"Bible for Business" Seminar#1

We just conducted the 1st session of "Bible for Business" Seminar in our Petra Church.
It will be done on every 2nd Wed of the month. The next one is on 14 Nov. Hope to see you there.

We spoke on the topics to be covered in "Business by Jesus". The topics are united in the Corporate Performance Management(CPM) framework. CPM is the unified methodology for strategy design & execution for creating and sustaining high corporate performance and value. See the diagram below:


A key focus of the talk is on roles of Kings & Priests and Business, see Secular vs Spiritual Jobs.
A good illustration on Business Mission came out of the discussion.
Consider the job of a teacher.

1. Business for Mission.
The Teacher work hard in his/her job to earn a salary. He/she give tithes and offerings to church and other mission work that share the gospel. Her priority is to earn money by teaching to give to church and mission. Money for mission is more important than the teaching. She will do very little witnessing herself as that job is to be done by the missionaries. Teaching is subordinated to earning. Would the teaching be his/her satisfaction ? Would he/she strive to be the best teacher?

2. Business and Mission.
The Teacher will do teaching to earn money for mission work and at the same time do mission-type work like running Cell-group, Bible Study Group, Alpha Group etc. When there is a conflict of time and resources, there is a struggle to decide to give to teaching or to mission.

3. Business as Mission.
The teaching itself is the mission. Teaching is the worship to God. He/she will model Christ in his/her teaching. He will love and teach and develop his students and use every opportunity to live out and to share the gospel to the students and their parents.

Living out Godly standards and practices in our business is testifying for Christ. The way we run our business, our staff, our suppliers, our customers and our owners are should reflect our believes and our Lord Jesus Christ. The people see Christ through us.

We discussed that sometime 'firing' a under performing staff, after setting expectations, giving opportunities for training and trying out again, is a loving thing to do for him. Not 'firing' him and keeping him in his under-performing jobs is not good for him and his colleagues. The loving thing to do is to help discover his strengths, look for other job openings, and give a good retrenchment benefits to tie over the time without job and so forth. (This discussion exclude the situations of criminal offenses and breaking Company regulations). One of the participant shared the experience of letting his average performing staff to keep her job until she find a new job that suit her strengths and interests.