What is Marketplace Ministries?

Marketplace ministries is simply believers demonstrating the practical love and power of God into their places of work.

Some of the business leaders who have demonstrated impacting the world through their businesses include David Green, founder of Hobby Lobby who lavishly donates much of his millions in profits every year. As reported in Forbes, he openly confesses he lives and his life and runs his company to honor and serve Jesus Christ.

Two other Christian business leaders who made it clear that their life and business is completely dedicated to Jesus Christ are Truett Cathy of Chick-fil-A and Norm Miller of Interstate Batteries. As a way of honoring God and give his employees time to spend with their families, Truett determined to have all of his stores closed on Sunday. Without shame, Norm seeks to lead other leaders to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Both emphasize providing superior customer service while overtly influencing people to honor God

Tim Redmond’s insights and extensive work in this area are explained below.

Tim wants to alert pastors to reposition their churches to attract, nurture, and promote Christian business leaders via the marketplace ministry in their churches. As stated in ChasimaNews, “Bishop T.D. Jakes of Potter’s House says it is critical for pastors to learn how to work with business leaders if they want the church to move forward financially.”

Pastor Bill Winston, who founded and leads Living Word Christian Center in Forest Park, IL demonstrated the power of marketplace ministries. He founded Joseph Business School to train marketplace ministries leaders in Biblically-based entrepreneurship skills. The business school is an outgrowth of Bill Winston’s church and is accredited with the ACCET (Accredited Council for Continuing Education and Training.

The book of Acts shows the marketplace ministry in full display. Throughout Acts, there are about 40 miracles conducted to showcase the love of Jesus and the passion to save His creation. As you read through this book of the Bible, you’ll find a common theme with a majority of these miracles.

Almost all of them took place in the marketplace ministries in the most practical way. Out on the streets and expanding throughout the cities, these miracles were quite impactful where they occurred.

That’s what Tim Redmond’s friend and Pastor Buck Schafer of Grace Life Church in Monroeville, PA emphasizes with their business leaders. Pastor Buck infuses his people with boldness and confidence to demonstrate the love and miracles of Christ practically in their place of business.

On top of the miracles in the book of Acts, you’ll continue to find throughout the Bible stories of the lives of business leaders. A majority of the disciples Jesus chose young businessmen. Even in the Old Testament, almost every person God chose in the Bible were business people.

Just consider the patriarchs of the Jewish and Christian faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Each of these men were very successful businessmen. Many of the parables Jesus used contained details rooted in business.

A key objective for God is the great commission. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)”

Ministering and addressing the great commission is not merely an activity found within the church walls. Furthermore, there’s no requirement to stand behind a pulpit. It was always meant to exist as an active, expansive mission for Christians.

Many great Christian leaders chose to pursue the more traditional ministry routes such as pastoring, leading worship, or ministering to specific groups like children, youth, women and men. However, there is a key group that is rarely acknowledged by our churches. Which group is that?

The Christian business leaders and influencers are not frequently targeted as a key demographic of ministry for churches or non-profit organizations. Yet when activated, this group can easily implement the most effective force for good in the community at large and act as the financial backbone for the local church.

How Tim Redmond Helps Marketplace Ministries

Tim Redmond traveled the world to inspire and create marketplace ministries for several years after the sale of Tax & Accounting Software Corporation. Tim joined the founder, Tim Kloehr, and worked to build it to almost $40 million a year in sales with over 350 employees.

After selling the company, Tim Redmond traveled throughout the world over 150,000 miles and spoke to over 100,000 people each year. During this time, he experienced and facilitated the transformation of these communities. After adhering to Tim’s laid out structure and plan, the pastors and Christian business leaders followed the path to fulfill their goals for involvement with these business leaders.

To illustrate a very real scenario, he was asked to speak and minister to a church of a few thousand members in a church lead by Pastor Faji just north of Brasilia, Brazil. In his time with these people, he also met exclusively with the leaders of the church (as he will with any of the church organizations he works with) to speak specifically to how they can proactively implement these strategies.

Fast forward a couple of years later and Tim was asked to speak at a conference in Brasilia with Sara Nossa Terra with his friend Dr. Myles Munroe. Pastor Faji heard Tim was coming so he arranged for Tim to also speak at his church Monday evening. Tim spoke with one of the associate pastors about the power of setting up a marketplace ministry department in their church. He gave this pastor very specific steps to take in setting it up.

In just a couple years, this church followed Tim’s methods for marketplace ministries. When Tim was invited back, Pastor Faji had him address their marketplace ministry group. Overwhelmed at seeing this group of over 1,000 Christian business leaders, politicians, and influencers, Tim provided a powerful training session for them.

Because of the church’s dedication to this group of influential people, they created a network to tap into and spread the witness of God throughout Brasilia and the surrounding cities.

Marketplace Ministries Defined

Tim Redmond defines marketplace ministries as “the equipping of people to unleash the power and presence of Jesus Christ in their place of business.” While men’s, women’s and youth ministries all provide immense value, the church frequently ignores this powerful segment of their church.

If the church wants to seek out change and development in their communities to Christian values, who would be the best people to minister to specifically? The most influential people in their areas, which are the business leaders who provide services to their communities on a regular basis.

It’s a changed mindset

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

That has been the focus of a number of marketplace ministry organizations. Though Dr. David Shibley has been training leaders around the world to impact their communities with Christ, in 2004, he launched Marketplace Missions as a way of equipping Christian business leaders to use their skills and influence to bring positive change.

As well, CBMC International, founded in 1930, has expanded to all over the world in its quest to equip marketplace ministry leaders to leverage their financial and knowledge to influence their community with the practical aspects of serving the needs of their communities.

