Christian Business Communities
and Emerging Economies

Can you and I do anything to contribute to the emerging economies in the Middle East, Africa and Asia?  Certainly – if you have run a small business, go and live and start businesses there that develop the national resources for the benefit of others.  Where two or three are gathered and work together in His name, there He will change situations and lives through example rather than word alone.

Democracy is possible only if there are some unselfish hearts – real business depends on the same unselfishness.  This is the difference between godless business and godly business.  Genesis 3:19 describes the business of a fallen world–“in the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread"; Genesis 1:28 describes work as God’s great commission to his Son in each human being – fill the earth and subdue it!

Business and democracy both fail when selfishness is unrestrained.   Both prosper when unselfishness is unrestrained.  Control Data in Minnesota was started to meet human needs through profitable enterprises.  Buckminster Fuller proved that life succeeds when life is lived for others.  Bankers, mortgage lenders, and rating agencies have to make money to serve society, but if they’re in business to make money for themselves they become parasites on the rest of us.

Here are some business communities that have been doing this for fifty years - as have many others – if you want to deal with your own selfish heart and then do business to develop and build human societies, I suggest you start with the “Escape from Self” talks on the homepage.