The message in our last post was turn with all your might, and it was based on the story of King Josiah.  When his eyes were opened to the truth of God’s commands, he turned to the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might. This post is about not getting turned back–back to business as usual or faith as usual.

Once a faithful leader’s eyes have been opened to the truth of God’s purpose for work and business and that leader turns with all their might to transform the heart of the organization they lead through the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, the leader will almost certainly face resistance in the form of deception and temptation.  The forces of the kingdom of the world will try to turn the leader back.  The countermeasures to these forces are prayer, discernment, courage, and trust.

The Battle

A faithful leader who has turned with all their might to lead with faithful integrity through business a better way rather than in the way of the kingdom of the world will face challenges. In his book To Change the World, James Hunter warns:

To enact a vision of human flourishing based in the qualities of life that Jesus modeled will invariably challenge the given structures of the social order.

Resistance is certain when challenging “the given structures of the social order” in a fallen world.  The Bible warns that those following God’s commands will have trouble (John 16:33), be persecuted (Romans 12:14), suffer affliction (Romans 12:12), be accused of wrongdoing (1 Peter 2:12) and suffer unjustly (1 Peter 2:19).  Resistance may come from employees, customers, vendors, owners, regulators and communities.

Although these challenges may come in the form of human resistance and resistance from worldly systems, the Bible tells us that these challenges are spiritual:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  (Ephesians 6:12)

In this post, we want to address two types of resistance that a leader may face–deception and temptation.

Resistance Through Business as Usual Deception

One of the most sobering leadership lessons in Scripture involves an unnamed “man of God” in 1 Kings 13. He began his assignment obediently but was led astray by trusting the wrong voice.  Here is what happened:

• The man of God was sent by the Lord to Bethel to deliver a strong message to King Jeroboam.

• King Jeroboam asked the man of God to call on the Lord to heal Jeroboam’s hand, and it was healed.

• Jeroboam invited the man of God to stay and refresh himself, but the man of God declined because the Lord had given him a clear instruction”

You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.

• An old prophet in Bethel heard what had happened and set out after the man of God. The old prophet invited the man of God back to his home in Bethel to eat bread.

• When the man of God declined, repeating God’s clear command, the old prophet deceived him.  He lied, telling the man of God that an angel had spoken to the old prophet and instructed him to bring the man of God back.

• The man of God believed the old prophet and returned with him to eat and drink, defying God’s command.  At that point, the old prophet actually did get a word from the Lord that the man of God would not be buried with his fathers because of his disobedience. After the man of God left the old prophet, he was met on the road by a lion and killed.

A man called by God, who had courageously delivered truth to King Jeroboam and resisted the king’s offers, fell not to power, bribes, fear or temptation, but to spiritual-sounding deception.

Business as usual is full of “prophets” with other plans.  When a faithful leader’s eyes have been opened to the truth of God’s purpose for work and business, and they turn with all their might, the forces of business as usual will try to turn the leader back.  The messages of deception may sound like:

That’s not how real businesses operate.

You won’t be able to hire the best people if you bring faith into your culture.

You will lose customers and possibly vendors if you bring faith into your culture.

You must maximize profit because you have shareholders to answer to.

Your business will not survive if you start spending more than you need to on employees.

You have to get your business successful before trying to implement faith initiatives.

Your faith is personal–it’s not legal or even appropriate to bring it into the organization’s culture.

The only legitimate intersection of faith and work is to use your personal income or profits to be generous.

These lies may create fear or may cause a faithful leader to second-guess the truth to which their eyes were opened.  The lies may also be mixed with spiritual-sounding deception, such as using the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 to justify maximizing profit.

Much like the Israelites who longed for Egypt (forgetting or downplaying the problems that came with being slaves) when things got tough on their journey, a faithful leader facing fear created by business as usual deceptions or otherwise facing business challenges may turn back to business as usual, forgetting how God had opened their eyes (or questioning whether it really was God).

Resistance Through Faith as Usual Temptation

A faithful leader may also face resistance through the temptation to pursue faith as usual Side Roads rather than the more challenging ancient path of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.

Settling for faith as usual initiatives are tempting because they come from people of faith, are “good”, and the leader will receive affirmation from the faith community. For example, the faith as usual Side Road of Monetizing will be celebrated and affirmed by the recipients of the leader’s generosity.  The faith as usual Side Road of Cosmeticizing will be celebrated by that vast majority of Christians who have not crossed the Sacred/Secular Gap and see evangelism as the principal way for faith to be integrated with business.

Settling for faith as usual initiatives may also be tempting because they can be implemented without doing the more difficult and more counter-cultural work of changing the heart of the organization to a bigger WHY, shifting profit to its proper place as a means rather than the “end” toward which the business is managed. They can also be implemented without crossing the most challenging Safety/Surrender Gap.

