Current

Revised version/Aug. 22, 2009
A few years ago the Body of Christ began to throw around the idea of "marketplace apostles". Many books have been written since and a new buzzword found its place permanently in our vocabulary. The synergy between business and ministry is not a novelty in and of itself.

What sounds "new" to us are actually authentic Biblical concepts that have been neglected sometimes for ages.

What's new here is the merging of several concepts that God has been restoring to the Body of Christ gradually.

One of these concepts is the office and the ministry of the apostle. Another one is the understanding of the Kingdom. Yet another one is the understanding of how economics and business correlate and how the Holy Spirit's anointing (empowering) synergizes them to our common benefit.

I want to go beyond the marketplace buzzword and straight to the pragmatic issues.

Here I suggest some observations I have made in the last decade as I have traveled and ministered around the world.

1) The office and the ministry of the apostle is here to stay.

This ministry is not going away. It's going to grow from strength to strength. We'll continue adding wisdom to zeal and zeal to wisdom. We're getting better at this, not worse.

2) The economic impact of the apostolic.

Wherever you see true apostolic ministry, there will be at least some level of economic challenge to the status quo. People who have been transformed by the apostolic ministry become aware of the Kingdom of God and the possibilities therein. People begin to give differently because they sense their giving is directly related to an authentic Kingdom operation. Apostles are a testimony of Jesus and Jesus' immediate authority on the earth. They speak forth His wisdom and His plans of with authority. The headship of Christ "feels" a lot more real in a ministry led by an apostles than a typical denominational structure, which prides itself in its administrative form of government.

Thus one of the signs of the apostolic is the grace for great giving.

And great grace was upon them all. Acts 4:33 (NKJV)

Our ministry has been an example of this through the years. Unlike many churches in Eastern Europe, we have never been dependent on Western money. Not only that, we have led the way in establishing a standard of Kingdom giving as a church and as a ministry.

We have been able to start churches, host conferences, purchase property and various assets, publish all kinds of materials, give to the needy, influence society, etc., etc. As a Kingdom community of believers we have never waited on some rich relative from the Body of Christ in the West to come and give us money for us to start doing what God has called us to do. We're not proud over this; it's just a fact. It's the way all the churches in Eastern Europe should have been functioning after the Berlin Wall came down. Unfortunately, this has not been the case and it's only recently the Church in Eastern Europe has been waking up to the responsibility she has in taking her place as an economic factor in God's plan.

3) The way business is done will be challenged.

Due to the apostolic ministry, business people have been challenged in their concepts of the way business is done, the reason business is done and the way business becomes part of funding the Kingdom of God.

4) Lack of knowledge & skill

Apart of the supernatural element of sowing and reaping, it has become apparent that God wants to bring knowledge to the Body of Christ about how to handle wealth and material riches. It's evident that many Christians lack such knowledge and the skills necessary to create, manage and grow wealth.

5) Lack of character

It has also become evident that way too many Christians are not free in the area of money. They are either greedy, stingy, fearful, confused or all off the above. When money and opportunities come to such immature Christians, they experience temporary success and shortly thereafter they fall in some way, personally, their business collapses or both.

So how are apostolic ministries and churches funded?

Unlike denominational operations, apostolic churches and ministries are funded mostly through the generous and very aggressive giving of their members. These churches are small enterprises in their own right, because they don't answer to a central structure and the level of giving of the members is closely related to the leadership performance and results. In this sense, the new generation of post-denominational churches almost have to be entrepreneurial or they will become obsolete and irrelevant. This is good in many ways but it also has its pitfall in that leaders of such operations can become too entangled with the idea of success, their ego too inflated by the success of the enterprise and the influence that comes with it. Still, I'd rather see the church go into this extreme than become small, poor and insignificant in society.

It has also become apparent that donor-based funding is limited. More and more needs arise all the time. Greater expectations for greater impact are placed upon the ministries. However, most of the time the level of giving doesn't match the level of expectation or needs. So donor-based economics have a role to play and have their significance, but all of history shows us they also tend to establish the pattern of chronic lack of money, which no one likes.

I firmly believe this is the time we will begin to see the emerging of true marketplace apostolic enterprises which will generate significant amounts of wealth for the purpose of God also outside of the donor based economic paradigm of the Church.

Now, if you know anything about business, you'll know it always begins with a person or several persons who have a winning idea, understand the markets, are able to get the funding they need, can properly structure their venture and execute their plan.

I don't believe that churches per se should be business owners, although there are great examples of this here and there. Generally, it doesn't jive well with donors to know their money has been used for investments and to generat profits. Churches and ministries do this all the time, but without talking about it too much because it's a sensitive matter.

So how can the Church go beyond donor based economics and tap into the resources that only business enterprises can release? The answer is in identifying the entrepreneurial level in a given ministry and developing it properly.

For starters let me say that not all church and ministry leaders make good business entrepreneurs. They may be very good at organizing a church, a fund raiser, and a building project (although every pastor I know who has been in a building project has hated every day of it), but may not know anything about starting a company, managing a company and making a company profitable.

Therefore, these scenarios may represent the three general ways apostolic ministries can tap business based funding:

Scenario # 1) The apostle is not an entrepreneur himself but has spiritually given birth to a number of high level entrepreneurs.

In this case the apostle and his team must create the proper alignment with the entrepreneurs God has connected with the ministry. These wealth builders must be recognized and made part of the apostolic mission relationally and financially. The apostle and his team need to learn how to handle entrepreneurs properly. Boundaries need to be well defined, respect must be mutual and the sense of having a common goal must be nurtured constantly.

