ESSENCE:  An organization is a merely a collection of people working together toward a common purpose. As such, it derives its purpose from their purpose.  Organizations such as businesses have intrinsic Kingdom value because they are a creation of God’s image-bearers that provides the platform and the opportunity for humans to come together in relationship to express and fulfill their humanity through work by producing and promoting flourishing and “building for the Kingdom” in ways that could not be accomplished by people working alone.  However, an organization’s full intrinsic Kingdom value–the flourishing it could unleash–can only be realized if its purpose, values and priorities align with Biblical purposes, values and practices.

Keep First Things First means going back to Biblical first principles, and we are looking at the first “Generosity Priority” embedded into Integriosity^®—Love.  In our last post (#055), we concluded the nature of work in God’s design is that it is how we use our skills to obey His commandments through SERVICE.  Work is a vehicle for humans to express their humanity by living out the Creation Mandate and the great commandments.

An organization is a merely a collection of people working together toward a common purpose.  As God created humans and humans created organizations, in God’s design an organization’s ultimate purpose must be derived from the purpose of its people–it is a vehicle for people to live out the purpose of work!

Love by Serving–Nature of Business

Seth Godin observed:

A business is a construct, an association of human beings combining capital and labor to make something. That business has precisely the same social responsibilities as the people that it consists of.

At Integrous, we believe Godin’s statement about social responsibilities holds true for Biblical purpose as well.  Organizations (including businesses) are platforms that facilitate humans working together in relationship–living out their purpose to use their skills to love each other through service.

However, we believe that organizations are not merely constructs–they are CREATIONS that become part of God’s creation.  An organization such as a business is a product of the Creation Mandate–it is created by humans exercising their God-given authority and mandate to “be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth, and subdue it“.  Remember, the Creation Mandate extends beyond merely putting together raw physical materials.  It includes “subduing” through the creation of culture and social structures such as organizations.  Organizations such as businesses have intrinsic Kingdom value because they are a creation of God’s image-bearers that provides the platform and the opportunity for humans to come together in relationship to express and fulfill their humanity through work by producing and promoting flourishing and “building for the Kingdom” in ways that could not be accomplished by people working alone.

Although the nature of an organization is that it has intrinsic value because it is a creation of God’s image-bearers fulfilling (whether or not knowingly) the Creation Mandate, we believe an organization’s full intrinsic Kingdom value–the flourishing it could unleash–can only be realized if its purpose, values and priorities align with Biblical purposes, values and priorities–with God’s restoration plan for His Kingdom.

We spent many posts explaining the Placebos and Side Roads of “Faith as Usual” that can prevent leaders and organizations from reaching their full potential (see Post #037 for a list with links).   We detailed the consequences (Post #36):  missed purpose for the organization, missed calling for its leaders, missed flourishing for its people, increased misery, increased hypocrisy and unsustainability.

James Hunter captures it well in this quote from his book To Change the World:

To manage a business in a way that grows out of a Biblical view of relationships, community and human dignity before God has divine significance, irrespective of what else might be done from this platform. 

We believe it is time for “business a better way” in alignment with Biblical values and priorities such as LOVE–it is time to begin faithfully “doing right” through Integriosity^®.

SPOILER ALERT:  Understanding the intrinsic value of business is a key to the second step in the process of Integriosity–RE-IMAGINE.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM):  I never really considered the idea of business having intrinsic value in God’s Kingdom until hearing Jeff Van Duzer speak at the 2012 InterVarsity Believers in Business Conference in New York.  His talk was so seminal to my own understanding of, and passion for, faith/work integration that I can still picture the setting (and I still have a copy of the slides).  It was Saturday, February 4, 2012 at the Yale Club in Manhattan (convincing myself to even enter the venue was quite an accomplishment given my educational background).  Van Duzer presented the ideas from his book Why Business Matters to God (And What Still Needs To Be Fixed).  I ordered the book online before I even left the meeting.  At the time, Van Duzer was Dean of the School of Business and Economics and professor of business law and ethics at Seattle Pacific University.   I later heard a podcast in which he explained an inspiration behind the book–if someone is to come up with a theology of business, who is better suited than he and his colleagues at a Christian business school.   In the Introduction to the book (which I encourage you not to skip), Van Duzer shares some of the more specific observations and frustrations that led him to believe a sound theology of God’s purpose for business was needed.  I shared many of the same observations and frustrations.  Thank you Jeff Van Duzer (and thank you to Mark Washington of InterVarsity for inviting me to attend the Conference).

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