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What Christians Can Learn from Secular Business Thinking: My Article in Christianity Today

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As a companion piece with the article on Jon Acuff, I wrote an article for Christianity Today on why Christians need to be learning from secular business thinkers.

More and more Christians have been learning from secular business thinkers over the last few years. I think this is a really good thing. What I seek to do in the article is lay out a brief case for why this is a good thing — something you don’t hear articulated much.

I also highlight two of the most important trends in the best business thinking that we can especially learn from as Christians.

Some Christians are hesitant to learn from business thinking. I think in most of those situations what is happening is that bad business thinking is being confused for the whole of business thinking. 

In other words, there is certainly bad business thinking out there. Some Christians have rightly critiqued that and said “this doesn’t belong in the church.” I agree — it doesn’t. But not all business thinking is like that. There is also good business thinking that is based in principles of character and respect for the individual. This business thinking is something we can — and must — learn from.

Often, those who have critiqued bad business thinking haven’t realized that they’ve only encountered one strain of business thinking. By then implying that all business thinking is like that, they close us off from learning the lessons that we really do need to learn and apply in the church.

We need to move past that and redeem good business thinking. Even more, when we do that we can also stop giving bad business practices a “pass” by saying “that’s just business.” No, it’s not. Business is required to seek the good of the other person just as much as every other area of life. That is the guiding principle of all good business thinking, and that’s why we can indeed learn from it in the church.

So take a look, and if you have any thoughts, let me know what you think.

 

Justice — Even in the Secular Arena — Is God's Work

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“A just balance and scales are the Lord’s; all the weights in the bag are his work.” (Proverbs 16:11)

And, God doesn’t have the sacred / secular distinction that many today have, in the sense of implying that the secular arena is insignificant and unimportant. For God is not only the one who is ultimately behind all justice; he actually takes delight in it:

“A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.” (Proverbs 11:1)

For more on this, see John Piper’s sermon “The Pleasure of God in Public Justice.”

Two Verses on the Value of Secular Thinking

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Proverbs 12:15: “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”

Proverbs 13:10: “By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom.”

The Bible speaks highly of listening to advice and wise counsel. Now, when you are reading a book on a subject like management — take, for example, Marcus Buckingham’s First, Break on Rules — that talks about management based on research but isn’t seeking to expound the Bible, what are you doing?

You are seeking advice. Which, according to these verses, is a good thing.

By speaking of “advice,” these verses clearly have in view something other than biblical teaching. It surely includes that — such as when a friend gives you counsel based on the Scriptures. But there is also another category of advice that consists of just good wisdom. We experience this all the time.

When a plumber says “don’t put peanut shells down the garbage disposal,” you won’t find that in the Bible, but it’s good advice. When doctors say “don’t give A negative blood to someone with O plus blood,” that’s a form of advice — potentially life saving advice, actually (and, knowing this reality, it would be unethical to do otherwise).

So also when business thinkers and others do research on management and leadership and write about what is effective and what isn’t, and what serves people and what doesn’t, it falls into the category of advice. And the Bible affirms the value of listening to good advice.

So the best thinking on leadership and management, even if it comes from thinkers that aren’t writing from an explicitly Christian point of view, is still useful and important.

The Bible speaks highly of seeking out advice. And since advice, by definition, includes non-inspired general wisdom, in affirming the value of advice, the Bible is also affirming the thinking and research of extra biblical sources about matters of work and life.

All Moral Knowledge and Business Skill Are From God

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Jonathan Edwards, in A Divine and Supernatural Light Immediately Imparted to the Soul:

All Moral Knowledge and business Skill from God
God is the author of all knowledge and understanding whatsoever. He is the author of the knowledge that is obtained by human learning: he is the author of all moral prudence, and of the knowledge and skill that men have in their secular business. Thus it is said of all in Israel that were wise-hearted, and skilled in embroidering, that God had filled them with the spirit of wisdom, Exodus 28:3.

Yet Flesh and Blood Reveals It
God is the author of such knowledge; but yet not so but that flesh and blood reveals it. Mortal men are capable of imparting the knowledge of human arts and sciences, and skill in temporal affairs. God is the author of such knowledge by those means: flesh and blood is employed as the mediate or second cause of it; he conveys it by the power and influence of natural means.

This is not Edward’s main point in the sermon — his main point is that apprehension of the truth of the Gospel and the beauty of Christ is given immediately by God (illuminating Scripture), whereas he uses means to bring about moral knowledge and skill.

But this is still a helpful and important point: All knowledge, including your knowledge of how to do your job and be effective in it, ultimate comes from God.