Transcript 

Welcome to the Hundredfold Business Podcast, where Christian men learn the principles, strategies, and tactics to grow their businesses, top line, bottom line, and finish line. I want you to discover the secret to applying biblical truth to business growth for the greatest kingdom impact, so in the end, you hear from your Heavenly Father, well done. Welcome to the Hundredfold Business Podcast, where Christian men learn how to grow their businesses, top line, bottom line, and finish line.

And I'm your host, Josh Fonger, founder of 4th Soil Ventures, and today, we'll be talking about essential eight of 12 about how you can grow a Hundredfold business. During these 12 essentials, we'll be going to God's Word first, and then discovering the original intent, the design of good business, and then talking about how to apply that to your business. And if you need any help along the way, you can always go directly to my website, 4thSoilVentures.com, and you can schedule a call with me there.

Today's essential is all about the relationship you have with your team, your employees. And the essential is called caring for your people. So with all the things that are on the mind of a business owner, sales and marketing and hiring and compliance, this one essential trumps them all.

And this is because God cares most about how we love Him and how we love other people. And with 40 hours a week in the office, there is a lot of time for us to display that love. A recent study came out that lists the top seven reasons why employees are leaving their companies, they're quitting.

And I think going through these seven reasons are going to really highlight why caring for your people, caring for your team, is such an important aspect of your work. The first one on the list is a toxic work environment. So this is going to be persistent negativity and conflict, dysfunction, hostility.

And the second one on the list is poor company leadership. So this would be unethical, unsupportive, unaccountable leadership. The third one on the list is unhappiness with your direct manager.

So bad management, not being empathetic, poor communicator. Now, number four on the list is lack of growth opportunities. So there's no clear path to career development.

And then we're on to number five, which would be poor work-life balance. This would be excessive workloads or inflexible schedules. Number six is burnout and stress.

So this would be work that's causing mental health problems or physical health problems. And then to round up the list, number seven is unsatisfactory pay, which most business owners think is number one, but it's really further down the list. And it's obvious enough, people, if they're not happy with the pay they're getting, they're going to leave.

So the reason why I start here is that caring for, or serving, or loving your employees is a biblical idea. And the market is looking for this. They're hungry for this.

So yes, you're going to be rewarded in heaven for working like this, God's way. But also you're going to be rewarded here on earth, likely have a more fruitful and more thriving and more profitable business with employees that are properly cared for. Now let's get to the text of the day, which is Colossians chapter four, verse one.

Masters, treat your bond servants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. A simple text to memorize, but not so easy to put into practice. So the first point from this passage is that us as business owners, as CEOs, we have an obligation to treat our employees justly.

Now, what does that mean? It means that as we're overseeing our team and making judgments, making decisions about how things are supposed to operate, we need to be careful to be wise and moral and ethical and make biblically based judgments and decisions. For example, if you have two employees in the sales department, and one of them is your best friend, you've known them for a long time, and the other one is new, maybe you don't have that good relationship with them yet. As you're making judgments, as you're giving out rewards and punishments, as you're trying to be a righteous judge in that situation, you need to do it impartially, right? Treating them as equals.

Now, let's say that you have a bonus coming up and your best buddy has brought in two new accounts, and the new guy has brought in seven new accounts. He's working nights, he's working weekends, putting a lot of effort in. And because of that, the unequal effort has produced unequal results.

And therefore, as you're making your judgments, as you're passing out those bonuses, the new guy is gonna get a, or should get a higher bonus because of that work. That would be a fair, right judgment, as opposed to paying them both the same amount. Another quick example would be if there is a verbally abusive situation where, you know, in quotes, really good employee who does great work, but they're not very kind, they're not very honorable, they're disrespecting the other people in the office.

Instead of letting that go on, you would be addressing it because turning your eye to injustice is not being a just manager or a just CEO. That was as in John 7, verse 24, that we are to judge with righteous judgment. And so that's our responsibility as overseers, as managers, as CEOs, as business owners.

And so we have to take that responsibility with humility and with discernment, and then go about being that righteous judge. Now, the next point to draw from this passage is that not only are we supposed to be just, we're also supposed to be fair. And so I'll take a few moments to draw the distinction between being just and fair because they are very similar.

