I spoke with my brother a few weeks ago. He mentioned that their executive team was debating the definition of success for their business and themselves. At first that seems like a pretty easy question. The easy answer is to grow the company, make lots of money, treat your customers with respect and pay people well. After just a few minutes of thought, that answer starts to sound pretty hollow. My brother and his team have been working on this definition off and on for several months. One of the things that they have struggled with is a lack of a common framework and toolset to have this discussion.
My partner Jim and I worked together many years ago and recently reconnected. After catching up and reminiscing about old times, I found out that Jim had been working on a project to help create a practical approach to answering another difficult question: "How can I bring my Christian faith to work successfully?". After talking with Jim for some time, I decided that this was a question that I desperately wanted to answer and share with others.
In thinking about bringing Christian faith to work and my brother's quest to define success, I realized that for me these two questions are tightly bound together. As a Christian trying to live a "God-centered" life, I have very well-defined yardsticks for morality, ethics, right and wrong and servant leadership. After some introspection, I came to the conclusion that I have informally used those yardsticks in my business life to judge my success in business but more importantly as a person. I found myself wondering why there wasn’t a tool or framework that people can use to reach a "Christian success" instead of the message we often get from church - "just try hard to do the Christian thing".
Jim had done a lot of research with various pastors and found that while all felt comfortable with talking with their church members about living out their faith, it was all very theoretical with minimal practical suggestions. In most cases, the pastors had never been exposed to anything that provided a practical way to apply their faith outside of preaching the Gospel and building a church.
Marketplace Impact brings two offerings designed to bridge that gap between the theory of Christian faith and the practical application of faith across all areas of your life:
Living on Purpose - Foundations: A 7-week devotional helping small group participants find their purpose in Christ, view work from God's perspective and make decisions from a Kingdom mindset. This devotional begins building the foundation for successfully bringing your faith to work and all of life.
Living on Purpose - Immersive Cohort A comprehensive 16-week self-improvement journey founded on eternal Biblical truths, brought to life through 1) the Know My Purpose devotional, 2) a lifelong practical improvement framework and 3) the Living on Purpose discussion guide designed for a 3 or 4 person cohort. Not for everyone, Living on Purpose is intended for those ready to truly live out their faith and willing to pursue transformation that not only impacts them personally, but all those around them.
So, back to the original question: "What is success?". Everyone will likely have their own definition in some way, but what a wonderful world it would be if we ourselves lived a "God centered" life and helped others around us do the same, living their best life. That is our quest for success at Marketplace Impact. If you would like to know more about our two offerings, please contact us at info@marketplace-impact.com.