What can Christians learn from the business world?

   
    It always fascinates me to observe mindsets that people choose to cultivate and live from, either people that know God or people that don't. Personally when I am able to see a mindset that I have that is not free or experiencing limitations in some way, common sense drives me to say, "it's time to change the way I think so my actions can follow suit." The renewed mind is a constant shift into more of heaven's way of thinking, it never stops being fine tuned and increasing.
    As Christians we have become one with Jesus, we are reborn from above upon saying yes to following Him, and we have access to everything He is and has through relationship. This includes His mind, and in order to truthfully surrender to and follow Him it would make sense that we should know how He thinks and what we get to do with Him and through Him.
    The mandate from Christ is to, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." ( Matthew 28:19-20) So our call is to go to people groups and share Good News and reconcile the world to Love, through the sacrifice that He made for us. By the way, the word 'nations' in the Greek does not mean foreign countries. The Greek word for 'nations' is ethnos, it means people groups that don't know Jesus. Their are countless nations in that context right here in your own city that don't know the Lord's love and goodness. Going to other countries is great fun, but you'll have more authority in other countries when you have cultivated and exercised that authority with effectiveness in your own family, workplace, city, and region.
    Would it make sense then that we limit ourselves from receiving our full inheritance and the provision stored up for us when we don't walk out the call to make disciples of all nations? A lifestyle of obedience is where the favor never stops and always increases, and if we are following Him we should understand that He has already told us where He is going. He is leading people groups that don't know Him, to His abundant life. And He is leading us into being the leaders of people groups that don't know Him.
    When we get our thoughts moving in the direction of Christ's thinking we are able to access more of His way of thinking. Seeing how we, collectively, have His mind (1 Cor. 2:16), it would make sense that accessing the more He has to offer (to anyone that wants it) would have to start with agreeing with the way He sees and does things.
    How can we access the deep things of God, if we don't agree with His simple things? John 3:12 But if you don't believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? (NLT) The truth of life in Christ and His Kingdom is that it so good it sounds almost like a fairy tale. So why are not as many people that say they follow Him experiencing this outrageously amazing way of life?
    I have had the privilege lately to bring the Kingdom in realms of business and interact and observe the way success minded business people see and process things, and it is very similar to the way Jesus flows with His thinking.
    Many church cultures in the western world have a church structure in place that is set up to get people to obey and agree with what the leader says and do what He says. It's a culture to create consumers, not providers. I understand and believe that so many people in these places have good hearts and intentions, but the Christian community should not be a bunch of docile consumers. The Christian community should be the vocal and effective leaders of all realms of society, by humbly and effectively serving and leading them into greater places. The main structure of church culture in our society gears Christians thinking to quiet down and obey the man in charge, even if you don't agree.
    In the business world the success minded and driven people celebrate each other's diversities and that empowers what they agree upon to be that much more effective. The successful business people are all visionaries, just like Jesus was and told us to be. They are all creative and innovative as a lifestyle, just like Jesus is and has empowered us to be. They all have a bright hope filled perspective of the future, just like Jesus does and told us to have.
    In the business world they don't put too much weight on someone's words that doesn't have the fruit to back up what they are talking about. It's ok for you too not pay to much attention to someone talking about divine healing that rarely ever sees anyone healed, or doesn't believe it's even God's will to heal. It's not dishonoring to not have a high value on their words, it's more wisdom then anything else. It's not dishonoring a person by not valuing their words on how to love sinner's when that person doesn't even have friends (that they love without an agenda) that are sinner's.
    It's wisdom to listen to people talk about topics that actually have the fruit to back up what they are talking about. Some Christians think it is wrong or dishonoring to question any leader on anything, we are never to dishonor a person saved or unsaved. But it is more common sense to question what someone is talking about that can't back it up with the fruit of that topic in their own life.
    No one is going to do it all perfectly and have the perfect perspective on everything, and we should all have people that we are committed to and in responsible relationship with. We should also all have healthy leaders around us, but just because someone is your leader doesn't mean you're being disrespectful to see things different. In the kingdom we are called to agree on the main things and let the minor differences strengthen us, not weaken us.
    In the successful business world this is common sense. They have a high value for new innovation and creativity, their only concern is if it is working to produce better results. In the business world business leaders put weight on people's words that have a track record of success. They pay money to hear success tips and wisdom from people that truly have this, simply so they can receive from it and implement the strategies for positive and effective change in their own life and business. The business world has a high value for effective change and increase, just like Jesus does.

http://fortune.com/best-companies/

    This is the top 100 companies to work for in 2015. If you skim through the benefits of the companies leading the charge, you'll find very similar trends. They all want their employees to be free at work. Google (who has been #1 on this list for 6yrs running) even has a free haircuts, video game rooms, a gym, pool tables, and the list could go on. They trust their employees have inherently good motives and have created an environment that empowers them to be creative and unwind in a variety of ways to provoke more rest filled creativity. They understand that when their employees want to drop what they are doing and play some games, it refreshes them to return to the task focused and joyful.
    Another interesting trend among the top companies on the list is this, many of those companies have unlimited paid sick days. These companies trust the environment they have created will drive employees to want to be at work, so much so that if an employee is sick they pay them while they recover. These top companies see that people are inherently driven to be successful, good, and that all people have the full capability to be a solid contributor to the bigger vision. They see that creating an environment that provokes freedom and creativity doesn't actually have employees taking advantage of the system, it has them helping and adding to the system in very beneficial ways.
    Being a successful leader in any environment is a more weighty task then many of their critics realize, but good leaders know this. Good leaders know how to let the critics weightless words role off their shoulder and be null and void in their life. And most importantly good leaders have one focus... not to create followers, but to raise up other leaders!