by Noel Santiago, LEADership Minister for Spiritual Transformation
“The boardroom should be to those anointed to serve
in the marketplace what the pulpit is to pastors.”
Such is one of the many thought-provoking quotes found in the book Anointed For Business by Ed Silvoso. Intended to stimulate and perhaps shift our ways of thinking, Ed brings forth a wealth of experience grounded in the Biblical text.
And as this book has shifted our ways of thinking, the prayer ministry of Franconia Conference has partnered with other regional prayer groups to establish prayer teams that go into local businesses and organizations to offer prayers on behalf of their behalf.
The Anointed for Business Prayer Time is about blessing owners, employees, their families, work, relationships, and engagement as they go about their daily work as worship. We also seek to participate and bless the church, the body of Christ, in order to bring about reconciliation between the church and the marketplace. We seek the Lord and intercede on behalf of the business/organizations/churches so that the transformational values noted below are achieved and that their financial and/or organizational or ministry needs are surpassed to the point where they can give from a place of abundance, even as they continue their giving generously as a lifestyle.
Transformation Companies are ones which embrace and seek to live out the following values:
- Intentionally investing in the betterment of its workforce and its families;
- Actively pursuing the transformation of its sphere of influence and expertise in the marketplace;
- Investing generously and sacrificially in the broader community;
- Purposefully connecting with other companies, professions, and individuals to impact the world.
Transformation Churches are ones whose leaders embrace and seek to:
- Equip, commission, and release its members to reach the marketplace and intentionally pastor the city/region;
- Diligently pursue organic unity in the larger Body of Christ to energize the mission of the Church;
- Commit a growing percentage of its resources to Kingdom expansion by sacrificially investing beyond the local congregation to achieve transformation;
- Expect the Kingdom of God to be tangibly manifested in cities and nations.
So, here’s this word “transformation.” For us, this means the elimination of systemic poverty in four key areas: spiritually, relationally, motivationally, and materially.
Spiritual poverty afflicts those who don’t know that God is their father and are unable to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6:9b). They think of themselves as spiritual orphans. They believe that they are all alone, that God has judged or abandoned them, and that no one loves them. When trouble comes, they have no spiritual resources to draw on.
Relational poverty encompasses those whose focus is on themselves at the expense of the community of which they are a part. They may have great wealth but still suffer from a lack of close relationships with family, friends, and associates. They are lacking the “us” and the “our” of “Give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).
Motivational poverty is a state of hopelessness that engulfs those who have no adequate way, means, or confidence to tackle tomorrow’s challenges. “Daily bread” is exactly that–it’s an ongoing occurrence. When people come under the grip of poverty, even when there is bread today, they have no hope that they will be able to provide for their needs tomorrow. This leads to anxiety, fear, insecurity, and sometimes even greed.
Material poverty is the most obvious manifestation of poverty because it involves lacking the resources necessary to sustain life. In this context, “daily bread” may include food, water, clothing, housing, and other essential resources. Material poverty always compromises people’s ability to focus on a spiritual life, relationships, and motivation, because when you’re hungry, you can’t think of anything else.
One way our prayer teams work at this is through placing Prayer Request Boxes in local businesses and organizations to provide employees of the company or organization an opportunity to submit personal prayer requests. The vision is that if each person employed at a given company or organization is experiencing the power of God in answered prayers in their personal lives, this will then have a ripple effect on other areas of their lives including their workplace.
This is not to suggest that such experiences aren’t already occurring or that the church is not meeting these needs. Rather it is an attempt to work at having the primary location where this impact is most keenly felt be the marketplace, the location where we want to see the transformation occur.
Transformational Churches reach beyond their walls and partner with marketplace ministers to see their city and nation transformed by the message of Christ! Kingdom Companies and organizations apply biblical principles to their “marketplace” and partner with others to see their city and industry transformed. If you’d like to hear more stories, visit Ed’s website at: www.transformourworld.org. You’ll see this is about “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
Do you want to learn more about Anointed for Business Prayer Teams? Noel would be glad to hear from you.