So to be fair to your employees, it all starts with having consistent guidelines and consistent procedures and consistent policies that they know are gonna be used to govern the business. So having a standard vacation day policies and sick day policies and standard workstations and dress codes and all those things providing a consistent, fair place to work, as well as just not discriminating against people based on their age and their race and their sex. And things like these provide for a fair place to work.

Now, this might all sound like boring HR compliance information that is mandated by the government. And so before you tune it out, I think it's important that we look at what the Bible says in James chapter two, verses one and verse nine. James says, my brothers show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

And then further on, but if you show partiality, you're committing sin and you're convicted by the law as transgressors. So being impartial, being fair matters to God. And while it might be easy enough to avoid getting sued by the government by checking a box, but we know that God actually looks at the heart and he's going to discern whether we are honestly being fair.

As a Christian leader, we want to be above reproach. We want to be consistently fair and known as that. So just like God is known as reigning on the just and the unjust, we want to have a consistent environment, a consistent place where our people can work.

Now, because God has created people with different capabilities, different motivations, different giftings, different energy levels, different life situations, we're going to, of course, have that fair place to work, but we can expect unequal results, unequal outcomes. And because of that, we're going to have to be a just judge and be giving out different rewards and different consequences based on those outcomes. And so this is the challenge of being both fair and being just.

Top line, bottom line, finish line. If you're not growing all three, we should talk. Too many business owners are struggling alone, stuck in the same cycle, going nowhere fast.

Scripture says that in an abundance of counselors, there is victory. And I want to be that resource for you. For over 15 years, I've helped hundreds of small business owners break through their limits, build a solid plan, and multiply their impact.

Go to 4thSoilVentures.com, schedule your free discovery call, and let's build your business by the book. Life is too short and eternity is way too long to build it any other way. And on a side note, if the government is mandating something that is unfair and unjust, then you as a business owner, with wisdom, should be appealing to a higher authority, which is God's word, and then praying for your leaders and respecting them and honoring them.

But this gives you an opportunity to stand out, to stand out for who you actually serve, and also showing the righteousness of God's word compared to man's word. And so this, of course, is a challenging thing to work through, but it's one of the opportunities that we have to shine as lights in a dark place. And as Jesus said, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, let's get to the last point which has a number of implications.

Let me read the whole verse again. Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. So what do we Christians know? We know that ultimately we are just stewards of the gifts and the responsibilities that God has given to us, and that ultimately he owns it all, and that in the end we're going to be giving him an account of what we've done with what we've been given by him, because he owns it all.

If we go back four verses in this passage, Paul tells us exactly what bondservants are supposed to do. Of course, that's us with regards to God. So let me read that passage.

Bondservants, now that's us, obeying everything those who are your earthly masters. And I would say your heavenly master God, we are to obey him and everything, obviously, as well. Not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as a reward. You are serving the Lord Christ, for the wrongdoer will pay back for the wrong he has done, and there's no partiality. So that's how we're supposed to care for our people, fearing the Lord with a sincere heart, doing it heartily on the Lord, because we know the Lord is a righteous judge, and in the end, he says he's going to be giving us rewards based on the good and evil that we've done.

So as we're managing in our team, we must be just, we must be fair, but above that, we must do it in love. And following the commands of Jesus, we need to do it following the golden rule, doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. So now here are a couple questions that will help us as we're managing our team, knowing that we also have a manager in heaven.

Question one is, am I treating my employees the way I would like to be treated? And number two, do my employees know that I am Jesus's disciple, that he is my master, by the way I love, serve, or care for them? So beyond just being just and fair, do the people I'm leading know that I have a master in heaven? And then are my actions, is my management, are my HR policies congruent with this? Do they see a leader sacrificing for them, or do they feel like they're being sacrificed for the leader? This last section is pretty open-ended with regards to caring for your people, but I think it's helpful to break it up into four sections and just like we're supposed to love the Lord completely, and it talks about we should love the Lord with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. When we're caring for our people, we can think about caring for them in terms of their emotional state, their spiritual state, their mental state, and their physical state. And if you care for people this way, you're going to stand out, because the unbelieving business owner, sure, they can care about the physical needs by providing a good paycheck, and they can provide for the emotional need by some friendship and some camaraderie, and they'll provide for the mental needs by providing some stimulating work to do, possibly some training opportunities.

