Running head: BUSINESS AND MISSIONS PAPER
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Business and Missions Paper
Name
Liberty University
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Business and Missions Paper
Introduction/Summary
In today’s modern society, religion has become a major topic of what has become
acceptable and unacceptable in society. In past generations, God and religion were an
integral part of society. In fact God and religion were incorporated into the documents
and principles that created the United States. However, during the 21st century there has
been a major push to remove God and religion from schools, Government Buildings,
currency, and work. Although the push to remove religion from these things has been
strong there are still a lot of people who believe that it is wrong to stray from religion.
Ken Eldred is a former CEO of Inmac Technologies and author of the book God is at
Work. In the book authored by Eldred, he discusses how a company can successfully
integrate biblical principles in order to change the workplace and communities without
offending those who are not religious. Integrating biblical principles into the daily
operations of a company will force the company to be positive, trustworthy, and all
around successful without having to jeopardize beliefs. When Ken Eldred met with his
boss from Inmac, he was promoted to CEO of the company, and had to discover what he
could do to spread the word of God and also shape the company to follow what has been
taught in the Bible. Eldred has taken several steps to making God known to all
employees within the company. Eldred provides four ideas that can be implemented to
make God known. The first is to acknowledge and thank God for all he has done during
company banquets, lunches, and meetings. The second idea is to ask potential future
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employees what motivates them. Once he gathered the information from the potential
employee, Eldred would let them know what motivated him to be successful. The third
idea was to issue open invitations to all employees who had any concerns to bring them
to him if they felt comfortable. He noted that those who did feel comfortable enough to
bring concerns to him, the issues were often personal and Eldred would ask if he could
pray for them. The last idea was to place spiritual pamphlets in the lobby of Inmac that
included a personal letter to which explained Eldred’s beliefs, the way employee’s were
treated at the company, and how Inmac conducts business (Eldred, 2005).
Discussion of Key Points
Acknowledging God and thanking him for his blessings during banquets, meals,
and meetings is a good way for God to be apart of the company and a part of their
employees lives each day. Asking employees what motivates them and then informing
them of what motivates the employer is another important step. The reason for this is to
understand each individual, as a possible employee, and what drives him or her to be
successful. Understanding each employee can help the employer know how each person
operates and can highlight what their strengths and weaknesses are. When the employer
does this they can let the future employee understand what is expected from them when
working for the company. The employee will be able to take that information and help
them be a major contribution to the success of the company. Issuing open invitations for
employees to bring concerns up to creates a more personal relationship. In order for this
to succeed the employee will have to be able to trust the individual they bring concerns
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up to. Trust between an employer and employee is beneficial as issues will often times
be brought up in a quicker fashion than if there is lack of trust. No individual can handle
all issues that arise on their own, there are just times when they will need to be able to
reach out and ask for help. Eldred shows that he cares about the people that work for him
and gives them a way to communicate issues to him and using prayer he can help these
employees through rough times in their life. He has showed his employees that he is also
a child of God and that all tough times will have an end. When the difficult times come
to an end the employee will have a sense of relief and will have a new outlook and will
want to work harder for someone who was there with them through these times. When
Eldred placed pamphlets in the lobby with the personal letters he gave his employees a
way to either find the word of God for themselves or even to strengthen their current
faith. As mentioned, Eldred identifies that individual’s religion are a private matter and
that he does not want to infringe on anyone’s rights to practice their religion, but for
those who don’t identify to a specific religion or have questions regarding the Christian
religion he is there to help. The ideas that Eldred has come up with challenge the idea
that companies cannot accept religion in the workplace. When Eldred went to India to
meet with the employees of he witnesses how successful religion is in the ET workplace.
When he arrived he noticed that all of the employees were praying together for hope and
continued success of their company. More than likely not all of the employees of the
company are of the same religion, however they all have the same ideas and hope for the
success of their company to ensure they continue to have success. A company like this
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shows that, unlike companies in the United States, can prevent their own religious views
and differences from creating separation in the workplace. Although the company
continues to accept religion within it, they have proven the ideas of religion in the
workplace from the United States wrong. The company has been able to maintain
religion in the workplace while also being able to expand at a fast rate. ET provides
service to several American companies, to include major credit card companies, with
high levels of customer service. Having religion in the workplace teaches each employee
the importance of living by the principles taught throughout the Bible. The company’s
practices have been so successful that they have even been lauded for their world-class
level of service. America is not the only country across the world that doesn’t believe
that religion should be apart of a company and the way it operates. However, even
countries that are predominately Muslim have been seeking Christian business leaders to
come to their country and bring their business practices to fill a void spiritual capital,
which in turn will bring with it more opportunities to help stimulate their economies.
These businesses are often referred to as kingdom businesses. When Eldred went to
India he was a hired to be a strategic advisor for ET. He brought with him ideas and the
teachings of the Bible to help make the company a kingdom business. The ideas he
brought with him on how to create a kingdom business were much more than making the
company money. He was much more focused on creating jobs for the people of India
and operating on the principles that were taught in the Bible. Creating a business on
these principles not only lower the unemployment rate, but also stimulate the economy
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and in return with make the company successful. Kingdom businesses have been so
successful that they are even showing up in countries that are often against or not
accepting of the Bible. This shows that countries that previously didn’t accept the Bible
are willing to change and accept God and the Christian religion into their religion to build
companies that conduct business truthfully and will never compromise their practices to
be unethical.
Personal Thoughts
The teachings that Eldred had provided in his text were well thought out and are a
model that all companies should strive to be like. ET and Inmac are only two companies
out of thousands that have adopted the principles that are taught in the Bible. Chik-fil-a
and Hobby Lobby are two other companies based in America that also adopt Christian
beliefs in the way they operate. Although, these two companies have been riddled with
complaints from those who don’t accept Christian principles, the companies have been
successful in a country that has a small population who speak out against Christian
business practices. These companies have shown success even against adversity, which
should lead other companies to be more accepting of these principles. Having more
companies in the United States adopt this approach would be good for not only the
economy but would create more accepting work places and create less tension in the
workplace. The relationship between the employer and employee will be much stronger
and the team concept that businesses strive to achieve will be much more easier to
accomplish then it is now with no religion in the workplace. Also the consumer would be
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more trusting of the company who practices these Biblical applications, as they know
they are not going to get a cheaply made product or poor customer service. The success
of a kingdom business should be judged based upon how well they achieve the Biblical
principles such as honesty, service, excellence, respect, commitment, value, trust, loyalty,
and quality. Even though a company is a kingdom business, and focuses their operations
on Biblical teachings, they should not focus on just hiring Christians as their employees,
but should hire the best person for the job. When hiring any individual the company
should make it known to the possible future employee that the company is based upon
Christian principles and that even though that employee might not be a Christian they still
expect the individual to work based upon the Biblical principles. The employees must
able be made aware that even though they are not Christian, their religion will still be
accepted and they will never be forced to become a Christian or made an outcast just
because they choose a different path.
Conclusion
The text that was written by Ken Eldred challenged the idea that a company who
based their principles off of the teachings in the Bible would have no place in economies.
However, he has shown through many examples to include Inmac and ET that companies
who were kingdom businesses could be very successful not only in the economy but
successful with the employees that work for the company. Eldred provided detailed
reasons to why his companies were successful in not only the American culture, but later
on in the Indian culture. Putting aside the idea of a company focusing all their goals on
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making money he had shown that practicing Biblical principles in daily operations and
focusing on the people who make the company, and the company will be rewarded with
financial success once these principles are put into place.
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Reference
Eldred, K. (2005). God is at Work. Ventura, CA: Regal Books.
