In our most recent post (Integrity Idea 067: Plant a “Tree” in 2025), we urged faithful leaders to commit to make one change or take one initiative in their organization that “adds to the beauty of the world”.  Rather than suggest something specific, we asked faithful leaders to commit to do something that moved the organization in the direction of Biblical flourishing rather than Profit as Purpose.

In a recent devotional, Rick Warren wrote “The reason why so many Christians falter and don’t end the race well is they forget why they’re doing it.”  We have emphasized in many posts that simply doing the right thing is not enough.  Faithful leaders pursuing faith/work integration must continually examine their hearts to ensure they are doing the right thing in the right way and, most importantly, for the right reasons.

As 2025 kicks off, it seems like a good time to remember the right reasons–the faithful WHYs–for leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.  The right reasons to “plant a tree in 2025”, and the reasons that can inspire the right trees.

The Need for a Faithful WHY

We believe faith/work integration that reflects God’s purpose for work and business requires a faithful leader to live a congruous life of faithful integrity in which all they do at work is informed, guided and part of their faith.  At the core of faithful integrity is an alignment of organizational purpose, values and culture arising from a commitment to Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.

Faith/work integration being done for the wrong reasons is one of the worst kind of “misses”, because God cares about the heart.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28)

Faith/work integration being done for the wrong reasons can become hypocrisy that reflects poorly on Biblical faith, which does not glorify God.

Without a faithful WHY, “faithful integrity” loses its faithfulness and becomes simply “integrity”.   We devoted post #243 (Integrity Is Not Enough) to exploring why the pursuit of “integrity” is not enough to guide a faithful leader on the ancient path to aligning the purpose, values and culture of an organization in a way that leads the organization and its people to do the right things, in the right ways, for the right reasons.

For a faithful leader, integrity calls for being “complete and undivided” in pursuit of something “right”.  Integrity alone is insufficient because it lacks a transcendent anchor.  Anchorless “integrity” does not tell us enough to know whether a person is “complete and undivided” in pursuing “right” in alignment with the Kingdom of God or “right” in alignment with the kingdom of the world.  A person can have “integrity of heart” in their wickedness, their pursuit of worldly treasure or pleasure, or simply their pursuit of what they think is “right”.

The Bible makes very clear that people following “what is right” in their own eyes is not the way of God’s Kingdom:

You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes. (Deuteronomy 12:8)

For a faithful leader, “integrity” needs a transcendent anchor–a transcendent WHY that reflects God’s “right”–God’s WHY.

The Faithful WHY of Faithful Integrity

“Faithful Integrity” represents integrity with an anchor of God’s purpose for work and business–a WHY plumb line that flows from on the Creation Mandate, Imago Dei, the Golden Rule, the two great commandments (love God and love your neighbor), and God’s model of love as giving and serving generously.  It is a plumb line that leads, as it must, to the ultimate WHY hard-wired into every human–to glorify God:

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Humans glorify their creator God through work by:

• Being (and helping others to be) all that God created them to be–fully human through living out Imago Dei as reflections of a creative, productive and relational God.

• Obediently pursuing the Creation Mandate in Genesis 1:28 (be fruitful and subdue the earth) toward the flourishing (Shalom) of God’s creation.

• Living out the Golden Rule and the two great commandments as they work and using their gifts to love their neighbor generously through the creation and provision of goods and services that people need.

It is critical to recognize that the Creation Mandate includes “subduing” through the creation of culture and social structures such as organizations. As God’s creative image-bearers fulfilling the Creation Mandate, we create organizations so that we can use our skills and gifts collectively to fulfill God’s purpose for work in ways we could never do individually.  From a Biblical perspective, business has intrinsic Kingdom value because it is an extension of God’s creation and derives its purpose from God’s purpose for us.

If you have been reading our posts, you know that we have distilled the faithful WHY of faithful integrity–the bigger WHY of business–to three concepts: Humanize People, Beautify the World and Glorify God.  As a refresher:

• Humanize: An organization helps people become more “fully human” and flourish by engaging them in meaningful work that unleashes their God-given productivity and creativity and creates economic prosperity in a culture of Shalom built on Biblical principles of relationships, community and human dignity.

• Beautify:  An organization adds to the beauty of the world and assists in God’s restorative plan for His Kingdom by creating opportunities, economic prosperity, goods and services, and by meeting needs, solving problems and “repairing” the world, in ways that help families and communities to flourish and by extending its culture of Shalom to all people it touches.  In the process, the work of the organization takes on deeper meaning for its own people.

• Glorify:  An organization glorifies God and loves its neighbors principally through serving people–by providing opportunities for individuals to express aspects of their God-given identities in creative and meaningful work, by providing opportunities, economic prosperity, goods and services, and by solving problems and “repairing” the world, in ways that enable families and communities to flourish and by creating a culture of Shalom conducive to the flourishing of all people it touches.

There is a wonderful way in which Humanizing and Beautifying create a virtuous circle of Biblical flourishing. Humanizing People leads to better physical and mental health, better family relationships and stronger communities, thereby Beautifying the World, and the sense of bigger purpose employees get from understanding how they Beautify the World through their work is itself Humanizing.

Through a lens of Biblical flourishing, the promotion and facilitation by an organization of flourishing internally serves to promote and facilitate further flourishing externally, and the promotion and facilitation of flourishing externally serves to promote and facilitate further flourishing internally.

Although we describe three bigger WHY’s, it all points to Glorify God.  That is the “fruit of the fruit” or the ultimate WHY.  God is glorified when an organization “plants trees” that Humanize People and Beautify the World.

The WHY Filter

Just as every organization should test its decisions about WHAT it does and HOW it does what it does through the filter of WHY it does what it does, a faithful leader should filter and assess the actions taken in pursuit of faith/work integration through the filter of the bigger WHYs of faithful integrity–God’s “right” for work and business.

