Eternal Perspective

If you have read any of my posts before today, you likely know that one of my recurring themes is that of having an eternal perspective. In my mind, decision making that is done from anything but an eternal perspective is not God-honoring and misses the mark.

Sure, some of the decisions we are asked to make from day to day are not ones that appear like they will have a major impact on eternity. I get that. At the same time, sometimes appearances are not what they seem.

Significant Consequences

Sometimes seemingly small decisions can carry significant consequences. It is for this reason that we need to take our decision making process seriously. We need to attempt to include God in every decision we make. How far you take this advice is up to you, but I think you can understand what I mean.

Not only do we need to include Him in our decision making process, but we also need to make sure that we have some sort of structure for our bigger decisions.

Decision Making Structure

I am not recommending anything too formal, but a good set of questions that we can go through when facing these larger decisions can be a huge help. A recent C12 segment included a great set of questions that can serve this very purpose. I am pulling the main questions, and supporting questions, directly from this segment.

My suggestion is that you take these five questions and put them somewhere you can access easily and quickly when you need them. Then, when faced with a tough decision making situation, pull them out and go through them one at a time.

Improve Your Odds!

While this decision making process will not guarantee you to make the right decisions every time, it will significantly increase the odds in your favor. Depending on how honest you can be with yourself, you should see improved results by asking these questions.

Rather than try to cram all five of these questions into one long post, I am going to break them into several posts. I will cover the first question in this post.

Here is the first question:

Decision Making Question #1

How will your most important priorities as God’s child and servant be enhanced by this decision?

In other words, will such a decision enhance your fruitfulness? Or, might these very priorities (i.e., your calling) be hindered if you make such a decision? (Remember, God doesn’t work against Himself!)

You may want to read that a couple of times to make sure you understand exactly what it is asking.

Most Important Priorities?

First, what are your most important priorities as God’s child and servant? While this may be debatable to some, I think Scripture answers this quite clearly. In Matthew 22:35-40, Jesus tells us that our top priorities are these:

Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul.
Love your neighbor as yourself.

Priorities Affected?

Second, you need to ask yourself how these priorities would be affected by this decision. Would one of the options before you enhance the fruit you are bearing in living out these priorities? Would that option limit your fruit?

In some cases, the decision may have no affect at all on these priorities. That is certainly possible, but we need to make sure by praying through our answer. Sometimes we can hide critical factors from ourselves if we are not careful. We must ask God to reveal these to us.

Stay Tuned!

I hope you can see how this question can help to guide us through the decision making process. In my next posts, I will cover the remainder of the questions.

Stay tuned!

Think about a recent decision that you have made.

Would this question have changed how you approached that decision?

Would it have changed your decision altogether?

Photo by SIphotography/iStock

Year End Review

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I schedule time out of the office at the end of each year to review that year and to plan for the new one. For years, I have followed this process, tweaking it each year. If you are not currently doing this, I cannot recommend it strongly enough! I honestly see it as non-negotiable for a leader that is committed to success by any measurement.

While a critical part of my year end session includes goal setting for the new year, likely the most important component is my review of the prior year. Without knowing where I am and where I have come from, it is difficult to know which direction to head going forward. For this reason, I take the necessary time to dig into the prior year and ask tough questions.

C12’s Yearly Audit

As I continue to seek out new ideas and tools for productivity, effectiveness, and learning, I have come across many methods of reviewing prior performance. You probably have some of your own that work for you. While I have seen (and used) many such tools, I have found none more effective at getting to the root of my godly leadership performance than C12’s Yearly Audit.

I have shared this segment in whole in the past, but this year I have pulled out what I believe are the most critical questions relating to your business. The following questions may not be meaningful to all business leaders, but for those who understand their God-given leadership roles, these questions are priceless!

Year End Review Questions

I encourage you to go ahead and read through these questions now, but I strongly recommend you also save these questions for deeper review at a time when you can dig into them without interruption. Don’t miss the growth that can come from the focused review of your year with this tool.

