Ancient Truth | Modern Sound

Over the last couple of weeks I have been travelling around the Netherlands as the company I work for has begun to communicate a new strategy for the business.  As I have talked about the strategy and taken questions I have been able to talk about my own values as a business leader. 

In the past I have been very fortunate to have as mentors Christian men who were able to keep their faith and work very closely linked together.  One, in particular, I remember affected the way I think about this by talking of his own profession (as an economist) as a way of maximising the usefulness of the many good things God gives us.  You might argue with him, but the good news is that he had a real profound sense that what we do here in life matters.  It really matters.  So, if you will indulge me, I want to write a few thoughts on business leadership and try to put it in the context of my Christian faith.

Most importantly, for me at least, Christians should be happy with the notion of success and prosperity.  Success and prsperity here is not in the sense of MTV “Cribs” where success equals excess.  Instead it is a sense of subduing the earth to make it yield what is best for humankind.  In the early chapters of Genesis mankind are told to “go forth and multiply” and to “subdue the earth”.  I take it that this is our human calling and therefore Cristian calling.  That is, to subdue the earth and have it yield up good things for humankind, recreating a garden of Eden, where all things work together for the benefit of humankind. 

In business, at a fundamental level, this is what the leader does every day.  She tackles the complexity of the human society we live in and, if you like, forces it to yield up wealth.  Wealth which is then used for the benefit of humankind.  I am going to talk about wealth - the money part - in the next post.  But, for the moment, lets keep thinking of this notion of prosperity in the sense of what is created when good businesses are successful. 

When businesses are successful they provide enormous benefits to society.  By creating work for others businesses supply one of the fundamental pillars of meaning in life, meaningful work.  Today, in the Netherlands there is much consternation over the thought of raising the pension age to 67 for men.  To read the debate (my Dutch is getting better!) it would certainly seem that there is certainly some echo of Holland’s Christian past as so many talk about ways in which Adam - who was cursed with trouble in his work - would have found familiar.  But, in reality, work is a good thing. In the Bible it is there before the fall in Eden where both Adam and Eve tended their home and garden.  So, work is good thing, ordained by God even.  And to help provide it and make it fullfilling is a Christian calling worthy of celebration.  Therefore, as a Christian, helping to provide work to others I see as a deeply meaningful calling I take just as seriously as I would any calling to be a priest or minister. 

And, of course, all this hard work is rewarded.  In the next few days I will continue the post talking about how work brings wealth in the monetary sense and how that too is a great social good and the fulfillment of a Christian mission.