Join us at the start of the day over a light breakfast, and hear about Jubilee’s ministries into the local marketplace including some very exciting new initiatives for 2012:

• A school foryoung entrepreneurs
• An Enterprise Fund to support new business startups
• Established kingdom businesses

Neil Pattison, elder at Jubilee, will host the morning and leaders of Jubilee’s marketplace ministries will share their vision. Together we will stand in faith and pray for Jubilee’s marketplace ministries.

Venue:
Jubilee Resource Hub
9 Ashford Road
Maidstone ME14 5BJ

Time: 7:00 – 8:30 am

Please let me know if you intend to come, so that we have an idea of numbers. To confirm your place or for more information contact us.

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• Be inspired by testimonies of what God is doing, including the latest on Elk River, Minnesota and other cities.
• Learn principles that will equip you to take the kingdom of God to where the kingdom of darkness is at work.
• Come away equipped and envisioned to put what you learn into practice straight away.

This is a special bonus meeting, an opportunity to meet and hear from Rick Heeren while he is in Maidstone. Places are limited and I encourage you not to miss it.

To book your place, contact me and let me know how many places you would like to reserve.

An offering will be taken to bless Rick and invest in his ministry.

Venue details: Raigersfeld Barn, Mote Park, Maidstone ME14 4 AE.
Date & time: Thursday Feb 16, 2012, 7:30pm
Contact: Daniel Ghinn

This week, 17 marketplace Christians met in Maidstone with a vision to walk out their call to ministry in their day to day lives, right where God has placed them. Here’s the background:

Discovering Marketplace Ministry

When I set up a business with my wife Jo in 1998, we knew that Jesus must be its CEO. In fact, he had to be King over the business. I don’t think I would have had the courage to try to run a business without knowing it was God’s business!

Since that day, we started to discover what it really meant to dedicate our business to Jesus, inviting him to use it for his purposes. It’s been an exciting journey so far and we are still on it. Among the lessons we have learned, God showed us that while we had a heart to be a blessing through financial giving, the primary way He would use us in business was more about our relationship with the marketplace than the financial impact we could make.

We learned that our primary area of Church ministry is in the marketplace, alongside others called as ‘marketplace ministers’ into areas like education, government, healthcare, and in our own neighbourhoods.

In fact, I believe that the only way we will see our towns, cities and nation discipled is through the Church operating effectively in the marketplace.

And others have joined us on this journey – eight years ago I set up Business for Christ to envision and equip Christians in business. We then ran a year of equipping for marketplace ministers; and created a six-week training course, ‘Training for Transformation’ to teach principles of marketplace transformation to the Church.

In 2006 I was introduced to Ed Silvoso and his team at Harvest Evangelism, and we have been walking with them since then. Ed and his team are behind a rich collection of resources on marketplace ministry including Transform our World, and have inspired our ministry and teaching as we operate under Ed Silvoso’s covering.

Today we see God stirring up His people in the marketplace in the UK where we live. People who want to be effective day to day for Him, to see God’s purpose at work in their daily lives, to play their part in discipling their nation. People like you, perhaps?

So now in this season we believe it’s time to bring people together again across the Church, to seek God, determined to be part of what He is doing in this generation.

What is a Marketplace Minister?

A marketplace minister operates in the marketplace  - such as in business, education, government or their neighbourhood – and recognises that God is using them there to minister to others: to serve and to be a blessing for the sake of the His kingdom.

Biblical examples of marketplace ministers include Daniel, Joseph, Esther; as well as Jesus and his closest disciples, and the Apostle Paul. Many of the heroes of our faith were in fact marketplace ministers!

Today we hear testimonies from all around the world of how God is using marketplace ministers to bring about the transformation of cities and towns. Like Elk River, Minnesota, where church and marketplace leaders work in partnership to touch the whole city.

A monthly meeting for Marketplace Ministers in Kent, UK

We’ve just launched a new monthly meeting in Maidstone for Marketplace Ministers in the South East of England. We’ll meet with people who do not want to simply operate in the mundane but want to see God at work in us every day; to see the power of the Holy Spirit at work to touch lives around us and to see miracles at work; to catch God’s heart for our workplaces, neighbourhoods, schools, towns, nation and to be part of what God is doing here in the UK.

