Christianity Today: Defining Business Success. An interview by Stan Guthrie of John D. Beckett, (chairman of the privately held R. W. Beckett Corporation) about his new book Mastering Monday: A Guide to Integrating Faith and Work.
Why did you write this new book?
There have been something like a thousand books written on this subject. [Christians] have been set in positions of significant leadership, but their business influence has accelerated way past their spiritual preparation. This next book tries to build a more solid foundation under them and to help guide their thinking.
Do you think churches still don't understand business as a calling?
(Just in case you might overlook his answer to this question I thought I would give it a little emphasis and add an amen!!!)
I do. Relatively few churches and pastors are reinforcing the legitimacy of a call into so-called "secular work." I have colleagues with tremendous business influence who are starving spiritually in their local churches. There's zero feeding; there's zero reinforcing of the call they have in the marketplace.
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You don't put much faith in formulas for business success. Why not?
The problem with formulas is that they can be a substitute for being sensitive to the Lord. Take, for example, "Love your neighbor as yourself." That really is a heart issue. I can't love a person as a formula. Formulas may get you part of the way, but ultimately they break down. Unless a person's heart has been transformed, you'll just never get there by pushing levers and turning dials.
So what do you think of the popular notion that a Christian running a company by Christian principles is guaranteed success?
What's success? If success is never losing a customer or having a bad product go out the door, or never having a failure in your organization, whether it's moral or financial or whatever, it just doesn't work that way. But if success is honoring the Lord, if it is being faithful to him, then we can go through mountains of success and valleys of failure and still come out serving the Lord.
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