The Christian Economic Forum invited me to attend their annual gathering. Each attendee writes an article, which hopefully builds a knowledge base for the community. The article below was my submission.

Introduction

The Small Business Administration reports there are more than thirty million small businesses in America, between them employing nearly half of the private workforce. 

In recent decades, the American church and parachurch have shown increasing interest in marketplace ministry, but this effort tends to focus on medium and large businesses. Small businesses are often overlooked and thus underserved by the church and parachurch organizations. How can we better serve these small business owners and their employees?

Background

Christian faith has integrated with the marketplace from the start. There were tentmakers like Paul, Lydia the dealer in purple cloth, and merchants carrying news of a resurrected Messiah across the Roman Empire. In the two millennia since, business people of all types have participated fully in marketplace systems while simultaneously sharing the story of Jesus. In each generation, Christians throughout the world build and nurture bonds of trust across cultural, social, religious, and political boundaries. 

Unfortunately, the church in America has often overlooked the unique needs of those who work in the marketplace. Of course, the church has put great effort into a wide range of discipleship efforts, but few have specifically targeted men and women in the business world. Thankfully there has been a revival of interest in how the church can better engage. New organizations have been formed, and established organizations have added “marketplace ministry” to their offerings, all with the intention of serving people of faith working in the marketplace, creating businesses with faith-based values, and impacting culture through the business community.

This pivot has borne fruit and is worthy of continued support.

The Challenge

The challenge is that marketplace ministry by the church and parachurch groups is often biased toward medium and large businesses. This is entirely reasonable, given the economics of creating and distributing resources like books, curriculum, training, and workshops. We all want the biggest return on investment whether measured in profits, social impact, or discipleship impact. 

However, when the American church mimics the systems and priorities of our culture, it runs the risk of losing its unique message of faith, hope, and love. This is true not only for our values and theology, but also for our efforts within the business community. Ministry and service in the marketplace obviously must resist conformity with sinful biases—systemic racism or gender inequality are clear examples—but it is equally vital to resist conformity with biases that harm outreach and discipleship. Consider the common business (and often cultural) assumption that more is better. Christian marketplace ministry too often prioritizes scalability and institutional size, both of which can be problematic for meaningful impact in our neighborhoods and communities. 

Regarding scalability, investors naturally seek business opportunities that can scale. Because this is the only realistic way of generating a return on investment, most investment groups focus their time, talent, and treasure on startups with the greatest growth potential. Naturally, many faith-based investment groups have adopted the same approach because it is part of the business culture. This is not wrong, but it is insufficient because it overlooks the huge number of small businesses that root themselves deeply in their communities rather than expanding broadly across the marketplace.

The ministry preference for institutional size is understandable as well. Those who provide marketplace ministry resources and services—such as publishers, consultants, researchers, large churches, etc.— tend to focus on a well-defined target market to maximize their impact and returns. Unfortunately, small businesses are dispersed, highly diverse, and represent a difficult market to define. 

For these two reasons—among others—many of the church and parachurch efforts to serve the marketplace are underserving sole proprietors and the people who work for them. Small businesses are decentralized, have no grand plans to scale operations, only have a few employees each, and are economically an afterthought. No wonder they are overlooked. 

But what might happen if we begin to focus on them?

The Opportunity

In many communities—perhaps most—it is small businesses that form the fabric of the neighborhood. They encourage approachability, typically have owners who live in the community, and are engaged in the local dialogue. Their business model is often visibly demonstrated, and even defined, as community building. 

If the work of the church is to impact society, there may be no greater underserved market than the social reach of small businesses. 

An Example

Twenty years ago Goble Properties purchased a retail center in a suburban community near Silicon Valley. The center was poorly designed for retail purposes, lacked a national anchor tenant, and had suffered two bankruptcies and one foreclosure. Despite these obstacles, Goble Properties purchased the property because it was located on a visible intersection at the heart of a growing community and adjacent to a large civic sports park. And, let’s be honest, it was priced right! We believed it could become something better by becoming something different. 

