This whole idea of supporting the Christian business community got started a few years ago when the staff from the church I was attending started referring to me some struggling business owners. They knew that I had the formal education in running a business, but more importantly, they knew I had years of experience having owned and operated a small business of my own for more than 25 years. I like to say that I have had many years of experience in what not to do in business, having learned many expensive lessons costing way more than my school's tuition.

I was thrilled to share my experience and give advice on solutions that might help these business people succeed in business. People would ask, "How much do I owe you?" and it was always the same answer, nothing! You see,I quickly realized that if I could help these Christian business people succeed in business, they would have greater resources to help support our local church and together we could reach more people for Christ.

The next couple of years following those early days, I really began to prayerfully work through this concept of what a Christian business community would look like. How could we, as an organization, help create and manage dynamic, sustainable, self-funded business communities at local churches? Our focus evolved from not only how we could help these business people succeed in business but how we could help them live out their faith in their workplace and, therefore, support the mission of their local church to reach more people for Christ. The Ripple Effects, TRE as it is known around here now, was born.

In the book of Isaiah, the Bible states that "God's ways are not my ways" and I believe that we have all experienced God's timing is not always our timing and that is certainly what I have experienced with building TRE. The mission and the vision that God has given me for the Christian business community is exciting and even overwhelming at times but looking back at where we have come from and what we have learned over the past couple years, the progression of where we are today has only happened through God's timing and would have been a disaster using my time table.

Today TRE is extremely focused on the mission God has given us and we are poised to help lead Christian business people in realizing their own God given mission and purpose. We see the workplace as one of the most strategic mission fields we could ever travel to and we are excited to be able to offer the tools necessary to help Christian business people succeed in business and in living out their faith in the workplace.

 

Jeff Baugus, Founder
The Ripple Effects