A faithful leader facing fear created by business as usual deceptions may welcome the faith as usual temptations as a comfortable compromise.  Because faith as usual Side Roads can comfortably co-exist with Profit as Purpose, faith as usual temptations allow a faithful leader to feel good and be affirmed while also falling in line with the socially acceptable WHY of business as usual.  It can be tempting to listen to “prophets” who say:

All you need to do to live out your faith at work is to be ethical and be kinder to people.

All you need to do to live out your faith at work is evangelize or give generously from income and profits to those who evangelize.

All you need to do to live out your faith at work is organize your employees to do service projects for “the least of these” or give generously from income and profits to those who serve “the least of these”.

All you need to do to live out your faith at work is start a Bible study/start a prayer group/hire a chaplain/give Bibles to employees/mention God in your mission statement/put Bible verses on your packaging or on your stationary.

God wants you to be successful first—then integrate your faith and work.

These paths may be most tempting to a faithful leader when they are facing resistance, struggling to succeed on the world’s terms or being called to take a risk for their faith.

Faith as usual is tempting because it is good.  But we believe it is not God’s best that comes through crossing the Sacred/Secular Gap and the Safety/Surrender Gap.  In the words of Oswald Chambers:

Once we come to understand that natural moral excellence opposes or counteracts surrender to God, we bring our soul into the center of its greatest battle. Very few of us would debate over what is filthy, evil, and wrong, but we do debate over what is good. It is the good that opposes the best.

Countermeasures to Deception and Temptation

If resistance is inevitable and deception and temptation lie waiting on the ancient path of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, a faithful leader needs countermeasures to remain on the narrow path.  Scripture warns:

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

We believe these countermeasures are prayer, discernment, courage and trust.

Prayer

The importance of prayer in facing spiritual resistance seems so obvious. Unfortunately, many faithful leaders do not associate God with business decisions.  Sadly, the unnamed man of God never prayed before “turning back” and following the old prophet.  Oswald Chambers observed:

In spiritual issues it is customary for us to put God first, but we tend to think that it is inappropriate and unnecessary to put Him first in the practical, everyday issues of our lives.

We have written several posts dedicated to prayer.  For example:

#092–Re-Align Ingredient #4–Prayer

#133–Integrity Idea 007: Personal Prayer

#134–Integrity Idea 008: Group Prayer

#135–Integrity Idea 009: Intercessory Prayer

Prayer is essential in equipping leaders to face the spiritual challenges of leading an organization to pursue faithful integrity through business a better way in a fallen world dominated by business as usual, and it is one of the six Covert-Overt Continuums of Integriosity^®.

The Prayer Continuum should always be the very first one addressed by leaders pursuing business a better way, because prayer will facilitate the heart-change in leaders needed to RENEW their understanding of God’s purpose for work and business, it will guide how those leaders RE-IMAGINE the purpose, values and culture of the organization, and it will guide how they address and implement RE-ALIGNMENT along the other five Continuums.

Although prayer can take many different forms, depending on the discernment of the leader and the existing culture of the leadership team and the organization, the same God who calls leaders to pursue faithful integrity through business a better way will be present to guide, equip and protect those who are called.

Discernment

Discernment requires wisdom, and God’s wisdom comes through prayer and through Scripture.  The man of God failed to seek God’s wisdom and ended up following the wrong voice.  The voice you follow will shape the path you walk.  Deceptive and tempting voices may carry titles, platforms, or impressive credentials—but a faithful leader must be discerning.

The voices of business as usual are loud, and they are everywhere.  Those voices teach in business schools and in management training programs; its message is rewarded by management, Boards, and stockholders; and adherence to its principles and priorities is demanded by investors, fund managers, and stock analysts.

Business as usual is portrayed as “good business”.  Anything else (including stakeholder capitalism) is often denigrated by proponents of business as usual as illegal, un-Constitutional, anti-Enlightenment and contrary to freedom, democracy and capitalism.  Scripture already provides wisdom sufficient to be skeptical enough to pause and seek discernment through prayer:

For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:15)

Likewise, the voices of faith as usual are loud.  They are present in books, conferences and ministries devoted to faith/work integration.  Just because advice comes from a Christian business coach, a ministry leader, a well-meaning Christian friend, or a best-selling Christian author on leadership or culture (or a blog called Integriosity) does not mean it reflects the voice of God.  We believe every voice seeking to guide the faithful leader should be subjected to prayer, particularly any voice that leads away from the truth to which a faithful leader’s eyes have been opened.

