by him to do his will.” 

The Lord himself tells us in Matt 5:44-45 to love our enemies 

and pray for those who persecute us. This is God’s clear 

command, that Christians should not take a page from the 

lawlessness handbook, but rather than retaliating in kind, we 

should be sufficiently countercultural that the contrast is noticeable 

and appreciated. 

In cases where Christian businesspeople are criticized for 

their beliefs and ethical stands on various issues, there are 

ways to address lawlessness that does not inflame opposition 

and that shows the immense contributions that Christianity 

makes to a culture. As an example, in the early days 

of the church, Christians were often accused of terrible sins, 

such as gross immorality and incest, cannibalism, and engaging 

in traitorous acts against Caesar, to name but a few. 

The early apologists were those who spoke out and carefully 

presented true Christian beliefs and practices to a pagan 

world that not only misunderstood them but was disposed 

to persecute them for those “practices.” Justin Martyr, Tertullian, 

and Clement of Alexandria, for example, earnestly presented 

alternatives to the prevailing misinformation about 

Christians, carefully reasoned and respectful towards the 

audiences to which these treatises were directed. 

The conduct of those early Christians was also testimony 

to their superior contributions to the Roman Empire, as, for 

example, the extent to which Christians cared for the sick. 

Devastating epidemics swept the Roman Empire in CD 165 

and again in 251. We can only speculate as to what diseases 

these were, although many suggest smallpox and measles. 

Estimates vary, but it is likely that a quarter to a third of the 

population died in the first epidemic and as many as 5,000 

a day were dying in 

Rome at the height of 

The fear of God is the opposite 

of each person doing what is right 

in her own eyes. Instead of being 

accountable to no one, people who 

fear God recognize their accountability 

to the transcendent judge, whose rule 

is both authoritative and essential for 

human well-being 

the latter epidemic. 22 

Dionysius of Alexandria, 

quoted by Eusebius, 

23 states that 

Christians at the time 

viewed the epidemic 

as a time of “schooling 

and testing.” While 

many pagans fled the 

scene, the Christians 

“heedless of danger,” 

took charge of nursing 

the sick and ministering 

to them in the 

name of Christ. Thus, the early Christians inspire us with their 

articulate defense of the faith and their unselfish response 

to the needs of their pagan neighbors. Christian healthcare 

organizations, which today are primarily run as for-profit 

businesses, can offer similar efforts to alleviate suffering in 

addition to their for-profit products and services. This is the 

sort of mindset and sacrifice needed to offset spiritual lawlessness 

and to bring the healing and redemptive message 

of Christ to a world that views Christians with increasing antipathy. 

CONTEMPORARY RESPONSES THAT 

REFLECT GODLY SACRIFICE 

Christian businesspeople have much to contribute to curbing 

lawlessness in ways that reflect their ambassadorship 




for Christ. Following are some examples of positive contributions 

to society for which businesspeople are especially 

skilled and experienced. These are only a few ideas, some of 

which are already being enacted and others that hold much 

potential for good. 

Christian businesspeople can be strong role models to 

business students, testifying that it is possible to act both 

redemptively and unselfishly if one’s business and/or career 

are wholly submitted to Christ’s lordship. This would be a 

positive message for Christian young people today who may 

sometimes feel overwhelmed by the forces arrayed against 

the Lord and his people. 

Christian businesspeople can individually or cooperatively 

collaborate to fund mission trips that provide business assistance 

and a Christian orientation to indigenous entrepreneurs. 

Often groups that struggle with poverty are receptive 

and thankful for help from Christian business groups that are 

formed to act redemptively—and without personal gain and 

advantage—in disadvantaged regions of the world. 

Within one’s own country, it is possible to form co-ops of 

Christian businesspeople to address problems among disadvantaged 

and struggling local neighborhoods. Some examples 

would be to organize projects to address the problem 

of food deserts or programs to upgrade the skillsets of unskilled 

workers, so that they can qualify for better jobs. 

Shortages of skilled trade workers have recently emerged 

in such critical fields as construction, heating and air conditioning, 

plumbing, and others. 24 To address the shortage of 

welders, a heavy-metal band has initiated a program to substantially 

subsidize community college programs and students 

who gain hands-on career training in welding. 25 Certainly 

the band has no known Christian affiliation. However, 

the support of much-needed vocational programs to train 

skilled workers for successful careers in the name of Christ 

is a model that Christian businesses and Christian businesspeople 

could adapt and sponsor. 

Christian businesspeople may volunteer to teach business 

skills to those who are incarcerated, thus decreasing recidivism 

rates and increasing the likelihood that inmates will be 

able to thrive and prosper when they are released. Personal 

involvement may be one contribution; another could be organizing 

funds to support these programs to show the love of 

Christ in a particularly dismal place. 

In the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn 

Roe v. Wade, a number of secular companies instituted 

policies to pay employees’ expenses to travel to states that 

allow abortion and to pay the cost of this procedure. In stark 

contrast, Buffer Insurance in Southlake, Texas instituted a 

policy of its own for employees. Buffer vowed to pay medical 

bills for its employees who want to have their babies and 

see the pregnancy to full term. 26 Such initiatives are possible 

when Christian businesspeople dedicate themselves to 

sharing the message of redemption in ways that are positive, 

caring, organized, and self-sacrificing. 

CONCLUSION 

Christian businesspeople have much to contribute to initiatives 

that combat lawlessness. Some are good at forging 

persuasive promotional messages; others at conceiving 

creative strategies to advance redemptive projects; and still 

others at implementing plans or raising funds to support 

those plans. Instead of raging at the world system, Christian 

businesspeople can offer solutions that solve many of the 

problems that lawlessness creates. In this way, they demonstrate 

the love of Christ to a world living in increasing hopelessness. 


