TMB

What Can BAMmers Learn from the World’s Most Successful Shoe Salesman?

/ Phill

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Zappos has been insanely successful selling shoes and engendering a loyal following. This online shoe store is the brainchild of Tony Hsieh. No one does it better.

As a result of his success other businesses have invited Tony to come and teach them how he does it. He credits his success in large measure to the culture of service he has created in the company. It starts by getting everyone onboard with the core values of the company and consistently looking for ways to reinforce them.

In the past TM Briefs has written about the importance of carefully selecting and integrating core values into your company. Tony Hsieh’s example with Zappos is worth a look.

Not surprisingly, he does not use religious sounding jargon. In fact, one would not expect him to since it is a secular business. There is no religious motivation. Interestingly, I believe many of the values are consistent with Biblical teaching. (Could that be a factor in their success?).

Let’s take a look at them:

• Be Humble – a good attribute for effective communication.

• Be Passionate and Determined – you have to believe in what you are doing. If you do then you will spare no effort to succeed and make a difference.

• Do More With Less – good stewardship opens the door to more opportunities to do good.

• Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit – getting the “right people” on the “right seats” on the bus produces synergy and generates exceptional results.

• Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication – there is no substitute for good, honest communication. With staff. With customers. With the community.

• Pursue Growth and Learning – you can’t stand still. If you are not growing you are atrophying.

• Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded – being adventurous implies taking risks. It also contributes to growth.

• Create Fun and A Little Weirdness – if you can’t enjoy what you are doing, find something else to do.

• Embrace and Drive Change – related to growth and learning. If you are not constantly improving someone else will soon pass you by.

• Deliver WOW Through Service – be exceptional.

TMB is not suggesting that you adopt these core values. You have to develop your own around your business model, your personality and the mission God has given you. The point is choosing good core values, building them into the business and consistently applying them produces good results.

What values are you incorporating in your company? Are they Biblical?

God Wired You for the Way He Wants to Use You

/ Phill

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The phone rang in the Global Opportunities office. The call was from a successful banker in mid-career wondering what God was saying to him. He sensed God was calling him to get involved in overseas ministry and was seeking counsel. He was feeling frustrated and confused.

As we talked he explained he was selling the regional bank he founded and was in transition. Obviously, he was good at what he did, this was the second time he started with nothing and made it into a business others wanted to buy from him. He was “wired” to be a good banker. He enjoyed it and he was good at it.

He had sought counsel from his pastor and came away troubled. The pastor’s advice was to put his life on hold, go back to seminary, and then look for a mission agency who would accept him, then after raising support send him to one of their fields. But, what do I do about my family, and my mortgage and other financial commitments in the meantime he asked. He also wondered, “What if I am not cut out to be a seminary student. Will this all have been for naught? There were not a lot of good answers to his questions.

As we talked about how God had gifted him and that God could use those gifts and might not be asking him to “re-tool” and become something he was not made to be I could hear a change in his voice and a rush of relief. “So I am not crazy after all,” he said.

We continued exploring alternative paths to ministering with impact, overseas, taking advantage of the special skills, passions and gifting that God had placed in him. We talked about tentmaking and having a unique opportunity to go where traditional religious workers could not go.

How I wish now I had been able to point him to a meditation by Os Hillman I recently found. The reflection comes from Exodus 31: 1-5

Then the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts– to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.

Hillman advises, “Friend, your interest in your vocation is not born of your own making. So many business people and even pastors have made the mistake of encouraging us who have a deep desire to walk with Christ in the work place to pursue vocational ministry. To remove us from the marketplace where the greatest harvest is yet to occur would be to remove us from where God called us.

“Do not take this bait. Serve the Lord in the marketplace where he has gifted you and called you.” 

You will find the entire meditation at Surf in the Spirit 
I encourage you to take a moment to jump over there and read the full text and reflect on it.

What is the world’s biggest least reached language?

/ Steinar Opheim

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Recent updates in the Joshua Project database make it possible to do searches based on languages and not just on people groups. You may be surprised when you see which language is least reached with the Gospel.

It is namely Japanese that is at the very top of the list showing the biggest unreached languages. According to the American based statistical center it is today 128 million people who speak Japanese. Of these only 0.3 per cent can be regarded as evangelical believers. If you count all denominations 1.5 per cent of those speaking Japanese can be regarded as Christians.

Openness

– Many things are happening in Japan, and there is a great openness for speaking about Jesus. Still it is right to regard the Japanese as an unreached people group, says Akira Mori, who is working to reach the people of the Asiatic island-nation with the Gospel.

The first protestant missionaries came to Japan more than 150 years ago. The spiritual harvest this far has been rather poor and no one has really succeeded in finding the key that can open the Japanese hearts for the Gospel. Akira Muri says many people in Japan are vaccinated against everything that tastes of religion. He thinks relationship-based fellowships meeting in the homes is a model that can work.

– There is a growing movement of such fellowships in Japan. Many people are seeking to find true faith and a living God. They want to experience that God is real. The small fellowships provide arenas where this can happen.

Ten more years as the world’s greatest oppressor?

/ Steinar Opheim

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The same nation has been on top of Open Door´s World Watch-list for ten consecutive years. International observers think it may remain the world´s greatest persecutor of Christians for ten more years if the political system is not changed.  If you want to serve in a really tough environment, this nation is one of your best options.

– One of the remaining Communist states, North Korea is vehemently opposed to religion of any kind. Christians are classified as hostile and face arrest, detention, torture, even public execution. There is a system of labor camps including the renowned prison No. 15, which reportedly houses 6,000 persecuted Christians alone. Despite the severe oppression, there is a growing underground church movement of an estimated 400,000 Christians, state the people behind the latest update of the World Watch List.

Business as usual

The description was approximately the same ten years ago. Then Kim Il-Sung, who is regarded as the founder of the North-Korean nation, governed the country with an iron fist.  Since then both his son and his grandson have come to power. But the situation for Christians and other religious minorities has remained unchanged.

One Christian in North Korea reports that they are not able to help brother and sisters who have been abused by the police.

– Some have been tortured so much that they can no longer walk. Still helping them is not an option since it involves taking too big risks. The only thing we can do is to pray. We know that Jesus will not leave them nor forsake them, he says.

God can make changes

One observer Tentmaking Briefs has talked with says there are no signs that the regime will change in the foreseeable future.

– Humanly speaking there is not much hope for a change, but God can still do something. Two generations of Christians in North Korea have cried to the Lord for help. Brothers and sisters around the world join them in this fight. I believe the Lord can create something new in this nation just as he did when the iron curtain fell and communism perished, says the observer.

Another person who just visited North Korea speaks about the awful suffering he was witnessing:

– I´ve been to more than 40 nations, but I´ve never seen anything similar to the misery I met face to face in North Korea.

There are some job opportunities for foreigners who want to work in North Korea.  One good contact point is Pyongyang University of Science and Technology that hires several professionals from abroad. Another option is Christian Friends of Korea, which is a registered charity in North Korea.