Take for example, the financial services sector. My former employer had as its mission: to become the premier global wealth management firm. Their stated mission is to make the richest people in the world even richer. In contrast, Jesus said,
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)Does this mean that in order to have integrity, Christians need to pull out of firms like my former employer, or even out of the industry entirely?
To be faithful to the gospel, the Christian must act according to its truths, and not according to the stories that the financial services industry tells. I can imagine a Christian broker working for my former employer sitting down with his clients and saying,
"You have come to me as a wealth manager, and I aim to do the best job that I can for you. At present, your number one liability is the wealth that you possess. I want to help you minimize that liability."That opening sets the stage for the Gospel: not that we do not seek profit, but that we seek lasting profit. If a person is amassing wealth only for this life, she is a fool. But if she invests her present wealth in a way that secures a more valuable and lasting return, she is wise. The Christian broker is going to approach investment strategies entirely differently from his peers. Furthermore, he is acting on faith. If he assumes that he can convince a client to divest her wealth liabilities for the sake of the gospel simply through persuasion, he has denied the very foundation of the Gospel: that it is the sovereign work of the Spirit. So the only way that he can faithfully present this investment strategy is by trusting that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of the blind to the good news of God. If that doesn't happen, the client is going to walk right out the door shaking her head - perhaps for the Spirit to use that conversation later for her conversion.
The reality is that if the Christian broker decides to stay with the big wealth management firm, he may either be pushed out by his superiors, or simply lose his client base through the foolishness of the gospel - and it is foolishness to those who do not believe. We do not have a faith that is respectable in polite society; it is true and revolutionary or it is nonsense.
Given those two likely scenarios, what can a Christian do? Should he abandon the industry and go to work for a non-profit? Although some will be called out to 'non-profit' work, I strongly believe that rather than pulling out, we are called to press in. That individual must search out what gospel entrepreneurship means in his industry. How does he start a small business that brings the gospel to bear on his particular sector or industry? That is the question.
In the case of financial services, I think it will probably mean starting a small business built on the truth of the Gospel that does not target its services exclusively to Christians. Rather, it recognizes that it has at least 3 target markets: (1) Christians who want to store up treasure in heaven and need advice, (2) Christians who have never thought about storing up treasure in heaven, and (3) non-Christians who can only store up treasures on earth. If the new business is faithful to the Gospel, it cannot address only its first two target markets; it must pursue the third. The glory is that the only way to pursue the third market is through the gospel. The entire investment philosophy is built on the gospel, and is foolishness to those who reject the gospel. Those who form this company are going to be constantly engaged in evangelism, not because it is the path to their own profitability, but because the gospel constrains them. This is gospel entrepreneurship.
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