• Are you pleased with the quantity and quality of time you spent alone with the Lord this past year, growing in your relationship with Him?
• Did you increasingly listen and relate to key team members with ears tuned to God and His purposes and eyes searching for ways to minister to your team’s needs?
• Did you improve in the way see suppliers, customers, employees, and others more as opportunities for personal ministry and less as objects to exploit for personal gain?
• Were you able to extricate yourself more (even slightly) from the grasp of materialism, stewarding your gifts with more of an open hand before the Lord?
• Imagine God were to tell you that your current situation will not improve, that this is the best your life will ever be. To what degree can you honestly say, “Thank you, Father, I already enjoy more than I deserve or need?”
• If you believe that (1) your business is a gift from God, (2) as His steward, you are to run it with excellence and honor Him, then how well have you mustered the time and will to learn and apply better ways to steward as you serve?
• If eternal fruit* is defined as “lives turned toward God,” then did you see more eternal fruit produced as a result of your business this past year?
*examples might include: people more favorably aware that you work as an Ambassador for Christ in and around your business, needy people helped through or as a result of your business because God entrusted it to your care, people that were helped know it was because you love God and minister in His name, more Christians influenced to grow in their faith as you conduct business in a way that reflects Christ, your own growth in humble but firm servant leadership according to Scriptural principles, etc.

Take The Time!

As I mentioned above, I cannot over-emphasize the importance of taking time out of your normal schedule to review your year with these questions. Of course, the next step after that is to determine the steps you need to take in order to improve in the coming year! Use the awareness you gain from these questions to inspire your planning and goal setting for this year.

Progress, Not Perfection!

One final note: please do NOT get frustrated by what may currently seem like impossible standards represented by the questions above. If this is new to you, there will likely be so many opportunities for improvement that you feel overwhelmed or even depressed. Don’t accept it! I have been using this tool for 10 years now and I still see significant gaps in my own performance!

Instead, I urge you to focus on measuring your progress toward the goal, not the current distance between you and your goal. It is too easy to get derailed and stuck when you focus on the apparent chasm between you and the standards you see represented here. If you will focus on one step at a time, you will begin to see the progress you desire.

Do you already have a habit of year end review and planning?

What questions do you ask in review of the prior year?

Which of these questions gives you the most trouble?

Photo by BrianAJackson/iStock

A Christian should run their business on Biblical principles…honesty, integrity, love, truth, etc. However, if you start requiring people partake of “COMMUNION”, or complying with Jesus’ command….to “go ye into all the world…” you will be hard-pressed to comply with “the separation of Church and State” issues placed upon us by our government.

First, I would like to address the big picture. After that, I will tell you how we address the overall issue in our business. Finally, I will give you some resources that will allow you to seek further information.

Is Christian Business Against The Law?

Obviously, with the overwhelming number of laws and regulations we have at almost every level of government these days, it is impossible for me to address all areas of the law relating to Christian business. That is not the intent of this post. Instead, I want to hit the main points and then give you the resources to go further if necessary.

While it certainly looks as if every corner of today’s culture is opposed to our Christian faith, it may surprise you to know that our law is actually friendly to our Christian witness. In fact, there is very little in the way of regulations that will hinder you in integrating your faith into your business.

The main area that can trip up the Christian business owner or leader is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law is not designed to keep our faith out of the business. Instead, it is written to forbid discrimination in hiring, compensation, and promotions based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Our responsibility as Christian business owners and leaders is to comply with this law in a straight-forward manner. So, how do we do this?

The following material from the C12 Group answers this question well:

General Guidelines For Compliance

Owners and managers are able to communicate their religious beliefs through company policies, practices, and witnessing if they stick to the following simple guidelines:

• Don’t give current or prospective employees the perception that employment or advancement requires workers to adopt a certain religious belief.

• Accommodate employee objections and provide equal opportunity of expression and use of resources/facilities (unless incompatible with stated company core principles).

