How to Use Your Spiritual Gifts in Business (featuring the Spiritual Gifts in the Marketplace Assessment)

This resource includes:

• An introduction to using spiritual gifts in the marketplace
• Assessment results from the first 1242 people who have taken the online version of the Spiritual Gifts in the Marketplace Assessment (and questions that arise from these assessment results)
• Links to descriptions of 23 spiritual gifts and how they can be used in a for-profit business context
• Link to take the Spiritual Gifts in the Marketplace Assessment

Most working Christians spend the majority of their waking hours in a for-profit business setting. Yet many marketplace Christians are unaware that the Holy Spirit has given them spiritual gifts to be used primarily in the business world—not only in the context of a local church or Christian-themed charity.

Sadly, many marketplace Christians are unaware of the spiritual gifts entrusted to them for fulfilling the disciple-making and world-transforming mission of the Church. In local churches that help marketplace Christians to identify their spiritual gifts, the typical “spiritual gifts assessment” is being used almost entirely for the purpose of assigning these believers as volunteers to serve in their various in-house programs.

For example, those who score high in the spiritual gift of “hospitality” often are appointed as greeters at the front door of the church on Sunday morning. Those who score high in the gifts of “service” or “helps” often are expected to use their gifts primarily to help with duties such as setup and cleanup around the church campus.

Shouldn’t marketplace Christians be equipped and admonished to use their spiritual gifts in the marketplace where they spend most of their time and have the most influence?

Spiritual Gifts: The Tools for Marketplace Ministry

A significant part of ministering in the marketplace involves exercising our spiritual gifts, the tools God has given to marketplace Christians for spreading the awareness of His glory throughout our workplaces and beyond.

Hundreds of millions of marketplace Christians must be equipped with an understanding of their spiritual gifts and how to use them for ministry in a business setting. In this way, the saints will be “equipped for the work of ministry,” enabling us to fulfill the disciple-making, world-transforming mission of the Church (Eph. 4:12).

Certainly, all Christians should offer their spiritual gifts in a way that helps their local churches create outstanding services and excellent programs. This is an essential part of transforming our communities and discipling nations.

However, marketplace Christians are called to use their spiritual gifts to fulfill the mission of the church primarily in the marketplace. The business world is where the unbelievers are, where approximately 85 percent of Christians spend the majority of their waking hours, where evangelism and discipleship can happen on a daily basis, and where the culture is shaped.

Today, marketplace Christians all over the world are using their spiritual gifts for ministry in business. Consider these real-life examples:

• Real-estate developer with the gift of faith
• Business consultant with the gift of intercessory prayer
• Professional athlete with the gift of healing
• Author with the gift of worship
• Department store owner with the gift of hospitality
• Venture capitalist with the gift of cross-cultural ministry
• Manufacturing CEO with the gift of compassion

How Spiritual Gifts Transcend Natural Abilities in Business

Most of us would agree that a non-Christian cannot operate with the spiritual gifts of miracle-working and healing, two gifts that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 12.

At the same time, few of us would say a non-Christian cannot operate with the gifts of administration or leadership, which also are listed as spiritual gifts in the Bible (1 Cor. 12:28; Rom. 12:8). It is true that many Fortune 500 companies are run by non-Christians who possess extraordinary administrative and leadership abilities. So is there even a difference between natural abilities and spiritual gifts? Are Christians supposed to be doing business in the marketplace with natural abilities, with spiritual gifts or with both? Should it be mostly one or the other?

The following are six ways in which natural abilities differ from spiritual gifts:

1. Spiritual gifts are only for born-again Christians.
2. Spiritual gifts are gifts to the Church through individuals.
3. Spiritual gifts are fueled by the fruit of the Spirit.
4. Spiritual gifts are governed and directed by the Holy Spirit.
5. Spiritual gifts enable us to worship God through our work.
6. Spiritual gifts can produce eternal results and rewards.

In short, a spiritual gift is a special ability given by the Holy Spirit through a born-again Christian to the people of God for the purpose of spreading the awareness of the glory of God throughout the earth.

Every spiritual gift is essential in the marketplace.

Once we realize spiritual gifts also are needed in the marketplace, we must activate the “varieties of gifts” that have been entrusted to marketplace Christians (1 Cor. 12:4). Although marketplace ministry often is defined through the lens of one particular spiritual gift, the ministry has many different expressions beyond the ones that come most naturally.

