Without a doubt we are living in perilous times. It is getting to be a tough time to be a Pastor, a Christian Business, a Christian Teacher, a Christian Union member, even a Christian in general.
As a Christian I would like to do business with other Christians, it is hard enough to make a living in this economy, and we should take care of each other. Unfortunately, it is getting more difficult to find Christians in the business world. Open Christians that is – not “closet” Christians.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
I am talking about Christian Business people that profess Jesus Christ openly, that maintain Christian principles, Christians whose handshake and whose word is as good as a signed contract. I have to be honest with you. Some of the WORST people I have done business with and some of the WORST people that have worked for me were professing Christians.
Collossians 3:23-25 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.
Last week I started working on a project to convert over what I thought were some old “legacy” public domains files that were threatened with vanishing into obscurity if the websites that housed them went down. I have a number of domains that I have no specific use for – and had set one up (bob-hoffman.org) to house these files.
I had used a utility that was supposed to have downloaded all this content onto my computer and was ready to see what I actually had, and figure out how to start building the website.
As I started looking at what I had, I found that what I had was links to other websites that housed the content, not the content itself. Since the content already had a home, and much of the content was copyrighted, my project did not really seem to necessary to pursue. So I started praying about what the Lord might have me to do – since I had started out doing this maybe there was something else the Lord may want me to do – usually when the Lord has me start something He continues to steer me in the direction He would have me to go. It is easier to steer a moving vehicle than one that is parked!
After praying and contemplating for a couple of days, the Lord laid it on my heart to simply put up a website for Christian Businesses to place links to their businesses. A Christian business could list their business there, and Christians could go there to find a Christian business. Sounds simple – doesn’t it?
I put a couple of (what I thought were) simple criteria down.
- I put a statement of faith up to define the term Christian.
- The Christian Business had to have, somewhere on their website a public acknowledgement that the owner was a professing Christian (Romans 1:16)
That should have been simple enough, right? Evidently not.
I figured I would add some Christian businesses to “kick start” the website, and at the same time start doing some research. There are a lot of other so-called Christian Business directories out there, and checking them out was an interesting exercise!
I went to the old standard, the Shepherd’s Guide. This directory is almost empty, not sure how they stay in business. There were many others like it. While most of the businesses in these directories had icons indicating that the business owner was a born again Christian, 99.5% of the websites gave NO indication that Christ had any bearing on the way the company, or the owner of the company did business.
In fact, many of the so-called Christian business directories appeared to be selling advertising to secular companies to just stay in business!
I moved on to some of the Christian Business Associations. I won’t mention which one, but there was one in particular (dealing with a medical specialty) that I checked out. I went to the websites of many of their members, most of the members did not even acknowledge membership in the Christian Medical Association. None of the websites acknowledged a relationship with their Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
I am not saying that a Christian NEEDS to publically acknowledge Jesus Christ on their business website. These are perilous times, and this is definitely between you and your Lord. It can mean losing business. As we are finding out it can paint a target on your back for lawsuits.
But clearly, I made a good decision to put up a Romans 1:16 directory for Christian Businesses. I have not found another one out there.
If you have a Christian Business, and you are publically showing that you are a Christian on your website (testimony, Christian symbol etc.), I would be honored to share your business with other Christians.
11/28/20 – Due to lack of use I have taken down this website B-(
