Tag Archives: eternal perspective

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How To Do Christian Ministry In Business

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I often get asked (and ask myself) “Just exactly HOW do you do Christian ministry in your business?” or “How do you integrate your Christian faith into your business?” In my last post, What is Christian Ministry?, I put forth my belief that we ALL are to be in full-time Christian ministry, whether that is our paid vocation or not. Now I want to help you learn HOW to do that!

Christian ministry

Christian Ministry Practices In Business

Based on multiple requests from readers and others, I am going to start a new series of posts. Unlike other series I have done, these posts will not be back-to-back in a continuous stream. Instead, these posts will be scattered among my posts from week to week. The common subject of this series will be actual Christian ministry practices in our business that are designed to bring the Christian faith into our business. Many of these practices came out of our Strategic Ministry Planning.

I will tell you what we are doing and how we are measuring our progress (if we are!). I will also tell you about any results, feedback, success stories, etc. that we have received. I will include any documents (on my Resources page) that apply.

Christian ministryYou will be able to recognize these posts right off by seeing this symbol to the left. I will include it anytime I add a post to this series!

As you can see, the cross, representing the Christian faith, is integrated into the upward-tracking graph arrow, representing business. While it is simple, I think it conveys what we are trying to do.

Goals Of The Series

In showing you how we are attempting to integrate our faith into our business through Christian ministry actions, I hope to accomplish several things:

  • Give you ideas that you can implement in your business
  • Help you think outside of the box in coming up with your own ideas
  • Get feedback from you about how we might improve our practices
  • Generate conversation that contributes to everyone’s learning

I hope this series will be helpful to you as we go. I know it will be helpful to me…especially if you do your part in commenting at the bottom! Feel free to ask questions, add suggestions, or just make general comments for each practice. I am truly interested in hearing from you and learning with you.

Pray First

Before we go into this series, I encourage you to begin praying about how God might want you to start doing ministry in your own business. If you are already bringing Christian ministry into your own business, then pray about how you can improve on what you are already doing.

Maybe He wants more from you in this area. Maybe He wants you to share what you are doing with other business people. It could be that you need to start including more of your employees in the Christian ministry already going on. Who knows?

Whatever the case, you need to start with prayer. I am not the expert in the area of Christian ministry in business, but I know that God is. Seek His wisdom as you try to invest the talents He has given you. I hope to have some ideas that will help you, but He is the source of all ideas and creativity.

What is God placing on your heart right now relating to Christian ministry in your business?

Are you seeking His wisdom and guidance?

What do you need to do next?

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Do You Have A Thanksgiving Chair?

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I am taking the rest of the weekend off from my normal posting, but I wanted to share a powerful video, Thanksgiving Chair, that I saw at church this past Sunday. Take a look and see what you think…

We need to follow Paul’s advice in 1 Thessalonians 5:18,

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

We also need to teach the next generation to do the same!

Show them the Thanksgiving chair!

Thank you for reading! Have a great Thanksgiving!

Do you have a Thanksgiving chair?

Do you always give thanks in all circumstances?

If so, how do you remember to do so?

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When Should You Say No?

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In a previous post about the Pitfalls of Running A Christian Business, one of the specific pitfalls I mentioned was that many people think a Christian business should never say no to anything! They evidently believe that having a Christian philosophy means we should agree to help anyone with any cause they have. I am not sure of the basis for this feeling, but I have seen it repeatedly exhibited since we began to attempt to integrate our faith into our business.

say no

WHY Say No?

Before we look at WHEN you should say no, let’s answer another question – one that is central to this post. WHY should you say no to some opportunities? I mean, within reason, shouldn’t we always be prepared to help others? If we say no, are we not turning away those in need? If we say no, are we not missing some good opportunities to impact people?

The truth is we are. When we say no to some opportunities, we are turning some away that are in need and we are missing some good opportunities to impact people. The problem for most people is that they cannot see that it is critical to say no to some good opportunities in order to be available to take advantage of the best opportunities.

Good vs. Great?

Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, said that good is the enemy of great. He says we have too few great schools because we have too many good ones. We do not have enough great businesses because we have too many good ones. The same goes for churches, organizations, etc. The problem is that too many people and organizations settle for being good rather than striving for being great!

Rather than saying “Yes!” to every good opportunity that comes along, we should instead save our efforts for the best ones. Rather than spreading ourselves too thin by taking on every good project, we should focus on those that are the best. In this way we are maximizing our effectiveness. We are also leaving those “good” opportunities to someone else that may have a “best” fit with them.

What Next?

So, let’s say you get this philosophy and you agree with it. Now you want to know what to do next. How do you take this philosophy and execute in the Christian business? How do you apply this to your life as a Christian leader?

Let’s look at a few key steps in this process.

    2. Determine your mission

      In what area(s) are you going to focus? What is your purpose?

    3. Determine your resources

      How much time, money, effort, etc. do you have to give to your various roles?

    4. Build in some cushion

      Do not forget to build in some cushion or margin when determining available resources. You should maintain this margin for those times you underestimate a need or when you simply cannot say no!

    5. Be proactive

      Don’t sit and wait on the best opportunities to come to you. Go find them! Create them! Begin investing your resources for an eternal return!

You can use this same list as your litmus test for opportunities that come your way. Does this opportunity fit your gifts? Is it within your mission’s area of focus? Do you have the resources to take it on? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then you should think hard about saying no to the opportunity.

Still Unsure?

If you are still unsure, ask yourself this question. If the opportunity fits at least two of these criteria, is it important enough to you that you would be willing to spend some of your cushion in the third category in order to take it on? Sometimes there are simply reasons we know we should not say no. If we have the margin to spend, it can sometimes make sense to say yes.

What first came to mind when you thought about something you should have declined?

Have you had a successful experience saying no?

What are the obstacles to you saying no?

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How To Measure Spiritual Value Added

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spiritual valueAs owners or leaders in Christian businesses, we should be looking at our businesses from an eternal perspective. Profitability is a must and team development is critical to our success, but the impact we have on eternity (spiritual value) should be our primary concern. Quite simply, nothing else will last.

Spiritual Value Added

When all is said and done and we stand in judgment, nothing material from this world will count. Only what we have done that survives the fire will matter. While there are no metrics that fully capture this eternal impact we desire, I believe we must do the best we can to track our efforts in this area. Let’s look at Spiritual Value Added (SVA) from C12’s Tri-Value model.

As the final component of the Tri-Value Model from the C12 Group, SVA consists of three elements (a.k.a. “The Three S’s”)”

    1. Salvation – those coming to know Jesus for the first time
    2. Sanctification – helping believers to grow or be strengthened in their faith
    3. Service – giving money or service to those in need, especially the “least among us”

Each of these elements requires different actions from us. Each has different results that we can expect. If we are serious about evaluating our performance from an eternal perspective, then we need to measure both our actions and the results they produce. We need to do this for each of The Three S’s!

Salvation

Let’s first look at Salvation. The first thing we must realize about this element is that we cannot make it happen! Nothing we can do will save anyone…that is the job of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, we certainly can make sure that we are spreading the Word – teaching people about the gospel message. Here are a couple of examples of when this could happen:

    1. Chaplain is given permission by employee to share the reason for his faith
    2. Gospel-centered devotion is shared with all employees
    3. Gospel is shared at company-sponsored Boy’s & Girls Club Christmas party
    4. New Testament given as gift after a transaction with a customer

Rate you and your team are doing in this area on a 1-10 scale compared to your potential. You will also want to have a system to gather the results – those who actually turned their lives over to Jesus. This is probably the most difficult to track because you may never find out about some decisions. Other times you may have just planted the seed and someone else will be there to see it harvested. Regardless, start counting those you are aware of and see what happens.

Sanctification

The next “S” is Sanctification. The activities in this area can range from Bible studies or classes offered to employees, customers, or anyone you choose. Any work done to teach, strengthen, or support believers in their walk with Christ should be counted here. Some examples include:

    1. Lunch-and-Learn video series offered to employees, customers, vendors
    2. Small group studies held at lunch or before/after work
    3. Classes offered to employees and their families on financial or marriage issues

Again, rate you and your team on a 1-10 scale compared to your potential. For the results in this area, you want to count how many people participated.

