Now, I have authority over this person.  I could have fired them, made life miserable, or at the very least given them a stern talking-to.  Instead, I walked back to my office and spent a half hour in prayer.  I can’t honestly say that I wasn’t angry, but I didn’t retaliate, even though it was my right to do so according to the laws of man that govern the workplace.

The problem is this:  Paul said, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. (1 Corinthians 9:19)”

Although the world may say that I have the right to fire the person, make their life miserable, etc., the bible tells me that I am to default to the higher calling of love at all times.  Slaves have no rights.  You know who else has no rights?  Dead people.

“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, (Romans 6:5)”

The thing about Christ’s death is that it was voluntary.  He had the authority, power, and every right to retalliate against those who were nailing him to the cross, but he didn’t.  He had already committed himself to death on my behalf, and dead people have no rights.

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7) so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;” (1 Peter 1:6-7)

This scripture is a tack-on to our discussion from yesterday.  I said that if you don’t like the shaking, you really won’t like the consuming fire.  Of course, the reality is that the consuming fire is meant to be a refining force that will perfect your character and faith in God.

Don’t be mad at God if your portfolio has decreased.  Don’t lose faith.  Don’t be so easily shaken.  Your relationship with God is more precious than gold.  We’ve been saying it all along.  Now it’s time to see who really believes it.

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 26) And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.”

 27) This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

 28) Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;

 29) for our God is a consuming fire.  (Hebrews 12:25-29)

Have you been wondering what in the world is going on with the economy, the financial markets, and the country in general?  The scripture above tells us that everything that can be shaken will be shaken.  It begs the question, is your dependance resting upon the systems of man, or upon faith in the Lord?

It’s about time that the high and mighty things of this world begin to come tumbling down around us.  Not that I’m some sort of dooms day prophet or anything, but I just see the eventuality of the whole system coming to its natural point of termination.  If you’re not comfortable with a little shaking (stock market fluctuation, falling dollar, etc), then you’re really not going to like the part about the consuming fire.  Just a thought.

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“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

Jesus was perhaps one of the busiest men in recorded history.  He engaged the sick, broken-hearted, lost, and religious all day every day.  If he had a blackberry, I’m sure it would never cease popping up appointment after appointment.  Still, Jesus took the time to escape from the throng of onlookers and spend time in prayer. 

Perhaps Jesus had a supernatural level of energy that allowed him to rise early in the morning and devote himself to prayer.  I’d like to offer that perhaps his rising early for prayer provided him with the supernatural energy that he needed in order to sustain his tremendous ministry schedule. 

Prayer is not a hinderance to productivity.  Prayer is productivity.

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I don’t know of a single Christian Business person who doesn’t want a prosperous business.  In fact, most that I know devote their entire lives to operating their business in such a way that it will bring glory to God.  I’d like to point out a small but important principle that may help.

Internal realities always become external realities.  Whatever a man holds dear in his heart is what will manifest in his life.  That’s why the scripture above makes the connection between the prosperity of the soul and the outward manifestation of prosperity. 

Do you have a prosperous soul?  Do you spend as much time developing your spirit man as you spend developing your business plan?  It’s food for thought.

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Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

The fruit of the spirit are often described as the nine visible attributes of a true Christian life.  They are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. (Galations 5:22-23) These attributes sound like exactly what Seth was looking for when he wrote his post.  And, since you can hardly separate a life of devotion to the Lord and these attribues, your Christian business should have them in spades. 

Are you leveraging the fruit of the spirit in your marketing efforts?

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9) So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

10) For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

11) Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4: 9-12)

The King James version actually exhorts us to labor to enter that rest, which is an amazing and seemingly contradictory statement.  Work hard to not work.  Put in effort to be effortless.

What we’re actually being encouraged to do is abandon our striving, approval-seeking laborious behavior and operate our Christian businesses from the perspective that we are loved, accepted, and highly regarded by God despite the success or stature of our business.  That revelation doesn’t make me want to do nothing; it makes me want to do everything.  The difference is that I’m not performing in order to earn His approval or provide for my own substinence, but rather to honor Him who equipped me for business in the first place.

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To kick off the session, we need to identify what it is that creates sales to begin with.  If two hardware shops with identical inventory sat side by side on a city street, which one would people shop at and why?

There are actually several factors that would play into that decision, but I submit to you that the two most important factors to me would be trust and personality.