Leaders need to take a mindset shift to be effective. What does it take charge of this bold endeavor to build a strong, faithful community of believing business owners? It takes a strong charge of endurance and persistence to keep the mission strong. Hesitation is likely to slowly drift in to weaken these bold plans. That’s the temptation with any new venture plowing resistant ground in their pursuit of productivity. It’s like maintaining purposefulness though lost in the wilderness. Remember the Israelites in the wilderness? It’s no different with any Christian business leader today.

It’s a deeply-seeded need for marketplace ministry leaders to fully change the mindsets of believers in the church and in the business community. For most of the church community and business leaders, this will be a big shift. Taking ministry marketplace out to an uncomfortable place like offices and shopping districts and with employees.

Even if people tried to go after a big goal for developing marketplace ministries, it would end in a flop. Failure would deter others from venturing into this next time. On the reverse spectrum, people get really excited about the initiative initially. They have high hopes and big dreams of marketplace ministries unleashed. Yet due to the lack of leadership and experience, many marketplace ministry initiatives fall flat.

With Redmond Growth Consulting, Redmond Leadership Institute and Tim Redmond’s leadership, you can expect success with your initiatives. He is a proven master at leading the charge on shifting the mindset and culture of a church community. You can expect to experience marketplace ministries to revitalize their local Christian business leaders.

Tim has spoken in multiple international countries and ministering to tens of thousands of Christian business leaders. He lives for the moments where he shows a hungry church the way to take their team to the next level. Through his speaking engagement with the church, he preaches to the whole congregation on the power of this ministry. Then, he meets specifically with the leaders to train them. Finally, he dives deep into the issues the pastor faces and works one-on-one to address them head on.

It’s an active commitment

Too many marketplace ministries initiatives are one-and-done ordeals. There is initial tremendous hype for the business leaders’ event. But without the proper structure and leadership, the program drifts to ineffectiveness. Soon after, people forget about the true value. They go back to what they always do and don’t proactively change. This is a dangerous spot for “change” movements. Real, life change cannot happen in a small, momentary point. True change occurs over the consistent effort of work and discipline.

The most effective marketplace ministry initiatives create events to invoke a process. The “event” inspires business leaders. They see one another making a commitment to be a marketplace minister who makes a difference. They hear impacting stories of marketplace ministers creating real and eternal results as they go about their normal business affairs. These events keep the marketplace ministers involved in the crucial process of increasing their skills to impact their area. It is leaning into an ongoing process that makes positive change last longer.

With the implementation for marketplace ministry work, it’s important that this becomes a focal point for your church. Not just a side project that the pastor likes to mention every once and awhile, but as a very important and intentional gear in the overall church machinery.

As a pastor or Christian business leader, do you really want to see change in your local area with initiatives, campaigns and organizations for development? Know it will take countless hours of work and organization. Doing all that preparation for one memorable, inspiring event may seem more enjoyable, but the real, long-term rewards go to the persistent leader who consistently plows through the work needed to be done.

Thankfully, you have a resource like Tim Redmond. His experience led enormous programs for strategy and implementation with marketplace ministries. With his planning and laid-down format to execution alone, Tim guided multiple churches to build communities filled with effective of business owners.

With Tim’s tailored assistance and work as well, you will fully realize the capabilities of what your church body and your Christian business leaders can bring to the table. Schedule a time to talk with Tim and book him for a speaking arrangement at your church or organization to plant the seed for growth and development for marketplace ministries.

It’s a Group-Involved Effort.

No single human being dramatically increases the welfare of a community by himself or herself. Sure, there may exist a leader who guides the pathway forward, but all leaders know too many individuals and groups to thank for the whole success of the efforts. It is the same way for marketplace ministries.

Ephesians 4:15-16 states, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

Do not grow your marketplace ministry into a group of individual thinkers who cannot get behind each other for a single cause. The group joins and holds together their purpose to bring tremendous, impactful ways of spreading God’s example to the marketplace. There are literally endless ways to do this!

As Tim mentioned earlier in this article, a majority of the miracles mentioned in the book of Acts come from the marketplace. This is clearly explained in Ed Silvoso’s book, Anointed for Business. These are miracles and testimonies of the early church build and solidifying their community through the word and powerful action that flowed from the presence of God in their daily lives. Within the first thirty days alone, driven by many miracles in the marketplace, the church grew to several thousands of people.

For most thriving churches, it takes a decade or more to grow to an attendance of several thousand members. How was the early church able to accomplish their domination in the land in such a short time? So much so it threatened the king. In striving to get control, Caesar at or about the time events in the book of Acts occurred begin banning Christianity. Through their efforts combined with God’s grace and practical power, they effectively captivated entire communities to follow God and his Word.

With Tim’s guidance in launching your marketplace ministries, he will help you plan and coordinate the necessary steps. This is done by the practical, step-by-step action plan to interact with the local business leaders and game changers in the region. You will see change by activating their efforts for the kingdom of God and instilling the same passion you and your pastor retain for the area. Prepare to witness a movement of proactive action for accomplishing tangible “SMART” goals.

It’s a Focused, God-driven Objective

Continuing our thought, it is imperative to make crystal clear the marketplace ministries objectives. To accomplish real results requires intense focus on what it will take to master it. Too many organizations unknowingly only go half of the way to this point of mastery. They don’t solidify their efforts to really go the full necessary length. They stop short of bringing themselves to point of full accomplishment of their goals.

You have to be prepared to focus even if it takes longer than anticipated. Just consider that it took huge companies like ESPN, Amazon, Fedex or Google several years, even over a decade in some cases, to actually pass the profitability mark of their business.

The first obstacle to reaching significant achievements simply boils down to creating related big, hairy, audacious goals. Jim Collins in his 1994 book, Built to Last, referred to them as BHAGs.  Many individuals shy away from the thought of going for a giant goal with their life pursuits.

