There’s a brand of Christian humility that has somehow morphed into an excuse for mediocrity in business, and I want to push back on it.
It sounds like this: “I’m just trusting God with it. I don’t want to be too focused on growth or money — that feels worldly. As long as I’m doing good work and treating people right, God will take care of the rest.”
I understand the heart behind that. And I believe God does provide. But I also believe that this posture, taken to its logical conclusion, is actually a form of poor stewardship disguised as faith.
The parable of the talents isn’t about money. But it is absolutely about the expectation that the resources entrusted to us — our skills, our time, our platform, our business — are meant to be multiplied, not buried. The servant who buried his talent wasn’t congratulated for his caution. He was rebuked.
Excellence in business is a form of worship.
When you take the gift of your expertise seriously enough to build real marketing infrastructure — when you invest in communicating your offer clearly, reaching the people who need what you provide, building systems that scale your impact — you are being a faithful steward of what you’ve been given.
When you half-build your business, undercharge for your work, avoid learning about marketing because it feels too commercial, and hope God will supernaturally fill your calendar — you may be trusting God but you are not being strategic with what He’s already given you.
The two are not mutually exclusive. You can trust God completely and build excellently. In fact, I’d argue that building excellently is one of the primary ways you express trust — it’s saying I believe what I’m doing matters enough to do it as well as I possibly can.
The people you are called to serve need to be able to find you. They need to land on a page that communicates your offer clearly enough that they can make a good decision about whether to work with you. They need to receive follow-up communication that builds enough trust for them to take the next step.
None of that happens by accident. None of it happens without intentional, strategic, well-executed marketing.
Run your business for God’s glory. And run it with excellence. Those are the same thing.