MARJORIE J. COOPER is 

Professor of Marketing at Baylor 

University in Waco, Texas, where 

she has taught for 38 years. Dr. 

Cooper has published more than 

50 articles in refereed journals, including the 

Journal of Marketing, Journal of Advertising, 

Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of 

Business Research, Journal of the Academy 

of Marketing Science, Industrial Marketing 

Management, Journal of Psychology & Theology, 

and Journal of Business Ethics among others. 

She has also published more than 100 businessrelated 

articles in practitioner publications, and 

she is currently the Editor for the Keller Center 

Research Report published by the Keller Center for 

Research at Baylor University. Her Ph.D. is from 

Texas A&M University, and she has a Th.M. from 

Dallas Theological Seminary. 

48 




NOTES 

1 

Philip H. Towner, “Lawlessness,” in Walter A. Elwell (Ed.), Baker’s 

Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker 

Books, 1996), p-p. 

2 

Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and 

Other Early Christian Literature. Revised and edited by Frederick W. 

Danker, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 85. 

3 

See Marjorie J. Cooper, “The Prohibition in 1 Timothy 2:12 in Light 

of Eve’s Having Been Deceived (1 Tim 2:14-15),” Presbyterion, 44 

(2018): 115-125 for a discussion of Eve’s deception fueled by unbelief 

contrasted with Adam’s conscious disobedience. 

4 

R. F. Inglehart, “Giving Up on God: The Global Decline of Religion,” 

Foreign Affairs 99 (2020): 110-118. 

5 

See, for example, Max Weber. The Protestant Work Ethic and the 

Spirit of Capitalism. (New York: Vigeo Press Reprint, 1930 [2017]). 

6 

Callum G. Brown. The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation 

1800-2000 (London: Routledge, 2001), 1. 

7 

Hugh McLeod, “The Crisis of Christianity in the West: Entering 

a post-Christian Era?” in H. McLeod (Ed.), The Cambridge History of 

Christianity: World Christianities c. 1914 – c. 2000 (Cambridge, UK: 

Cambridge University Press, 2008), 323-347. 

8 

Ibid. 

9 

George Barna, American Worldview Inventory 2021-22: The Annual 

Report on the State of Worldview in the United States, (Glendale, AZ: 

Arizona Christian University Press, 2022). 

10 

Ibid, 68. 

11 

Ibid, 85-96. 

12 

Ibid, 66-67. 

13 

Ed Stetzer, “The Epidemic of Bible Illiteracy in Our Churches,” 

Christianity Today, accessed March 29, 2018, http: /www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/july/epidemic-of-bible-illiteracy-in-our-churches.html. 

14 

A. N. Martin. The Forgotten Fear: Where Have All the God-fearers 

Gone? (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2015), 1-2. 

15 

See Marjorie J. Cooper, “Theological Perspectives on the God-Fearers 

with Application to Acts 13:48,” Presbyterion, 46 (2020): 90-99 

for an explanation of the termination after Acts 13 of the phrase 

“God-fearers.” 

16 

All scripture quotations are from the NASB. 

17 

Robert M. Morgan and Shelby D. Hunt, “The Commitment-Trust 

Theory of Relationship Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 58 (July 

1994): 20-38; Neve Isaeva, Kira Gruenewald, and Mark N. K. Saunders, 

“Trust Theory and Customer Services Research: Theoretical 

Review and Synthesis,” The Service Industries Journal, 2020, 40, Nos. 

15-16, 1031-1063 Https: /doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2020.1779 

225. 

18 

Lida Lacy, “Supply Chain Issues Are Comin’ To Town,” Adweek, 62 

(November 15, 2021): 8-9. 

19 

Brad Polumbo, “Seattle’s Nanny-State Soda Tax Backfired Spectacularly 

(And Hilariously) New Study Shows,” Foundation for Economic 

Education, accessed February 17, 2022, https: /fee.org/ 

articles/seattle-s-nanny-state-soda-tax-backfired-spectacularly-and-hilariously-new-study-shows/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebook_zapier&fbclid=IwAR0zsuLQnNUsAnMWtZQu3-SZcx7RlkI2dCQa_m9aSCmAg87F2EkH--9hw_o 

20 

L. Andersson and C. Pearson, “Tit for Tat? The Spiraling Effect 

of Incivility in the Workplace,” Academy of Management Review, 24 

(1999): 452-471; L. Cortina et al., “Incivility in the Workplace: Incidence 

and Impact,” Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 6 

(2001): 64-80. 

21 

Mitchell J. Neubert et al., “Modeling Character: Servant leaders, 

Incivility and Patient Outcomes,” Journal of Business Ethics, 178 

(June, 2022): 261-278. 

22 

Rodney Stark. The Rise of Christianity. (San Francisco: HarperSan- 

Francisco, 1997), 76-77. 

23 

Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History,7.22, 1965 ed. 

24 

Stanley Black & Decker, Research Report, accessed July 23, 2022, 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/drilling-into-theskilled-trades-shortage-stanley-black--deckers-inaugural-makers-index-reveals-few-students-likely-to-consider-a-career-inthe-trades-outdated-perceptions-key-drivers-301517854.html 

