Posted by Troy Blackmon on 29 December 2009 | 0 Comments

How Was Your Year?   It has become a year-end tradition in each of our C12 groups to take a uniquely Christ-centered retrospective look at the results of our past year’s activities, focusing on the eternal perspective. Taking such an inventory is, of course, a very normal thing to do in the economic dimensions of our businesses. We are all familiar with such measurements as net income, profit margin, ROI, market share, and sales growth.  We have devised numerous ways to measure our fiscal effectiveness and it’s important that we use them well. Here we focus on a different set of criteria. In many ways it is much more difficult to measure our results in the ministry or spiritual dimension of our business lives. The whole idea of using our business as a platform for ministry can sometimes seem bewildering as it is not nearly as well ‘codified’ as such routine business processes like filling orders and tracking financial profit or loss.

In terms of what is eternally important to our lives, the spiritual dimension is much more - even infinitely more - important to us. So, with apologies to none, we are now going to offer some thoughts on how we might take a year-end audit from a uniquely Kingdom-oriented perspective.

What is it that we should be looking for as we examine ourselves and our spiritual lives in relation to the ministry in our business?  Is it only souls won to the Lord, or dollars given to support His work, or numbers of tracts distributed?  Is it only those things that we can quantify? No, of course not.  While we know that all these things are an important part of the fruit of our ministry which need to be quantified and recorded to help us measure progress in these areas, we also know that there is another set of criteria.  It is these personal criteria that we will examine today.  These criteria pertain to growth, the kind of growth that will lead to fruit…much fruit!  We are offering these criteria as indicators of growth which we can all use to measure what kind of a year we really had in the Master’s eyes.  In general, rate your year from 1 to 10, with 1 being Low, 5 Average and 10 High (as measured against your potential or opportunity).

You had a good year if...

1. You spent more time with The Lord.  This is an easy one.  Everything we are or do comes out of our relationship with God in Christ Jesus.  We can never be more than our relationship with Him enables us to be.  Obedience to God is the FINAL definition of success in our lives and our obedience comes out of our relationship with Him. As we grow to know Him better we are more able to hear His voice.  The more clearly we hear Him, the easier it is to obey Him.

Don’t be deceived.  Our ministry in business or anywhere else will never grow if our relationship with God is not. Of course our relati onship with God is not totally defined by the amount of time that we spend with Him.  It is not only the amount of time but the quality of the time and the result of the time that are important.  It is possible that you may not have to spend more time with God to build your relationship with Him... but not likely!  Unless you are one in a million, your love for God and your devotion to Him are mirrored in the prioriti zed time you spend with Him.  We are talking about all kinds of time here: daily quiet time, prayer during the day, evening meditations, and the sense that He is in you and with you in the everyday decisions you make to run the business.  Wherever each of us may be in this equation, there is plenty of room to grow.  How was your year?

Rating ________

2. Your family relationships strengthened.  Were you able to spend more time, and more quality time, with your spouse and children?  We need to look at these relationships right after our relationship with God. It isn’t very likely that we had an improving relationship with God and a deteriorating relationship with our family.  We can’t really get closer to God and not be convicted to love and serve our mates and children.  Did you make more time available to your spouse and less to your hobbies or business?  Is your love for (and service to) them greater than it was last year?  If so, you’ve had a good year.

Why do we start a year-end audit of our business talking about God and family?  Because we can only bring to our business what we already have in our lives in Christ and in our homes.  We are not two people.  We are one person, living an integrated life before the Lord.  Our ministry in our business is simply an extension of our lives in Christ, not a separate part of it.

Rating ________

3. You spent more time listening and relating to your key team members on a one–to–one basis.   Not only listening to and relating with them, but doing so with an ear tuned to God and His purposes.  You had a good year if you care more for your lost employees, seeing the horrible prospect of their eternity in hell more painfully.  You had a good year if you prayed for their salvation more than last year, and an even better year if you actually did something more to impact them for eternity.

Rating ________

4. You saw the people that you deal with - suppliers, customers, employees, and others - more as objects of your personal ministry than as objects to be exploited for your personal gain.  If you see yourself more as servant to them than master over them, even a little bit more, you had a good year.