• Don’t require employees to participate in worship.

Recommendation:

Ensure company written materials (e.g., application, manuals, etc.) inform employees that their religious beliefs or non-beliefs play no role in hiring, termination, promotion, or in the terms, conditions or privileges of employment.

Note:

These guidelines are general and are not a substitute for detailed legal advice.

Building a unified team while avoiding legal issues

• Always be clear in communicating and reinforcing the core principles of the firm
• Recruit & interview employees with these principles firmly in view
• Ask candidates how they will contribute in such an environment; hire accordingly
• Hold all your people accountable for abiding by these core principles
• Give everyone committed to achieving these core principles an equal opportunity to be hired, developed, promoted, and compensated
• Maintain a policy requiring internal disputes to be resolved according to a clearly defined conflict resolution process with the ‘final step’ being third party mediation or arbitration

Our Approach

When we first begin our interview process, we let the prospective employee know that we consider ourselves a Christian business and we operate on Biblical principles. We explain that we do not hire, compensate, or promote based on that, but we are open about our faith.

The Mike Patton Auto Family seeks to honor God through impacting the lives of our employees, customers, and community.

We tell them about our mission statement (above) and let them know about some of our practices such as monthly devotions, opening meetings with prayer, etc. We explain that they are not required to participate in these activities, but we do want them to know about them up front.

We are working on way to reinforce this approach during orientation so that the awareness does not fade. After that, we simply attempt to live this out to the best of our abilities.

We are not perfect and we very well may face legal opposition one day in the future. In that event, I pray we have behaved according to God’s will and that He will protect us. Regardless of the consequences here on earth, we will continue to bear witness of our faith as well as we are able.

Resources

Several Christ-centered legal organizations offer websites, publications, help lines, and legal counsel to defend Christian freedom in the workplace. These resources include:

Alliance Defense Fund (www.alliancedefensefund.org): Pamphlet – The Truth behind Faith in the Workplace.

American Center for Law & Justice (www.aclj.org): Wonderfully informative website, Pamphlet – Workplace Rights

Pacific Justice Institute (www.pacificjustice.org): Pamphlet – Reclaim Your Workplace

Christian Legal Society (www.clsnet.org): Christian lawyer referral service

Peacemakers Ministries (www.peacemaker.net): Christian conciliation services, and helpful teaching and discipling materials applicable to workplace, churches and homes.

Photo by designer491/Shutterstock

My Best Year Ever

As with anything I share here, I do not claim that my process is the best. I do not pretend to have it all figured out. What I will say is that I am personally coming off of my best year ever in regards to my annual goals. I was able to accomplish more this past year across every area of my life than any year before.

For that reason, I encourage you to start with my last post (Steps #1-3) and then pick up below with Step #4. Go through this process and see if you think it can work for you. As always, if you have any questions, please contact me HERE and I will do my best to answer them.

Step #4 – Review Last Year

My next step in the process is to review my prior year. This review can provide key insights into what I do and do not need to work on in the upcoming year. Thinking back through the last 12 months can be very helpful in determining my goals for the coming year.

There are a couple of tools I use to accomplish this review in a structured way. The first tool is the C12 Yearly Audit. You can find a copy of this tool ** HERE ** in my Resource Library. The C12 Yearly Audit walks you through 10 different areas of the life of a disciple of Jesus. Each area is scored according to your effort and results.

Another tool I used for the first time this year is Michael Hyatt’s Lifescore Assessment. This is a tool that is similar to the C12 tool because it also assesses 10 different areas of your life. It is not specific to the Christian faith like the C12 tool, but it does go a little further in the scoring process and is easier to get a more objective score. Plus, it comes in an Excel spreadsheet that is very cool to use!

Regardless of the tool you use, the review of your prior year is a critical step in completing your plans for making the upcoming one your best year ever. I encourage you to try one (or both) of these tools to get started. I think you will quickly see the benefits!