25 

Melissa Frick, “Heavy Metal Band Metallica Funds Welding Program 

in Grand Rapids for 4th Straight Year,” accessed July 23, 2022, 

https: /www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2022/07/heavy-met- 

al-band-metallica-funds-welding-program-in-grand-rapids-for- 

4th-straight-year.html 

26 

Amy Furr, “Texas Company to Pay Medical Costs for Workers Who 

Have Babies in Response to Roe v. Wade Decision,” accessed July 1, 

2022, https: /www.breitbart.com/health/2022/07/03/texas-company-pay-medical-costs-workers-babies-response-roe-v-wadedecision/?utm_source=Breitbart&utm_medium=LinkedIn&utm_ 

campaign=prolife 


ETHICS IN THE AGE OF 

AI 

Defining and Pursuing the Good for Our Good and the Good of 

Our Communities 

JASON THACKER 

INTRODUCTION 

O 

ften when we hear or talk about artificial intelligence 

(AI), we see one of two reactions: either 

a fear of the unknown often accompanied by 

a dystopian vision of the future, or sheer excitement 

about the possibilities accompanied by a utopian 

vision of the future. On the one hand, a fear of the future 

makes sense as we look out over the rise of AI and see how 

these tools are being used to automate different aspects of 

our lives: from our homes and social media to our workplaces 

and the public square. We must ask how these tools might be 

altering how we see the world around us, including our view 

of God, ourselves, and our neighbors? 1 On the other hand 

these concerns and alarms can fall on deaf ears because many 

are ready to embrace a utopian future with all the promised 

benefits of modern technology. 

Some seek to push the boundaries to what is possible 

with technology and look forward to the countless innovations 

and benefits that these tools can bring to our society 

and personal lives. This position is often characterized by 

the old Silicon Valley mantra of “move fast and break things.” 

This “wait and see” or “is this really a problem” mentality is 

common in certain circles as dangers are downplayed and 

possible future benefits are placed front and center, even 

if those benefits capitalize on certain groups or use people 

merely as means to an end. 

When discussing technology and its impacts on society, 

things like profit, market share, or exciting innovations often 

assume primal importance, not ethics. The question of 

“can we” often trumps the ever important “should we” of 

the moral life. The best path forward with AI and technology 

more broadly can be difficult to discern and the ethics of their 

application can be quite complicated given the very diverse 

views of the “good” in our pluralistic society. 

For all the good that can be brought about by these tools 

to humanity, what are the dangers and how do we identify 

50 


ETHICS IN THE AGE OF AI 

CBR ARTICLES 

them? Is there a set of moral principles or ideas that society 

at large and businesses in particular can agree upon that 

would help us navigate the epoch of AI? How might we protect 

the humanity of our neighbors while pursuing God-honoring 

AI innovations? 

To help answer these types of questions and others confronting 

the church today, this article will first define AI and 

address how it is shaping our view of the world. It then highlights 

two primary areas of ethical debate for businesses — 

automation and the nature of work, and privacy and human 

dignity. We will attempt to chart a path forward, exploring 

popular ways of addressing AI ethics in industry. Finally, the 

contemporary frameworks will be evaluated against the 

Christian moral tradition of loving God and loving our neighbors 

— centering on human dignity — as we offer some 

suggestions to help business leaders navigate these challenges 

with both truth and grace. 

DEFINING AI 

When most people hear or think about AI, our minds tend 

to drift toward sci-fi like images of robots and Hollywood 

movie plots of advanced machines that either want to 

take our jobs or take over the universe. It is easy to see why 

given how AI is revolutionizing so much of contemporary society 

and altering how we understand what it means to be 

human. 2 But before we can grasp how such emerging technologies 

as AI are altering our perception of God, humanity, 

and the world itself, a firm grasp what AI actually constitutes 

must be established. 

Artificial intelligence simply put is non-biological intelligence, 

where a machine can perform various tasks that 

once were reserved for human beings, e.g., processing vast 

amounts of information, making decisions based on data and 

inputs, and even simulating various human behaviors such 

as communication and creativity. 

AI represents a broader field of computer science, which 

comprises a number of subdisciplines such as machine 

learning, deep learning, natural language processing, expert 

systems, robotics, machine visions, and even speech recognition. 

Many of these systems undergird the conveniences of 

modern life and form the backbone of so many digital tools 

used throughout society today. Most of the tools we utilize 

today, including our smartphones, social media apps, recommendation 

algorithms, smart devices for the home/office 

tools, and so much more, employ some type of AI technology. 

Contemporary society has become increasingly dependent 

on AI tools for the conveniences of life, including much 

of the personalization and curated elements of our digital 

age. As famed computer scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil 

says, “if all the AI systems decided to go on strike tomorrow, 

our civilization would be crippled: we couldn't get money 

from our bank, and indeed, our money would disappear; 

communication, transportation, and manufacturing would all 

grind to a halt.” 3 

AI has in recent years become a major topic of discussion 

across industries given how it can automate, streamline, 

and augment various aspects of the workplace. Whether it 

is the push to increase revenue at all costs or to downsize 

workforce and/or augment productivity in the workplace, the 

pressures on business leaders to leverage AI are immense. 

As AI has become integrated into our lives in countless ways, 

it is radically altering how we see the world around us as well 

as challenging how we seek to navigate the ethical issues 

before us in the digital age. 

CONTEMPORARY ETHICAL 

CHALLENGES WITH AI 

One of the most ironic things in the age of AI is that we 

often talk about, develop, and use these tools in ways 

that dehumanize our fellow humans while at the same time 

seeking to humanize our machines with sci-fi versions of 

AI or even conscious machines. 4 We seek to give these machines 

human-like abilities or even jobs that humans once 

had, while at the same time treat our fellow image bearers 

as less than human by allowing them to be exploited for our 

selfish desires or private gain. 

Since the beginning of history, human beings in our sinful 

nature tend to treat one another as simply means to 

our selfish end, often ignoring the inherent dignity of each 

person. We may see each other as cogs in the wheel, rather 

than humans who deserve our love, care, and respect. In the 

midst of competition and ill-defined ethical systems, navigating 

ethical challenges arising from technological innovations 

can be difficult when there is little to no productive dialogue 

between people with different ideological and religious 

persuasions. Whether it is algorithmic technologies that are 

changing how we view the value of work or the increased use 

of AI tools to violate the privacy of individuals in workplaces 



CBR ARTICLES 

and throughout society, the challenges demand a response 

from business leaders who play such a vital role in our communities. 

