Sitting at the African Hospitality Institute out in the bush, I had the occasion to read this excerpt. It made me think. God calls us to an abundant life. That’s not solely limited to riches or material wealth, but includes a life of generosity and compassion. Expressive Business Strategies (EBS) is really about ubuntu. EBS is made up of men and women blessed with abundant lives by God. Much of what we have to offer out of our abundance is our knowledge and we freely give that back to the people. It is our essence as people that we share and pour into the lives of others. What we see lacking in our world is a foundation of moral, ethical businesses on which to build a God-honoring society. If we can make up for that lack out of our abundance and inspire a new generation of business leaders whose thought is developing a business community filled with integrity than we have achieved transformation. God has given us abundance to help. In helping we link our lives into the interdependent family of God and we catch a glimpse of God’s dream for mankind.

EBS is about transformation. It’s about sharing. It’s about compassion. It’s about being generous. We don’t do this to simply “feel good”. We do this to connect with people and show them the pathway to transforming their own everyday world.

In Uganda, we had the chance to teach 100+ entrepreneurs out in the village and at two locations in Kampala. People were inspired. People were excited to go out into their region racked by recession and poverty and make a difference. It was humbling to share and see the transformation take shape. There are many moments of breakthrough that we could share, whether it’s about teaching folks business planning, or telling them about networking. One moment stood out to me when my friend Mike Smay, during question and answer, looked at the people and said “Be the one”… What was communicated is simply that transformation begins by making a conscious choice to be different, act differently… to think differently… on your OWN… Make a difference by choosing to be different in your business. I think at that moment, several of the students realized that complaining about their lot in life doesn’t really do any good. Complaining about the government, doesn’t do any good. Complaining about competition doesn’t do any good. If you want to have abundance, than start to do good on your own and inspire others to follow.

Sometimes when we go to teach it’s not all the fundamental stuff that effects change, it’s a single comment that makes all the difference. So we go, to share a perspective, to inspire and to live “ubuntu” for the developing nations of this world.

It’s up to the people we tell to choose to follow God.   So how does business , or more specifically, how does Expressive Business Strategies and their mission, relate to this?

Business people are comfortable talking about business.. That’s their comfort zone.  An “in born” trait in all people is the desire to help others.  Expressive Business Strategies is where business people can take their skills and knowledge and use it to help others.  The challenge we give our speakers is to see their business through God’s eyes and through his Biblical principles.  Explain your business in a practical way to help increase knowledge, let your light shine in telling students how God is part of your business and then sit back and watch.

In every country we’ve visited and taught in, we’ve seen practical business teaching blessed by God, and the result is saved souls.  We joke about getting emotional when we talk about things like “Cash Flow for Start up Businesses”.  I mean does God care?  Yet through our teaching we give sound advice and we let God work…  People change, business dealings change and transformation occurs.

I wrestled with this before I even talked with Mike Smay, my business partner in Expressive Business Strategies.  Then God spoke to me about “comfort zone”.   What are most successful business people comfortable in?…. That’s right… they are comfortable in their business.  They are comfortable talking about their business.

I did a little experiment to prove this.   I went to a dinner party and asked successful business people to talk about their families.   The conversation lasted for about 30 seconds.  Then I asked them to talk about their businesses, for the most part I had to stop them from talking after several minutes because if I hadn’t I would have been there all night.

It was then that I realized that God made business professionals, both men and women, to be comfortable and to identify with their work.  It’s where they spend most of their waking hours.  So if that’s true than asking business people to talk about their business experience in the context of applying Godly business principles must be a God honoring endeavor.  Business is the “comfort zone” of the business professional.

To a business professional, asking them to share their personal testimony and do evangelism is scary proposition for them.  However, to ask a business professional to share how God has blessed their business and to simply talk about Godly business principles applied in their business and let God do the work of “salvation” is far more in the comfort zone of the business professional.

That was the first foundational principle as we formed Expressive Business Strategies.  There are more and more blog posts are to come, to help you see where we are going with this non-profit venture.