Thinking Biblically About Business

About four years ago, Jeff Tognoni picked up a book — “Think Biblically!: Recovering a Christian Worldview” — that would change everything for him.

This book, which emphasizes the call to approach every aspect of life through the lens of Scripture, had a massive impact on how Tognoni views the Christian life and, by extension, how he approaches his responsibilities as owner of bookreport, a company that produces K-12 finance software and partners with The Master’s University.

“It’s the single most impactful Christian book I’ve ever read — outside of the Bible, of course,” Tognoni says. “It’s had a pervasive impact because it addresses every part of human life.”

Tognoni grew up in a secular household. He came to faith in Christ as an adult, but for years he attended churches that put little emphasis on discipleship and sanctification. In that time, Tognoni grew used to a superficial way of applying Christian thinking to his life and his approach to leading and owning businesses in the tech sphere.

“I always tried to run companies as a Christian would,” he says, “but quite frankly, I never really had a good framework for how to do that.”

But then he started listening to sermons by Dr. John MacArthur. In one message, he heard MacArthur mention “Think Biblically!,” a collection of essays written by TMU faculty. Tognoni decided to read it.

“It challenged so much of what I had heard from the average evangelical church,” he says. “It emphasized a biblical approach to every single question. It didn’t just say, ‘Read the Bible,’ but, ‘Apply the Bible to all of life.’ That was a message I didn’t remember ever hearing before. It shook me up.”

Some chapters, like Dr. John Street’s essay on biblical counseling versus psychology, Tognoni fundamentally agreed with while being challenged to think more deeply about the issue. Other chapters, like MacArthur’s essay on creation, resulted in him completely changing his views.

Trained as a geological engineer, Tognoni took the mainstream, old-earth origin story for granted. “Think Biblically!” challenged him to compare that story with Scripture’s. Eventually, he came to believe in a biblical six-day creation.

But more important than educating him on any one subject, the book gave him a framework for studying any aspect of reality within a biblical worldview — including how to invest in and run businesses. As the owner of bookreport, a software company started by Tognoni’s daughter Cassandra in 2015, Tognoni immediately had a context to put this new framework into practice.

“I’m very interested in figuring out how to do what I spend my life doing — which is engaging with the tech business — with a biblical approach,” he says. “What is a biblical way of running or investing in a software company? How can I do that more to the glory of God?”

For Tognoni, one implication has been changing the way he thinks about recruiting. While attending TMU’s TheoTech Conference in 2021, he connected with the University’s Office of Career Services and worked to begin recruiting graduates and current students as bookreport employees.

“For a long time, big businesses have targeted certain schools for recruitment because they essentially want the school to do their vetting for them,” Tognoni says. “And I figured that if I wanted a more God-glorifying workforce, I could accomplish that by recruiting from TMU. I could use TMU the same way that Wall Street uses the Ivy League.”

Now, all but one member of bookreport’s software development team are TMU alumni. They’ve also developed an internship program targeted at current TMU students.

“Our relationship with TMU has completely changed our hiring process,” Tognoni says. “And frankly, over the long term, the way you build great companies is by building great cultures. The culture of your company really matters a lot to how a company performs in the long run. But more than that, I saw this as my way, for the first time, of running a company in a way that really honors God.”

The effect of this relationship is spreading far beyond bookreport, too. Mirador Software Group — a company run by Tognoni’s son, Corbin — has also begun recruiting TMU students as interns. And as Tognoni pursues other business ventures, he plans to bring this same recruiting model with him.

“As these companies get bigger and bigger, we’re hoping to have a bigger and bigger relationship with TMU,” he says.

He’s also looking forward to reading the second edition of “Think Biblically!,” which is slated to be published later this year or in 2025.

Regardless of his avenue of involvement, Tognoni is just thankful the Lord has led him to the University.

“It’s an absolute honor to be involved with TMU,” he says. “When I come out to visit campus and interview students, I tell them, ‘I hope you guys really appreciate what you have here for these four years, because it’s just so special compared to what’s going on in the world out there.’”

Learn more about bookreport at bookreport.io.

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