I'm going to be more actively blogging on the tumblon founders' blog on items that may be of interest to my readers here. So I've added a feed to the sidebar of this blog, or you can add it to your own feed reader here.
The great news is that before long, I'll migrate all of my blogging and photo sharing to tumblon! I'll let you know when that happens.
For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come (Hebrews 13:14).How does one teach a child to 'seek the welfare of the city' in which we live with the recognition that 'here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come'?
When I read Lesslie Newbigin: Missionary Theologian, I found the following excerpt both profound and confusing:
The cross is the total identification of Jesus with the world in all its sin but in that identification the cross is the judgment of the world, that which shows the gulf between God and his world, and we must always, in every situation, be wrestling with this reality: that the Church is for the world against the world; the Church is against the world for the world. The Church is for the human community in that place, that village, that city, that nation, in the sense which is determined by the sense in which Christ is for the world. And that must be the determining criterion at every point. (Lesslie Newbigin: Missionary Theologian p134, emphasis mine)Recently, I have begun to see what he means in the practice of entrepreneurship. The Church, as she engages in commerce is for the world in the sense that she serves the public good in creating capital, establishing just and equitable business practices, giving human dignity in work, and many other ways. Yet she is for the world against the world in that the love for Christ which motivates her involvement for the world simultaneously subverts the worldly economic system. It dethrones profit as a god, and establishes Christ as the King of commerce; it creates capital and wealth not primarily for itself, but for assisting those who need help: the refugee, orphan and widow; it puts no trust in its power to create capital, nor in the wealth it possesses, but in God, who is the source of all things. In all these things it is for the world against the world.
I have elsewhere quoted John Piper on the doctrine of original sin as the Christian reason for democracy:
G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis said that the doctrine of original sin is the basis of a democratic form of government – where power is spread out over the people – because it is the only reason we can give for not absolutely trusting a ruling elite. In other words, the best argument of democracy is not that men are good enough to govern themselves, but that men are so bad none can be trusted with absolute power. (John Piper, emphasis mine)It occurred to me recently that the Christian argument for capitalism is very similar. The best argument for capitalism is not that people are good enough to make the right choices in a free market, but that humans are so bad that none can be trusted with arbitrary power to distribute wealth equitably.
The replacement of 'God' by 'Nature' involved a new understanding of 'Law'. There is no longer a divine law give whose commands are to be obeyed because they are God's. Laws are the necessary relationships which spring from the nature of things (Montesquieu). As such they are available for discovery by human reason. Reason is the faculty common to all human beings and is in principle the same everywhere. Provided it is not perverted by the imposition of dogmas from without, reason is capable of discovering what the nature of things is and what therefore are 'Nature's laws'. The most dangerous and destructive of all the dogmas which have perverted human reason is the dogma of original sin. To destroy this wicked slander against humanity is the first essential for the liberating of human reason and conscience to do their proper work. But this dogma is only the centrepiece of the whole structure of dogma which has to be destroyed. Any authority - of dogma, of scripture or of 'God' - which purports to replace human reason is to be rejected as false and as a treason against the dignity of the human being. (Lesslie Newbigin: Missionary Theologian p194, emphasis mine)If the Gospel is our starting place, our engagement in democracy and capitalism will be entirely different from those who reject the Gospel with its doctrine of original sin. This is precisely what makes our engagement in politics and commerce evangelistic: that we cannot escape announcing the news that has turned the world on its head and that subverts the presumptuous power of Reason.
I have been working on several posts on entrepreneurship and realized that there is a direct connection to parenting that I want to draw out:
Parents prepare their children, for better or for worse, to be members of society. They nurture their children spiritually, intellectually, socially and emotionally (and in other ways) to enable them to participate in human society. One of the ways that those children will, or at least should, participate in society is by working.
When I lived in Uganda, East Africa, I was introduced to two helpful ways of describing students: job-creators and job-seekers. The people in the village where I lived had begun to realize that the schools prepared students only to be job-seekers. Since the town was "in the bush" and the economy was almost entirely agricultural, there was very little commercial activity. Consequently, everyone who became 'educated' had to leave to find work. By contrast, there were a few Ugandans, whom I was privileged to know, who were job-creators; they were entrepreneurs. They saw opportunities, and took them - and created opportunities, jobs, capital, wealth and income for themselves and others.
I thought of job-creators and job-seekers as African descriptors (since I first encountered them there), until I returned to the United States and realized that those descriptors were very helpful in looking at students here: and by and large, they are job-seekers. While the American economic system thrives on entrepreneurship, surprisingly its educational system does not, in my opinion, intentionally shape students who think and act entrepreneurially.
