Kingdom entrepreneurs should also offer services to secular society, as this interaction provides an opportunity for sharing the Gospel, several Christian business practitioners told Freedom Talks, the FCRN forum.
Chief operating officer of Dayelight Publishers Limited, Crystal Daye, does not have an issue with the establishment of niches, but is not for a full-scale separation of Christian businesses from secular ones, so as to establish a completely Christian economy.
“I do believe that if you are a hairdresser and you are a Christian hairdresser, anybody can come into your store and you can be a minister in that space,” she said.
Daye, who started Dayelight, a faith-based publishing and marketing consultancy agency, finds that a lot of her clients are Christians. Through her company, she is helping Kingdom authors publish and market books that might have been tweaked by secular publishers because of their biblical references.
The publisher also pointed to other niche businesses that are helping to meet the needs of Christians. One such is Charis Cafe and Events Management Services Limited, which is operated by Christian couple, Peta Gay and Rajiv Rowe.
“The truth is, as a believer, we have been to many cafes and the music that they play, we just don’t necessarily want that in our system, so having a Christian cafe is very helpful for us as a Christian because we want that when we are sitting and working, just hearing worship music gives us a different feeling,” Daye said.
Marketing and public relations expert, Cheryl Neufville does not believe there is a need for a soley Christian business sector, as she believes that in order for Christians to make disciples of men, they will have to be interacting with everyone. Her company, Nuefville Management and Communications Limited, for example, serves both Christians and those that are not, but she says there are morals and principles she does not compromise on in the business place. There are also some businesses she would never market, like a cigarette or a gambling company for example.
“The Lord has called all of us for such a time as this; we have to be influencers here on earth with our righteousness. Righteousness must exalt a nation through us,” she shared during a recent staging of the Freedom Talk Forum.
Joseth Brown, sales manager at Marathon Insurance Brokers, also shares the view that Christians should make use of opportunities to interact with those who might not be saved. As one of the eldest person at her company, she often takes time to listen and pray for younger team members, who sometimes take a short break to seek her for words of encouragement.
“If we sit by ourselves and we have this community, that is just us, and we don’t engage and find ourselves in other areas, so we can make an impact and make disciples of men, then what would happen to everybody else? It’s like we are living in this nice house and everybody else is in the helper’s quarters; how do we help them if we stay by ourselves?” asked Brown, who is the director of Tamar’s Redemption, a ministry for hurting women.
Still, Rowe does not believe that having a Christian business community would prevent Christians from making an impact on the world. Although Charis Cafe is Christian-owned, non-Christians do visit and are welcomed to the establishment, and their lives are touched.
“I would love to see what a righteous, established economy looks like? How is it run? How different is it? How much are we achieving, through this? she shared.