Service

The final “S” is Service. There are many ways you and your team can give to those in need. Get creative and include as many employees as possible. While it may be easier to just write a check at the end of the year and be done with it, you will miss incredible blessings if you do. here are some examples:

    1. Sponsor a Thanksgiving meal at a local shelter & enlist employees to volunteer
    2. Sponsor a team of employees in a local event like the March of Dimes walk-a-thon
    3. Sponsor a kids organization with Christmas toys & let employees do the shopping!

Rate yourselves on a 1-10 scale the same as before, comparing your actions with your potential. The results here are fairly easy to track. Whether you count the money given in dollars or percent of net profit, either works. I would also count the number of man-hours your employees log.

So there it is – Spiritual Value Added – the final component of the Tri-Value model series. Get started evaluating your performance and let me know how you are doing. If you are at all disappointed at your current performance, remember this is not a sprint! Just decide to make a change for the better and get on your horse and ride!

Looking back over all three assessments (TVA, EVA, SVA), where are you the weakest?

What will it take for you to see improvement when you do this assessment again next year?

What is your first step?

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How To Measure Team Performance with Added Value

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In my last post, I gave you a brief overview of the C12 Group’s model for measuring the performance of a company’s leadership. As business owners and leaders, we need to make sure we are building added value in our organization. As Christian business owners and leaders, we need to make sure we are doing this from an eternal perspective. Used as a part of our own annual assessment of our performance, the C12 Tri-Value model helps us to do this.

team performance

The Tri-Value component we will tackle in this post is Team Value Added (TVA). TVA is concerned with our team performance as a whole as well as how each individual member of our team operates within our business. Now, how you define “team” here is up to you. For me, with 100 employees, 18 managers, and 4 members of my Leadership Team (Inner Circle), I choose to evaluate the Leadership Team.

For you, the “team” may be your entire company. It may just be your management team or the department you supervise. Regardless, I would try not to pick a group that is too big. While there is not a recommended number in the C12 material, I would suggest you stick with a max of seven or eight. If you go any larger than that, the individual evaluations become difficult.

Team Dimension

To start, let’s look at the team dimension of TVA. In looking at our team as a whole, we want to look at the synergy of the team. Below are some questions we want to answer from year to year (or a frequency of your choice) on a scale from 1-10, watching the trends to see if the team value is increasing or decreasing….

    1. Is your team positive, supportive, and complimentary to each other?
    2. Are they setting and meeting ‘stretch’ targets that require teamwork?
    3. Are they innovating and pushing the envelope?
    4. Are they developing their replacements?
    5. Are they participating in the ministry dimension more fully?
    6. Are they thankful or becoming complacent?
    7. How is their attendance and work ethic?
    8. Is loyalty high and turnover low?

Individual Dimension

Next, we want to look at our team as individuals. Consider your individual team members and answer the following question for each of them, also on a scale from 1-10. If more valuable, note what they did to achieve that, using the choices listed below.

    Is this person more or less valuable to the business this year?
    A. Taking training
    B. Skill development
    C. Extra work or effort to ministry goals
    D. New innovations
    E. More dependable or loyal
    F. More input
    G. Attitude improvement
    H. Other

Now that you have evaluated their added value, now it is time to rate your role in that added value. Answer the following “How” question for each individual on your team, on a scale of 1-10. Then answer the “What” portion of the question with the choices listed below.

    How and what have I done to facilitate their added value this year?
    A. Personal encouragement
    B. Modeling / mentoring
    C. Recognition
    D. Rewards
    E. Training
    F. Other

Finally, we will take a look at how your individual team members are doing at developing their own team members or direct reports. Using the same scale from 1-10, score each individual member of your team on the following question. Again, note the “How” using the choices below.

