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Three more ways!

5. Message at company gatherings

Company gatherings, such as Christmas parties, can be an excellent opportunity for the Christian business owner or leader to reinforce the mission of the company. An easy way to do this is to carve out 10-15 minutes or so and tell a story or interesting illustration that conveys the Gospel message. While the first time may be uncomfortable, God will honor your efforts. Read more here – Christ and the Company Christmas Party.

6. Message to customers

Different companies will have varying opportunities to share the Gospel with customers. For us, including a copy of the New Testament, with a cover that reads "Owner's Manual For Life", in the glove box of every car we sell seemed like an easy way to accomplish this. Read more here – Taking Action: Owner's Manual for Life.

7. Chaplain program

Of all the ministry actions we take, this one is by far my favorite. Simply put, it bears the most fruit. You really need to consider how you can make this happen in your business, regardless of what it takes to do so. Read more here – What do Cancer, Children, Car Shows and Chaplains Have in Common?.

More Christian Business Ideas
This list should get you started, but in case you are still looking for more, I have another 101 ideas available for free download. This document comes, by permission, from the C12 Group – a great resource for Christian business owners and CEOs. Download it here – 101 Christian Business Ideas.

Now you should have no excuses to delay. Pick one or two ideas to get started, grab a couple of your key people to help, and lay out your plan. I promise you will not regret taking action!

Chris Patton's Christian Faith At Work blog is about how to lead or run any business with eternity in mind. He is a Christian business owner.

I am a strong believer in the great need for Christian business owners and leaders to begin integrating their Christian faith and their businesses. I do not think enough people are thinking this way, so I write this blog in an effort to get the message out.

As part of this effort, I often include practical ways to do ministry in the normal course of doing business. The following is a list of 7 easy ways to get started. Each item on this list is something we are already doing and is further described in separate post. The link to each post is included in each brief description. At the end of this list, I will tell you how to find another 101 ideas!

7 Easy Ways To Integrate Faith and Work

1. Christian mission statement

This is so crucial that it really should be the first thing you do. A mission statement that acknowledges your business as a Christian business not only tells others what you are about, but also serves to keep you on track for years to come. Read more here – Mission Statement – Step 1 in a Strategic Ministry Plan.

2. Impact Fund

Your employees will get into the giving spirit if you lead the way. Creating a fund that allows them to support their co-workers in times of need is a huge opportunity to lead. They will surprise you with their response! Read more here – How Could a Business Help with Employee Hardship?.

3. Gospels in the lounge

You do not have to hit people over the head with the Gospel to spread it as a Christian business. Simply placing these simple Gospel messages in your customer areas is a great way to sow seeds. Let God do the rest. Read more here – Ministry Action: Gospels in the Lounge.

4. Employee Newsletter

Communication is critical for any business. This is especially true for a Christian business. You can easily improve your company-wide communication through the use of a company newsletter. Using even the simplest of newsletters to convey a Biblical message or promote Christian values can bear fruit. Read more here – Advice from Coach Wooden.

Read about the 3 others innovative ways later this week, and make sure to check the Deeper Leader blog archives for other wonderful articles and resources.

Chris Patton's Christian Faith At Work blog is about how to lead or run any business with eternity in mind. He is a Christian business owner.

By Guest Ron Edmondson

Continued from Monday

People are responsible for their spiritual growth. I am responsible to lead a church that shepherds them, encourages them, instructs and teaches them, but ultimately the believer holds the responsibility of their own growth. That's a freeing principle, because it keeps me responsible for what I can do, but releases me of the burden of what I can't do. I can create environments that help people grow, but I can't make them grow.

Growth occurs best in community. The best spiritual growth in my life and in the life of others I have observed occurs when people are in committed, healthy and intentional relationships with other believers wanting to mature. Iron does sharpen iron. Disciples make disciples. It was the method Jesus used to create disciples. He spent time with His disciples. (At the same time, I have been in groups where some are growing and some are not, but that goes back to principle number two. Remember Judas?) As much as I can, I need to help people who want to grow spiritually spend time with others who want to grow and are growing spiritually. I can then give them tools to use where there time together is suitable for discipleship.

