Jesus ran His business from the market place

Jesus was a CEO. Despite the teachings that He came to establish a new religion, the reality was that He came and successfully established Himself as a businessman. It was through His business relationships that He performed ministry. Consider this ... if you ask me where I work and I say a church, more than likely, you will assume that I am involved with religion. If on the other hand, I say I work in the business world (what would have been called the market place in the past) you are more likely to consider me as a businessman rather than a religious leader.

As Christ entered into the period most often referred to as His earthly ministry, an examination of where and how He spent his time should be telling. Consider these facts about the time Jesus spent after His consecration by John the Baptist:

• New Testament – Of Jesus’ 132 public appearances, 122 were in the marketplace
• Of 52 parables Jesus told, 45 had a workplace context.
• Of 40 divine interventions recorded in Acts, 39 were in the marketplace.
• Jesus called 12 workplace individuals, not clergy, to build His church.
• Work is Worship - The Hebrew word "Avodah" is root for word from which we get the words work and worship.
• Work in its different forms is mentioned more than 800 times in the Bible, more than all the words used to express worship, music, praise, and singing combined.

Based on this data, it is reasonable to consider Jesus more as a business man and less as a religious leader. This data also points out the value God places on our work and our work place. Finally, if workplace ministry was good enough for Jesus, shouldn't it be a focal point of our business efforts on a daily basis?

* Source: Os Hillman, International Coalition of Workplace Ministries, www.icwm.net