Called to Create: A Biblical Invitation to Create, Innovate, and Risk

by Jordan Raynor

But God didn’t choose to place Jesus in a priestly or Pharisaical household. Jesus was placed in the home of small business owners, where for twenty years he would reveal God’s character (his character) as an entrepreneur, creating new things for the good of others.

to glorify God simply means to “reflect his greatness” or reveal his characteristics to others.

After working for six days, God left the earth largely undeveloped and uncultivated. He created a canvas and then invited us to join him in filling it.

As we’ve seen, God went to great lengths to demonstrate his creative and entrepreneurial character through his Word. But while Scripture clearly treats emulating this character as “godly” and “God-like,” the church often explicitly and implicitly views the work of creators as “secular” and less spiritual than the work of the pastor or “full-time missionary.” Why?

“The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays—not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

‘If you love anything in this world more than God, you will crush that object under the weight of your expectations.’

A well-regulated church music was not the whole of Bach’s vocation. His larger calling was writing music to the glory of God and the edification of his neighbor. This, as the historian Jaroslav Pelikan wrote, “bespeaks the conviction of Luther and the Reformers that the performance of any God-pleasing vocation was the service of God.”8

In 1948, In-N-Out’s founder, Harry Snyder, wrote a simple mission statement for the company that remains unchanged today: “Serve only the highest quality product, prepare it in a clean and sparkling environment, and serve it in a warm and friendly manner.”6 The Snyder family’s eventual inclusion of Bible verses on their packaging was a reflection of a faith that had already been deeply integrated into the business in two primary ways: striving for excellence in everything and prioritizing people over profit.

For those who are called to create, our faith should impact every aspect of our entrepreneurial endeavors, from our motivations for creating to the products we choose to create to how we operate our ventures. God is always on the move in the world around us. The entrepreneur who is attuned to God’s Word and his Spirit will continually find ways to use their ventures to carry out his will.

Unlike the rest of the world that focuses solely on hustling, those who are called to create can recognize the paradoxical truth that it is God, not us, who produces wealth and success. This truth frees us from the burden of feeling like it’s all up to us to make our ventures succeed, support our families and employees, and produce a return for investors. And that freedom brings about the rest we all so desperately crave.

Too often being an evangelist is thought of as a specific and unique calling of God on an elected remnant of especially devout people. Paul’s life and teaching exclaim the opposite: everyone should be a missionary in his daily life, just where he is.

“Earn all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can,” Wesley would say. “Your wealth is evidence of a calling from God, so use your abundance for the good of mankind.”