Vision Statement: The Vision of Discipling Marketplace Leaders is to reclaim the redeemed marketplace through Church-based Business as Mission and bring it under the Lordship of Christ.
Mission Statement: The Mission of Discipling Marketplace Leaders is to empower the local church to establish and run successful Marketplace Ministries, empowering, equipping, encouraging, and discipling business owners to work toward a quadruple bottom line that is measured by: missional, social, economic, and environmental gains.
What’s In Our Name:
Discipling – A Christian disciple is one who accepts and assists in spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. A disciple is also a student, undergoing learning and training. We want to be in the ongoing process of discipling; learning God’s will for business and how that applies to each of us.
Marketplace – The marketplace is that combination of business, education, and government that come together to make economic transactions possible. These three systems are the key components of a nation and the health and heart of a nation can be surmised by looking at these three organic systems in themselves and as they interrelate. We are called in the Great Commission to “disciple the nations” not just individuals. This ministry focuses specifically on the business aspect of a nation.
Leaders – A leader directs a business, organization, or group. A leader has influence or power. 1 Peter 2:9 tells that we are a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Business leaders are also called to be priests if you will, and the work place is the parish. Leaders need to know how to use power and influence and declare the praises of God in what they do as business leaders.
Our mandate: When the Business as Mission Movement began to gather momentum, the Lausanne Commission (a Global Committee focused on World Evangelism) wrote a recommendation to the Global Church in 2004. It states: • We call upon the Church worldwide to identify, affirm, pray for, commission and release business people and entrepreneurs to exercise their gifts and calling as business people in the world – among all peoples and to the ends of the earth. • We call upon business people globally to receive this affirmation and to consider how their gifts and experience might be used to help meet the world’s most pressing spiritual and physical needs through Business as Mission.
This recommendation starts with the Church and then flows to the individual business owner. We believe this is the proper order for this work and have sought to carry out empowering the Church empower business people (the first recommendation) so that business people can use their gifts for the world and at a local level (fulfilling the second recommendation).
Our Approach: Discipling Marketplace Leaders is about business discipleship more than business development. Because of that, we start with Church leaders to help them understand the God of Business from the Old and New Testament and understand what has gone wrong since God’s original plan for business. When Church leaders are on board, DML encourages them to start Marketplace Ministries in the local church, in order to equip, encourage, and disciple. These ministries may take many forms, based on the local church and the denomination, but DML recommends a three-step approach for business discipleship.
The foundation of our work is in our belief that Business is a Mission, a good and holy calling, designed in the beginning for most of us to do. We believe that partnerships between pulpit pastors and marketplace ministers are foundational for us to achieve our objectives of reclaiming the redeemed marketplace.