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January 2 - January 18, 2018
board. To Hardiman, all of his work comes down to loving people by developing them personally, professionally, and spiritually and using that process to create disciples of Jesus Christ.
Why do people love working at Embrace so much? One of the company’s core values gives a clue: “Invest in the professional and personal development of each other.”
His love of developing people stems from a rich understanding of God’s desire to redeem human beings.
“In business, you have an opportunity to help people navigate personal change—to realize their potential. For me, that’s about redemption. As a Christian, I’ve found that the genius of how best to develop people is found in the truths of the Bible and in the person of Jesus.”
As Hardiman and his team use these truths to help people realize their full potential, their employees are becoming more like they were created to be.
When asked the primary motivation for their work, the missionaries [like the Marshalls] who operated sustainable businesses that produced missional fruit tended to give comprehensive, holistic explanations for why they engaged in business as mission. They frequently used the term bless, which is why I describe their attitude as a blessing orientation.
In contrast, when asked their primary motivation, the missionaries who operated businesses that were struggling financially and producing little or no missional fruit gave conversion-oriented responses. They would use terms such as convert and evangelism.
The lesson here is one of sequence: in order to produce the most fruit in creating disciples through our ventures, we must first love people, taking a genuine interest in their lives and focusing on “blessing” rather than just “converting.”
employees are reminded that “Every life has a story . . . if we bother to read it.”
was providence manifested. You would show up, and you would simply float along in this reality that you cannot take credit for and abundance would just flow your way. You would bring the fish back and you would offer them to your community and they would be thankful to you, but ultimately to God, since you couldn’t take credit for your success. In my work today, God is my collaborator. I can’t take credit for the profits my ventures produce. So, are these fish mine? Not really. I am the person who connects the fish from the sea to the village. I am a steward.
I’ve observed three primary ways in which we who are called to create can think about the multifaceted purpose of profit: we can give profits away, we can reinvest profits into our own ventures, or we can invest profits in others who are following God’s call to create.
What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom.
leave you with as we wrap up this book. Can you imagine your creations, the products of your entrepreneurial endeavors, passing through into eternity? Are you creating in such a way that our Lord will view your work as an offering of worship? Can you see the First Entrepreneur taking your creations and working
means deeply integrating the gospel into how we create, prioritizing people over profit, using our organizations to make disciples, and creating
