The Associated Press recently reported that only half of Americans are giving to charity. They cited a study conducted by Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy: “The findings confirm a trend worrying experts: Donations to charitable causes are reaching record highs, but the giving is done by a smaller and smaller slice of the population.”
Philanthropy is one of the four core purposes of business. If you were to ask the question “why did God create business”, philanthropy would be one of the reasons He did so. Philanthropy is essential to righting the wrongs of society and to helping those who have experienced a downturn in life.
But philanthropy is also essential to funding the work of God’s kingdom and this is one of the ways Christian Business Owners are core to the expansion of God’s kingdom on this earth. All ministries depend on profitable businesses. They depend on thriving and growing businesses. All ministry money comes from profitable business. Stated simply, without profits, there is no philanthropy. And without philanthropy and hearts of generosity with the Christian business owner community, there little funding for ministry.
While giving to full-time ministry work will not give you a monetary return on your investment (ROI), kingdom investing doesn’t usually concern itself with a positive financial ROI. It is concerned with bringing healing and reconciliation to a broken and hurting world and connecting people to Jesus Christ. We (Christian Business Owners) are to be investing in such a way that we are funding God’s agenda on this earth.
While philanthropy is worrying those outside the church, it should never be a worry to those inside the church. Christian business owners who walk closely with God are naturally generous. We understand that part of our role is to generate wealth which is then used to further God’s kingdom. We understand this and we consider this aspect of our role a call from God that is every bit as valid as His call to send some to the mission field.
If you own a business, you’re given an entrustment by God to help fund His work on this earth. Understand your role and delight in it. And you’ll sense God’s pleasure as you create wealth and then give it away.
Bill English, Publisher
Bible and Business
