A Business as Mission Crisis: How Can We Pray?

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by Larry Sharp

During these days of uncertainty due to the worldwide coronavirus, business startups are hurting, and many of them will fail due to the outbreak of COVID-19. This is particularly true of BAM startup businesses, which are affected in many ways.

Just today as I write this, I received an appeal from a Freedom Business in India to encourage others to buy their product on-line.  I also received a note from a person who works as an HR-disciple making person in a business in Cambodia. She is losing her visa and needs to return to the USA within 30-days due to new regulations connected to the virus.

Here are some ways to PRAY based on what we know right now:

1. For wisdom for business owners who have very little margin or capacity for downsizing and will ultimately need to make hard decisions.

2. For the poor who desperately need the jobs that BAM companies are providing, and now face job loss.

3. For innovative means of providing capital. Some of the ways may include increased donations or short-term low-interest loans to BAM businesses.

4. For God’s people in the west who have expertise and can provide a helpline; that they will make themselves available and know where their help can be best applied.

5. For innovators and inventors to have their creative juices unleashed to develop solutions which will help BAM businesses in this difficult time.

6. For leaders connected to many BAM/B4t businesses who are right now considering options for how to help – RN, PL, CS, MT, JP, RB and others.

7. That all believers will respond toward the most vulnerable in ways similar to how Christians responded in other pandemics. Check out this link.

 

Mats Tunehag has also adapted St. Patrick’s prayer to use during this time, either as a BAM company leader or to pray for others in the BAM community.

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The Coronavirus Pandemic and BAM: Seven Things We Can Do

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by Mats Tunehag

The effects of the coronavirus are disruptive beyond comprehension. The situation is changing by the hour. The consequences vary from difficult to dire for billions of people, and nobody knows what the timeline is for this crisis.

Media across the world updates us constantly on the negative effects on businesses and on people’s lives, so this short article will have a different focus: what can we do?

But first let’s note that throughout history the Church has a track record of serving others in the midst of major plagues and catastrophes.

“The sociologist Rodney Stark has written (in The Rise of Christianity) that one reason the church overcame hostility and grew so rapidly within the Roman empire traces back to how Christians responded to pandemics of the day, which probably included bubonic plague and smallpox.  When infection spread, Romans fled their cities and towns; Christians stayed behind to nurse and feed not only their relatives but their pagan neighbors.” (Living in Plague Times – Phillip Yancy)

Why has the Church done this for centuries and why should we do it now? One fundamental reason is that we are to love God and our neighbors, and the two are connected. As Bishop Barron says: “Why are the two commandments so tightly linked? Because of who Jesus is. Christ is not simply a human being, and he is not simply God; rather, he is the God-man, the one in whose person divinity and humanity meet. Therefore, it is impossible to love him as God without loving the humanity that he has embraced. The greatest commandment is, therefore, an indirect Christology.” [1]

Many businesses are facing challenges with cashflow, lockdown, sales, having to let staff go, supply chain disruptions, bankruptcies, et cetera. So, what can we do now?

Let me suggest seven areas for action as it relates to BAM businesses and the global BAM community. We also invite you to add your suggestions.  Read more

50+ BAM Job Opportunities Around the World

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Each quarter we post an updated list of BAM Job Opportunities on The BAM Review. Welcome to the March 2020 edition.

 

Senior Web Engineer – Equakecreative – Remote/Contract

Equakecreative is a branding and product development agency based in San Diego, California since 1999. We assist our partners by telling their incredible stories online and build products that fans love and deeply engage with. Our expertise has allowed us to work alongside many world-class partners and brands. We’d be thrilled for you to bring your skills and leadership to our team, accelerating our mission to impact businesses around the globe in the most positive way. The Senior Web Engineer will be responsible for designing, developing, and testing technical solutions and contributing to the team delivering a quality product that meets the client requirements. The engineer should also have a solid understanding of American major league sports including but not limited to NFL, NBA, and NHL. They will also act as a mentor within the overall team.

Download job description

 

Various Positions – IT Company in North India

Envision yourself as part of a team built on the foundation of servant leadership, where we intentionally support each other in growth as individuals and a company. Since 2001, we have been working in India providing businesses in the West affordable and quality IT resources to keep their companies growing, while creating local jobs that build team direction and personal growth.  We’d love for you to bring your skills and leadership to our team, accelerating our growth so that we can impact more lives globally.

