Are you doing business alone, or are you part of a community of believers who support each other? 

In business, it's easy to feel isolated, making decisions on your own, wondering if other Christian business owners face the same challenges. But what if there was a place where believers could connect and support each other in both business and life? 

Today we are talking with Mina Carlson, President and CEO of the Arizona Christian Chamber of Commerce and head of the U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce Coalition. 

The original Chamber of Commerce was founded over 400 years ago, built on faith in God and a commitment to strengthen business and serve the community. Over time, many chambers lost sight of that original purpose, becoming more focused on influence rather than service. Today, God is restoring that original vision through the U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce.  

The U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce started just two years ago and is about more than just networking. It’s about conscious capital, keeping your dollars in the Christian community, and supporting believers in everything from dentistry to car repairs. 

Join us as Mina shares stories of Chambers putting their faith into action in their communities. This is about relationships, not transactions. 

Redeem Your Business Today by the Following: 

How can we honor God in our business? Wear the Holy Spirit like a garment each day. Like David checked with God before every battle, seek God's direction daily in your business. Prayer is our most powerful tool. 

One challenge from today: Be intentional about supporting Christian businesses in your community. Who is your dentist, barber, or mechanic? These believers share the same goal of making an eternal impact. Connecting with the USCCC is a great way to find a chamber near you and find like-minded Christian business owners in your community. 

More About Mina Carlson 

Website: www.uschristianchamber.com 

Events in Your Area: www.uschristianchamber.com/events 

More About David Schmidt

Free E-Book: What God Says About Business: 5 Uncommon Truths for the Modern Business

Subscribe to the RBT Weekly Newsletter for weekly simple, practical, and Biblical steps to help you build a thriving business in a way that honors God.

Newsletter also comes with Bible verses for business success for you to read, apply, and be inspired by.

Book a call: Get Unstuck and Move Forward

Website: redeemingbusinesstoday.com

LinkedIn

Donate to the Show

I'm always surprised that God is constantly at work around us. And the further I get into coaching and podcasting in the marketplace as a whole, I find out more. And it's interesting the numerous business and Christian business groups I've been able to discover and places I never knew existed. I've been trying to help businesses on their journey to operate their business in a Christian fashion. And then I find out there's all these businesses are doing it already.

Places I found was the US Christian Chamber of Commerce. And so today I have the pleasure of having with me the, I believe it's the CEO and the head of the Arizona USCCC with me. Minor, right? Carlson?

Mina Carlson and I head up the U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce Coalition and I'm the president and CEO of the Arizona Christian Chamber of Commerce.

Gotcha. You can correct me on the title. That's fine. I'm sorry. Mino, to start off, welcome to start off, what is one way that you have found that we can honor God in our business?

Okay, sounds good.

Hmm, only one, huh? You know, really when we are, I love the question, David, because even if we were just to try to lean in on one, right, if we were just to focus on one, so thank you for that question. Even when we think about that, primarily God created us to do something really special, and we all were created for something special. And if we were to just concentrate on being led in the spirit,

Just one.

each day, each day would show our special and unique purpose in the things that we were doing that day, which was different than the day before and the day before that, right? And it will be different tomorrow because each day has its own blessings, its own challenges, its own productive activities. But really when we lean in and allow

ourselves to be nothing left of us and fully in Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to wear us like a garment. That's where it starts.

Very good. Yeah, it reminds me of David. know, David in the Bible, he was a great warrior, but it's interesting, like every time, it seems like every time he went to battle, he always checked with God first. Even though he won the last one, he checked and said, what should I do this time? Should I go this time? Should I go? And it's a great example for us, for business leaders too, even though God led us before and it seems like a similar situation, ask again, just ask. So,

Well said, well said, yeah. Well said,

yeah.

you know, that takes me to, you know, Jesus did the same thing. And I think that's why we keep hearing how David had, you know, had hearts, you know, had God's heart, right? And so did Jesus. They both did, just like you said, David, that Jesus took the time to pray all the time. And he would leave everybody else and go to his special place and he would pray about it.

and he would determine out of that prayer what he was going to do next. And I love that you make that really clear because it is our most powerful tool, prayer.

Yep, absolutely. Well, for our audience, can you explain to us what the U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce is? And I know in our talk, we talked about what is the Chamber of Commerce supposed to do, but could you give us a brief history? What is the Chamber of Commerce supposed to do? And then the U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce, what is that doing?

