Weekly Newsletter: Reclaiming the Marketplace

Marketplace skills are missionary skills.

This is a phrase we use often around The Stone Table because we actually believe it. Business does not belong to the “secular world,” it’s part of God’s Kingdom plan for His world. Is it broken by sin? Of course. Creation is cursed by “thorns and thistles.” But the marketplace has an original design and we believe followers of Jesus need to reclaim it.

We’re exploring this marketplace and missions mantra in a new way (for us at least) this week. We have a group of Christian businesspeople from various walks of life leading a business seminar in Africa in conjunction with one of our BAM partners. It’s been a fascinating adventure into cross-cultural business training and we’re learning a lot.

Training entrepreneurs and business leaders in unreached areas of the world is a perfect opportunity to both embody and proclaim the Gospel. Strengthening business leaders ultimately strengthens local communities, and investing in business leaders also fosters relationships that allow for the Good News of Jesus to be shared.

Did you know that one of the ways the early church grew was through merchants traveling to other cities and countries to do business and taking the Gospel with them as they went?

What if every follower of Jesus with a “secular job” stopped seeing business through the distorted lens of this broken world and reclaimed the marketplace as part of God’s Kingdom?

Marketplace skills are missionary skills.

Would you would like to use your business knowledge and experience in a creative way to see Jesus proclaimed to the ends of the earth? We’ll be sharing more on this in the future. Maybe you can join us.

Accelerating the Great Commission through the Marketplace,

Erik Cooper | The Stone Table