They are afraid to imagine what to even reach for. When they decide to join up with Redmond, he will work with them to build their confidence. As they gain strength, Tim leads his clients to much higher goals and pursuits than they ever imagined. Why does he do this? What drives him?

Tim has written in his book, Power to Create, about how many people live with a “poverty mindset.” It may sound a bit harsh, but do you ever see people who look like they just settled in life? They are playing “not to lose” rather than “playing to win.” They work in the same job for several years, rarely getting promoted. They trudge along doing the same things without ever challenging themselves or their organization to rise to new levels. What attitude towards life do they frequently express?

Are they reminiscing too often about the “brighter days” in the past? You may not find yourself relating to these trivial scenarios, but after taking a deep look at your life, it may be too apparent how people find the spots in their life where they wish they could have done better…or they wish they didn’t quit before achieving their vision.

One of Tim Redmond’s employees, Harley Liechty, wished didn’t quit gymnastics. That was a fun and challenging sport for him. There were numerous points of pain and he was a cry baby, so there were moments of tears (this portion of the article was written by Harley).

He stumbled and moved onto something else though because he got scared of a certain activity on the high bar. IF he would have kept up with gymnastics, he knows his mind and body would have been further developed on a shorter trajectory.  He also knows he would have improved and been able to embrace mastery to the point of genuine excellence quicker in his life.

For your case, it may involve a more serious matter. Don’t all prey to the paralyzing grip of a small dream. Take a look at what you’re wanting to accomplish with your marketplace ministries work and ask yourself, “What would be a sensational BHAG to hit with the goals of this organization?” As long as you are able to track a tactical, measurable path forward on what it takes to realistically get to those goals, you are on your way. Along the way, be sure to celebrate “small victories” as you and your team achieves them!

What if you don’t know how to initiate the step-by-step path forward? Or what if you don’t know of anyone who can successfully implement marketplace ministries work? Perhaps there is via Tim Redmond. Tap into his proven experience in different church sizes, cultures and countries, and economic levels. Tim will work closely with you and your team to build a fantastic strategy for your marketplace ministries work.

His framework creates phenomenal results for churches, non-profits, businesses and organizations. He helps you take and make visible progress with actionable steps for improvement in their marketplace ministries efforts. If the foreseeable pathway is not clear enough for you to begin, you may very quickly become lost.

In order to reach this point of dominance with marketplace ministries, you must seek out a strong, diligent leader at the helm. Someone who is faithful in their attendance, tithes, and volunteer work. Or if you are a Christian business leader God could use to inspire other business leaders, take action.

There’s one request about contacting us. Please don’t come to us with these intentions to build paralyzing committees filled with “wannabes” and “used-to-bes” to guide the plans forward. Getting a group of fellow business owners used to building things and taking massive action is much better.

Otherwise, you are only hurting yourself and you are wasting our time by not being intentional. To succeed, be completely focused on what you’re wanting to do with your work. Plus, we all know deep down inside that these organizations get nowhere, real quick with the work.

This is a statement that sounds good but doesn’t produce inspiring results. “We collaborate with each other and everyone is actively involved in the decision-making process for what we do with our work.” Really? It sounds like a acemedician who has never build a business of his own. For any of these groups that ACTUALLY get things done, there are a few people at the top who make most of the decisions. They are the trusted colleagues to consistently get things done and provide key insights to the operation.

Should we disregard the feedback and recommendations from all the participants and onlookers? Of course not. Just know that everyone carries an opinion about everything, if they really care. With any of these opinions, look carefully at the depth of their suggestions and the thoughts they provide with the insights. Weigh their opinions based on the weight of their actions.

“Okay, I appreciate the feedback. How can we get this done?” This is a key question to investigate on whether their feedback is backed by some helpful point of reassurance. If it is, encourage them to build out on their solutions and if they continue on with the initiative, begin to test them more. As they prove to be trustworthy, you may just find yourself another key player for your squad.

How Do You Grow Your Marketplace Ministries?

Where did the seed begin of Tim Redmond helping marketplace ministries flourish all over the world? During his second year in college, Tim had a business opportunity presented to him. Because the Bible character David and the Psalms played such a crucial role in instilling leadership skills in his life, Tim knew to first seek the Lord in this decision whether to pursue it or not.

As Tim prayed up and down the halls of his college dorm at ORU for several hours one evening, he sensed the Lord was asking him, “which do you want – business or the ministry?” Initially, Tim responded with, “I choose ministry.” The peace immediately settled in once he decided. In just a few moments, the peace was replaced with an uneasy feeling. Then the question came again. Do you want to focus your time on business or ministry.  Tim’s response this time around was business. Again, the peace came and went.

Perplexed, he asked the Lord, “what are you saying to me?” Here is how the answer came in words Tim best understands. Tim Redmond was being anointed with two anointings, a greater and a lesser anointing. The greater and lesser anointing was not degree of ability but volume of time. He understood that the greater anointing (a full time focus) was going to be in business and the lesser (part time focus), in ministry.

These anointings would change several times over the course of his life – where the greater amount of Tim’s time would be spent in ministry and the lesser in business and vice versa.

When Tim encountered that experience in prayer, marketplace ministries was not a significant movement and only a few organizations understood the power of a well-organized and well-run marketplace ministry. Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship International (FGBMFI) was one of such organizations.

Because the “two anointings” worked so closely together and Tim used both as he spoke at churches and business conferences, he was uniquely qualified to help and train churches, pastors and business leaders to set up effective marketplace ministries within their churches and communities.

In short, the vision for Tim’s life became very clear he realized he would continue on to pursue life in the fields of both business AND ministry marketplace. After serving at Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterHouse Coopers) for a few years, he started off his journey in business by building up Tax and Accounting Software Corporation.

