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Home > Articles > From Marketplace to Ministry
From Marketplace to Ministry
5 principles to help leaders in business become effective in church.
Jeanine Parolini

Topics:Calling, Development, Empowerment, Leadership, Mentoring, Recruiting, Shepherding, Volunteer care, Volunteer recruitment, Volunteers
Filters:Church staff, Discipleship, Elder, Men's ministry, Pastor, Service, Shepherd, Women's ministry
Purpose:Discipleship
References:Ephesians 4:11-12, 1 Timothy 4:14, 2 Timothy 1:6
Date Added:July 12, 2007

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Ted is a great guy and has worked for top firms in his industry. You've got high hopes for Ted and have put him into a high-level role at church to reflect your belief in him. Loyal, savvy, and intelligent, Ted is an answer to prayer. He puts in hours beyond your expectations. He gets the job done. Ted is optimistic and up for the next challenge.

As Ted brings major leadership contributions to your church, have you asked deeper questions:

  1. What is his understanding of the vision, mission, and values of the church?
  2. How has he demonstrated these values in his life?
  3. Does Ted have spiritual authority with those who follow him?
  4. Are people who follow him being developed holistically or mainly in the area of output?
  5. At the core, what are his motives for such dynamic determination and activity?

I bring these questions as one who has been making the transition from marketplace to ministry since 1995. I'd been doing strategic sales and consulting for seven years, and when I became a Christian in 1990, I began volunteering in the church right away. Ultimately, I joined the staff of a large midwestern church as a part-time employee, and today I work in another church full-time. During those years, I began to recognize important differences between corporate life and church. I witnessed people who did not embrace those differences, and I saw the pain they caused their followers. Church required a different kind of authority.

I've developed five principles that help strong leaders from the marketplace become effective in church ministry.

1. Find out what this leader is "practicing the presence of."
I have learned to ask, What is this person practicing the presence of? Is Christ dictating his thoughts, emotions, personality, and will? Or is he practicing the presence of Jack Welch, Lee Iacocca, Donald Trump or some other leader?

If I'm not sure, I ask, Is this person willing and able to put people first and the task second? Can she speak the truth in love?

Some leaders focus on the task because people are not easy to love. I might say to the person, "Share an example of a situation where it was hard to love someone." I listen for how the leader handled herself and the others involved. Was there resolution? How does she feel about the hard-to-love person today?

If I don't do this, I may put into leadership someone who will only hurt others and not build Christlikeness in them. Sam was a highly capable manager who took a 50-percent pay cut to work in the church and help with computers and technology. When considering buying new technology for the church, Sam wanted to proceed cautiously because there was a lot of money at stake and the contracts were complex. Sam's supervisor, who had also come from the marketplace, was more interested in hearing "can do" than processing "how to." So Sam's supervisor demoted Sam. Today, Sam works for a different church but is still grieved by the way he was treated.