Tag Archive for: Academic Short Reads

Quadruple Bottom Line Impact: Doing Spiritual, Economic, Social and Environmental Good

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In BAM we often talk about four intentional areas of impact for companies to consider: spiritual, financial, social and environmental, an idea known as the ‘Quadruple Bottom Line’. This excerpt from a longer paper briefly introduces this idea.

Introduction to the ‘Quadruple Bottom Lines’ (QBL) of BAM

Business as mission is intentional about Kingdom of God purpose and impact on people and nations; focused on holistic transformation and the four bottom lines of economic, social, environmental and spiritual outcomes.

The idea of having multiple bottom lines for a business comes from the original ‘financial bottom line’—the number that indicates net profit (or loss) typically found at the bottom of a company’s income statement. A company that is solely focused on making money for its shareholders will only be concerned about this one ‘bottom line’, its financial earnings. The social enterprise movement introduced the idea of ‘triple bottom line’ impact that is also concerned with social and environmental outcomes. Business as mission extends this idea to ‘quadruple bottom line’ (or four bottom line) impact, including spiritual impact as well.

If intentional impact along these multiple bottom lines is a hallmark of BAM, [any entity engaged in BAM] will do well to build a solid understanding of each. While these four areas of impact are integrated together in terms of the business model, strategy and daily operations—all things working together for missional impact—there are times when the focus should be on each one separately. This is especially true when planning for positive outcomes in each. Then careful consideration is needed as to how success is defined in each area and, therefore, how progress is measured so that there can be accountability and ongoing evaluation.

For business as mission, the four bottom lines are:

1. Doing spiritual good

Acting on the belief that faith in Jesus and a reconciled relationship with God addresses sin and brokenness at an individual and societal level that are the root cause of all other social, environmental and economic problems. Lasting change (God’s Kingdom coming on earth) and salvation from death and sin can only occur when our relationship with God, self, each other, and creation are reconciled. It involves sharing the gospel in word and deed, living as a disciple of Christ as a witness to others, and making disciples. Read more

Research and Teaching: How Academics Help the Growth and Sustainability of the BAM Movement

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by Andrea Soberg

 

How can academics assist in the growth and sustainability of BAM organizations?

When I started to write this blog, I asked ChatGPT (as is done by many academics today to begin the thought process of a writing project) what the role of an academic was. The answer indicated that we, as academics, have a two-fold responsibility to society. Through our advanced education, that gets us to the level of being identified as an academic, we are expected to share our knowledge and skills through teaching the next generation and we are also expected to expand our knowledge on our areas of discipline by conducting scholarly research.

As Christian academics we have an added responsibility to enhance our teaching and research by discovering the biblical foundation of discipline specific concepts, theories, and practices. This is accomplished by doing personal research and development on integration of faith and learning, and by giving of our gifts and talents to the requirement for knowledge of best practices in demonstrating missio Dei in the marketplace.

As part of our jobs at universities and colleges, no matter if these institutions are Christian or secular, we are given time, and sometimes financial resources, to conduct research and further learning in our areas of expertise. Businesses and business leaders in the BAM sphere need help in knowing how best to manage and sustain their organizations that have a quadruple bottom line. We, as Christian academics can provide that help.

In 2004, at the conclusion of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism, held in Pattaya, Thailand, the Lausanne Occasional Paper No. 59 was published on Business as Mission. In that report, many recommendations were made that included those for Christian Training Institutions. These recommendations included the development and delivery of courses which had a “biblically integrated holistic worldview” and also conducting research and developing case studies on enterprises and their kingdom impact. Since that time, some research has been conducted, in the form of doctoral theses, but it appears that there hasn’t been a coordinated and concerted effort towards scholarly research that could assist and enhance the work of BAM leaders and organizations around the globe.