He grew it to from just himself and the founder in a 3 bedroom condo, to over 350 employees and generating just under $40 million in annual revenues. After selling that business in April 2001 and served the acquiring company, Intuit, he pursued ministry marketplace opportunities; particularly in developing countries that were experiencing significant financial struggles, such as Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Ukraine and Ghana. He traveled all over the world training leaders of businesses, churches, and government officials.

He spoke and trained at events in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. In addition to training leaders to build stronger, more stable and trustworthy organizations, what else did he do in those places? He helped pastors and business leaders to set up marketplace ministries departments within some of the churches. This was designed to inspire business leaders to bring the Gospel in practical and powerful ways into the marketplace.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

“Nations” is more than just a geopolitical border. It can also relate to homogeneous groups, such as types of businesses and industries. In essence, Jesus is urging us to go into all aspects of the world. This is what Lance Wallnau and many other marketplace ministry leaders stress the importance of getting to the top levels of the 7 mountains. Another marketplace ministry leader, Os Hillman, provides conferences to encourage smart, effective ways of bring Christ into the marketplace.

Under the title of Faith Driven Entrepreneur, Henry Kaestner has created an extensive podcast series to educate and equip marketplace ministries leaders to more effectively impact their communities with the practical, tangible love of Christ.

After graduating from Harvard, the ever-the-entrepreneur Chuck Proudfit knew there was more to work than what he was doing at Proctor and Gamble. He sought to better integrate the 4 Es (evangelism, ethics, enrichment, and experience) of the Marketplace Ministries vision. He started a publication and movement called the At Work on Purpose. ,

So with Tim’s guidance, you can expect three very powerful things with every visit to a church or business.

#1 Tim Is a Dynamic Speaker for Christian Business Leaders

When you invite Tim Redmond to your church, he will prepare a tailor-made presentation to speak over the church. A quick difference that you will find with Tim Redmond and his speaking is that it involves very practical steps to implement.

Speakers often come up with eloquent ways to put together conceptual ideas. Many of the great speakers had beautiful ways to communicate ideas. With Tim, while he does speak very well, he is a business leader. He has built a number of million dollar businesses. His Redmond Growth Consulting coaches over 100 businesses on a weekly basis. The audience he typically addresses is consists of business leaders. So he will speak with the kind of candid, practical feedback that business leaders most appreciate.

Another area of his talk with go into crowd involvement. He engages and interacts with the audience and communicates in a way that pulls the audience in personally. From his hilarious or heart-warming personal experiences to his experiential learning techniques he employs, audiences walk away with tangible tools to apply to their lives. That’s how he’s been able to consistently provide great relief and benefit for people that are listening.

Finally, during Tim’s time training business owners, he shares his personal testimony. By the word of his testimony, he communicates details about his past that set the tone for how anybody looking for success in their ventures can make it.

Being born with a cleft palate, he had a defect that affected the way he communicated since he first learned to speak. As he grew up, other kids heard his speech impediment and belittled and made fun of Tim. That further drove his introversion to where he was reluctant to talk to anyone other than his family. Through hard work, many tears, temptations to give up, Tim persevered in developing his speaking skills.

In addition to overcoming communication handicaps, he suffered a severe car crash that killed his brother on impact. The doctors notified Tim’s parents that they did not expect Tim to live through the night. Due to the extent of his injuries and fractured skull, if he did survive, doctors warned Tim’s parents that he would live the limited days of his life drooling as a vegetable. He was expected not to be able to communicate at all.

His formative years were ones that would have given him excuses to continue do the pathway of poverty and insignificance. At Oral Roberts University though and through God’s grace and guidance, Tim found the confidence to take charge on what was destined for his life. From his time as a CPA at PWC to growing the software company to launching Redmond Growth Consulting, he pressed on. He overcame the handicaps and made a life for himself to the kingdom all the more richer and God’s Word all the more fruitful.

His testimony and the fact that he can speak so eloquently brings a real, tangible result to his work. Tim’s firm, Redmond Growth Consulting, works with 100+ contractors and business owners at a time. In each time he works with a business owner, he brings them ideas and principles to implement that once implemented, change the course of their business. Even more importantly, he helps the business owner grow their wealth, skills and influence.

With him speaking at your church, business or conference, expect the same to happen. He looks to bring a source of encouragement and significant shift to empower those with opportunity to change the landscape of their communities.

This a pivotal key Tim provides. Each member of a congregation can make an impact in her area of influence. With each of those Christian business owners, they also have dollars behind their businesses to practically support the needs of their church and community. It helps them give someone reason to turn to Christ for support in times of need. Through Tim’s speaking, the congregation at large will move swiftly to embrace this marketplace ministry and he serves as a lighthouse for those with business acumen or leadership or organization development.

#2 Tim Consults Individually With the Pastors

In having Tim Redmond come to speak at the church, the pastor is usually the one who specifically called to invite him. A major reason for Tim Redmond coming is not only to empower the church at large, but for the pastor to also glean from Tim insights to better grow and manage the church.

The same powerful strategies and tactics that have worked for the hundreds of businesses Tim has coached will also work for the church. It may cover areas of leadership development, hiring/firing, accountability systems, motivating staff, and better time management (this is focused on moving leaders to their “highest and best use”).

Tim also loves to share with the pastor how they can practically launch and grow their marketplace ministry department. One of Tim’s first few questions in these meetings includes asking about what the church does to minister to the specific needs of their business people, also known as marketplace ministers.

Tim has asked dozens of pastors, “Tell me about your ministry marketplace for your business people – what do you do to minister to their needs?” The pastor will then carry on about the business people helping to fund various projects in the church and getting their advice on crucial topics and decisions as they arise.