For example, one whose primary spiritual gifts are pastoring or compassion likely would view marketplace ministry as a calling to care for the personal needs of his employees and co-workers as a chaplain would. Marketplace chaplaincy organizations such as Corporate Chaplains of America and Marketplace Chaplains USA are doing outstanding work for God’s kingdom in this regard. But this is only one expression of marketplace ministry.

One whose primary spiritual gift as a marketplace Christian is apostleship might tend to view ministry in the marketplace as a calling to become like the Old Testament’s Joseph, Daniel, or Esther, rising to the upper echelons of the “Seven Mountains of Culture” to make a transformational impact for God’s Kingdom. This popular emphasis of marketplace ministry is yet another unique expression of what God is doing in the business world.

A marketplace Christian whose most prominent spiritual gift is evangelism probably would be more inclined than most other marketplace Christians to evangelize in her workplace. We all are called to lead others into the saving knowledge of Jesus, but for some, this is their most prominent spiritual gift.

An individual with the gifts of miracle-working and healing might say that marketplace ministry is about pursuing supernatural signs and wonders in a business setting. Andy Mason leads an organization named Heaven in Business at Bethel Church in Redding, California, which trains marketplace Christians to use these gifts in the marketplace.

A marketplace Christian with the spiritual gift of cross-cultural ministry likely would view marketplace ministry as a calling to reach foreign lands with the gospel. The relatively new phrase, “business as mission,” is the tagline for how this spiritual gift operates in the international business world. International businessman and author Ken Eldred emphasizes this aspect of marketplace ministry as he finances and builds multimillion-dollar “kingdom businesses” in India and China to transform these nations with the gospel.

To fulfill Jesus’ mandate to “make disciples of all nations,” all of the church’s spiritual gifts must be activated. Can you imagine the impact that could be made if every marketplace Christian identified his spiritual gifts, understood how to use them for ministry in a business setting and used them every day in the marketplace?  

Results from the “Spiritual Gifts in the Marketplace Assessment“

At the time of this writing, 1242 people have taken the Spiritual Gifts in the Marketplace Assessment at TheologyofBusiness.com, which is the online version of the same assessment in the book, The Marketplace Christian: A Practical Guide to Using Your Spiritual Gifts in Business: CLICK TO TAKE ASSESSMENT.

Here are the combined/average results that show how frequently/infrequently the gifts were reported to be used in daily life. In most countries (such as the U.S.), at least 85% of the Christian workforce spends 60-70% of “daily life” in a for-profit business setting.    

Questions that Arise from the Assessment Results

• How do the laws of supply and demand affect the usage of spiritual gifts in the marketplace?
  • Are the top three most frequently used gifts (compassion, encouragement, and pastoring) in highest demand in the marketplace/workplace (not necessarily in terms of financial compensation) given the psychological challenges many workers are facing today?
  • Are many of the least-used gifts in low demand (e.g., tongues, evangelism, prophecy, apostleship, etc.) in the marketplace/workplace? Or are they least-used simply because they are in the lowest supply?    
  • It’s possible the gifts reported as least used were so simply because they were in the lowest supply … not necessarily because they weren’t in high demand.
  • Likewise, it’s possible that the gifts reported as most frequently used were so simply because they’re in the greatest supply. For example, the gift of compassion (i.e., mercy) seems most consistent with the “S” personality type from the DiSC personality model (as opposed to the D, I, or C types). The “S” type (i.e., supportive/steady) is reported as being the personality type of 69% of the population. The other DiSC types are distributed as follows:
    • 3% of people are primarily “D” types (i.e., dominant).
    • 11% are primarily “I” types (i.e., influencing).
    • 17% are primarily “C” types (i.e., conscientious/calculating).
• Interestingly, pastoral care was the lowest-scored habit on the Christ-Centered Company Assessment but was the third highest-scored gift on the Spiritual Gifts in the Marketplace Assessment. How is it possible that we have so many Christians regularly using their pastoral care gift, yet most of the companies in which we work are reported as providing low or no pastoral care for their employees? Is this because we tend to grade our companies/employers more stringently than we grade ourselves?

Learn more about each spiritual gift and how they function in a for-profit business context.

Click/tap on any of the following links to view definitions of each spiritual gift as well as an example of how each gift has been used in a business setting. Also, please share with us in the comments section at the bottom of each gift’s webpage examples of how you’ve seen your spiritual gifts at work in the marketplace.