Explore Resources for
Mission Leaders

Mission leaders and staff have a central role to play in equipping and encouraging those in the mission community for effective business as mission engagement. Those sent out to do BAM with an agency affiliation have been among the pioneers of business as mission and continue to be engaged at the frontlines. Mission leaders and NGO staff have historically filled key supporting roles in the BAM ecosystem, sharing vital expertise and providing services, such as: pastoral care, counselling, mission mobilisation, cross-cultural communication, language learning, training for specific mission strategies, and so on.

Whether you are a mission agency leader exploring how business as mission aligns with the strategic goals of your organisation or how to better oversee the BAM practitioners under your care—we hope these resources will help guide you.

Scroll down to explore the ideas and resources in this toolbox.

Next Steps for

Mission Leaders

CONNECT

1. Join the BAM and Mission Agencies Network

BAM Global is beginning to convene a network for Mission Agency leaders and staff working in the area of business as mission. Click here to learn more and register interest.

2. Join the BGlobal Community

BGlobal is the place to connect with others in the wider BAM community! Browse the Members Map and filter by role to find people with shared interests. Request access to this secure BAM networking portal.

3. Attend an Event and Join a BAM and Mission Agencies Breakout

There is no better way to connect than to gather together with others on the same path. We warmly invite you to join us at our two online BAM events each year. We organise networking sessions at all our events, and there is usually a breakout on BAM and Mission Agencies. We also recommend other BAM events happening throughout the year as great opportunities to connect with like-minded people, discover more Events here.

4. Sign Up for Our Content

Get creative ideas and best practices and hear about more opportunities to connect direct to your inbox each month. Subscribe to our monthly BAM Global News and/or The BAM Review resource round up email sent twice a month. You can also subscribe for Discipling Marketplace Leaders updates.

LEARN

1. Build Strong Biblical Foundations for BAM

Dallas Willard once said, “Business is a primary moving force of the love of God in human history”—however, Christians often don’t think about business that way. Whether our thinking about business has been moulded by secular ideas, or from our church heritage, it’s good to make an honest evaluation and intentionally develop a biblical worldview of work, business and the economic sphere. We recommend reading the white paper Biblical Foundations for Business as Mission, blogs on Biblical Foundations and Breaking the Sacred-Secular Divide, and the book Business for the Glory of God.

2. Thoroughly Understand the BAM Concept

Although business and mission have been integrated from the time of the early church, the contemporary BAM movement has been coming together and growing since the late 1990s, with early pioneers in the decades before that. That means we have a generation of business as mission practice to learn from and build on. We recommend knowing your BAM A-Z, exploring blogs on BAM101: Introduction and Integration & Impact topics, and diving deeper into BAM Think Tank papers that interest you. Stories help bring the concept of BAM to life, explore Stories on the Blog and Books containing case studies. Attend a BAM-related event where case studies will be shared.

3. Learn About Resources and Entities in the BAM Ecosystem

Explore the BAM Resource Library and the BAM Ecosystem Map to learn about existing organisations that may have resources for you or the business people in your congregation. See recommended resources for Mission Leaders in the ‘Organisations & Resource Picks’ section below.

4. Read the BAM Global Report on BAM and Mission Agencies

Download the 2024 paper on BAM and Mission Agencies: Why and How Agencies Engage in Business as Mission from the BAM Global Reports library.

PRAY

1. Start a Regular Prayer Group at Your Agency or NGO

Prayer lays the foundation for fruitfulness! A great place to start is to gather a group of like-minded people to prayer together regularly, for BAM strategy in your organisation and for the BAM teams under your oversight.

2. Join the Monthly BAM Global Prayer Call

We meet regularly to pray for the BAM community, business globally and BAM Global initiatives, usually on the first Wednesday of the month at 13:00 UTC on Google Meet. Subscribe to the Prayer Calendar and monthly Prayer Updates to get notifications about upcoming meetings.

3. Join the Prayer WhatsApp Group

Subscribe to monthly Prayer Updates to receive the invitation link to the BAM Intercessory WhatsApp Group. Post prayer requests for your network in the group.

4. Request Prayer

Submit a prayer request for your research / teaching or a BAM initiative known to you using our Prayer Request Form.

CONNECT LEARN PRAY