    Is my staff adding value by developing their direct reports?
    A. Personal encouragement
    B. Modeling / mentoring
    C. Recognition
    D. Rewards
    E. Training
    F. Other

That is all there is to the actual evaluation of your Team Value Added. Obviously, the next step in this process is to take your scores and look for the opportunities to improve. Congratulate yourself and your team on your areas of strength and continue to work hard there. At the same time, take the steps necessary to bring your lower scores up over the next year. With intentional planning, you should be able to see significant progress!

[box]Email me HERE for a sample TVA Assessment document.[/box]

How did you and your team do?

What were your strengths? Your weaknesses?

What is the next step you need to take to improve?

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Added Value: A Good Measure Of Your Performance?

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As the owner or leader in your business, one of your main functions is to create added value in the organization. How do you measure your performance in this area?

If you are in corporate America, there are a number of metrics that analysts use to gauge your performance. If you are in a small business or non-profit organization, these metrics are likely different. Being a Christian business owner or leader adds a twist to this issue.

added value

Perspective

Adding value to your business can be defined differently, depending on your perspective. We are going to look at this method from the perspective of a Christian business owner or leader.

The C12 Group has a model for measuring this added value in the Christian business. However, the main difference between the C12 model and almost all other models is the perspective. While most businesses measure success or performance on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, the C12 model is very different.

Tri-Value Model

In stark contrast to most other business added value models, C12’s Tri-Value model considers the eternal perspective. Rather than judging a business’ leadership based on short-term performance only, this model takes a more balanced approach. The Tri-Value model is certainly not the final word on measuring performance. Instead, it is designed as a tool to keep us focused on the truly important areas of our jobs as well as to facilitate accountability in those areas.

In this post, I will give you a brief overview of this model. In the following three posts, we will look at each of the three components in more detail.

added value

Overview

The first component of the Tri-Value model is Team Value Added (TVA). This measurement deals with how well we are creating added value within the team of people that work in our company. There are two main categories in TVA. The first looks at how well the team is operating as a whole. The second category considers the development of the individuals on the team.

The second component is Economic Value Added (EVA). EVA measures whether the business is worth more in solid equity from year to year. It is a simple formula that helps us determine if we are adding to our company’s value or spending it.

Finally, the third component of the Tri-Value model is Spiritual Value Added (SVA). If we are truly looking at our company from an eternal perspective, and I cannot think of a single good reason why we would not, then this is our most important measurement. SVA attempts to measure the eternal fruit our company is producing.

Disclaimer

Please do not think that I am saying that all performance can be measured with numbers. Nor can we quantify all spiritual aspects of ministry in business. That is simply not possible. There are some aspects of business success that are impossible to put into a formula. Certainly, the Holy Spirit works in ways we cannot even understand, much less measure!

Instead, this type of model is intended to be a tool to elicit discussion and create conversation around our performance as it compares to our vision. The Tri-Value model should be used as a part of an ongoing planning and assessment process in your leadership of the business. If so, it can provide clear accountability for your leadership while helping you to remain true to your eternal vision.

Make sure to follow along all week as we break this model down into its components and look at how to use it!

What tools are you currently using to measure your performance in your business?

Do you feel these tools are effective at gauging your performance from the eternal perspective?

What benefits do you see in the Tri-Value model?

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Accountability – Step 5 In A Strategic Ministry Plan

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This is the final post in a series of posts on creating a Strategic Plan for Ministry in your business. At this point, you should have a mission statement with an eternal perspective. You should have a well-defined mission field as well as a set of action plans for ministry activities that will help you to impact that mission field. Now you need to lay out the accountability processes to ensure your action plans are executed and achieve the results you desire.

Accountability

Accountability Reporting Example

Let’s take a look at an example to illustrate my point. An easy example for our company is the CCA chaplain program (Corporate Chaplains of America). We have a chaplain assigned to our company as a benefit to the employees. By permission, this chaplain speaks to each of our employees face-to-face at least once per week.

He is on call 24/7 and 365. He will meet with employees after hours for extended care sessions in person or over the phone, according to their preference. He performs funerals, weddings, and hospital visits. He prays for the company and every employee on a regular basis.

