Following Sound Principles Is Good Business (& Church) Sense
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ (John 14:6)
A while back, my wife and I had to close our accounts with our old ‘main’ bank, as they transitioned to a system of ‘customer disservice’. It was the 2nd bank that year to lose an account of ours, as another bank that I had a savings account with some funds parked it, decided a savings account shouldn’t have money sitting in it or have it grow through deposits. Instead it should have withdrawals to keep it active – which would defeat the purpose of it being a savings account. Both banks lost our business and our funds went into other banking providers who still have good, old-fashioned, customer service.
Fortunately for us, a bank across the street from our old bank fit the criteria we sought, so it has our primary accounts. A credit union in town loves for money to be parked in their coffers, with periodic deposits (for the grandkids’ education fund, as I believe a waste is a terrible thing to mind), so it got the funds that the 2nd bank didn’t want.
It’s a sign of the times, I guess. Big businesses seem to be more concerned over their ‘comfort’ then that of the customer or the employees. However, it doesn’t make good business sense. A savings account for a bank is the capital used for them to make loans for others. Without savings accounts, there is no money to lend for the bank to charge a higher interest rate for, and thus make a profit. Chasing customers away saves money in the short-term (no tellers, less neighborhood bank locations) but in the long-term after enough customers leave for more-friendly banks, the bank will fail.
This has been a trend for some time that I can’t wrap my head around; businesses, such as banks and others have to follow basic principles or they will eventually fail. There must be adaptation based on the times, but failure to follow the basics cause a failure of the business.
Now, what about today’s church? Like a business, the modern church often tries to adapt to the times but then fails to follow the basic principles. We see that with many denominational churches in both the Protestant and Catholic sects, churches are falling into societal norms (‘woke’ policies, LGBTQ leadership) to adapt to modern times, or they ‘preach’ a message of the rewards of following Jesus without providing what one must do to follow Him, or the consequences of not accepting Him.
There are ‘Christian’ churches that provide a commentary that there is really multiple ways to get to Heaven, that God is here to only serve us, without reciprocation on our part. Unfortunately, these churches will fail – and the people who they ‘disserve’ – as they are not following the basic principles of the church. What are the basic principles these churches should be following?
There are five basic principles for the Christian church, which I’m happy and joyous to state that MBC, our Pastor, and the Congregation all have affirmed – and continue to affirm. These basic principles are what makes the ‘business’ of Christ profitable, not of a monetary value but of a Spiritual value. They are:
- Jesus Christ is God Manifested – This is the 1st principle that is the cornerstone foundation for the other four; without this principle they would be meaningless. John 14:6 is the definitive statement on this, that Jesus is – the Word, the Messiah, the Redeemer, and an infinite number of characteristics that Jesus is indeed God in the flesh.
- The Holy Bible is Inerrant and of God, for God – ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…’ (2 Timothy 3:16); The whole Bible, both the Old and New Testament, is without error, and provides God’s mindset, attitude, and instructions that are to be followed without deviation. In other words, when God says He finds certain behaviors as sinful, they are not to be accepted within the church; tolerance in these matters are not virtuous in Christianity, though with love educating with patience someone who practices these behaviors is Christian.
- Jesus, though His Immaculate Conception, is the Perfect Sacrifice for Our Redemption from Sin – In Matthew 20:28, Jesus gives us the Scriptural description of this principle; ”…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.” As God Manifested, Jesus, as God, could only do what it would take to satisfy the removal of sin; place Himself in a position of being the Perfect Sacrifice, to die and shed His blood, giving His life up so we did not have to be condemned for eternity for our sins.
- Jesus Arose From Death, to Come Again In Triumph – In Acts 1:3, Jesus’ resurrection is confirmed, and after 40 days in Acts 1:9, He ascends back to Heaven to be with Father God. In the 3 days Jesus was dead physically, spiritually He battled in Hell to conquer eternal Death. His Resurrection confirmed this victory. His Ascension into Heaven allowed for His actions to be taken in by Faith, first to those who witnessed firsthand these events and second by those of us who have been provided the Gospel message, which bring up the fifth principle below. Jesus will come back to ‘redeem’ us; much like we used to ‘redeem’ bottles by taking them back to the store, Jesus will take us back to the Father for full value in the ‘Rapture’ to live with Him forever in eternity (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) and for Jesus to then conquer Satan once and for all (Revelation 19:11-22:21).
- To Be a Christian, You Must Be Born Again – In John 3:1-21, Jesus explains to Nicodemus what ‘born again’ means. In a nutshell, it means that to be a true Christian, or a follower of Jesus, you have to believe the first four principles; 1st – Jesus is God. 2nd – God’s Word is without error and He means what He says. 3rd – Jesus’ birth is virgin & immaculate, thus spotless, He is the only Sacrifice that God would accept. 4th – Jesus conquered Death and will come again to ‘cash in’ our Redemption. To be a Christian, then, we follow God’s Word, which we then must also follow Matthew 28’s Great Commission, with the Holy Spirit guiding us as stated in Acts 2.
These are the basic principles all Christian churches – to be truly called ‘Christian’ – must adhere to. For us Christians, we must also follow these basic principles as well. Failure to follow these principles is, well, bad for business…
Amen.