Yeah, you I love that you asked, you know, give us a brief history. So I'm going to take you down the historical path. You know, it was over 400 years ago that the first chamber of commerce was founded by our founding fathers. Back then, everything was in God we trust. Everything was built on in God we trust. We didn't have to write it in all the time. We didn't have to speak it out. It just was the action of our people, founding fathers.

They built the Chamber of Commerce to bring community together to do everything together as one body in that community. And everybody knew and they were very conscious about their economy and the things that they did. They had conscious capital because they knew where they were going to spend their money. Fast forward years and years and years later, hundreds of years later, the world took over and it became very much about power, money, titles, right? And the small businesses.

the community got lost and it got left behind. And what has happened is God decided to take his Christian, his chamber of commerce back and put Christian in front of it through the hearts of those that he is leading up and leading out in this movement. And so what happened is the US Christian Chamber of Commerce was birthed out of the central Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce.

which has over 500 members today. the US Christian Chamber of Commerce, in its two year entity, Crystal, the CEO of the US Christian Chamber of Commerce and President, I came on board about 10 and a half months ago. We had five Christian Chamber of Commerce's launched with, and.

Wow.

And we went from that to now 21 Christian Chamber of Commerce across the nation at both the state level and local level that are simultaneously launching throughout the year. And it's moving fast. And even out of that, we're already starting to see right around two to three local chapters at every state level getting ready to launch simultaneously after those states. So God's moving and

We're getting to work, right? And so to that other part of your question, you know, what is the US Christian Chamber of Commerce, right? The Chamber of Commerce is truly that. It's a chamber to serve businesses. If I were to put it like this, it's to serve those businesses in those communities as individuals, solopreneurs, small businesses to medium to large sized businesses that are believers.

And the reason why I say that is it is faith in action with believers building kingdom commerce. And in doing that, we are being more aware, more intentional about conscious capital. There's a trend that was happening, whereas the Christian community would have somewhere around one to two transactions before it left that community economy.

So there's a big, tremendously huge leakage in how our capital is used and impacting Christian businesses, especially small businesses, know, alike all over our country. Now, with that said, it allows us to come alongside and be the place that we really support.

those businesses, small, individual, small, non-profit, for-profit, doesn't matter what it is, education, universities, all of it, to work together in unity as one body in Christ. So the Christian chamber of commerce doesn't create, let's say, events of its own or...

curriculum of its own or stores of its own, it leverages all the members, lifts them up and lifts them out to brand expand and help expose what it is they have and how they can use one another to live their life. You know, the day in the life of like for you David, you know, who do you go to gate?

Who's your dentist? Who's your chiropractor? Who is your barber? Where do get your car mechanics done, right? Or when you need four new tires. It doesn't matter what it is. It is that community that we can be more intentional about to help broaden our capital in more conscious way.

Okay, so you're saying basically you have a group of companies coming together so that I can go look and say, hey, I want to support a Christian in the area, here are the Christian businesses. Is that kind of in a nutshell? Okay.

Yes, and the

website acts as a directory, events calendar, a group community, a cohort, opportunities and places to do life together.

Okay, so other than being like a kind of advertisement billboard for Christians, how else does the chamber specifically, you say we help you do business, we help you do life. Can you give us an example of how would you help me or how would you help, is it help you kind of thing?

Yeah, yeah, in many ways. you know, there are members that have podcasts like yourself, right? And because of it as a member, members are there to interview and broaden the brand of those businesses through their podcasts. Another way or means is we broaden the communication out through our communication channels and media and so on of their events and the different things that they have.

We also have what's called the business exchange where people can come together and learn about each other and learn how to network and do these things. We have mastermind groups where you can learn how to lead through the Spirit, right? Through the Holy Spirit in your business. We also have HR specialists who can teach about some of the HR policies and governing things that are needed.

in businesses today. So there's just so much that we can do to help one another.

Okay, in your area and the chambers that have started, how do you see that has been helpful? Because I've been in a chamber of commerce and it was more like, we're just going to promote your business if you want to, but it's all your own footwork. If you don't do anything, it's like, okay, I paid my dues. I'm in a magazine that is distributed and that's about it. I don't get anything else.

Yeah.

