LAKE FOREST, Calif., May 23, 2008– Hundreds of pastors attending the three-day Purpose Driven Summit, held May 20-22 at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., were challenged Thursday morning by successful marketplace leaders from across the country in how to engage business leader members of their church in ministry.

“As businessmen, we are bottom line, not relationally-oriented, and feel lost in a community built on relationship,” said Jim Lane, president of the New Canaan Society and managing partner of Devonwood Capital Partners. “We get asked to write checks all the time, but we really want to do something.”

Of the 1,700 participants in the conference, more than 100 were business leaders, who have a desire to leverage their gifts and influence in worldwide ministry.

“The Kingdom of God encompasses the entire world that has enormous need, which knows no limits,” said Dale Dawson, founder and CEO of Bridge2Rwanda. “A minister who feels those needs can direct those of us in business to get involved. My pastor recently realized (the biblical admonition that) he is called to be a ‘fisher of men’; but he is supposed to be a ‘catch and release’ fisherman.”

Mark Affleck, president and CEO of the California Avocado Commission added, “Pastors need to look at business people without seeing them as a threat. The criteria or standards for involvement ought to be the Christian heart – not titles – working together with different skill sets for the Kingdom.

“Looking from the outside, I see a wall between pastors and marketplace men. Over time, God is breaking down that wall through efforts like the P.E.A.C.E. Plan – not that business people are taking over, but they need to be engaged.”

Chris Perry, a retired New York investment banker now living in North Carolina, said that business is a wonderful distraction that releases what has been referred to as an ‘animal spirit’. “What’s wrong with animal spirits at church?” he asked rhetorically. “Business leaders need to go do things through their church – beyond writing a check – that releases that animal spirit in a viral or replicable manner.

“Successful men have a ‘hole in their soul’ that is deeper, wider and more powerful than most people know. We mask our hole with trappings of success; your church filling that hole is what will get your business member working with you.”

At the close of the session, Affleck challenged pastors to go back and form an advice squad of select business people in their congregation. “Stand with them in a relational connection so you can get them to engage,” he said. “Bring them in and talk to them about God’s vision for your church and what you need them to do.”

Dave Arnold, a former mergers and acquisitions specialist who now serves as executive pastor of Saddleback Church concluded, “You need to create a vision that allows people to know each other’s hurts, but brings their distinct skill sets together towards what you collectively want or need to accomplish.”

Lane offered the following suggestion: “Get to know us as men, through fellowship, honesty and transparency in relationship. You as pastors can be just as isolated out there. Those of us in the marketplace understand – you are in a different business, but the relational issues are the same.”

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