Tag Archive for: business leader

The Business Ocean: A 4×4 Framework for Diagnosing Where Your Business Sails

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by Dr. Eric Z.M. Ma

 

Most Christian entrepreneurs I have spoken with can readily define their business’s purpose, clearly expressing their values, culture, and mission statements. Nonetheless, a greater challenge—and ultimately more valuable—is accurately portraying the current state of the business—not just its vision but also its reality. This encompasses the moral climate shaped by market forces and the core principles that influence decisions, often made unconsciously.

I dedicated two years to researching this question through fieldwork with 33 Christian entrepreneurs across 14 sites in the US rural Midwest. I discovered that the gap between where leaders aspired for their businesses to be and their actual realities couldn’t be bridged by intention alone. Instead, it required an honest, specific, and theologically grounded diagnosis before meaningful formation could begin.

The framework I created to address this is the Business Ocean Matrix, a tool I wish I had been able to share with every entrepreneur I interviewed.

Every business operates in a vast ocean of challenges

The Business Ocean is depicted by a 4×4 matrix defined by two primary dimensions. The first is the philosophical weather—the moral and cultural climate that influences the market in which a business operates. The second is business model geology—the core logic that explains why and how a business creates and distributes value. Whether or not its leaders recognize it, every business exists at the crossroads of one weather and one geology, forming its unique sea.

The four philosophical weathers progress from scarcity to grace

Jungle — environments shaped by fear, competition, and survival instincts. Power asymmetry is normal. Trust is thin. The question is not “how do we flourish?” but “how do we survive?”

Exchange — environments governed by contracts, reciprocity, and efficiency. Fair dealing is expected. Relationships are transactional yet honest. The question is “What is a fair trade?”

Moral Concern — environments shaped by conscience, virtue, and regard for others’ flourishing. People matter beyond their utility. The question is “What is the right thing to do?”

Gratitude — environments animated by grace, generosity, and reconciliation. Gift logic guides decisions. The question is “What can we give?”

The four business model geologies progress from extraction to ministry

Shareholder Wealth Maximization (SWM) — profit for owners is the primary logic. Other goods are secondary.

Stakeholder Theory (ST) — value is created for a broader set of stakeholders, and relationships are managed strategically.

Common Good (CG) — the business exists to serve the flourishing of the community in which it operates.

Business as Ministry (BaM) — the business itself is a ministry, integrating theological vocation with organisational practice.

Sixteen seas, each presenting its own unique challenge

The combination of four weather types and four geological conditions creates sixteen distinct environments, each presenting its own unique pressures, temptations, and opportunities for faithfulness.

Figure 1. The Sixteen Seas

The Red Survival Sea (Jungle × SWM) represents the business environment where many small businesses operate: intense competition, slim profit margins, and survival instincts shaping their decisions. In contrast, the Spring-green Shalom Sea (Gratitude × BaM) serves as the ideal destination the framework envisions—a fully integrated business-as-ministry enterprise that manages all four capitals for the common good.

The journey from Red to Spring-green doesn’t happen in a single leap. Instead, it involves a series of one-step moves—moving from one sea to an adjacent one—guided by an honest assessment of the current business situation and a faithful next step appropriate to that specific context.

The compass functions reliably in all weather conditions. The real question is not whether God can work in the Red Survival Sea—He certainly can and does. Instead, we should consider what faithfulness entails in that context and identify the next faithful step forward.

The CGTA: Measuring the treasure

Understanding the sea a business navigates reveals its environment. The status of the business’s Common Good Treasure (CGT) reflects the vessel itself. The CGT framework identifies four interconnected capitals that every organisation possesses: Spiritual (the Rudder guiding direction), Social (the Adhesive holding the crew together), Intellectual (the Engine transforming knowledge into value), and Financial (the Fuel powering the journey).

Figure 2. The Common Good Treasure (CGT)

The Common Good Treasure Assessment (CGTA) is a 16-item tool—comprising four items for each capital—that evaluates the current health of each capital and creates a radar profile. When combined with the ocean matrix, the CGTA informs a leader not only of their current sea but also about how well-prepared their vessel is for the specific conditions of that sea.

A business with mature spiritual and social capital but emerging financial capital in the Mint Stewardship Sea faces a very different formation challenge than one with exemplary financial capital but developing spiritual capital in the Red Survival Sea. The CGTA highlights these distinctions, making them clear and actionable.

From diagnosis to formation

The Business Ocean Matrix and CGTA are tools, not ultimate aims—like a nautical chart and a compass that guide navigation. The objective is not to achieve a perfect score on the assessment but to move faithfully—step by step toward greater grace, generosity, and the integration of faith and business, aiming for shalom.

In my research, the entrepreneurs who experienced the greatest growth were not necessarily those with the highest initial scores. Rather, they were honest about their current position, willing to acknowledge the gap between their aspirations and reality, and committed to the slow, faithful work of formation.

This is the invitation Business Ocean extends to every Christian entrepreneur: not to pretend you are already in the vibrant Shalom Sea, but to recognise exactly which sea you are in—and take the next faithful step from there.

 

Eric Z.M. Ma, DIS, MBA, is the founder and principal researcher of CGT Research Institute, LLC, and the author of the four-volume Business as Ministry series. His doctoral research (Biola University, 2024) examined Business as Ministry in the US rural Midwest. The BaM Harbor, with five ships carrying the BaM framework, is available at www.cgt-ri.com.

 

 

 

 

Photo by John Bell on Unsplash

 

 

Reflections on Sacrifice, Faithfulness and Transformation

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by Mats Tunehag

 

I was asked recently to reflect on the idea of “transformational sacrifice”. What do sacrifice and transformation mean in a Jewish-Christian tradition; our roots and context? What follows are some reflections on the topic, linked to our roots and tradition, which of course includes Holy Scripture.

Sacrifice is intentional and voluntary, not an unintended or surprising consequence of action taken. That may be a price we pay for a decision made.

The meaning and practice of sacrifice have evolved before, during and after the temple in Jerusalem, and also before and after Christ. But some common denominators are:

Sacrifice is for God and the common good; it has a cost, and it can be transformational.

King David said: “I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing.”

We use this kind of ‘cost language’ in phrases like:

She sacrificed her career for her family.

They sacrificed comfort for justice.

Soldiers sacrificed for their country.

Redemptive Action vs. Empty Ritual

Those examples indicate that some things are worth sacrificing and suffering for, love involves cost, a greater good may require giving up comfort, and costly sacrifice can be redemptive.

Sacrifice can thus mean giving up something valuable, enduring loss or cost, for the sake of someone else, for a higher purpose, based on justice, and mercy, for the common good.

However, sacrifice isn’t inherently good. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Micah criticized when sacrifice became an empty ritual, filled with hypocrisy, overlooking injustice and exploitation of the poor.

Instead, sacrifice should be covenantal, relating to God as well as to us, as individuals and communities. It should be connected with the things that God calls us to—that is, justice, mercy, love and service.

Transformational Sacrifice?

In both Jewish and Christian traditions, sacrifice is often understood as transformational, not merely as loss, but as something that can change things. It can be internal (we are transformed) and external (the circumstances are transformed). The transformation may be spiritual, moral, relational, social, political, economical, or cultural.

There are many kinds of sacrificial transformational agents: Parents sacrificing sleep, time, and comfort for children, entrepreneurs sacrificing security to build an impactful company, and missionaries leaving familiarity to make Christ known.

But there are no guarantees that a sacrifice, even with good and right motives, will bring about a good and lasting transformation. Or it may happen, many years or even generations down the road.

An Old Testament example of sacrifice is Abraham going to sacrifice his son Isaac, the embodiment of the fulfillment of the promise God gave to him. It certainly transformed them, especially in relationship to God, and in trusting God. It also had implications for generations to come.

There are also stories of sacrifices with fraudulent and evil intentions that bring about an encounter with God and positive transformations down the road.

The story of Joseph being sold by his brothers is an example of “bad sacrifice” which can transform lives and show how God can redeem the past for future blessings. Joseph’s brothers were willing to sacrifice their father’s favorite son, but God transformed that situation, one that caused Joseph and Jacob to suffer greatly, into a national rescue plan for Egypt, and eventually also a restoration of a dysfunctional family and the birth of the nation of Israel.

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present outcome, that many people would be kept alive [as they are this day].” (Genesis 50:20, AMP)

The Church has many saints who made significant sacrifices, which continues to have a transformational impact down the centuries. Dietrich Bonhoeffer resisted Nazism and was executed. He spoke of a “costly grace.” His sacrifice transformed later Christian thinking about: discipleship, resistance to evil, public faith, and ethics.

In the long struggle to abolish the slave trade, many abolitionists in William Wilberforce’s time sacrificed wealth, and status, drawing deeply from biblical ideas of human dignity and moral responsibility. Their tireless work over decades brought about transformation; the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in the British empire. Their transformational sacrifice reshaped societies and laws even beyond the empire and their generation.

More recently Martin Luther King Jr. framed nonviolent struggle in profoundly biblical terms during the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. He personally paid a heavy price over the years, and ultimately it cost him his life. But the sacrificial endurance became transformative for generations to come. MLK and others in the movement were willing to suffer to expose injustice, and it changed public attitudes and legislation.

Faithfulness as Our Motivator for Sacrifice

I don’t see “sacrifices” in terms of a cost-benefit analysis; it is about following God and being true to your mission and calling.

Yes, I have sacrificed financial stability and security for decades. Regrets? No! But I would never or hardly ever get on a plane again if there wasn’t a sense of calling and mission.

But life has to be lived forward and can only be understood (to some extent) in hindsight.

As the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote: “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

We must act now, relying on faith and courage to navigate the future, without complete understanding the potential impact our sacrifices may have.

Consequently, we do not know what the future holds, nor the impact our choices will have. But we trust God (or at least try!) and keep walking forward.

It mustn’t be a “do ut des” approach. It is a Latin phrase meaning “I give so that you might give”. The phrase stems from ancient Roman law and religious practices, such as offering sacrifices for divine favor.

Today we may talk about an arrangement based on reciprocity, such as business deals, negotiations, or relationships, often used synonymously with a “quid pro quo”. Life with God is not transactional, but relational, a covenantal relationship.

Chronos and Kairos

There are two words in Greek for time.

Chronos is quantitative, sequential and of course is the root of the word chronological. We operate in the chronos, we plan and evaluate in the chronological time, also in business.

Kairos is qualitative, the supreme moment, the right time. This is for example used for God’s intervention, in the fullness of time. We cannot control this, but we can set the stage for it to some extent.

For a longer introduction, please read this blog post.

We are to be faithful in the chronos, serve God and the common good with professionalism, excellence and integrity, trusting God for impact, for the kairos moments, which may be very transformative.

Daniel and his three friends, doing “civil service as mission” were faithful in the chronos (Daniel 1-2), and God used them in kairos moments. We don’t see any “do ut des calculations” in their actions and attitudes, but God used their lives—and sacrifices—to transform King Nebuchadnezzar personally, and also make God known among the many peoples and languages within the empire.

We don’t know, nor can we control, the impact our sacrifices may have.

The Why and How of BAM Sacrifice

In business as mission, we talk about creating business solutions to the world’s pressing issues. Indeed, it is one of our BHAGs, or “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” for the BAM movement.

We do business for God’s glory, the gospel and the common good.

Should solving the world’s greatest problems be a motivator for our sacrifice!? Maybe. But if it is, how should we approach it?

I have observed an increased engagement in using business to address global issues like human trafficking, unreached peoples, environmental challenges, rampant youth unemployment, et cetera. This is honorable and often good.

But I also observe, especially from the West, a “Deus ex machina” approach. Deus ex machina, literally “God from the machine” in Latin, refers back to ancient Greek and Roman drama; when the plot thickened, and there was an unresolvable issue, a man-made mess, the gods and demigods appeared from above and fixed it, and disappeared again. It was a plot device, still used in books and movies today, used to resolve seemingly unresolvable issues.

Some of us have money, connections and solutions. These can be good things, but we must be careful. We are often blind to where we are steeped in post-colonial attitudes or a modernity paradigm. It is too easy to use triumphalist language and come with mechanical solutions to other peoples’ problems.

Instead, as we seek “shalom”, a wholeness for all relationships, we must recognize Shalom as Presence, the incarnational model of God.

Jesus came and dwelt among us, and He gives us His Shalom, the Holy Spirit, to live in and among us. As my good friend Michelle shared in her devotional at the BAM Global Leaders Forum in Manila in March 2026: Jesus offered his presence, and He didn’t fix all the problems.

We know as parents, or grandparents, that our kids or grandkids want, above all, our time and our presence. We cannot compensate for our absence with toys or things—they want us, our presence, a relationship. And then time and space to develop that relationship are essential. Such relationships are truly transformational and foundational for healthy human life, and they are in no way about speed or efficiency.

So, what should we possibly consider giving up—sacrificing—as we do BAM? Speed? Triumphalist language? Trusting our money, connections and solutions? Impersonal Deus ex machina strategies?

How can we, like Jesus, offer presence instead? We may have to sacrifice more time than we imagined. We may have to sacrifice some of our plans and strategies.

 

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.

 

Download Mats free e-book >> Business for All Seasons

 

 

 

Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash

 

Business as Mission and Innovation

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by Mats Tunehag

 

We create and innovate based on worldview and values. Worldview is the lens through which we interpret reality, and values guide our thoughts and actions. Thus, innovation from a Christian perspective must be seen through Judeo-Christian lenses, and be guided by values deeply rooted in Holy Scripture and the history of the church. We should innovate in line with our tradition, recognizing that we are to co-create, and innovate, with God and for the common good.

Biblical Foundation for Innovation

Only God creates ex nihilo, out of nothing, but he calls us to be good stewards of all things created. That includes both material and immaterial things, mind and matter.

The book of Genesis presents a created order that is good, but unfinished—inviting human participation, which includes innovation.

Innovation should serve something larger than itself. It mustn’t be innovation for the sake of innovation, nor should it be just about benefits for me, my family, my business, my tribe or my nation. It should be innovation as faithful creativity, serving people and honoring God, not novelty for its own sake. And there are ethical boundaries: Innovation is judged by fruit: does it serve life, justice, dignity, and love of neighbor?

Scripture provides instructive contrasts. Noah’s ark—a massive innovative engineering project—aligned with God’s purposes and brought salvation to humanity. The Tower of Babel, equally impressive in its innovation, was motivated by pride and led to societal breakdown. The difference lies not in technical achievement but in purpose and alignment with God’s will.

We acknowledge that business is God’s gift to transform the world. Business as Mission, BAM, is about harnessing that gift to serve people, align it with God’s purposes, be good stewards of the planet and make a profit—among all nations.

BAM innovation is problem-oriented, geared towards solving unmet needs and problems, like environmental degradation, poverty, human trafficking, unreached peoples, etc. Innovation is beyond efficiency for a firm, profitability and scalability. We see BAM enterprises as a space where God’s reconciling work becomes visible. In this framework, innovation becomes a missional discipline—a way of loving God and neighbor through economic activity.

Besides asking: “What is scalable and profitable?” BAM also asks: “What genuinely serves people and communities?” BAM resists the modern myth that innovation must be disruptive or extractive. BAM related innovations consider environmental, social, and generational impact. We are also mindful of that not all innovation is good business—and not all good business is innovative.

Core Values and Principles

Innovation occurs across all business dimensions—products, services, marketing, sales, management, and human resources. BAM companies innovate in these same areas, but emphasize innovations grounded in biblical values for God-honoring purposes. Key values include:

Stewardship: Innovation is an act of stewardship: developing goods, services, systems, and institutions that enable life to flourish.

Shalom: Innovation oriented toward the common good, shalom rather than shareholder primacy alone.

Avodah: The integration of work, worship, and service, recognizing that our innovations are acts of worship when aligned with God’s purposes.

The Great Commission: Making Christ known as we innovate and conduct business to the ends of the earth.

Human Dignity: Asking whether innovation promotes creativity, dignity, and freedom.

Beauty: The Church teaches that God is truth, goodness, and beauty. Bezalel’s calling and anointing by the Spirit in Exodus 31 demonstrates that beauty and excellence are not luxuries but expressions of God’s Spirit at work.

Tikkun Olam: This Jewish concept means “to repair and heal the world”. BAM innovation observes what is dysfunctional, unjust, oppressive, and polluting in a broken marketplace, then co-creates with God to bridge the gap from what is to what ought to be. The Lord’s Prayer itself is a tikkun olam prayer, bridging heaven and earth by bringing the King and his Kingdom into the marketplace toward holistic human flourishing.

