How can we impact our local world and community as Processionals and the general church at in whole?
Question:
What is the responsibility of Christians with regards to economic development, leadership within the community, and the mandates of the Gospel?
The world is full of people who are religious in nature. The gospel is clear that true or pure religion Is in a relationship with Jesus Christ that is alive and spent serving others. Compassion is a key to how Christians live their lives out and their purpose for Christ. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27 Christ spoke about this in the new testament serval times pointing to the fact that what we do for those who cannot repay us we do to Himself. We are called to serve as Christians and Servant Leadership is the model we should be using as we dynamically impact people as we carry out our purpose in life. Leading in the workplace with a servant’s heart is powerful, “servant leadership puts more emphasis on employee emotional well-being than other leadership theories do,” (Lu, 2019 p 509)
Stewardship of God’s principles in our lives is key to living out our purpose in the world around us. If we are to become like Christ as Scriptures teach, we must model our lives after the values of the Bible and its teachings in all areas. Early in the church, we were told that business and our faith are separate from Pastors. Pastor’s for example are often Bio-vocational in our society now. Faith is to live out in all areas of our lives including money, giving, time, talents, service, and abilities. We are made new when we are born again, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17, KJV) Christian are learning to think differently than the world around them as God’s wisdom is not like the world’s wisdom. God honors us as we look after those who are hurting, sick, poor, widowed, dying, and work to help improve their lives. Community development is critical in allowing faith-based organizations such as churches to partner with them in planning strategic opportunities to impact the community. Teaching Biblical values and principles is vital to the business community and the community in general. Ethical sound business practices are vital in the world.
We are the salt of the earth shining a light in the darkness. We are the vessels God chooses to use to impact the world around us. Stewardship is “Often defined as the wise and responsible use of natural resources.” (West, 2018 p 31) Economic development is a stewardship that is acted out in the interests of an entire community, city, or even larger scale the world. We as Christians are called to practice sound stewardship principles in how we see Economic development. The proper analysis and data will help to develop great stewardship principles to see relationships and shareholders’ interests. (McDonald, 2016 p 69) When we collect data, organize, analyze, pray over seeking God’s wisdom and taking into consideration God’s principles we are better equipped to make decisions.
The context of doing good in an organization is very broad without an absolute truth of basic values and principles to guide an organization. Many people believe doing good involves things like abortion, youth in Asia, child labor, prostitution, legal drug use, and many other accepted cultured values in the world. The values of Christians will encounter people with values systems that differ it is vital to be able to share Christian values in Economic development in a community.
The world is heading into more of a non-Christian value system we need to teach our families, churches, and professionals’ absolute truth from God’s Word that is meant to impact economic development and our lives in general. We are called to be salt of the earth, 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Mathew 5:13, KJV) We must be about serving those who need to see Jesus in us and through us leading them to the truth in our professional and personal lives.
References:
Lu, J., Zhang, Z. & Jia, M (2019). Does Servant Leadership Affect Employees’ Emotional
Labor? A Social Information-Processing Perspective. J Bus Ethics 159,507–518
https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1007/s10551-018-3816-3
McDonald, O. M. (2016). Collaborative stewardship: An analytical approach to improving
quality of life in communities. Suffolk, VA: Grace House Publishing.
ISBN: 9780983565277.
West, S L Haider, J Masterson, V Enqvist, J P Svedin, U & Tengö, M (2018). Stewardship, care
and relational values, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Volume 35, Pages
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