Right. Well, you know, and again, it's a give-give, right? And so I'll give you an example. You know, as a Christian Chamber of Commerce, we call our members and ask them how would they like to facilitate a specific event or a conference or a webinar or a Fellowship Friday or

where they like to sponsor a relationship building lunch, which means we would help them to create the topic and we would provide the format and all of that. The other part of that is it does take both sides to do things, right? We both have to be conscious and intentional to lean into one another to ensure that we get to know each other. So the Christian community is about relationships.

We want to have a relationship with our brothers and our sisters. We want to know who their kids are. We want to know what big events are going on with each other. So it's about getting to know each other and spending time together, doing life in all the areas together.

I know there's lots of different churches out there. I know like who can join? Is it like anybody who says I'm a Christian or is there a doctoral statement there that you have to hold to or how do you sift through that? I mean, I don't want to throw people out or just say, I don't like what you believe, but how do you control that?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, it's a great question, David. We

that question all the time because as Christians, we have to be faith in action. Jesus said himself, right, it isn't those who are believers, it's those that are sick that need help. And so you do have to, when you do the application to become a member, you are signing the application with all of the faith statement.

biblical principles and rooted in Christ values and principles of that, of how we do business together and how we connect with one another now and how we do community together. You have to actually sign that. And then we do have across all of our chambers code of conduct and we're all watching out for each other. But

I have, and I'll give you an example, I had somebody come in and I, you know, that wanted to become a member. They, said, you know, have you read our faith statement? You have to vet these people, these individuals out. And they said, well, no, I said, well, let's do that together. And in doing that, identifying that this person who didn't believe in Jesus at all, couldn't agree to the faith statement.

And I said, so instead of saying, I'm sorry, you can't be a part of the Christian chamber. I directed this person to say, you know what? I would love for you to meet two to three other people. You can do some networking. You guys can learn more about each other. Knowing in my heart, these two to three people were disciples, huge disciples makers. And they have been meeting with this person and this person is getting very close to becoming saved.

and it's because he's asking a lot of questions. He's getting actually bought a Bible and started reading and learning and and that's part of faith in action. That's part of how we how we do life in Christ.

Good.

Okay, no, that's interesting. That's a neat story because yeah, you just want to be able to align with the people you're there. But yeah, if you have a list of values or faith statements or whatever that yeah, you have to hold to these, that makes sense.

It's our job, right?

Oh yeah, for a job and for this too, I mean, it's a similar thing. It's just set on a bigger scale. could you, I know you talked about a little bit how the chamber sometimes comes together in a community to work together on a

Mm-hmm.

a tragedy or something that happens. Could you give us a story on that?

Yeah, absolutely. I can give you a couple of local stories and I can give you one that, you know, even yesterday when in a local one, you know, one of as our chambers, the local chapters, they identify the initiatives that are in their own community. And in Arizona, the initiatives is no child left behind.

And so we partnered right away with Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which is an organization across the US. And we delivered 14 beds. As part of that, a child that we delivered a bed to, when we first walked into his room, he had a switch blade on the floor and he had a scar that came from all the way over here, that came all the way down. 14, 14 years old. And he apologized and you can tell that he was really uncomfortable.

And I said, ahead and move that and then we'll get everything in. When we got done making his bed all the way to the pillows, comforter and everything, I walked over to him and I said, would you mind if we pray over your room and your bed and with you? And he immediately said, yes, please. One of the only words he said. And I grabbed his hands and we prayed and he bowed his head and he held onto my hand so tight.

And I prayed over him in protection and everything. And he looked right at me and he said, thank you. And I said, this is the beginning of so many more beautiful blessings. I said, believe that, accept it and step into it and be different starting today. And he said, yes, ma'am. And you can tell in his eyes that he was taking it in. What he might do with it is up to God, but we plant those seeds, right?

In another example was what happened yesterday and what's been happening with a young woman from Ukraine and a brother, Charlie, is that a nation came together to pray. The entire US Christian Chamber of Commerce membership prayed in a way that wasn't that we all got online and prayed.

But an email went out through the coalition and was sent out and everybody paused to pray for that family and for the other families and what happened in Minnesota with the Catholic school events, you know, and the kids there and the families there and all of it and what continues to happen all over the world. We're praying together and we continue to do that today. We take moments to pause because it's 9-11.

And we do that as a unified body in Christ. We do that.

Yeah, no, that's neat to be able to have somebody leading that. Cause sometimes I'm like, I don't know what's going on and somebody else tells us, okay. But yeah, if you're busy doing work, it's nice to have that interaction there. Very good. So what are some first steps that we can take if we wanted to have more information or find out or to join a, is there a Christian Chamber of Commerce around our area? How do we find that out?