Over the last several years, many BAM Global reports and academic research have indicated the need for more development in this area. This need for research was highlighted in a BAM Global Think Tank Report in 2014 that indicated the need for scholars in BAM research. In the abstract of the article by Rundle and Lee (2022)[1] they indicate, “interest in BAM has grown exponentially, and with it, demand for support services, training, and financing. For all the attention, however, scholarly research in this area has not kept pace, and there remain many unknowns about the personal and contextual factors that contribute to the impact and sustainability of a BAM enterprise”.  Conclusions from research that I conducted in 2023[2], indicated that very few Christian universities and colleges are offering courses or programs focused on BAM that would prepare future business professionals and missionaries for BAM work. The conclusion of these reports is that much work by academics is needed to further enhance the Kingdom of God in the workplace, society, and the economy.

The Eido Research report on the State of the BAM Movement and the international study, referenced above, conducted by Rundle and Lee (2022) help us in recognizing some of the knowledge and skill gaps. Rundle and Lee identified specific future research that is needed. Many business professors at Christian colleges and universities don’t know how or where to begin with their scholarly work, which, in many institutions, is the requirement for promotion and tenure. These two studies provide academics with the direction for further work and demonstrate to us, as Christian academics, the need for our involvement in the BAM ecosystem. Here are very specific avenues where God can use our talents, skills, and areas of passion to enhance His kingdom. Let’s show the world how God’s Word and Spirit can transform society.

In 2024, upon retirement from being faculty at the School of Business at Trinity Western University in Canada, I was given the opportunity by BAM Global to develop a network and catalyze connections for academics interested in teaching and research in the field of BAM. In 2024 and 2025, the BAM Academic Network was involved in the BAM Global Summits by providing presentations on some recent research on BAM related topics. Over the last year, a data base of like-minded academics from around the globe has been created and some networking has begun.

The goal of the BAM Academics Network is three-fold: networking; research; and teaching/student engagement. Let’s work together to achieve these goals. Let me know how you might get engaged – connect with me via the BAM Academics Network page.

 

 

Andrea Soberg is Professor Emerita of Business at Trinity Western University (TWU), Canada. She held several positions in her career at TWU including Dean and Associate Dean of the School of Business, Director of the Centre for Global Entrepreneurship, tenured faculty teaching in both the undergraduate and graduate business program and led the development and growth of the undergraduate program in human resource management. She is the author of several articles in the field of human resources and has been a presenter at several national and international conferences. She has also been a guest lecturer at other business schools in Canada, US, Europe, and China and is currently a reviewer of books and articles on leadership for the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics (CEME), Oxford. Her recent research is on the integration of faith in the markeplace.

 

Footnotes

[1] Rundle, S., & Lee, M.-D. P. (2022). The motivations, backgrounds, and practices of business as mission practitioners: Insights from an international survey. Missiology, 50(4), 420-441.

[2] Soberg, A. (2025) Are Christian Business Schools Adequately Developing Leaders for Organizations with a Business as Mission Purpose? Zadok Papers, S291, Autumn 2025.

 

Photo by Dom Fou on Unsplash

 

 

3 Ways Businesses Integrate Faith

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by Min-Dong Paul Lee, Hannah J. Stolze and Denise Daniels

 

Can a for-profit business demonstrate faith? For years, the answer seemed obvious: companies exist to make money, not to practice religion. However, with the rise of business as mission as well as the faith and work movement, more and more Christian entrepreneurs today believe they can integrate faith with their business and work. Then, how does faith manifest in businesses?

At Wheaton College’s Center for Faith and Innovation, we engaged in a multi-year research project to explore this question. With remarkable openness, five Christian entrepreneurs invited us to scrutinize their companies, asking for thorough, unbiased feedback. Our research, encompassing interviews, focus groups, surveys, and site visits, focused on identifying the presence and impact of faith within their organizations. Workplace leaders and employees were asked to describe the ways that they observed or experienced faith expressions in the workplace.

We were initially surprised that workers saw expressions of faith in many different forms. We identified three ways faith comes to life in these workplaces through a systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis. The three dimensions of faith expressions are distinct in terms of how readily observable they are as well as how explicitly they are connected with faith.