Innovation & Change of Paradigm

Business as Mission is not a technique, but rather a worldview and a lifestyle. To that end BAM Global gives a priority to clarify and impart a Biblical worldview as it relates to business, people, societies and the Great Commission. Although the underpinning BAM concepts are old, there is still a need for a paradigm shift in many circles. In this sense, BAM innovation involves changing not just products or processes, but the framework itself.

Innovations often happen where people, institutions and ideas intersect and interact, and where there is an openness to innovate and explore initiatives that can enhance human flourishing. To that end BAM Global has convened dozens of forums and think tank groups, to reframe and catalyze business solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems. That has resulted in about 40 reports, dozens of BAM networks on all continents, operating in over 20 languages. These innovation forums and hubs have been instrumental to the exponential growth of the global business as mission movement in the last 25 years.

The incarnation shows God entering specific cultural, economic, and historical realities. BAM innovation must be contextual—responding to real local needs rather than importing foreign models, or be a pursuit of one-size fits all. This aligns with historical patterns: durable innovation grows from within cultures, not above them.

Innovation Metrics & Characteristics

We aim at redefining success metrics when needed. BAM innovation should  expands the scorecard and include financial sustainability, social and environmental impact, and spiritual and relational fruit. Innovation is evaluated by shalom, not just ROI, Return of Investment.

So, we pray that BAM innovation will be characterized by:

Rootedness – anchored in Scripture and tradition

Relationality – shaped by proximity to people and place

Redemptive intent – healing and transforming rather than exploiting

Long-term faithfulness – patience over speed

Questions for BAM Innovators

With these principles and values in mind, consider these essential questions:

  • Does this innovation serve needs?
  • Does it pay attention to the underserved peoples of the world?
  • Does it respect limits—ecological, social, moral?
  • Does it strengthen community?
  • Does it allow people to exercise agency and dignity?
  • Does it align with love of neighbor?
  • Does it honor 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.

 

Download Mats free e-book >> Business for All Seasons

 

 

 

 

10 Ways the Bible Shows the Purpose of Business

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by Dave Kahle

 

Most cultures think of business as simply a vehicle to make money. That is the message the world sends out, and most people accept. That view of business, however, ranks high on the list of Satan’s deceits, especially when it is the only perspective our churches have about business.

As businesspeople, we often define our success by the increase in sales and profits. While there is nothing wrong with that, if we focus exclusively on that, we limit the potential of the business. It is like trying to grow an apple tree in a pot inside your home. There is just not enough light and air to produce an abundant harvest of apples.

When we limit our concept of business to just making money—even when we intend to be generous with that money—we severely limit its potential to be a force for good in the world.

The Bible notes at least 10 purposes, or benefits, of business:

1.  A business can be a vehicle for the multiplication of wealth

There is nothing wrong, per se, with multiplying resources or accumulating wealth. Note the parable of the bags of gold, where the worthy servant was rewarded for increasing the master’s wealth. The servant didn’t give it away, nor did he squander it on a richer lifestyle. Instead, he focused on increasing the master’s wealth. The master rewarded him with a larger area of responsibility and a closer relationship with him.

Think of Abraham, who is regarded as the epitome of faith and obedience. His business was large enough that he was able to assemble “318 trained men born in his household.” (Gen 14:14) . His business probably consisted of hundreds, if not thousands, of employees/servants.

It’s our attitude to that wealth that God is concerned with.

2.  A business provides economic security to the employees and stakeholders

While God is the ultimate provider, He does so through natural means. And a business is one of those means. A successful business provides the means of economic sustenance for the employees and stakeholders and thereby is a conduit for God’s providence and blessings.

The business woman in Proverbs 31 is described as a model provider, bring economic security to her family, her household and servants. She is able to help the poor and influence her community through her hard work and business activities.

3. A business shapes the next generation of leaders

Many major characters in the Bible were raised in a business environment, and had their characters shaped by that experience. Think of Isaac and Jacob, who were raised in their fathers’ households. Or Saul, who was on a business project when he was called to be Israel’s first king. Or David, who was employed in his father’s business when he was called. Or, even Jesus, who spent his formative years in his father’s carpentry business.

A business, with its tasks, hierarchy and accountability, provides valuable lessons for the next generation of leaders.

4. A business can develop character among its employees

Not only does a business act as a fertile training ground for future leaders, but everyone can grow sound characters by being guided by the values and goals of a good business and held accountable for adherence to them.

The Bible has much to say about honest business practices and doing work with integrity, a few examples in Proverbs 12:22 and 20:10, 2 Corinthians 8:21, James 5:4.

5.  A business can provide a unifying bond for families

While much is said these days about work-like balance, the scriptures present a different perspective. A business in the Bible wasn’t something separate from the family, it was the families’ occupation. As we have seen already, in children grew up in the family business, added their energy to it, and reaped the benefits of that. While it may be difficult in today’s corporate age to duplicate that level of engagement, the opportunities still exist to integrate family members into the business and so, instead of balancing between work and family, bring the family into the work.

Visualize family meals where the topic of conversation is the business, as opposed to the latest social media trends. Imagine kids who watch the family’s provider at work and learn from him/her.

6.  A business can provide the venue for the application of spiritual gifts

In one of Bible’s first recorded instance of supernatural gifts being used, Joseph used the gift of interpreting dreams to vault to the top of what may have been the largest business enterprise in the world, Pharaoh’s grain distribution business (Genesis 37-41).

The first description in the Bible of someone being filled with the Holy Spirit is a craftsman, Bezalel, in the context of him using his craftsmanship. These are skills—working with gold, silver and bronze—are ones he likely honed in a business setting before being selected by God to make the decorations for the Tabernacle (Exodus 31 and 35).

The constant interaction with customers and vendors as well as the close relationships that typically develop in a business provide a fertile field for spiritual gifts to touch people.

7.  A business can impact the community for good

All the way back to the days of the Egyptian captivity, it was a couple of midwives who impacted the community and were rewarded with growing businesses.

In our age, Christian companies can, and have, made an impact beyond their customer base. Among other things, a business has power to create and manage larger giving and serving projects. As an individual, we can work at a soup kitchen. A business can create and organize the soup kitchen, or community clean up operation, or English language lessons. By virtue of its potential to assemble money and people it can create a more powerful impact than an individual can.

This website is full of stories of companies providing benefits for the community at large, as well as the customers and vendors it serves.

8.  A business is a God-given way to steward the earth’s natural resources

When the Israelites were about to enter the promised land in Deuteronomy 8, God showed them that they would be running agricultural and mining operations: “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land… a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills… Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God.” (Deut. 8: 7-11)

A key principle in being good a steward is not forgetting the Lord, and “walking in obedience to him and revering him” (v6).

9.  A business can provide a community to facilitate the gospel

The New Testament contains several examples of the head of a business committing to follow Christ and the entire household—employees, family, servants and slaves, followed that lead.

Businesses are built on relationships, and relationships are how the gospel of Jesus is shared. We can be witnesses to the Good News in the context of daily work. Businesses can even became one of the contexts for people to start to gather to grow in faith, to birth small group Christian meetings and ongoing discipleship.

10. A business can grow the faith of the owners and key employees

I have often said “If you want to grow closer to God, start a business”  There is something  about the constant press of decisions, the impact of those decisions, and the accountability that attaches to them that leads a business owner, and those employees who are invested in the success of the business, to go to God for guidance  and assistance when things don’t go well.

Indeed, one of the key pillars of a Kingdom-focused business operator is to work at staying close to God and allow Him to be the general manager and chief consultant to the business.

 

Those business owners and key employees who embrace the functions of a business above, beyond just making money, will unleash their companies to fulfil their potential to grow, succeed and make a mark on the world.

 

Written by Dave Kahle, adapted for The BAM Review by Jo Plummer.

 

Dave KahleDave Kahle has been a Bible teacher, elder, house church leader, short-term missionary and Christian executive roundtable leader. For 30 years, he has been an authority on sales and sales systems, having spoken in 47 states and eleven countries. He has authored 13 books, including The Good Book on Business. Sign up for his weekly messages here. Dave regularly writes at the Biblical Business blog and shares his articles on his YouTube Channel, listen to this post here. More from Dave at: www.davekahle.com and www.thebiblicalbusiness.com.

BAM Global Summit 2026

Thursday 7 May

The BAM Global Summit 2026 theme Flourish reflects that God loves flourishing! 

Flourishing businesses help people, communities and nations to flourish. 

Join us at this annual gathering of the global BAM community and hear more about God’s purposes for business. Come and be equipped to flourish in your own BAM journey—to help you build flourishing companies and communities.

More Summit Information


Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

Why All BAM Practitioners Can Benefit from Mission Agencies

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by Larry Sharp

 

The word ‘missionary’ is relatively new in the history of the English language. It has its origin with the Jesuits who sent certain members on a mission to establish Roman Catholic churches where there were none. The term is derived from Latin missionem nom., missio), meaning ‘act of sending’ or mittere, meaning ‘to send’.

Today Protestant missionaries have a strong history but with mixed understandings of what is meant by the term. Common definitions are not unlike one on Wikipedia, “a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people.”

Nondenominational protestant missionary agencies as we know them today date back to the late 1700s with the likes of the Basel Mission in Switzerland, The Baptist Missionary Society and London Missionary Society in England and the ABCFM in the United States (1810). Today in the United States, the Missio Nexus agency networking group claims 376 organization members demonstrating the rapid increase of agencies in the past half century.

So, what does this have to do with Business as Mission?

Business as mission (BAM) as we define it today is only about 30 years old. Of course, we know that missional laborers in the marketplace have existed since New Testament times but as a movement contextualized to modern modalities, BAM is very young.

Commonalities and Distinctives of BAM and Traditional Mission Agency Focus

Some key assumptions for this conversation which are common to both missionary work and business as mission:

1. Both the missionary movement and the BAM movement have kingdom of God missional purposes which involve the transformation of individuals and communities.

2. Both the missionary movement and the BAM movement often work in cross cultural environments.

3. Both movements tend to focus on the underserved, i.e. the least reached or the most impoverished, underprivileged and victimized peoples.

Some key assumptions of differences between the two:

1. Mission agency workers are typically full-time religious workers and, if working overseas, seek a religious workers visa for the countries where they work. BAM workers are full-time missional professional businesspeople with business visas, if needed. In terms of mission history, think of medical missionaries and education missionaries as the corollary of business missionaries.

2. Mission agencies often prioritize evangelism and church planting as their modus operandi and report progress to home entities in terms of disciples and churches. BAM workers tend to use the Quadruple Bottom Line as a metric (profitability and sustainability; job creation and social outcomes; spiritual transformation; and creation care.) BAM is hence more eclectic.

3. Many mission agencies would cite the Great Commission as first and foremost priority while BAM workers understand and operationalize the Great Commandment of Jesus to love our fellow humans, along with the Great Commission.

4. Missionaries have a robust mission agency history to depend on for training, support and networking. BAM workers have very little of these and what does exist is relatively immature.

While the above assumptions have many nuances and some may charge that they are oversimplified and superficial, it is the fourth point which is interesting and important as the driving focus of this article.

One BAM practitioner I interviewed, whilst leading robust business operations in Asia, insisted that kingdom businesses need mission agencies, meaning that the agencies have a lot to offer to the BAM operators and the movement. Having served in executive leadership in a mid-sized agency myself for 20 years and nearly as long immersed in the BAM movement, I wholeheartedly concur.

What can the mature agency movement offer to the BAM movement?

Many of the following areas of expertise apply more readily to those BAM practitioners working across cultures, or in near culture situations. I believe all practitioners could benefit from at least some of them.

Training in how to live and serve in another culture

Missionaries are known to stay long term and learn languages and new cultures; they become acculturated to their new homes. They understand the importance of relating to people with their heart language and minimizing cultural mistakes. I well remember how embarrassing it was when we went to a Brazilian birthday party at the time listed on the invitation, which was really 90 minutes or so too early! Learning how to fit in to, another culture is also a concept for ‘doing business’ cross culturally and kingdom business operators can take advantage of systems and trainings developed within the mission community. Even those working primarily in their own culture may have a multi-cultural team or customer base and can learn from agency expertise in this area.

Access to member care

Most mission agencies either provide member care services or outsource to organizations that provide it. It is important that BAM workers flourish personally and professionally. That requires an organized prayer support team, regular communication channels, a godly mentor and resilient team members. Missionaries expect good friends and mentors to ask hard questions. I remember when I supervised missionaries in Brazil, I would visit every year. I did not want to disappoint Dave on the field who, upon my arrival, always asked questions like, “what good books have your read lately?” or “what is God teaching you recently?” When there are specialized needs, agencies have access to counselors, trauma debriefers, pastoral help and reentry coaches etc. It is good to know that BAM Global is currently promoting studies in how to develop support and care for BAM business leaders.

Disciple-making training

This is priority for both missionaries and BAMers, but the agency trains its members to do it, often cross culturally, and holds them accountable. This type of training can be contextualised to host cultures. Methodologies have been developed which can prepare individuals focusing on helping people come to follow Jesus. Recently, while reading the Gospel of Mark, I was reminded of how Jesus’ method of teaching is much like most of the world day. For example, when I teach in American colleges, I teach a principle and give an example to illustrate, but many cultures expect to hear a story first (think parables of Jesus) followed by a principle. It is important that BAM operatives learn cultural expectations.

Resources for being a family overseas

Most agencies have developed broad guidelines to assist families in their decisions relative to how to provide for kids’ education, friendships in the host culture, navigating the idea of being a ‘Third Culture Kid,’ marital life abroad, family transitions, peer counseling etc.. My oldest daughter works for Barnabas International, and she focuses on helping missionary children do transitions well—going overseas initially, reentry to parents’ homeland, going to college. Such resources should be known and available to BAM workers where they are needed.

Contingency planning and crisis management

Because God calls missionaries often into situations which are high risk, agencies train missionaries in assessing risk and developing mitigation strategies. This greatly helps create higher levels of safety, but trauma and accidents do occur. When I served as manager for critical incidents, I headed up a team focused on getting a missionary released from a jail in Asia (it took six months); arranged for trauma relief after an earthquake in Haiti; hired a leer jet in Moscow to rescue an injured child in the Ukraine, among other critical services which international workers need from time to time. Certainly, some BAM workers need this same expertise available to them.

Strategic planning and accountability

Missionaries are sent by individuals and churches which rightly expect diligence, faithfulness and strategic work. This means that teams are trained and held accountable for certain activities while depending on the work of the Holy Spirit. It is rare that a missionary today works as a lone ranger, doing his own thing. I dream of the day, and indeed work toward it, when every BAM entrepreneur and operator has a team working together toward strategic ends for all the four quadruple bottom lines, being accountable to an advisory board.

Logistics details

There are so many little but important details which personnel encounter if they are going abroad to live. How do I meet local government expectations? Who is my employer? How do I get and maintain a visa? What is the best way to travel? How do I find a place to live? How will I get banking services and transfer money? What is the best way to communicate and travel—get internet service, best air, bus and taxi service? Where can the kids go to school? What if I need to see a physician? What about my medical insurance; will it work there? What are legal issues I need to know about? And much more. As an operational guy serving missionaries overseas, I was fulfilled and got great joy in helping personnel be at peace with the logistics of overseas work. BAM workers likewise need access to logistic answers, whether overseas or in a near culture situation.

 

In conclusion, mission agencies have intellectual property and management experience which is valuable to BAM workers. Our goal should be to access some of it or replicate it in ways that best serve our BAM teams. The BAM movement is not a traditional missionary movement but the spiritual ends of both are the same, which means we can often learn from a more mature entity – the mission agency.

 

If you are interested in this topic, I recommend the comprehensive BAM Global Report on BAM and Mission Agencies which probes the relationship between the agency and BAM.

 

Larry Sharp is the Founder and current BAM Support Specialist of a Business for Transformation (BAM, B4t) consulting firm, International Business and Education Consultants (www.ibecventures.com). Larry served 21 years in Brazil and then 20 years as Crossworld VP of Operations and as Vice President of Business Partnerships. He is currently a VP Emeritus and consultant with Crossworld. Since 2007 he has devoted energies toward Business as Mission (BAM) and currently is a consultant on BAM and education themes. Larry travels within North America speaking and teaching in conferences, colleges and churches on themes related to Business As Mission (BAM, B4t) and missions.  His travels abroad relate to BAM, crisis preparation and management, and team building. 

