As one of the City Network Leaders of Made to Flourish, I have attended many think-tank sessions and heard Tom’s heart as we wrestled together with how to close the Sunday-to-Monday gap and be biblically faithful, theologically informed, and missionally aligned with the call of God for His church.

We have dreamed together of how the church can reclaim its place in the public arena, equip believers to share holistic faith at work, and regain credibility. In all of our conversations, Tom has encouraged us that the bride of Christ will finish strong, and the church has always been God’s Plan A to take the gospel message to the world. Tom’s love for the church is contagious and inspiring. In his book, The Economics of Neighborly Love, he gives thoughtful answers about the role of the church in the marketplace.

Re-envisioning the Church

I believe the wind of the Spirit is blowing across our nation and the globe, stirring up churches and church leaders to strategically address the Sunday-to-Monday gap, to more passionately and intentionally bring faith, work, and economics together in a seamless fabric of missional faithfulness and fruitfulness. In a time when the Christian church is increasingly perceived as adding little value to a community, doors for local church gospel mission are opening wide as a result of faithful and thoughtful church engagement of work and economics.

In his book The Coming Jobs War, Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of the Gallup Association, summarizes conclusions from data gathered by surveying over 120,000 people in 150 countries of the world. Clifton writes, “Six years into our global collection effort, we may have already found the single most searing, clarifying, helpful, world-altering fact. What the whole world wants is a good job.” What will the church’s response be to this cry in this moment in history? While the world is crying out for jobs and for greater economic opportunity, churches are beginning to respond in very encouraging ways. Local church leaders are building into their strategic planning not only growing evangelism, attendance, and small group discipleship goals, but also job creation and wealth creation targets.

Re-Envisioning the Place of Business People

All too often, business people in the church are seen primarily as candidates for serving on the building or finance committees. While these are good places to serve, what if these gifted servants of God were released to put more of their energy into what they do best—creating jobs and building economic capacity in our local and global economies? What if, as a part of our local church strategies, we would seek to stoke the fires of entrepreneurship and set targets for a specific number of good jobs created each year?

I would like to see us celebrate not only the missionaries we send around the globe, but also the jobs we create around the world. Let’s celebrate with the same enthusiasm the formation of new for-profit businesses as we do the formation of new nonprofit organizations.

What if the church we have been called to serve would invest more resources in creating sustainable, tax-generating, and charity donating jobs? How would this initiative ignite the imagination and passions of the business domain within the church?

Local churches and church leaders are not only seeking ways to build capacity, they are also increasingly mapping out their present capacity to extend neighborly love to their communities. It is crucial to see the local church not only as a dynamic organism but also as stable, well-managed institution that maintains a faithful presence in a community over the long haul.

No matter the size of the local church, it is a vital economic actor within a community. The local church often has a sizable real estate footprint, multiple buildings, and a sizable asset balance sheet. In many cases, a growing local church is a job creator and significant employer with the opportunity to create environments where employees flourish. The local church can set the bar for leadership and management excellence, both in the profit and non-profit sectors.

Reflection

What does a more intentional faith, work, and economics focus look like in a local church? The answer is as varied as the theological contours of the congregation as well as the contexts in which God has sovereignty placed each local church to serve.

An increasing number of churches are thinking creatively and strategically about how to better embrace a neighborly love of compassion and capacity. High Point Church of Christ in Princeton, Texas, offers seed capital for new businesses launched by church members. Oliver Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, underwrites college scholarships for under-resourced youth who will be the first in their families to seek a college education.

Tabernacle Community Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, sponsors the Youth Entrepreneur Leadership Program. In this program middle school students are exposed to entrepreneurship teaching for seven weeks during the summer. Students develop business plans and present them to local entrepreneurs in a “Shark Tank” environment. City Hope Church in Akron, Ohio, is a new startup church, committed to strong faith, work, and economic integration.

As a young church plant, City Hope Church has launched an open-choice food pantry. As the description implies, people have choice in the groceries they select at the food pantry. Those who shop and those who help the shoppers share a meal together.

When it comes to faith work and economics integration, how are you and your church doing? Are you thoughtfully addressing the Sunday-to-Monday gap.

Svetlana Papazov is Lead Pastor and Founder of Real Life Church, President/Founder of Real Life Center for Entrepreneurial and Leadership Excellence, a first of its kind model of church and business incubator that educates in entrepreneurship, leadership and faith praxis, and author of “Church for Monday.”