 

 

1. Embodied Faith

The first dimension required little to no thought for most respondents to identify—this category included such things as the presence of a cross or the practice of corporate prayers. These symbols and practices are easily observable, and their meaning is explicit in that most people would interpret them as faith-based. We call this kind of expression “embodied faith” because it gives tangible and visible form to faith.

For example, one firm displayed a mission statement that included “glorify God” on the wall. Another had a prayer chapel and crosses at headquarters. Embodied faith is also expressed through practice. Prayers, especially, stood out. A sales team member shared, “Whenever we have meetings, sales team or any of the meetings, we start with a prayer.” At another company, spontaneous prayers were routine: “We stop every now and then, get on the floor, and pray with each other. We know each of us has problems at home… We talk about it and pray with one another.”

These symbols and rituals aren’t subtle. They’re what anthropologist Clifford Geertz called concrete embodiments of belief—easily spotted and clearly tied to faith. But employees warned that crosses and prayers alone don’t cut it. As one put it, faith “can’t be hypocritical!” Embodied faith is just the surface; it needs deeper roots.

Read more

God is at Work: How the BAM Movement Has Grown Over 25 Years

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by Mats Tunehag


By God’s grace we have seen an exponential growth of the global business as mission movement in the last 25 years. A movement, per definition, consists of many organizations and initiatives, which are independent but choose to be interdependent. They share mission and values, and they communicate and collaborate.

The nature of a movement means that no-one but God has the exact figures of the growth, but BAM Global has been tracking the direction of growth over the years. The trends are clear, and even the approximate numbers are astonishing.

Please allow us to paint a picture of this encouraging growth—looking at ten variables—and how they have changed in the last 25 years:

1. 25 years ago, we talked about BAM businesses in the dozens, often micro to small size businesses. Today there are thousands, mainly in the SME sector, but also large companies.

2. 25 years ago, churches and denominations had not embraced BAM. Today there are all kinds of churches and whole denominations like in Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Brazil, USA, Russia, and many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which are engaged in BAM.

3. 25 years ago, a handful of mission organizations had started to include BAM in their strategies. Today most of the oldest and major Evangelical mission agencies in the world are involved in BAM.

4. 25 years ago, BAM was not a topic in academic institutions. Today many universities and MBA programs teach BAM, and there are dozens of PhD’s and a lot more Master theses on BAM from all over the world.

5. 25 years ago, we talked about investments in BAM companies in thousands of dollars, today in millions of dollars.

6. 25 years ago, there were no BAM incubators or accelerators, but today they exist in about 20 countries.

7. 25 years ago, there were no BAM networks. Today there are 30+ BAM networks—national, regional and international. Most are related to a country or a region, and others are focusing on an issue, industry or constituency.

8. 25 years ago, the conversations about BAM were in English. Today there is BAM material, conversations and work in over 20 languages.

9. 25 years ago, BAM was not a part of the Lausanne Movement, but it was introduced 2002, which was the start of the first global think tank on business as mission culminating at the Lausanne Forum in Thailand in 2004 and the Lausanne Occasional Paper on BAM. Since then, around 40 global consultations on business as mission topics have been convened, resulting in over 30 white papers on BAM. At the Fourth Lausanne Congress in Korea, September 2024, where 5000 people from about 200 countries participated, around half the attendees had indicated on the registration form that they were interested in faith at work, including business as mission.

10. 25 years ago, we approximate that there were about a dozen BAM resources. Today there are almost 1000 BAM Resource Library entries and Blogs here on the BAM Resource Centre at businessasmission.com alone—articles, papers, videos, books, organizations, and more.

God is good, and he is at work. There is a significant kairos moment in our generation, manifesting itself on all continents. We are in anticipation for what He will continue to do in the next generation.

AMDG—Ad Maoirem Dei Gloriam—for the greater glory of God!

 

Mats Tunehag is the Chairman of BAM Global, and he is a global thought leader on Business as Mission, BAM. Since the 1990’s he has created numerous networks of leaders from business, church, missions and academia from all continents. He has served as an advisor to groups involved in business, investment, freedom businesses, research and partnership development. He is the chief architect of the ‘Business as Mission Manifesto’ and the ‘Wealth Creation Manifesto’, which is a conceptual framework for the global BAM movement. See: matstunehag.com/about/ for more about Mats.

