Christian Worldview and Vocation in Business Marketing

Introduction

Everyone is called in life to do something — whether it is to serve God in the church, start a family, pursue a career, or use whatever talents God has given in some other way. Discerning one's vocation is an important part of growing up and assuming responsibility in one's life. Realizing a vocation, however, depends upon one's ability to obtain direction, guidance, support, and awareness. It involves prayer, study, and reflection. Once discerned, one must then consider how to approach that vocation by incorporating Christian principles into one's work. This paper discusses what I believe my personal vocation to be, what the Christian motives for that vocation are, what Christian guidance offers me, and what my final reflections on the matter are.

Personal Vocation

I believe my personal vocation to be in business marketing. My father is a Baptist preacher, and I have grown up surrounded by the Baptist faith. It has informed my life in so many ways — from giving me a foundation for how to view the world and myself, to providing me with a support system for making important decisions. When it came time for me to discern my vocation, I looked at what I believed myself to be good at, what I was drawn to doing, and what it appeared God wanted for me. But Thompson and Miller-Perrin remind us that "God calls a person 'with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace' (2 Tim 1:9)."¹ Thus, when I thought of my vocation, I wanted to make sure it would be a way for me to serve God. It is the vocation, after all, that "brings divine meaning and purpose to the life of a Christian."² I sensed that my calling was to enter into the business of marketing, and that through this vocation I could serve God and apply the talents He has given me in the way He wants them applied.

I arrived at this decision through prayer and reflection. In my early teens I started thinking about how I could serve God and what God wanted me to do with my life. I knew that God gives everyone a special talent that He wants them to use in life.³ So I reflected on what I was good at doing and what I enjoyed doing. I realized I liked marketing and was good at finding creative ways to sell an idea to people. I think this came in some way from my father, who as a preacher is skilled at "selling" God to people. I learned the art of communication and persuasion from him, and I wanted to apply this in a career. After praying about it, I believed God wanted me to apply the art of persuasion to business so that I could bring God into the business world and promote Him in the world in this way.

Christian Motives for This Vocation

Business is not often a realm associated with Christianity, and this is unfortunate. Business is really essential to life. It allows us to own things, produce things, trade things, and live well. It can be a creative expression that reflects the creative impulse seen in Genesis, when God created the world and told Adam and Eve to go forth and multiply (Gen 1:28). Business helps people fulfill that proposition: they can work on an endeavor, bring it to market, and exchange the produce of their labor for what they need. Because the market is competitive — much like nature — one must use skills to market one's products and empower people to buy them. Marketing, then, is a skill that can support the mandate given by God to humanity. He does not want people to flounder in the world; He wants people to succeed, live well, and be strong and happy, because He loves them. Business, to me, is not something people should view as antithetical to what God wants — it supports God's plan, so long as one is ethical about it.

The ethical motivations for Christians entering into business marketing must include the need to be honest. It is true that advertisers often make exaggerated promises about how a given product will bring fulfillment and happiness to consumers. They craft advertisements that show people enjoying products in pristine settings where life appears to be an endless succession of utopian moments. I think of Coca-Cola or Pepsi ads when I speak of this type of advertising: they always show happy, attractive people in the best of moods enjoying a cola. But this is not honest advertising. Honesty does not try to fool people or manipulate their emotions; it is a reflection of reality. In my field, I think the Christian needs to be motivated by honesty. Consumers in the marketplace can genuinely appreciate honesty in marketing because it stands out as a breath of fresh air.

Scripture provides a great deal of insight on how one should approach business. Proverbs 10:4 states, "A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich." This is good motivation in business marketing because it urges one not to be lazy but to apply God-given talents effectively. Then there is Matthew 25:14–30, which tells the parable of the talents. In that parable, servants receive different numbers of talents from their master. One servant, thinking it wise, buries his talents to preserve them. But the master upon his return chides the servant, pointing out that he failed to use his talents to increase them as others had done. The point of the parable is that one should use what God has given so as to live in abundance, for it is in this manner that one gives glory to God, Who is the source of all good.⁴ God rewards those who trust in Him and use what He has given; those who are fearful and fail to act are rebuked for lacking faith. In my field, therefore, one must trust that God will reward faithfulness. Following the Christian principle of honesty and maintaining integrity in one's work, without fearing that God will abandon you, is the proper posture. God gives to support us, and He is pleased to see our creative activity put to good use. I am greatly comforted about my vocation when I consider it in these terms, trusting that God is leading me on the right path.