Today, many Christian business leaders have found that they don’t need to leave their faith at the office door. They can pray with employees or clients and share God’s infinite wisdom and Christ’s love when appropriate.

What’s your view on your business and faith? Have you considered a transition from making a living to making a life for yourself and those entrusted to you? Have you crystallized a long-term vision, enabling the work/faith integration, fruitful ministry, and business excellence that your team is actively pursuing?

C12 Group challenges our members to break down the wall of separation between faith and work by helping Christian CEOs and business owners realize they can live one integrated life, seven days a week. Your faith can be reflected through your business so that active ministry flows to the thousands of stakeholders your company touches each year. You can become Chief Ministry Officer — not just Chief Executive Officer. In fact, there’s no one else who can provide such leadership over the company God has specifically given to you. A healthy, growing business is a solid platform from which you can become a spiritual influence to others.

Do you struggle with your calling as Christ’s disciple and ambassador? What could you change to close the gap between your company’s actual performance and its potential? Consider these four keys to seeing your work as both worship and ministry:

1. Passion: Faith, talent, and education are certainly critical to a fruitful business, but if we’re “running on empty,” without passion for the Lord’s purpose, we’ll fall short. Evoking passion takes ongoing intimacy with the Lord through daily, intentional quiet time. Operating from a full heart that’s passionate to share the love of Christ is key for living the significant life God desires. Godly passion leads to our character becoming more like Christ.
2. Relationships: To build loyal relationships at work, leaders must focus on meeting the needs of those they serve, consistent with Jesus’ command for us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mt. 22:39). Focus on people – not just processes, products, and profits, so you can earn the right to share the Good News. CEOs who are Christ- and others-centric will earn trust and loyalty by displaying competence, character, and a caring heart.
3. Margin: Align your priorities with scriptural wisdom. If your schedule is crammed with commitments and distractions, little time remains to spend with God and minister to others. Maintain enough margin in your schedule and delegate duties so you can be accountable to use the time, energy, and resources that have the greatest impact on those the Lord has placed in your life.
4. Discipline: God provides us with plenty of opportunities, but we must fulfill our roles as servant leaders in the marketplace. Given your positional authority, this requires ongoing personal discipline to give God all the glory. Building a fruitful business ministry requires articulating a clear, God-honoring vision and defining priorities for the business. The key is trusting Him (Pr. 3:5-6), and giving Him the praise.

By removing fears and separating secular from sacred, many business owners begin the powerful transformation of creating a fruitful business ministry. A renewed sense of purpose takes flight that affords the ability for leaders to build like-minded teams, delegate daily management tasks, and reshape priorities to be a better steward — both at home and at work.