All consultants offer the same value proposition—wisdom. The mantra of the purported wisdom voiced by virtually every consultant is “best practices.” Best practices are deemed to emanate from principles that facilitate success. Success is generally defined in terms of money, influence, and fame—but in our culture mostly in terms of money.

Best practices are derived by studying people and organizations that are viewed as successful, based on the definition above. Pundits perform empirical studies seeking to extract the principles that lead to success.

One of the challenges of this approach is that it does not use a biblical definition of success. Success, from a biblical worldview, is defined as obedience to God (e.g., John 17:40), that is, living according to His will and His ways. Money, influence, and fame may or may not be indications of true success (e.g., see the Tower of Babel Project in Genesis 11). Since the definition of success commonly used by pundits is flawed, their conclusions are suspect.

Another challenge of the typical approach to best practices is the methodology. For most pundits, their epistemology is limited to cause and effect explanations based on physical reality. Consequently, this approach does not consider the Creator’s interaction with His creation. While physical reality is important, limiting one’s epistemology to physical reality is not a biblical epistemology.

A better approach to developing best practices is to start with Scripture. The apostle Paul stated, with conviction and clarity, that Christ is the source of all wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2). This means that Christ is the source of wisdom and knowledge for organizational behavior. Best practices rooted in Christ are rooted in biblical principles, that is, in a biblical worldview. Therefore the proper and most effective use of empirical studies is to interpret them using a biblical worldview.

The risk of following empirically derived best practices gleaned from a non-biblical worldview is that such practices may simply be man-made rules. According to the text above, man-made rules that are not based on a biblical worldview will not produce lasting success, that is, true success. True best practices are based on a biblical worldview. Only practices rooted in Christ will produce enduring success.

There are four key ingredients to operating an organization on biblically based best practices:

• Humble submission to a biblical worldview
• Holistic living based on Jesus Christ as Lord of all
• Adoption of the Bible as the handbook for all of life including business
• Success defined as obedience to the will and ways of God

Leaders who live accordingly will be positioned to glean the true best practices—practices aligned with God’s principles and therefore practices that will be blessed by God.

Here is your business tip. If you desire true wisdom to run your organization, you need counsel and advice not based on traditional best practices but based on best practices gleaned from a biblical worldview. Hire consultants whose wisdom is expressed through best practices based on a biblical worldview. These consultants will be humble, committed to Christ, recognize the Bible as the handbook for business, and define success in terms of obedience to the will and ways of God. Build an equally yoked management team that embraces the aforementioned traits. Develop workers who are devoted to understanding and conducting business from a biblical worldview. This is how you will build an excellent organization delivering world-class value propositions to your customers and clients.