Four Contexts to Integrate the Four Bottom Lines of BAM

In the month of June we are highlighting excerpts from the recently published BAM Global Report on BAM and Mission Agencies. Mission Agencies are a major constituency in the BAM community, alongside our main business constituency and also the church and academia. We believe these resources will be of value whether you are agency affiliated or part of another BAM constituency.

 

Integration of the four bottom lines

Business as mission involves the intentional integration of business and holistic mission. It is in response to mandates God has given to us, His people, including:

• The Creation Mandate given in Genesis 1 to ‘tend the garden’ and enable human society and creation to flourish
• The Great Commandment to love God above all else, to obey His commands and to love our neighbour as ourselves
• The Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all Jesus’ teachings

Our response in business as mission is to seek sustainable, holistic transformation for people and communities through for-profit business models.

As we have seen above, we want to plan for, implement, measure, and grow sustainability and impact in four main areas: spiritual, economic, social and environmental. Although we should examine each one in turn in order to be intentional about each, in the context of the daily business operations these four areas of impact cannot be compartmentalised, they are meshed together in BAM companies.

However, many of us have inherited dichotomised ways of thinking about what is sacred and what is secular. We may be used to compartmentalising our lives; between faith and work, between gospel witness and environmental stewardship, between ‘ministry activities’ and ‘making payroll’ (i.e. paying our employees), for instance. We may come from a church or mission tradition that prioritises personal evangelism over socio-economic justice (or vice versa). As a result, we might have to work hard to be intentional about integrating business and mission together—both individually and in the agency as a whole—and we should consider how to do this in four main ways:

1. Personal integration and preparation

As we (BAM practitioners) are integrated, so our businesses will be integrated. As we live integrated lives as disciples of Jesus, the rule of God’s Kingdom will extend to every part of our lives. Preparation for fruitful business as mission thus begins by being rooted in Christ, abiding in Him (John 15:1-5, Col 2:7) and by developing patterns of thinking that are transformed by that relationship (Rom 12:2). Integration flows from our theology and is expressed through our walk with Jesus in daily life.

It may be helpful to prepare for BAM by examining our own thinking in light of the sacred-secular divide and make a study of the Bible on topics such as economics, business, human flourishing, justice, mission and restoration, for example. Does our worldview align with God’s view of us as integrated people and communities?

As we commune with Jesus and seek the will of God, we allow ourselves to be integrated into his plan and He is able to use us in big, small, obvious, and surprising ways to advance his Kingdom. Being yoked with Him, allowing Him to carry our heavy burdens, we are able to rely on His direction and not on our own striving or direction. As we listen to His voice and obey it, we can follow the miraculous life that Jesus modelled for us as his disciples—in business.

2. Integration in business planning

To fulfil its potential to create integrated impact, a BAM business needs to have a clear plan for reaching profitability, alongside creating spiritual, social, and environmental impact. The first step in the process is to identify a business model that could be viable and profitable in the target location, among the community the business team hopes to reach and enable to flourish. This step may take extensive research and reconnaissance. Good community development practices, alongside business planning practices, should be engaged to research and discover the felt-needs of the community, rather than imposing solutions to social, economic or environmental problems from an external perspective.

Once the preliminary idea for a business model is there, a thorough business plan is needed to develop all the potential impact areas for each bottom line and map the relationship between them. Such a plan will aid the would-be practitioner, business team, agency leaders, and potential investors to assess whether the business model has true potential to be financially sustainable (without which no other long-term impact is possible), along with the scope to facilitate quadruple bottom line impact. Agencies should help practitioners pray through areas of possible impact and to seek revelation on the goals God has for the business.

A detailed business plan allows the team to define the relationships between each area of potential impact and how they will be interrelated in daily operations. Which are dependent on each other? How are they related? What could amplify or diminish the results? Understanding the interplay between spiritual, social, environmental and financial impact / sustainability will provide a framework for later decision-making. Planning should be followed-up with additional research to validate expected impacts (Does anyone care? How likely is the result? etc.) then, together with wise counsel, create a prioritised list of goals. These should be checked with stakeholders to ensure alignment with vision and values.

3. Integration in daily business practice

Living out the holistic gospel happens in every area of the business. For example, one agency-related BAM CEO expressed how he had thought about the integrated mission of the company when he chose the position of his office, in a place where employees would walk past his, often open, office door. This seemingly mundane operational decision was in fact pivotal to him building meaningful relationships with his staff and having opportunities to talk to them about Jesus, and eventually to pray with them on a regular basis.

The integrated goals of the business should therefore be considered as every aspect of the company is developed, including facilities, systems, policies, company norms and culture. These will spring up within a company, whether they are developed intentionally or not. Thus, a vital leadership task is to intentionally lead the business by daily example to produce the company culture, excellent products/services, and community impact that reflects intended vision, mission and values.

