Jesus commanded us to take the Gospel into all of the world and that includes the business world.
There are many business owners/managers who profess to be Christians and who regularly attend their church. Yet, most of these individuals have never developed a Christian Business Model that would enable them to fulfill the Great Commission inside their workplace.
This is troubling. Is it because these business owners don’t believe in mixing religion and business? If that is true, please be reminded that we are not addressing some kind of a religious issue. Christianity is not a religion. It is a way of living that is based on the pure authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ!
A Christian who is a true ambassador of Jesus Christ will have a hunger for spreading the Gospel and that includes bringing Jesus into the workplace.
At Worker Ministries, we truly believe that many business owners would like to exercise the great commission but lack the knowledge of how to do it.
Jim Hogsett’s personal friend Billy Parker is one who walks the talk. After all, a Sunday Morning sermon can become all talk and NO DO unless it is put into practice and Billy Parker fully understands that.
Billy is the owner of Parker’s Barbecue in Greenville, North Carolina. He has developed his own Christian Business Model which has produced excellent results. We take pleasure in sharing it with you. If you are a business owner/manager, you can use this model and you can tweak it to meet your needs. You will find it EASY to implement.
Before presenting the model, we invite you to visit the Parker’s Barbecue website at http://www.parkersbbq.com/
Rest assured that when Jim Hogsett is traveling to Greenville, his first stop is Parker’s. When he eats there, he is a witness to excellent customer service that is always delivered in a timely manner. That is just one result of employees who have been trained to work in a business that operates on Christian principles for living.
And that is........
PARKER’S MISSION STATEMENT AND CORE VALUES
OUR MISSION STATEMENT AND COMPANY VERSE
Our mission is to impact our employees, our customers and vendors through Christ like service in a way that feeds them physically and spiritually.
“So whatever you do eat or drink or whatever you do,
do it all for the Glory of God.”
(1 Corinthians 10:31)
Our core values:
Integrity — Proverbs 10:9
Making a Difference — Matthew 5:13-16
Passion — Colossians 3:23
Appreciation — Colossians 3:1
Compassion — James 1:9
Teamwork — Ecclesiastes 4:9
THE PARKER ACTION STRATEGY
1. Orientation for new hires which includes reviewing our mission statement, core values, and how to utilize our corporate chaplain.
2. Free Daily Bread devotion books on counter.
3. Free Daily Bread devotion books given out through nour drive-thru window.
4. Billy Parker and wife Callie give out Parker’s BBQ devotion books to everyone on our street.
5. We send a Parker’s BBQ gift card, devotion book, and handwritten note to all of our church shut-ins once a quarter.
6. We send food with devotion books to the home of any customer who has died to help feed the family or send a gift card with devotion books through the mail so the family can come out and eat whenever they desire.
7. We have placed our company verse on our catering van.
8. We have placed our company verse and mission statement on our receipts.
9. We have placed two prayer boxes at both of our restaurant locations. Customers write their requests on a 3 x 5 index card and drop it in the box. After only six months, we had over 1,800 prayer requests. If the customer includes contact information, the chaplain who represents our business will call that person and pray with him or her....no exceptions.
10. Our Parker’s web site has a virtual prayer box.
11. Over seventy five of our vendors are invited to join us each Christmas at which time our Chaplain conducts a devotion and we hand out devotion books to each vendor. In 2015, we had over 90 vendors at our vendor appreciation event
12. We have created a banner that includes our mission and core values and the banner is on display in each of our restaurants. In addition, all our company banners we put up for events we sponsor have our company verse on them.
13. Our thank you cards also include our mission and core values on them.
14. Billy Parker feeds sports teams all year and will either speak to the team with a ministry message or make sure each team member receives a devotion book.
15. Our company verse is also on all our billboards.
16. We ship barbecue all over the country. Each cooler we ship out has a devotion book in it with our mission and core values printed on the book.
17. Parker’s Barbecue fed every single person at every single Red Cross shelter in Pitt County immediately following Hurricane Matthew! (approximately 400 to 500 individuals) Our Chaplain traveled with Billy Parker on his visit to the shelters. We gave out devotion books to everyone and our Chaplain led three people to Christ at the Welcome Middle School Red Cross Shelter. There were 160 people staying in their gym at the time! Cool Stuff!!
18. On one occasion, Parker’s BBQ provided meals for the local Rose High JV football team. Billy Parker’s pastor gave a devotion during the meal. Each player was given a Daily Bread devotion book. And, the football team won that game by three touchdowns!
In 2015, Parker’s BBQ gave away over 6,000 Daily Bread devotion books. Our Mission Statement and Company Verse were printd on over 530,000 receipts to customers. Last year, we had seven Chaplain events with average attendance of twenty one employees. We had over fifty people at our Christmas event.
REAL PRAYER REQUESTS LEFT IN PARKER’S VIRTUAL PRAYER BOX - TWO EXAMPLES
Prayer Request: I need help getting back on feet again...after my car accident. I need to find a job, get better transportation, and a place to stay. I have always had a job since the age of 14 years old. I have worked more than half my life...so this has sent me into deep depression...please pray for me. I have given up.
Prayer Request: I am dealing with some life changes and I need God to renew my mind, my heart, and soul. I don’t quite know which way to go with some things right now so please pray for God to direct me. Thank you for having this on your website. I truly believe it was meant for me to find this at this time.
The following activity report is sent to Parker’s Barbecue from the Chaplain who represents this business:
THE BOTTOM LINE
As we reach the bottom line of this Christian business plan, it is easy to ask: What’s in it for me, the business owner/manager? The problem with this question is that it suggests that all of this has been done in order for you to gain something. If that is your motivation, you are on the wrong track.
Can’t we just be more than satisfied that, in the name of Jesus Christ and in the course of just a normal business day, we have GIVEN of ourselves to others and our business simply becomes a vehicle for being able to fulfill the Great Commission?
And, let us not forget our employees. Many Christian employees are absolutely frustrated because they are not allowed to witness to others on the job. When the very foundation of your business is based on a Christian Business Model, you will have automatically created a Christian work environment in which your people can excel as they work as unto the Lord.
As you study the model which Billy Parker has shared with Worker Ministries, you will find that the Gospel is not being forced upon anyone. That is important because the way we witness can bring others to Christ OR alienate them from the Gospel. When people simply see how much we care, they will know that we are for real and, in a world of broken promises, they will see Christ in us!
It is our hope and our prayer, that Christian business managers/owners will seize the moment and establish a plan for reaching out to a lost world and cause their light to brightly shine in a way that draws lost souls to our Savior.