After hearing their response, Tim challenges them to really focus on meeting their needs rather than seeing what they can do for the church. At times, he responds with “you are describing what they do for you. I am asking what you do for them. What is your ministry for your marketplace ministry business people? How are you reaching out and inspiring them?”

That’s exactly what a marketplace ministries focused pastor did to transform his church. Brian Houston founded Hillsong Church and has expanded it to a multi-continent organization. One of the many reasons for his success has been his focus on engaging and training his marketplace ministries business leaders. He sets time and events aside to invest specifically into this powerful and influential group of business leaders.  

A successful construction company owner known for helping pastors set up marketplace ministries within the local church is Mike Rovner. Mike has provided a number of speeches and written a manual on how to create a successful marketplace ministries department in the local church.

Pastors must come from a place of Abundance rather than from Need. It reminds me of Wendell Smith, an amazing pastor and friend, the founding pastor of The City Church (now Churchome which is pastored by Wendell’s son, Judah Smith). Now in heaven, Pastor Wendell forged the way in creating marketplace ministries in his church. Headed up by a mentor of Tim Redmond’s, Don Ostrom, they maintained one of the healthiest and most inspirational marketplace ministry departments in a local church.

Wendell told me about a very wealthy man visiting his church. This businessman had grown weary of churches because pastors either were intimidated by his wealth or tried to pry money from him before developing a genuine relationship. Pastor Wendell used a very different approach. He came from a place of abundance. Contribution. He looked for a way to give to this man without obligation. He startled this businessman by reaching out to shake his hand. Then he said, “My name is Wendell Smith and every businessman needs a pastor. I’d like to be your pastor.”

He looked to give to this man what he had to give rather than what he could get. Wow.  

Too many pastors view their business people as a financial and wisdom resource for their church. Since they are the ones making the most money out of the group, they are called upon to donate more for particular initiatives. In our experience, when working with business owners (the true leaders in marketplace ministries), they often aren’t truly making anymore than the normal employee (after we help them significantly increase their profits, that reality quickly changes).

These business owners don’t want to be looked at as just a commodity! In the highly-acclaimed book, Leadership and Self-Deception by Arbinger Institute, the book discusses this very issue! (This book, by the way, is Tim Redmond’s favorite leadership book on the planet at the time of this writing .)

Too often, human beings are seen as commodities because of the tangible value they bring to an organization. The failure in the story’s main character, Tom, is that he doesn’t even realize that these flaws exist in his life. The first step for Tim to be able to communicate real change for the pastor is by identifying the flaws in how the church has commonly mismanaged relationships with their business leaders.

This relationship with Christian business leaders, where they are viewed as primarily a financial resource and a source for quick advice, leads to significantly damaging situations for the pastor and the church. For pastors who are motivated to tap the deepest pockets in the church can also be manipulated by them.

The Christian business leaders who claim to be experts in marketplace ministries who have an abundance of money can leverage their tithe dollars to imprison pastors towards their own bidding. In these cases, pastors now have secret new captains calling the shots for the direction of their churches. How effective can the man of God be when he is like a puppet controlled by the rich?

On top of that, if Christian business leaders are viewed as a commodity, they will view the pastor as a commodity. Respect reciprocates. So does disrespect. You, as the pastor, cannot afford to be viewed as just some cheap resource to visit with every Sunday or to call on when the family needs help. You are to become the powerful, captivating leader to take charge and lead people down the path to righteousness, honoring God and others in their pilgrimage.

Tim’s main objective with interacting with the senior pastor is to help to train and coordinate with him and his staff to set up a marketplace ministry in their church. There’s still power in gathering together as a body to tackle hot issues. As it’s said in Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

When creating this cohesive group together for marketplace ministries, it requires fierce focus and intense intentionality. Success is not an accident. It doesn’t just happen. This is an organization with a huge potential for growth and development in the community. It also serves as a great magnetic attraction to draw other business owners into your church.  

This is another core lesson for the pastor in their church. Pastors, do not merely tolerate Christian business leaders. They do not limit them to just be involved in other groups like men’s groups or women’s groups. Create a viable group for these Christian business leaders to belong to and grow.

The role that these pastors maintain with the business leaders is to stay in their lane and celebrate them. A common mistake that Tim views in churches is that the marketplace ministries place a non-business leader into leadership of the group. This appointed director frequently knows little to nothing of the challenges business owners face. They find it hard to connect and inspire them. Are they really the best to lead this group?

Since the whole focus is on the marketplace ministry, the best leader of this group is a successful Christian business leader at the helm. More times than not, the biggest flaw lies on the shoulders of the pastor and his staff taking too much responsibility of this group. While the pastor will keep a close eye and involve himself at times, the pastor must not burden himself with areas of leadership that he can delegate to a better equipped business leader.

Let’s face it, the pastor’s plate is usually plenty full. More times than not, the pastor who’s interested in igniting a fire to a marketplace ministry maintains a congregation of at least a few hundred people. He’s torn by the obligations of the people for prayer personal guidance, and preparation of his messages.

It is common for pastors to be called to hospital rooms or bedrooms to pray over the sick and weary. Especially when the church is small, they often work jobs on the side to maintain income.

Pastors are best equipped when they have experienced, successful people with a proven business acumen to adequately minister in the marketplace. So the pastor’s mindset should be to appoint someone as the leader for marketplace ministries and support that leader as their cheerleader and guide. From the Christian business leader’s perspective, they want to see their pastor publicly support the activities of the marketplace ministry.

This relationship is an amiable, praiseworthy devotion to each other for the unified mission to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the ends of the earth. This applies whether it’s out on the streets, in the marketplace or within the church walls.

#3 Tim is a Business Coaching Expert With Business Owners

Jesus’s plan and mission for His disciples were to go into all the ends of the earth and share his Gospel. His desire is for his people to move boldly throughout their workplaces and share the love of God wherever they go.