On an ongoing basis, I need to know whether this program is achieving the results I expect from it. Fortunately, CCA provides their own reporting process as part of the program. They send me a report via email at the end of each month that details the activities of the chaplain. A report like this makes it easy for me to determine whether the program is working or not.

Here is an example of their report:

accountability

Your Accountability Reporting

Your reporting may look very different. It may not be as formal or it may be more so. The format is not important. The accountability is. While each ministry activity will likely present its own measurement challenges, try to make sure there is some ability to track and measure the activities and the results (if possible).

You should have some sort of reporting for every ministry activity on your action plan. If you cannot measure it in some way, then you need to decide whether it is worth doing or not. This is not to say that you are not to do anything that you cannot measure – there are certainly exceptions. It is more about making sure that there is accountability built in to every part of your plan.

Too often, companies come up with a great idea, begin a process or initiative, and never build in accountability. Without a clue as to whether it is effective or not, they forget about it until something goes wrong or someone leaves. This is simply not being a good steward of your resources.

Measuring Ministry?

There are a couple of challenges I will note about measuring ministry. First of all, we are not able to save anyone. That is the job of the Holy Spirit. While we may count the number of times someone turns their life over to Christ during one of our activities, we certainly cannot take credit for that. We are simply celebrating!

Second, we cannot truly know the condition of any individual’s heart or whether that condition has improved in a measurable way. To attempt to measure life change or improvement is not something I recommend. I think you get it, but measuring ministry is very difficult.

As a result of these challenges, we will most often revert to simply measuring our activities in ministry. As an example, look at the chaplain’s report. We do not attempt to measure the effectiveness of the chaplain’s prayer for our company and individual employees. We simply measure the number of times he prayed. We do not attempt to measure whether his care sessions had the intended effect. We can only count the times he had them.

I think you get the idea. When dealing with the heart and spiritual matters, measuring is difficult. At the same time, we cannot just leave our efforts to chance! Therefore we do our best to discern the right activities, maintain our focus on the right purpose, and then measure our efforts. We leave the results to God.

Do you currently have any sort of ministry results reporting?

If so, do you review it as often and with the same intensity as you review your financial reporting?

I won’t ask a third question…that last one hurt too much!

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Action Plan – Step 4 In A Strategic Ministry Plan

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action planThis is number 4 in a series of 5 posts about how to create a Strategic Plan for Ministry in your business. So far, we have created an effective mission statement with an eternal perspective, identified our potential mission field, and had a brainstorm session about how we will do ministry in the course of doing business. Now we will turn our attention to the laying out of the action plan.

Best Ideas

Now, I am assuming you have already completed your brainstorming session from last time. Depending on your preference of using a smaller team of key managers or a larger group of employees, you need to gather your team together again. Taking the list of ideas generated in your brainstorm session, the group now needs to sift through and find the best ideas, making sure they are in alignment with your mission statement.

Ideally, those that are the easiest to implement with the greatest impact should come first. You can also consider which ones are the most exciting in order to get the most buy-in from the stakeholders.

Categorize the Ideas

Once you have narrowed the list down to those that are the best fit for your current circumstances, you probably want to group them according to which of the three facets of ministry is appropriate (Evangelism, Discipleship, Service), as well as which mission field category applies (Employees, Customers, Suppliers/Vendors, etc.).

While it is not necessary to evenly distribute your activities across these categories, it is good to make sure you are not ignoring any of them.

Create the Action Plan

So you have a list of your best ideas sorted into the appropriate categories. Now it is time to create the plan to actually do them! A typical action plan should cover three elements:

    Task– What will be done and by whom?
    Timeline– When it will be done?
    Resources– What is required for it to be done?

Once you have laid out the action plan for each of your ideas, set some goals for the results. Don’t be shy!

Measurement Challenge

At the same time, you need to remember that by definition, the eternal spiritual impact we are attempting to make is sometimes difficult or impossible to measure, making it tough to set goals. Much of what we are doing is actually just “sowing seeds” and pointing people toward God. We cannot save anyone. Nor can we change their hearts. Even if heart change is a goal, how would you measure it?

