Students learn how to represent Christ through business
Carrie Henderson, Assistant Editor
Graphic courtesy of Devan Trout.
Going into business does not require leaving Christian values outside the office or mean one cannot be successful, as the audience, including North Greenville University students, learned in the business symposium on Friday, Feb. 3, 2107. However, success isn’t the main goal in a business, as all of the speakers emphasized.
The speakers included Eric Weir, CEO of Global Wealth; William Renfrow, CEO of the Renfrow Brothers Industrial Contractors; Will Huss, CEO of Trehel and Kip Miller, CEO of Eastern Industrial Supplies.
Weir said that Christians should ask themselves how they are impacting their communities, families, government, culture, businesses and work for Christ.
Christ should be the center of everything that happens in a business. Renfrow said, “It’s about eternal value. . . what you do for Christ that matters. . . everything else is irrelevant.”
“If it gets between you and the cross, it’s an idol,” Huss said.
In order to center what one does in business around Christ, one also has to constantly depend on Christ. Huss quoted Martin Luther, “I have so much to do I must spend three hours in prayer.”
Even when one makes mistakes, he cannot live in those mistakes. Huss said, “Our mistakes do not determine our value.” One should constantly remind himself who he is in Christ before reminding himself what he does, he said.
“The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety,” Weir said.
Another important aspect to a business is humility. Pride can sabotage a business, Weir said. He said it is important to be authentic, joyful and teachable.
NGU student and accounting major Alyssa Burnham said one main thing she took away from the symposium was the importance of having God in the center of one’s business. “Your business should be rooted in eternal work and not just work and profits made here on earth.”