Trust. One of those two hardware store owners is a personal friend of mine.  I’ve known him for years.  That makes it an easy decision for me, and probably for you as well.  I trust that he’ll give me a fair deal, and that he’ll shoot me straight about what I really need to purchase.  I know that he won’t take advantage of me because we know one another, and people who know one another simply don’t take advantage.  Or so the saga goes.

Personality.  Lets say that I don’t know either shop owner, but that the guy in store number two always has a smile on his face or a joke when I line up at the checkouts.  My perception is that, all things being equal, I’ll have a better time doing business with this guy, so that’s where I end up spending my money.

SEO is just a junk drawer full of nuts and bolts. You can do something with it in a pinch, but it’s never going to be enough to build something lasting.  For that end, you need to leverage your “voice” to convey your trustworthiness and personality.

The fact that blogs work more effeciently in search engines than static web pages is academic at this point.  If you don’t believe me, just google it.  Google never lies.  But that being said, getting web traffic isn’t the end game of the Christian business.  Getting sales is.  

Most people who responded to my call to action on my real estate blog and became clients eventually said something to the effect of “I feel like I’ve known you for years, and I just really wanted to deal with somebody I could trust.”  That’s something that could never have been accomplished with a static page and my resume.  It takes voice.  It takes a blog.

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You have no doubt already answered life’s great questions by now:  What is the meaning of life?  What is my life’s calling?  What happened to that other black sock?  Now, you’re ready for the Holy Grail of questions….

What are the ninja secrets of the Christian business blog?

Very good question. There are three ninja secrets of the Christian business blog.  They are as follows:

1) A Christian Business blog can do everything a static page can do, but better. It’s kinda like having a ninja basketball player.  It’s one thing to be able to dunk, but a ninja player can do the backflip dunk….but I digress.  The blog can do anything, absolutely anything, that the static page can do, but with the added functionality of being a Google….well, ninja.  It’s sneaky like that.

2) A Christian Business blog can vanquish foes faster than a Chinese star.  It’s called market dominance, and you’ll have it after three months of consistently writing about your shiny red widget, or whatever else it is that you sell.  Why?  Because blogs use special ninja power to leverage search engines to work on your behalf.  All you have to do is stay on topic, deliver some quality content, and try not to scare anybody away with your startlingly loud “keeeeee-ya!”

3) A Christian Business Blog can make you smarter and thinner.  No, but that would be cool.  But it can leverage the time you spend online to make you a lot of money, which will make you feel smarter anyway.  He He.   Still, the previous two points remain true.  Many, many small business owners devote large sums of money to pay-per-click advertising, billboards, newspaper ads, and more.  The truth is that those types of leads are only partially qualified when compared to genuine, long tail searchers looking for your exact product.  The best way to reach these folks, by and large, is the blog. 

How do I get one?  It’s weird that you should ask that question.  I actually know a guy.  He designs cool, beautiful, functional, powerfully optimized blog solutions for Christian businesses.  You should write him. 

Seriously.  Click the link. 

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1) There is no magic formula.  The SEO experts don’t know anything you can’t find out on your own.  The last time I checked, Google isn’t giving inside looks at their algorithm for search results.  You simply have to figure out what works.  And, google changes said algorithm often enough that nobody will ever fully “figure out” what makes it tick.  So, you probably aren’t going to learn anything about SEO from a highly paid SEO expert that you wouldn’t have learned from a good SEO book and a few hours of internet study time.  It’s kinda like my Criminal Justice degree.  It sure was a great way to spend money, but I didn’t learn anything I couldn’t have gotten from a bag of popcorn and a Cops marathon on the tube.

2) If you blog it, they will come.  The previous point being thoroughly established, there is one thing that you need to to in order to ascend to dominance in the search engines for shiny red widgets (or whatever it is that you’re selling).  You must blog it.  Write an article every day about a new and exciting aspect of your shiny red widget.  Tell people why they should love your shiny red widget.   Tell people why your shiny red widget is a great value.  Winning in the search engines is about creating focused, keyword-rich content.  Other than that, there is no secret.  Blogs do it better and easier than static websites, but you can achieve SEO bliss with either platform with enough study and patience. Now, get to it.

On a side note: if anybody is actually able to capture a photo of an SEO expert in real life, I’d like to see it.  My understanding is that they are kinda like the Loch Ness Monster.  You hear a lot about them, but when it’s time to prove that you’re an SEO expert, you’re left with a grainy photo of something resembling a website….weird.

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