Because of this challenge, it is my recommendation that you lean toward setting goals based on activity. If one of your action plan items is to place small new testament Bibles in your waiting area, then just measure how many are taken. If you are teaching a weekly Bible study for employees, then just measure attendance. In this case, you could take it a step further and measure how many of those in attendance go on to lead their own study! Either way, be careful how and what you target and measure. Stay true to Scripture!

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Of course, you need to make sure your action plan goals are S.M.A.R.T. goals as well!

    Specific– Determine exactly what will be done, when it will be done, who will do it, etc. and write it down.
    Measurable– Make sure you can measure the activity. If you cannot, how will you know if you accomplished it?
    Attainable– This does not mean to set the bar low, but to make sure they are realistic.
    Relevant– The goals need to be in alignment with your mission statement. They need to be important to you.
    Timely– You need to have a time frame or a target date. Open-ended goals are soft.

Start Now!

One hint here…though it is not set in stone, this is great advice. As the leader during this process, you need to encourage the group to agree on at least one or two action items that you will start tomorrow. Don’t lose any of the momentum you have built up to this point. Do something! You will gain a boost if you will be sure to do this.

Once you have set these goals for each idea on your final action plan, you are ready to move on to the last step in this process – determining the accountability process of measuring and monitoring the results. See you next post!

Are moving through the process with me or are you thinking this might be something for next year? Or the next year?

If you are, how is it going so far? Do you have some exciting goals?

Are you inspiring your people in a way that excites them?

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Brainstorm Session – Step 3 In A Strategic Ministry Plan

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brainstorming

This is number 3 in a series of 5 posts that outline a process for creating a strategic plan for ministry in your business.

So far in this series, we have crafted a mission statement that states, from an eternal perspective, why our business exists. We have also counted the various categories of people that will come into contact with our business on some level and identified them as our mission field.

In this post, we will look at how we, in the course of doing business, minister to those in our mission field in a way that impacts them for eternity.

Buck Knives Company

Probably the best example I can come up with is the Buck Knives Company. For decades, they have integrated the Gospel message into the course of business by including a small, printed Gospel testimony (pictured below) in the box with every product. As a result of years of doing this, they have multiple vertical file cabinets filled with letters and notes from customers that were touched by these Christ-centered messages.

ministry in business

So the question you must ask is this:

What is the true product of the Buck Knives Company, the knife or the Gospel message?

Let me ask you this…which one will last longer?

Brainstorm Session

This example from the Buck Knives Company aims to impact customers. What about employees and their families? What about your suppliers & vendors or any other groups we came up with when we identified our mission field? Well, that is what this step is all about. We have some brainstorming to do!

It is time to gather your team. Depending on your preference, you can include a large group of employees or you can start with your key people (that are bought in to the mission and vision). Depending on your size, you might even break into several groups. Either way, the point is to engage the participants in a creative session to determine opportunities and processes to minister to others while doing business.

This is a time for free-flowing ideas, not critique. That can come later.

Taking the three-fold definition of ministry I gave you in the last post (evangelism, discipleship, and service), encourage the participants to come up with ideas for each of the categories. You also may want to list the various mission field categories we identified last post (employees, customers, vendors, etc.) to help generate ideas.

The participants need to feel comfortable offering any idea that comes to mind, without the fear of rejection. This is a time for free-flowing ideas, not critique. That can come later. Any and every idea needs to come out. While one idea may later be scratched from the list for some reason, it may generate another idea that is a winner. Let them flow!

Expand Participation

While this is certainly a simple step in the process, don’t overlook it. Even if you start with your key people, I encourage you to later bring everyone into the process. You will likely get some ideas that would never have surfaced otherwise. Plus, you get much better buy-in when everyone is involved.

Now that you have your list of ideas, keep them handy. We will look at what to do with them in the next post. If you are interested, here is a list of 101 ministry ideas from C12 Group that you can use as thought starters. Feel free to implement any of them as well, but don’t use this list as an excuse to skip your brainstorming session!

