Faith

Several years ago I started an audio/video company. It was my first foray into the business world apart from some retail sales experience, and I found out that God’s grace to be a businessman is not on my life. But, I am thankful for the experience, because many of the things I learned through trial and error have helped me in the ministry.

One of the things I found is that if you want to become incorporated, you must have a board comprised of at least three people. Good thing it wasn’t more than that, because that was the extent of our “corporation.”

In my search to make my company the best it could be, I began to study books on successful corporations. I wanted to find out what made the great companies great. To my amazement, every great and solid company in place today has taken its model directly from Jesus’ example. Whether these companies knowingly or unknowingly copied Jesus’ discipleship model, you will find that almost every element of our Savior’s pattern will show up in their companies.

As you know, Jesus had 12 constant companions he called his disciples or apostles. We know that there were many others, but 12 were chosen to be his team. And what a team it was! Those 12 men set the world on fire, proclaiming Christ’s love to the multitudes.

However, within this group of men there were three who stood out above the rest. Their names were Peter, James and John. On several occasions, Jesus took these three off to the side and poured himself into them more than the others.

A man named Jairus, who was a leader of a local synagogue, came to Jesus and asked him to heal his daughter. He agreed, and they headed to the man’s house. On the way, people stopped them to tell Jairus that his daughter was already dead. Jesus didn’t listen to the talk, but rather Mark 5:37 says, “Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter and James and John.”

Knowing that Jesus had 12 disciples who were his constant traveling companions, it is apparent that he did not take nine of them into the house with him. There was something special about these three disciples that caused them to stand out above the rest.

Was it the fact that they were fishermen? Absolutely not, because Peter’s brother Andrew, who was a fishermen, is rarely mentioned in the scriptures. Was it their humble attitudes? No. James and John asked to be placed in positions of authority in Heaven and Peter arrogantly declared that he would never deny Jesus — hours before he denied him three times.

The defining attribute that these three men had was their absolute zeal for God and their passionate following of the Savior. Jesus nicknamed James and John the “Sons of Thunder,” and most scholars believe it is because of their passionate preaching style. Peter’s name was originally Simon, but Jesus’ changed his name from Simon, which means hot-tempered, to Peter, which means stable as a rock. He did this because he ordained him to be the first pastor to preach the first salvation message after Jesus ascended into Heaven.

So, how does this apply to a business? Any successful business will have a leader who is able to cast his or her vision so that people can run with it. These leaders will then have boards or governing bodies able to take the vision and run with it in their departments. But what will take a company from great to excellent is a leader who is willing to invest in several key people on a much deeper level.

If the leader or visionary of a company is not training several people to step into that role and lead in the event that he or she should die or leave the company, then that company will fall apart. Many leaders are afraid to let even their board members get too close to them because they’re afraid someone else might be able to do the job better. That’s when it’s time to swallow the pride and take our companies, churches and personal lives to a higher level.

Jesse Miller is the youth pastor at Family Christian Center in Palmer, and can be reached at silverhonda84@hotmail.com.