Sovereign Grace Family Church
August, 2006
Dear friends.
Greetings from beautiful
To cast a vision for entrepreneurship
that highlights the testimony of independent businessmen who embrace biblical
principles and include their families in their work. Our four mission distinctives are as follows:
1.
Help
individual families advance a God-blessed vision of victory which includes
unity, freedom in Christ, and multi-generational faithfulness;
2.
Spark
innovation and entrepreneurial activity in the Christian community such that
believers would be mighty in the land;
3.
Encourage the
growth of Christian business leaders who are in the position to set their own
policies and represent Christ in the business community without the
encumbrances of ungodly business institutions;
4.
Inspire
Christians to think in terms of creative but wise solutions for applying
biblical principles of family life and entrepreneurship to practical problems
in the twenty-first century work environment.
The beautiful San Antonio Skyline
The conference is in
the
the
RiverCenter mall and a block from the
Here are some friends
and members of
The beautiful riverwalk.
Eating dinner with more friends.
My good friends the Wahlquist family are here.
There are over one thousand attending.
Another friend of SGFC, Mike Southerland is here.
Geoff Botkin opened the conference.
Doug Phillips gave the keynote address Thursday evening.
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Thoughts from Geoff Botkin on his 200 year plan.
Why have a 200 year plan? Some reasons are:
1.
It permits a
young Christian to see his place in history.
2.
It permits
flexible planning without presumption.
3.
It helps to
cast long term vision.
4.
It helps
descendents understand God’s mind and the mind of the patriarch.
5.
It defines
dominion and culture.
6.
It gives a
patriarch confidence that his life is counting for eternity.
Don Hart gave a session on the legal concerns for family businesses. Did you know that the laws are very favorable towards family businesses?
More
beautiful sites from
Our friends from the Malone family (Nathan, Bethany, Rachel).
More friends (Don Hart’s family)
Doug Phillips lists some of the common complaints from office managers.
See any relationships to the family?
1.
Disrespect
2.
Dishonorable
and disloyal conduct
3.
Poor work
ethic
4.
Rapid
turnover
5.
Immorality
6.
Ingratitude
Cover from Life Magazine from years ago. Note how even a secular
magazine
recognized that “the
with Christianity.
Don Hart and Wade Myers prepare for a panel discussion.
Q&A with some of the best entrepreneurs of our day (l to r: Nick Logan, Scott Brown, Arnold Pent, Geoff Botkin, Doug Phillips, Wade Myers,
Jim Zes, Don Hart). This men aren’t best because of the great businesses they started. They are the best because they are operating under
biblical principles and have their hearts turned toward home.
Kevin Turley introduces Joel Salatin. I had a chance to meet Mr. Turley and
he told me that he and his church were praying for SGFC (Sovereign Grace
more to me than anything else I heard this week.
Joel Salatin spoke on how to work with your children so that they would
want to work with you.
Some of these ways include:
1.
Integrate
your children into every aspect of what you do.
2.
Instill in
your children a love of work.
3.
Give children
enough freedom to pursue their own interests.
4.
Maintain
humor with your children.
5.
Praise,
praise, praise your children.
I always love hearing Scott Brown.
He talked about fathers and sons working together.
His main assertion was that to understand how a father and son should
work together must be derived from an understanding of the relationship
of God the Father and God the Son.
He listed some biblical patterns of how fathers work with sons. Some
of these are:
1. A father must love his son.
2. A father designs and delegates work.
3. A father shares his work with his son.
4. A father has authority over his son.
5. A son loves his father.
6. A son imitates his father.
7. A father teaches his son.
8. A father leads by example.
What should a father teach his son? He should teach him:
1. The responsibilities of a father.
2. The scriptures.
3. Skills.
4. Preparation for marriage.
5. How to be positioned for success.
Jim Leininger gave a wonderful testimony of how God led him through
success and failure.
1
During some of the sessions some entrepreneurial young ladies took some time to beautify names tags for those who would wear them.
Final thoughts…
I began working outside the home as a teenager. The business was entrepreneurial; I was apprenticing with a music teacher learning to teach.
When I was putting myself through college, I again began a music teaching business where my wife and I taught out of the home. Although it was hard work, I remember the flexibility, creativity, and responsibility this brought to me and my family.
Since then I have spent over 15 years in “Corporate America”. As I evaluate this biblically I realize I have sold myself into a feudal system that is unbiblical to the core. What’s sad about this is that I had the right thing at one time, but I did not know it.
These folks are on to something. They are taking a good, hard look at who we are today and it does not biblically compute. Instead of business being under family authority is has practically created another governmental jurisdiction that is becoming more and more ungodly.
What this conference asserts is that we need to take a stand for something different. We need to get back to the biblical principles of business like we had when our country was founded. What these folks have given to us are some of the practical means to do that.
For more thoughts see Matt Chancey’s blog.