Banking on Faith : Christian-to-Christian Business Ties Becoming a Growth Industry

First there was a quick prayer.

Then the 10 Christians assembled for the weekly 7 a.m. breakfast at Coco’s Bakery Restaurant in Oxnard got down to business. Literally.

Over steaming plates of pancakes and eggs, they passed around business cards and discussed job leads, business practices and the Bible.

Ninety minutes later, following a short discussion of workplace evangelism and another prayer for collective good business and health, unemployed manufacturer’s rep Greg Larrieu left the restaurant with new leads in his job search.

“My family’s under a lot of stress,” said Larrieu, a Camarillo resident who has attended the prayer breakfasts for about three months. “But this Christian networking and fellowship is a big help. It leaves me strengthened and recharged.”

The Christians in Business Network, which formed just 18 months ago in Ventura with three members, now has five branches throughout Ventura County with about 65 members.

And since January, Ventura County has a new Christian telephone directory and a Christian advertising guide.

Together, these developments illustrate a trend that makes some religious and community leaders in the county uncomfortable: Christians preferring to do business mainly with other Christians.

“ ‘Shopping Christian’ has always been done in one manner or another, but it’s just beginning to be formalized in Ventura,” said Lori Butler, the 34-year-old publisher of The Marketplace, a biweekly Christian classified advertiser.

In areas of strong Christian influence, such as Orange County and the Midwest, religious telephone directories have been in circulation for decades. But the idea is only now gaining momentum in Ventura County and it’s being cultivated among a mostly evangelical crowd.

Butler, who describes herself as a deeply religious woman with a background in advertising sales for daily newspapers, said that starting such a guide in the Ventura area didn’t require a leap of faith.

“I grew up reading The Marketplace in Orange,” Butler said. “Me and my friends would use it for everything. I grew up in a small church and The Marketplace was a tool to meet and interact with other Christians.”

Last year, when Butler surveyed local churches and Christian business owners asking if they were interested in a Christian advertising guide, she said the response was immediate and enthusiastic. “They said yes, they were interested, yes, they’d help distribute it and yes, they’d take out ads.”

Weeks later, after she received permission from the original Marketplace in Orange County to start her own guide, Butler’s free advertiser has a countywide distribution of 12,500. She’s even planning to take it on-line.

But in an age of global competition and cost-conscious consumers, why would a person “buy Christian”? What about getting the best deal?

“If I can find better prices and service, then the free market takes over,” said Barry Hultgren, who publishes 28 Christian directories in 13 states from his home in Fort Collins, Colo. “But all things being equal, I’d rather spend my money with someone who supports what I support. I’d rather buy Christian.”

“People like to feel good about spending their money,” said Lamar Keener, publisher of the Christian Times, a San Diego-based monthly newspaper with 125,000 readers. “They like doing business with like-minded people.”

Like-minded people. That’s a potent selling point for Carol Henson, who distributes weight-loss and nutritional products from her Ventura home. She advertises in both The Marketplace and Ventura’s Christian Telephone Directory.

“Much of my work is over the telephone,” Henson said. “When people call me, they don’t know me from Adam. But they feel a lot more comfortable when they know I’m Christian, too. It’s a very real common bond that helps us build a better and faster rapport.”

The average evangelical family has a sizable amount of disposable income, according to Virgil Kilpatrick, an ad salesman for the Oxnard-based Christian radio station KDAR-FM.

“Our listeners tend to be affluent, home-owning families who have a combined income of more than $50,000,” he said. “It’s a very viable market that’s difficult to reach through the secular media. A lot of these people can’t be reached through television advertising. They don’t watch a lot of it because they don’t like what’s on it.”

But it’s not affluence that Calvin Cairns is looking for in a customer. It’s just that he would rather remove tree stumps for those who worship God. That’s why he advertises his small Camarillo business in The Marketplace, Cairns said.

“When I grind stumps for Christians, I never have any headaches. I prefer working with God-fearing people--people of the faith--because we have the same moral base. I’ve never had a bounced check from a Christian,” he said.

Ventura’s evangelical Christians insist they aren’t excluding other religions from their business transactions. Instead, they’re attempting to support something they believe in.

“A lot of groups strengthen their community by doing business with each other,” Butler said. “There are Indian newspapers, Korean banks, Latino Yellow Pages and Catholic publications. Buying from your own community just makes sense sometimes. It’s a way to support one another.”

But in Ventura County, ethnic and religious directories and specialized advertising are rare outside of informal church and synagogue publications that sometimes sell advertising. And some community leaders are skeptical of a telephone directory and advertising guide that caters almost exclusively to Christians.

“We have a temple roster and a monthly bulletin that we sell ads in, but it’s open to people of all religious faiths,” said Rabbi Michael Berk of Temple Beth Torah in Ventura. “We appreciate everyone’s contribution, because it’s a sign of support.

“But frankly I question the motives and reasoning behind creating a Christian phone directory. Is it to make sure a Christian buys from another Christian and not a Jew?”

Sometimes underrepresented minorities need to go out of their way to help one another financially, Berk said. “But why would such a big group bother with something like this?”

The county’s Latino business community had a business directory that was discontinued about six years ago, said Mena Rios, vice president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Ventura County.

“It didn’t really work because people like to shop where they’re going to get the best price,” Rios said. “This is a very diverse area with people of many ethnic and religious backgrounds. I don’t care for these kinds of attempts to separate people. I don’t understand it.

“If I need an electrician, I don’t look for a Hispanic electrician because I’m Hispanic. I just look for an electrician.”

But to Marlies Fiske, who has distributed 25,000 copies of her Ventura County Christian telephone directory since January, it is a matter of biblical principle, she said.

Her 42-page directory, produced by her son at home on an Apple computer, lists hundreds of numbers for Christian merchants along with biblical passages.

“Do business till I come,” reads a line from the Book of Luke beside a listing for general contractors. “Promote unity among the brethren across denominational lines,” reads a passage from the Book of John.

“We need to help our Christian brothers first and then go out and help other people,” Fiske said. “I know some people might be offended by that, but the Bible tells us to support each other emotionally, spiritually and financially.”

Which is precisely what the Christians in Business Network does, said Stephen Wilson, a broker with Dean Witter in Oxnard and a founding member of the group.

“It’s all about building relationships and helping each other in both business and personal matters,” Wilson said, adding that the group has assisted half a dozen people in finding jobs.

“It’s helped me get in touch with eight or 10 new clients since I started attending. We’ve all gotten business from it.”