AUTOMATION AND WORK 

One of the most prevalent ethical issues surrounding artificial 

intelligence is how this technology is revolutionizing 

the nature of work and how it alters the way we view 

others in a society that often speaks of someone’s worth 

based on their contribution to society or the greater good. 

The AI revolution is often referred to as the “Second Digital 

Age” (the advent of computers being the first) or “The Second 

Machine Age” (the first being the industrial revolution). 5 In 

the past few years, there have been countless apocalyptic 

warnings about massive job loss attributable to automation. 

Much of that fear and panic has subsided as society begins to 

truly see how tools like AI help augment and automate various 

aspects of our jobs and how innovations help create new 

jobs as well. If we view this current revolution through the 

lens of history, we know that it will likely bring about massive 

shifts in our society in terms of the nature of work. It may also 

precipitate an explosion in wealth and prosperity for more 

of human society than ever before. 6 

Automation and AI are transforming industries across our 

society, from transportation, manufacturing to medicine and 

even journalism. Take for example the transportation sector. 

According to the American Trucking Association, there were 

approximately 3.36 million truck drivers in America in 2020 

with 7.65 million people employed throughout the economy 

in jobs related to trucking, excluding the self-employed. 7 If 

we add in the number of professional drivers who work in 

shipping/logistics, food delivery, transportation, and other 

transportation related work, then that number quickly rises 

to above 13.3 million workers in the transportation sector 

as a whole. 8 If autonomous vehicles were to be deployed 

throughout society, communities all over will experience 

massive socioeconomic breakdown if these workers weren’t 

able to transition careers or keep their current jobs in the industry. 

This breakdown will affect not only the drivers themselves, 

but also their families and the wider communities 

they live in. 

Studies have shown that as joblessness increases, substance 

abuse and sexual immorality are also prone to rise as 

people try to deal with the psychological effects of job losses. 

9 And this is just one segment of our society. While the potential 

social upheaval in our communities is serious, some 

argue that there is nothing really to fear because humanity is 

adaptable and these types of challenges had happened before. 

10 There is an element of truth to this. Some jobs will 

be replaced, others augmented, and many new jobs will be 

created. The future of work is a very complex ethical question. 

However, at the core of the debate must be the meaning 

of work itself and how God created us to work as his image 

bearers. 11 

Some key ethical questions concerning AI and work relate 

to how we can uphold the dignity and value of work in an 

age of increasing automation and digitization. 12 How do we 

care for those in our workplaces who are negatively affected 

by emerging technologies like AI? How do these technologies 

affect the way we view the value of our neighbors in a 

society that routinely sees someone’s dignity as a function 

of their contribution to society? Is our work simply a means 

to provide for ourselves and our families or is there a deeper 

meaning to our work? 13 Do we look at a jobless future as 

one of pure leisure? Should the government provide for those 

who lose their jobs due to automation and in what ways? 

How should we harness these (AI) tools in our work? Do business 

leaders have a responsibility to care for people even if 

that means sacrificing profits or performing services in a less 

than efficient manner? 

Some of the big questions arising from the fallout of the 

Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting loss of millions of jobs 

may be a microcosm of what we may face moving forward 

in the age of AI. Perhaps the experience can help put these 

issues in the right perspective: that we are infinitely worthy 

because we are all created in the image of God. 

PRIVACY AND HUMAN 

DIGNITY 

One of the challenges in business is how best to reach 

more and more people with the services or products 

we offer. Often in an overcrowded market (and social media 

space), we hear about the ways that digital marketing can 

revolutionize business if only data can be better harnessed 

to address the needs of customers or target potential customers 

in cyberspace. While marketing itself is not immoral, 

there are temptations that business leaders face today 

concerning data related to customers and employees alike. 14 

52 



CBR ARTICLES 

Whether it is the allure of bigger market shares or a more 

streamlined workplace, it is all too common to see the ethical 

boundary involving emerging technologies being pushed. The 

motivation behind the quest for profit and efficiency often 

trumps the Christian ethic of human dignity. 15 

In this age of AI, it is easy to dehumanize our neighbors by 

seeing them simply as bits of data useful for achieving whatever 

end we seek, rather than fellow image bearers made in 

the likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-28). Promises are made that a 

little more data on customers and workers alike would help 

bolster sales, productivity, and shareholder value. With all 

the potential good in mind, leaders must also think carefully 

how this data might be collected, for what purpose, and in 

what ways it may be misused and/or abused to dehumanize 

people. 

There are countless questions that must be addressed 

concerning data collection and privacy issues. For example, 

do we have an actual 

right to privacy or 

is it simply an idea 

confined to Western 

culture? 16 Is our 

data private or is it 

free for sharing by 

others for whatever 

their purposes? Who 

should or should not 

have access to these 

powerful tools of automation 

and means 

of social influence? 17 Should these tools be utilized with or 

without our personal consent? Where are these troves of data 

being stored and how secure are they? 18 What role does 

government play in protecting the privacy of individuals? 19 

These are some of the debates that many communities 

across the world are currently engaged in. 


The weight of the ethical decisions before us as a society 

is immense. It comes as no surprise that AI ethics is becoming 

a hot topic. Between Google’s AI principles 20 , the U.S. 

Department of Defense’s guidelines regarding military use 

of emerging technologies like AI, 21 and the European Union’s 

ethical frameworks for AI, 22 society is longing for direction in 

Because our society has largely 

abandoned any sense of a 

transcendent or revealed ethic, we 

often define the “good” and what is 

right based on what others think of us 

and ultimately on what we want. 

addressing complicated and life-altering technologies like AI 

in a way that’s good, fair, applicable, and ethical. As we have 

already seen, automation and AI are challenging our understandings 

of work, the future of industries, and the ethics of 

information collection and privacy. Scholars and practitioners 

across the political, ideological, and philosophical spectrums 

are debating how and if we should use these tools, and the 

implications of their deployment for the future of humankind. 