Business Development: Acts as the lungs of our business, working strategically to qualify and turn prospects into long term clients. This person works from their home office (or co-working space) closing deals that will be delivered by our software teams in India. Download job description| Apply Online

Account Manager: Grows trustful relationship with our clients in order to create multi-project, mutually fruitful relationships. Focuses on staging the projects and coaching the delivery team toward success in our offices in India. Download job description | Apply Online

Technologist in India: Works closely with our development and testing teams in India to encourage continuous learning and quality products via strategic processes. Download job description | Apply Online

College Student Intern in India: Soaks up an immersive multicultural experience along with the most practical real-life education on the market—all while creating value and becoming an integral part of our team. Download job description | Apply Online

Gap Year Internship in India: Acts as a Jack-of-all-Trades by flexibly taking on different responsibilities and projects throughout the entire company, providing real value while also gaining multicultural experience in the many different components of business. Download job description | Apply Online  

 

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6 Ways BAM Practitioners Build Their Company Culture

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We asked 12 BAM Practitioners how they have gone about developing their company culture and what values and behaviors they have intentionally tried to instill. Their responses showed six clear themes: 6 ways to build company culture.

1. Visible Values That Are Thoroughly Integrated into Operations

Having a set of clearly articulated values is a key to developing an intentionally-driven company culture. These values must then be woven through everything that happens in the company.

We try to integrate our core values into everything that we do. Our job applications are built with questions that try to assess these values in applicants. Our HR training is basically a series of lessons on these specific values. Most problems that arise can be answered by looking back at these core values and applying them to individual situations. However, it is sometimes tough to remember to take opportunities to teach values. Often our employees come to us with problems and we have tried to develop a habit of pointing them to the core values and asking them which ones apply to their particular problem. This means slowing down from the demands of the day and taking the time to walk through it with them. It is often tempting (because it is easier and faster) to just tell them what to do. However, we find that when we are intentional and take the time, it is a huge blessing to both parties and to the long-term effectiveness of our business. – Steven, Service Company, Thailand

The best opportunities to reinforce our values are the difficult ones, decisions that are made which cost the company contracts or money, but which we make because they are right. It’s easy to be honest when there’s lots of money being made, but much harder when the crunch comes! I have threatened to terminate employees for lying to customers and disciplined others for misleading suppliers. I’ve learned that my employees generally want me to treat them with honesty and integrity and to treat them with respect, but they don’t really want to have to treat others that way. Culturally they value strength over humility and consider a crafty deal to be good. I push them the other way and used to get push back from them for that. So difficult days do have their bright side; they test our commitment to our values and help us apply them. – Robert, Manufacturing and Consulting, Middle East  Read more

The 4 Cs of Developing BAM Company Culture

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Company culture is vital to success in business as mission. In BAM we ‘show people around the Kingdom, and introduce them to the King’, as one practitioner expressed. Therefore, an important goal of a BAM company is to establish a ‘Kingdom of God’ culture in relationships and the business environment – influencing for God and for good inside the company and in the wider community, among all stakeholders.

Secularisation and mission-drift are a very real threats to a BAM business as it grows larger. The faster a company grows, the greater the threat of culture dilution. The question of how to maintain and strengthen your company culture is something to seriously think about as you prepare to grow as a BAM company.

Culture Foundations

The decisions and policies that become norms for our company include any rules, laws, structures, relationship-norms, policies, guidelines etc. that we establish, whether those are informal or formal, intentional or unintentional. These decisions and policies grow out of our worldview, beliefs and values and manifest in typical behaviours, practices, actions and initiatives.

Cultural integrity means having a purpose, beliefs, values, principles and practices that flow together, and are aligned with each other and with the Word of God.

Since our worldview is developed by our experiences in the culture and family which we grew up in; we need to first ask ourselves how our own worldview needs to be transformed to align with a biblical worldview – one that is shaped by the Word of God. Then we need to recognise that the people we are working with may have a different set of values, beliefs, principles and practices, growing out of a different worldview to ours.

Any policy or structure that does not reinforce the purpose and values of the company should be scrapped or changed. Unless we can clearly see how our structures and policies are rooted in beliefs and values – and we can explain why they exist – it is very hard to align teams. Without aligned and passionate teams we are dead in the water.   Read more