Rating ________

5. You are even slightly less acquisitive than you were a year ago.  The urge to acquire things is of the flesh, not the Spirit. The vain thought that having more will bring any real benefit to our lives is immature and foolish.  Any honest Christian knows that there is no joy or peace in things.  The more stuff we have, the more we must tend to and use.  Materialism is a curse, a cancer of the spirit.  If you have extricated yourself, even a little, from its grasp, and are more able to steward your gifts with an open hand before the Lord, you have had a good year. You might measure this as a percentage of what you gave from what you were given.  Were you able to give a greater share this year?

Rating ________

6. You are measurably more thankful for what you have and content with your present lot in life.   Spiritual maturity brings with it a contentment that comes from the awareness of what God has done for us by grace.  What do we have that we deserve?  And, given that we have as much as we all do, being among the materially wealthiest people in the history of the world, how can we not be thankful?  Why do we need more?  If God were to say to you, “What you have is the best it will ever be,” what would you say to Him? Could you say, “Thank You, Father...I already have more than I deserve or need,” and really mean it?  If you can, even a bit more gratefully than last year, you have had a good year.

Rating ________

7. You have more peace in your heart than you did a year ago. This is especially true if the peace is not related to circumstances, since circumstances always change.  If our peace is dependent on them, it comes and goes with the changes.  Spiritual maturity, and the peace that comes with it, is not dependent on circumstances but on God who never changes.  Can you see God’s hand in your circumstances (i.e., “…give thanks in all circumstances” [1Th 5:18], “Consider it pure joy…” [Ja 1:2], “…in all things God works…” [Ro 8:28]) a little more clearly this year than last?  If you can, you had a good year.

Rating ________

8. You learned more about your profession this year than last.  If you believe that (a) your business is a gift from God and (b) as steward you are to run it for Him with excellence and (c) have found the time and will to learn and apply better ways to do so; you had a good year.

Rating ________

9. You took better care of your body.  Did you get the exercise you need? Was your diet better than last year?  Are you giving the time to the maintenance of your body that you know you should?  The way we care for our body is a measure of our self–discipline.  Mastery of self is a key to spiritual growth.  If your temple is in better shape than it was a year ago, allowing for the wear and tear of time, you had a good year.

Rating ________

10. More eternal fruit has been produced through and around you, due Rating to your effort and influence while abiding in Christ, compared to last year.  Eternal fruit is defined as “lives turned toward God.”  It means simply this: your obedience to God in what you say, do, and are, influences others to move towards God in their thoughts and actions, yielding eternal fruit.  This doesn’t only involve conversions and discipleship.  It includes anything that brings a heightened and more favorable awareness of God and His ways to others.  A Godly life lived in a Godly way produces eternal fruit.  Everywhere Jesus went eternal fruit was produced.  This is true in all areas of our lives, not just in business, but we are talking about business at the moment.

Are more people more favorably aware that you are an Ambassador for Christ in and around your business this year than last?  Have more needy people been helped because God has entrusted the business to your care this year?  Do they know that they have been helped because you love God and are doing so in His name?  Are more Christians being influenced to grow in their faith because your business has brought you, reflecting Christ, into their lives?  If you can see that more eternal fruit has been produced in, around, and through your business, you have had a GREAT year.

Rating ________

_________        TOTAL FOR YEAR   (Total your ratings for all 10 categories)

_________           Average rating for year  (Divide your total by 10)

Many of you are thinking, “How can I really measure these things?”  Some aren’t easily quantifiable, at least not in an exact numerical way.  However, if you’re unsure, and really want to, you can know your measure.  Begin to ask God to reveal to you the truth in each of these areas.  He will show you as you pray and study His Word.  Sometimes He will answer through people who know you well, such as your spouse, close friends, or perhaps your peer C12 Group members. 

Keep this segment and your ratings. Next year we’ll look at them again in comparison with our new ratings. Our ratings will probably never be all we’d like them to be.  Our real goal is to grow - not legalistically drive toward a particular numerical score.  Our lives in Christ are designed to grow in fruit and grace.  We start where we stand and go forward from there, pressing on in Christ. 

What areas have surfaced as those you'd like to address by perhaps repenting, reordering priorities, and diligently pursuing SMART goals this upcoming year?