Step #5 – Set Your Goals

If you ask 100 people whether they set goals every year or not, it is likely that most would say they do. Unfortunately, I am betting that the majority of those who would say they do are actually referring to their New Year’s resolutions. While I understand their perception that this practice qualifies, I would have to disagree. I see these two practices as completely different from each other.

The reality is that the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned before the end of January! I don’t know the stats, but I would bet heavily that very few resolutions make it past March. Why is that? What is so different about setting goals and making New Year’s resolutions?

When I describe goal-setting, I am talking about a very serious process that consists of several steps (including my steps 1-4 in my previous post). While I have been setting goals for years, I have not found a better process for doing so than Michael Hyatt’s Best Year Ever program. Quite simply, I have had more personal success since I started using this program. It is fantastic and I strongly recommend it to everyone that is serious about seeing results next year. I will most certainly be using it again this year!

The bottom line is that you must spend time in this part of the process if you want to see results. You need to make sure your goals are spread across your various roles, not focused on only one or two of them. You should make sure they follow the SMART guidelines. Finally, you MUST write them down! Commit to them and you will achieve them.

Step #6 – Find Accountability Partners

One of the keys to follow through on setting goals is accountability. The odds are low of pushing through and completing all of your “best year ever” goals on your own. A select few may be capable of doing it this way, but the rest of us need help. We need support, advice, and the occasional kick in the rear from accountability partners. When this support is in place, the odds of achieving your goals will skyrocket!

The best practice is to find a couple (or more) like-minded individuals that are just as serious as you are about setting and accomplishing goals. Engage these individuals in the process with you and set regular group meeting times throughout the year (monthly is best for me). At these meetings, each member reports to the group on their progress toward their goals, their greatest accomplishments, and where they are struggling or need help.

If you have found the right partners, you will see the group come together through the process. You will likely see a high completion rate and an ongoing sense of confidence and excitement. Once you have gotten stuck a couple of times and experienced the “kick” from the group, you will appreciate the value of this part of the process!

Step #7 – Review Regularly

The final step is to create a process for regular review of your goals and plans. While the monthly accountability meetings are certainly helpful in this regard, they will not meet all of your needs here.

What is necessary is a more frequent review of your goals, the corresponding motivation factors, and your timelines. This review is best done on a weekly basis. It will likely require you to set aside an hour or so of your time, but it is worth it. In fact, this is probably my most valuable time every week!

In this review time, you simply read through every goal, your reasons for setting the goal, and your next steps on your timeline for each. You then plan out your next week and assign appointments for completing each step. You map out your next week in advance!

Summary

I sincerely hope you see value in this process as I have outlined it. If you already have a year-end process for laying out your goals and plans for the upcoming year AND you are seeing tremendous results as you execute this process, then by all means, continue your process! Don’t change a thing!

If, on the other hand, you look back over the past few years and see missed opportunities, abandoned goals, and regret, then please do something for me. Draw a line in the sand and say, “No more!” Determine right now that you are going to make a change this year. Start with Step #1 and don’t stop until you have completed all 7 steps I described. When you do, send me a note and let me know about your decision. I would love to hear your results!

photo by Paige Foster

A Christian should run their business on Biblical principles…honesty, integrity, love, truth, etc. However, if you start requiring people partake of “COMMUNION”, or complying with Jesus’ command….to “go ye into all the world…” you will be hard-pressed to comply with “the separation of Church and State” issues placed upon us by our government.

First, I would like to address the big picture. After that, I will tell you how we address the overall issue in our business. Finally, I will give you some resources that will allow you to seek further information.

Is Christian Business Against The Law?

Obviously, there are an overwhelming number of laws and regulations we have at almost every level of government these days. It is impossible for me to address all areas of the law relating to Christian business. That is not the intent of this post. Instead, I want to hit the main points and then give you the resources to go further if necessary.

