God’s Purposes for Work and Business: Our BAM Foundations
Every word of the BAM Manifesto is intentional and it begins like this:
The Lausanne 2004 Forum Business as Mission Issue Group worked for a year, addressing issues relating to God’s purposes for work and business, the role of business people in church and missions, the needs of the world and the potential response of business.
First Things First
Before we do anything else in BAM, we need to ask ourselves this question, “What are God’s purposes for work and business?” We can’t talk about ‘business as mission’ until we talk about ‘business’ – and what the Bible has to say about it.
Business is part of God’s good plan for human flourishing and has a God-designed power and role in human society. When we do business that is God-honouring, we are already responding to God’s mandate in Genesis 1 and 2 to steward the earth’s resources and enable human flourishing. That is because business has an innate God-given potential to create dignified jobs, multiply wealth and resources, provide for families and communities and push forward innovation and development in human society.
Business as mission then harnesses that God-given role and potential for human flourishing through business and applies it in God’s mission to the world, with greater intentionality and focus. That leads to us doing business in redemptive ways in our communities and across the globe, using the whole company as a response to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission: to love God and love others as ourselves, and to make disciples of all peoples, even to the ends of the earth.
The definition of business as mission is:
- Profitable and sustainable businesses;
- Intentional about Kingdom of God purpose and impact on people and nations;
- Focused on holistic transformation and the multiple bottom lines of economic, social, environmental and spiritual outcomes;
- Concerned about the world’s poorest and least evangelized peoples.
And Then We Ask Ourselves…
God’s purposes for work and business is our starting point, just as it was in the global consultation we did twenty years ago. But then we ask ourselves, what is God calling me to do? What is my role? What is my response to the needs of the world through business?
The BAM movement has expanded exponentially in the last two decades, as the role of business people in church and missions has been affirmed, the needs of the world have been highlighted, and the business response has been mobilised through a growing number of networks and initiatives around the globe.
Looking back at what God has done through business as mission enterprises since those opening remarks of the BAM Manifesto were written, we have so much to celebrate…
And so much more to do!
Watch Mats Tunehag share some of what has happened in the BAM movement in the past twenty years via the Transformational SME Blog and produced by the School of Business & Entrepreneurship (SOBE).
>> Read the BAM Manifesto in full
>> Read the Lausanne Occasional Paper on Business as Mission.
>> Download the BAM Manifesto in 17 languages here
>> Read Part 3: 3 Hallmarks of a Maturing BAM Movement: Affirmed, Collaborative, Connected
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.
Mats Tunehag is a senior global ambassador for BAM and has worked in over half the countries of the world. He is the chairman of BAM Global and contributes to TransformationalSME.org. Visit MatsTunehag.com for BAM resources in 23 languages.
>> Watch short videos on the BAM Manifesto series here
