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I.C.C.C.
International Christian Chamber of Commerce

REPORT FROM ICCC CONFERENCE HELD IN JOHANNESBURG DURING JUNE 2000
by Mike Smith

The parading of the flags of 42 countries during the singing of words of praise set to the music of the Rugby World Cup theme song World in Union, followed by the South African flag accompanied by the national anthem, and climaxing in the resounding rendition of the hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty . . . . was a fitting beginning to the General Session of the International Christians Business leaders conference of the ICCC, at the Rhema Church in Johannesburg.

The theme of the conference was taken from Isaiah 60: 1-5 and carried with it a strong injunction to "Arise, shine for your light has come" which is seen as a call to Christians in business to take their rightful place in Africa and the world.

Michael Fenton-Jones
Michael Fenton-Jones
International President of the ICCC

Michael Fenton-Jones, the International President of ICCC, brought the welcome to conference delegates during which a prophetic song, "Refrain from Africa" was played. Interestingly the song begins with the trumpeting of an elephant, which Godincidently is the symbol of the Eastern Cape. Michael made reference to President Thabo Mbeki's book, "Africa the Time has Come", saying that the time has come for Africa to enter into its inheritance after the suffering, trauma and the recent apartheid era.

J. Gunnar Olson
J. Gunnar Olson
Founder of the ICCC

Michael was followed by J. Gunnar Olson, the founder of the ICCC movement. His theme of "What it means to be a Christian in the market place" was liberally illustrated by personal testimonies involving his own business in Sweden.

Themes of the conference:
"The Call on South Africa to Africa and the World"
Break out sessions
"Arise, shine"
"Where are we Going"
"The Vision of Employment in South Africa and Beyond"

Day two began the praise and worship, followed by devotions lead by Emeka Nwankpa, a Nigerian who heads up the ICCC Intercessory Ministry world wide. He believes that God is going to do something in Africa which we cannot put a name to, only God will be able to name it. It will not be simply another revival and as a continent we cannot afford to lose the opportunity to be in the forefront of what God is going to do.

"The Call on South Africa to Africa and the World"

It was then the turn of Michael Fenton-Jones again with his theme "The Call on South Africa to Africa and the World". His call to South Africa and Africa was preceded by analyses of how the world views Africa;

Africa is in the pit

The hopeless continent

Aids rampant

Uncontrolled population growth

The next generation will be more numerous, poorer, less educated and more desperate

Africa is a primary producer, but commodity prices have fallen steadily over the years

And how God views Africa;

God has invested more natural resources in the continent of Africa than any other continent

Africa has vast areas of very fertile land

Thus Africa will be a place of refuge and resource

But satan has hi-jacked Africa

What should our response be? - The call on South Africa to Africa
Rejoice and be glad about where we are. When we are in the pit, we have no choice but to rely on God. South Africa has a unique mix of the indigenous African, together with the Afrikaner originally from Holland, an outstanding trading nation and the descendants of the British who bring an understanding of business management, order and law.

John Lamola, formerly CEO of Denel and now a pastor specialising in ministry to the business people at Rhema responded to the call by Michael Fenton-Jones. This he did by reminding us that the vision of what God is going to do is not unconditional by quoting from Jeremiah 18: 9 and if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

Break out sessions

After lunch on the second day we had the choice of a number of any two of the break out sessions, namely;

Purpose driven wealth creation

Vision for women in todays business world

Is the glass half full or half empty - in a South African context?

The signs of the times from a Biblical perspective

Mentoring - Christians in business

Banking and the kingdom - where are we going?

The pastor / business leader relationship.

I attended the last mentioned session as the first of the two sessions. This was led by Elijah Morgan, an ex South African of Asian descent, with a fascinating background in practical economics and consulting, primarily in Europe. He presently pastors a church in Germany and lectures part time to young business people. With the advent of globalisation business people need to know how to operate in the fast lane. Life in the church is slow by comparison and thus business people need to keep their pastors up to speed. Jesus after all was the originator of globalisation when he said, therefore go and make disciples of all nations . . . He encouraged business people to assist churches with their administration quoting from Proverbs Where there is no wise administration, the people will flounder.

Terry Rosenberg, ex CEO of McCarthy Retail, led the second break out session I attended. His recollection of the events surrounding the 1994 elections and his personal experience of many of the micro miracles that occurred daily in the Kwa Zulu arena was very interesting, whilst his discussion about current circumstances fell far short of being able to describe the glass as half full, in my opinion. However, when he opened up the discussion to the floor, some truly inspirational testimonies emerged. These related particularly to job creation, which was generally acknowledged as being the biggest need in South Africa at this time.

"Arise, shine"

The first speaker on the final day was Ray McCauley whose theme was "Arise, shine" as Christ's ambassadors to the world. His message started with a quotation from Matthew 5: 13 16 read from Eugene Petersons The Message. The lesson being that people are more interested in what you do rather than what you say. He left us with the injunctions to go beyond being blessed to be a blessing; to be approachable , and make friends of our collegues before preaching to them, unlike the Pharisees and Scribes in Luke 15: 2 who would not welcome or eat with sinners.

"Where are we Going ?"

The speaker before lunch was Mark Manley, TV and radio personality who did an audio visual presentation on the theme "Where are we Going" which took a similar form to the scenario planning presentations of the recent past by Clem Sunter. The following brief statements were noted by me during an extremely quick and professional presentation, supported by an enormous amount of facts and figures gathered from a number of different surveys conducted recently, most of which were encouraging:

We are not called to security, we are called to life and life more abundantly

The miracles of the election were not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning. We have crossed the Red Sea, but not the Jordan. We are now in the wilderness and we have a similar choice to the Israelites. We can elect to cross the Jordan and face the giants or simply choose to stay in the wilderness

Our reality is:

We are a microcosm of the world. We have all the worlds problems rolled into one country

We are living in a society of mindset tribes

We have a land of amazing opportunity and great disaster, in contrast to other countries of little opportunity and little disaster

Our battlefield is largely one of hearts and minds

Our vision of the promised land is:

A land free of need and fear

A land where all can become what they want to become

The challenge to business people is best illustrated by the following diagram:

The options are:

Lots of influence but no action which results in giving up

Lots of action but no influence which results in endless striving

"The Vision of Employment in South Africa and Beyond"

The next to last session of the day was led by Peter Varrie with the theme "The Vision of Employment in South Africa and Beyond". His message, in obvious reference to the current South African situation, was that Pharaoh is tired if critics, tired of petitions, he is now looking for a Joseph which Peter sees as the church. There is a need to unite the prophets, priests and kings.

I had to leave for the airport before the conclusion of this talk, which I understand was of practical benefit and in turn was followed by Brian Cape's presentation of a 12 week course to business people of how to operate Gods way. Harvest Christian Church is very keen to run this course and my recommendation would be that interested people attend the courses when they are run. I, in turn, have a full set of audio cassettes and video tapes of selected presentations which I am more than willing to show at appropriate functions so that I can try and pass onto others some of the enormous blessings I received during this conference.

Mike Smith

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last updated 29 September 2000

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