But where they're going to fall flat is they're not going to provide for the spiritual needs of the employee's soul. And this is because the unbelieving business leader is stuck in the horizontal plane. They're not a part of the kingdom of heaven.

And so their motivations are going to be pride and money and selfish ambition. And we as Christians are already set free from this because God has already met all of our needs and promises to meet all of our needs. And so we are set free and we get to draw from a well that never runs dry.

So the Christian has a deeper source motivating them, which is love. And we know that love looks a lot like service, looks a lot like sacrifice. And we know that love never ends and it never fails.

So the charge for you is to love your team, to care for your team, to serve your team. And because you're going to do this, it's going to show them who you serve. Which means that as you care for their physical needs by providing a safe place to work, a good paycheck, good benefits programs, you also have the opportunity to go beyond that.

Possibly providing some funds, mercy funds for people running into hard times. Maybe they have health crises, maybe they want to adopt a child, but you can provide for the physical needs in ways beyond the norm. And next would be caring for their emotional needs.

So this would be having a great place to work where there's no abusive situations happening, where people are honored and respected and valued. And then beyond that you could be partnering with different ministries that allow you to be generous, to serve those in need in the community, where they can experience what it means to be generous. Then you can care for their intellectual or their mental needs by giving them stimulating work, by giving them training opportunities, by helping them grow as an individual.

And not just in the day-to-day work, but in other areas of life. You can provide those opportunities and raise the bar in the standards of excellence based on biblical standards of being perfect, of being moral, being righteous, of being excellent. And then pointing them to truth along the way.

And lastly, you get to care for the most important thing, which is their soul, their spiritual needs. And this is likely an area where they're not being cared for because most of them are probably not going to church. And the ones that do are certainly spending a lot more time in the office than they are at church.

You set the tone and the trajectory of your business, and so you can fill it with the Spirit of God through prayer. And then specifically asking people, may I pray for you? And you can set up bible studies, you can have chaplains in the office, you can have resources that help people with their marriage and their finances and their parenting from a biblical perspective. There's a lot of ways you can flood the office with the Spirit of God and the Word of God that is totally legal in America.

And of course, you can also provide a way for them to be saved for those unsaved employees. You can provide them the gospel, you can have pamphlets there, but it's all legal and it's your opportunity to be a light in the marketplace. The business owners that I'm working with that are caring for the people this way are energized, they're excited, because they're about the work of the Lord.

They're doing the Great Commission, and they're doing it within the context of that 40-hour work week at their business, and they're seeing lives change, they're seeing eternities change, they're seeing families change, and they're seeing it because they're integrating their faith into their work. Hollow HR policies talking about fairness are never going to be enough. They're never going to be enough to satisfy the greatest need, the deepest need of your team.

And so they're always going to be searching and looking for more. Therefore, you should put this essential into your business and watch your company and your people come to life. Now, let's get to the application of this essential.

The first one is making sure that you are managing justly. And so you want to look through the company-wide HR policies and guidelines and procedures and management practices to make sure is this a just environment? And also look at each employee individually and making sure they're being treated righteously and with justice. The next application question is to make sure that you are running a fair business.

And again, you're looking at those HR policies and procedures and guidelines, making sure that you have the structure in place and that it's fair. There's no gaps, that you're compliant, and that because of it, you have a fair playing field that people can trust and feel safe in. And the last application point with regards to caring for your people is to make sure that you are doing it in love the way your master wants you to do it.

So as you're thinking about the emotional needs, the physical needs, the mental needs, the spiritual needs of your team, you are brainstorming, thinking of new ways to help and care for your people, to serve them, to love them. You're doing it in such a way that shows you a master in heaven. You're not denying Christ, but instead you're saying, yeah, I have a master in heaven, and this is why I do what I do, and it's out of love.

So now go care for your people and do it out of the abundance of love that Christ has shown to you because they will know you're a Christian by your love. Finally, if you like this episode, make sure to like, subscribe, share with other business owners. And as always, I appreciate you both for tuning in and until next time, grace be with you.