In our digital age, society often trades conviction and 

a grounded ethic for what can be described as a “fashion 

ethic,” which is an ethic defined by what is popular or what 

might seem to impress others. 23 We often take ethical stances 

based on what will put us in the “in crowd” or what will 

earn us social credibility or standing. We claim one form of 

injustice is wrong, but another is permissible because “they” 

are the wrong type of people or because it helps improve the 

bottom line. We proclaim our enemies to be on the “wrong 

side of history” as we 

scramble to curry favor 

from a particular 

voting bloc or expand 

our market share. 

Such ethical formations 

are often 

marked by a desire 

for notoriety and influence, 

rather than 

grounded in the pursuit 

of what is morally 

right and the common 

good of society. 24 Philosopher Slavoj Zizek alludes to this 

idea of fashion ethics when he spoke of “green capitalism” 

and the choices businesses make to go green in order to be 

seen as “ethical” by their customers. He argues that we often 

assuage our guilt over environmental issues by purchasing 

these green products, since we want to be seen by others 

as environmentally conscious. 25 Businesses know this and 

change their models to entice people to shop there. 

Because our society has largely abandoned any sense of 

a transcendent or revealed ethic, we often define the “good” 

and what is right based on what others think of us and ultimately 

on what we want. This isn’t just true of our consumerist 

habits, though. It is true with the technologies that 

drive our daily lives. Influenced by the rise of modernism and 

post-modernism, our society has become increasingly subjective 

when it comes to ethics and morality. We are open to 

people having their own views of what is the “good” as long 



CBR ARTICLES 

as they fit within some type of evolving and publicly acceptable 

framework. What’s good is what we ultimately want in 

life. If it feels good, it must be true. If we think it’s true, it 

must be good. 

There is a subtle irony in this subjectivism when we consider 

modern empirical research and science. Our society 

isn’t very postmodern or individualistic when it comes to 

technology and the sciences. We pursue hard facts and truth 

with the scientific method. We believe in unchanging truths 

regarding how the world works. Yet this objectivity does not 

invade our ethics and moral understandings of the world. 

Many brilliant thinkers have devoted their entire life’s 

work to discovering a scientific basis for morality but to no 

avail. 26 Many others have created ethical systems in order to 

deal with the pressing issues of the day because of a rejection 

of the core tenets of a transcendent ethic and the belief 

that premodern conceptions of ethics are simply ill equipped 

to deal with the challenges of today. 27 We shed traditional 

sources of moral guidance in exchange for vague concepts of 

fairness or equality that are based on a moral autonomy and 

the pursuit of individual freedom. 28 

Society is at a turning point regarding technology and ethics. 

Our technological advance is based on a modern framework 

while our ethics are often based on a postmodern one. 

This is one reason why there is so much confusion about ethics 

in our digital age, especially with the issues surrounding 

the use of AI. We have become enamored with what others 

think and with individualistic and subjective versions of truth. 

The concept of fashion ethics is prominent throughout 

the business community. As an example, consider the way 

many businesses and organizations are responding to the 

push for LGBTQ+ acceptance and celebration. Each June, 

many throughout the United States celebrate Pride month 

— where government agencies 29 and even corporate logos 

become clad in rainbows as many companies are eager to 

be seen as “ethical” and in vogue on certain social issues. It 

is highly suspect that this act of affirmation is based on a 

genuine conviction or some idea of transcendent truth. It is 

more likely a result reflective of the fashionable moods of 

the time and what may contribute to the corporate bottom 

line. 30 This can be inferred from the fact that some of these 

very companies which don rainbows and pro-LGBTQ+ messages 

where it is widely accepted and popular in the West 

invariably choose to do business as usual where there are 

pushbacks from governments or the public (such as in many 

Middle Eastern and Asian countries). If these messages were 

central to the core values of the business, these companies 

would have a consistent message no matter the context or 

cost. 

As technology affects every part of our lives, communities 

and businesses cannot depend on vague generalities to make 

our ethical decisions. Our dignity, and that of our neighbors, 

is at stake. Take, for example. the first of Google’s AI principles: 

“Be socially beneficial.” 31 This sounds like a laudable 

goal, but if you take a closer look, it’s fairly ambiguous. What 

does it mean to be beneficial? What if my definition of beneficial 

differs from yours? Who’s going to benefit—the majority 

or the minority? Who decides? Who decides who decides? 

As you read the explanation, it becomes clear a form of utilitarianism 

is framing this ethical goal: 

“As we consider potential development and uses of AI 

technologies, we will take into account a broad range 

of social and economic factors, and will proceed where 

we believe that the overall likely benefits substantially 

exceed the foreseeable risks and downsides.” (emphasis 

added) 

It’s clear that Google is seeking what brings about the 

most “good” in society based on the beliefs of a certain segment 

of people in society or the company itself. 32 But, as we 

all know, every person exhibits some level of bias or discrimination 

in some way per our sinful nature. While Google has 

every right to pursue this course of action as they develop 

these powerful AI technologies, the public also has the right 

to push back on vague utilitarian arguments and seek clarity 

on how these potentially life-altering technologies will be 

developed and used. 

As often is the case with ethics in business, these initial 

Google AI principles were drafted and released in response to 

a major incidence at the company. The now infamous Project 

Maven debacle was the catalyst for these principles. The 

company was working on a military AI project with the US 

Department of Defense that helped comb through countless 

hours of drone-captured video data. 33 The AI system was 

being trained to identify targets and automatically label objects. 

