Posted by john Mc on May 07, 2004 at 07:37:32:
In Reply to: Interesting questions... posted by PS on May 06, 2004 at 17:26:37:
: : P.P.S. - This brings up some interesting questions about business ethics and Christianity today...
: Yes, it does. We can talk about that (not about this situation-the general issue). How should our faith affect our ethics? We will see this addressed over and over again in the new study we are beginning (the epistles within the framework of Acts).
I recently met a man who is a former pastor and felt that God was leading him to leave full time ministry and go into business. This alone is not a common thing, and he took flack for it. But then he decided to run his business using sound business practices that reflect his faith. The results of what he has done are amazing. He refuses to hire anyone who comes to him parading the "Christian" thing, but is open about his faith to his workers and clients. His business is booming. As he described how he ran things, I realized that he was basically followingthe modern managerial concept of Total Quality Management, but his model was to follow the servant leadership of Jesus. I thougth it was cool how the two ran almost exactly concurrent. It was one example of how a business could be run as a business and not force people to do unethical things.
He gave two excellent examples of how this worked. He started by hiring all of the workers the competing companies had fired. Then he described his vision for the company to them and he himself took the hardest shares of the work to prove that he was serious and not above the workers. Then when he has a problem with a worker, he disciplines them, but often afterwards, gives them an unmerited raise as a gesture of grace and faith in them. The result is that these rejects are now his managers and diehard loyal to the company. Many have found faith in Jesus as well.
But in an interesting twist he said that every person who has come to him announcing that he was a Christian has stolen from him...hmmm, intersting.