You can merely think about doing something. Or, you can do something. It’s really easy to think about the company you’re going to start. Or the new service you’re going to launch. Or the new project management system you’re going to implement. Or the church you’re going to plant. Thinking’s easy. The doing is where vision turns into reality.

In this blog I take business ideas and look at how those business ideas square with what the Bible teaches to help us connect business and the book for human flourishing. I do it because I believe co-vo and bi-vo entrepreneurs are being unleashed in unprecedented numbers to make a lasting and significant kingdom impact that our world desperately needs right now. Let me know what you think. 

 A Bias Toward Action

In Don Miller’s 2021 release Business Made Simple he weaves together 60 daily readings. The first 10 are about characteristics of a “Value Driven Professional.” Here’s a line from Day Seven:

“Successful people make real things happen in the real world. They do not let their best life get stuck in their imagination.”

So, does Donald Miller’s advice contradict what we find in the Bible? No, it actually reads like several proverbs in the wisdom section of the First Testament.

Miller’s quote sounds a lot like:

 “Work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty!”  (Proverbs 14:23)

 “Despite their desires, the lazy will come to ruin, for their hands refuse to work.”  (Proverbs 21:25)

 In the wisdom books of the Bible, to act without thinking is “foolish.”

Thinking. And thinking. Then thinking some more, without ever acting, is big-time “foolish” according to the collection of the wisdom of Solomon.

This emphasis toward action has close cousins in the letter written by James in the New Testament. His strong Jewish roots in the wisdom of the First Testament produce Gospel thinking like this:

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”   (James 1:22-24)

“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”   (James 2:15-17)

Clarity of Purpose

In Day Eight’s reading of Business Made Simple, Miller brought this business idea to the table for us to benefit from: “Successful people do not live in confusion; they live in clarity.” One of the tag lines of his successful marketing company, Story Brand is “If you confuse, you lose.”

Takeaway: Don’t choose to be confused! As leaders, we often know what we need to do. But execution will be hard or uncomfortable. That’s when we choose to be confused—in order to delay the inevitable. That’s not a recipe for success.

When you look at successful leaders in the Bible you notice they had incredible clarity.

• Abraham left his homeland to go to a new place of God’s choosing.

• Moses led an exodus for slaves from Egypt to the “Promised Land.”

• Solomon built the Temple.

• Jeremiah shared the Word of the LORD even when no one listened.

• Nehemiah rebuilt the protective wall around Jerusalem.

• Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles.

• Luke pulled together the story of Jesus and the Church He launched for Theopholis.

• Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus vividly expressed his clarity with these words as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Confusion around the challenges of leadership would have derailed each of these leaders. Clarity kept them on track and ultimately made them successful. They didn’t choose to be confused when the fire got hot. They remained clear-minded about their calling and delivered!

I’m a former pastor turned spiritual entrepreneur. I coach faith-based business leaders to grow their businesses and integrate their faith in order to love our world. In the process they create environments, products, and services that make our world a better place to live, work, and worship.

If you want to learn more about CREO go to the homepage of this website and set up a time to talk!

Glen Stevens is a former pastor turned spiritual entrepreneur. In 2020 he started a coaching business called Teleion, LLC. Through Teleion he helps ambitious business leaders who put a high value on faith and relationships to flourish by growing their companies and integrating their faith. This positions those leaders to make our world a better place to live, work, and worship for everyone. Simultaneously, Glen is launching a multiplying network of micro-churches that truly love people who are disinterested in and skeptical of any church they know of so they can experience the life-transforming love of Jesus.

Glen and his wife, Jill, live in Fargo, ND. They have four adult children. His business website is www.teleioncoaching.com