Together, Towards, Tomorrow
Building from Generation to Generation

That’s the theme of the BAM Global Summit this year. Join us and discover what God is doing through business as mission.

 

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The World is Open for Business and the Bible is Too!

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by Jo Plummer

 

Business is a powerful response to mandates that God gives His people in the Bible.

God calls His people to join His ‘missio dei’—His mission to the world—to respond to the pressing spiritual, physical, economic and social needs of people and communities. We can do that effectively through business.

When we intentionally respond to God’s missional mandates through business, this is ‘business as mission’! We emphasise that business as mission (BAM) is a response to three particular biblical mandates:

The Culture Mandate – the power of business to ‘tend the garden’ and ‘steward creation’ (Genesis 1 and 2)

The Great Commandment – the power of business to ‘love God’ and ‘love our neighbour’ (Matthew 22)

The Great Commission – the power of business to ‘make disciples’ and ‘proclaim the gospel in all the world’ (Mark 16, Matthew 28, Luke 24, Acts 1:8)

These are the foundational mandates for BAM, although there are many other commands and precepts we can apply in the context of business. For example, we are called to be justice-bringers, light-bearers, peacemakers, honest-dealers, servant leaders, enemy-lovers, mercy-showers—and many more. All of these can be lived out in the context of business, as Jesus-followers in the marketplace.

However, the three mandates above give us a clear framework to build BAM on solid biblical foundations.

Tending the Garden: The Cultural Mandate

In the creation story in Genesis, God gives humans the task to steward the world’s resources and care for creation. We often call this the cultural mandate or creation mandate. Business is a powerful way to ‘tend the garden’ in this way because it takes natural resources, along with creativity and work, and combines them to multiply resources and drive innovation. Business is a God-ordained institution, with a God-given role in society, that stretches right back to Genesis. By God’s design, business should bring dignity to people and flourishing to communities.

Deuteronomy 8 confirms that it is God who gives us the ability to produce wealth. God told his people that the manna would stop as they entered the promised land because he had provided abundant natural resources. God can provide supernaturally for us in extraordinary circumstances, but the God-given way His provision comes in most ordinary circumstances is through work and business. So in Deuteronomy 8, God told His people to take those abundant resources and start agricultural and mining businesses (v 8-9). We see that business, done well—and not forgetting the Lord our God (v 11)—is glorifying to Him.

If the natural role of business in God’s design for humankind is to create livelihoods, multiply wealth and resources, drive creativity and innovation, and sustainably provide for families, communities and nations, then we can already clearly see the potential of business for God’s kingdom work on earth. Businesswomen and men may then intentionally harness this power of business and focus it to sustainably address some of the world’s most pressing problems: lack of gospel access, environmental crises, joblessness, poverty, slavery, sanitation problems, food security, and so on. When we intentionally weave in such missional responses into our company strategy, we are doing business as mission. We are leveraging the innate power of business to respond to two further interwoven mandates: the great commandment and the great commission.

Loving Our Neighbour: The Great Commandment

Jesus said, love God and love your neighbour. Dallas Willard once said that ‘Business is a primary moving force of the love of God in human history.’

Bringing those two ideas together, business has an innate God-given power to do good in the world. As we have seen, business creates dignified work, multiplies resources, provides for families and communities, and pushes forward innovation and development. It can be a moving force of God’s love by creating decent livelihoods and economic stability, enabling peace, provision, and generosity.

Aid and relief for the poor is necessary in times of crisis and disaster—and for the likes of the ‘widow and orphan’ who cannot provide for themselves. But, like the people in Deuteronomy 8, the usual way families provide for themselves is not through aid, but, through trade, through business and a thriving economy. Business shows the love of God by creating meaningful ways to work in the world.

For-profit enterprises are the primary way that good jobs are created. On the other hand, a lack of jobs leaves families vulnerable to extreme poverty, corruption, human trafficking, and exploitation of all kinds. Business is a powerful way to love God and love our neighbours because in many parts of the world, what our ‘neighbour’ needs most is a good job.