 

 

 

Get Larry’s Book: Missions Disrupted

Available at all good book stores online!

 

 


Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

 

Two More Stories from Asia: What Is It Really Like to Run a BAM Business?

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What is it really like to run a BAM company, especially in the kind of challenging contexts that business as mission practitioners often find themselves? In this mini-series, we are sharing three short stories from the frontlines—a behind the scenes look at BAM company leadership. Read Part 1 here.

Fitness Industry, Southeast Asia

 
What do you do and where?

I run a multi location gym business in Southeast Asia serving approximately 15,000 members and employing around 200 staff. The vast majority of our team is local, with only a few foreign employees. Our model centers on membership based fitness supported by personal training, group classes, and leadership development within our staff teams. We operate in multiple cities and focus on building strong local teams who understand the communities they serve. Beyond providing fitness services, we are committed to developing people, both our members and our staff, by creating structured systems, growth pathways, and a culture that promotes excellence, accountability, and long term opportunity.

Why do you do it?

At the core, I see this work as stewardship. In this season of life, that means stewarding relationships, capital, influence, and brand presence in the cities where we operate in a way that honors the Lord. That includes creating environments where people are cared for well, where staff can grow professionally and personally, and where members experience genuine community. Our focus is not merely physical fitness but holistic development. We aim to steward the business to create opportunities for truth to be shared, integrity, and long term flourishing, especially for our team members and their families.

What has it really been like to run your business?

It has been deeply seasonal. There are periods when I cannot imagine doing anything more aligned with how I am wired, leveraging gifts, building teams, and watching people grow. And there are seasons where the challenges feel relentless, where progress is unclear and pressure is high. The hardest parts have often involved leadership strain and navigating growth beyond our support systems. The unexpected joys have come from seeing staff rise into leadership and watching lives genuinely change. Over time, I have learned that clarity, humility, and dependence on the Lord are not optional. They are essential and even the intended main outcome of Joy in growing in knowledge of who the Lord is through these seasons.

Looking back, what are one or two things you wish you knew before you started?

One of the greatest blessings has been having a trusted, like minded business friend outside of my organization. I wish I had understood earlier just how critical that kind of relationship would be. Having someone who can provide accountability, perspective, and encouragement, without being entangled in the day to day operations, has been invaluable. Business leadership can feel isolating, and carrying weight alone is unnecessary and unwise. I have learned that long term sustainability depends as much on spiritual and relational support as it does on strategy and execution.

 

 

Hospitality and Food Manufacturing, South Asia

 
What do you do and where?

We are based in South Asia in the Himalayas. We run a coffee and bakery business where we focus on the employment of locals. We mentor them and equip them in the gospel. We develop them with job skills and so they can bring positive change to society in their professional sphere.

Why do you do it?

Our vision is to use business to reach places and frontiers in closed nations, where it’s vital for us to be able to live among people, and establish a church planting and discipleship movement. We are seeing the fruits of being embedded in our communities and how powerful business is to bring the gospel to places that haven’t yet heard it. It is encouraging how deeply we connect with locals and authorities due to our role in society! I am passionate about the connections between us, and for the region we are in.

What has it really been like to run your business?

This place in South Asia is hard due to its infrastructure, there is no electricity or water in the mountains and also it is difficult to find people to work for some seasons, winter is closed! So the lack of some key tools to run a business is the main problem, and then we need to adapt what we do. Sometimes going through despairing situations, we have wanted to give up! Many things were not done due to lack of resources in the city and it left us wondering how to move forward. It has caused us to improvise a lot, not knowing what each day would bring, But in all this, it has been a joy to learn and it really was the hard way!

Looking back, what are one or two things you wish you knew before you started?

I would have loved some advice on coffee bean quality, better barista training, and tips to organize our finances better! It has been a wild experience from bottom up, young people dreaming, pioneering and achieving their goals without proper guidance!

An unexpected joy to us is just how much access to remote communities we have due to the business of the coffee shop—we can build strongly on the relationships built there. The connections and friends we made through the business have made our life even easier in actually running it and has helped shape so much of our identity where we are.

 

>> Read Part 1 here

 

Read more BAM Stories on our Stories page here. Got a story to share? Contact us about it here.

 

 

 

Photo by Huỳnh Tiến on Unsplash

 

 

 

Engineering on the Frontlines: What Is It Really Like to Run a BAM Business?

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What is it really like to run a BAM company, especially in the kind of challenging contexts that business as mission practitioners often find themselves? In this mini-series, we are sharing three short stories from the frontlines—a behind the scenes look at BAM company leadership. 

 

Z Engineers – Construction Industry, South Asia

Z Engineers is one of the oldest BAM companies in the world, having been founded in the late 1960s by Christian expatriate engineers in a majority Muslim country in South Asia. Its current Managing Director, a national leader, has been in the position for 5 years. Here he shares some of his experiences and insights into what it is really like to run a BAM company.

What do you do and where?

Z Engineers serves the construction industry across a nation in South Asia, with a specific focus on remote rural areas where access to quality infrastructure is often a significant challenge. Our business model is built on providing comprehensive design, consultancy, and construction services with honesty and integrity. We take pride in our inclusive employment practices, hiring a diverse team of engineers, quantity surveyors, and architects from cross-cultural groups. Our work isn’t just about building structures; it’s about bringing high-quality standards to regions that have historically been underserved and have no hope.

Why do you do it?

Our foundational vision at Z Engineers is threefold: to build quality, build people, and build for God. This calling to the workplace is what sustains us. The strong focus and burden to introduce honest business practices and integrity to the construction sector, to provide job opportunities for the large unemployed segment keeps us moving forward. Beyond the construction side, my wife and I have also established E Services. This initiative is a direct response to the vulnerability of marginalized Christian groups. We focus on creating safe, dignified full-time and part-time employment for young women moving from rural areas to a major city, specifically to provide an alternative to the high risks of sexual exploitation they often face. Our BAM focus is to provide both physical infrastructure and social restoration

What has it really been like to run your business?

Running Z Engineers has been a journey of perseverance. The hardest challenge has been the financial strain of managing overheads during lean periods, coupled with the ethical struggle of the bidding process. We frequently face the reality of losing projects because we refuse to participate in the systemic corruption common in the industry. We are also navigating a significant ‘brain drain’ within the local Christian youth, as many seek to relocate abroad in search of financial prosperity. It is a constant challenge to offer tangible hope to these young people when the local environment provides so little to convince them to stay. Since taking over the company in 2021, these past five years have been a profound period of growth in the BAM space for me. The phrase ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ is no longer a metaphor; it describes the literal reality of my journey as I strive to stay faithful to the workplace.

On the other hand, there has been unexpected joy. We recently won a project in the Northern areas that has matured perfectly—a beautiful ‘repayment’ i.e. equivalent in terms of the value, for a previous project we lost because we refused to cut corners. We are also entering a ‘redemptive technology’ phase by pioneering non-fired bricks, which aligns our environmental stewardship with our construction goals. While our newer startup (E Services) is still in the foundational phase, we are learning to navigate the basics with hope and courage.

Looking back, what are one or two things you wish you knew before you started?

First, I wish I had understood the level of personal and familial sacrifice required. A BAM company operates differently than a secular business; the spiritual and ethical weight often falls heavily on the leadership, and navigating those challenges can place significant stress on family life and work-life balance.

Second, I wish I had been more prepared for the mental health toll. There is a constant, exhausting pressure to maintain a ‘successful’ outward image for clients and marketing purposes, even when the business is facing internal crises. Learning to manage that tension between professional optics and the reality of the struggle is something I am still learning to do.

 

Read two more short stories in next week’s post:

>> Read Part 2 here

 

A. has been the Managing Director for Z Engineers since 2021. He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree and has a history of working in Christian Institutions in his nation, in business management, Project Administration & development.

 

 

 

Photo by Jeriden Villegas on Unsplash

 

 

BAM Featured in an International Business Magazine: Mats Tunehag Interview

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An Interview with Mats Tunehag


Business as mission has been recently featured in an international business magazine; in three languages. Mats Tunehag was interviewed for the Destake News Business Magazine, you can read the full original version in English, French or Portuguese here or read an excerpt below.

 

Vision & Purpose

You often say that business can be a response to the world’s greatest challenges. What does Business as Mission, BAM mean in practice?

Business is God’s gift to transform the world, and we need to be good stewards of that gift. It means developing businesses so they honor God, and contribute to the total wellbeing of people and societies.

Drug and human trafficking are also businesses, and if business is primarily about making money why not do these things? Well, they are dehumanizing and against values we hold dear, and do not align with biblical principles.

Businesses run according to biblical values can become an impactful response to challenges such as poverty, unemployment, human trafficking, environmental degradation, and lack of hope.

 

At what point in your life did you realize that business could be an expression of faith and mission?

This realization emerged gradually in the early 1990s, when I was working in the Soviet Union and Central Asia, before and after the collapse of communism.

Societies were facing massive unemployment, social breakdown, and loss of dignity. Without meaningful work and economic opportunity, people and nations can not flourish.

At the same time, businesses were entering these regions rapidly, but often without ethical considerations. That contrast helped me see that business itself should be an expression of faith, by proposing a better way of doing business, grounded in biblical values,  service, and long-term value creation.

 

Where does your passion for connecting business with social and spiritual transformation come from?

It is deeply rooted in my faith and Judeo-Christian values. It comes from a conviction that human beings are holistic. We are economic, social, physical and spiritual beings. When we compartmentalize these dimensions too sharply, we misunderstand both people and markets.

 

Global Journey

Was there a particular encounter or project that changed your perspective on mission through business?

There are many. One example comes from the Middle East, where a manufacturing company intentionally employed women with disabilities—a group often marginalized twice over, both socially and economically.

One woman, who had little prospect of ever finding work, was treated with dignity, offered meaningful employment, and became part of a healthy workplace community. Her life changed—economically, socially, and personally. Families and the wider community were impacted as well.

She later asked herself why this workplace was so different. Knowing that the founder was a follower of Jesus, she concluded: If this is what following Jesus looks like, I want to follow him too. It was a costly and risky decision in her context.

What drew her was not a religious program, but a job with dignity, professional excellence, ethical leadership, and human resource management shaped by biblical values — underpinned by prayer. Ultimately, it was God’s work, not a mere business strategy. Lives were changed—holistically—through a God-inspired business.

 

What cultural differences most influence how purpose-driven business is practiced in different regions?

Cultural context matters greatly. In some regions, business is viewed with suspicion because of historical or contemporary exploitation. In others, entrepreneurship may be admired, but is disconnected from social responsibility and long term thinking.

Purpose-driven business must always listen carefully to local realities. While expressions differ across nations, cultures and industries, the core principles remain the same. Effective Business as Mission adapts without compromising biblical values. It is about serving people, aligning with God’s purposes, being good stewards of the planet, and making a profit. With a special focus of countries and regions with dire needs.

 

Challenges and Realities of BAM

What is the biggest misconception people have about Business as Mission?

One misconception is that it is about using business to merely push religious beliefs. It is not. Business as Mission is about offering a coherent value proposition that integrates economic excellence with ethical, social, environmental, and spiritual responsibility. It is about seeking the welfare – the shalom, the total wellbeing of people and societies as we do business.

A global study by McKinsey showed clearly that the vast majority of people around the world consider spiritual health as very important. That was regardless of age, gender, socio-economic status, culture and faith. So, we make God a part of our value proposition, not an imposition.

 

What challenges do Christian entrepreneurs face today in maintaining ethics and sustainability in business?

There are both external and internal issues. External, things we face running a business. Short-term pressure related to sales and cash flow can be a great challenge, and a temptation to compromise with values. Entrepreneurs also face complex environments when corruption is normalized.

But there are also internal issues, like support systems to help us manage business decisions, and maneuver in a tough marketplace. It can be a lack of understanding that business is a godly calling, and a God given gift to transform the world. Thus, we need to affirm Christian entrepreneurs in their calling, equip and deploy them to serve God and people in the marketplace.

 

The Future of the BAM Movement

What has the experience of the pandemic and recent global crises taught the BAM ecosystem?

The importance of staying mission true, and plan flexible. We all learned that during the Covid pandemic. So, we need to be clear about the purpose of our business. What is our mission and our timeless core values?

This needs to be translated into continuity planning, which is more than succession planning. Our mission and values need to continuously be imparted into the organization. Staff come and go, management may change, and we may move from a founder CEO to a second-generation company. But will the mission continue, and will the values survive changes?

 

What advice would you give to young professionals who want to integrate purpose and work?

Be intentional. Learn. Ask questions. Read. Watch videos. Find a mentor. Keep learning, and applying. BAM Global has developed pathways for those who want to integrate purpose, work and business.

Connect with others. Don’t journey alone. BAM Global is providing an interactive global ecosystem map where people can connect with others around the globe and in different spheres of the BAM ecosystem.

You can find the BAM Pathways and the BAM Ecosystem Map at businessasmission.com.

 

>> Read full interview here

English, French and Portuguese versions available.


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.

 

 

 

Photo by BETZY AROSEMENA on Unsplash

 

 

Messaging With Integrity: Making Meaning Clear in the First Seconds

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by Sandra Lynn


This month, we are featuring a three-part marketing and branding series, The Clarity Imperative: Building BAM Brands That Drive Impact. Start the year with clarity! Read Part 1 here.

 

Messaging is not about convincing people to buy from you. It’s about being so clear that the right people recognize you’re for them—before they scroll past.

First impressions happen fast, often across cultures. If your message can’t be understood quickly and repeated accurately, it doesn’t matter how good your product is you’ve already lost them.

This is the final piece of the clarity puzzle for BAM leaders. You’ve clarified your strategic foundation. You’ve sharpened your positioning. Now comes the moment of truth, can someone grasp who you serve and how you help in the first seven seconds, or less?

Because that’s all you get. Three to seven seconds as someone lands on your site, scrolls past your post, or hears your pitch. Just a few seconds to be clear enough that they stay, remember, and act.

For faith-driven entrepreneurs, this isn’t about hype or manipulation. It’s about integrity. Ethical selling shows up as precision, not vagueness.

Why Words Matter More in Trust-Driven Markets

In Western markets, brands often lead with design (graphics and video) and emotional appeal. But in trust-driven, relational markets—especially emerging economies where BAM businesses thrive—words carry more weight than images.

Your prospect isn’t asking if your website looks professional. They’re evaluating whether you understand their world and can deliver results in it.

Messaging is not about convincing people to buy from you. It’s about being so clear that the right people recognize you’re for them—before they scroll past.

AI can generate beautiful visuals and generic copy in seconds. But it cannot understand cultural nuance, build trust across contexts, or speak directly to the specific pain of a business owner in Nairobi, Belgrade, or Jakarta. Only you can do that through words that actually connect.

Translation is easy. Meaning is not. A message that lands perfectly in English might confuse or even offend in another language or cultural context. This is why stripping away industry terms and cultural assumptions isn’t just smart marketing, it’s an ethical responsibility. When you communicate across borders, simple and direct becomes your competitive advantage. Clear messaging also creates space for storytelling—not polished brand narratives, but real stories that signal understanding and build trust across cultures.

The Myth That Ethical Businesses Shouldn’t Be Direct

Here’s a trap many Christian entrepreneurs fall into. They believe that being mission-minded means being soft, indirect, or overly humble in their messaging. So they default to safe, generic language that sounds like everyone else.

But vague messaging doesn’t create humility. It creates invisibility.

When a prospect can’t quickly understand what you do, they don’t assume you’re being modest. They assume you’re uncertain about your value, unclear about who you serve, or trying to appeal to everyone. And in trust-based markets, that kind of confusion doesn’t just lose you a sale, it costs you credibility.

The result? Your message becomes background noise. Polite. Pleasant. Forgettable.

Integrity in messaging is not about soft language. It’s about saying the right thing, to the right people, with enough clarity that they actually hear you. You don’t need to exaggerate. You need to be direct, specific, and truthful about the value you create. That’s not hype. That’s stewardship.

The Reality of 7-Second Decisions

You have roughly 7 seconds to prove your content is worth someone’s time before they scroll away or tune out.

That’s the window you have to answer these questions running through a visitor’s mind:

  • Did I land in the right place?
  • Is this right for me?
  • Do I see the value you offer?
  • Do I know how to take the next step?

