Article:

Bonnie Pruett Wurzbacher may have come from a family of ministers, but she studied teaching in college and found her calling in business. Rising to senior vice president at Coca-Cola, she also found precious few peers or role models among women, much less among Christian women. Out of necessity, most of her mentors would turn out to be Christian men. Bonnie Wurzbacher has graciously allowed us to publish this white paper in conjunction with her recent interview on our site, "Where Are All the Women Leaders?"

I have worked for over 23 years for The Coca-Cola Company and am currently senior vice president, global accounts. Paradoxically, my loving and faithful parents, now deceased, would have been disappointed—at least initially. I don’t think they would be now though. Allow me to explain.

As a young girl growing up in the Midwest, I was always powerfully drawn to business. Whether it was erecting lemonade stands, organizing and marketing neighborhood puppet shows or dog walking services, entrepreneurship came naturally. I was good at it, and I enjoyed it.

Even more powerfully, in my formative years, reverence and service to God and His Kingdom was lovingly ingrained in me by my family. I descend from a long and unbroken line of dedicated pastors, missionaries, doctors, and teachers. Following in the steps of my parents and grandparents, I was blessed to be educated at Wheaton College, near Chicago, surrounded by many kindred “PKs” (preachers' kids) and “MKs” (missionaries' kids). The idea that one could serve God through a career devoted to business was inconceivable to me—and to them.

I graduated from Wheaton with a degree in education and immediately embarked on a career in service as an inner-city elementary school teacher. For me, however, the rewards of that work were increasingly dimmed by the absence of meritocracy, the tyranny of tenure, and the frustrating indifference of many of my students' parents.

My search for a new career led me to a sales opportunity in the hospitality industry and shortly thereafter to Coca-Cola. Gradually, during that journey, I’ve come to learn that all believers are called to be in “full time Christian work.” I’ve studied, pondered, and received inspired mentoring on the meaning and aspects of a "calling"and how God can be glorified and His Kingdom advanced through our work.

Here are a few of the things I am learning:

God’s hand in our lives isn’t always obvious.

I remember reading early on that God’s calling in our lives could be found at the intersection of “want to” (what we are passionate about) and “can do” (our God-given talents and abilities). I still believe that definition is true, but I’ve also learned that His plan for us may require delays, detours, and patience. Our late pastor, Dr. Frank Harrington, was fond of reminding us: “If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans.”

I’ve also known brilliant and valued mentors and friends who were doing work that God had decided was not yet finished. God hadn’t yet granted them permission to move on from it. We are where we are (and when we are there) because God has placed us there now.

Our calling can change. Our calling can be elusive at times. I’ve learned that the times when it is less clear to me are times when my acuity in listening to God is clouded by the striving and desire of my own ego. I must decrease so He may increase.

Fruitful work is both a blessing from God and an expectation that He commands of us.

We have two resources to fulfill God’s requirements:1) natural resources He has placed on the earth and 2) the “intellectual capital” He gives to each of us.

God’s original purpose for us: “to be fruitful and multiply” (i.e., to develop the social world … to build families, churches, schools, cities, and the like) and to “subdue the earth” (i.e., to harness the natural world … plant crops, construct buildings, invent, innovate, and compose). I believe He has called us to create honoring cultures and build civilizations.

We continue God’s own creative work in this world when we harness the power and develop the potential that God originally built into His creation. We are all called to be His representatives and stewards reflecting His holy and loving care.

We don’t get meaning from our work; we must bring meaning to our work.

God needs his people in boardrooms and business offices as much as in operating rooms and classrooms.

Certainly the business world has had high-profile disappointments over the last several years. Enron, Adelphia, and others remind us of our flawed condition and potential for harm. They also create a compelling case for more Christians in business—believers who understand how to glorify God in both the product and the process of their work.

Time and again I have seen the inner tug of war that Nancy Pearcey describes in her book Total Truth. Many Christians seriously committed to their faith still struggle with the divide imposed by modern society between the sacred and secular spheres—with our work imprisoned strictly in the secular.

Truly God needs His people everywhere. All vocations, the business world included, can be practiced in ways that honor the Lord and use our talents to serve Him. Scripture commands us to “be in the world, yet not of the world.”

Churches, schools, charities, and mission fields are voracious consumers of wealth—successful businesses are the only creators of that wealth.

Through my Christian worldview lens, business’s role is to build and advance the economic well-being of communities throughout the world, such that each person can fulfill his or her God-given purposes in this world. And as the sole means of wealth creation, business makes it possible for all of society’s social institutions to exist—from governments to charities.

A healthy and well-run company has vast potential to accomplish good. Translating that potential into reality requires a top down enabled culture of “corporate citizenship.” At Coca-Cola, this culture models how we are to conduct our business in four broad areas: the marketplace, the workplace, the environment, and the community.

I am proud of The Coca-Cola Company and the good that it accomplishes in communities around the world. Our beverages are produced right in the communities where they are consumed at 800-plus bottling plants in over 200 countries. These businesses are locally owned and controlled. When they succeed, they spawn myriad more enterprises and micro-enterprises, creating jobs and opportunities where our consumers live. These consumers account for more than 1.3 billion servings of our beverages every single day.

In return, The Coca-Cola Company and our franchisees and partners give back generously. From disaster relief to clean water initiatives to using our marketing clout to fight AIDs on the African continent, Coke strives to be a great neighbor as well as a generous benefactor. Foundations spawned by Coca-Cola wealth undergird many philanthropies. There are thousands more examples, and our employees contribute a great deal more as individuals in both their time and their treasure. We understand that because we have been given much—starting with the loyalty of generations of consumers—much is required of us.

One of our past chairmen, Roberto Goizueta, expressed this idea eloquently: “We live in a democratic, capitalist society, and here, people create specific institutions to help meet specific needs. Governments are created to help meet civic needs. Philanthropies are created to help meet social needs. Churches are created to help meet spiritual needs. And companies are created to help meet economic needs. Business distributes the lifeblood that flows through our economic system, not only in the form of goods and services, but also in the form of taxes, salaries, and philanthropy. While a healthy company can have a positive and seemingly infinite impact on others, a sick company is a drag on the social order of things. It cannot serve customers. It cannot give to philanthropic causes. And it cannot contribute anything to society.”

Michael Novak in his book Business as a Calling expands on this reality: “This creative community (business) is, with the exception of Christianity, the greatest transforming power of the poor on earth.” Business seeks out persons of talent, initiative, and enterprise who want to better their condition and that of others and it can indeed be a high calling.

We all seek to have our daily work count toward a higher purpose and to satisfy the questions the Holy Spirit fills us with. “Am I fulfilled spiritually through the work that I am doing?” “Do I honor and glorify God in my work?” “Am I contributing toward the building of His Kingdom?”

We all need meaning in our work. We need a sense that we are contributing to something larger than ourselves—and as Christians, that we are serving to advance God’s purposes in the world. When we recognize that God calls us to bring the meaning to our work and we use our gifts and talents to serve His purposes and bring glory to Him, we can gain great fulfillment in our daily work.

© March 2007, Bonnie Wurzbacher

 

 
 

name:
password: Forgot Password?

It's EASY and it's FREE!
If you were a member, you could mark favorites, create tags, comment on resources, and get new resources emailed to you! Sign up Today >

Browsing Tips