Find numerous opportunities to incorporate scriptures, the sharing of uplifting testimonials, and actions of love into what they do. Everyday, there can be a consistent step toward the implementation of God’s plans and the movement of these marketplace ministry efforts.

The regular gathering and celebration of this initiative is so critical. It’s important that there is some kind of consistency with the gathering and meeting together for this common goal. For one thing, it reaffirms the actions of these Christian business leaders. Coming together in a collective group assists in pruning away poor ideas and reinforcing and clarifying good ideas. They act as a catalyst to spur on the intensity of action rather than allowing their fellow business owners to wallow in lackadaisical lethargy.

Redmond Growth and Redmond Leadership Institute work together to gather reports and feedback on what has worked and what hasn’t worked. Through the implementation of best practice guidance from Tim Redmond on how to effectively run these meetings, the leader for these Christian business leaders can motivate and instigate clear steps forward toward their goals for a bigger and brighter Christian influence in their local community.

These meetings and the strong leadership of the marketplace minister leader and his team of fellow business owners keep people accountable for the objectives ahead. As you may have witnessed with your own groups, a huge tendency to create a plethora of new ideas exists. The leader and his or her select team have to resist half-baked inspirations and pooly hashed-out plans for their marketplace ministry organizations.

What will Tim do with whoever is in charge of the church’s marketplace ministries? He will train them on best practice approaches to ensure the success of the group. He’ll also inform them of the common pitfalls and shortcomings for organizations like these.

Those shortcomings include the over zealous and eager attitude to meet too frequently with the marketplace ministry group. A common mistake is to meet on a weekly basis rather than a monthly basis. While you are excited and want to move quickly toward your goals, not everybody in the group maintains the same vigor that you have for these goals. So you can easily exhaust people from continually being involved and participating. Since it’s a voluntary commitment, we must keep this in mind.

People are making sacrifices in their schedules to come and participate in marketplace ministries while simultaneously saying no to everything else at that time. A common pitfall pastors make is they think they must spearhead the orchestration of the group. Pastors are already driving the inspiration and work of the church itself. There’s no need to pile on and make the pastor’s life unnecessarily more burdensome. This is true especially in light that they likely wouldn’t be the most qualified to take on this role.

Pastors who do well stay in their lane and celebrate the leaders. Tim encourages pastors to quote Numbers 6:22-26 as they close their sermons and release the people with a blessing. This is a powerful proclamation saying, ‘“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”

Numbers 6:27 goes on to state, “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” In the same manner, pastors are empowered to pass their blessing and Lord’s blessing on the people’s lives, businesses and their marketplace ministries. Tim encourages pastors to continually inspire this blessing and motivation for marketplace ministry work.

What Role Do Pastors and Christian Business Leaders Play in Marketplace Ministries?

Activist/Promoter

Pastors have a captive audience in their communities. When times are tough for those of us who are Christians, we reach out to our pastor for the scriptural guidance. When we experience blessings in our lives, we often thank our pastor for the constant teaching, prayers and support he has provided.

Without our pastors’ constant instruction and motivation, many of us would lose our way in this world or distracted by the energy-zapping worries. When we seek inspiration for how God should actively utilize us in life, we again, go to our pastors and Christian business leaders for this guidance.

Pastors and Christian business leaders play an extremely pivotal role for influencing the masses through the inspiration of God’s Word. With the power of marketplace ministries, pastors are the activists and promoters for this cause.

Their voice is gifted by God to speak to hundreds and thousands of people each week. They minister to them the promises of scripture and of the gospel. So if pastors and Christian business leaders get behind the mission for marketplace ministries, then their congregation will be more apt to latch onto it as well.

This is all dependent upon whether pastors and Christian business leaders actually have a clear understanding on how marketplace ministry opportunities work. It’s an easy topic to misunderstand because there have been so many abuses of power in the past. Inspired by marketplace ministries, you have to ask if you are seriously trying to influence your city community and your congregation with pure motives.

With Redmond Growth though and the guidance of Tim Redmond, we have the knowledge-base and experience to tackle these issues head on. In the past, Tim Redmond dove deep into each church or ministry marketplace and helps them practically implement tools and resources toward their goals.

With any lofty goal or challenging ambition, people Tim works with will need to portray the fortitude and skillfulness to power through the disappointments and obstacles. Once those growing pains disappear, then you will find that Tim’s guidance and instruction surely helps to grow any marketplace ministry into a solid trajectory for growth.

Organizer

As a pastor or Christian business leader, your authority goes a very long way. The organization of these systems requires a deep tenacity to focus on each detail of your operation. Every step of the process for constructing a great marketplace ministry initiative requires a functional mindset to fully execute each point of the plan. In the same way that a business needs to function, these ministries need to focus supremely well too!

These pastors and Christian business leaders would also need to be very comfortable with accepting criticism and effectively sticking with a certain plan. There will always be haters for anything. There will always be someone that says some group is too big or too small. Many will think that your plan for marketplace ministries are not worth it or the way you do it is wrong.

The skill that these pastors and Christian business leaders need to have is the discernment to choose the most appropriate course of action. You determine this by looking at what already works and optimize it for better results. As someone who will organize this initiative, this is a necessity.

Many people though are not cut out for leading a marketplace ministries group toward a huge-results-focused mission to reach the lost and bring sustainable solutions to their local community. If you are a pastor or Christian business leader who either doesn’t have the time or honestly knows they couldn’t run this ministry effectively, then let other highly motivated business leaders take the leadership role.

Since you are the activist and promoter for marketplace ministries in your church, still monitor the progress and check in with the leader and his team. A key coaching principle Redmond Growth Consulting follows is that anything delegated has to have accountability. Without accountability, nothing improves, ever. This especially applies to a marketplace ministry department. Without accountability, it will fail or drift away from what you wanted.

