Our Mission

To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.

Luke 22.46 challenges, get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. God takes sin seriously. Sin is everything we do that defies the will of God. This defiance is measured by God by our words, attitudes and actions toward Him and others. God has demonstrated His commitment to punish sin since humanity began their rebellion against God. First God removed His newly created people from their garden paradise. There was no second chance, no overlooking, no forgiveness without consequence. God removed humanity from their perfect environment and placed them in a land that was cursed with pain and difficulty. This is the world we live in today.

Second, God punished the whole world with a great flood that destroyed everything and everyone except eight people . The world had become utterly corrupt so God pressed ‘restart’ through Noah and his family. Third, in trying to establish a holy people God created Israel. They too rebelled against God resulting in their loss of land to foreign armies living as captives among them for 2000 years. Finally, God Himself came to earth to be crucified for all the evil man has ever done against God. God’s sacrifice of Himself through Jesus as punishment for humanities consistent rebellion against God is the ultimate expression of God’s commitment to punish sin.

God hates sin because God is holy and God created humanity to be a holy people pleasing to Him. How can we possibly be holy? We must pray. We must pray more frequently and for greater duration that we would not give in to those desires within us that displease God. We must ask God for the Spirit of God to strengthen us against those things that entice us away from God.

Most of ‘those things’ reside within our hearts such as lust, greed, selfishness, hate, revenge etc. When God lived among us as one of us He was also completely human. As such, He prayed often, for long periods, in order to remain perfectly obedient to the will of God. Jesus’ example must become our habit for we need to pray against temptation at least as much as He did and probably even more so. Our failure to pray is indicative of our failure to understand how seriously God takes sin.

The good news is that God has dealt with the penalty of our sin through Jesus the Savior. The challenge is for us to live as a holy people saved by God through the grace of God demonstrated in the love of God by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. We meet the challenge as we engage the work of prayer.

His Opportunities

1. Prayer and Bible study occurs every Friday morning at the Coral Gables restaurant in East Lansing from 7am – 8am, feel free to join us.

2. CEO’s, are you looking for a private group of fellow business owners for encouragement, support, and advice? CBMC offers such a group.  Contact Mike at mwinter@cbmc.com for more information.

3. Tuesday, March 15th at the City Rescue Mission from noon until 1pm is your next CBMC Rescue Luncheon. This is your opportunity to serve lunch to the men and women who depend upon the Mission for their meal. Commit Here 

4. Thursday, March 17th is the next CBMC Central Michigan Marketplace Ambassador Network Meeting. Our goal is to increase the opportunity for central Michigan business and professional men to connect to CBMC and one another and through connecting become more committed to the ministry of CBMC and its vision/mission. Join us at CHAMPP’S Restaurant and Bar located at 2800 Preyde Blvd Lansing,MI48912 from 5.30 - 7:00 pm every THIRD THURSDAY of the month Register Here

You can support CBMC today. https://give.cbmc.com/giving/?appealcode=winter 

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917  / 517 481 5996  www.lansing.cbmc.com

MONDAY MANNA

A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International

March 14, 2016

An Unorthodox Marketing Strategy

by Rick Boxx

In the business world it seems normal to emphasize a company’s unique qualities and capacities. We try to define our “niche,” promote our strengths, and show how we differentiate from our competitors. It is less common, however, for business leaders to publicly acknowledge their weaknesses. They are either ignored or, even worse, disguised or concealed in hope that no one will recognize them.

That is not always the case. One stellar example was a nationally known pizza franchise that came to the unsettling realization that many of its customers disliked the taste of the primary product – pizza. Rather than overlooking the customers’ dissatisfaction by attempting slick marketing and repackaging, the company’s CEO developed a strategy that brought a remarkable turnaround in a five-year period.

This turnaround began when the company discovered through consumer focus groups what many of its customers really thought about their product, that they did not like the taste of the pizza. Understandably, this was troublesome news – especially when it is the main thing you are selling. What was unusual, however, was how the company responded. Instead of burying this information, the company ran commercials actually allowing customers to express how they thought their pizza tasted. Then, according to the esteemed business periodical, Wall Street Journal, the CEO appeared in TV commercials offering an apology along with a promise: “We hear you, America. Sometimes you know you’ve got to make a change. Please give us another try.”

In recent years we have seen and heard news reports about the problems many companies have had with products, whether in manufacturing, design, or quality. Relatively few are as forthright in admitting their failings, promising to make amends, and then taking proactive steps to follow through. In any business, mistakes happen. Sometimes deadlines are missed. We can ignore these problems, offer excuses, or address them directly by acknowledging them and taking appropriate measures to correct the issues. The Bible offers sound advice about this. Here are some examples:

Being forthright is always right. Many of us have heard the saying, “your sins will find you out.” Whether it involves building cars, handling investments for others, or manufacturing food products, this is almost always true, as we regularly see in headlines and news reports. Speaking to the nation of Israel, God assured them that obedience would be rewarded. Then they were warned, “But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

Honesty requires no apologies. Admitting failings accompanied by a plan to make necessary corrections is always preferable to seeking to hide problems and then having them exposed. “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion” (Proverbs 28:13).

Sometimes, as the well-known pizza company demonstrated, the best marketing strategy is to take ownership of the problem, declare it publicly, correct it, and then ask customers for a second chance.

Copyright 2016, Integrity Resource Center, Inc. Adapted with permission from “Integrity Moments with Rick Boxx,” a commentary on issues of integrity in the workplace from a Christian perspective.

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