#MondayInsight:

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the ministry of my business. What I mean is this: of course my business helps people achieve the business results they are looking for. But at a deeper level, what am I touching in people along the way? How am I caring for them? How am I helping heal their hurt and helping them grow?

I’ve known for years that my work at its core is about liberation. 

So for me, when I think about my business as a business ministry, it’s a ministry of liberation – liberating people’s voices, liberating their message, liberating their work in the world, and liberating their leadership – in service to bringing liberation to this world. In other words, liberating the messenger and the message itself. 

I encourage you to think about what the ministry of your business is, and who you’re meant to minister to! And if the word “minister” or “ministry” doesn’t resonate with you, feel free to pick another word or frame that does work, like thinking of your business as a vehicle for deeper purpose. 

This week though, what I’m being guided to share with you is the opportunity to “minister” to the world through the disruptions that are continuing to emerge…

Because disruptions are getting amplified in our world right now! Whether it’s the war in Ukraine, COVID, or Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, disruption is happening at an amplified level. 

What they want for you to know is that every disruption is an invitation to an opportunity for ministry. 

It’s been really interesting watching everybody have their opinions and conversation around this Oscar moment. What guidance says is that this slap feels so personal to so many because it’s archetypal. All these questions are connected to it, like “what does it mean to be a man?”… especially as the age of patriarchy as the lead is coming to an end. 

What’s happening is that we’re unearthing conversations that we, the collective, want and need to have.

In the Will Smith and Chris Rock situation, there are two people that we can focus on to have this conversation about. But ultimately, underneath that there’s a conversation that we’re needing to have collectively. This is a situation where there is the potential for a new story to emerge, because we’re highlighting an old story. 

When you think about ministry in the context of what’s going on in your world today, we want you to see it through the lens of outdated stories and emerging stories… around what it means to be human and what it means to be humanity (as my friend Martin Rutte puts it). To grow out of our outdated stories we need to unearth the old conversations – to get into the guts and the nooks and crannies of our collective old stories. Only then can we re-examine them.

That gives us the opportunity to feel into our hearts, listen to guidance and be illuminated in our minds as we access a larger perspective. 

From that larger perspective, we can say, “Oh, there’s a new story available!” and then step into our role as messengers and as ministers, and engage people in what the new story might be. 

So if you’re looking at what’s happening in our world, feeling discouraged, distraught, confused, wondering what to do, and how you can help, ask yourself this question:

Are we unearthing this in order to collectively examine an old story? And is there a new story emerging that I’m meant to give voice to?

If the answer is yes, then the courageous messenger’s role is to do just that: give voice to that new story.

So glad that you’re here to do just that!