If any of these go unanswered, they’re gone. Not because your business isn’t excellent, but because your message didn’t make meaning fast enough.

This is especially true in cross-cultural contexts where your audience may be reading in their second or third language, navigating unfamiliar business norms, or evaluating whether you understand their local reality.

The Candy Machine Problem Revisited

Remember the candy machine from our first post? Everything looks appealing, nothing stands out, so the customer picks something at random. Next time, they choose something different because nothing was memorable enough to earn their loyalty.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Example 1: IT Services

Candy Machine Messaging:
“We provide reliable IT services and customized solutions to support your business goals.”

Clear Messaging:
“We keep small medical practices secure, compliant, and running without tech headaches.”

Example 2: Training & Coaching

Candy Machine Messaging:
“Our programs help people unlock their potential and achieve meaningful growth in their personal and professional lives.”

Clear Messaging:
“We help burned-out nonprofit leaders rebuild focus, energy, and direction in 90 days.”

The first version in each example sounds fine. Polished. Forgettable. The second creates instant clarity about who you serve, what problem you solve, and why it matters.

If your message doesn’t make someone think, “That’s for me,” you’re leaving trust, loyalty, and revenue to chance—just like pulling a random lever on the candy machine.

How to Craft Messaging That Builds Trust Across Cultures

If you want your message to work in seven seconds, across languages, in trust-driven markets here’s what it requires:

Make it about them, not you. Lead with their problem, not your process. What do they care about? What would make their situation better today?

Avoid insider language and jargon. If someone outside your industry can’t understand your homepage in one read, you’ve lost clarity. Have a friend from a different field read your site. If they’re confused, your customers will be too.

When a prospect can’t quickly understand what you do, they don’t assume you’re being modest, they assume you’re uncertain about your value.

Say less, more precisely. In 2026, brevity builds trust. Long explanations signal uncertainty. Short, specific statements signal confidence.

Test for repeatability. If someone hears your message once, can they explain what you do to a colleague? If not, it’s not clear enough. Clarity is measured by whether others can repeat your message accurately.

AI, Translation, and the Sameness Trap

AI tools can now generate marketing copy in seconds. But most of it sounds the same. Generic phrases like ‘tailored solutions’ and ‘proven results’ flood the market because AI pulls from common patterns.

This creates an opportunity for BAM businesses willing to do the hard work of clarity. When everyone else is relying on AI-generated sameness, your culturally grounded, precisely targeted, human-crafted message will stand out.

AI can translate words. It cannot translate meaning. It cannot assess whether your message will resonate in a high-context culture or a low-trust environment. That discernment is yours. And it’s your competitive edge.

Market Like You Mean It

You’ve built clarity into your strategy. You’ve sharpened your positioning. Now, your messaging must deliver on that foundation in the first few seconds.

Stop solving for how to sound impressive and start solving for how to be instantly understandable. Say less. Say it precisely. Make it about them.

When you align your messaging with your positioning, and your positioning with your mission, you create something rare in 2026. You have a brand that is both digitally discoverable and deeply trustworthy. A brand that builds relationships across cultures without pressure or missteps. A brand that turns clarity into Kingdom impact.

Make it about them, not you. Lead with their problem, not your process.

Messaging with integrity isn’t about playing it safe. It’s about being brave enough to be clear. Because the people you’re meant to serve deserve to find you and they can’t find you if they can’t understand you.

Market like you mean it. Lead with clarity. And let your precision become the bridge between their problem and the solution you were called to provide.

 

Want support or inspiration to build clarity into your marketing? Grab free tools, templates, resources, and other faith-focused items: https://bit.ly/bamgear

 

Read Part 1 here.

Read Part 2 here.

 

Sandra Lynn helps values-driven businesses gain clarity, scale effectively, and generate predictable revenue across borders. Specializing in brand positioning, market entry strategy, and digital messaging—especially for emerging markets like the Balkans and companies entering US markets—she works with mission-minded leaders who need to cut through the noise and communicate with precision. With seven international businesses launched and over 20 years serving clients across 17 countries, Sandra brings battle-tested expertise to the challenges of cross-cultural marketing, lead generation, and global growth, helping marketplace leaders bridge the gap between purpose and performance through clarity that can drive growth. Ready for strategic support? Connect with Sandra at www.linktr.ee/digitalme for her site, socials, blog, and video channels.

 

 

 

Photo by Andreas Rasmussen on Unsplash

 

 

 

Positioning is a Choice: Why Focused Brands Win in 2026

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by Bruce McKinnon & Sandra Lynn


This month, we are featuring a three-part marketing and branding series, The Clarity Imperative: Building BAM Brands That Drive Impact. Start the year with clarity! Read Part 1 here.

 

Brand positioning is not about what you want to say. It’s about what your customer needs to hear in order to choose you.

This matters more than ever in 2026. Interbrand’s Best Global Brands report puts a $3.6 trillion value on the world’s top 100 brands—but the real lessons lie in why some are accelerating their lead. The pattern is clear in that brands built on focus and distinctiveness are pulling ahead. The rest are being filtered out—by both people and algorithms.

For BAM leaders building businesses across borders and cultures, this isn’t abstract brand theory. In trust-based, relational markets where your mission carries weight but your budget doesn’t, positioning is the difference between being chosen and being overlooked—and between creating sustainable value or overextending trying to serve everyone.

Positioning Starts With Decisions, Not Statements

Too many mission-driven businesses confuse positioning with purpose. They lead with why they exist rather than why a customer should choose them. The result? A brand that sounds inspiring internally but confusing externally.

Positioning is not your mission statement. It’s the lens through which every business decision gets made. For SMEs, your positioning isn’t a marketing flourish—it’s the core of how you compete.

When a Balkan marketing agency was offered a project outside their core expertise, their positioning gave them the answer. If it doesn’t align with who we serve and what we do best, it’s a no. That clarity protected their reputation and freed them to pursue more aligned opportunities.

Brand positioning is not about what you want to say. It’s about what your customer needs to hear in order to choose you.

When you position with precision, you’re not limiting your impact. You’re making your impact understandable and repeatable. And in faith-driven enterprises, this precision becomes an act of stewardship—because every confused prospect is a missed opportunity to create the relational and economic value your business was designed to generate.

In BAM contexts where you’re operating across languages, cultures, and economic contexts, this focus is critical. A message that tries to mean everything to everyone ends up meaning nothing to anyone. Worse, it obscures the very Kingdom impact you’re working so hard to create.

The Hidden Cost of Doing Too Much for Too Many

One of the most common positioning mistakes we see is the belief that breadth equals credibility. Business owners think that offering more services or serving more markets makes them more valuable. In reality, it makes it harder to choose.

When a potential customer hears that you do so many things well, they wonder what you’re really best at and can’t determine if you’re the right fit for any specific problem.

Interbrand’s research confirms what effective marketers have known for decades: focus creates the freedom to be creative. The brands accelerating their lead—NVIDIA, Uniqlo, Shopify—didn’t scale by doing everything. They scaled by doing one thing exceptionally well, which then gave them permission to expand with precision.

For BAM businesses, specificity about your core offering is what builds trust faster than breadth ever will. And trust is the currency of relational impact.

Strong Values Don’t Equal Strong Positioning

Here’s where many faith-based businesses get stuck. They assume that having Kingdom values makes them distinctive. It doesn’t.

We see this all the time. A company leads with “we’re a Christian business” or “we operate with integrity,” and they expect that to set them apart. But your customer isn’t comparing you to unethical competitors. They’re comparing you to other capable, even faith-based, businesses who can also solve their problem.

Your values tell customers how you operate. Your positioning defines how they perceive and choose you. These are two different things.

Too many mission-driven businesses confuse positioning with purpose. They lead with why they exist rather than why a customer should choose them.

Being ethical, mission-minded, socially-responsible, or Kingdom-focused is your foundation. But, it’s not your differentiator in the marketplace. Your customer isn’t choosing you because you’re running a values-driven business. They’re choosing you because you solve their problem better, faster, or more reliably than the alternatives.

This doesn’t mean you hide your mission. It means you lead with excellence and value creation, then earn the right to share your values. Instead of an organization saying “We want to bring the gospel new places” they could say “We equip professionals to thrive in their careers while living out their faith with confidence”. 

Distinctiveness in trust-based markets comes from delivering results so consistently that your reputation becomes your competitive advantage—and your witness becomes credible because your excellent work is undeniable.

How Clarity Creates Trust

In emerging and relational markets, confusion doesn’t just cost you a sale, it kills your credibility. If a prospect can’t quickly understand who you serve and how you help, they move on. And these days, they’re moving on faster than ever.

Interbrand’s new “Role of Brand Index” measures how much a brand itself drives customer choice—and the data shows that a well-defined brand creates commercial value. The stronger your brand’s role in shaping decisions, the greater its impact on revenue and resilience.

For BAM leaders, this is where positioning becomes an ethical responsibility. If your business exists to create both economic and spiritual flourishing, then every layer of confusion in your positioning is a barrier to someone’s progress. Focused positioning doesn’t shrink your impact. It sharpens it. It allows you to serve deeply, build relationships that last, and create value that compounds over time.

Building for Discovery and Connection

Your brand must be both digitally discoverable and personally trustworthy.

As a BAM leader, you’re already thinking about this. You need to reach customers in difficult markets. You need to show up when people search. You need to build credibility across cultures and make your business understandable to people who don’t share your language or context. These aren’t separate problems. They’re all part of the same positioning work.

Search engines and social platforms reward brands that communicate consistently and clearly. If someone can’t quickly understand what you do and who you serve, your business won’t show up in their results searching online or asking an AI tool. Precision isn’t just good marketing anymore. It’s a technical requirement for being found.

Your mission amplifies your impact, but your excellence earns you the right to be heard.

But, you still need storytelling, emotional resonance, and cultural fluency for human connection. Stories should entertain, educate, and inspire action, guiding potential customers through their buyer’s journey. In cross-border BAM contexts, this also means stripping away any language or phrases that don’t translate. Terms like ‘turnkey solution’, ‘cutting-edge’, or ‘best practices’ mean nothing when translated to Serbian or Portuguese. It means understanding regional and cultural pain points deeply enough to speak to them directly. It means being both findable and understandable, not just inspiring.

The brands currently winning are the ones optimizing to be specific enough to be discovered, and compelling enough to be chosen. For faith-driven entrepreneurs, this is where strategic excellence meets Kingdom stewardship.

Putting Positioning Into Practice

If you’re ready to position your brand with the kind of focus that drives growth and impact, here’s what it requires.

First, define who this business is not for. I know this feels uncomfortable. Choosing a specific audience doesn’t mean you care about others less. It means you’re positioned to serve some people deeply, rather than everyone poorly. This is how sustainable, relational impact actually happens.

Second, articulate your unique value. Not what makes you different because you care more. What makes you the best choice for solving a specific problem for a specific customer. Lead with your economic value proposition. Your mission amplifies your impact, but your excellence earns you the right to be heard.

Third, say no to opportunities that dilute focus. Every time you expand outside your core positioning, you weaken what’s driving your growth. Stewardship means protecting the focus that makes your impact repeatable.

Your Path Forward

The fundamentals of branding haven’t changed. What’s changed is how fast you need to deliver on them. In a marketplace now flooded with AI-generated content, generic offers, and overwhelmed buyers, a well-defined position is the only competitive advantage that lasts.

Positioning is not self-expression. It’s disciplined decision-making. It’s the filter that lets you build a brand customers understand and choose—even when they have many other options.

The brands currently winning are the ones optimizing to be specific enough to be discovered, and compelling enough to be chosen.

For BAM businesses operating globally, your path forward is to lead with excellence, root it in focus, serve with relational integrity, and let your mission amplify the impact you’re already making.

When you align your positioning with both your economic value and your Kingdom calling, marketing stops being a necessary compromise and starts becoming the mechanism that drives transformation—one choice at a time.

For a deeper dive into brand strategy and the latest report: Interbrand – Best Global Brands

 

Read Part 3 here.

 

Bruce McKinnon is the founder of The Brand Arrow, helping SMEs build brands that drive commercial growth through clarity, focus, and strategic positioning. Bruce speaks at conferences around the world on the subject of brand strategy and is regularly invited to lecture at business schools. He is also a Course Director for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and an accredited speaker for the Vistage CEO network.  In 2019 Bruce published ‘What’s Your Point?’ containing the proprietary Brand Arrow framework, which won the silver medal at the US Business Book Awards (Axiom) and was shortlisted for the UK Business Book Awards. Connect with Bruce at bruce@thebrandarrow.com.

 

Sandra Lynn helps values-driven businesses gain clarity, scale effectively, and generate predictable revenue across borders. Specializing in brand positioning, market entry strategy, and digital messaging—especially for emerging markets like the Balkans and companies entering US markets—she works with mission-minded leaders who need to cut through the noise and communicate with precision. With seven international businesses launched and over 20 years serving clients across 17 countries, Sandra brings battle-tested expertise to the challenges of cross-cultural marketing, lead generation, and global growth, helping marketplace leaders bridge the gap between purpose and performance through clarity that can drive growth. Ready for strategic support? Connect with Sandra at www.linktr.ee/digitalme for her site, socials, blog, and video channels.

 

 

 

Photo by Mason C on Unsplash

 

 

 

Clarity Before Growth: The Competitive Advantage in BAM Marketing

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by Sandra Lynn


This month, we are featuring a three-part marketing and branding series, The Clarity Imperative: Building BAM Brands That Drive Impact. Start the year with clarity!

 

If people cannot quickly grasp who you serve and how you help, nothing else in marketing matters. This year, more than ever, the gap between effort and results will widen—not because businesses lack faith or values, but because customers cannot quickly understand who the business is for, what problem it solves, and why it matters to them.

In the world of BAM and faith-based enterprises, we are fueled by multiple bottom lines—striving for spiritual and social impact along with economic excellence and environmental sustainability. We carry a heavy, beautiful vision. But as we step into 2026, I expect to see a recurring challenge: brilliant, mission-driven companies struggling quietly, not because their product is bad or their mission is weak, but because they are doing marketing backwards.

In reality, marketing isn’t an afterthought or a random activity. It is the foundation of your business. It is the stewardship of your message.

Companies like this still treat marketing like a megaphone they pick up at the end of the process to tell the world they exist. In reality, marketing isn’t an afterthought or a random activity. It is the foundation of your business. It is the stewardship of your message. If your brand is the bridge between a person’s problem and a God-given solution, then every bit of confusion in your messaging is a barrier to that person’s flourishing. You need to give them the answer for when they ask: Why you?

The Activity Trap

Too many businesses start with the wrong questions because they aren’t trained to think about marketing strategically. They say things like:

  • We need better social posts and followers
  • We just need to get more engagement
  • We have no pipeline, we need more leads

These aren’t strategy issues, they are activity questions. If you start here, you’ll go in the wrong direction fast. You might find yourself stuck in a visibility loop—lots of noise, plenty of Likes, but low conversions and much disappointment. In the hyper-automated and AI landscape now, more activity is no longer a competitive advantage, only radical clarity is.

Reframing Marketing as Clarity Work

Marketing isn’t just a series of campaigns, it’s the mechanism by which your business moves forward. It is a business-wide function, not a department. And it’s where selling begins. Your message is the first handshake, the first moment of trust, the first reason someone considers working with you.

If you were building a house, you wouldn’t pick out the curtains before you poured the foundation. Yet I see organizations spend thousands on social media campaigns without a lead capture system or a clear message in place. The result? Wasted budget, low conversions, and a disappointed team.

In the hyper-automated and AI landscape now, more activity is no longer a competitive advantage, only radical clarity is.

Strategy comes first. Effective and measurable results must start with clarity. Before you build, before you sell, and certainly before you spend your development budget on an app or a product, you must establish a clear marketing strategy.

This matters more than ever this year. You’ll need many more leads than before to make the same number of sales. Without distinct clarity and focus, you’ll spend more and gain less.

The Authority Gap in Mission-Driven Business

One of the most common reasons BAM marketing struggles is that leaders rely too heavily on the mission to do the heavy lifting, neglecting the excellence required to compete globally.

Being a faith-based company is your why, but it is rarely the customer’s why for buying. To market like you mean it this year, you must lead with your brand value proposition. You must be best in class, not just best in mission or social enterprise.

If your messaging leads with features instead of value, you’ve created what I call the candy machine problem.

