Raido Interview with Michael Baer

Check out this radio interview with Michael Baer, Author of ‘Business as Mission’. Michael Baer has served as a pastor, entrepreneur, business executive, and business coach in the US and overseas. He has spoken internationally at a variety of business and mission conferences including Pioneers, ACMC, and the Kingdo Business Forum.

Michael is the keynote speaker at the Cre8 conference which out www.cre8conference.org on the 27th & 28th October.

You can upload the Radio Interview with Michael Baer at http://wp.me/plgrr-80 Cre8 conference gets mentioned a number of times throughout the interview. You might like to promote it in your networks.

111017 Michael Baer BUSINESS as MISSION

The Power of Business in the Kingdom of God

According to Mike Baer, author of “Business as Mission”, a kingdom business or kingdom company means “a business that is specifically, consciously, clearly, and intentionally connected to the establishment of Christ’s kingdom in this world. In other words, it is directly involved in making disciples of all nations-beginning at home but with international involvement too.

Four characteristics of a kingdom business provide the outline for the book.

• vocational – a high and holy calling
• intentional – a discovered and executed purpose
• relational – a valued set of vital relationships, and
• operational – a demand for operational excellence.

God has a kingdom purpose for your business. Do you know what it is?

People are touched by us in the context of relationship. And through a vast number of touches, they are influenced toward God or away from him. Therefore, a kingdom business places great emphasis on how it relates to people and is constantly taking stock of relationships.

God has ordered his creation in such a way that above all things, relationships are of primary value and concern. The influence of the gospel does not come through organizations but comes through human interaction, through a people-to-people process. One of the most exciting aspects of business leadership is the amazing wealth of relationship, that corporate interaction provides.

Extending Kingdom Influence in the Marketplace

How you leave a season is how you enter a new season. The Heavens have

shifted, we see it economically and politically in every Nation. God has

repositioned you and I in the spiritual for what you have to do in the

natural and the number one challenge with chaos in the transition today,

is that it requires two things to be successful. The first is a clear ending of

the last cycle and two, a clear beginning of where you are going in the

next cycle that will pull you into the process of the new beginning,

because if you donʼt have a clear vision of where God is taking you, the

pull of the past will be stronger than the draw of the future. There is one

type of anointing to transition out of something, and there is another

anointing to transition into the next season.

Going into the future demands a clear ending to the past, and when we

begin to see the Global events that are shaping the next decade, the only

factor that will be a restraining force, will be the engagement of the

authority of heaven, over the affairs of hell by the church on earth, and

you and I will be the decisive factor.

Galatians 3 v 29 ʻIf you belong to Christ, then you are Abrahamʼs seed,

and heirs according to the promiseʼ. With every new season the mood of

Heaven changes. When the Angel showed up to Joshua and Joshua ran

toward Him and said ‘who are you, are you for us or against us’ The Angel

said ‘neither’.

The Lord had never shown up in this way before, the mood had changed,

the mood was now war, God was revealing that the spiritual activity on

earth had changed. God is going to reveal to you where the spiritual

activity on earth is taking place. Many are being drafted and positioned

into fields in the marketplace because God is reactivating the Covenant of

Abraham, we have an untapped legacy. When God reactivates and

revisits with a move of God, it is because the church has stopped

believing in an area and God is reawakening the church to the reality of

the Covenant, bringing us into a new level because we have over

spiritualised it, and therefore removed the power of it. This is a new day,

we are picking up the legacy that was left us, the DNA which is ours,

engaging the authority of our covenant, and affecting and winning every

sphere of influence in our cities and Nation.

~ Synopsis of Cre8 Conference’s Presenter Amanda Wells’ keynote address

 

Performance To Relationship

During the Cre8 Kingdom Business Conference, there will be a number of presentations which are significant in unpacking God’s purpose in the marketplace. One of the topics is ‘Transition from performance to relationship in family & business’.

Many marketplace believers struggle with the tension between business and family.  Others struggle with having their identity wrapped up in the success of their work. What does it mean to be successful in God’s eyes?

In this interactive presentation, 6 keys for achieving real prosperity and the importance of transforming your heart and values will be discussed.

Michael Baer’s Journey

After coming to Christ in college, I spent the first fourteen years of my adult life in the pastoral ministry—youth work, planting two churches, serving a third, and launching a Christian school. The Lord blessed my ministry, and I can truthfully say I enjoyed it and was secure in my call to it. However, over time I began to sense God lead­ing me into a different area. I began to desire to minister “free of charge” and to be out in the business world with lost people. I espe­cially wanted to get away from the constant discounting of the gospel that occurred because people I witnessed to believed that sharing the gospel was my job.

