Tensions Between Faith and Work One of the great privileges of traveling and working internationally is the frequent opportunity provided by long journeys for prayerful reflection on the goodness of God and the adventure of a life walking with Him. A few years ago, on one such long trip, I took some time to reflect […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, I am a co-owner in a BAM company (in Thailand) with my business partner and we are looking to add one other to our senior management team. What sort of characteristics or background should I be […]
Discovering Freedom For more than 14 years I’ve had the privilege of living out life with women who have been given the choice of freedom. It seems this freedom business thing does work. It provides hope where there was hopelessness, a choice when there was no choice at all – the chance of a new […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, I work in Human Resources in a BAM initiative in Nepal. We’re working on developing a discipleship program and ways to develop our staff as people. We’re exploring ideas for one-on-one mentorship and weekly values teachings, maybe […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, I work in Human Resources in a BAM initiative in Nepal. We’re working on developing a discipleship program and ways to develop our staff as people. We’re exploring ideas for one-on-one mentorship and weekly values teachings, maybe […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, I work in Human Resources in a BAM initiative in Nepal. We’re working on developing a discipleship program and ways to develop our staff as people. We’re exploring ideas for one-on-one mentorship and weekly values teachings, maybe […]
by Christa Crawford What are the most important questions to ask myself when evaluating a business opportunity? My background is Business for Freedom – that is using business to bring freedom to people who would otherwise be trapped in trafficking, prostitution, or other forms of exploitation. The traditional model for reaching these people is […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, What prayer habits have you found helpful in your business? How have you experienced prayer and hearing direction from the Lord fitting alongside ‘normal’ business practices and hearing from advisors and others? ~ Exploring Prayer Dear Exploring, Whatever […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, What prayer habits have you found helpful in your business? How have you experienced prayer and hearing direction from the Lord fitting alongside ‘normal’ business practices and hearing from advisors and others? ~ Exploring Prayer Dear Exploring, Early […]
by David Skews Business as mission is far more than business in worldly terms, it is service for God and must be conducted to His glory alone. In such a business, therefore, prayer (regular audience with God) is paramount to gain His guidance, His methods and His mind. The following guidelines have a narrow application […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, What prayer habits have you found helpful in your business? How have you experienced prayer and hearing direction from the Lord fitting alongside ‘normal’ business practices and hearing from advisors and others? ~ Exploring Prayer Dear Exploring, Prayer […]
From the rooftops you can see it. The personality of the land shifts as the row of buildings stretches towards the river shore. There is a gap there, the space for the river that marks the border, and on the opposite shore the skyline is again lifted by buildings. The buildings on either side of […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, I can see that language acquisition is going to be essential to both business and church planting efforts in my target area, but it is a lot to think about. How have you seen language learning […]
Insights from a BAM Practitioner This BAM Practitioner has been in business in Asia for 16 years. Meet your people every day Your business has to bring you into contact with people. I think this really is the most important thing. If we view the challenge of missions as “how to get a believer together with an […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, I can see that language acquisition is going to be essential to both business and church planting efforts in my target area, but it is a lot to think about. How have you seen language learning […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, I can see that language acquisition is going to be essential to both business and church planting efforts in my target area, but it is a lot to think about. How have you seen language learning […]
by João Mordomo Last week in Part 1 I looked at Paul’s exploits as a maker of tents and concluded that business and church planting were made for each other! Properly configured, church planting teams and business startup teams can be one and the same. There are many good reasons that we ought to consider seriously […]
by João Mordomo In recent years, many people have begun to more fully appreciate the huge power and potential of business as mission as both a means to enter into contexts where missionaries are unwelcome, and a mechanism to catalyze church planting among unreached peoples. In fact, while other models often work in other contexts, BAM […]
by Patrick Lai When we first started working with Muslims we had a traditional approach. We tried to meet people on the streets and in our neighborhood to share the Gospel. We’d ride buses, go to the gym, hang out in parks. When we could get people into a conversation we’d try to turn the discussion to […]
Insights from a BAM Practitioner ‘Andrew’ was in business in China for 8 years and now consults to other BAM companies. Finding a good fit for you is critical This business is what you will be doing day in and day out, so it’s really important that you have an idea that you feel passionate […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, I keep hearing that having an Advisory Board is good idea for a BAM company. How is an advisory board different from other kinds of boards and how should I go about setting one up? ~ Needing […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, I keep hearing that having an Advisory Board is good idea for a BAM company. How is an advisory board different from other kinds of boards and how should I go about setting one up? ~ Needing […]
One of the 11 building blocks of BAM or Business for Transformation (B4T) is “having a good mentor.” Patrick Lai writes about this in his new book, Business for Transformation – Getting Started new on Amazon this month. Here’s an excerpt on this key topic. Mentoring – Accountability My wife has been known to say, “I love […]
Once a month, our panel of mentors answer your practical business questions. Send us your questions! Dear BAM Mentor, I keep hearing that having an Advisory Board is good idea for a BAM company. How is an advisory board different from other kinds of boards and how should I go about setting one up? ~ Needing […]
by Mats Tunehag Originally published on MatsTunehag.com, reposted with kind permission. Business as Mission, BAM, is not a technique. It is a worldview and a lifestyle. It is about following Jesus in the marketplace – to the ends of the earth; loving God and serving people through business. BAM is not doing business with a […]
Choosing a Business: What do you like to do? If you are enthusiastic about a particular business, it will help keep you going in the tough times. What do the local people need or want? Go to your proposed location and live there for a while. Talk to people. No business will succeed unless there is a felt-need […]
How do others actually go about business planning? What does it look like in practice to integrate Kingdom and Business goals into a planning process? Listen to this 20 minute interview with business owner Steven Sauder as he shares his story of developing a business model in Thailand and mapping it out in a business […]
We asked our team of BAM experts to give some practical advice for BAM practitioners in the beginning stages of business planning. For this post we asked them to share ideas about developing goals and vision. Robert Andrews, Larry Sharp and Garry all actively mentor frontline BAM companies – as well as teach and write on […]
by Larry Sharp This is Part 2 of a two-part post, read Part 1. What is the business model? I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. – General Dwight Eisenhower I am not a big fan of complex business plans in the early stages, but prefer to develop a business […]
From the back cover Business for Transformation focuses on answering the question: “How do you start a business that transforms communities of unreached peoples?” Starting a business cross-culturally involves thousands of decisions. Until now, BAM and B4T practitioners have been lacking a tool that explains how to start a business that engages unreached people for […]