Developing a person's desire for spiritual growth is key. When a person gets excited about his or her personal walk with Christ, they will want to get to know Christ better. The more they know Christ the more they will want to be like Him. The more people want to be like Christ the more likely they will be to assume ownership of their spiritual growth. So motivating people for the desire to grow becomes a key element in discipleship. This may be done by sharing stories of others who have grown, helping people understand their potential, or continually casting the vision for spiritual growth and maturity, but creating a desire to grow becomes a key goal in disciple-making.

The goal of the teacher/leader of spiritual growth should be to enable people to achieve spiritual growth. Knowing that people are responsible for their growth, and that I can only create environments where that can best happen, helps shape where I spend my efforts in discipleship. Our goal as spiritual leaders should be to introduce people to Christ and God's Spirit, teach them the truths of faith, and then release them to serve, mature and grow in their spiritual life.

Please understand this is not a formula and principles are not foolproof. I believe, however, that understanding these principles can help us see the process of discipleship as something doable, even "measurable", if we continually strive to create environments conducive for spiritual growth to occur.

About Ron Edmondson: Church planter and pastor with a heart for strategy, leadership and marketing; especially geared toward developing churches and growing and improving the Kingdom of God.

All Posts by Ron Edmondson | Personal Blog | Twitter | Facebook

By Guest Ron Edmondson

Spiritual growth of believers should be the goal of any church. We are to reach unbelievers and introduce them to Christ, but the end goal according to the command of Jesus is making disciples. It would even make sense then, that as much as we count the offering or attendance on Sundays, if we want to know we are being successful as a church, we have to somehow "count" our success at making disciples.

Yet spiritual growth is a difficult subject and can be hard to measure, because a church can offer the same ministries and attention to the same group of people and get extremely different results.

Right now there are people in my church at 3 stages of spiritual growth:

• Those that need to mature and are not maturing.
• Those that need to mature and have stalled.
• Those that need to mature and are maturing.

I suggest the same is true of your church. We rejoice in the last one. We all need to mature. We love when it happens. If we are not careful, however, we can allow the first two groups of people to discourage us and make us believe we are not doing what God has called us to do as a church.

How can we know we are growing people spiritually?
I don't know that we can ever know as clearly numerically as we do with attendance or contributions. But, I think there are principles that can help us know we are on the right track to building disciples, for each of the three groups mentioned above. These principles, when understood, can bring a sense of clarity as to whether we are truly realizing the mission of the church.

Here are 5 principles to understanding the process of spiritual growth.

Growth is possible. Every believer has an opportunity and potential to experience spiritual growth. God wants to mature all believers. No one is left out of that plan. If someone is not growing spiritually, there is a reason. Either they haven't been discipled or they haven't responded to the opportunities they've been given to grow, but opportunity exists for all believers.

Read more on Wednesday!

About Ron Edmondson: Church planter and pastor with a heart for strategy, leadership and marketing; especially geared toward developing churches and growing and improving the Kingdom of God.

All Posts by Ron Edmondson | Personal Blog | Twitter | Facebook

By Guest Michael Nichols

In a recent post, Chris Patton included a simple phrase that caught my attention – life is not all about prosperity. I found myself questioning MY perspective – is life all about growth?

Here are three things I noted about growth from this experience -

1. Growth comes in many shapes and sizes

Reflecting on my conversation with Sarah, I realized that she IS experiencing growth. Among other areas, she is growing in patience – with her circumstances and with me.

Growth is not always bigger. It's not always quantitative – measured the way you or I think it should be measured.

Here's a great question for determining whether or not you are experiencing growth – Are my current situation and my resulting behaviors adding value to my life and work or to the life and work of others?

2. You can grow through pain

From a long-term perspective, maybe the old adage is true – If you're not growing, you're dying. Let's face it – in a world of constant and rapid change, maintaining the status quo is quite simply passive regression.

But, on the surface, constant growth just doesn't seem possible. Life is about dormancy, setbacks, and pain. It's about disease, loss, and grief. It's about uncertainty and unknowns – challenging projects at work, strained relations at home, in between jobs, waiting for word from the doctor, mounting medical bills.

And while it seems that life is about more than growth – life's incredibly uncomfortable moments are, in reality, opportunities for explosive personal growth.

Read the rest here: http://www.michaelnichols.org/if-youre-not-growing-youre-dying

This is a guest post by Michael Nichols. Michael is a writer, speaker, and Executive Pastor at FBC Midlothian in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. You can read part 2 of this post on Michael's blog here and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.