Implementer

As a Christian business leader who’s deeply intrigued and committed to developing awesome marketplace ministries, the focus must rest on implementation. You can find quote after quote from some of the greatest entrepreneurs, leaders and thinkers on the topic of implementation.

“First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” ~ Aristotle

“Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.” ~ Henry Ford,

“Most people are sitting on their own diamond mines. The surest ways to lose your diamond mine are to get bored, become overambitious or start thinking that the grass is greener on the other side. Find your core focus, stick to it and devote your time and resources to excelling at it.” – Gino Wickman, best-selling author of Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business

The biggest priority you should place on your marketplace ministries is implementation. Time and time again, there will be ministry marketplace organizations that start with great dreams and goals for their group. But, is there an intense commitment for implementation? In other words, as Tom Peters asked in his seminar book, In Search of Excellence, is there a bias for action?

They also may carry the best intentions for their marketplace ministries group. The group may also include some of the best minds and greatest people to carry out the mission. Even if the leader has all the resources of the church or the local business community at his disposal, without that “bias for action,” the church can only expect mediocre results at best.

If you can’t implement the plans you set forth for your marketplace ministry though, it’s totally worthless. You’ll become a joke for the church community and your reputation will be tarnished. Before you dive into starting up and running your marketplace ministry work, think long and hard about whether this truly is the place for your highest and best use.

If you’re a pastor, it is Tim’s recommendation that you do not place on yourself the responsibility of “head honcho” for the group. Why is this the case? With marketplace ministries, it’s highly recommended that someone who is a responsible and trustworthy Christian business leader works at the helm with the pastor being a guide, encourager and sounding board.

At times, some pastors may be driven by their ego because of their position. Plus, the place of marketplace ministries aren’t in the wheel-house for pastors to actually manage and operate. Since the organization is all about spreading the faith and God’s light through the marketplace, it’s smarter to enact a Christian business leader as the leader.

Moral Steward/Chaplain

Now as the pastor, being the moral steward is a perfect role for you with marketplace ministries. Since this is all about taking the Gospel and God’s beliefs into the marketplace, it’s important to turn to a compass to be reminded of the “true north” purpose for this ministry. This compass keeps the group from drifting into doing activities that wouldn’t represent Christ’s love too well.

While you may not imagine a group within a church or a Christian organization drifting into territories like this, Tim knows that people can get distracted very easily. He has coached too many organizations and too many business owners to know that participants, employees and even leaders get dysfunctional quite easily.

In fact, just to take a deep dive into the disasters of the workforce and humanity in general, here are a few statistics to potentially blow your mind.

1. 70% of people hate their jobs in the US and it’s even worse in other countries. So if you correlate it to marketplace ministries, that means 70% of your participants will hate the fact that you keep them accountable to tasks and ensuring that everything is awesome with the work you do.
2. 85% of job applicants lie on their resumes. Most people seem to live with a tendency to not tell the truth when asked a straight question or to stretch what actually is true.
3. 62% of employees are disengaged at the workplace & 23% are actively disengaged. The sheer fact that there are so many employees and workers who are not engaged at their workplace screams that they do not serve a high power with their work. As the famous verse in Colossians 3:23-24 exclaims, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
4. 75% of employees are stealing from the workplace and are doing so frequently. Even if many of the cases are likely pens or different accessories in the workplace, this is still theft. Many times, it’s with much larger resources like company cars on off-time and whole systems.
5. 81% of people lie during their job interviews. You think it’s a coincidence that practically the same percentage that lie on resumes also lie on their job interviews? Probably not.

All of the statistics represent a fraction of the research that is out there. These all validate the point that humanity needs marketplace ministries to lay a foundation on the workforce. To speak specifically to workplace engagement, too many people just work a job and find zero fulfillment from any aspect of their life.

Do you think these people are living as radical shifters and changers in their local area or in their world? Likely not, and what’s likely more the case is these individuals are letting the world dictate their mannerisms in the office space, the job site or the call centers. If you have been observant at all, you’ll realize that there’s a big area for people to work in for marketplace ministries.

That’s why as a pastor or the Christian business leader in charge of the group, you must place yourself as the moral steward or chaplain of the group. If it’s not you, then label someone as that moral steward. This is exactly what the world needs and I see nothing worse than a group of people in the church coming together to ultimately fail at their one mission.

Why Are Business Leaders Not Acknowledged With Marketplace Ministries?

Throughout this discussion, you may ask yourself why Christian business leaders aren’t a focal point for a majority of churches. According to Tim and his insights of the course of decades working with church organizations, there’s an assumption that they don’t need specific help. Since business owners are oftentimes the sturdy, trustworthy person to head up an organization, pastors may think they don’t need to specifically address the business leader’s issues in his sermons. Tim encourages pastors to challenge that assumption!

Business owners and entrepreneurs are known as self-reliant people. They had the courage to venture on their own to conquer specific industries with their skills and talents. They decided that they didn’t want a boss any longer and placed the weight of their financial well-being on themselves. So as a conclusion, ministers and pastors assume they have little to no needs and therefore don’t speak directly to their situations in owning a business.

Another factor that keeps pastors from effectively ministering to business leaders is some pastors may have embraced a negative relationship toward wealth and money. Contrary to popular belief, money is NOT the root of all evil. Rather, it is the LOVE of money. The love of money is really the love of dishonest gain. That’s the portal from which all evil enters the world.