Deception and temptation can come cloaked in a tone of spiritual maturity–just think of how Jesus was tempted in the desert.  Satan used subtle deviations from God’s truth.

Courage

In a broken world of business as usual in which the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way “challenges the given structures of the social order,” messages of deception and temptation will often offer the comfort of business as usual in the face of challenge or the safety of faith as usual in the face of surrender.  Brene Brown wrote:

Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy.

Through prayerfully seeking God’s wisdom and discerning a path through resistance, a faithful leader can rest in the promise of Joshua 1:9:

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Trust

The pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way calls faithful leaders to trust in God, and trust in God is trust in his sovereignty and promises and trust in his commands. The Bible is pretty clear about the importance of putting trust in God:

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. (Isaiah 26:4)

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord (Jeremiah 17:7)

He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. (2 Kings 18:5)

It is also very clear about not putting trust in other people:

Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. (Jeremiah 17:5)

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. (Psalm 118:8)

Leading faithfully through business a better way in the face of deception and temptation requires trust, and trust requires faith in God.  We trust God because we have faith God is trustworthy. In the wise words of Dr. Skip Moen:

Faith is my active attitude of total reliance on God’s absolute trustworthiness.  That means that my “faith” is demonstrated in the action of putting myself in His care, no matter what the circumstances!  Until and unless I act on His reliability, I just don’t have faith.

Don’t Be Deceived or Tempted

1 Kings 13 offers a sobering picture for faithful leaders. A man of God courageously obeyed the Lord—until he allowed another prophet to override what God had clearly told him. The prophet lied, the man of God believed, the man of God failed to pray, the man of God turned back, and it cost him his life.

In today’s world, faithful leaders are constantly bombarded by advice—much of it wrapped in spiritual language–that would lead them to turn back from the truth to which their eyes have been opened about God’s “best” for work and business.

Leading with faithful integrity requires not only pursuing alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities—it requires being vigilant about the voices shaping your decisions. Business as usual and faith as usual are filled with “prophets” who will tell you what you want to hear or what sounds spiritual but can lead to compromise. Those voices may sound particularly enticing in the face of challenges or discomfort.

The man of God in 1 Kings 13 didn’t fall because he rejected God—he fell because he trusted the wrong voice.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): In pursuing Integrous and developing the path to Integriosity, several people have challenged whether this is the right “business model”. Their alternatives were tempting.

One suggestion was to drop the “faith” focus and appeal to a much broader business audience that would resonate with integrity.  They rightly pointed out that my potential client-base would be much larger.  They also cautioned that many people would be “turned off” by the faith language.  Both accurate assessments.

Another suggestion was to be less demanding about what God calls us to do.  Surely, practices such as Individualizing, Monetizing, Cosmeticizing, Prosperitizing and Interimizing are better than doing nothing at all.  Calling them Side Roads and examples of the “good” being the enemy of the “best” sounds critical and judgmental.  It may also offend people in the church and faith-work movement advocating and praising those practices.  And pushing an understanding of a BIGGER Gospel may turn away those faithful people who have been taught it is all about sin and salvation.  Again, accurate assessments.

Each time, I went back to the personal mission statement that confirmed to me the path to Integrous–“to redeem work through the impartation of wisdom, spotlighting God’s truth and connecting its meaning to organizational practices“.  The Bible calls us to obedience and trust, leaving the process, timing and outcome in God’s hands.  The Bible call us to love God and love our neighbor.  Genesis is pretty clear about work and the Creation Mandate, and the Bible is pretty clear about who we are, where we came from, why we are here and what God invites us to do.  Integrous and Integriosity are for those who have been convicted by the Holy Spirit to want more–those who understand a more transcendent purpose than power, money and pleasure.  I believe I am meant to be obedient to that mission–leaving the process, the timing and the outcome in God’s hands.

ESSENCE: When a faithful leader’s eyes have been opened to the truth of God’s purpose for work and business and that leader turns with all their might to transform the heart of the organization they lead through the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, the forces of the kingdom of the world will try to turn the leader back–back to business as usual or faith as usual. The leader will almost certainly face resistance in the form of deception and temptation. One of the most sobering leadership lessons in Scripture involves an unnamed “man of God” in 1 Kings 13. He began his assignment obediently but was led astray by trusting the wrong voice. Leading with faithful integrity requires not only pursuing alignment with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities—it requires being vigilant about the voices shaping your decisions. If resistance is inevitable and deception and temptation lie waiting on the ancient path of faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing, a faithful leader needs countermeasures to remain on the narrow path. The countermeasures to these forces are prayer, discernment, courage and trust.

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Image Credit: Original image by Cristofer Maximilian on Unsplash
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