In the early 1980s I began to dabble in business while still in the pastorate. I was testing the waters, so to speak, and seeking to know what God might want me to do. Eventually I left the formal pastorate and spent the next ten years in business—starting several companies (including the one I now own) and leading turnaround endeavors in corporations owned by others. God was pleased to use me in both the pastorate and the corporate world, and I thank him for it. Opportu­nities abounded to communicate the gospel and to encourage believ­ers I met along the way. It was an exciting time. It was always fun to share how God had led me into the pastorate and then into busi­ness—these two apparently distinct parts of my life.

However, just as I sensed a leading from God out of the formal pastorate and into business, I also began to sense that there had to be more in my business life than just being a Christian witness on the job.

I began to pray and ask God to show me how these two apparently distinct parts of my life could actually come together fourteen years in ministry and ten years in business. Were they separate chapters, or were they, in fact, parts of a greater whole, the “big picture” that God had in store for me?

The answer to my questions came in the strangest of places. In 1993 I was invited to travel to a Muslim area of the former Soviet Union to develop and deliver leadership and management training for medical students. While there, I had what I have come to call the “for this was I born” experience. I finally understood why God had given me seminary training and pastoral experience as well as passion and success in business. His plan was to bring both together in my service for him. Specifically, he desired to use me through business to minister to those I could never reach otherwise. Through my work of business training, relationship and witness opportunities opened that I could never have imagined. God began to bless my work in powerful ways. For the next four years I returned to the former Soviet Union annually with teams of volunteer Christian business leaders to give business seminars and share the gospel with those who attended.

Even with God’s blessing on the volunteer work, I still sensed that the picture was not yet complete. Then, in 1997, I was approached by missionaries working in the same part of the world and asked to develop a program whereby impoverished and disenfranchised Christians could learn to start their own businesses. Their idea was that these persecuted believers could escape unemployment (over 90 percent in the Christian community in one country), provide for their families, support their local church, and even use their new businesses as a basis of church planting in remote areas. We launched this new program in 1998, and today the work that came out of that meeting is operating in more than twenty locations around the world, helping persecuted Christian minorities start businesses to provide economic traction for their own indigenous church-planting movements. At the same time, I left the company I had been working for and started a new consulting company, my current company, for the sole purpose of providing flexible employment for those who wanted to be a part of business missions overseas while remaining involved in business at home.

Today, a strong, for-profit consulting firm and an international microbusiness development agency exist as the result. Staff members and associates who share a commitment to Christ and to kingdom business work together along with hundreds of volunteers from other companies to take their business expertise and align it with church-planting ministries among the unreached.

What I have come to learn through all of this is that there are no “parts” to my life. My story may represent different chapters, but they are all part of one book, a book with one unified story, being written by God. I no longer wonder why God led me out of the pastorate and into business. I no longer think of it as leaving the ministry. Instead, I have begun to see that in God’s kingdom all things are equally sanc­tified by him and unified in him. For Christian business leaders, this leads to what I call “the seamless integration of business and mis­sion.” To pursue this seamless integration, we must reject the unbib­lical thinking that our lives can be compartmentalized into the sacred and secular or that business and ministry are by definition separate activities. Scripture teaches us rather to embrace the truth that all of Christ’s servants have callings that are high and holy and equally pleasing to the Lord. If God has called us into business, our goal is to discover why and to act on that purpose. As we do so, God’s creation will be blessed, and he will be glorified.

I certainly don’t expect that everyone will agree with what I have to say. I am, to quote my wife, “often wrong but never silent.” I only hope to stir up thinking and to promote greater dialogue on these critical issues among those who find themselves called by God into the ministry of business.

Why the Church Must Reach the Marketplace

Why the Church Must Reach the Marketplace.

Why the Church Must Reach the Marketplace

It is colloquially and consistently estimated that around 80% of the Christian population in the workforce are effectively de-evangelising the city!  How is this conclusion reached?

Because the Sacred/Secular divide is producing the following outcomes which are rife throughout the scattered church in the marketplace:

too busy to pray and read God’s Word not focussed on blessing others at work fear of damage to reputation indifference to Kingdom purposes at work ineffective in workplace influence fragmented Christian community at work

compromised behaviours intimidated by the forces of secularism criticism and judgment of others unprofessional behaviours lack of Holy Spirit empowerment at work little care for the souls of colleagues.

Accordingly if the scattered church’s Monday behaviour doesn’t reflect their Sunday belief… why would anyone believe our belief?  This is the elephant in the room!

This completely unacceptable situation is reflective of the tough call of Jesus at Matthew 12:30:

“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters”

This is why God has raised up the Cre8 conference – not to build an organisation – but to provide a training, equipping and networking conference that serves the wider church in the marketplace. If this resource is not used it will be lost, and thereby seriously setback the wider church’s capacity to influence the nation for Christ through the marketplace.

One answer to the Sunday/Monday divide is the Cre8 Kingdom Business Conference run by Australian Marketplace Connections, in collaboration with other partner churches and Christian organisations.

