Melvin Feller Business Ministries Group Looks at Business as a Ministry

Melvin Feller Business Ministries Group Looks at Business as a Ministry

Melvin Feller Business Ministries Group in Burkburnett Ministries and Dallas Texas and Lawton Oklahoma. Our mission is to call and equip a generation of Christian entrepreneurs to do business as ministry. We provide workshops and resources that help companies discover how to do business God’s way and provide a positive outreach as the director. When the heart of a business is service rather than self it can be transformed into a fruitful business ministry earning a profit and being of service to the community and their customers. Melvin Feller is currently pursuing another graduate degree in business organizations.

Business as a Ministry By Melvin Feller

The Greek word used for ministry in the Bible is diakonia (service) or diakonos (servant). Ministry means “to be of service” or “to serve.” Therefore, I believe that business is an effective tool for serving others, from macro-level serving society to micro-level serving an individual client, customer, or work colleague. For believers in Jesus, all of life can be lived as service, including our business lives.

Business as a Ministry By Melvin Feller

One might ask, “How do you get this business as ministry (or service) approach from the life and teachings of Jesus?” Great question. In two similar passages in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus is teaching his disciples about the role of leadership and greatness, and he tells them this:

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant (diakonos), and whoever wants to be first must be your slave- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. Matthew 20: 25–28.

Business as a Ministry By Melvin Feller

Jesus turns the organizational chart upside down and says that those who want to lead must serve or minister to their followers rather than be served by their followers. In addition, this is not an isolated teaching of Jesus. In Mark 9:35, Jesus is again addressing an argument among his disciples about who is and will be the greatest among them. It is reassuring to see that human nature has not changed much is 2,000 years! Jesus tells the twelve of them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant (diakonos) of all”.

In Luke, the gospel writer records a conversation between Jesus and the disciples that happened literally during the Last Supper (imagine the painting and this conversation), again regarding which disciple was considered the greatest among them. This time, Jesus contrasts traditional leadership with servant leadership, and uses an illustration very appropriate for sitting around a table to eat supper. Speaking of a traditional leader, Jesus says,

Business as a Ministry By Melvin Feller

“But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules, like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” Luke 22:26–27
Again, turning the organizational chart on its head, Jesus puts the leadership emphasis on the one who serves rather than the one who is served.

However, is it relevant for today?

Okay, but how is business activity and management decision-making service or ministry? What is the connection between Jesus’ teaching 2,000 years ago and your business today?

Business as a Ministry By Melvin Feller

Well, let us return to the idea of business at the macro and micro levels. At the macro level, business serves society, it is an organized activity, that meets the human needs of the many, and if done in a proper, sustainable way, it serves the common good. Stated another way, business enables human flourishing by stewarding all of God’s resources to meet the needs of the created world. When viewed in this way, it is not hard to see business as a high calling and management as a true “ministry” (diakonia) to all.

At the micro level, business affords the opportunity to influence for good many individual lives. This is done when we meet the needs of a single customer, a single client, or an individual colleague or employee on our staff. Meeting the needs of others through our business is a tangible expression of Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself”. The ripple effect of a business or organization that provides an income that sustains a family and provides the building blocks of a thriving society connects the micro to the macro levels. Business can simultaneously serve all of society and provide for the individual needs of many.

While it is significant that conducting business in a Christ-like way can provide global goods and services that meet the needs of society, there is more to my vision of Business as Ministry. As we conduct our business and management roles as service to others, I believe we are serving as the “hands and feet” of Christ in our local context.

Business as a Ministry By Melvin Feller

An Expanded Role for Business in the Created World

It is through our organized human energy that God meets the needs of the world today, and if our businesses and organizations do not rise up to the challenge of meeting these ongoing human needs, quite literally it won’t get done. On the other hand, more accurately, it won’t get done in a just and sustainable way. We together are the hands and feet through which the Creator is providing for the creation.

Business as a Ministry By Melvin Feller

Yet, beyond the provision of “our daily bread”, the eternal message of Christ to a fallen and broken world is that he came to redeem and heal the world and to offer grace and peace to those who will accept it. When Jesus came to serve, he also came to “give his life a ransom for many”, that is, to give the ultimate sacrifice of service. Conducting business as ministry gives followers of Jesus the opportunity to both demonstrate the love of Jesus through service, but also to share with others how to know the God who turned creation’s organizational chart on its head and sent his son to serve and save a broken world.

Melvin Feller Business Consultant, Business Owner, Burkburnett man grace ministries and Graduate Student Candidate in Business Organization

Melvin Feller Business Ministries Group in Texas and Oklahoma. Melvin Feller founded Melvin Feller Business Consultants Group and Burkburnett former grace Ministries director in the 1970s to help individuals and organizations achieve their specific Victory. Victory as defined by the individual or organization are achieving strategic objectives, exceeding goals, getting results or desired outcomes and a positive outreach with grace and as a ministries. He has extensive experience assisting businesses achieve top and bottom line results. He has broad practical experience creating WINNERS in many organizations and industries. He has hands-on experience in executive leadership, operations, logistics, sales, program management, organizational development, training, and customer service. He was a Burkburnett man. He has coached teams to achieve results in strategic planning, business development, organizational design, sales, and customer response and business process improvement. He has prepared and presented many workshops nationally and internationally.