Google pulled out of the project amid uproars from employees 

who thought Google shouldn’t be involved in building 

weapons of war. They would rather prefer these technologies 

to be employed in a fair and socially beneficial manner. 

But this is the irony. This type of partnership between 

technology developers and the military enabled a democratically 

free society secured by the military’s technology. It is 

this freedom that allowed the staff to exercise their right 

to protest. The protest also raises other questions: What is 

54 



CBR ARTICLES 

good, right, and moral in these situations? How does fairness 

or being socially beneficial in this context line up with the 

safety of our brothers and sisters on the battlefield? What is 

fair and socially beneficial about terrorists and rogue nations 

having unequal access to these powerful tools and gaining 

an advantage? In a world longing for direction and guidance 

on how best to utilize these technologies in our communities 

and workplaces, how should Christian leaders assess these 

technologies in light of biblical ethics codes? 

THE BEAUTY OF THE 

CHRISTIAN ETHIC 

Without clarity on the details of various ethical principles 

such as “fairness” or being “socially beneficial,” it 

will be difficult for our society to judge ethically the role and 

power of technology. As technology gets folded into nearly 

every aspect of life, it’s nearly impossible to avoid the conflicts 

between what is true and what we want to be true. 

As Christians, 

our ethical decision 

framework should not 

be linked to the prevailing 

subjective attitudes 

of certain elites, 

the in-crowd, or the 

“right side of history.” 

At the most basic level, 

the Christian ethic 

is a transcendent or revealed morality seen in the natural 

order as well as in Scripture. 34 This means that our ethical 

decisions are not made based on what is popular but what 

is true and what have been shown to us by God. He spoke to 

us and revealed how we are to live in light of who he is and 

how he made each one of us in his own image (Gen. 1:26-28). 

Christ himself summed up the entirety of the Christian ethic 

in Matthew 22:37-39 when he said that the greatest commandment 

was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart 

and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second 

is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Theologian and ethicist Carl F.H. Henry once wrote, “love 

for another is the whole sum of Christian ethics.” 35 Henry was 

undoubtably influenced by the German theologian Christoph 

Ernst Luthardt, who described the relationship of theology 

and ethics as, “God first loved us is the summary of Christian 

At the most basic level, the Christian 

ethic is a transcendent or revealed 

morality seen in the natural order as 

well as in Scripture. 

doctrine. We love Him is the summary of Christian morality.” 

36 This notion of loving others — both God and our neighbors 

— steers us away from the individualistic pursuit of 

truth and ethics that so characterizes contemporary discussions 

and toward honoring the humanity of our neighbors. 

We must seek to love them as God has loved us. 37 

Even in the face of difficult ethical challenges in the age 

of AI, this simple yet profoundly robust ethical guidepost is 

more than capable of helping us confront the complex questions 

of the day. This Christian ethic runs contrary to the 

prevailing moods and ethical outlooks of the day. It forces 

us to look outside of ourselves towards others. It steers us 

away from the things that we desire. It replaces the ethic 

that is built upon autonomy and individualism with one that 

is God-centered - a theocentric instead of an anthropocentric 

ethic. 38 

Naturally, questions arise about what it means to actually 

love God and love our neighbor. 39 Simply put, to love God is 

to follow his commandments as stated in 1 John 5:3. This 

means seeing the good of others, pursuing justice, and upholding 

human dignity. 

It means sometimes 

sacrificing our 

personal desires 

- our “profits”, as 

we seek to love God 

more than we love 

ourselves and to 

love those who God 

himself loves. 

For business leaders, this does not mean that we forsake 

growth, profits, or improvements that can often honor others 

and help build communities. It does mean, however, that 

we have a higher calling: to love God and love our neighbors 

over and above what society typically deems as success. This 

also means that business leaders may have to do the counter-cultural 

thing of putting people above profits and systems, 

or refusing to employ certain technologies that could 

hurt people rather than honor them as fellow (God’s) image 

bearers. 

In this age of AI, the Christian ethic calls us to live in a 

certain way that reflects the goodness of our creator and our 

love for our neighbor. It reminds us that truth is not in the 

eye of the beholder and that technology is more than simply 

a tool we use. Technology can work to form and shape us in 

very particular ways — both for good and ill. 



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The Christian ethic also reminds us that we are more than 

some utilitarian value to society. The biblical vision of work 

reminds us that work is a good thing that God has created for 

us to do because we reflect him. Our work does not define 

our value as human beings. We are created to work as part of 

God’s good design, even if that work may look different than 

we had expected in a world shaped by artificial intelligence or 

other technologies of the future. 

As we debate the merits and dangers of emerging technologies, 

we are reminded that God calls his people to apply 

the framework of the Christian ethic to every area of our 

moral decision-making in life. The Christian moral tradition is 

based on the concept of human dignity that is rooted in the 

imago Dei. This is in contrast to a materialism so prevalent in 

the fields of science and technology. 

Who are we to claim that God—the Creator of the cosmos 

who knitted us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139) 

— doesn’t truly understand what’s good for us and what 

will ultimately lead to his glory? As technology’s influence 

increases in our society, Christians find comfort in the truth 

that we have a steadfast hope and a robust ethic to engage 

the issues of the day. Nothing will ever supplant the image of 

God in which we are created. God is, after all, sovereign over 

history. 


JASON THACKER serves as 

Chair of Research in Technology 

Ethics and Director of the 

research institute at The Ethics 

and Religious Liberty Commission 

(ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention. The 

author of several books including Following Jesus 

in the Digital Age (B&H, 2022) and The Age of AI: 

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity, 

he is the editor of The Digital Public Square: 

Christian Ethics in a Technological Society and coeditor 

of the Essentials in Christian Ethics series 

with B&H Academic. Jason is the project leader and 

lead drafter of Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical 

Statement of Principles, and his work has been 

featured at Slate, Politico, The Week, Christianity 

Today, The Gospel Coalition, and Desiring God. 

