Charting the Course of the BAM Movement: Pioneering Practitioners
In this new blog series on the BAM Manifesto we are taking the different parts of the Manifesto as inspiration and exploring them in the context of current BAM practice and the still-growing movement, twenty years on.
The BAM Manifesto was conceived twenty years ago this year. To celebrate this milestone, we asked twenty BAM leaders whether, in their view, the Manifesto had impacted the business as mission movement, and if so how. These included practitioners, capacity builders and network leaders, representing different regions and constituencies.
We asked them:
Looking back on the development of the BAM movement globally over the last one to two decades, do you think that a shared understanding created by the BAM Manifesto – and similar materials or opportunities for dialogue – have created growth/momentum in your region, network or sphere?
If yes, please share a little of the ‘how, why and what’ of that development. If no, please share what you feel has helped.
One of our contributors suggested the Manifesto could be a ‘map’ for BAM practitioners to help them achieve their goals. Inspired by that metaphor, we’ve ‘charted’ the impact of the Manifesto on the BAM movement over the last few decades. Over the next few posts, we’ll share the stages of BAM movement growth that we observed in the responses we received:
PIONEERING PRACTITIONERS 1980s & 1990s
Although the interweaving of business and mission is nothing new and has occurred at various points throughout church history, the emergence of the contemporary BAM movement can be traced back to the 1980s and 1990s. During those years a small number of early pioneers began to practice what would come to be known as ‘business as mission’ before any unifying term had been coined for it. Prior to that, during the 1970s and 1980s, the practice and concept of ‘tentmaking’ had become more familiar. In the late 1990s out of a number of small discussion groups and conferences, the name ‘business as mission’ began to emerge as a distinct label for a small, but growing wave of integrated business-mission models. Other terms such as transformational business, business for transformation (B4T), missional entrepreneurship, plus many more in other languages, have also been used. Much more important than the specific label was an emerging dialogue around the concept, plus early networking efforts, that came right at the end of the 1990s.
Firsthand Views:
Because I got started in the late 80’s without the Manifesto, it is hard to imagine how I would have responded to it. At the time, I was too busy surviving to do much planning. Those days were more filled with listening to the Lord and trying to lean in the direction he indicated. We got it right maybe 1% to 5% of the time, but when we did it was wonderful. Today, some may be informed and encouraged by it, much like we were when we discovered others doing the same thing. Suddenly, “Ahhhh” we were not alone, and, “Maybe I am not crazy!” There are probably strategic planners in organizations now who will benefit greatly from the manifesto. It will introduce sound ideas that are not commonly discussed. When I think about what people in global organizations might do to achieve their goals, it reminds me of the captain of an ocean-going ship looking at the charts and maps to plan the passage. The BAM Manifesto could be one of their maps. – BJ, USA & East Asia
The root of Korean BAM movement goes back to the 1980s. There was a small clothes shop in Seoul called ‘E Land’ whose owner wanted to run the business in God’s way. As this company grew into a large firm, there were two men who suggested new ideas in the 1990s. Reverend Bang started to develop education materials for people in the marketplace, using it first of all for employees at E Land and then expanding it for others. Caleb Shin, a manager, suggested the idea of missional entrepreneurship and came out of the company in the early 1990s to launch initiatives to prepare young people to start businesses in 10/40 window, beginning in China. He coined the term ‘Biznary’ (or Businary) by putting business and missionary together. However, these early initiatives did not become a movement in Korea until 2004 when the BAM Lausanne Occasional Paper and BAM Manifesto were published. Though it is much clearer now, it was very hard to comprehend or explain the combination of business and missions at that time. BAM in Korean sounds like “snake,” and some people even joked that putting the holiness of mission together with the profanity of business was such a devilish idea like the snake in the garden. The publication of the document, with many case studies and the BAM Manifesto included, gave words, language and logic with which Christians could communicate. – SC, Korea
We are seeing a reawakening of what it means to be a Christian in business in our day and age. There has been remarkable growth of people getting engaged in doing business for God and the common good. If we take a 20-25 year time span, there are things we have today that didn’t exist twenty years ago. Now, we have a greater common understanding globally of this idea that we call ‘business as mission’. There are significant common denominators in our understanding, even though terminology may vary from group to group. Twenty years ago when you mentioned business as mission, there were many questions about ‘What is that?’, ‘Is this something we want to get involved in?’. Today you can travel to almost any country and bump into people who have heard of, or are talking about, or practicing, business as mission. That is one of the major changes globally. – Mats Tunehag
How did we get from pioneering practitioners to a growing global BAM ecosystem? Read more in Part 2: Creed or Conversation Starter? Creating a Shared BAM Understanding.
>> Read the BAM Manifesto in full
>> Read the Lausanne Occasional Paper on Business as Mission.
>> Download the BAM Manifesto in 17 languages here
<< Back to: 3 Hallmarks of a Maturing BAM Movement: Affirmed, Collaborative, Connected
>> Read next: Creed or Conversation Starter? Creating a Shared BAM Understanding
Jo Plummer is the co-chair of BAM Global and the author and editor of many business as mission papers and articles, including the BAM Global Think Tank Report series. She is a Lausanne Catalyst for Business as Mission and the co-editor of the Lausanne Occasional Paper on Business as Mission. She has been developing resources for BAM since 2001 and currently serves as Editor of this Business as Mission website and blog.
Part of the introduction to ‘Pioneering Practitioners 1980s to 1990s’ in this post was adapted from the BAM Global Think Tank Report on Advocacy and Mobilisation, by the same author.
