I’ve lived in the Midwest my entire life and every year, even though by now I have circled the sun enough to understand seasons, the leaves changing hits like a beautiful surprise. I’ll look out my window at the tree line that serves as our back fence or at the mix of pines and brightly-colored maples and oaks that cover our little college town and be amazed at how this seemingly innocuous, literally natural process can have such a profound impact on my outlook.

Most working Christians spend the majority of their waking hours in a for-profit business setting. Yet many marketplace Christians are unaware that the Holy Spirit has given them spiritual gifts to be used primarily in the marketplace—not only in the context of a local church or charity.

Sadly, many marketplace Christians are unaware of the spiritual gifts entrusted to them for fulfilling the disciple-making and world-transforming mission of the church. In local churches that help marketplace Christians to identify their spiritual gifts, the typical “spiritual gifts assessment” is being used almost entirely for the purpose of assigning these believers as volunteers to serve in their various in-house programs.

A conversation I have frequently with business owners and managers is how to communicate everything that their audience needs to know about their service or product, and keep people listening. When you run a business and are passionate about what you offer, EVERYTHING is important. You’ve put hard work and thought into every component – and it feels like the outside world should see the intentionality so that they can understand the value you are truly offering them.