It certainly looks as if every corner of today’s culture is opposed to our Christian faith. It actually may surprise you to know that our law is friendly to our Christian witness. In fact, there is very little in the way of regulations that will hinder the integration of your faith into your business.

The main area that can trip up the Christian business owner or leader is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law is not designed to keep our faith out of the business. Instead, it is written to forbid discrimination in hiring, compensation, and promotions based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Our responsibility as Christian business owners and leaders is to comply with this law in a straight-forward manner. So, how do we do this?

The following material from the C12 Group answers this question well:

[box]

General Guidelines For Compliance

Owners and managers are able to communicate their religious beliefs through company policies, practices, and witnessing if they stick to the following simple guidelines:

• Don’t give current or prospective employees the perception that employment or advancement requires workers to adopt a certain religious belief.

• Accommodate employee objections and provide equal opportunity of expression and use of resources/facilities (unless incompatible with stated company core principles).

• Don’t require employees to participate in worship.

Recommendation:

Ensure company written materials (e.g., application, manuals, etc.) inform employees that their religious beliefs or non-beliefs play no role in hiring, termination, promotion, or in the terms, conditions or privileges of employment.

Note:

These guidelines are general and are not a substitute for detailed legal advice.

Building a unified team while avoiding legal issues.

• Always be clear in communicating and reinforcing the core principles of the firm.
• Recruit and interview employees with these principles firmly in view.
• Ask candidates how they will contribute in such an environment; hire accordingly.
• Hold all your people accountable for abiding by these core principles.
• Give everyone committed to achieving these core principles an equal opportunity to be hired, developed, promoted, and compensated.
• Maintain a policy requiring internal disputes to be resolved according to a clearly defined conflict resolution process. The ‘final step’ should be third party mediation or arbitration.

[/box]

Our Approach

When we first begin our interview process, we let the prospective employee know that we consider ourselves a Christian business and we operate on Biblical principles. We explain that we do not hire, compensate, or promote based on that, but we are open about our faith.

The Mike Patton Auto Family seeks to honor God through impacting the lives of our employees, customers, and community.

We tell them about our mission statement (above) and let them know about some of our practices such as monthly devotions, opening meetings with prayer, etc. We explain that they are not required to participate in these activities, but we do want them to know about them up front.

We are working on way to reinforce this approach during orientation so that the awareness does not fade. After that, we simply attempt to live this out to the best of our abilities.

We are not perfect. We very well may face legal opposition one day in the future. In that event, I pray we have behaved according to God’s will and that He will protect us. Regardless of the consequences here on earth, we will continue to bear witness of our faith as well as we are able.

Resources

Several Christ-centered legal organizations offer websites, publications, help lines, and legal counsel to defend Christian freedom in the workplace. These resources include:

Alliance Defense Fund

(

www.alliancedefensefund.org

): Pamphlet –

The Truth behind Faith in the Workplace

.

American Center for Law & Justice (www.aclj.org): Wonderfully informative website, Pamphlet – Workplace Rights

Pacific Justice Institute(www.pacificjustice.org): Pamphlet – Reclaim Your Workplace

Christian Legal Society (www.clsnet.org): Christian lawyer referral service

Peacemakers Ministries (www.peacemaker.net): Christian conciliation services, and helpful teaching and discipling materials applicable to workplace, churches and homes.

[Originally posted on May 28, 2012]

***If you have not read my last post, you might want to do that now [HERE] so you are on the same page as the rest of us.

Accountability From Scripture

Just to make sure we do not escape the accountability that Scripture gives us, let’s take a look at another verse that comes up just after the ones we looked at last time:

In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.
Philippians 3:16

Now, that is a pretty short verse, but I think it is also a very powerful one. Do you get the meaning? Paul is telling us that attaining truth, or gaining knowledge, is not enough. We cannot simply know something and leave it at that. We have to also apply it! We must LIVE UP TO IT!