Like an organization’s purpose and values, the bigger WHYs of faithful integrity serve as guardrails and goal posts.  They are guardrails and goal posts faithful leaders can use to test and inspire faith/work integration.  As guardrails, they help the organization avoid actions that are not the right thing and avoid doing them in ways that are not the right way.  As goal posts, they inspire faithful leaders to take actions in furtherance of those WHYs–to take the initiative to do right things in right ways.

When “planting a tree” in pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, a faithful leader should consider asking:

• Humanize. Does this “tree” Humanize people by allowing them, as Dr. Skip Moen says to “move in the direction of the divine design” within them?

Does it facilitate (or inhibit) pursuit by the organization’s stakeholders of the Creation Mandate through prioritizing Biblical flourishing?

Does it promote (or frustrate) the reflection of Imago Dei by encouraging people to exercise fully their God-given gifts of productivity and creativity to serve others?

Does it promote (or frustrate) the reflection of Imago Dei by encouraging people to prioritize relationships and community and to treat others with dignity and respect?

Does it encourage (or discourage) people to live out the Golden Rule and the two great commandments (love God and love your neighbor) in the way they work?

• Beautify.  Does this “tree” add to the beauty of the world and assist in God’s restorative plan for His Kingdom?

Does it bring the workplace and the world it serves a bit closer or further away from God’s design and plan?

Does it prioritize relationships, community and treating people with dignity and respect?

Does it help meet a need, solve a problem, or “repair” the world in a way that increases Biblical flourishing?

Does it create economic prosperity that increases Biblical flourishing?

• Glorify.  Is the real WHY behind planting the tree to glorify God or to further a worldly objective?  Is it faithful stewardship born of surrender in pursuit of the Creation Mandate or religious stewardship on the safety side of the Safety Surrender Gap.

It should be encouraging to recognize that an action (regardless of where it is on the Covert/Overt Continuums) aligned with God’s WHY for work and business has increased Biblical flourishing and Glorified God by helping a person become more fully human or by moving the world a bit closer to God’s beautiful plan and design.

Forgetting God’s WHY

Again, God’s WHY for everything we do–even our existence–is to glorify Him.

In fact, Isaiah 43:7 makes clear that glorifying God is WHY we were created (“everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made“).   That simple and paramount truth is something that Biblical faiths have recognized for ages:

The very first question of the Westminster Longer Catechism asks “What is the chief and highest end of man?“, and the answer is “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”

The Catholic Catechism states “Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this fundamental truth: “The world was made for the glory of God.”

The final “Glorify” filter for testing the faithful integrity of a “tree” is the ultimate filter–right reasons. Rick Warren wrote “Integrity is uncorrupted motivation. It means you do the right thing, and you do it for the right reason.”

Here are some WHYs behind faith/work integration that we believe forget the WHY of faithful integrity, missing God’s WHY for work and business:

• Looking “faithful” to garner the applause or avoid the criticism of others in the faith/work movement.  We believe this motivation can be behind the Side Road of Cosmeticizing.

• Avoiding the risks and challenges of transforming the organization’s heart from Profit as Purpose to the maximization of Biblical flourishing (which requires putting profit in its proper place as a necessary means rather than the end toward which the organization is managed).  We believe this motivation can be behind the Side Roads of Individualizing and Monetizing.

• Getting God to “bless” the business with worldly success–measured in terms of profit and growth.  This is the motivation behind the Side Road of Prosperitizing. While “planting trees” that Humanize, Beautify and Glorify are likely to increase an organization’s success measured in worldly terms, planting them for that reason is forgetting the WHY of faithful integrity.

Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons looks good and probably “does good”, but it is missing faithful integrity toward Biblical flourishing–it is missing God’s heart for work and business.  Doing a right thing in the right way because it is inspired by and furthers a right reason of God’s heart for work and business is faithful integrity.

Plant a tree in 2025 . . . with the right goal posts.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): I carry Seth Godin’s blog post titled “The Interim Strategy“ as a note in my iPhone.  I have pulled it out on numerous occasions to read to leaders, particularly entrepreneurs.  It has never failed to elicit a “Please send that to me!” response.  It has prompted some to remember and revisit the faithful “WHY” they originally had for their organization. They didn’t even realize they had forgotten.

Thank you to Steve French and Rick Warren for inspiring this post: Steve for reading the most recent post about “planting a tree in 2025” and pointing out the power of a WHY like Beautify to inspire and guide faithful action toward flourishing; and Rick for publishing a blog this morning about the importance of remembering WHY.

ESSENCE: We have emphasized in many posts that simply doing the right thing is not enough.  Faithful leaders pursuing faith/work integration must continually examine their hearts to ensure they are doing the right thing in the right way and, most importantly, for the right reasons. WHY matters.  As 2025 kicks off, it seems like a good time to remember the right reasons–the faithful WHYs–for leading with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing. Faith/work integration being done for the wrong reasons is one of the worst kind of “misses”, because God cares about the heart.  “Faithful Integrity” represents integrity with an anchor of God’s purpose for work and business–a WHY plumb line that flows from the Creation Mandate, Imago Dei, the Golden Rule, the two great commandments (love God and love your neighbor), and God’s model of love as giving and serving generously.  It is a plumb line that leads, as it must, to the ultimate WHY hard-wired into every human–to glorify God. We have distilled the faithful WHY of faithful integrity–the bigger WHY of business–to three concepts: Humanize People, Beautify the World and Glorify God.  They are the guardrails and goal posts faithful leaders can use to test and inspire faith/work integration.

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Photo Credit: Original photo by Photo by Cristofer Maximilian on Unsplash
(photo cropped)