Proclaiming the Gospel: The Great Commission

In every village, town and city in the world, businesses are at the heart of the community; that is true in Kenya, Canada and Azerbaijan, Brazil, Cambodia and Iraq! Business people have an influential role in a community, meeting real needs, and building a strong network of relationships.

People spend more of their waking hours at work than anywhere else. Deep relationships can be formed and biblical principles modelled in the crucible of daily business life, creating a company culture that reflects Jesus as well as opportunities to share His Good News. Business is a powerful way to make disciples, and to share the gospel in word and deed in the context of everyday life—to the ends of the earth.

Many of the places that the gospel has still to reach are hostile to traditional missionaries and difficult to access, yet business people are welcome nearly everywhere. The world is open for business!

In Conclusion

God has mandated His people to be good stewards of creation, to create resources for the good of society, to love God first and then love our neighbour, and to take the gospel to all nations. Thus, a business as mission company includes spiritual transformation as a measure of business success, alongside social, environmental and economic concerns—and has a special concern for the poor, marginalised and unreached peoples.

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 evangelised peoples.

Let’s keep our Bibles open and keep our eyes open for opportunities to solve pressing global issues through business as mission, in response to God’s mandates and for His glory!

For more reading on ‘the three mandates’ read this post by Mats Tunehag.

 

This month we are looking at business as mission through the lens of the Bible and God’s mandates to us. All posts this month.

Parts of this post were adapted from the paper ‘Business as Mission and the Global Workplace’ read it in full here. Mats Tunehag also contributed to this post through our many conversations and the ideas he has shared in past articles and talks.

 

 Jo Plummer is the Creative Director & Co-Founder of BAM Global and the co-editor of the Lausanne Occasional Paper on Business as Mission. She directs BAM Global initiatives such as BAM Global Events, BAM Global Think Tank consultations, and the BGlobal Community. Jo has been developing resources for BAM since 2001 and serves as Editor of the Business as Mission website and The BAM Review Blog. 

 

 

Photo by Rachel Strong on Unsplash

The Business as Mission Ecosystem Map: A New Interactive Tool

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by Jon B, with Jo Plummer

 

Business as mission is a growing movement around the world. It is not our movement but the move of God through His people.

In 2004, the first global consultation on business as mission took place under the auspices of the Lausanne Forum. Around ninety people took part altogether and we estimate that at the time there were around 10 BAM-related books and approximately 20 articles, plus a couple dozen entities in early stages of developing BAM networking or resourcing. Twenty years later, there are almost 1000 resources and blogs here in the latest version of the BAM Resource Centre website. In September 2024, at the fourth Lausanne Congress, 2,400 people (nearly half of the total attendees) reported that they were interested in a workplace track.

Today our opportunities in business as mission include: a growing awareness and acceptance of BAM as a strategy in the global Church, a greater breadth and depth of expertise in the business as mission ecosystem with more specialisation and functionality, and growing communication and collaboration between respective parts.

Yet, there is still a dissonance between the God-given potential of business for His kingdom purposes and the way that many Christians perceive business as inherently evil or corrupt. Businesses and business people remain a relatively untapped resource for intentional mission impact.

Our barriers remain: ongoing scepticism, outstanding resource siloes, lack of resources in critical regions and languages, and lack of easy access to existing resources.

If we are going to leverage the opportunities before us and overcome these barriers to BAM growth, we cannot waste an ounce of energy in pride or division. Christ has called us all as a global body, and He has commissioned us to redeem culture, to free the captives, to bless the nations, and to see the good news of the gospel proclaimed to the ends of the earth (see for example, Colossians 1:19-20, Luke 4:18-19, Genesis 12:2-3, Matthew 28:19-20).

Howard Hendricks once described church ministry as a football game with, “Twenty-two men in need of rest and forty thousand people in the stands in need of exercise.”

We need everyone in the game. We need a diverse range of expertise and experience in the BAM ecosystem and better ways for people to collaborate with one another. There is work to be done to mobilise new people, companies and entities—and to enable them to make their vital contribution and connections. That’s the “why” at the heart of the new BAM Ecosystem Map.

