Developing a Community Impact Plan Biblical Principle: Investing in the Right Places in Your Communities
Reflection Question:
Investing in the right places in your business can sometimes be all-consuming as you give all that you have to make the business operate. To live out the orderly life, you want to live before God; you must invest in areas of life outside of your work. When thinking about those areas in terms of “community,” consider how you can invest in your social, faith, and family communities.
On a scale of 1-10, consider where you invest your time and money. What ranking would you give yourself on temporal versus eternal investing?
I
Unfortunately, Christian business leaders can often follow the patterns of the world. In doing so, they can place building their own kingdom at the top of their priority list while forgetting to invest in God’s kingdom. Their heart, together with their time and money, is fully invested in growing their company for their own glory, and the sense of peace and security that comes with financial success and power. Such a pursuit gives little attention to the importance of righteousness, with a real desire to see God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven. The latter means their own kingdom plans will be ruined.11 Attempts to find a middle ground to love the kingdom of the world and its ways, while simultaneously trying to love the kingdom of God and His ways, will prove fruitless. It leads to confusion and despair since the Bible makes no room for loving both the world and God: “If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them” (1 John 2:15). Instead, Christian leaders are to invest in growing God’s kingdom and building it up for His glory. When they do, they discover the things they long for and want for others as well: a sense of divine purpose, an inner peace, and a presiding joy in all circumstances. These things are the benefits of being a citizen of God’s kingdom, and they are not available with any lasting sense in the world. The desires of the heart can only be met in an everlasting way through the everlasting kingdom—the kingdom of heaven.
Experience Question: What other ideas have you tried or heard of which have allowed you to deploy a “both/and” option for investing in your social community?
You must invest your heart, as well as your time and money, in the things of heaven. But how is that done? One way to think about it is to consider what you can invest in today, which may ultimately be in heaven and <<< CEO Experience © All Rights Reserved 2019 >>>
15