This nurturing happens through effective communication and relational ministry.

The apostle Paul tells us that he who has the gift of giving, must give so liberally, generously.

"...he who gives, with liberality" Rom. 12:8

This means that business people who are made part of the apostolic circle of influence need to be aware of their ministry of giving and they can't use it as a tool of manipulation or power playing. Entrepreneurs can give much more than money. They can give ideas, influence, connectedness, etc. They must be humble, willing to serve as anyone else and not become haughty when moving to a place of influence due to their close relationship to the apostle.

Entrepreneurs who are in such a position should never allow themselves to become prideful and despise the apostle they are serving if he or she doesn't have the same ability as they do when it comes to creating wealth through business. The fact of the matter is that these entrepreneurs probably would never have become what they are if it wasn't for the sacrifice or the ministry of the apostle and the church.

Scenario # 2) The apostle himself and/or members of this team are strongly entrepreneurial.

In this case there has to be a clear division of these functions so that the ministry is not wrongly accused. What does this mean?

In plain language, if a ministry leader intends on developing a business, he needs to do so using his own resources. He needs to rent a separate office, register a company, hire staff and use his own time to run the business. You can't run a business in ministry time. You can't use ministry resources for business. If you are creating your own enterprise, even if you later choose to use the profits for the church or the ministry, you should be able to separate the two from the very get go. If you don't, you may later be accused of exploiting the Church to your own benefit and not having been on the same footing as any other business start up.

For instance, my income from ministry really covers only around 70% of what I need in terms of personal income. This means that I am actually free to choose what to do with the 30% of my time. I can give it all to the ministry as I have done for many years and learn to live with the fact that ministry is not for profit like business and my personal level of prosperity will probably be limited to what the ministry world can offer.

Or, I can take that 30% of my time and choose to grow a business and potentially use the profits from this business to supplement my personal income.

In Scenario #2, the apostle is mostly given to ministry and only partially involved in business, mostly for personal reasons, such as developing a business which generates additional income.

This seems to be Paul's case, since he and his team members, who were also his colleagues, worked with their own hands day and night to be able to support themselves.

"For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God." 1Th. 2:9 (NKJV)

However, it doesn't seem that Paul and his team were in any way trying to create a major enterprise with the purpose of creating wealth to fund the mission of others. Whatever "tent-making" meant (there are different opinions about the nature of Paul's tent-making business), it was meant only to generate enough income to support Paul and his team.

Scenario # 3) The apostle makes wealth building part of his mission.

In this scenario you have an apostle who gets seriously involved with wealth building and makes it just as much part of his mission as anything else you might call "ministry". This scenario will probably be the most demanding when it comes to resources, patience, faith, skill development, networking, etc. It will also yield the highest level of impact.

Such Joseph-like apostles will create much more than personal wealth. They will own and manage enterprises that will:

- generate wealth
- challenge the way business is done
- raise a Kingdom standard
- exercise influence in society
- and be a significant factor in philanthropy

Now here's an interesting observation when it comes to "apostles" creating wealth.

Traditionally all of the above mentioned have been successfully achieved by many various business people in history and today. Wealth building through business comes naturally to entrepreneurs. However, if apostles venture into these levels of power on the earth, it will probably create the greatest Kingdom impact we have ever seen.

The reason for this is the following: if your roots are in business and you were in that environment for decades, it molds you in a particular way. Conversely, if your roots are in ministry, it will leave a mark on you like nothing else. Any true apostle who has met Christ, has been mandated by God personally and has walked in this dimension of power, will always remain "branded" by and for the Kingdom of God.

The process we go through on our way to becoming something determines very much who and what we eventually become.

Thus, I suggest, we have yet to see the manifestation of this level of Kingdom power on the earth. As I hinted previously, the best way to illustrate such a ministry would be to look at Joseph in the Old Testament. Even though he never ventured on his mission by way of "ministry", he ultimately developed as both a prophet and a very successful entrepreneur who was able to move great amounts of wealth and shift whole nations and people in history.

"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much." Luke 16:10 (NKJV)

"Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" Luke 16:11 (NKJV)

Traditionally, Christians have believed that if they are faithful in prayer, reading the Bible and witnessing to others, i.e. spiritual things, they will be considered faithful and possibly be entrusted with wealth and greater influence.

Jesus didn't say that!

He said explicitly that if we are faithful in how we handle mammon, or money, then and only then we will be considered faithful enough to be entrusted with the true riches of wisdom, influence, wealth and so on.

Apostles who are called to create business enterprises, know how to capture a winning idea, put together the right kind of partnership and a team, get the funding they need (or operate on a shoe-string budget if needed!) and eventually penetrate the market they target. The economic forces shaping today's realities will make no exception for such Joseph-like apostles. The hungry years will come and no amount of faith or prayer will change that. But how we will handle such economic adversity is entirely different.

I contend that in the future, apostles in the marketplace, much like Joseph who was primarily a prophet and only then a shrewd economist and a trader, will lead the way in how we Christians unlock, steward and multiply wealth to the glory of God.

To the average person this might sound unbalanced. To the entrepreneur it's simply a way of thinking. You don't understand it? No worries - leave it alone and leave those God has called to be like Joseph to the Church, do what they are called to do!

Apostles in the marketplace - beyond the buzzword! by
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George P. Bakalov