My good friend Andrew Fox and his wife Renee, run their real estate brokerage – Fox Realty Austin using the Kingdom Business model.
Over the next 3 months, they are partnering with the trafficking organization Set Beautiful Free to empower 30 women to come out of the red light district and become business owners. They will be donating 20% of their commission to the Empowering Women Project in India.
What is a Kingdom business model?
Andrew explains...
It recognises that the business belongs to God, managed and stewarded in God’s way, and for God’s purposes in the world. Therefore, the leadership of a Kingdom business hears from God through Scripture and prayer.
Can you imagine a business leader meeting with their team commencing in prayer and the Word of God? Surely, this is what He meant when Jesus said to His disciples, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33)
Our real estate brokerage – Fox Realty Austin – began back in 2018. From the outset, there was a clear vision to give 20% of the brokerage commission back into the community within the parameters of directly ministering to Jesus. Yes, that’s right, ministering to Jesus, who said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matt. 25:40)
Who are these people that Jesus calls “mine”? They are the hungry without food, thirsty without drink, naked without clothing, the abandoned in prison, the sick with no one to visit them, and the stranger who is unwelcome. In any culture at any time, it would be correct to say the “least of these brothers and sisters of mine” are the disadvantaged.
Let’s pause here and go back to the question of a business model.
Giving 20% of the brokerage commission is simple, but doing it requires the legal and financial systems of the marketplace. Sure, this is a foretaste of what we see when the loud voices in heaven declared, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah” (Rev. 11:15). Everything belongs to God and serves His purpose.
Through our attorney, we set up the Community Transformation Foundation with a Board of Directors, a Constitution, Bylaws, and Policies. We took everything that God said and put it into a context that protects the funds, recipients, and our business.
Now, let’s go back to the disadvantaged and talk more about a Kingdom business model. After a visit to India, we felt God tell us to underwrite the Empowering Women Project. Set Beautiful Free give women the opportunity to come out of prostitution and set them up with their own business selling fruits and veg, instead of selling their own bodies. We put this project to the team of Realtors, prayed over it, and asked God to give us clients who want to buy, sell, or lease property.
Once you give God something to breathe on, He will “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph. 3:20).
A Kingdom business model is uncomplicated. Whatever business you are in, have you given it to God? Recognizing He owns it, and then managing and stewarding it God’s way, and for God’s purposes in the world!
Andrew K. Fox Ph.D.
Professor | Author | Blogger
Austin, Texas, USA.