Picture a vending machine filled with candy—everything looks appealing, everything tastes sweet, so the customer shrugs and picks any one. Next time, they choose something different because none of it mattered enough to remember. When all the options blur together, choice becomes random.

If you don’t clearly position yourself as the best for something, you’re just another pleasant option in an overcrowded machine. Interchangeable. Forgettable.

Being a faith-based company is your why, but it is rarely the customer’s why for buying. To market like you mean it this year, you must lead with your brand value proposition.

The hidden cost of this approach is brutal, especially in emerging economies where marketing budgets are lean and trust-building takes longer. Every dollar spent on vague messaging could have moved someone closer to a decision. Every piece of content that tries to appeal to everyone dilutes your team’s focus and trains the algorithm to show your work to no one in particular.

True clarity work makes you memorable because of your excellence, which then earns you the right to share your purpose. Serving people well requires being findable, understandable, and consistent.

Solving the Wrong Problem

Most businesses misdiagnose what’s holding them back. They think they need more traffic or more leads. But the real problem is almost always messaging.

Here’s why—if you’re unclear about how to articulate your brand value or position your business as distinct, no amount of traffic will convert. In the digital space—especially in social selling—your only tools are the words you publish. If those words don’t carry the weight of your unique positioning, they become just another piece of digital clutter.

And, clutter is invisible. Social platforms have shifted from direct selling to brand discovery and buying research. Old marketing mindsets won’t survive in this environment. Staying and growing in the marketplace will take more. As recently heard by C12-Triad, “To scale, you need clarity that’s repeatable, visible, and non-negotiable.”

This challenge intensifies across borders. A message that feels clear in a Western market might confuse or offend in Southeast Asia or Africa. Strategic clarity means stripping away industry jargon and cultural idioms to focus on universal human needs and specific local pain points. When you do this well, local brands can outperform global competitors—not despite their focus, but because of it.

Why Clarity Feels Hard (And Why It’s Worth It Anyway)

If you’re a faith-based business owner, you may already feel this tension. You know clarity matters, yet when it’s time to actually narrow your message, something inside you resists.

First, there’s the fear that choosing a specific audience means abandoning others. But here’s the truth: choosing a specific audience doesn’t mean you love others less. It means you’re positioned to serve some people deeply rather than everyone poorly. Clarity is not exclusion. It’s focus.

Second, there’s the humility trap. Many Christian entrepreneurs downplay their capabilities, soften their language, and hide behind “we just want to help” instead of saying clearly what they’re the best at. But humility is not hiding your light. Clarity about your expertise honors both God’s gifting in you and your customer’s need. When you obscure what you do well, you’re making it harder for the people you’re meant to serve to find you.

Finally, clarity requires courage. It requires you to stand out, to say no to opportunities that don’t fit, to risk being misunderstood. Your message doesn’t need to be loud. It just needs to be clear. And that clarity is not ego. It’s stewardship.

Because unclear marketing isn’t just bad business—it’s poor stewardship of the resources, opportunities, and calling you’ve been entrusted with. Every confused message is a missed connection. Clarity is the loving thing to do. It serves your customer by making their decision easier and serves your mission by ensuring the people who need you most can actually find you.

Your message doesn’t need to be loud. It just needs to be clear. And that clarity is not ego. It’s stewardship.

Clear messaging is your competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace. It’s how you build trust across cultures, earn attention in under seven seconds, and create impact that lasts.

When you align your messaging with your mission, marketing becomes the engine that drives your impact globally. Know what you’re saying, know who needs to hear it, and market like you mean it.

Want support or inspiration to build clarity into your marketing? Grab free tools, templates, resources, and other faith-focused items: https://bit.ly/bamgear

 

Read Part 2 here.

 

Sandra Lynn helps values-driven businesses gain clarity, scale effectively, and generate predictable revenue across borders. Specializing in brand positioning, market entry strategy, and digital messaging—especially for emerging markets like the Balkans and companies entering US markets—she works with mission-minded leaders who need to cut through the noise and communicate with precision. With seven international businesses launched and over 20 years serving clients across 17 countries, Sandra brings battle-tested expertise to the challenges of cross-cultural marketing, lead generation, and global growth, helping marketplace leaders bridge the gap between purpose and performance through clarity that can drive growth. Ready for strategic support? Connect with Sandra at www.linktr.ee/digitalme for her site, socials, blog, and video channels.

 

 

 

Photo by Aubrey Odom on Unsplash

 

 

Business for All Seasons: On a Tikkun Olam Mission

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by Mats Tunehag


Mats Tunehag has just published a new free ebook “Business for All Seasons“, this is an excerpt.

 

What does it mean to be a Christian in the marketplace? There is a spectrum from just being a Christian in business and investing, to having a Christian impact through business and investments. The spectrum does not imply a judgmental attitude, but rather provokes a question on how we can learn and grow, and become more God-driven in the marketplace. It is a journey. I can be a Christian in business, just trying to survive and make money. My Christian faith has little to no influence on how I do business or make decisions about investments. Others may try to apply some Biblical values in business practices and avoid investing in unethical companies. Further down the spectrum one may explore how business and investments can have a Christian impact on multiple bottom-lines for multiple stakeholders. And how do we reflect God’s global thrust, to be a blessing and a witness to all peoples and nations, including through our work in business?

At this end of the spectrum, we are doing business and investing with a tikkun olam mission. What is that? Tikkun olam is a Jewish concept of repairing the world, bringing healing to the world, by co-creating with God, also through business and investing.

Tikkun Olam is observing how things are, realizing it is not as it should be. Things are broken, and need repair, people are hurting and need healing. A transformation is desired. Tikkun olam means co-creating with God, and bridging the gap between the world which is, and to a world as it ought to be. A few mundane examples: the kid’s room is messy, and it should be tidied up. A road is full of potholes and needs to be fixed. A smart phone has only 1% battery left, and needs to be recharged. What is versus what it ought to be, and action should be taken by someone.We know from history that businesses can be strong agents of change and transformation. And financial capital is an essential part of that. Peter Drucker says: “Every single social and global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise.” But tikkun olam is beyond being a secular or individualistic ‘do-gooder’. It is about co-creating with God, which implies submitting to his will. The Lord’s prayer is a tikkun olam prayer: May your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. On earth—as it is. God’s kingdom—as it ought to be.

Tikkun olam is a Jewish concept of repairing the world, bringing healing to the world, by co-creating with God, also through business and investing.

The American Jesuit theologian Roger Haight writes in ‘Spirituality Seeking Theology’ (2014): “God has entrusted creation to human beings not merely as caretakers of a past condition but as co-creators with God of the future.” Thus, we are not just Christian business people or investors in the marketplace. No, we are on a tikkun olam mission, with our time, talents and treasures, that His Kingdom may be preached, demonstrated and extended as we do business and investing. As God calls and equips us to do business and to invest, we should ask tikkun olam questions. What are some needs and challenges that can be addressed through my business? How can my investments make a difference to social and global issues?

The list can obviously be made long and diverse, and no-one can address all challenges we face locally or globally. But together we can invest and build businesses and eco-systems which can tackle many needs.

God wants people and nations to flourish socially, economically, culturally, spiritually, environmentally, intellectually, et cetera. It is about restoring human dignity, also through business. The antitheses to human dignity and flourishing is poverty, unemployment, wars, lack of clean water, human trafficking, labor exploitation, food insecurity, and no gospel access. That is what often is, but it is not how it ought to be. That is why we do business and investing with a tikkun olam mission. To repair the world, with God and for the common good—for God’s glory.

More about Business for All Seasons

Business for All Seasons is a small book with a large ambition: to help Christians think more clearly and act more courageously in the marketplace. It gathers twenty short chapters* all circling the same conviction: business and investing are not side activities to “real” ministry, but central avenues through which God restores people, and transform communities and nations.

The title nods to A Man for All Seasons, the story of Sir Thomas More, who chose faithfulness to conscience over comfort, reputation, and even his life. In a different arena, men and women in business face their own pressures: to separate faith from work, to chase profit without purpose, or to accept broken systems as inevitable. This book is written for those who want to follow God in boardrooms, shop floors, farms, and investment committees, even when that is costly.

It also echoes Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and the hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Business, like nature, moves through springtimes of vision and start-up energy, summers of growth, autumns of transition and harvest, and winters of pruning, disappointment, or waiting. Yet the seasons are not neatly separated; they overlap and interact. Through them all, God’s faithfulness does not change. “Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest… join with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness.” These pages invite you to see your work and investments in that larger, steady light.

You will not find a technical manual on portfolio construction or a step-by-step guide to starting a company. Instead, each chapter offers a theological lens, a story, or a set of questions that can reshape how you view capital, risk, success, and calling. We will look at themes like tikkun olam—repairing a broken world with God; wealth creation as a holy calling; investing for generations rather than quarters; how business can confront human trafficking instead of profiting from exploitation; and why there is no biblical “pyramid” that makes pastors more spiritual than entrepreneurs or investors.

Throughout the book runs the language of four bottom lines. Business as Mission seeks holistic impact—financial, social, environmental, and spiritual—because the Kingdom of God touches every dimension of life. Like the four seasons, these bottom lines are distinct yet inseparable. Sound investments can create dignifying jobs, protect creation, strengthen families, and open space for the good news of Jesus to be both seen and heard.

Whether you are an investor, entrepreneur, pastor, student, or simply someone wondering how your work fits into God’s purposes, my hope is that this book will do three things: affirm that your place in the marketplace truly matters to God; stretch your imagination for what faithful business can do in the world; and encourage you to keep going—through all the seasons—with integrity, courage, and joy.

These are not final answers but invitations into ongoing conversations and practice. My prayer is that as you read and reflect, you will hear God’s call afresh to steward your time, talents, and treasures for the good of people and the glory of God—becoming, in your own sphere, a “business person for all seasons.”

Download pdf here >> Free e-book: Business for All Seasons


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.

 

 

 

 

 

6 Ways to Build Trust for Greater BAM Impact

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by Larry Sharp

 

From the Archive, March 2018.


In early 2016 I picked up a copy of the The Economist, entitled “The World in 2016”. An article entitled, “A Crisis of Trust” by Richard Eldelman intrigued me.[1] Mr. Edelman maintains that “trust—or, often, the lack of it—is one of the central issues of our time”. He may be right.

The Edelman Trust Barometer has been tracking trust issues for fifteen years, particularly between countries in the categories of government, business, technology, media, and NGOs. Technology is the most trusted sector and government is the least trusted institution worldwide. While trust in business is recovering, trust in CEOs has declined by ten points since 2011.

A recent Maritz poll indicates that only seven percent of workers strongly agree that they trust their senior leaders to look out for their best interest.[2] John Blanchard’s research demonstrates that 59% of respondents indicated they had left an organization due to trust issues, citing lack of communication and dishonesty as key contributing factors.[3]  Clearly everywhere and in every sector, trust is at a tipping point.

All of this got me thinking about missional business startups. Certainly trust is fragile—in all aspects of life, and also in business. It is imperative for clients, customers, employees and team members to trust the owner because it is often easier to mistrust than to trust. What can a business owner do to develop high levels of trust?

The simplest understanding of trust is that it centers in competence and character. If owners and managers are competent in their knowledge, practice, and in getting things done; and they are persons of integrity, reliability and promise, they are probably a person of trust.

Perhaps the following concrete actions will go a long way to building trust in the business environment:

 

1. Tell the truth and live with integrity

Study after study has indicated that the number one quality that people want in a leader is integrity. Business leaders need to tell it straight, be open and honest inside and outside the company. The Biblical Decalogue (The Ten Commandments) makes it clear that we are not be bear false witness. Zechariah states in 8:16, “These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace.”

People need to be treated appropriately and justly and management’s actions must be consistent with the values of the company so that employees and all others can see that they can rely on the leader.

We live in a time where moral standards are being eroded, even among good Christian people. It is mandatory that our character is built upon a foundation of integrity and a commitment to spiritual development.

Sometimes this is difficult to do in a corrupt society where all around we see dishonesty, deceit and corruption. We helped Jim buy a small factory in Indonesia. One of the consultants went with him to the tax office where they revealed that they wanted to discuss ahead of time what taxes might look like for certain levels of revenue. The tax authority had never heard of such a question and developed a respect for Jim from that day forward.

2. Demonstrate competence

Competence goes a long way toward producing credibility which is foundational to trust. Can you produce results? Can you get the job done because you have the skills to make things happen? Does your product go out the door with excellence? Competence involves the technical knowledge of what the product or service entails, the operational capacity to practically get it done, and the political understanding to accomplish things in the context of the culture, organizational politics and local political milieu.

Sometimes competence is simply a formidable expertise, but sometimes it may require you to say, “I don’t know”. That demonstrates knowledge of what you do not know and allows trust to develop as you recommend another source for the client.

Dale has developed a credible coffee outlet in Nepal because his credibility is well developed and proven. He has studied business (MBA), has become accomplished in understanding and valuing the culture and is an expert in coffee roasting and retail. In areas where he was weaker, he hired people to help him. Dale has developed competence which is widely recognized.

3. Value people by showing that you care about them

People will trust you if you value them, get to know them by identifying their needs and seek to empower them in the workplace. This includes having good communication skills and showing that you are human by being open with your life. The leader then is seen as a “real” person.

One of the best ways to build trust is by sharing information so as to allow them into the inner workings of the business as much as possible. Discussion of important marketing topics, future business plans and strategies, financial data, performance feedback, current problems – all communicates trust and a sense that “we are in this together”. By giving a sense of identity to everyone, trust develops, productivity increases, morale develops, and teamwork solidifies.

The Second Commandment of Jesus mandates love as important in relationships with others. In fact Jesus said that love for God and our neighbor are the two most important things (Mark 12:31). That includes learning to listen more effectively, using names in conversation and telling people what you appreciate about them. One of the ways I found to demonstrate this was to be accessible, allowing people to come to my office just about any time. People are valued when you respect their time. Start meetings on time, promptly return phone calls and reply to emails. Thoroughly address all points raise in communiques. Provide feedback regularly.

What does this look like in a cross-cultural startup? For Bill it simply meant that he learned to ask about the families of the employees. That simple act of love and care caused him to be called the “best boss in all of China” by one of his foremen.

4. Demonstrate dependability and reliability

One develops trust by being consistent, predictable, and keeping your word. Don’t be afraid to state expectations up front such as establishing policies and procedures and then following through on enforcement. If people see that they can count on you to be dependable in small things, they will trust you for the big things. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Luke 16:10.

One way to be consistent is to daily ask oneself if I “walk the talk” and ask others if they see you as one who “walks the talk”. Am I an example of the vision and values of the organization? It is a trust buster to say one thing and do another. This also means being accountable for actions and being responsive to the needs of others.

Joe and Kay made it a priority to live out the values of their company. They demonstrated in a reliable, consistent manner what it meant to follow Jesus’ principles and the employees saw that they “walked the talk”. When we interviewed several employees (there are 65 in total) they all stated that they loved working at the for-profit ABC English School in Asia and most had come to be disciples of Jesus.

5. Address issues directly

There is no substitute for resolving issues head on by listening to all members in the controversy and expanding people’s involvement in the resolution process. Trust and loyalty is built when the boss addresses complaints fast, listens to everyone, and asks for their input. The same principle holds true for customers who will learn to trust the company if complaints are addressed, information is shared and they feel they are well cared for. If a mistake has been made, admit it and provide an apology and thus restore the trust needed for a good relationship. Leaders who admit mistakes when they are wrong are not seen as weak – they are seen as being trustworthy.

We were visiting a factory in China when Dave told us that “every day on the factory floor is an opportunity for discipleship”. When we asked how so, he told us of two line foremen who were having a shouting match. One was being blamed for holding the other up with product. When Dave was informed, he addressed the issue directly by diverting attention from the confrontation and toward the real issues which had to do with non-personal issues which were remediable. 

6. Deliver the unexpected

One of the best ways to deliver trust is to surprise and delight customers, clients and employees. Deliver more that was promised – more service, more time, more convenience. This adds value and trust; it creates a feeling of goodwill and attracts people to the business and a sense of solidarity in the employees.

When I asked the employees of boat-builder Rob in Indonesia what they liked about working for Rob, they talked about the camping trips they did on nearby islands and how much they were appreciated. This unexpected employee “perk” created such good will that both retention and productivity increased but perhaps more importantly, it created opportunity for significant conversations about life issues.