Jason holds a BA in Communication Studies from 

the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and an 

M. Div. from The Southern Baptist Theological 

Seminary where he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in 

ethics, public theology, and philosophy. 

56 



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NOTES 

1 

For more on how technology is altering our perception of God, ourselves, 

and the world around us, see Jason Thacker, Following Jesus 

in a Digital Age (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2022). 

2 

For more on how AI is altering our understanding of humanity, see 

Jason Thacker, The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of 

Humanity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020). 33-53. 

3 

Ray Kurzweil, How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought 

Revealed (New York: Viking, 2012). 158. 

4 

Questions of conscious or sentient machines have long been part 

of the discussions surrounding the ethics and philosophy of AI but 

became more mainstream in 2022 with a chatbot named LaMDA 

that a Google engineer claims has gain consciousness. Nitasha Tiku, 

“The Google Engineer Who Thinks the Company’s AI Has Come to 

Life,” Washington Post, June 11, 2022, https: /www.washingtonpost. 

com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/. 

5 

Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age: 

Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (New 

York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014). For a short history of the role 

of technology in work and how these innovations fit into the larger 

framework for how God created us for work, see Thacker, The Age 

of AI. 99-120. 

6 

Jay W. Richards, The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work 

in an Age of Smart Machines, First edition (New York: Crown Forum, 

2018). 

7 

“Economics and Industry Data,” American Trucking Associations, 

accessed August 24, 2022, https: /www.trucking.org/economics-and-industry-data. 

8 

US Department of Transportation, “TET 2018 - Chapter 4 - Transportation 

Employment | Bureau of Transportation Statistics,” February 

14, 2021, https: /www.bts.gov/transportation-economic-trends/tet-2018-chapter-4-employment. 

4-1. 

9 

Dieter Henkel, “Unemployment and Substance Use: A Review of 

the Literature (1990-2010),” Current Drug Abuse Reviews 4, no. 1 

(March 2011): 4–27, https: /doi.org/10.2174/187447371110401 

0004. 

10 

For more on these topics, see Benjamin E. Sasse, The Vanishing 

American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis-and How to Rebuild a Culture 

of Self-Reliance, First edition (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017). 

11 

Thacker, The Age of AI. 117-120. 

12 

See article 7 on work in “Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical 

Statement of Principles,” April 11, 2019, https: /erlc.com/ 

resource-library/statements/artificial-intelligence-an-evangelical-statement-of-principles. 

13 

Sebastian Traeger and Greg Gilbert, The Gospel at Work: How the 

Gospel Gives New Purpose and Meaning to Our Jobs (Grand Rapids: 

Zondervan, 2018). 

14 

Jason Thacker, “Is Marketing Moral? : Recapturing an Ethic of 

Human Dignity,” ERLC, September 3, 2019, https: /erlc.com/resource-library/articles/is-marketing-moral. 

15 

Jacques Ellul, Presence in the Modern World, trans. Lisa Richmond 

(Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2016). 41. For more on technology’s 

push toward greater efficiency, see Jason Thacker, ed., The Digital 

Public Square: Christian Ethics in a Technological Society (Nashville: 

B&H Academic, 2023). 5-7. 

16 

See Jason Thacker, “The Purpose of Privacy,” ERLC, February 

1, 2021, https: /erlc.com/resource-library/articles/the-purpose-of-privacy/; 

Sarah E. Igo, “The Beginning of the End of Privacy,” 

The Hedgehog Review: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture 

17, no. 1 (Spring 2015); Firmin DeBrabander, Life After Privacy Reclaiming 

Democracy in a Surveillance Society (Cambridge, England: 

Cambridge University Press, 2020). 

17 

“How Apple Stays on the Good Side of Chinese Authorities - The 

New York Times,” accessed September 28, 2021, https: /www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-privacy-censorship.html. 

18 

“Apple’s Privacy Change Will Hit Facebook’s Core Ad Business. 

Here’s How. - WSJ,” accessed September 13, 2022, https: /www. 

wsj.com/articles/apples-privacy-change-will-hit-facebooks-coread-business-heres-how-11611938750. 

19 

For recent move by governments on protecting the right to privacy, 

see “California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA),” State of California 

- Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General, October 15, 

2018, https: /oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa. and Jason Thacker, “Explainer: 

The California Consumer Privacy Act and How It Affects You,” 

ERLC, October 7, 2019, https: /erlc.com/resource-library/articles/ 

explainer-the-california-consumer-privacy-act-and-how-it-affects-you. 

20 

“Our Principles,” Google AI, accessed August 24, 2022, https: /ai. 

google/principles/. 

21 

“DOD Adopts Ethical Principles for Artificial Intelligence,” U.S. 

Department of Defense, accessed August 24, 2022, https: / 

www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2091996/ 

dod-adopts-ethical-principles-for-artificial-intelligence/. 

22 

“Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI,” European Commission, 

December 17, 2018, https: /ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/ai-alliance-consultation. 

23 

Jason Thacker, “Ethics for the Digital Age: Defining and Pursuing 

the Good for Our Good,” The Gospel Coalition, August 20, 2020, 

https: /www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/ethics-digital-age/. 

24 

A similar concept is described by C.S. Lewis as defining our ethic 

by what is in vogue. See C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (San Francisco: 

Harper Collins, 2001). 

25 

Slavoj Zizek: The Delusion of Green Capitalism, 2011, https: /www. 

youtube.com/watch?v=yzcfsq1_bt8. 

26 

James Davison Hunter and Paul Nedelisky, Science and the Good: 

The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality, Foundational Questions 

in Science (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018). 

27 

For more on the lack of a transcendent framework and the current 

state of ethics, see Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge: 

Harvard University Press, 2007). and James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to 

Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014). 