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” – 1 Timothy 6:10

“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.” – Ecclesiastes 5:10

“Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.” – Proverbs 1:19

“So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” – Luke 16:11

These scriptures reinforce the concept of loving dishonest, greedy gain leads to some form of destruction. If you are not trustworthy to manage money to employ it toward life-giving opportunities, then how can there be trust built with great ambitions? Pastors may have wrongly disregarded money as a liability and an evil necessity for living. This is quite the contrary. Having skillful knowledge to properly manage money goes a long way towards the success of any organization.

Many pastors have not received adequate training in managing business affairs. So while their church membership may contain a number business owners, they have substantially little knowledge of how this all works. Ironically, the pastors usually bring in more revenue and “business” than any of these business owners.

For instance, if 500 people attend a church on a weekly basis and most of them are tithing at least 10% of their income, the annual revenues can become greater than the annual revenues of many of the business owners’ annual revenues. For the larger churches, that fact is even more pronounced. In fact, the churches annual revenues may be several times larger than most of the business owners’ annual revenues.

Some pastors may live with a fear of losing control of the church. There are lucrative business owners attending their church who may express themselves as domineering and abrasive. In fact, their personality and approach on life may be the reason that drove them to venture on their own. It is typical for successful entrepreneurs to hold a great view of themselves for their skills at their profession. So when a pastor faces with business leaders, a fear may often exist with the pastor being forced to out of their way in serving these leaders in order to maintain the financial health of the church.

What Tim does so well with pastors and Christian business leaders is create conciliatory relationships between them. His goal is to help reconcile the pastors and business leaders in order to work in a unified force. When they don’t work closely and respectfully together, the church’s effectiveness is limited.

What’s causing the rift between pastors and business owners? Why is there an unnecessary conflict taking place in communication? Pastors and Christian business leaders can do so much together for the better improvement of the community – if they work together.

What Tim will provide and inspire is the equipment of pastors to tangibly pour into business people. Through studies that Tim has conducted and training courses he created, he’ll be able to lead business leaders to prosper in their local cities. Get in contact with Tim Redmond today and he will be elated to work with you on growing your marketplace ministries to the point of excellence and sustainability.

What Tim Redmond can do NOW to help your Marketplace Ministries?

Where can Tim Redmond get started with your organization or church? First, he will look to set up a time to speak to the congregation as a whole. Then he will prepare an effective training program, such as his Power to Create seminar, specifically for Christian business leaders in the church. He also avails himself to address their specific questions during the Question and Answer session. In some cases, Tim is open to scheduling 20 minute laser coaching sessions with individual business owners. The results have been extraordinary!

Then, as discussed earlier, Tim will meet specifically with the pastor of the church. This time is to deep dive into the core issues of the church. Tim will advise and provide his insights into their particular situations to bring practical, implementable steps forward with their work. There’s power in what Tim’s history of working with hundreds of business owners and many non-profit organizations can produce for your own church. Come to Tim with specific questions for him to address to help you fulfill these goals for great growth and success in life.

As a helpful sneak peak, here are three areas Tim will bring up that will ultimately be a great, resourceful help to your church.

Three BIG Moves to Grow Your Church and Marketplace Ministries

Get to the Top of Google

You may notice that more and more people are searching for anything and everything. As a pastor, I’m sure you’ve tried to address the struggles of holding the congregations’ attention throughout your sermons. They are so preoccupied with whatever’s going on with their phones. For instance, “A July 2015 Gallup poll of 15,747 adult smartphone users found that half check their phone a few times an hour (41%) – PsychologyToday.” In fact, “by one study’s count, the typical smartphone user interacts with their phone around 85 times per day.”

So while you fight for the attention of your congregation, also know that sitting at the top of their searches on Google is a HUGE win for your church. In order to get there, it tremendously helps to have an awesome, canonically-compliant website that Google will want to rank higher on searches. In addition, getting Google reviews will increase your visibility and credibility for people looking for a solid church to attend.. It is a key reason why your listing will be included in the Google maps 3-pack in your city. Make this a point of action with your church staff and congregation!

Build a Workflow and Keep Team Members Accountable to Tasks

There are many things that need to take place in order to successfully operate a great Sunday service and a great church. Who is setting up every weekend to make sure the place looks fresh and inviting? Who’s responsible for lighting and setting the stage for what we call “showtime?” Who runs the marketing efforts of the church to gain the attention of church seekers? How do you get exceptional performance from your voluntary staff? Finally, how does a pastor adequately keep track of all these objectives?

Tim Redmond encourages pastors and their teams to camp in front of a whiteboard. Take at least a half a day to write out all of the key functions of the church and detail the specific tasks of each function necessary to run an awesome service. Create fill in checklists for each function and make sure leaders fill these out entirely each week.  Appoint and train owners of each of these functions. Then, practice, practice, and practice. By keeping them accountable to these tasks via a weekly team meeting and constant follow-up, your church will become a magnet to draw people in.

Make the Church Remarkable, Create a WOW Experience

According to Seth Godin, the famed New York Times best-selling author of books like Purple Cow, “In your career, even more than for a brand, being safe is risky. The path to lifetime job security is to be remarkable.” Many organizations and churches are NOT thinking about their audacious ways to stand out. It’s insanely important that your church finds ways to become a remarkable organization. How can you figure this out?

Send people to both your church and other churches to “mystery shop” and record their experiences. Did the church make a positive impression on them in a certain area or way? Was there anything that concerned them? This is one of the areas of service Tim Redmond and the Redmond Leadership Institute performs for local churches. Tim has been the mystery shopper and has set up and trained mystery shoppers to gather their observations.

As the input is gathered and processed into actionable intel, the pastor works with Tim to prioritize the key actions and changes to make in the church. As these priorities are leaned into and implemented, pastors can expect their growth and attendees satisfaction to increase significantly. With constant pressure towards these positive changes, your church can solidify themselves as the top church in the area for preaching, teaching and marketplace ministries outreaches.