Knowing Your Why Isn't Enough

The Model Steward Canvas is a free book about starting a Christian business with a Kingdom Purpose. It’s a one-page business plan which works through the fundamental elements of a business or product, structuring your ideas in an easy-to-understand way. The Model Steward Canvas is for those who:

· Want to start a new business with a Kingdom purpose,

· Want to transition from an informal business to a more formal business with a Kingdom purpose,

· Want to transition from being a Christian in business to a business with a defined and intentional Kingdom purpose,

· Feel God’s call to utilize their professional skills with a Kingdom purpose,

· Have just begun to appreciate that they are stewards of the business God has given them.

The Canvas is a visual chart with twelve elements. It describes the firm’s business, vision and mission, values, customer segments it wishes to serve, customer value proposition, business goals, stakeholders and key partners and resources, and staff management approach. The last elements are its financial approach – pricing and profit and dividend strategies. Of critical importance is the Scriptural Imperative – the verse or passage of Scripture that defines how you conduct your business and interact with your employees, suppliers, and customers.

The book is available for free to encourage Christian entrepreneurs as they integrate their business and mission activities. Download your copy of the Canvas here: https://stewardship.adventist.org/model-steward-canvas-book.pdf

Dr Ken Long is a business consultant who provides advice to help businesses improve their competitiveness and profitability. He has broad industry experience, having commenced his business career as a lawyer before holding senior management positions in the de-regulating electricity and gas markets and IT commercialization. Ken has also been involved as a senior consultant in developing leadership and management skills with a particular emphasis on business acumen. His business skills include business strategy development, sales and marketing management.

Dr Long developed the concept of the Model Steward Canvas for a program on business, innovation and discipleship that he and Christina Hawkins, then Stewardship Director of the South Pacific Division, delivered to a group of Christian entrepreneurs in Papua and New Guinea in December 2019. The participants loved the concept but were all surprised that the worlds of business and Christianity could be combined, as their understanding was that they should be separate. This book adopts business as mission, the intentional combination or integration of two concepts – business and mission. “The idea of integration is important. This is not ‘ministry’ tacked onto the business for convenience or business tacked onto ministry. Instead, the mission is worked out in and through the business, its activities, products and services and relationships”. The life of the apostle Paul as a professional tentmaker (Acts 18:1-3) demonstrates this concept of integration.

Ken has degrees in Law and Accounting and a Master of Business Administration (Marketing), and a Doctor of Business Administration (organizational innovation).