The merger of corporate business operations with church mission movements is going full-swing. This Corporate-Church marketplace mission plan was documented in the article posted at the Discernment Ministries website entitled “Dominionism and the Rise of Christian Imperialism” http://www.discernment-ministries.org. This article is currently being printed into booklet form and will be available through the ministry for only $3.00 (see Jan./Feb. 2006 newsletter for details).
From a press release posted on Dec. 1, 2005 from Pat Robertson’s Regent University, entitled “Regent receives $1 million grant to create center: Center for Entrepreneurship will support revitalization,” by Ken Miller, we learn that Ken Eldred’s “Living Stones Foundation Charitable Trust has recently awarded a grant of $1 million over a five-year period towards the creation of the Regent University Center for Entrepreneurship (RCE).” The press release, posted at http://www.regent.edu/news/eldred_donation_rce.html, provides more information:
“The mission of RCE is to improve the economic and spiritual conditions of disadvantaged populations around the globe through business entrepreneurship grounded in a Christian worldview. Its vision is to assist communities, regions, and nations in spiritual, social, political, and economic revitalization.”
“. . . RCE will contribute to the “Business As Mission” movement, which promotes the establishment of businesses as ministries to aid the billions of people living in poverty and spiritual darkness. RCE will publish and disseminate a biblical and historical foundation for this movement.
” . . . RCE will also perform academically rigorous evaluations of business models and programs to isolate the most effective projects. Projects will then be made available to sophisticated investors, foundations, and government agencies that have an interest in funding them.
“A third goal of RCE will be to develop and disseminate training programs, materials, and operating manuals that are tailored to the needs of specific populations and environments. RCE will work with the governments of developing countries, and may request change in policies to accommodate new businesses and programs. . . .
“RCE is now involved with projects in Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Nepal, and Ukraine. ” [all emphases added]
http://www.parakletos.com/ken_eldred.htm states, “Currently Mr. Eldred is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Living Stones Foundation, a public support organization created by Mr. and Mrs. Eldred with approximately $100 million in assets for the purposes of supporting Christian work and charity around the world. He focuses on charitable projects and providing services to Christian organizations as a board member or as an independent advisor. He is a Visiting Hoover Fellow at Stanford University and has served on the Board of Trustees for Regent University, including the Executive Committee. He was also appointed by Dr. David Yonggi Cho as an elder in Seoul, South Korea at the world’s largest church with over 750,000 members and he leads a weekly Bible study for business leaders in Silicon Valley, which he started over 10 years ago.” [emphasis added]
Eldred’s book God is at Work has been endorsed by a wide variety of New Apostolic Reformation leaders and government officials[See http://www.godisatwork.org/endorsements.html]. He has worked closely with George Otis of the “Transformation” video series, who promotes a radical spiritual warfare approach to “kingdom building.” Eldred’s model incorporates the 3-legged stool concept, linking Church with State and Corporate interests, as described in the Discernment Ministries article cited above.
“[Living Stones Foundation] provides financial resources to projects that lead to self-sustaining Kingdombuilding ministries, where strategic support will leverage the success of the whole body of Christ. Ken was the primary mover in bringing together the Transformation Partnership of The Luis Palau Evangelistic Association, Sentinel Group and CitiReach who along with LSF provide ministry in areas like Fiji. . . . This is a new and exciting ministry model that incorporates church leadership, the business community, government and educational components and harnesses their divergent capacities to sustain ongoing community and national transformation. [http://tinyurl.com/ay59a, p. 13]
An International Coalition of Workplace Ministries mailing dated Thursday, January 05, 2006, announced a ICWM Workplace Leaders Roundtable for March 13,14 to be held at the Founders Inn on the campus of Regent University in Virginia Beach. Details of the event will be emailed within a few days. The theme of the ICWM Workplace Leaders Roundtable will be Separation of Church and State. This disingenuous title hides the fact that this conference is precisely about the networking of Church and State via the “transformation” model. In fact, the mailing goes on to state:
“It is up to us to place believers in the places of authority… like the Supreme Court, Time Warner, CNN, the oval office, universities, local government, and Fortune 1000 companies. Then we will begin to see change!” [http://tinyurl.com/7m8we ]
The Truth:
For more information about the “transformation” model see the article entitled “What Is Transformation?” posted at http://newswithviews.com/Leslie/sarah.htm.
“Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.” (Prov. 4:14-15)