Monday, December 23, 2024

From Malawi: "Living for Christ in the Marketplace"

This week, I received the 2025 theme from one of our partner churches in Malawi: "Living for Christ in the Marketplace." When I see that a church has set a year-long theme like this, I praise God for what He is doing in the marketplace!

What better gift can there be during Christmas then people being discipled to live as Jesus did, being a witness every day, in every way!

This outline came from Pastor Francis, with the City Pentecostal Church of Malawi. Their vision statement for 2025 is, "Empowering believers to embody Christ-like values in their workplaces, businesses, and daily interactions, becoming ambassadors of Christ in every sphere of influence."

They have selected these three verses to support this theme: 

Matthew 5:14-16: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden... let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Colossians 3:23-24: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men... You are serving the Lord Christ.”

Proverbs 22:29: “Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.”

 They have identified these thematic objectives:

  1. Equip Believers for Influence: Teach practical and biblical principles for living out faith in professional and social spheres.
  2. Foster Excellence and Integrity: Encourage Christ-centered values in work ethics, business dealings, and relationships.
  3. Promote Marketplace Evangelism: Inspire believers to share the gospel through their actions and testimony at work.
  4. Encourage Work-Life Balance: Help members integrate their faith with their professional and personal lives in a holistic way.

And these are the key pillars of the theme:

  1. Faith at Work: Develop workshops and sermons on how to live out Christian principles in daily tasks and decisions. Explore stories of biblical figures who influenced the marketplace, like Joseph, Daniel, Lydia, and Paul.
  2. Excellence as Witness: Teach the importance of excellence in work as an act of worship. Offer training on skill development and professional growth grounded in biblical values.
  3. Ethics and Integrity: Highlight the role of integrity in building trust and reflecting Christ. Discuss real-life challenges like honesty in finances, workplace conflicts, and ethical dilemmas.
  4. Evangelism in Action: Encourage creative ways to share faith in the marketplace (e.g., mentorship, acts of kindness, prayer groups). Provide resources on starting workplace Bible studies or small prayer groups.

Great stuff!  So practical and applicable to every believer in every workplace!

For me, this is a gift, all wrapped up in a beautiful vision of members being change agents on the front lines, reconciling people to Christ through their work.  

What a gift to the world, through Christ, that can keep on giving!

Please join us in prayer for this church, and so many others, who are seeking to help the church be the church every day of the week!

From DML, we wish you a blessed Christmas!

Monday, December 16, 2024

The Adventure of Becoming

This week I turn 56 years old, and I finally know what I want to be when I grow up! 

Well, maybe it's more accurate to say that "I now know better who I am," as I'm not planning on changing anything with this realization.  

And the funny thing is that apparently, I have come full circle.  

When I was young, I wanted to be a social worker.  That is what my first degree was in, and that is what I did for the first sixteen years of my working life.  But then I moved to Liberia and got involved in business development, while still doing community development.  I then dropped the community development and moved fulltime into business development.  Felt a bit like a fish out of water.  

In 2013, I began to bring the message of business development into the church and found myself teaching at seminaries and mostly speaking to pastors and denominational leaders.  I usually would start my self-introduction by saying that "I'm not a pastor."  Felt even more like a fish out of water.

Over the years, I often struggled with the fact that I was working primarily with three groups of people (pastors/church leaders, businesspersons, and missionaries) and I didn't identify with any of them!  [While many missionaries say they wanted to be a missionary since they were a child, it wasn't even on my radar until I was 36 years old!]

But this last year confirmed to me that I am, and always have been, a social worker.  The goal of this social worker is to see people flourish and poverty alleviated.  That passion is driven by my faith which says that ALL should flourish, regardless of race, tribe, or creed, for the glory of God...and that the need is urgent.


Why am I telling you this story?  Good question.  Give me another minute and I'll get there.

When I married Bob Reed, attending Madison Square Church in Grand Rapids, I was exposed to the challenges of racism.  As a Canadian, it was not something I was aware of growing up.  Bob and I decided to live a life that would seek to be good neighbors to those suffering under the weight of racism, and for me, also wrestling with the accompanying poverty that comes with racism.  We moved into our church neighborhood and the community development organization, Restorers, was started in partnership with five neighborhood churches and a great team of neighbors linking arms to work together.  We lived and worked there for seven years.

Then Bob had a burden for Africa. I resisted it for a number of years.  But when Restorers was ready to be turned over to other leadership, I agreed to go on an exploratory trip to Liberia.   Upon seeing the devastating poverty there, as a result of a 15-year civil war, Bob and I prayerfully decided to move there with Hannah and Noah.  Through a path that is much too long to write here, I found that business was the best solution for long-term alleviation of poverty.  I did that directly for the next seven years and furthered my education (MBA and PhD in sustainable development) in this regard. Then, DML was born out of the need for ongoing discipleship for the workplace, leading to the next twelve years.