Character displayed outwardly is needed for others to trust. Trust takes time to build but it’s worth it for the organization to flourish.

 

First published on The BAM Review in March 2018, from the IBEC Ventures blog here and here, reposted with kind permission.

 

Larry Sharp is the Founder and current BAM Support Specialist of a Business for Transformation (BAM, B4t) consulting firm, International Business and Education Consultants (www.ibecventures.com). Larry served 21 years in Brazil and then 20 years as Crossworld VP of Operations and as Vice President of Business Partnerships. He is currently a VP Emeritus and consultant with Crossworld. Since 2007 he has devoted energies toward Business as Mission (BAM) and currently is a consultant on BAM and education themes. Larry travels within North America speaking and teaching in conferences, colleges and churches on themes related to Business As Mission (BAM, B4t) and missions.  His travels abroad relate to BAM, crisis preparation and management, and team building. 

 

 

Footnotes
  1. Edelman, Richard. “A Crisis of Trust.”The Economist. March 13, 2016. Page 90.
  2. Managing in an Era of Mistrust: Maritz Poll Reveals Employees Lack Trust in their Workplace. Available online at:www.maritz.com/Press-Releases/2010Maritz-Poll
  3. Building Trust:The Critical Link to a High-Involvement, High-Energy Workplace Begins with a Common Language.The Ken Blanchard Companies. 2010.

 

Get Larry’s Book: Missions Disrupted

Available at all good book stores online!

 

 


Photo by Vardan Papikyan on Unsplash

 

Business as Mission: Reflecting the Heart of God

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by Grace Kim

 

In a world marked by brokenness, injustice, and spiritual emptiness, the heart of God longs to restore what sin has fractured. He is not distant from the struggles of daily life—economic hardship, oppression, exploitation, and hopelessness. Instead, He enters into the mess with a vision of wholeness, and one of the surprising ways He brings that about is through business.

Business: God’s Original Design

From the beginning, work and creativity were part of God’s good design. In Genesis, God created and called it “very good.” He gave humanity a mandate: to steward the earth, cultivate it, and bring fruitfulness from it. Business is one expression of that mandate. When we create value, serve others, and meet real needs through business, we are participating in God’s character — a Provider, a Creator, a Sustainer.

Work was never meant to be a curse; it was meant to be worship. Business, when surrendered to God, becomes holy.

BAM: More Than Economics

Business as Mission (BAM) reflects the heart of God because it brings together the spiritual and the practical. In many parts of the world, traditional missionary models are no longer welcome. But business is. Through real, sustainable, and ethically run businesses, Christians are building relationships, meeting needs, and sharing Christ in places that might never hear the gospel otherwise.

But BAM is not just about access—it’s about impact. God cares not only about souls but about systems: systems of injustice, poverty, and exploitation. Through BAM, believers are creating jobs that restore dignity, paying fair wages, discipling employees, and standing against corruption. They are being salt and light in boardrooms, marketplaces, and factory floors.

The Heart of God on Display

At its deepest level, BAM reflects the compassion, justice, and redemptive love of God:

  • God is a Provider – BAM meets real needs.
  • God is a Redeemer – BAM restores broken systems and broken people.
  • God is on mission – and business becomes a vehicle for that mission.

This isn’t about using business as a cover for ministry. It’s about doing business as ministry — with integrity, love, and purpose, because Jesus is Lord over every square inch of life, including the economy.

A Call to Join Him

God is raising up entrepreneurs, investors, and workers who don’t separate their faith from their work, but see business as an act of worship and mission. Whether you’re running a coffee shop, designing software, or managing a farm, your work can reflect the heart of God when Christ is at the center.

In a world desperate for hope, truth, and restoration, BAM is a powerful reminder that God uses everyday work to bring eternal change. Business is not just a tool for income—it’s a tool for the Kingdom.

Business is not separate from God’s heart. It is deeply aligned with it when it reflects His love, justice, and purpose in the world.

 

This article was first published in the SfK Newsletter and is reposted here with kind permission.

 

Grace Kim is the Editor of the SfK Newsletter. Synergy for the Kingdom is a global network of for-profit or non-profit enterprises and people, aiming to produce holistic transformation in the lives of people in Asia and Africa by seeking Synergy for the Kingdom of God.

 

 

Photo by Fadi Xd on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

4 Ways BAM Companies Collaborate with Not For-Profits on the Ground

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by Larry Sharp

 

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. – Traditional Proverb
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. – Old Testament
Consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. – New Testament


It is expected that a BAM business will seek to be profitable as a key component of its’ Quadruple Bottom Line values. But the ultimate goal is to see transformed individuals and communities, economically, spiritually, and socially.

All the while, Non-Profit or Not-For-Profit organizations nearby are trying to accomplish the same end, often with no intent to separate from the donor funding stream that sustains them. The two entities are driven by a common cause.

I have often wondered: How do they cooperate? How do they work together? Are there ways they can complement each other? Surely the Not-For Profit (NFP) wants social, economic, and spiritual transformation. Of course, a BAM company is unique in its’ drive towards sustainability and independence from donor funds, but aside from that, how should the two relate to one another in the same city or region?

A Guide for BAM Companies

There is a good example in a BAM company operating successfully (post revenue with 400 plus employees) in SE Asia. Let’s call the company ‘J’.

I interviewed M, the owner of J Company, and was impressed with his commitment to cooperation with Not For-Profits in all three countries where he has operations. Here is what I learned.

1. For-Profit minded owners can buy a business idea or operation from a NFP

M and his wife visited a mission worker in the 1990s who had started making bread in her home. It was discovered to be so good that a neighbor offered to buy some. This was the start of a small NFP business with a staff of five at the time of Ms visit. M and his wife left SE Asia for North America but returned to SE Asia three years later and bought the bakery/café along with his sister and brother-in-law.

Twenty years later Walter Deibel made the case in his well-received book Buy then Build, that acquisition entrepreneurs are outsmarting the startup game. M proved to be well ahead of his time.

2. Not-For-Profits are a source of For-Proft employees

J Company takes advantage of the connections and experiences of Not-For-Profits such as aid agencies, church groups, mission agencies, and independent NGO humanitarian workers. Wise business leaders like M know that jobs are important and necessary for survivors of abuse, poverty, gross injustice, and slavery. More and more programs are developing to help victims to overcome and survive and also to be prepared for jobs and a better future. After all, leaders in both sectors know that the end goal is life transformation.

One example is that J Company has a partnership with a local NGO to make strategic hires of blind or deaf individuals so that now 20% of the staff are either blind or deaf. J Company is expanding its training materials into braille and other methods to increase the marketability of those disadvantaged. More than one hundred of J Company’s employees have in some way been disadvantaged. These individuals have been ignored by the competition and usually not even given a work interview.

Survivors of human slavery form part of M’s hires.  He has given them a safe environment and a chance to develop their skills and establish real dignity. An important component of this is the training of managers to give everyone equal value and opportunity.

3. For-Profits give back to the world of the Not-For-Profits

There are many ways to give back. J Company has given donations to support more than fifty transformative causes in the community such as: water filters, rural school projects, counseling, soap production, CD and recording distribution, organic farming initiatives, hygiene trainings, and construction of Christian rehabilitation centers. While the donations in and of themselves are significant, M notes that the community readily observes the values for which J Company is known in action through these projects.

The company strives for excellence in all things, treating employees and clients honestly and fairly and providing a safe and flexible working environment. They study the laws of the country and practice them to the best of their ability with ethical and moral decisions and the appropriate handling of money issues. It is evident that the Not-for-Profit ecosystem benefits from the J Company in these three countries.

4. For Profit leaders become increasingly involved in the community themselves

M notes that as they endeared themselves to the community and became a part of it, opportunities developed, such as the start of a marriage ministry. More than 1500 people have attended over twenty marriage encounter weekends. They have seen many marriages radically changed in practical and spiritual ways.

Having dozens of interns come has allowed for plenty of interaction with the community so the intern gets a vision for returning to develop something themselves. In the short term, the intern contributes to the community as they interact with people and projects. While internships or short-term mission trips typically join with NGOs and mission projects, the J Company internship program allows interns to see beyond charity and integrate business with help people worldwide.

One well known successful BAM business owner in Asia, DN, concurs that the business owners need the NGO sector for human and corporate flourishing. Each contributes to an ecosystem which converges with the passion to transform lives by bringing economic, social, spiritual and physical change. This is pleasing to God and to every human on planet earth.

Not all BAM businesses will grow to more than 400 full-time staff in three countries, but no matter what the size, all would do well to explore the synergy which results in cooperation with the Not-for-Profit sector.

 

Read the story of J Company and more than 20 others in the book: Missions Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missional Professionals (see information below).

 

Larry Sharp is the Founder and current BAM Support Specialist of a Business for Transformation (BAM, B4t) consulting firm, International Business and Education Consultants (www.ibecventures.com). Larry served 21 years in Brazil and then 20 years as Crossworld VP of Operations and as Vice President of Business Partnerships. He is currently a VP Emeritus and consultant with Crossworld. Since 2007 he has devoted energies toward Business as Mission (BAM) and currently is a consultant on BAM and education themes. Larry travels within North America speaking and teaching in conferences, colleges and churches on themes related to Business As Mission (BAM, B4t) and missions.  His travels abroad relate to BAM, crisis preparation and management, and team building. 

 

 

Get Larry’s Book: Missions Disrupted

Available at all good book stores online!

 

 


Photo by Vardan Papikyan on Unsplash

 

A BAM Story: Witness, Generosity and Transformation in Puerto Rico [Video]

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by Merari Peña


Merari Peña shared some of her story at the Fourth Lausanne Congress Workplace Track in September 2024.

 

 

Transcript:

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Merari Pena, and I am the founder of Forever Crystals, a business that started on the small island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. It’s such an honor to stand before you today and share a bit about my journey.

When I was 23, I had a life-changing encounter with Jesus. This profound experience allowed me to forgive my father, who had left our family when I was just 3 years old. That forgiveness filled me with a new love for my father and a desire to serve him. At that time, what he needed most was financial support to pursue his missionary work in Cuba.

That same year, in 2007, I started a business in my garage with a simple desire—to support my father’s missionary work. Little did I know how much it would grow and how God would use it to touch so many lives and build His Kingdom.

From the beginning, our main goal was to fund missions. But everything changed in 2010 when I had the incredible opportunity to attend the Lausanne Congress in South Africa. There, I learned about the concept of business as mission, and it completely transformed the way I saw our work. This new understanding of the theology of work reshaped everything we did.

One of the biggest changes in our business was understanding our divine design and realizing that we are missionaries in the marketplace. We already had influence, a voice, and the attention of everyday people. The question then became: how are we going to use it? Our business is a fashion jewelry retail store, and we have focused on designs that inspire others and reflect stories and principles of the Bible. Our most popular pieces are a birthstone collection that celebrates the life of each woman and reflects a fruit of the Spirit. The pieces we create tell a story of biblical virtues and the strength of people in the Bible who overcame difficult times. This approach not only beautifies our customers but also spreads the message of hope and faith through creative designs that add sparkle to their everyday lives.

God’s Faithfulness in our Business Journey

God has been our guide and strength through every challenge we’ve faced. During Hurricane Maria, where our island was without electricity and water for months, our first focus was to be the hands of God, providing for our employees by distributing water and first aid kits to those in need. Our business philosophy is grounded in serving others, reflecting Jesus’ love in practical ways. When the pandemic hit, our priority remained the same—to maintain their jobs. We pivoted our business knowledge to create new ventures, ensuring our team had food on the table.

Through it all, we’ve poured into the lives of our employees, making them our first line of ministry. Our business isn’t just about products or profits; it’s about people and purpose. For 17 years, we’ve walked alongside our employees in their personal journeys, providing not just jobs, but a supportive family. We employ over 50 dedicated young women who share our vision and values, and some of them have been with us the entire 17 years we have been in business. We’ve shared life’s highs and lows together—welcoming new babies, facing cancer diagnoses, supporting through life’s losses, and celebrating marriages. We’re a community grounded in Bible principles, always there for one another.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. – Colossians 3:23-24

What we have gained we have surrendered it to God. We’ve used the influence gained through our business to start a non-profit movement called Oasis Empresarial, uniting local businesswomen to learn biblical principles for healthy, purpose-driven entrepreneurship. Through Oasis, we preach Christ to non-believers, support missionary marketplace endeavors, and minister to entrepreneurial women about Christian values, fostering spiritually and emotionally healthy entrepreneurs.

In closing, I want to leave you with this thought: In business, as in life, our “why” is the most powerful driving force. For us, our “why” has always been to serve God and others, to create a business that is a beacon of hope and love. As it says in Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

As workplace Christians, we are God’s provision to the church for Kingdom building. The resources we generate through our daily work have enabled us to go out into the world or send others to do God’s work. We’ve seen firsthand how planting, supporting, and maintaining local churches in Cuba has furthered our resilience in business and the Kingdom of God, and it’s been an incredible blessing to be a part of that journey.

Thank you for allowing me to share our story. May God bless you all in your endeavors and may you find joy and purpose in serving others through what God has placed in your hands.

Thank you.

 

Read a longer story about Forever Crystals published 10 years ago on The BAM Review.

Access more videos, transcripts and study materials from the Lausanne Congress Workplace Track here.



Merari Pena, founder of Forever Crystals, holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and studied jewelry design at Alchimia in Florence. With over 25 years of retail experience, she launched her fashion jewelry business in her garage at 23. Forever Crystals has grown into a thriving enterprise with an online shop and stores in the Caribbean. Merari also leads Oasis Empresarial, a non-profit empowering businesswoman with biblical principles. Committed to Servant Leadership, she integrates faith and business to support communities and missionaries, spreading hope and purpose.

 

 

Photo by Forever Crystals

 

 

 

 

Business as Mission: Shining God’s Light in a World of Shadows

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by Grace Kim

 

In our rapidly changing world, businesses play an influential role in shaping societies. With economic instability, social injustice, and environmental crises intensifying, we need leaders who will build companies that reflect God’s goodness rather than chase shifting cultural trends.

The words of James 1:17 speak clearly into this moment:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (NIV)

This verse reminds us that God is the source of every true and lasting good. While the marketplace is often driven by fluctuating values—where ethics are sacrificed for profit and people are treated as means to an end—God calls business leaders to reflect His consistent character: goodness, generosity, and integrity.

The Reality of the World Today

If we look around honestly, it’s clear the business world is struggling with some deep issues:

  • Economic Instability: Huge portions of the world’s population still face poverty, unemployment, and financial injustice, while wealth often remains concentrated in the hands of a few.
  • Social Injustice: Workplaces sometimes mirror the divisions we see in society—whether through discrimination, lack of opportunity, or unfair treatment of marginalized communities.
  • Environmental Crisis: Many businesses ignore the long-term health of our planet in pursuit of short-term gains, harming creation and leaving others to deal with the fallout.
  • Moral Compromise: Too often, we see businesses prioritizing profit over people, cutting ethical corners, and losing sight of their higher purpose.

What Does It Look Like to Reflect God’s Goodness in Business?

It doesn’t mean running a religious company. It means running a good company—one that values people, creates meaningful work, and operates with integrity.

Imagine businesses where leaders genuinely care for their employees’ well-being, where decisions are made not just for shareholder gain but for community flourishing, and where environmental impact is thoughtfully considered because we are stewards of God’s creation.

It’s about bringing generosity into the workplace culture, making room for compassion in leadership, and recognizing that our ability to create and lead businesses is a gift meant to bless others.

The Steadiness of God in a Shifting Marketplace

Markets shift. Economies fluctuate. What was a winning business model yesterday might be obsolete tomorrow. But God’s goodness doesn’t change. He is still the “Father of the heavenly lights”—steadfast, faithful, and true.

As business leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs, we are called to reflect that same steadiness in how we work and lead.

  • Be generous when the world says to hoard.
  • Be honest when the world says to cut corners.
  • Care for people when the world says they’re just resources.
  • Build for the long-term when the world chases short-term gains.

A Light in the Shadows

The business world is full of shifting shadows—trends that fade, crises that shake confidence, and values that change with the headlines. But through it all, we have an opportunity to point to something better.

When our work reflects the goodness of God, business becomes more than profit. It becomes purpose.

And in a world desperate for hope and integrity, that is a gift worth offering.

 

This article was first published in the SfK Newsletter and is reposted here with kind permission.