We’ll be praying together; teaching; applying what we learn and coming back together to share experiences and testimonies. We’ll be using resources including books, DVDs, personal testimonies, and we’ll be drawing on input from Harvest Evangelism at every opportunity as members of the team visit us in the UK over the course of the year.

The big vision

My dream for these Marketplace Ministers meetings is that we develop our own testimonies here in the South East of England; that our faith grows as we share and walk this out in practice, believing God to work through us. That we’ll grow together, seeing God doing new things among us as we apply what He shows us. So that the testimonies to inspire this movement of God in the UK will come from within the UK itself, not only from around the world.

If you would like to know more about Marketplace Ministers meetings or to get involved, please do get in touch.

Our discussions centered around what characterises a business that has Christ at its head. Often referred to as a ‘Kingdom Business‘, we settled on the idea that ‘Transformational Company‘ is perhaps a more effective term capturing the impact that such a business has on its surroundings. Ultimately, we agreed, our vision must be as big as to disciple nations.

We talked through typical characteristics of a Transformational Company from our experiences, and identified some common traits. We should be givers, rather than takers; we should lead with excellence; our employees should be valued and treated well, as should our customers and suppliers; we should take a lead in caring for the world; we should deliver with excellence.

All of these characteristics and more should be evident if we simply apply biblical principles to our business. In fact the bible is packed with resources and wisdom to equip any business leader. It’s no surprise that the business and leadership books of the world include biblical quotes ranging from the words of Jesus to the wisdom of Solomon in Proverbs.

So we asked ourselves, what makes a transformational company or kingdom business different from any other ethical business? The answer, we concluded, lies in three areas:

1. Doing business in the power of the Holy Spirit. We recognise that we do not merely operate in our own strength. We expect to see the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the whole Church, and that includes our businesses. This power at work may be evident in many ways, including the areas below.
2. Extraordinary miracles. We know that God did extraordinary miracles through the Apostle Paul (Acts 19:11), himself a marketplace man. And Jesus promised his disciples that anyone who believes in him will do greater things than he did (John 14:12). We can and do expect to see God working miracles through us when we are aligned with His purposes. Our gathering in California was full of testimonies of God’s miraculous work in the marketplace.
3. Insights and wisdom, at the right time, to glorify God. This includes revelation from God about solutions to business challenges, and God-inspired ideas that allow us to address a need or start a new business.

Doing business for the King means doing business that brings about transformation. I encourage you to believe God to do more through His power at work in you, in your business.

How have you experienced the power of God at work to do more than just good business?

If you are a business leader – running your own business or in a place of leadership in business – then you are in one of the most exciting places where the Kingdom of God is advancing. Business for Christ exists to serve God’s people in business by envisioning and equipping them to fulfil their God-given destiny in the marketplace.

Wherever in the world you are, and whatever size your business, God can work through you to touch the lives of others in the marketplace and extend His kingdom to your sphere of influence. We’re here to help you do just that.

Today we meet monthly in or around Maidstone, Kent, hosted each month by one of the group. If you would like to know more about our meetings or to get involved, get in touch for more information.

I sometimes speak with Christian friends leading organisations with charitable or ‘not-for-profit’ status. In the UK at least, to qualify for charitable status requires a statement of compliance that I think could make it difficult for the organisation to apply some of its kingdom-of-God mission objectives. What happens, then, is that not-for-profit organisations run the risk of pretending to be something they are not in order to qualify for their status.

Often, a much more effective vehicle for kingdom of God transformation is a for-profit business. I have already written about the Zacchaeus Principle – where the kingdom of God comes to a marketplace person and reaches everything within his or her household or business. Think about the work of some of Jesus’ disciples too – as fishermen they were able to carry out business that became a ministry vehicle time and time again. Consider how much ministry time with Jesus took place in the context of fishing or boats (or even stepping out of boats). Or the Apostle Paul’s work as a tent maker in Corinth – this was certainly a for-profit business.

