As I was talking with fellow IMPACT 360 alumnus Jonathan Skagfield this evening, our phone call got interrupted by the not-so-great internet connection here in the Middle East. The phone cut out right in the middle of our prayer. As we reconnected, I began with ,“Pardon the interruption, Lord.” I’m so thankful that our God hears our prayers, even when those we are praying with can’t.
As Jonathan and I were talking, we threw ideas around as we do pretty much every week. Most of the time, we include IMPACT 360 in our thinking. We think about how we can partner with the organization for future projects, as well as how our time there has influenced how we think about ideas for the future. Today, we talked about entrepreneurship. We have thought for some time that there is too great a distance between Christians and the rest of culture in America. Too often, Christians make a culture of our own. We do great things all the time, but we also forget the rest of our culture in them. What Jonathan and I realized is that we need entrepreneurs for the Kingdom. We need entrepreneurs who are Kingdom minded, not Kingdom employed. We don’t need any more Christian clothing lines. We need good quality clothing designed by Christians. We don’t need any more inventions for the Church, we need the Church to invent things for the world.
Thus, as we prayed with each other tonight, and as we pray for the folks at IMPACT 360, we pray to this end: that as God’s people, we would be entrepreneurs for Him; that we would create space for culture to flourish; that we would find opportunities to create beauty, and point people to living the good life.
All truth is God’s truth. It doesn’t matter if we put a cross or an ichthus on a beautiful picture. A beautiful painting honors God, because beauty comes from Him. We don’t see mountains in the shape of a fish, nor do we see stars embedded with John 3:16. When we look at creation, we simply see God’s beauty. A good pair of jeans doesn’t need to have a sticker that says, “We prayed over the thread before it was sewn in.” As a former employee of Chick-fil-a, I can tell you that the amount of thought that goes into the making of a chicken sandwich is far greater than you might imagine, and everybody loves the sandwiches. But I never once thought about putting a cross on the bun as I sent it through the toaster. I never thought about placing the carrots and cheese on salad so that they spelled out a scripture reference. The food that Chick-fil-a makes is good, and few people will contest that claim. And everyone knows that the Cathy family are people of great faith, without whom IMPACT 360 would not exist. Chick-fil-a and its founder Truett Cathy are great examples of how to be entrepreneurial for the Kingdom.
We don’t need more ‘Christian’ organizations. What we really need more of are organizations run by Christians. We need people in culture who do good work, so that when asked about it, we can say, “I did this good work because the God of the universe gave me a passion for it, and a gifted mind to create it.”
We pray for God’s people, and specifically IMPACT 360 alumni, to be entrepreneurs who do good work.