48-51. Also for more on how premodern ethics are ill equipped to 

deal with the challenges of technology, see Neil Postman, Technopoly: 

The Surrender of Culture to Technology (New York: Vintage Books, 



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1993). and Shannon Vallor, Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical 

Guide to a Future Worth Wanting (New York: Oxford University 

Press, 2016). 

28 

Jason Thacker, “Why Roe Is About More than Just Abortion: Individualism, 

Moral Autonomy, and the Sexual Revolution,” ERLC, July 

21, 2022, https: /erlc.com/resource-library/articles/why-roe-isabout-more-than-just-abortion/. 

29 

“Fact Check-Pride Flags Have Been Flown by U.S. Embassies in 

Muslim Majority Countries during Biden Presidency,” Reuters, June 

13, 2022, sec. Reuters Fact Check, https: /www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-pride-flags-embassy-idUSL1N2Y01EU. 

30 

Alex Abad-Santos, “How LGBTQ Pride Month Became a Branded 

Holiday. And Why That’s a Problem.,” Vox, June 25, 2018, https: / 

www.vox.com/2018/6/25/17476850/pride-month-lgbtq-corporate-explained. 

31 

“Our Principles.” 

32 

For more on utilitarianism and a critique from a Christian framework, 

see Arthur Holmes, Ethics: Approaching Moral Decisions, 2nd 

ed., Contours of Christian Philosophy (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 

2007). 43-50. 

33 

Nick Statt, “Google Reportedly Leaving Project Maven Military 

AI Program after 2019,” The Verge, June 1, 2018, https: /www. 

theverge.com/2018/6/1/17418406/google-maven-drone-imagery-ai-contract-expire. 

For more on the context of Project Maven 

and how Christian can think about the ethics of war, see Jason 

Thacker, “Rumors of AI Wars: Where Google and the Bible Agree,” 

Christianity Today, accessed November 2, 2018, https: /www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/november-web-only/google-employeesprotest-ai-weapons-christians-might-too.html. 

34 

For a helpful overview of the unique nature of the Christian ethic 

and its connections with revelation in nature and Scripture, see W. 

Ross Hastings, Theological Ethics: The Moral Life of the Gospel in Contemporary 

Context (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2021). 

35 

Carl F. H. Henry, Christian Personal Ethics, Second Edition (Grand 

Rapids: Baker, 1979). 486. 

36 

Christoph Ernst Luthardt, Apologetic Lectures on the Moral Truths 

of Christianity, trans. Sophia Taylor, Second (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 

1876). 26. 

37 

For an extended discussion about the nature of the Christian ethic, 

see Jason Thacker, “Why Should Christians Study Ethics?,” ERLC, 

February 7, 2022, https: /erlc.com/resource-library/articles/whyshould-christians-study-ethics/. 

38 

This God-centered vs. man-centered approach to ethics is a primary 

aspect of how Apologist Cornelius Van Til speaks of the nature 

of Christian ethics in a contemporary context. For more on this 

approach, see Cornelius Van Til, Christian Theistic Ethics, vol. III, In 

Defense of the Faith (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1980). An anthropocentric 

vs Christocentric approach is also reminiscent of John 

3:30, which reads “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (ESV) 

See John David Trentahm’s essay “Christian Higher Education” in 

Freddy Cardoza, ed., Christian Education: A Guide to the Foundations 

of Ministry (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019). 332. 

39 

This question is the main focus of many texts on Christian ethics 

including Henry, Christian Personal Ethics. I apply this principle to 

questions of AI in Thacker, The Age of AI. 

58 


SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: 

RICHARD JONSEN PAPER 

The Christian Business Review congratulates Dr. Richard Jonsen for the selection of his paper, “The Purpose of Business in 

an Acquisitive Society,” (Christian Business Review, Issue 10, 2021) by Calvin University Business School as the recipient of 

their inaugural award for best paper in 2021. Calvin University has provided the following information regarding this new 

award: 

OVERVIEW 

Richard Harvey Jonsen, senior lecturer at Rowan University, is the 2022 award winner for his Christian Business Review 

article “The Purpose of Business in an Acquisitive Society.” He presents his paper on Friday, September 16, 2022 at 4 PM 

at the Calvin University School of Business. 

AWARD CRITERIA 

After a thorough review of relevant business journals, Calvin University School of Business faculty submitted nominations 

for the award. 

PAPERS WERE REVIEWED AGAINST FOUR CRITERIA: 

• Rigorous - The paper makes appropriate use of relevant sources and methods, in the course of a rationally 

compelling development of its theses. 

• Beautiful - The paper is winsome and evocative in its presentation, whether through the lucidity of its prose, 

or the aptness of its illustrations. 

• Interesting - The paper is novel in its approach and conclusions, not only providing the reader with new 

insight, but also prompting the reader to consider additional implications beyond those suggested in the 

manuscript. 

• Useful - The paper is meaningful in its implications, for both scholars and businesspeople that seek to glorify 

God in their workplace endeavors. 

To be considered for the award, a paper must have been published in a peer-reviewed academic journal through the 

normal process of double-blind peer review during the prior calendar year. The paper must address a Christian religious 

phenomenon or incorporate a Christian theological claim in a way that is central to its purpose. 

CITATION 

“Richard Jonsen’s paper is faith-informed review and extension of the work of R.H. Tawney in 1920 which argued for business 

to serve the common good rather than simply serving shareholders in the pursuit of personal wealth,” said Selection 

Committee Member Bob Eames. “His work examines Tawney’s work and that of more contemporary scholars and applies 

it to our current post-pandemic circumstances and explores three examples of businesses serving the common good.” 




©Houston Baptist University

Christian Business Review 2022: Pressing On Toward God's Goal

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