BIZNISTRY: Transforming Lives through Enterprise

God intended the church to use all the resources of the world he created. And just as Christ’s earthly ministry and his heavenly authority is evident in every aspect of life, so his church is to be his heart, hands, and feet at home, at work, at school, and in the marketplace. Most would agree the church has fallen woefully short of this calling. W

When Life Learning Center, a ministry that provides help to those seeking jobs, moved into the building, they asked if Gary might be able to provide some work for an ex-felon who had just been released from jail. God was opening a door to ministry, and Gary took his first step through that door by hiring the man to help with the ReUse Center he was

Brad Rogers, who grew up on a farm in Indiana, is passionate about growing healthy food and sharing it with others. His passion is leading him to develop a space-saving aquaponics facility in urban Cincinnati that will reconnect people in “food deserts” with locally-grown, nutritious food.

In Bible times, the greatest material resources were locked up with the kings. But today, the greatest material resources—the money, the talent, the equipment, and the facilities—are locked up in the marketplace. This means that in most local churches, there’s a big gap between the vision for ministry and the financial resources available.

A business plan is essential, but it cannot predict changes and challenges that lie ahead. SSE Director Pete West tells new entrepreneurs to “expect seven problems. You won’t know what they are until you start. If you expect difficulty, it will be easier to deal with it when it comes. You can’t be discouraged by problems; you have to get through th

“A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” So Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 4:12. In the same way, marketplace and ministry are strongest when they are intertwined with each other, and around God.

Financially, a Biznistry delivers profits like a business, but distributes profits like a ministry.

Biznistry can also help the local church be a better steward of the resources it already has. In Jesus’ Parable of the Talents, the servant who safely hid the money entrusted to him and returned it later was called wicked, lazy and worthless.1 The master expected his servants to steward his money shrewdly, putting it to work to achieve the maximum

He didn’t sit in the temple and say “come and see”; He modeled an active “go and be.” Consider his example of integrating faith and work: • Of Jesus’ 132 public appearances in the New Testament, 122 were in the marketplace. • Of 52 parables Jesus told, 45 had a workplace context. • Jesus spent his adult life as a carpenter until age 30 before he we