Have you done this before? What were the results?

If not, are you willing to try it now?

When are you going to schedule it?

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Mission Field – Step 2 In A Strategic Ministry Plan

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This is number two in a series of posts on effective Strategic Ministry Planning for your business. In my last post, I described the value and characteristics of an effective mission statement for your company. Today, I will address the potential mission field for your company.  In business language, this is your target market or target audience.

mission field

Ministry Defined

In order to effectively determine where we are going to do ministry, I think it best we first define exactly what we mean by ministry. In this context, we are going to define ministry in three parts.

First is ministry in evangelism – leading those people without a saving faith in Jesus Christ to come to know Him. Not all people are wired for this type of ministry, but there are also people who are wired specifically for this type of ministry. These people cannot wait to share the love of Christ with someone else – friend or stranger.

Next is ministry in discipleship – helping those with faith in Jesus to grow in that faith. As Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 12, some are just gifted to teach. Some may enjoy doing so in a group while others may prefer a one-on-one discipling relationship. Either way, this is a critical part of ministry.

Finally is ministry in service – this consists of acts of love and kindness done in the name of Jesus. Just like some people are wired for evangelism and some are wired for teaching, this ministry requires those who embrace serving others.

Relational Ministry

When you think about it, the best ministry for Christ (regardless of which category) is done in relational contacts. God created us as relational beings. Look at Genesis 2:18 where He says it is not good for Adam to be alone. We need each other, therefore our ministry needs to be relational in the same way.

As a result of this line of thinking, we can see that every relational contact in the course of doing business is an opportunity to do ministry. Let’s take a look at a method of determining these mission field opportunities.

Mission Field

Courtesy of the C12 Group, we can use this Marketplace Mission Field worksheet (click to open in separate window and print out) to identify just how many opportunities your company has for ministry in a year.

Employees

    Employees– How many part-time and full-time employees do you have in your company? Do not count them in the same way you might for a financial report (0.5 for part-time or using Full Time Equivalents). If it is a person that gets compensated for their work, count them as one!
    Family Members– How many family members do your employees have in their households? Count them all! If you don’t know, just figure 1.5 family members per employee as an estimate.
    Applicants– How many applicants do you have in a given year? Consider all jobs and all applicants – whether online, by phone, or in person. If they inquire about a job with your company, count them.

Customers

    Current Customers– How many current customers does your company have? How many will you have this year?
    Past Customers– How many customers have you had in the past? In your database?
    Future Customers/Prospects– How many customers or prospects will look at your business this year? Even if you will not sell them, count them if they will have any contact with your company or any advertising from your company this year. Think about your website, trade shows, direct mail, flyers, etc. If they will get some impression of your business, they fall into this category.

Suppliers/Vendors

    Current– With how many suppliers and/or vendors are you currently doing business? Count the number of their individual employees that come into contact with your company, not the number of companies.
    Future (potential)– How many people come into your business in the period of a year to solicit your business (whether you do business with them or not)?

Others

    Competitors– How many individual contacts do you or your employees have with your competition? Some of these could actually fall under the vendor category as well. Don’t double count!
    Trade Associates– This category could include trainers, coaches, consultants, outside marketing reps, factory or franchise reps, etc. Count them all!
    Others– You may have thought of some not mentioned here. Add them in as well, but make sure to let me know what I missed. I want to add them to the template!

Total Opportunities

Now, all that is left is for you to total all of the above categories. Because of our website and the reach we have through nationwide vehicle searches, our number came to several million possible impressions! That is an unusually high number, but I bet your number is much higher than you were thinking before this exercise.

Folks, this is a real number representing the mission field opportunities you and your company will have in the next 12 months to impact people for eternity. Certainly, some of these will be greater opportunities than others. But regardless of the level of contact with your company, these are real people that could, in some way, see a different eternity simply because you decided to let God guide your business. How big is that?

Next time, we will begin to think about HOW we can impact this mission field.

What were you thinking before this exercise?

What was your company’s number?

Does that light a fire in your heart?