 

Grace Kim is the Editor of the SfK Newsletter. Synergy for the Kingdom is a global network of for-profit or non-profit enterprises and people, aiming to produce holistic transformation in the lives of people in Asia and Africa by seeking Synergy for the Kingdom of God.

 

 

Photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash

 

 

 

AI Answers: What is Business as Mission?

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The BAM Global team is taking a break during early August, so we had AI do some work for us to produce this lighter summer post (or winter post, if you are in the Southern hemisphere!)

Here’s how AI summarized “What is Business as Mission?”:

Business as Mission (BAM) is the integration of business and Christian mission, where businesses are intentionally used to address spiritual, social, environmental, and economic needs, while also pursuing financial sustainability.

It’s a movement where entrepreneurs and business professionals use their skills and resources to create profitable and sustainable businesses that contribute to the holistic transformation of individuals and communities, with a focus on the poor and unreached.

Key aspects of Business as Mission:

Integration of Business and Mission:
BAM businesses are not simply businesses with a “religious” component; rather, the business itself is the mission, intentionally designed to achieve both business and spiritual objectives.

Holistic Transformation:
BAM seeks to address the multifaceted needs of individuals and communities, encompassing spiritual, economic, social, and environmental aspects.

Focus on the Marginalized:
BAM often targets vulnerable populations and those who have not yet heard the Gospel, aiming to bring positive change to their lives.

Sustainability and Profitability:
BAM businesses are designed to be financially viable and sustainable, ensuring long-term impact and reducing dependence on external funding.

Kingdom of God Values:
BAM businesses are guided by Kingdom values, seeking to reflect God’s purposes in their operations and interactions.

Multiple Bottom Lines:
BAM businesses consider not just financial profit, but also social, environmental, and spiritual outcomes as measures of success.

Why is Business as Mission important?

Addressing Global Needs:
BAM offers a unique approach to tackling critical global issues like poverty, human trafficking, and lack of access to the Gospel through business solutions.

Reaching Unreached People:
BAM provides a way to engage with people and communities where traditional missionary work may be restricted or challenging.

Empowering Business Professionals:
BAM recognizes and affirms the potential of business leaders and professionals to be agents of transformation in the world.

Fulfilling the Great Commission:
BAM aligns with the Great Commission of making disciples by integrating evangelism and discipleship into the context of business.

Since AI pulls from existing internet content, we’re encouraged by the accuracy of what it’s finding and regurgitating back at us. It spurs us on to keep producing useful and inspiring original content for AI platforms to draw from.

 

What about you? What would you add to this? Do you think this AI summary could be improved? Email us at info@bamglobal.org with your ideas!

The BAM Global Team

 

 

Photo by Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash

Leveraging the God-given Power of Business [Video]

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by João Mordomo


João Mordomo introduces the concept of business as mission at the Fourth Lausanne Congress Workplace Track in September 2024.

 

 

Transcript:

Good afternoon to everybody or good morning or good evening depending on what your body clock is telling you. I’m glad to be here with you this afternoon. That’s what my body clock is almost telling me now.

I’m João Mordomo and I’m the [Lausanne] Catalyst for Business as Mission together with my colleague Jo Plummer who’s around here somewhere. And I’ve been asked to talk to you about business as mission.

Dallas Willard once said that, “Business is a primary moving force for the love of God in human history.” Business when it’s done well is glorifying to God and has enormous potential to do good in society.

Business has an innate God-given power to create dignified jobs, to multiply resources, to provide for families and communities, to spur innovation and development, and to solve pressing human problems. In the global marketplace today, we have a huge opportunity to leverage this God-given power of business to address some of the world’s most pressing spiritual and social and economic and environmental issues.

We call this BAM. It’s business as mission.

It’s a movement of business professionals called to use their gifts, their expertise in entrepreneurship and good management to bring creative long-term sustainable solutions to challenges such as the evils of human trafficking or the task of reaching the world’s remaining unreached people groups with the gospel or the problems of societal injustice, environmental degradation, dire poverty, just to name a few.

When we’re thinking about the mission of the church, we need to remember what Michael Oh said on the opening night [of this Congress] that even if we equip every believer in the workplace to be an effective witness for Christ, we still won’t reach the world with the holistic gospel. Because 86% of the world’s Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus, not to mention atheists, do not have access to the gospel—they don’t know a Christian.

And, we still won’t have the solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Business provides these solutions.

Business as mission is a distinct category different from tent making, different from workplace ministry. Business as mission is the strategic use of authentic business activities that create authentic ministry opportunities that bring spiritual and social and economic and environmental transformation to marginalized people and unreached peoples.

In other words, BAM simultaneously fulfills the great mandate to steward creation well, the great commandment to love God and love our neighbors, and the great commission to make disciples of all nations.

Enter the Lausanne Business as Mission Issue Network. Together with an organization called BAM Global, we exist to invigorate the global BAM movement by building intellectual and social capital for the global BAM ecosystem. We produce global BAM reports. We facilitate global BAM consultations and events. And we nurture regional, activity-based, and industry-based partner networks. There are over 45 networks all around the world and growing.

Business as mission is the strategic use of authentic business activities that create authentic ministry opportunities that bring spiritual and social and economic and environmental transformation to marginalized people and unreached peoples.

We got our start—Joseph mentioned this earlier and I will say something about it—we got our start in the lead up to the 2004 Lausanne Forum that took place in Thailand exactly 20 years ago to this week. Over 70 of us from all around the world worked together for over a year addressing issues related to God’s purposes for work and business and the role of business people in church and missions and the needs of the world and the potential response from business. Most of us came from business backgrounds but there were also people from church and mission. There were educators, theologians, economists, lawyers, researchers. The collaboration process included 60 papers, 25 case studies, several national and regional BAM consultations and email-based discussions culminating in a week of face-to-face dialogue and a whole lot of work. Somebody asked me when I got back, “What was Thailand like?” I said, “I have no idea. I never left the hotel. We worked non-stop for a week.” The result was the groundbreaking 85 page Lausanne Occasional paper on Business as Mission and the accompanying one-page BAM Manifesto.

That Manifesto includes affirmations and recommendations and here are several of them:

  • We believe that God has created all men and women in his image with the ability to create good things for themselves and others and that includes business.
  • We believe in emulating Jesus who constantly met the needs of people he encountered daily, including in their workplaces.
  • We believe that the Holy Spirit empowers all members of the body of Christ to meet the spiritual and physical needs of others, including through business.
  • We believe that God has called and equipped business people and entrepreneurs to cause holistic gospel transformation of individuals and communities and societies and nations and peoples in and through their businesses.
  • We recognize the fact that poverty and unemployment are often rampant in areas where the name of Jesus is rarely or never heard or understood.
  • We recognize that there is a need for job creation and for multiplication of businesses all over the world focused on the four-fold bottom line of spiritual, economic, social, and environmental transformation.
  • We recognize the fact that the church has a huge and largely untapped resource in the Christian business community to bring global glory to God by way of business.

Therefore, number one:

We call upon the church worldwide to identify, affirm, pray for, commission, and release business people and entrepreneurs to exercise their gifts and callings as business people in the world among our peoples to the ends of the earth.

And number two:

We call upon business people globally to receive this affirmation and to prayerfully consider how their gifts and expertise and experience might be used to help create solutions for the world’s most pressing spiritual and physical needs through business as mission.

Is God calling you to join us? Is God calling you to join in this movement of business people and entrepreneurs who are serving God in and through the workplace and intentionally shaping their business for God’s glory, the work of the gospel, and the global common good?

I hope so. And if so, check out lausanne.org, bamglobal.org, and businessmission.com to start the journey with us.

Thank you.

 

Access more videos, transcripts and study materials from the Lausanne Congress Workplace Track here.

 

Dr. João Mordomo loves to help start and lead anything — mission agencies, churches, businesses, networks — that helps fulfill the Great Commission. He is a founding board member and Executive Director of BAM Global, and Catalyst for Business as Mission at the Lausanne Movement. João serves variously as owner, managing director and board member of several BAM companies, and designs and teaches BAM and other courses at several universities.

 

 

Photo by Josh Olalde on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

Business is a Gift from God to Transform the World [Video]

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by Mats Tunehag


Mats Tunehag teaches on what the Bible says about Wealth Creation and Business at the Fourth Lausanne Congress Workplace Track in September 2024.

 

 

Transcript:

I grew up in Sweden, the land of the Vikings. We used to do tough business and we drank out of the skulls of our enemies. Now we sell furniture in flat boxes, through IKEA, and you’re welcome! But that is a proof that people, businesses, and nations can be transformed. And that’s what we’re going to talk about now.

Business—that is a gift from God to transform the world. So I have a question for you. In our lifetime, in our generation, has global poverty increased, stayed the same, or decreased? What do you think?

It has decreased dramatically, from three out of 10 to one out of 10 in the world in a few decades. The biggest lift in the history of mankind out of poverty has happened in our generation, not through aid but through trade. Today this is good news, most people on the planet are better off in terms of longevity health, housing, and food than a generation ago and the essential contributing factor to this transformation is business.

Businesses have an enormous capacity to create different kinds of wealth. The Lausanne and BAM Global Wealth Creation Manifesto says, “Wealth creation through business has proven power to lift people and nations out of poverty.”

But what is wealth what do we mean by wealth?

There are different kinds of wealth. You can be financially rich and wealthy, but socially poor, you have no friends. You can be financially poor but spiritually rich because you know Jesus.

The Bible talks about wealth in three ways, one bad two good. The bad one is hoarding—more for me, myself, and more. The second one, which is good, is the sharing of wealth. To be generous, to give, that is commended in the Bible. But, there is never, ever any wealth of any kind to be shared unless it has been created. Wealth creation (the third one) is both a godly gift and a godly command.

When the people of Israel were about to enter into the promised land, God gave them instructions and it told them get engaged in business (see Deut 8). Two industries are mentioned, agricultural and mining, and [the scripture] says when you get involved in those kinds of businesses, different kinds of wealth will be created—but do not become proud or selfish because, He said, “I am the God who gives you the ability to create wealth.” (Deut 8:18)

And God is the ultimate owner of everything and we are to create and share different kinds of wealth through business to bless all peoples and nations. This is not a “health and wealth gospel”, this is not prosperity teaching, this is about stewardship of talents and resources. And, as the Bible says, to seek the welfare—the shalom, the wholeness, the flourishing—of the city (Jer 29:7). This is about provision and witness.

And this is not a capitalist idea, this is not a Lausanne thing, this has deep Judeo-Christian roots and is part of an ongoing tradition.

Worship is not sanctified entertainment. Work is worship! Avoda—the Hebrew word and the Jewish concept means “work is worship” as we serve God and people; life is an integrated whole to work, worship, and serve. Avoda!

In Judaism, our roots, the highest form of charity is not handouts but creating jobs. There’s another Jewish concept called tikkun olam, which means to co-create with God, to bridge the gap from what is to what it should be—from unemployment to employment, from misery to flourishing.

Tikkun olam means to repair a broken world, bring healing, and the Lord’s prayer is a tikkun olam prayer. May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven—it is a God invasion of the marketplace towards human flourishing. Tikkun olam!

This is theology, anthropology, and vocation. It is about who God is, the Creator, it is about who we are, created in his image to be creative, create good products and services. And our calling to preach, demonstrate, and extend the kingdom of God as we do business and we influence all spheres of society, among all peoples.

The Wealth Creation Manifesto again, quote, “We are created in God’s image to co-create with him and for him to create products and services for the common good. Wealth creation is a holy calling and a God-given gift which is commanded in the Bible.”

Our views on wealth, wealth creation, and wealth creators are important and they make a difference. This is not a theoretical discussion, this is not just a theological exercise, it has real life implications and consequences.

Compare the health and the wealth of nations like South and North Korea, same culture same language same geography; or West Germany and East Germany. We have witnessed how Zimbabwe went from being the “bread basket of southern Africa to become a basket case” [see here, for example]. Or the oil-rich Venezuela is another tragic example of how disregard for basic wealth creation principles has destroyed a country.

Wealth creation is about flipping the script. We are not asking how can we fight poverty, no! We are rather asking how can we create different kinds of wealth—financial, social, cultural, intellectual, and spiritual—as we do business. Because business is the way that wealth is being created and that’s by God’s design.

So why should we do wealth creation? Why?

God wants it. The world needs it. And we are called to it!

And we are not the first ones to pick up this calling. God called and equipped John Cadbury to just that thing 200 years ago when he started the chocolate factory in Birmingham, England which had a holistic impact on many stakeholders for several generations. Chocolate for Jesus!

Also 200 years ago God called and equipped Hans Nielsen Hauge in Norway. He was instrumental in creating both a church revival movement and an entrepreneurship movement and that transformed the nation of Norway and his legacy is still alive to this day.

So through business, God calls us and equips us to find business solutions to human trafficking, business solutions to growing youth unemployment, business solutions to environmental challenges, business solutions to be able to serve unreached peoples. But, we are never to impose Jesus but rather propose him. Faith is not an imposition, it is a proposition and so is wealth creation through business.

Jesus should be an integral part of our value proposition, alongside our products and services—and the market actually is asking for spiritual health. A global survey done by McKinsey shows clearly that the vast majority of all people around the globe—regardless of faith, culture, ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status—they consider spiritual health as important as physical mental and social health, the market wants it. That’s why we are, and we should be, engaged in wealth creation.

We believe that businesses can and should address a variety of human needs, with a special concern for the least the lost, and the lowliest.

And this is not about techniques, at the end of the day it is about love. Creating wealth, doing business as mission, honoring God, and seeking the common good is about love. Business as mission (BAM) is about being a channel, a conduit, of God’s love to the world.

As St Augustine says, “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”

So remember Christianity is not a self-help program, Christ is for the world! So growing businesses that’s not for our glory, it’s for the glory of God and that can change the world.

St Irenaeus, the great second century theologian, expressed the essence of Christianity as, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”

Human flourishing requires wealth creation of all types and wealth creation requires business.

May God bless you!

 

Access more videos, transcripts and study materials from the Lausanne Congress Workplace Track here.



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.

 

 

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

 

 

 

Easter: The Anchor for BAM’s Vision

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by Grace Kim

 

As Easter draws near, we find ourselves invited once again into the mystery and beauty of the resurrection story. For many, this season brings familiar traditions—quiet reflection, the retelling of the cross and the empty tomb, songs of hope and victory. We gather in churches and homes to remember that, against all odds, life has overcome death, light broke through the darkness, and love has had the final word.

But in the midst of this sacred story, there’s also a question that lingers: What does resurrection really look like in the world we live in today? A world that’s still full of broken systems, unjust economies, displacement, and despair. A world where businesses can often be sources of exploitation rather than restoration.

This is where the vision of business as mission (BAM) becomes deeply relevant—not as a niche idea, but as a prophetic and practical way to live out the resurrection story in real time.

At the heart of business as mission lies a theological foundation rooted in the message of Easter—a story not just of death and resurrection, but of restoration, transformation, and a renewed purpose for all of creation. Easter is more than a religious holiday; it’s the cornerstone of Christian hope, the decisive turning point in history, and a lens through which BAM practitioners interpret their calling in the marketplace.

Business as mission is not a niche idea, but a prophetic and practical way to live out the resurrection story in real time.

Redemption is Holistic

Easter is God’s declaration that nothing is beyond His power to redeem—not hearts, not relationships, not communities, and certainly not systems like business and economics. The resurrection doesn’t just promise life after death; it offers a pattern of renewal for everything that is broken. In the context of BAM, this holistic view of redemption means: 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.

 

Discover More About the Summit & Register

 


 

Photo by Imagine Buddy on Unsplash

 

 

BAM: A Game Changer in a World of Trade Wars and Political Chaos

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by Grace Kim


The world feels like it’s on edge. Tariff wars are shaking up global trade, the U.S. is more divided than ever, and businesses everywhere are scrambling to keep up. In times like these, Business as Mission (BAM) isn’t just a nice idea—it’s a necessity. BAM isn’t about just making money; it’s about using business to create real, lasting change—economically, socially, and even spiritually. And right now, that mission is more important than ever.

BAM vs. the Global Trade Wars

Let’s face it—trade wars are messy. The U.S. and China have been locked in a battle of tariffs, leaving businesses caught in the crossfire. Supply chains are disrupted, costs are rising, and small businesses are struggling. BAM, however, offers a different way forward. Instead of relying on fragile international trade deals, BAM businesses focus on local economies, fair trade, and sustainability.