Introducing the BAM Ecosystem Map

We are delighted to announce the launch of a new interactive tool for the business as mission community, the BAM Ecosystem Map. Click the image to explore: Read more

10 Books that Shaped Our BAM Journey

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BAM Global is celebrating its ten year anniversary in 2024, having been formally founded in 2014 on the foundation of earlier network-building efforts. To celebrate, we are posting a new 10 x Series this month; sharing some of our top 10 favourite BAM-related resources and inspirations.

10 favourite books from the BAM Global Core Team

Please note, this is not a ‘Top 10 BAM books’ list… there are a few of those kinds of lists linked in the Bonus section at the bottom of this post. Instead, it is a broader collection of books that we feel have helped us along our own journeys in business as mission. Enjoy!

 

1. Scatter: Go Therefore and Take Your Job With You – Andrew Scott

One book I enjoyed reading on my journey towards BAM is Scatter by Andrew Scott. It’s not about BAM specifically, but talks about sending professionals instead of (or in addition to) traditional missionaries. It was a paradigm changing read for me! – Alana


2. Missions Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missionary Professionals – Larry Sharp

Holy disruptions! A burning bush redirected Moses and changed history. A fish disrupted Jonah and it impacted a whole nation. In Missions Disrupted, Larry Sharp writes brilliantly about holy disruptions in our generation. The changes needed are profound as we do business with a mission, and missional professionals can change history and impact nations. Rooted in a Judeo-Christian tradition and with plenty of BAM stories included, this book is relevant and serves as a guiding star for the future – a must read. – Mats

Read more

10 Guiding Principles for Business as Mission

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BAM Global is celebrating its ten year anniversary in 2024, having been formally founded in 2014 on the foundation of earlier network-building efforts. To celebrate, we are posting a new 10 x Series this month; sharing some of our top 10 favourite BAM-related resources and inspirations. This is one of our favourite 10 x lists, the classic 10 Guiding Principles for BAM from the Lausanne Occasional Paper on Business as Mission.

 

Introduction

A good business as mission business will, by definition, have many of the characteristics of any well-run business. A kingdom business must be profitable and sustainable just as any other business. Integrity, fairness and excellent customer service are characteristics of any good business, not just a business as mission venture. As such, while important, those characteristics will not by themselves necessarily point people to Christ. A kingdom business begins with the foundation of any good business, but takes its stewardship responsibilities even further.

What follows is a list of principles that should underpin a business as mission business. First we list the basic foundational principles that must exist in any good business. Following that are the principles that distinguish a good business as mission business.

Foundational Business Principles

1.  Strives to be profitable and sustainable in the long term

Profit is an indication that resources are being used wisely. It indicates that the product or service being produced and sold does so at a price that covers the cost of the resources, including the cost of capital. For most businesses, profits are fleeting, and never a sure thing. It is common for businesses to experience periods of low profit, and even negative profit. Thus it is important to take a long-term view of profitability. Occasional windfalls are often what will sustain a company through periods of financial losses. For that reason a well-managed business will use extreme care when considering whether and when to distribute profits. Profit, and its retention, is not necessarily an indication of greed. Read more

The Apostle Paul: An Entrepreneurial Steward

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by Min-Dong Paul Lee and Dave Pederson, Wheaton College

The Apostle Paul is one of the most extensively studied biblical characters. However, much of the research focused on his theology, leaving Paul’s human side – his behaviors and motivations – underexplored. With the advancement of modern behavioral sciences, new conceptual tools are available to analyze his ministry from fresh perspectives. For example, what would we learn if we examined Paul’s ministry through the lens of modern entrepreneurial research?

Paul: The Accidental Theologian and Natural Entrepreneur

Paul was a theologian by accident. He didn’t see himself as a writer of long treatises. Rather, he saw himself as God’s servant and practitioner carrying out the pastoral and missionary work of the emerging movement of Jesus’ followers. If we focus on his actions and decisions, we see a unique figure that was highly proactive and entrepreneurial. He planted over a dozen churches, coached many leaders, wrote almost half of the New Testament books, and engaged in trades in multiple cities.