Different BAM companies will have different goals and priorities, and these will usually reflect the goals and priorities of the mission agency in the case of agency-related BAM. The Lausanne Occasional Paper on Business as Mission set out 10 Guiding Principles for BAM in its chapter on The Essentials of Good Business as Mission. It intentionally avoided mandating particular practices, opting instead for more general principles, because:

… the application of a principle will vary from context to context. For example, for spiritual guidance and accountability some companies have found it useful to have formal contractual relationships with churches or mission agencies. While this approach has merit, it is merely one of many ways to seek prayer support (Principle #8) and to maintain spiritual accountability (Principle #3). Thus we are intentionally avoiding the term “best practices”. The actual practices can vary according to the specific social, cultural, religious or economic context, but the “guiding principle” is the same.

In addition, the depth to which each principle is applied and its focus will vary from business to business. For example, one business might emphasis the need to create jobs in areas of endemic unemployment (related to Principle #3 & #4), whereas another might place more emphasis on coupling the business with a church planting strategy (also Principle #3 & #4). (Tunehag, McGee and Plummer, 2005)

Integration of the different bottom lines may not mean equality in terms of prioritisation. Goals and practices will vary from company to company, with priorities reflecting the emphasis of the mission. Although, that is not to say that other outcomes are unimportant or should be ignored. However, having a clear business plan and principles will lead to a clarity about daily business practices. It also allows for a meaningful definition of fruitfulness (i.e. markers of ‘success’) and provides a framework for evaluation and decision-making.

4. Integration in measurement and evaluation

As noted, before it is possible to measure and evaluate the fruitfulness of impact, we first need to define what ‘success’ looks like. This can be relatively straightforward for the financial bottom line, but as social entrepreneurs have long-discovered, measuring social and environmental impact can be far more complex. BAM companies also seek spiritual impact and as the BAM Global Measuring BAM Impact Report put it,

…we approach holy ground as we approach the topic of examining work done for God and assessing how effective we are being as we steward His resources. It is holy ground whether we are assessing the effectiveness of leading a church service or leading a service business. It is holy ground, but not unapproachable.

We cannot wholly understand God’s goals and priorities, let alone fully measure the fruit of our efforts towards them. However, that is not to say we shouldn’t try, as the Measuring BAM Impact Report goes on to say,

We believe it is not only possible, but highly valuable for a company to have practical, intentional goals for ministry and then to evaluate (measure) their performance against these goals. We also believe it is right and appropriate for outside agents, whether owners, investors, ministries or researchers, to have tools to evaluate and compare.

Therefore, while it is good to set goals and measure progress, we acknowledge that we cannot see the whole picture, especially in terms of spiritual impact. Paul illustrated this in 1 Corinthians 3:6 when he said, ‘I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.’ (NIV)

It is important to allow the Holy Spirit to guide goal setting. This can be through prayer and fasting, reading the Bible, and wise counsel. Setting metrics should begin with asking, ‘what is God doing?’ and paying attention to the answers, before moving onto more typical human and business metrics. And as fruitfulness springs from knowing and abiding in Christ, being transformed by him, measures should reflect that—evaluating both the spiritual health of the practitioner and outward spiritual impact.

Even with the best intentions and plan, the business will likely find itself having to balance competing needs or goals and it is important that the owners have a process for evaluating these interests. Prayer is the first step in the process and the stakeholders will need to agree on the next steps.

Priorities may change with time and within different phases of the business. Agencies should recognise that BAM has seasons and some years will be especially fruitful for discipleship while others may be more focused on social impact. Forcing the business into unnatural rhythms may yield less fruit in the long-term. Mission agencies will need to journey alongside the business to understand and support changing goals and emphasis.

Agencies might also need to give space to BAM entities when it doesn’t appear that the organisational priorities are being met, which can quickly lead to pressure if agencies have less integrated goals than the company. This can be exasperated for BAM practitioners facing additional pressures from more business-minded supporters or investors.

Good systems for governance and accountability are essential, helping BAM company leaders be transparent about their actions, decisions, and goals. Perhaps a good exercise for BAM practitioners is to routinely ask themselves how they would feel if these were made public! Regular reporting to a board (legal and/or advisory) can support practitioners by providing accountability and help to avoid mission drift.

A diverse management team and board can also help the business focus on integration by championing different bottom-lines and bringing ideas for improvement. Each business will need to decide the best measurement and reporting process and should balance frequency with capacity and availability. In the first years, the owners may find monthly reporting for certain metrics helpful, while more established businesses may find quarterly reporting sufficient. Agencies should ensure that BAM practitioners are not overburdened with general agency reporting and business reporting and should help harmonise the processes as much as possible.

 

Overall, mission agencies should help the business balance the need for strong focus on financial results with the other three bottom lines and ensure that business and mission are fully meshed together (not compartmentalised) in planning, ongoing operations, and regular evaluation.

Download the full BAM and Mission Agencies Report

A free BAM Global Think Tank Report

 

 

Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash