February 21st, 2007

Building the First Online Community at the Intersection of the Bible and Business

It's tough — very tough — to develop a worldview that is increasingly biblical, and then to live out that worldview in the marketplace. Some say there is no place for faith in the marketplace. Others retreat to a private spirituality, saying “Business is business and my personal life is none of your business.” Still others may try to “christianize” their businesses in subtle or overt ways.

From our perspective at InsideWork we are seeing the stirrings of another approach. Many of you are quietly leading the way. You seek to live in a way that honors God and follows the implications of biblical principles and truths. You see that the world of commerce has a purpose in the Kingdom of God and that business can be conducted in ways that demonstrate the reality of God's Kingdom and transform the world. We've heard you say that though you honor traditional religious institutions that they rarely speak to the real issues you face. As one of our colleagues said, “When was the last time you heard a sermon on cash flow?” And you've also told us that you learn the most from a handful of people who are kindred spirits.

Another observation we've had is that these "kindred spirits" don't want to join one more thing, but want to connect and learn. And it’s from these connections that the answers to the tough questions emerge, answers that neither the sermons at church nor the lectures in B-school provide. Out of the dialogue come the answers that help us develop a more biblical worldview, and work and business practices that reflect that worldview.

Announcing our Partnership with GoingOn

These observations are the reason that over the past several months we have been working out a partnership with GoingOn. Several weeks ago we are launched our partnership by creating the InsideWork Community at GoingOn. We are currently in the quiet beta phase working out the technical details and creating some initial content. An major launch effort will occur in the months ahead that will market this platform to millions of people. So we’re excited to get in early and to prepare.

GoingOn is a blog publishing and community platform that is organized as a "network of networks". It seeks to disintermediate traditional media and become the space where the new media will aggregate. Although currently in beta, GoingOn already has over 300 networks and over 50,000 individual members involved.

Our partnership with GoingOn enables us to further position ourselves in the business marketplace with our unique message. We have had nothing but encouragement from the folks at GoingOn about our participation. They reinforce the need for our unique voice in this network of networks.

What does this partnership create?

Our partnership enables us to build the IW Community, the first online community that stands at the intersection of the Bible and business. Our conviction is that we, collectively, from the trenches of the marketplace can help encourage, coach, and teach one another to live out a biblically based life in business.

The IW Community site provides you with the platform to connect and interact with “kindred spirits”. And the site provides the mechanisms you need to share your insights, questions, comments, and experiences. It also enables you to join and participate in other networks personally and professionally.

How do I get started?

By clicking on the IW Community tab at the top right of the InsideWork front page, you will be taken to the InsideWork network. On this page, you will see a host of features and resources. For example, you will find a column named InsideWork Insight where our writers and guest authors will contribute their articles. There is a second column called Member Posts where our community, people like you, can contribute their thoughts, questions, rants, and observations and where you can comment upon the writings of others.

Sign in by clicking on Join This Network. The registration process is very simple and free.

Okay. I’ve signed in. Now what?

Once you register you can take full advantage of the InsideWork GoingOn community and all its tools and resources. For example:

• Take a moment to read some of the member posts and then add your thoughts, comments or feedback on one of the posts
• Create a professional and personal profile to introduce yourself to the network. This can be as simple or as elaborate as you want and you can specify the degree to which it is shared. Develop your personal profile by clicking on the 'My Member Page' link on the left and then on the 'Edit Profile' link that appears under that. This optional step will allow you to develop your unique online identity in the community (and don't worry...there are privacy settings that allow you to control accessibility to the information you enter).
• Create your own blog post. The process is very simple. Click on “create a post.” Don’t feel that the post has to be a masterpiece or a graduate thesis. Most good posts are a simple insight or question, a brief commentary on something that you’ve been thinking about. A good post is an invitation to create a conversation around a topic that’s on your mind.
• Branch out and join other GoingOn communities that align with your professional and personal interests.

You can make a difference in the world of commerce!

We believe that over time the cumulative wisdom and experience of the IW community will build a body of knowledge that will guide many toward a more biblical approach to work and business. And in turn, this can have a transformative effect on a personal as well as a global scale. So don’t hang out in the background. Join the conversation. Become part of the community.

Thanks to those of you who have kicked off the conversation. And thanks to those of you who will join in the days ahead. We can’t wait to hear from you and learn from you. We’re excited for InsideWork as it becomes a community of people passionate about faith and work and about innovation and transformation in the global marketplace.

Go to the IW Community.

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We struggle to keep up with the changes in technology. Just about the same time that we think we have mastered one thing, it’s been replaced. Nowhere is this as true as on the internet.

Technology can take a long time to develop and get traction. The internet itself was first developed in the 1969 as a Cold War project to create a communication network, ARPANET, that was protected from nuclear attack. By 1971, the number of nodes was 23. By 1994 there were 4 million. And today, there are well over a billion users.

An interesting aspect of technology is that first we shape it, and then it shapes us. We develop technology often to do better or faster or cheaper what we are already doing. But then the technology itself begins to develop and open the doors to opportunities and uses that we couldn’t have imagined.

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From the Archives

Capital as a Regenerative Force in God's Economy

“An economy living on capital rather than income resembles a body deprived of nourishment, living off its own tissues and wasting away. But this is not an organism that is starving because of the pressure of external factors beyond its control. It is, rather, suffering from an infantile inability to discipline itself and provide for its future."
— Herb Schlossberg

God's economic activity, in the structuring of the material world, was designed to give us capital so that we could, generation after generation, fulfill his mandate to be fruitful and to continue working the earth productively. The sun gives energy. The land gives increase. It is God, as the Apostle Paul works the metaphor in 1 Corinthians 3, “who makes things grow.”

God could certainly have provided ongoing handouts or constituted humankind as his wage-slaves. Instead, God established an economic system in which land was allocated to families. This distribution of capital was not merely to accumulate wealth but to see it employed productively.

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