Paul’s life is an apt example of what modern organizational scholars describe as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs have the uncanny ability to see the unmet needs in the market. They are willing to take the risk to create something that exploits the opportunity to add value to society. Modern entrepreneurship research suggests that entrepreneurs possess a distinct mindset characterized by five key features:

1. Opportunity-Seeking: They stay alert and actively scan the environment for new opportunities

2. Disciplined: They are determined and persistent in pursuing their goals

3. Focused: They prioritize specific goals and are willing to make strategic tradeoffs

4. Adaptable: They adjust their strategies to the changing environment

5. Collaborative: They recognize the power of working together with others

Interestingly, Paul had all the marks of an entrepreneur even before his conversion. Paul was a Hellenistic Jew from Tarsus in the province of Cilicia. Yet, he moved to Jerusalem to become a student of Gamaliel, a leading figure among the Pharisees in Jerusalem, eager to climb the religious ladder. When the Jesus sect emerged, Paul saw it as a heretical threat and began to persecute them with discipline and focus. He often adapted his strategies of persecution, growing ever more violent. He was willing to collaborate with even the Sadducees to achieve his objective. Paul was an ambitious entrepreneur driven by his religious zeal and personal success.

Transformation as an Entrepreneurial Steward

Everything changes on the road to Damascus. The encounter with the risen Christ shook Paul to the core and fundamentally transformed his identity, purpose, and practice. It is not that he lost his entrepreneurial edge. Instead, God redirected his natural disposition toward a whole new mission (Acts 9:15). Paul continued applying an entrepreneurial mindset in his missionary work. However, instead of being self-driven and opportunistic, he submitted himself entirely to the leading of his master and committed to the new mission. To describe this unique blend of entrepreneurial mindset with a servant’s heart, we introduce the term entrepreneurial steward. Entrepreneurial stewards are people whose identity is firmly anchored in the stewardship commitment to serve their master’s interest while leveraging their entrepreneurial talents. Read more

4 BAM Bottom Lines: Doing Spiritual, Economic, Social and Environmental Good

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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.

 

The BAM and Mission Agencies Consultation considered the full and effective integration of business and mission and how we keep a positive tension between the multiple bottom lines of BAM. Working subgroups focused on each of the four bottom lines of spiritual, financial, social and environmental outcomes for BAM and these discussions were framed by dialogue on integrating ‘multiple bottom line impact’ in a BAM company.

Introduction to the ‘Quadruple Bottom Lines’ (QBL) of BAM

Business as mission, as we have read in the BAM Global definition, is intentional Kingdom of God purpose and impact on people and nations; focused on holistic transformation and the four bottom lines of economic, social, environmental and spiritual outcomes.

The idea of having multiple bottom lines for a business comes from the original ‘financial bottom line’—the number that indicates net profit (or loss) typically found at the bottom of a company’s income statement. A company that is solely focused on making money for its shareholders will only be concerned about this one ‘bottom line’, its financial earnings. The social enterprise movement introduced the idea of ‘triple bottom line’ impact that is also concerned with social and environmental outcomes. Business as mission extends this idea to ‘quadruple bottom line’ (or four bottom line) impact, including spiritual impact as well.

If intentional impact along these multiple bottom lines is a hallmark of BAM, agencies will do well to build a solid understanding of each. As has been previously stated, while these four areas of impact are integrated together in terms of the business model, strategy and daily operations—all things working together for missional impact—there are times when the focus should be on each one separately. This is especially true when planning for positive outcomes in each. Then careful consideration is needed as to how success is defined in each area and, therefore, how progress is measured so that there can be accountability and ongoing evaluation.