So now as a parent and entrepreneur, I want to intentionally nurture my children to be job-creators. Another way to say it is that I want to raise my children to be critical thinkers and creative problem solvers who enrich their communities by using their God-given abilities to participate in and create meaningful work that benefits the community and provides a foretaste of the Kingdom of God.
If I prepare my children merely to take existing jobs that have been crafted by others, there will be at least two consequences:
In our recent entrepreneurship forum, I realized that there is an understandable love affair with scalable business. Since the industrial revolution, good businesses have often become big businesses. In the field of venture capital, there is an affinity to businesses that are not only viable, but also scalable. There are some businesses that can and should be scalable to provide the greatest impact to small communities and to networks of communities (cell phone service is a prime example).
Yet what is needed most in the field of entrepreneurship is not big benevolent companies, but small repeated entrepreneurship in communities where members of the community assess the needs, the opportunities and the risks and invest in the community. So the very ventures that are most needed in local communities are the least likely to attract the start-up capital to get going. Investors want something that's going to make lots of money. Most small businesses will make a good return, but won't turn anyone into a millionaire overnight.
The more that I am involved with entrepreneurship, the more I feel called to catalyze small, repeated entrepreneurship in the community, from the community and for the community. I think that the way that this happens best is through open source entrepreneurship. By confessing that we are acting for the community, we can be transparent with community members about the process of entrepreneurship, assisting others with intellectual, human and financial capital to establish other businesses that support the community.
I remember distinctly being asked by a friend, "Is your business going to be a Christian business?" I answered yes and no, but not in the ways I think she expected.
Yes, the Gospel will define what we do and the way we do it, but no we're not going to be a Christian business in the sense of targeting our products and services to Christians. In fact, quite the opposite. As those who are changed by the Gospel, we're made missional people. Our mission is to bring the good news to those who have not received it, not to cater to those who have.
Gospel entrepreneurship, as I understand it, is pursuing ventures that act as a sign, and instrument and foretaste of Christ's kingdom. The ethics of our business are the ethics of the Kingdom, and therefore function as a sign to point to the authority and reign of the King. We will end up doing things that appear to be utter foolishness to those in similar fields because of our King. While pointing away to the King, we also endeavor to be His instrument in human society to demonstrate and spread His justice, righteousness and mercy in a way that both magnifies the beauty of His ways and calls people to repentance. We believe that by doing such, we function as a foretaste of the coming Kingdom, in which people who have not received grace may see those who live under grace, and by the Holy Spirit be drawn to bow before our King.
We do not entertain the Pelagian notion that people simply need to see a faithful witness to be convinced of the Good News. Instead, we believe that the obedience of God's people is the chosen instrument of the Holy Spirit to awaken the lost to the beauty of Christ, the greatness of His mercy, and their own need for that mercy.
So the many economic parables of the Scriptures are not merely metaphorical. The diligent investment praised and required in the parable of the talents refers just as much to the affairs of life as to the proclamation of the Gospel because the Gospel redefines all of our participation in human affairs. Entrepreneurship is no longer merely for economic gain. Rather it is obedience to the command of the King who entrusts us with His things, to wisely invest them, according to the ethics of His Gospel and for the sake of His Gospel, so that we function in the affairs of life (and not merely in the 'religious' sphere) as a sign, instrument and foretaste of His Kingdom.
One area of my life that hasn't yet surfaced on this blog is entrepreneurship. Right now I'm involved in several new ventures that are at various stages in the process.
One of those ventures is a coffeehouse in a transitional neighborhood. I have the privilege of working with a couple that is very committed to seeing the Gospel take root and bear fruit in the neighborhood. They are involved in a local church there and want to provide a place, through the coffeehouse, that retains the ethnic identity (or identities) of the local population and forms a bridge to the incoming gentrifying population. Since there are not presently other welcoming places to sit and enjoy friends and good (fair trade) coffee and healthy food in the neighborhood, we have a tremendous opportunity to create that space, while running a profitable business.
In an effort to get the coffeehouse going, we submitted our business plan to the entrepreneurship initiative of a local church. Our plan was selected as one among a group of about 15 finalists in the competition, and Mike (the business owner) and I were invited to participate in an entrepreneurship forum of entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists and theologians this past Saturday. I walked away even more encouraged and excited about what we're doing - and about enabling other small businesses in poorer neighborhoods to get off the ground.
So this is likely the first of many posts on Gospel entrepreneurship. Some will have to do with parenting (as the business ventures do in various ways), but perhaps more than that, they will represent the leaven of the Gospel being worked through the flour of my life until it is all leavened.
[Now those reflections can be found on Gospel Entrepreneurship.]
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