Truth Applied

Therefore, if we know that this world cannot offer us anything eternal and that only a life lived for Christ will survive the fire that is to come, then our lives should reflect this knowledge (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).

And as an extension, our business lives should also reflect this knowledge.

Assuming you agree with me at this point, or at least are willing to read more before making a decision, let’s take a look at some key areas where we might be likely to exhibit inconsistencies in our workplace.

Potential Areas Of Inconsistency

It is in these areas that many of us fail to fully live up to the truth we have attained. As you read through these areas, think about your own work life and how you might need to rethink your approach to some of them.

1. Business Mission
Every business book will tell you that the purpose of a business, the reason it exists, is to produce a profit. It is similarly believed that the main purpose of a job is to provide income.

I believe the Bible says otherwise. I think the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) shows us that a business exists to produce a return for its owner. The problem is that we are not the actual owners…God is the owner (Psalm 50:10-12). And as the owner, He wants a return.

Since God already has all of the money in the world, I believe He wants what He does not already have – souls. I believe the Bible shows us that the purpose of our business (or job) is to impact others (souls) for eternity by pointing them to God. Sure, income and profit are necessary to sustain us and our businesses, but they are not the purpose.

2. Money
Even those of us that agree with #1 above can still fall victim to erroneous thinking about money. We may see the eternal purpose of business, but then turn right around and hoard the money that comes from it. It is not always one big decision that we make, but the accumulation of a bunch of little ones.

One of the questions in the C12 Yearly Audit I recently shared with you talks about becoming less acquisitive. When we are assessing our lives in light of the truth we know, we should look hard at our use of money.

Are we freely giving it to those who have needs greater than ours? Are we treating it as stewards of it rather than owners? If pressed, are we more likely to leverage it for eternity or spend it on temporary pleasure or luxury? We likely know what this SHOULD look like, but are we living up to the truth we have attained?

3. Time
An area of our lives that often receives less focus is time. We tend to spend it even more frivolously than we do our money. We often fail to budget it. Even when we do budget it, we frequently allocate too much of it to the wrong uses.

Think about your calendar. What types of activities get the most preference as you schedule out your time? How much time are you committing to a personal relationship with God, the owner of all you steward?

Does your family get more than adequate time or are they generally the last to receive a ration of minutes? Is the time they do receive considered your higher quality time or your leftovers? Would they answer the same way you are right now?

Other Areas?

I can keep on going, but I think you get the idea. I encourage you to take some time and come up with some of your own areas of inconsistency. Pray through each of these and ask God to help you see clearly into each one. He is faithful to do so.

Once you have seen the truth, apply it. Live up to it. Don’t simply accept it and move on from it. Stop and take action. Map out a plan to make corrections over time if the initial results are too overwhelming to take in at once.

In any case, we all should live up to whatever truth we have attained!

What other areas of inconsistency did you consider?

How do you make sure you apply the truth you attain?

Where do you need to take more action?

Yearly Audit

This year, I have included the actual audit from C12. Take a look at the following 10 dimensions and give yourself a rating from 1-10 (1 is Low, 5 is Average, and 10 is High) as measured against your potential or opportunity. Total your scores for each at the end of the post. Keep track of your score from year to year to see your improvement as you go!

1. You spent more time with The Lord.

This is an easy one. Everything we are or do comes out of our relationship with God in Christ Jesus. We can never be more than our relationship with Him enables us to be. Obedience to God is the FINAL definition of success in our lives and our obedience comes out of our relationship with Him. As we grow to know Him better we are more able to hear His voice. The more clearly we hear Him, the easier it is to obey Him.

Don’t be deceived. Our ministry in business or anywhere else will never grow if our relationship with God doesn’t. Of course our relationship with God is not totally defined by the amount of time that we spend with Him. The quality of the time and the result of the time are just as important. It’s possible that you may not have to spend more time with God to build your relationship with Him… but not likely!

