Having the faith to create new jobs.

Phil and Tez reflect on working life

Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash

No government can reduce the cost of benefits while preventing taxes from ballooning unless more people work. Ideally millions more, earning respectable salaries that pour significant reserves into the exchequer.

Most new jobs come in response to demand. Governments justify infrastructure and housing projects partly on this logic. Private industry seeks to drive demand but without a mandate to create more jobs, which tends to reward those at the centre much more richly than those acquiring new jobs.

There are many reasons why people don’t work. We have explored how the workplace can be an unpredictable experience, energising and inspiring for some (see here) whilst downright toxic for others (see here).

There are very significant examples of faith groups actively creating competitive businesses (not charities) to create work for those who have been excluded for example with the added purpose of enriching their communities. In our booklet, we called these kingdom businesses (see here).

In this blog we explore what might be achieved as churches and faith groups play their part in creating jobs. We’re not only targeting the dignity of work but also the kind salaries that will support families. It's an act of imagination at this stage, but let’s see where it might lead. If you’re interested, read on…

Goal: To create high quality jobs in a productive, ethically Christian, environment.

There are Christian groups who have started projects as a ministry or to provide local employment. Most are essentially charities with limited capacity for income generation, and they typically pay around the minimum wage. Many have gently but progressively moved away from their Christian roots over time.

Such examples, however, affirm that faith groups have the heart and the skills to set these sorts of business initiatives in motion. If you want to imagine the impossible, consider how churches started football teams (Peter Lupson’s, Thank God for football, here), by reaching out to men – often to keep them out of pubs where the weekly family budget was being spent on payday. Many of them are now multi-billion-pound businesses with remarkably well-paid employees!

Our question is, ‘Where does a Christian group wanting to create rewarding employment start?’ Start-ups need capital, and any kingdom business venture will be no exception. It can be very tempting to seek funding from business angels and other sources whose motives and expectations are likely to be rather less altruistic. The influence that comes with such funding is often enough to drive the fledgling business away from its kingdom purpose. Even in charities the perfectly proper rigors of the Charities Commission can lead to a creeping secularisation. Our observation is that faith-based initiatives work best with exclusively faith-based funding.

Many Christian and other faith-based groups are quite small, and it would make sense to increase the critical mass for any job creation initiative. Churches together, ecumenical partnerships and similar initiatives may offer the kind of foundations required in terms of skills and capacity.

In our examination of exciting kingdom businesses, we have used the lens of Christian virtues, hope, love and faith to critique the common business practices of purpose, people and process. Every kingdom business needs both virtue and business excellence (see here). Could a kingdom business prosper without systematic prayer support for example?

These three connecting energies; creativity, connectivity and completion (see here) are what churches already have in their congregations. They have been given the gifts not only for the benefit of the church but also for the community.

Creating low-wage jobs may address unemployment and deliver the dignity of work but it isn’t a recipe for national economic recovery or even for enabling families to be properly supported. The purpose of any new kingdom business ideally needs to be focused on premium products, new technology, niche offerings, rare skills etc., in order to pay well above the living wage.

Kingdom isn’t something that is easily bolted onto existing businesses. It needs to be designed into every aspect of the business from the start. The areas for serious consideration are shown in this bubble diagram.

We think of these new businesses as ‘brownfield’ because in the neediest areas, there were often businesses in the past, but they have moved on or out, leaving an urban wasteland or rural desert.

Imagine how different the picture would be if faith groups became the driving force in job creation. Do share your thoughts and experiences with us.