Why Business Matters to God: (And What Still Needs to Be Fixed)

by Jeff Van Duzer

A calling to business was always put in third place behind a calling to a position in the church or the mission field or a calling to one of the “helping professions”—a designation that incidentally never included business.

When businesses produce material things that enhance the welfare of the community, they are engaged in work that matters to God.

As stewards we are not aiming for a fixed endpoint, just for a further and more robust flourishing, an ever-growing and deepening intimacy.

The purpose of business is still to serve. It is to serve the community by providing goods and services that will enable the community to flourish. And it is to serve its employees by providing them with opportunities to express at least a portion of their God-given identity through meaningful and creative work. But a consideration of the end of the story does add one new feature to our theology: Christians engage in business with a sense of hope and meaning.

Businesses operating in accordance with God’s kingdom values should expect that they will, at least from time to time, be required to “take up the cross.”

A full understanding of God’s desires for business must include not only an understanding of what a business should do (its purpose) but also an understanding of what a business should not do (its limits).

Paraphrasing the prophet Isaiah, someday suppliers will live with customers and investors will lie down with lenders, the environment and the business will dwell together in shalom “and a little child will lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).

What if business leaders everywhere began to ask how they could profitably direct the economic might of their organizations toward helping solve the truly big problems of our day?