I am blessed that my business partner is also my wife. Whilst I carry an entrepreneurial vision, she has all the strengths I lack. After twelve years in business together, we’ve walked through some storms and Jo has always been my biggest encouragement in faith, in business and in my role as a husband and father.

Jo and I recently took a fresh look at the core mission and principles of our company, Creation Healthcare. It’s a consultancy that advises healthcare organisations about new channels of communication. We wanted to write down afresh our vision as the company is in a time of growth, “that he who reads it may run” (Hab 2:2).

I have been so encouraged over the past five years or so by being connected with Harvest Evangelism, the ministry behind Transform our World. God is using Ed Silvoso and the team at Harvest to awaken the church to its purpose and highlight the power that is unlocked when church leaders and their marketplace counterparts truly work together in partnership. Much of how we have expressed the mission of Creation Healthcare is inspired by principles we first learned from Ed and his team.

Rick Heeren is one of the team at Harvest Evangelism who has had a career in business and today teaches and equips marketplace ministers. I recently read his latest book, Marketplace Miracles, which includes an excellent summary of what a kingdom company should look like. The principles outlined in our mission document are adopted from Rick’s ’12 components of a Kingdom Company’ as they are the best summary I have seen of the heart of a business called to bring transformation in the marketplace.

What’s your experience? Do you see your business as a vehicle for bringing transformation through the kingdom of God? Do you know that your work in business is a ministry?

To discover God’s will here on earth, let’s look at the life of Jesus. What did Jesus do? He loved; He demonstrated love through His actions and words; He met practical needs in supernatural ways, healing the sick, feeding the hungry; He taught about the Father; He enjoyed life. Then after all this, He commissioned His followers to live in the same way: “As the Father has sent Me, so I send you” (John 20:21).

Let’s look at it another way: what does the word of God say Jesus came here for?

• To seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10)
• that whoever believes in Him should have eternal life (John 3:16)
• “that they might have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10)
• to destroy the work of the devil (1 John 3:8)
• “to preach good news to the poor, heal the broken hearted, proclaim liberty to captives, give sight to the blind, set at liberty the oppressed, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18-19 where Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61)

So a kingdom business has God’s kingdom at work in it – His rule and reign. Because of this, the business serves God’s purpose. Just as God’s specific call and purpose for individual people is unique within the context of God’s overall will and purpose here on earth as summarised above – we all have a part to play in the body as a whole – individual kingdom businesses will have different ways in which God’s purpose is achieved through them.

If you are a leader in a kingdom business, seek God for specific ways in which He wants you to use your business, and your role in business, to achieve His purpose. Expect to express some of the core principles of Jesus’ purpose here on earth outlined above, and think about the specific things God has put on your heart.

These things will help shape your business – in fact they should underpin your business planning. Think also about the gifts and vision you have. God made you unique as a person, and that was for a purpose. So search your heart for what God has already placed there. What are you already passionate about?

Now apply this together with your knowledge of your business. Is your business focused on the local community, or do you have a worldwide vision? Do you serve a particular sector? What about the services or products you supply? How do you sell, or build business relationships? Do you employ people? God’s kingdom can be at work in every aspect of the business.

Remember that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Now, keeping God’s rule and reign at the centre, build your business to achieve His purpose and you will never be able to out-dream what God is able to do!

Zacchaeus was successful in the eyes of the world – he was rich, and had worldly authority as a tax collector (v2). He had influence in the marketplace.

The world saw that Zacchaeus was a sinner (v7). Thankfully, Jesus saw so much more in Zacchaeus!

When Zacchaeus repented, Jesus said that “Today salvation has come to this house” (v9). Here’s what I call the ‘Zacchaeus Principle’:

When somebody in the marletplace meets Christ, they can bring transformation to everything in their sphere of influence (their house, business, city, profession, nation)!

Jesus confirms His intention when He says “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (v10). Did Jesus accomplish what He came to do? Of course! Know then that Jesus came to seek and to save your business; your city; your nation.

We are called to make disciples – to share the good news and to advance His Kingdom in our sphere of influence. That’s why if you’re in a marketplace role day to day, you’re uniquely positioned to carry out your role in the Church right where you are every day!