Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. – 2 Corinthians 3:15-18
One of our key assignments in the 10,500 market place call is to infuse “Kingdom DNA” into enterprises with Kingdom-minded leaders. This is to ingrain “Kingdom genetics” into a company such that its vision, business strategy, products, and operating culture can be transformed to reflect Christ’s likeness, just as our children reflect our likeness because they possess our genetics. We would like to take the next few weeks to share about our recent experience in infusing “Kingdom DNA” into an apparels company – and how it can shift the culture of an organization to transform to Christ’s likeness.
In late 2011, the Lord opened the door for us to partner with Donald Wu, CEO of Tony Wear. Tony Wear is a public company listed in Taiwan focused on the design and distribution of men’s fashion wear. Its Shanghai based operation designs the apparel collections and oversees a network of 800 retail stores throughout China. Donald, as part of Tony Wear’s board, felt God’s call to transform the company for His Kingdom purposes. So earlier this year, Donald came out of retirement and took the helm of Tony Wear. He also began fasting to seek God’s heart on a direction to infuse “Kingdom DNA” into Tony Wear.
As our intercessory network began to pray over Donald, Tony Wear’s management team, and its business operations, the Lord revealed to us an initial “insertion point” for infusing “Kingdom DNA”. A common practice in the fashion industry is the use of seasonal themes to inspire apparel design and product promotion. After taking charge of Tony Wear, Donald noticed right away that the product lines desperately needed a meaningful theme to reenergize their “product soul”. Tony Wear needed a vision or storyline to inject life to its products so that they can connect to the market place with “purpose & relevance” – beyond just a piece of clothing. The Holy Spirit then moved us with the idea to incorporate the yearly 10,500 MTC themes as the basis for Tony Wear’s seasonal themes. Since the MTC 2011 theme was “The River of Water of Life”, Donald decided to adopt this theme and take one year to develop it into Tony Wear’s 2013 product lines.
Connecting the 10,500 yearly themes to Tony Wear’s product lines has great Kingdom implications. This initiative opened an avenue to infuse “Kingdom DNA” into Tony Wear’s design teams, who in turn, will infuse the same “Kingdom DNA” into products that will touch the market place. The 10,500 theme brought Kingdom relevance to the company’s product development processes. It also allowed us to begin to “disciple” the executive and design teams in a natural and relatable manner. In the next few weeks, we will share how this experience has brought to us a new understanding for “market place pastor” and how “Kingdom DNA” can powerfully transform corporate culture.
Market Place Prayer
May the Holy Spirit show us the wisdom of infusing “Kingdom DNA” into companies with Kingdom-minded leaders. May they begin to experience its transforming power as they witness to the market place.
