Sending Path · Business as Mission · Lesson 4: Four Accounts
This lesson in one sentence: A business keeps four accounts: money, people, land and spiritual; the spiritual account never trades a job for faith and does not count converts.
Timing (about 60 minutes)
- Opening5 min
- Read Together10 min
- Practice Together15 min
- Discussion20 min
- This Week5 min
- Pray for One Another5 min
Opening
What was the best boss or manager you have had like?
Read Together
28For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? 29Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation and isn’t able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him, 30saying, ‘This man began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
Luke 14:28–30 · WEB
14You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. 15In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, lest he cry against you to the LORD, and it be sin to you.
Deut 24:14–15 · WEB
1A Psalm by David. The earth is the LORD’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell in it.
Ps 24:1 · WEB
16Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Matt 5:16 · WEB
Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Matt 5:16 · WEB
Practice Together
The whole group ‘opens’ the small bakery together: the leader writes the four accounts on paper, and each person writes at least one question or one thing to do for one of the accounts and sticks it in the right box. At the end, see which box is emptiest.
Discussion
- “In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it” (Deut 24:15)—God cared about this three thousand years ago. How is the ‘people account’ in your work?
- “The earth is the LORD’s, with its fullness” (Ps 24:1)—what does the ‘land account’ look like in your work?
- Why must faith never affect hiring, promotion or pay? If a boss did that, how would employees see the gospel?
This Week
This week, keep the four accounts for your own work once: money, people, land, spiritual, one sentence each. If you have no business of your own, do it for your company, your department, or your household.
Each person says which job they will keep the four accounts for this week.
Closing
In pairs: one person names the account they most easily forget, and the other prays for them.
Tips for the leader
- ‘Never trade a job for faith’ and ‘do not count converts’ are the two most important sentences in this lesson; be sure the discussion reaches them.
- The group may include business owners, and employees being treated unfairly by a boss. When discussing the ‘people account’, talk only about what you yourself can do, and do not accuse any particular person or company in the group.
General principles for leaders
- The leader is not a teacher but someone who walks alongside everyone.
- Give everyone a chance to speak; with someone who talks a lot, you can gently say, ‘Let’s also hear from friends who haven’t spoken yet.’
- Don’t rush to give answers. If someone is silent, wait a few more seconds.
- For a question you can’t answer, you can say, ‘I don’t know either; let’s look it up together,’ and note it down for next time.
- What is said in the group stays in the group.
- At the opening, the leader can give their own answer first, showing that it can be simple and honest.