Peter Kentley, the Chair of Cre8 stated that Jesus wants to produce good fruit through his followers in their workplaces. Peter said that it is in the workplace that Christians are already strategically placed in the right demographics with the right people – those who need opportunities to work alongside someone who is a living letters of Jesus Christ to them (Luke 19:11-27, 2 Cor 3:2-3).

The Cre8 conference will bring together Christian leaders in the marketplace who have revolutionized their vision of Christ in the workplace.

Accordingly Cre8 will help attendees:

• discover what role Jesus for them in their workplaces
• become connected and empowered to accomplish God’s everyday calling in their lives
• be successful in their business and jobs so that they can bless others.

This explains the motto of the conference: Your Workplace – His Mission!

Sydney

Cre8 Kingdom Business Conference – for every working person

27-28 October, Hills Centre, Castle Hill, NSW.

Early Bird savings closes Friday 16 September

For details and registration visit:

www.cre8conference.org

Melbourne
Mentoring Round Table

Morning of Wednesday 21 October

Crossway Church, Burwood East

For details and registration visit:

www.marketplaceconnections.com/RoundTable11.htm

Synopsis Of Two Keynote Addresses

Michael Baer will be addressing various topics during the Cre8 Conference. Below are two of the keynote addresses:

The Fourth Pillar

The Sacred-Secular Divide has warped the way we view God’s Kingdom and our role in it. The dis-integration that came with the fall has continued into today’s Christian world and effectively excluded huge portions of God’s people from recognizing the amazing ministry opportunities right in front of them. God’s desire is to integrate all facets of life under the Lordship of Christ and to use us for His glory in all of them. Based on Business as Mission, this session will focus on the four characteristics of a “Kingdom Business” and the vital role that business is meant to play in what God is doing in the world.

BAM 2.0

What is the potential of Business as Mission in today’s environment–in Australia and beyond? What strategies work? What more is needed to unleash God’s business people to engage in powerful ministry in the workplace and through their business expertise? This address will focus on understanding what BAM is and is not, how it works and where, and challenge participants to seek out new and creative ways of deliberately and intentionally connecting their work to God’s.

Michael Baer, Author of ‘Business as Mission’, from the USA

We are living in the Business Age. The historic role of nation states is rapidly being replaced by the corporation. Like never before, Christian business leaders have the chance to play a pivotal role in transforming society and spreading the gospel. But seizing this opportunity requires thinking differently about God, about his kingdom, about his purposes in the world, and about business.

Businesspeople were excited by the prospect that they could use their business skills and their companies to serve God. They had never been challenged like this before, but they were rising to the call. One of them said to me, “The business community among Christians is like a vast reservoir of resources just waiting to be tapped for world missions!”

A great movement is beginning around the world—the kingdom business or “business as mis­sion” movement.

Imagine what could happen if every Christian businessperson recognized that God had a purpose for his or her company that was greater than profit, employment, or customer satisfaction. Imagine if the vast number of believing business owners and operators were to turn their companies over to God to use for his glory. Imagine the power and joy of integrating business and faith for God’s kingdom.

Think of the financial, technological, and human resources that would come into play. Think of the ways in which entire societies could be transformed for Christ.

We who are serious about our faith and our walk before God spend a great amount of time in our businesses; in fact, we spend more time on our corporate pursuits than on any other single part of our lives! Do we want that time to be wasted and underutilized, or do we want to discover how to make that time fully honor the Lord? The purpose of this book is to explore how companies can align with God’s purpose and bring him glory.

We are very fortunate to have Michael Baer, author of ‘Business as Mission’ from the USA, as one of the keynote speakers this year. The conference will allow hundreds of business leaders to come together to be empowered, to realise their calling in the marketplace and to make a difference in their daily occupation.

For more information about the conference visit www.cre8conference.org or call (02) 8006 9222 or (03) 9816-7114

About Cre8 2011

Cre8 Kingdom Business Conference
Thu 27 – Fri 28 Oct
The Hills Centre, Castle Hill, Sydney

This year The Cre8 Kingdom Business Conference will be held in Sydney – but will also run a half day Round Table on ‘Business as Mission’ in Melbourne on Friday 21 Oct.

The Cre8 Kingdom Business Conference is the leading event supporting employees who want to make a difference for Christ, along with Christian civic, business and professional leaders and entrepreneurs who want to find their God-given destiny in the marketplace. Cre8 trains and equips Christians in the workforce to be well connected leaders of character, excellence and influence.

Cre8 works in partnership with local Churches to provide focused teaching and resources on the hallmarks of business success.

Attendees will connect with highly regarded leaders committed to serving Christ in the marketplace, through workshops and keynote presentations. We are very fortunate to have Michael Baer, author of ‘Business as Mission’ from the USA, as one of the keynote speakers this year.

Please note that there is an early bird discount of $50 reducing the cost to $247 for the two day conference, provided you book by 16 Sept.

To find out more please log on to our website at: www.cre8conference.org