Unless you’re “one-in-a-million,” your love for God and your devotion to Him are mirrored in the prioritized time you spend with Him. We’re talking about all kinds of time here: daily quiet time, prayer during the day, evening meditations, and the sense that He is in you and with you in the everyday decisions you make to run the business.

Wherever each of us may be in this equation, there’s plenty of room to grow. How was your year?

2. Your family relationships strengthened.

Were you able to spend more time — and more quality time — with your spouse and children? We need to look at these relationships right after our relationship with God. It isn’t very likely that we had an improving relationship with God and a deteriorating relationship with our family.

We can’t really get closer to God and not be convicted to love and serve our mates and children. Did you make more time available to your spouse, as your top ministry priority, and less to your hobbies or business? Is your sacrificial love for (and service to) your family growing? If so, you’ve had a good year.

[Why do we start a year-end audit of our business by talking about God and family? Because we can only bring to work what we already have in Christ in our lives and homes. We are not two people. We are one person, living an integrated life before the Lord. Our ministry in business is simply an extension of our lives in Christ, not separate from it!]

3. You spent more time listening and relating to your key team members on a one–to–one basis.

Increasingly, you did this with an ear tuned to God and His purposes and eyes searching for ways to minister to stakeholder needs. You had a good year if you care more for your lost employees, seeing the horrible prospect of their eternity in hell more painfully. You had a good year if you frequently prayed for their salvation, and an even better year if you actually did something more to impact them for eternity.

4. You saw the people that you deal with – suppliers, customers, employees, and others – more as objects of your personal ministry than as objects to be exploited for your personal gain.

If you increasingly see yourself as an entrusted servant to them, rather than master over them — even a little bit more — you had a good year.

5. You are even slightly less acquisitive than you were a year ago.

The urge to acquire things is of the flesh, not the Spirit. The vain thought that simply possessing more stuff will bring any real benefit to our lives is immature and foolish. Any honest Christian knows that there’s no joy or peace in things.

The more stuff we have, the more we must tend to and use. Materialism is a curse; a cancer of the spirit. If you’ve extricated yourself, even a little, from its grasp, and are more able to steward your gifts with an open hand before the Lord, you’ve had a good year. You might measure this as a percentage of what you gave from what you were given. Were you more of a “cheerful giver” of your “first fruits” this year?

6. You are measurably more thankful for what you have and content with your present lot in life.

Spiritual maturity brings with it a contentment that comes from the awareness of what God has done for us by grace. What do we have that we deserve? And, given that we have as much as we all do, being among the most materially wealthy people in the history of the world, how can we not be thankful? Why do we need more?

If God were to say to you, “What you have is the best it will ever be,” what would you say to Him? Could you say, “Thank You, Father…I already have more than I deserve or need,” and really mean it? If you can, with a truly grateful heart, you’ve had a good year.

7. You have more peace in your heart.

This is especially true if the peace is not related to circumstances, since circumstances always change. If our peace is dependent on them, it comes and goes with the changes. Spiritual maturity, and the peace that comes with it, is dependent on abiding in our God who never changes. Do you more clearly see God’s hand in your circumstances (i.e., “…give thanks in all circumstances” [1 Thessalonians 5:18], “Consider it pure joy…” [James 1:2], “…in all things God works…” [Romans 8:28]). If so, you’ve had a good year.

8. You learned more about your profession and are able to apply greater technical expertise in your field.

If you believe that (a) your business is a gift from God, (b) as steward you’re to run it for Him with excellence, and (c) you’ve mustered the time and will to learn and apply better ways to do so, you had a good year.

9. You took better care of your body.

Did you get the exercise you need? Was your diet better than last year? Are you giving the time to the maintenance of your body that you know you should? The way we care for our body is one measure of our self–control and a visible part of our witness. Mastery of self is a key to spiritual growth. If your temple is in better shape than it was a year ago, allowing for the wear and tear of time, you had a good year.

10. More eternal fruit has been produced through and around you, due to your effort and influence while abiding in Christ.

