In the early 2000s, I had the privilege of meeting John Stott and Chris Wright at a breakfast hosted by what was then Kenmore Baptist Church in Brisbane. Of course, I was impressed by John Stott. Nevertheless, it was Chris Wright who captivated me with his discussion about Old Testament ethics. I bought his book on the subject, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God (2004) and then his The Mission of God (2006). A few years later I bought his The Mission of God's People (2010). Last Friday, I was at the Koorong Bookshop in Springwood to buy Chris Watkin's Biblical Critical Theory. (Anyone who knows me will understand why). I spied the book on a shelf almost directly in front of me when I sat down for lunch from the Koorong Cafe. Almost right beside it was Chris Wright's latest book, The Great Story and the Great Commission (2023). This is a small, but important book. Every priest/minister/pastor should read it and recommend it to every churchgoer.
In this book, Wright adopts a version of missional hermeneutic that focuses on reading the Bible as a vast narrative that reveals the whole mission of God. He argues that God’s whole mission involves:
·      Building or growing the church through evangelism and teaching
·      Serving society through works of compassion and advocacy for justice
·      Responsibly using, stewarding, and caring for creation
He argues:
·      God’s mission is for God’s whole church – God said to Abraham, ‘(A)nd all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.’ See Genesis 12 and 18. It started with Israel and continued with the New Testament church. The whole church is missional!
·      The whole church’s mission includes every church member. If the church is missional by definition, then all Christians are missional by calling. As a pastor, the culture I must develop in my congregation is one that sees every person is a minister. My job is to equip God's people for their mission in their home, neighbourhood and the marketplace more broadly, a point made beautifully in Matthew Kaemingk and Cory Wilson's Work and Worship (2020). This, I believe, is the original meaning of Eph 4:7-16.
·      This means every Christian’s mission is whole-of-life. There is no separation of sacred and secular. Each of us must be fully engaged in our local congregation as family (of God) and expect God to locate us strategically in the marketplace. 
Reading Chris Wright's books has influenced my thinking on the biblical basis for business and led me to engage actively with two global movements in business, Kingdom Initiatives (KI) and Business As Mission (BAM). I have been blessed to be joint author and/or editor and/or contributor to several publications by BAM Global for over a decade now. May I commend BAM Global's Issue Group Report on BAM and the Church? It explores how business is integral to the whole mission of God in the world. You can download this important contribution to biblical thinking about business and the church at https://bamglobal.org/report-church/