And now the reason for this tome.  

My husband Michael has been working with Christian theologians and authors for the past four years relating to the plight of the Palestinians. As he is an AMAZING supporter of my work with DML, I told him a few months ago that I would support him if he wanted to do something related to this passion of his. That led to us attending a conference last week in Southern California, put on by the Network of Evangelicals for the Middle East (NEME), entitled "How American Christians Should Respond to Palestine and Israel."  

And my heart was broken again by what I heard and saw.  I know I have a lot on my plate with DML, but as my heart broke and my anger was stoked, I again saw that the root of who I am as a social worker. I get angry at injustice and inhumane treatment of humanity.  I learned about my own uninterrogated assumptions regarding Palestine and Israel. 

[And of course, it made me realize that there are countless uninterrogated assumptions that I hold!  In some ways, there is safety in that.  If I truly knew the depth of human depravity relating to every issue, my heart couldn't hold it.]  

So my question to God over this past week has been, why this issue at this time?  Am I supposed to do something with it or is it just Michael's issue?  In the past, Madison's issue became my issue.  Bob's issue became my issue.  What about now?

As I've started reading books written on the history of Palestine and Israel, I feel, at the very least, I need to share what I'm learning.  

It is for this reason that I have kept the "Reeds in the Wind" blog and not given it up to only focus on the DML blog.  The Reeds in the Wind blog was started by Bob in 2005 (formerly called Reeds in Liberia) and it allowed us to chronicle our life journey, being blown in the Wind that is the Holy Spirit.  We've been able to share not just our ministry journey, but our family and faith journey as well.  

So I'm going to write a three-part blog on this particular issue.  This is NOT a DML issue.  This is a "Renita the social worker issue."  I hope that makes sense.

Part one of this blog will look at the actual historical formation of the country of Israel and the interaction with Palestine.  Part two will be to examine the role and beliefs of Christians in relation to the formation and the current situation.  Part three will examine the current war between Israel and Palestine and how Christians should respond.

I hope you will join me on this journey.  I'm not an expert by any means.  I will provide some book recommendations, articles, and links for you to do your own exploration should your curiosity be piqued.  I would welcome your feedback as well as we journey together!

Monday, December 2, 2024

Not everyone will be an entrepreneur. But everyone should be entrepreneurial.

There are some sayings that I run across now and then that stick.

One such saying is that "not everyone has a job, but everyone has work."

Another saying is that "not everyone will be an entrepreneur, but everyone should be entrepreneurial."

We are made in the image of a creative, working God, who is innovative and entrepreneurial. While many of us may never start a business or be called an entrepreneur, we are all to be entrepreneurial in how we work. This means that we are to look at how we can bring creativity and problem-solving skills to our workplace - wherever it is that we spend our time. And this means that we must be in a posture of learning and creativity.

At our recent Global Summit, we declared 2025 to be the Year of Entrepreneurship and Agriculture - in other words, YEA 2025!  Regarding entrepreneurship, many of our partners are receiving invitations to speak at denominational youth conferences.  The young adults in the majority world (ages 18-35) are facing significant unemployment, despite having university degrees.  We have access to millions of these young adults through our denominational partnerships!  In fact, one of our key leaders in a very large denomination is now the leader of young adult ministries, opening the door for us to break down the sacred secular divide in significant ways.

The impact study that we just concluded with 500 marketplace ministers across ten countries tells us that for every business trained, five jobs are created!  This is an increase from last year's impact study which showed two new jobs created for every business trained.  This is truly exciting as it means more people can care for themselves and their families and find their way out of poverty.

Imagine the potential if every young adult is trained in entrepreneurship?  The median age in Africa is 19.2 years old (compared to 38.5 years in the US and 44.5 years in Europe).  Imagine if every young adult understands that they can be job makers, not just job seekers?  That they can bring solutions to problems, for the flourishing of their communities and nations, and not just work for money?  That they can have a Biblical worldview towards work, doing their work with excellence and integrity, while loving their neighbor and being mission minded?

Are you ready to say YEA 2025???

This Tuesday is Giving Tuesday, and we have a donor who will match all gifts given in the last six weeks of 2024, up to $25,000.  Will you partners with us to reach this goal so that we can move into 2025 with strength? With your partnership, we will have the ability to bring this message to 21 countries, through 28 partners.  To be a partner with DML, please click here for more information.