That's a great question. You can go to uschristianchamber.com and you can go to the directory and you can see all the different chamber of commerce, Christian Chamber of Commerce. You click on Christian Chamber of Commerce and it'll give you a whole list of different ones in different areas. And if there isn't one in your area, there can be. And that might be the first point of interest where God says in your heart that maybe

you're to help lead that out and be a part of the movement. And you might be one of the trusted leaders that he raises up into the movement to take one out.

Okay. What's the difference between a state chamber and a local chamber? What's the difference?

Okay, so

that is a wonderful question, David. Thank you for asking that. So we have the U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce who has a coalition, meaning that they co-operate with every state. And that helps all those state leaders be the voice and the initiatives at a state level, helping to lift up and lift out at a state level, going out to the Capitol when the voice needs to be at the Capitol, being at...

at those bigger, more influential events as the biblical and faith-driven leaders that we are in all that we do. Then at the local chapter, right? At the local chapter, you're after every single person on every street corner in your community at the local chapter. And at the state to local is creating a coalition where they're co-ordinate with all those leaders of those local chapters to do those initiatives.

to be consistent in all that they do in that language across the entire movement, all the way up through to the US, back all the way down to every person on the straight corner. And we have to do it in those types of levels because that way we reach every broad spectrum in the US.

Okay, so if I'm part of a local coalition, am I automatically part of the state?

That's a great question. if you let's just use an example here. If you're part of the greater Tucson area Christian Chamber of Commerce, then you add a certain levels of that membership. You are a part of the state. Of Arizona Christian Chamber of Commerce and at the state level, depending on which membership level you're at, you automatically have a basic level at the US Christian Chamber of Commerce. So your directories at each one of those.

Your directories then roll up from the local to the state. And if that's at the state, then it's from the state, it rolls up to the US, as well as your events.

Okay.

Okay, so if you're at the state, at the local level, if you're gonna start, you start at the local level then? Or can you start at the national level?

You can start at the state level

or you can start at the local level. Here's how I would, I usually recommend to people. If you have an ice cream shop and it's only the ice cream shop in Oracle, Arizona, you probably want to be a part of that local chamber because you're probably not going to want to be at the state level because you're probably don't have a lot of people that are going to come, right? And that you're branding to at every other place unless you're wanting to grow.

come to your ice cream shop.

But then also, if you're at this level at your local level in your membership, let's say small business, there's individual where you're just at the local chamber level membership, or you're at small business. Small business has a basic level at the state. So you also have your state level basic membership with your local chapter. So you could start if you're...

If you just, want to start at the state level because you're a company that has many offices or brands across the US, you could start at the state level and get that US level membership as well.

Okay, I'm sure there's more information on the website. Yeah, it's a little confusing at first, because it's like, okay, which one do you go for and are they all the same? And I don't know.

Did that help? Yeah.

Yeah, it just

depends on if you're a national company that's doing business across the nation, right? And your headquarters is in Arizona, you want to be at the state level because now you'll have the state level membership as well as the US level membership. If you're a little mom and pop shop or you're a solopreneur that's just doing business right here in your local community only, then start at your local community.

Okay.

and have the membership at the local chapter plus your state because you get a basic membership at the state level as well.

Gotcha, okay, just

one, very good. So yeah, we're nearing the end of our time here. Is there one challenge you'd like to leave for our audience today as they look at the Chamber of Commerce or anything else?

Yeah,

yeah, I would say, you know, you were created for something really special. And God gave you a lot of resources, tools, giftings and skills. And if you're looking for an organization that can culturally, community and professionally impact with biblical principles and in whose you are, then

look at the Christian Chamber of Commerce as a place where you can either lead in or lead out in ways with your giftings, your skill sets, and your heart for the Lord.

Okay, very good. Myna, thank you so much for your time and encouragement. And friends, next step to put in practice what you've heard, check the show notes out. We'll have the links and the websites there so you can get ahold of her and learn more about the U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce. I encourage you to sign up for the newsletter because it's a great way to communicate. We're gonna start having a verse of the week for your business. That would be an inspiration and challenge to you to look at. And that's all we have for now.

I trust you've been inspired to redeem your business, redeem your time. Buy it back and walk worthy of God's great name. Bye for now.

Bye now. God bless.