The Mission of Business

CSR+

Articles & Papers: CSR+

Mats Tunehag

September 2009

Lausanne Movement

The strategic importance of missional business in the world today, an overview of business as mission.

Business as Mission (BAM) is a relatively new phrase, but it is based on concepts as old as the Bible. Business is about creating products and services in the physical arena—also described as value added processes. God is the original entrepreneur who created good things in the physical arena. He told Adam and Eve to be involved in business through tilling the garden—giving them work which added value to what had been created.

Everyone on this planet relates in some way to business and is dependent upon business activities and profit. Business also has very strong transformational powers and the capacity to meet diverse needs. Thus, we need to ask what the mission of business is, or in other words: what is business as mission? I will suggest another term, CSR+, and explain it later.