Tag: Evangelism

This is the last post in this series on workplace evangelism.

In this series I’ve been looking at the Parable of the Shrewd Manager  as a primer on workplace evangelism.

I’ve addressed the first two lessons from the parable: 1) use your workplace to develop relationships; and 2) use money to develop relationships.

The third lesson from the parable is found in verse 8: “And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.  Luke 16:8 (emphasis added).

Jesus emphasizes that the manager, while commendably shrewd, was dishonest. The manager was dishonest because the money he used to make friends was not his, but his employer’s. By reducing the bills of customers for his own purposes without his employer’s permission the manager was, in effect, stealing from his employer. It was dishonest. Continue reading “On Workplace Evangelism – 6”

In the last post I wrote about the first lesson about workplace evangelism that comes from the Parable of the Shrewd Manager.

The second lesson concerns the issue of money.

Jesus said to use money to make friends. Luke 16:9 (NIV).

This might seem like an odd command at first, perhaps even unspiritual to some.

But money is a powerful means by which one can make friends. Think about it: What is most important to the prevailing culture of those who do not know God? What is it that people who do not know God spend their careers pursuing, often at the expense of family and friends? What is it that people who don’t know God think if they just had more of they would be happy? Obviously this is not true of all people who do not know God, but who can deny it is true for the prevailing secular culture? Continue reading “On Workplace Evangelism – 5”

I ended the prior post in this series in the middle of the Parable of the Shrewd Manager, where the manager realizes he’s going to be fired and is trying to decide what he can do to build strong relationships with people before he is fired.

What the manager does is call in his employer’s customers and in their presence he reduces their bills. He does this in their presence so they know he is the person blessing them financially. Luke 16:5-7.

The manager was still employed when he reduced these bills, so as between the customer and the manager’s employer, it was a binding transaction.

It’s here that Jesus makes His point. First Jesus says the rich man praised his dishonest manager for his shrewdness and then Jesus notes that non-Christians are more shrewd in dealing with other non-Christians than are Christians. Luke 16:8. Jesus is criticizing, not complimenting, Christians. Continue reading “On Workplace Evangelism – 4”

The parable I referred to in the last post appears in Luke 16:1-8.

To understand the parable, one must recognize the context in which it appears. That context is found in Luke 15:1-2, where the Pharisees complain about Jesus for associating with tax collectors and people who did not know God.

The Pharisees were wondering why Jesus was spending His time with people who didn’t know God rather than the religious leaders and why those people who did not know God were attracted to Jesus rather than to them.

Jesus then tells three parables which were intended to answer those two questions. The first is the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the second is Parable of the Lost Coin and the third is the Parable of the Lost Son. Each of these parables are at their core evangelistic. They demonstrate God’s love for the lost and the lengths to which He will go–and we should go–to see them repent and turn to Jesus. It is in this context Jesus tells the Parable of the Shrewd Manager.

Continue reading “On Workplace Evangelism – 3”