For business as mission, the four bottom lines are:

1. Doing spiritual good

Acting on the belief that faith in Jesus and a reconciled relationship with God addresses sin and brokenness at an individual and societal level that are the root cause of all other social, environmental and economic problems. Lasting change (God’s Kingdom coming on earth) and salvation from death and sin can only occur when our relationship with God, self, each other, and creation are reconciled. It involves sharing the gospel in word and deed, living as a disciple of Christ as a witness to others, and making disciples. Read more

Three Things the State of the BAM Movement Report Tells Us About BAM

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by James Waters & Jo Plummer

As part of the lead-in to the BAM Global Congress last year, BAM Global, in partnership with Eido Research, conducted the State of the BAM Movement Survey to get a snapshot of the global business as mission movement. Watch James’ Video Introduction here.

In response to the Survey, Eido Research have produced a State of the BAM Movement Report. Here are three things it tells us:

1. The BAM Movement is Still Young, but Truly Global

Enough people responded to make a representative sample of our global list, and it revealed that it is still quite a young movement. The majority of companies are less than ten years old, and a good additional number (12% of surveyed) looking to start a business soon. However, the BAM Movement is truly global! Although there are a handful of countries where there is a concentration of BAM businesses, there is a diverse global spread.

 

The global map above shows the distribution of active BAM businesses,
according to their turnover. Each dot represents a country, the size of the
dot represents the number of businesses in that country, and the colour represents the average turnover.

 

As João Mordomo writes for the Foreword for Neal Johnson’s new book on BAM, “Business as mission is not a new concept. It has, however, taken on new meaning for the church and her mission in the 21st Century. The modern BAM Movement started about 25 years ago and, like other great movements of God — being God-ordained, God-ignited, God-led, and God-blessed — it began to take shape simultaneously in different places around the global by way of different and diverse groups of people.”

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Value Chain Analysis Through a Spiritual Lens: Introduction

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by Ross O’Brien

In his 1985 book Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, Michael Porter introduced the value chain analysis. Many business people are familiar with Porter’s Five Forces Framework as well as his three generic strategies. The five forces address industry-level issues that to a large degree shape the potential for a return on investment in any given industry. The generic strategies help business leaders select the appropriate strategy for operating within a given industry and market. Both are helpful tools in the strategy toolbox.

Many are not as familiar with the value chain analysis. This tool looks closely at each of the activities involved in a business to examine how each activity can add value to the company as it seeks to execute its strategy. These activities are divided into primary activities and support activities.

Primary activities are those in which employees are “hands on” with the product at any stage in its development or involved with the customer at any stage in the customer’s interaction with the company.

Support activities are those necessary for the business to carry out the primary activities.

It is important to see both primary and secondary activities as a whole system as well as component parts. In doing so, you can understand how a competitive advantage is only possible when the various activities operate in harmony, not in isolation. Below is an image showing each of these activities.

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Do Economic Incentives Matter? A Nosey Economist on BAM Financing

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Interview with Dr. Steve Rundle

Steve, I know you have been doing some interesting research on BAM in the last few years, can you briefly describe what you have been looking at?

As an economist, I’ve always been interested in the relationship between the structure and governance of a company and its performance. Since the 1990s, when I first started meeting people who were combining business and missions, I naturally asked lots of nosey questions about the company’s financing, revenues, profits, and so on. I was especially intrigued by the role venture capital might play in funding businesses that were not only extremely risky, but were being managed by people who, in many cases, admitted that they weren’t too concerned about profits and that in fact they would be satisfied with just breaking even. I was not surprised to discover that no venture capital firms existed in this space, at that time. Most of these businesses were either donor funded, or in some cases funded with the help of one or two “Angel Investors.”

But this raised lots of new questions about the performance of these businesses. What are the expected outcomes, and how are practitioners incentivized to achieve those outcomes? Practitioners who are affiliated with a missionary sending organization may be discouraged from being too serious about business for fear that it will distract them from their ministry goals. One way to remove that distraction is to require the practitioner to raise donor support, in which case they will not be dependent on the business for income. This might sound logical at first, until you start meeting other BAM practitioners who are entirely dependent on their businesses for their salaries who are having an incredible impact. So I wanted to look at this more carefully by comparing the outcomes of people who drew 100% of their income from donors with those who are 100% business supported. Read more