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Welcome to breakpoint, a daily look at an ever changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. President Calvin Coolidge once said that the business of America is business. Too many Christians think of business as either inherently bad, as immoral, or perhaps amoral. Something that's completely set apart from their faith altogether. At best, it pays the bill, maybe supports missionaries. But many fail to see how business is also under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Recently at the Colson Center National Conference, Colson Center COO Pete Mara challenged a group of business leaders to rethink business according to a Christian worldview, especially in light of emerging cultural challenges. Here's Pete Mara.
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I believe there's one thing that changes the world, and that's the church. There is no plan B. There's no alternative to that. It's the church. But I also believe that there's something that is equally under it. So not exactly equal, but like equal and under. And I would say that is enterprise. Enterprise being business. What we have at our disposal through business, the ability to organize, to solve problems, to create value, to deploy capital, to steward the things that God has given us, is something that's very unique to enterprise itself. So with that kind of framework, I want to. Again, thank you for being here. And I want to talk a little bit about calling and think about place. There's a reason that we use the idea that you are here and this can't be missed on us in this cultural moment, particularly as business leaders, leaders of enterprises, that you were brought to a time and place that God has called you to and God has brought you to, and it's now. It's not an accident. I believe not only has God brought you to this place and called you to this space, but he's equipped you for it. But there's something that's happening inside the world that we're speaking to in theological spaces and philosophers and some politicians and business leaders are talking about it. And that's the age of AI. But AI is just. I call it a new tool for a bigger problem and the bigger problem that we're facing, and one that I think is actually going to impact business and enterprise in a way that we have never seen, at least in my short lifetime. And that is the fundamental question of what does it mean to be human? Now, I know that sounds a little bit heavy or like I'm trying to make a bold statement, but I just want you to think about something like your corporate culture. I want you to Think about how you use enterprise when you have an opportunity to become more efficient, make more money, which generates more profit, which gives you more to steward, which is the reason we get into business. Let's not be confused. I'll stand here and tell you I love profit. I am never confused about for profit. In fact, I've often joked I sometimes prefer for profit businesses over nonprofit because no one's confused about what we're doing. But here's the challenge that we're facing. What happens when that that idea of profit and the deployment of capital and those things faces a maybe once in a generational upheaval to where we no longer need a workforce. What if the ways that we used to think about automating production factory lines, we can now automate everybody. Now is that going to happen next year? No. But these are questions that I think business leaders have to start wrestling with now so that they can do that. And part of what we want to give you as a framework to be able to think through that, that framework is something that you've seen inside Truth, the study which is that idea of hope, truth, identity and calling. We have to remember through these things that that idea of hope is what drives us. Our hope is in Christ and Christ alone. Never be confused. And if that is where we find our hope, then the truth of the world, the truth of God's story of creation, fall, redemption and restoration, is the thing that gives us not only meaning, but it helps us anchor the why we do business.
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That was Pete Mara, COO of the Colson Center. The Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper famously said, there's not a single square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign overall, does not cry out mine. That's as true about business as it is about everything else. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet with breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint featured Pete Mara. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, please leave us a review. Wherever you download podcasts and for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to breakpoint.org
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the application deadline for the Colson Fellows Program is almost here. If you felt the pull to understand the Christian worldview more deeply and live out your faith more boldly, don't let this moment pass. Starting August 1st, you'll join a community of believers committed to thinking clearly and acting courageously right where God has placed them. Think about what your faith could look like in a year by investing now. Submit your application@colsonfellows.org apply that's colsonfellows.org apply.