We began by focusing on going deep rather than wide. Our leasing strategy shifted toward vibrant small business owners who wanted to serve our flourishing community. The tenants eventually included:

• An independent beer pub that quickly became the hangout of choice after softball in the sports park.
• A local veterinarian who had roots in the community going back decades.
• A tutorial service for students of all ages.
• A privately owned upscale sporting goods store that sold team equipment.
• The highest regarded florist in the region that became the place to buy corsages for high school proms.
• A dance studio for children that had multiple classes every day and attracted entire families for recitals. 
• A privately owned health food store.
• A gourmet kitchen supply store with nightly cooking classes.
• And a long list of independently owned restaurants, jewelry stores, hair and nail salons, a day care center, a dry cleaner, and a hip-with-the-high-school-crowd sandwich shop.

The result is the renewal of a once neglected property into a social and business hub for the community. Locally owned and operated small businesses are thriving as they serve and engage the community. Not one of these business owners has a desire to scale their operations beyond one or two more storefronts. Instead, each is committed to remaining part of our (very local) community and succeeding as a small business. Each impacts thousands of people on an annual basis (some on a monthly or even weekly basis), and each serves as a gathering point for families, children, students, affinity groups, and people across the demographic spectrum of the community. 

None of this hurts the case for serving medium and large businesses, which also do a lot of good in the community. But how is the church serving and equipping owners of one-of-a-kind health food stores or dance studios? In many cases, the sole proprietors of these businesses have a greater reach within their communities than local churches. 

So what might happen if we found ways to better serve them? 

Tangible Steps

Consider how we might better serve small businesses. 

1. Value and honor them for the community builders they are. Churches and parachurch organizations could easily use their platforms for highlighting the work of unrecognized neighborhood heroes. It could help the small businesses attract more customers of course, but it could also make a statement that the church understands the value of service outside its own walls.  
2. Create and provide financial instruments that serve the unique needs of small businesses. Most are underfunded and have unimpressive financial statements, but for decades this was said about people needing a micro-loan. Small businesses are neither big enough for institutional support nor small enough for micro-loan support, so they lack options for funding their businesses. Faith-based financial service companies could creatively serve this market. 
3. To act as a balance to the above suggestion, many small business owners are not financially experienced. Offering them expertise in cash management, margins, negotiation, marketing, customer acquisition, etc., can be critically important to their success. Assisting with these issues—especially from a faith-based perspective—allows small businesses to develop neighborhood relationships more deeply. From this perspective, resources, think tanks, consulting services, and other products for small businesses will have an outsizedimpact.
4. Stop offering big business solutions for small business challenges. No one needs a 40-page business plan to sell pretzels or a lengthy human resources document for three employees. If we take the time to learn what small businesses genuinely need we can offer products and services that actually help. 
5. At the same time, recall that small business owners face many of the same challenges as big businesses: life balance, long hours, discouragement, worry, employee disputes, taxes, regulations, and so on. When sole proprietors have a “big business” friend or mentor they gain new insights, support, and encouragement.

Conclusion

Those of us fortunate enough to attend the Christian Economic Forum are eager to see the Kingdom of God expressed and expanded through the marketplace. We are high achievers who think in global terms and who desire to make a broad impact.

Let us not forget the incredible daily impact of this country’s thirty million small businesses. Operating without fanfare, these businesses are the economic and social engine in our communities. They need our support, expertise, and networks to thrive. As James Davison Hunter expressed in To Change the World, the church needs to be a faithful presence in all areas of our culture.    

Discovering the “next big thing” will always be a temptation, but let’s remember that thirty million small businesses need our support as they interact daily with millions of our neighbors. Let’s remember to go deep in our commitment to the community by serving these small businesses as much as we serve medium and large businesses. When we support the women and men running and working at all businesses, the Kingdom of God will be more resilient, more inclusive, and more present.

Note: this content was originally published for the Christian Economic Forum’s 2019 Global Event. This content is shared here with consent from CEF.