I’ll offer several ideas here on what a local church ministry would do in order to be intentional about growing new stewards who own for-profit businesses.
First, you’ll need the support of your pastors and elders. Most ministries in local churches need this support. They will become your first group of stakeholders.
Secondly, spell out the purpose and audience for this ministry. Simple is best. Don’t create long, drawn out mission statements. Those are usually worthless and unfocused. Be brief, to the point and highly focused.
In terms of whom you’re trying to reach with your ministry, start our highly focused and limited. Over time, you can widen the scope of who you want to reach, but start out highly focused.
For example:
- The purpose of this ministry is to grow business owners into mature stewards for Jesus Christ[1]
- This ministry will focus on those who own profitable businesses[2]
Thirdly, devising a plan of action which outlines the milestones and measurements will be helpful to gaining their support. To this end, I will suggest you do a Learn, Do, Deliver, Resource matrix which will give everyone a path to follow and evaluate progress as the ministry is developed:
| Learn | Do | Deliver | Resource | |
| 90 days | ||||
| 180 days | ||||
| 360 days | ||||
| 540 days | ||||
| 720 days | ||||
| 1080 days |
Map out what you would need to learn in the first 90 days, what activities in which you would engage and what you’ll deliver (your measurements for success). Transparency with your elder board is essential to success. Also estimate the resources you’ll need – from meeting rooms to marketing help to funding – write them all down as best you can.
Then estimate this again for the time period between 90 and 180 days (first three to six months), then estimate again for the time period between 180 days and 360 days (months 7-12) and so forth.
At the end of each time period, make adjustments to your forecast, keeping the original forecast notes in place and discuss changes with your stakeholders. Again, transparency is your friend.
The column definitions mean the following:
- Learn: What will you need to learn in that time? It could be as simple as “who else will form the governing body for this ministry?” to “who are the possible speakers?” to “how do we funnel money from donations into this ministry?” You will have all sorts of things which you will need to learn – jot them down for each time period.
- Do: what will you be doing? Chances are you will be working on networking in the earlier stages, then building the program particulars and so forth. Don’t put down a detailed task list and don’t write a detailed process but do write down the major tasks which will need to be accomplished.
- Deliver: these are your measurements for accountability. Write down where you think the ministry should be in terms of measurable metrics. For example: for 360 days, one of your deliverables could be “ministry is fully funded by it’s members verified by a ministry budget and cash flow balance sheet.”
- Resources: Write down the resources you’ll need at each stage of the ministry development. Frankly, a ministry like this should be self-funded, given who will be involved. If business owners cannot or will not step up to support this kind of ministry, then it seems to me that you have larger problems than funding a stewardship ministry.
Fourthly, find two to five other, like-minded, business owners and/or leaders who are mature in the Lord and who would like to be involved in a ministry that grows new stewards in the marketplace. This group will need to be the first group to go through the educational process of becoming mature stewards. If you want to talk through how to do this, just contact me at bill@bibleandbusiness.com. I’ll be happy to work with you.
Fifthly, you’ll need teaching materials. You can use this book or other materials you can obtain at bibleandbusiness.com. There are also other materials available, just look around. But have a set of materials which supports your efforts at growing new stewards.
Sixthly, your ministry will need a Conflicts of Interest document to which all parties in the ministry sign and adhere. I’m thinking about the ways Satan can create divisions in the ministry. There are some real dangers. What happens if:
- A business deal between two members goes sideways
- A social “click” develops as business deal starts to make real money
- The feelings of other members who would have invested in a business deal are not given the chance to do so and since they were not informed, they will feel as if they are “on the outside” and not really a “full member” of the ministry
- Several members start a new business and then one of them feels another member is being unethical? How does this affect the ministry and how will your ministry respond?
- One member contracts with another member for services – services which are delivered in a quality way and then payment for those services isn’t made on time. How will this affect your ministry?
The reality is that the “outside” relationships of your members will affect your ministry.[3] Dual roles rarely work out in any profession, but this is especially true when ministry and business are combined. This is why some professions – such as Psychologist – have strict rules around dual roles.[4] And this is why I think it will be a good idea to start your ministry by prohibiting dual relationships and business deals of any kind between members.
Then, over time, if your ministry leadership is so inclined, you can slowly open the gates to member business deals. But you’ll want to talk it through and be transparent about any changes. And even then, you will want to regulate outside business interactions while people are working together in this ministry. Hence, you’ll need a Conflicts of Interest document that spells all this out in detail.
It’s an obvious point, but when business owners get together, they attract consultants, financial planners, accountants, lawyers, IT professionals, insurance agents – anyone who has services to sell them. Their association will attract other professionals like bees to honey. This attraction should be fully discussed within your ministry leadership. Remember, the ministries purpose is to grow mature stewards in the marketplace, not create new business opportunities for ministry members and those looking in from the outside.
These are ideas to work with. You need to think through all of the downsides to having a group of entrepreneurs in the same room on a regular basis and then develop a Conflicts of Interest document which prohibits or limits behaviors which could injure or even kill this ministry. Focus on transparency, honesty and passing up “golden opportunities” in your document.
Bill English, Publisher
Bible and Business
[1] Over time, you’ll need to consider how to minister to new business owners who are starting up a new business. You’ll also need to consider how your ministry will respond when one of your member’s businesses has a downturn.
[2] You may or may not want to include a minimum annual revenue number
[3] The reality is that these types of situations can and will bleed into your church membership in general and could cause all sorts of tangential, unintended problems for your pastors and elders. If this happens, count on your ministry being shut down. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer here, but I can see this happening. This is a spiritual warfare thing.
[4] This is also why family businesses have so many problems in the 2nd generation without good governance structures in place
