What does it mean to be a Christian in the marketplace?
This is increasingly a question that should be at the forefront of our daily walks. Gary Ginter highlights what a Kingdom professional is:
Kingdom Professionals do not define success in terms of money, job or status. They do not seek to maximize their income or their security or their status or to advance their careers. Instead they seek to maximize their impact on the people and places to which God has called them. They measure success by their contribution to what God is up to in their neck of His woods. They see themselves as successful to the extent they are doing what God has called them to do, in the place to which He has led them, in such a manner that their giftedness can be well utilized.
Nothing less will suffice; not the shallowness of status, not the ephemeral illusions of wealth, not the corrosive effects of power. What matters to Kingdom professionals is that there is congruence between their daily lives and the further in-breaking of God’s Kingdom where they live and work. They measure success one day at a time. They see success as always being mediated by the occasion presented by the person immediately in front of them. For Kingdom Professionals, that person right now is their neighbor, the one for whom they hold some responsibility. They may be the only fragrance of Christ that person encounters that day.
To the Kingdom Professional, therefore, the moments of life are sacred. Happenstance meetings aren’t that. Instead, they are God-designed, Spirit-graced moments to relate who they are and what God has enabled them to learn. They are about their Father’s business 24 x 7. They’re not driven; they are called. They’re not fearless; they are faithful. They’re not gentle; they are terrors to the watching demons. They may not be pretty, but they are most certainly beautiful. At least their feet are, for Isaiah wrote, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.”
Ginter works for Paraclete, a Christian business consulting firm. Here are the Paraclete project partners.
3 responses so far ↓
Diane // January 9, 2009 at 4:24 am |
Thanks so much for this post. The bit in your last paragraph “the moments of life are sacred. Happenstance meetings aren’t that. Instead, they are God-designed, Spirit-graced moments to relate who they are and what God has enabled them to learn” articulates my felt sense that our busy busy busy lives are NOT okay with God. I am grateful to hear someone spell this out clearly – a voice for truth in a sea of surrender to worldliness…
compassioninpolitics // January 9, 2009 at 5:55 am |
Diane,
Thanks for the complements. I wish could say I wrote the original–I’m just happy to be able to pass it along. Thanks for pointing that out–not only is it poetic–but the contrasts provide a great message.
Thanks again,
Nathan
Larry Peabody // January 9, 2009 at 4:35 pm |
Your emphasis on the Kingdom is right on. It reminded me of what R. Paul Stevens says in THE OTHER SIX DAYS: “Kingdom ministry has been almost totally eclipsed by church ministry” (p. 47).