Eternal fruit is defined as “lives turned toward God.” It means simply this: your obedience to God in what you say, do, and are, influences others to move towards God in their thoughts and actions, yielding eternal fruit.

This doesn’t only involve conversions and discipleship. It includes anything that brings a heightened and more favorable awareness of God and His ways to others. A Godly life lived in a Godly way produces eternal fruit. Everywhere Jesus went eternal fruit was produced. This is true in all areas of our lives, not just in business, but we’re talking primarily about the workplace here.

Are more people more favorably aware that you are an Ambassador for Christ in and around your business? Have more needy people been helped because God has entrusted the business to your care? Do they know that they’ve been helped because you love God and are doing so in His name? Are more Christians being influenced to grow in their faith because your business has brought you, reflecting Christ, into their lives? Have you grown as a humble, but firm servant leader and found ways to lead effectively according to timeless Scriptural core principles?

If you can see that more eternal fruit has been produced in, around, and through your business, you’ve had a GREAT year.

_____ Total for the Year (Total your ratings for all 10 dimensions)

What were your strongest areas in the audit? Did you work on them?

Where do you need the most improvement?

Do you see value in this annual audit exercise?

Recap

So far, we have covered a lot of ground in this series. If you are just now joining us and have not read the other posts, you should go back and read them now. Here are the three recommendations we have discussed up to now:

Recommendation #1 – Pray

Recommendation #2 – Read Proverbs

Recommendation #3 – Become An Expert

Each of these three recommendations build on each other so it is pretty important you follow them in the order presented. Of course, you do not have to fully complete one before you start the next one…just begin them in the order listed. Let’s talk about the next one.

Recommendation #4 – Join A Group

For the same reasons you need to join a church body when you become a Christian, I am recommending that you join a group of other Christian business owners and leaders. Just in case you are not clear on these specific reasons, I will go through them for you.

Fellowship – When you are able to spend time in fellowship with like-minded people, there is a bond that develops. You are able to discuss similar challenges and victories. You will find out that you are not alone in your struggles. You are not the only one with spiritual opposition to what you are trying to do through the business. This knowledge is empowering!

Accountability – In addition to learning that there are others in your same boat, you will figure out that making commitments for improvement is much more effective when you are making them to a group. It is difficult to face your peers and confess to lapses in judgment or failure to achieve objectives. The threat of having to do this will often be just the push you need to get you started on a project you have been delaying.

Perspective – When you hang out only with those people who have your same perspective (fellow employees or partners) on you business, you tend to all agree on solutions, strategy, etc. When you seek wisdom from a group with diverse perspectives, you will find solutions you never considered. You will be asked questions you would not have asked yourself. There is tremendous value in this.

Counsel – Proverbs repeats many times that we are to seek godly counsel. While reading God’s Word is a great source of godly counsel, so is a group of godly Christians. A solid group of Christian business people can provide wisdom and advice that will often confirm what you have read in the Bible or vice versa. Trying to go it alone is often a recipe for disaster.

Other Group Benefits

While there are likely many other benefits I could list, I think you get the idea. In fact, it is likely you already knew this to be the case and have experienced the results from a group like this in other areas of your life. I can promise you that you will see similar results from making this same idea a priority for your business.

I have mentioned many times on this blog that I am a member of a C12 group. In fact, both of my brothers are members of C12 groups as well. We have found immeasurable benefits to our commitments to these groups and would not give them up for anything. I have found C12 to be an integral part of our efforts to leverage our business as a platform for Christian ministry.

Do The Research!

If there is a C12 group in your area, I highly recommend you take the time to visit a meeting and see if it is a fit for you. If there is not a C12 group in your area, don’t stop there. Go online and find out if there is something similar available. Check with your church to see if there is a small group with business as the common denominator. If all else fails, start one yourself! Why not?!?

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:25

What benefits have you seen from being in a group setting?

What is stopping you from joining this kind of group?

What next step do you need to take?