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Business leaders, like athletes, know what it means to be out of control. They know about rivals and those who seek to betray them. They have problems with their families, and they are visited by plenty of suffering, loss, and defeat. Pastors could learn about these challenges by reading more business biographies to see how so many business leaders have failed.

Preachers seem more comfortable in the premodern economy with premodern images and therefore give very little guidance regarding the unique opportunities, restraints, and temptations of businesspersons' calling. A preacher who is able to use business metaphors would touch many hearts.

How does a business calling fulfill God's will?

For some, whether the product has any moral/theological significance is very important—they won't be happy unless they can attach moral satisfaction to what they are doing.

Others aren't concerned with this, but rather with doing a good job and making a good income in a decent way. We need to remind ourselves that Jesus worked in a humble occupation as a carpenter. Some people have awful jobs but provide needed though modest service.

God is in the details, and the more perfectly we do our work—the more intensely we seek to live up to our vocation—the more God is honored. If we see the dimensions of what we are doing, we will do it better. Whatever I'm doing, I'm helping our national economy, and that will inspire those in the developing world. The best charity we can give the poor is to show the poor how to create wealth.

The vision of capitalism is to lift the poor of all nations out of poverty, and until all are lifted, this task is not done. We inspire people more by helping them see the nobility of what they are doing.

Also appearing on our site today:

The Profit of God | Finding the Christian path in business.

Michael Novak's Business as a Calling is available at Amazon.com.

Christianity Today sister publication Books & Culture recently examined the lessons of the Enron scandal.

Previous Christianity Today articles on ethics in business include:

The Wages of Secularism | New laws won't prevent another Enron. (June 4, 2002)

Morals for the Marketplace | A treasury of ethical capital for men and women in the world of business. (Feb. 3, 1997)

Holding Corporate America Accountable | Christians press for greater responsibility from businesses. (October 28, 1996)

For more articles, see Christianity Today'sMoney and Business archive.

In a Washington Post piece last summer, Prison Fellowship founder (and Christianity Todaycolumnist) Charles Colson responded to the paper's editorial assertion that "it is naive to suppose that business can be regulated by some kind of national honor code." Colson also wrote on the need for more than just new laws in his regular CT column.

In August, Christian Science Monitor wrote on faith-based groups, like the Business Leadership and Spirituality Network and the Mockler Center for Faith and Ethics in the Workplace, who are working to close the gap between personal beliefs and corporate behavior

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February 2003, Vol. 47, No. 2