FAITH-BASED
[feyth-beyst]
adjective
1. affiliated with, supported by, or based on a religion or religious group:
faith-based charities.
(Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2014.)
Contemporary definitions for faith-based
adjective
pertaining to a connection with a religion, faith, or belief system
Examples
Faith-based books are selling well.
Dictionary.com’s 21st Century Lexicon
Copyright © 2003-2014 Dictionary.com, LLC
Recently we received an email from a customer that started out “I assume you are a faith-based company…” She went on to explain that she was looking for a particular word on a stone that she thought we carried since we appeared to trend towards Christian items. I don’t know why, but I was taken aback by this assumption. We do sell a large amount of ‘faith-based’ items, particularly Christian scripture, and we have a large Christian bookstore and church clientele. But rather than pinpoint our business to one belief system, I’ve tended towards trying to carry items with a positive message, those items that have an uplifting spirit to them and overall comforting energy. At the same time, this is a retail business, so we have to sell what sells – in other words, as we’ve honed our craft, we just happened to have found our niche within the Christian community.
Does it matter whether we actually define ourselves as faith-based – as described in the definition above? I don’t think so. I think what matters is that we are a company that believes in integrity, honesty and hard work, a company that sells great items for reasonable prices and a company that you feel comfortable giving your hard earned money. Oh, and I think it matters that we have a sense of humor.
If pressed to answer that customer about whether we are faith-based, here is what I would say. Yes, we are a company based in faith. We have faith that our manufacturers will continuing turning out quality products for reasonable prices. We have faith that our employees care about their job and will work hard to ensure great service. We have faith that our delivery handlers at UPS, FedEx, the US Postal Service and DHL will treat our packages kindly and will make sure our products get to the right people in the right amount of time. We have faith that our landlord will continue maintaining our warehouse space so that we have a safe and efficient space to work in. We have faith in our customers, that they will continue to want to buy our items and trust us enough to send us orders. And most importantly, we have faith that we will be able to keep our sense of humor and good spirits through it all.
~ Brenda
CourageInStone 