I was chatting with someone recently about business as mission, when about half way through the conversation something occurred to me. In general, we were talking about the same thing, but our perspective was quite different because of our underlying assumptions. You see, they assumed lives would be impacted spiritually by default because Christians were involved, so they tended to focus on business metrics and performance. On the other hand, I kept asking questions to understand specifically how the Kingdom was advanced through their business because I was taking for granted that the business fundamentals were the “given” part. I know this is an oversimplification, and some will accuse me of sacred vs secular thinking, but these assumptions play out to very different results in practice. And, if you are like me, you’ve probably seen this sort of thing happen in other areas of life. Our underlying assumptions usually put us on a vector towards a certain end. The question is, “is that end really where God wants us to go?” As you think about how God is drawing you towards intentional integration of faith and work, what are your underlying assumptions? How well do your assumptions align with what’s really happening? What is God telling you to pay more attention to, or to be more intentional about?