Think about it: when businesses invest in local suppliers and ethical sourcing, they build economic resilience. BAM-driven companies aren’t just chasing the cheapest deal; they’re creating jobs and opportunities where they’re needed most, reducing dependence on unstable global markets. This isn’t just smart business, it’s a way to fight poverty and promote fairness in an unpredictable world.

BAM in the Middle of U.S. Political Turmoil

Meanwhile, in the U.S., things are far from stable. Political unrest, social division, economic uncertainty—businesses are navigating a minefield. But BAM can be a force for unity and stability. Instead of adding to the chaos, BAM businesses focus on ethical leadership, employee care, and community impact.

At a time when people are losing trust in big corporations and political leaders, BAM companies stand out by doing business with integrity and purpose. They create jobs in struggling communities, invest in social entrepreneurship, and promote values that bring people together, not tear them apart. In a polarized world, BAM is proof that business can be a bridge, not a battleground. Read more

Virtue is priceless: For Everything Else, There’s Excellence

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by Phil Hanson & Terry Young

 

As authors, and with a nod to Mastercard (see below), we have been looking at businesses through a kingdom lens. In Part 1, we explored what it might look like for Christian business owners to pursue both excellence and virtue. But what does pursuing virtue mean? What specific virtues are we talking about? And how might we assess how well we are doing in that pursuit? That’s the topic of this post, Part 2.

In our booklet How to Merge Kingdom and Business: The Most Excellent Way we used the template of the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love. This obviously isn’t the only possible template, but it is one that has been used by theologians throughout history. Each of St Paul’s three themes can be unpacked as practical ways of working, albeit with some overlap between them.

What becomes evident is that many things going on in business can be mapped back to the faith, hope and love template, even if they were not morally motivated at the start. Business leaders have striven to do what they believe to be the right thing, without necessarily grounding their actions in a Christian context, or that of another faith. This is indicated by the column showing ‘Secular Motivation and Application’ below—i.e. actions in business that could be mapped back to the virtues of faith, hope or love, but without an intentional faith-driven motivation.

One indicator of what is happening is what businesses say about themselves in their advertising straplines, as the table below illustrates.

 

Virtue
Christian Motivation and Application
Secular Motivation and Application
Company Taglines
Faith
  • Hunger for perfection
  • Depends on God
  • Metamorphosis
  • Supernatural process
  • Wanting to do the right thing
  • Getting the best from people
  • Re-engineering
  • Rational process
Pursuit of Excellence (IBM)
Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hands (M&M)
Does Exactly What It Says on the Tin® (Ronseal)
Hope
  • Hunger for (God’s) glory
  • Constant over time
  • Mysteriously satisfying
  • Eternal
  • Joyful in hope
  • Energising vision
  • Varies with circumstances
  • Always chasing satisfaction
  • The long game
  • Fun & fulfilment
A Diamond is Forever (De Beers)
Think Different. (Apple)
Believe in Better (Sky Group)
Love
  • Hunger for (God’s) heart
  • The greatest… is love
  • Unconditional love
  • Perfectly, wonderfully made
  • Relationships essential
  • All stakeholders matter
  • Subject to performance
  • Respect for the individual
Have it your way (Burger King)
Fly with friends (Austrian Airlines)
Succeed Together (LEGO)

 

While the taglines of companies give us clues about motivation, they are not exhaustive. To dig deeper into the underlying motivations, we bulleted some characteristics of what companies want and then mapped them back to corresponding Christian virtues. In trying to match them up we, surprisingly, noticed some parallels and some differences between the Christian and secular thinking.

For example, in the faith row above, both sides aspire to goodness: on the Christian side, to perfection and on the business side, to doing the right thing. But by the final pair of bullets, we recognise that one side is supernatural and the other, highly rational.  One side demands rebirth, the other re-engineering; one side depends on God, the other on getting the best from people. We have tried to bridge these similarities and differences with the idea of resilient reliability, which the taglines pick up.

In the hope line we connect a hunger for God’s glory on one side with the need for an energising vision in business—a nice alignment. There’s also a sense of joy, fun and fulfilment that matches across the columns. However, the constancy of Christian hope clashes with the way the human hope swivels in the choppy waters of the market, and while Christian hope is mysteriously satisfied in the glory of God, human hopes are always chasing something they can’t quite catch. Meanwhile, ‘the long game’ is the closest we can get in business to the eternal. We’ve tried to bridge this with the idea of realising renewal, wrapping creativity and innovation into that, and mapping it to strategy and purpose.

In the love row, there is obvious alignment around the centrality of relationships, but God takes an unconditional approach to each soul, whereas business must draw the line somewhere and part company with unsuitable partners, employees or customers. Respect can only go so far versus unconditional love.  However, the two sides can shake hands over the idea of rewarding relationships.

People, Purpose & Process

As authors, we gravitated early on in our exploration of ethics and the workplace to the idea that businesses tend to talk faith-ish and hope-ish and love-ish, whatever their starting motivation, as we have seen above. We set out, therefore, to look for operational virtues in commerce, manufacturing and service provision, that might twin with faith, hope and love in some way, but using more familiar business language.

We concluded that love could be expressed as ‘people’, since business doesn’t work without people. Hope could be expressed as ‘purpose’, and an alternative word for faith is ‘process’.

Diagram 1: Mapping Theological Virtues to Business Values and the 3 RRs

 

It wasn’t difficult to persuade ourselves that the two globally recognised business excellence frameworks we referenced in Part 1 (Baldrige and EFQM) could be condensed nicely under the themes of purpose, people and process. For more details on this, read How to Merge Kingdom and Business: the most excellent way (2024).

Love could be expressed as ‘people’, since business doesn’t work without people. Hope could be expressed as ‘purpose’, and an alternative word for faith is ‘process’.


Pathways Towards Kingdom Business

The table above suggests that there are good ethical intentions in many organisations. However, this observation doesn’t help us to establish how big a gap there is between such an organisation and a ‘kingdom business’—i.e. an enterprise motivated primarily by kingdom of God purposes—and what the pathway might be to get there.

We have previously described the journey towards becoming a kingdom business as having two axes: one axis of improving excellence of practice and performance and the other axis of ever-improving virtue.

Diagram 2: A virtue and excellence matrix

 

These two paths have some parallel with the ideas of faith and works. And as such, both faith (virtue) and works (excellence) are required for a kingdom business. All virtue and no excellence manifests itself in worthy but unsustainable, likely uncompetitive, business; all excellence and no virtue may deliver a booming business but without a moral compass, much less able to make the world a better place.

Another principle for moving towards virtue and excellence together is Voltaire’s idea of perfect versus good. He famously argued that perfect is the enemy of good. Striving for perfection will inhibit important small steps of improvement. Our kingdom businesses must strive for virtue without compromising the day-to-day practical improvement in how the operation performs.

All excellence and no virtue may deliver a booming business but without a moral compass, much less able to make the world a better place.

For almost 30 years, now, Mastercard has been running its Priceless advertisements. They start with emotive scenes: families reuniting in an arrivals lounge for Christmas; or a Mom going in search of her Irish roots. The cost of the arrangements—flights, trains, drinks, etc.— float across the scene. At some point the voiceover explains that the experience you are witnessing is priceless, adding, ‘There are some things money can’t buy; for everything else, there’s Mastercard.’

So what is our framework all about?  Well, to paraphrase, this seminal slogan, ‘Virtue is priceless; for everything else, there’s excellence.’

Application

As authors, we hope that the RR3 Framework that we introduce here and in more detail in our book—that connects the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, to the business-oriented triplet of process, purpose and people—may help to ground discussions around Christian or kingdom business more directly to biblical principles.

In our observation, a lot of what is published is good news stories, i.e. we did this and that and then these good things happened! There is nothing wrong with sharing such stories, but having a framework forces us to ask how good the good things really were and to test for virtue and excellence in all three of our themes.

Even if you aren’t the CEO or company owner, you may still use the RR3 Framework to find a voice in your organisation. You might find managers willing to have a conversation that starts something like this, ‘From our advertising, we want to offer the following. As a Christian, that looks a bit like faith (or love or hope). I was wondering whether you’d be interested in getting your practice closer to your tagline….’

Think about it and then find a way to talk about it.

 

For more on these topics, see our booklet, How to Merge Kingdom and Business: The Most Excellent Way, available from Grove books or on Amazon.  

 

Phil Hanson is a senior chartered engineer with a track record in industry and Christian service. He grew IBM’s Manufacturing Consulting Practice to $50M pa and his contribution was recognized with visiting positions at Newcastle and Cambridge. He has an MBA, a couple of Masters in theology and was ordained in retirement in the Church of England.

 


Terry Young is a missionary kid and active church member who went into R&D and became a professor before founding Datchet Consulting. He has published patents, 100+ academic articles, and books on Bible study and leadership. With a PhD in lasers, he is a member of The Operational Research Society and a Fellow of the British Computer Society.

 

 

Photo by Celpax on Unsplash

Kingdom Business: The Intentional Pursuit of Virtue and Excellence

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by Phil Hanson & Terry Young


When a business offers breakfast to children heading to school on an empty stomach, we applaud. In some parts of the world, we can point to examples all around us of companies making a local difference in ways like this.

However, what is their motivation? It’s worth thinking about the mix of possible motives, from genuine altruism to exploitation for marketing advantage. Adam Smith thought that business had a way of cleansing people’s ethical outlook: no matter how selfish the goals of business leaders, the resultant wealth brought good to the whole society. That’s an idea we explore in our booklet, How to Merge Kingdom and Business: The Most Excellent Way.

A neutral observer today might be inclined to conclude the opposite to Adam Smith, that self-interest is one of the prime reasons that business can do harm.

Diagram 1: Some consider self-interest to be wholly in conflict with doing good

Can a Christian business leader simply trust in Adam’s Smith’s misguided attempt to combine virtue and practice, and the idea that all will necessarily come good? Or do we need to be more intentional?

Combining doing well with doing good is worth deeper consideration. It’s a path that some Christian entrepreneurs have chosen, so how reasonable are their hopes of succeeding?

The Staircase

To help understand this, we created a simple matrix that deals separately with business ethics and business practice. This is a key factor in the discussion: the workplace itself cannot bind virtue and excellence together nor does it automatically set them in opposition to one another.

Diagram 2: A virtue and excellence matrix

 

This staircase model frees us to address ethical virtue and the excellences of business practice separately. (One can walk along a corridor next to the stairs without rising: to get to the next level, you must decide to take the stairs.) However, in doing so, we are not claiming that virtue and excellence are disconnected from each other. Each axis shapes how customers and others view the company and affects the viability of the business. Shoddy products might undermine a strong ethical brand, while dodgy behaviour weakens confidence in a strong bottom line.

A key message from the staircase diagram is that one must be as intentional in the pursuit of virtue as one is in pursuing excellence.

As we note in our book, ethics at work largely come from the people at the top. Even the much-acclaimed Victorian philanthropists had their blind spots, caring passionately for their local employees but not attending to slavery and oppression in their overseas supply chains.

Most businesses are likely to be doing both good and bad at the same time, however well run they are. Products and services that have a noble purpose may weigh on the positive side of the scales while unkind employee relations may tip the balance in the opposite direction. Critically, all business leaders are tipping the scales one way or another, both through action and through neglect—reflecting the theological categories of commission and omission.

A key message from the staircase diagram is that one must be as intentional in the pursuit of virtue as one is in pursuing excellence, if a credible business is to flourish under a business as mission-type banner. For some in the BAM fold, this may mean more attention to the ethical nervous system, to others it may require a sharper focus on business protocols, procedures and practices.

Intentional Excellence

The excellence axis of the diagram is well understood now that a few decades of measurement and dialogue have shaped our understanding of what works in business. Business gurus and prominent leaders still write their books, but an evidence-based consensus has emerged over how to manage, how to set up HR systems, how to run logistics, production lines, and so forth. We cite the Baldrige Excellence Framework and the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) as leading international organisations that gather such knowledge and produce benchmarking tools for businesses.

As authors, we are familiar with best business practice and the maturity models and other tools used to assess performance, but it is not clear how deeply embedded this mindset is in Christian entrepreneurial circles. We shall return to this topic in our second blog in this series, when we address approaches that may be helpful in assessing how well we are doing.

Intentional Virtue

There are various ways in which organisations can set their sails in the market’s prevailing wind. Regardless of its ethical stance, every business is affected by 3 R’s: regulation, representation and renewal. To continue the sailing metaphor, each offers ethical opportunities and challenges, depending on how the leadership tacks:

Regulation sets standards and provides tools to assess compliance, so that achieving compliance may be heralded as a business virtue.

Representation is a way to spread accountability for business decisions and practices. The result, however, may simply be determined by the strongest voice(s). It is no guarantee of ethical behaviour.

Renewal provides another potentially positive influence when new ways of working are driven by waves of technology, for example. Enlightened ways of working do emerge but not everyone benefits.

None of these three approaches can ensure lasting and deeply rooted change to the scales of business virtue.

Christian bosses may be marked out by their integrity, their good example, their personal witness and a track record of compassionate execution of necessary business changes. They have, however, an opportunity to do much more than simply being good role models. They can do things in their businesses that have a ‘multiplier’ impact so that their business can begin to make the world a better place. This might be described as accelerating God’s kingdom rather than simply advancing it.

Kingdom Business

Management consultants love to explain things using the two-by-two matrix and this emerging idea of ‘kingdom business’ can be explained this way too. There are, for any business, two directions of travel, as shown in our earlier staircase diagram.

The first of these directions is the pursuit of business excellence, the adoption of industry best practice and benchmarking against market leaders and others. The journey is one of continuous and shared improvements with occasional step functions of discontinuous change. It is by this means that customer expectations are exceeded, market share is improved, and financial results maximised.

The second direction of travel is that of increasing virtue. It is when the good the business does in the world exceeds the bad. It too is a journey of both large and small steps.

Business leaders can do things in their businesses that have a “multiplier” impact so that their business can begin to make the world a better place.

This picture of a kingdom business is one in which both directions of travel are taken equally seriously. It is like a flight of stairs, onwards and upwards. It is where, perhaps, the balanced scorecard treats ethical results with the same emphasis as commercial results. God’s kingdom is not an extra to be achieved in good times when the business can afford it or the poor relation of creating shareholder wealth.  Instead, God’s kingdom purposes become the ultimate purpose of the business.

Up and to the Right?

There are different trajectories for businesses in this picture. It is not all about starting in the bottom left and systematically marching up the stairs.

There are many businesses which survive with ad-hoc business processes because they are operating in some sort of protected market. At some point that protection will disappear and they will be forced along the excellence axis. An ad-hoc business isn’t a great foundation for making a kingdom difference.

Then there are well performing businesses that are commercially sound but who have paid little attention to the opportunities they have to make the world a better place and for whom the journey is up the virtue axis.

Some enterprises start out with a significant noble purpose which is unambiguously their reason for existence. Many charities start this way. They typically have two challenges. The first is the professionalisation of everything they do (advancing on the horizontal axis). The second is avoiding mission drift and maintaining their position on the virtue axis against a pressure for creeping secularisation of their purpose.

Whilst there are numerous well-established templates for measuring business excellence, measuring where any business is on the virtue axis is less well understood. We will address the issue of how a business can begin to measure kingdom progress in the next post in this two part series.

These ideas are explained in more detail in the Grove booklet, How to Merge Kingdom and Business: The Most Excellent Way, available from Grove books or on Amazon.

Read Part 2

 

Phil Hanson is a senior chartered engineer with a track record in industry and Christian service. He grew IBM’s Manufacturing Consulting Practice to $50M pa and his contribution was recognized with visiting positions at Newcastle and Cambridge. He has an MBA, a couple of Masters in theology and was ordained in retirement in the Church of England.

 


Terry Young is a missionary kid and active church member who went into R&D and became a professor before founding Datchet Consulting. He has published patents, 100+ academic articles, and books on Bible study and leadership. With a PhD in lasers, he is a member of The Operational Research Society and a Fellow of the British Computer Society.

 

 

Photo by Mohammad Bagher Adib Behrooz on Unsplash

A Gap in the BAM Ecosystem: BAM Practitioner Care and Well-being

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BAM Global initiates working consultations under its BAM Global Think Tank initiative where there are identified gaps in the BAM ecosystem. BAM Global Consultations open up an unprecedented opportunity for discussion, collaboration and networking as a group works through a process of connecting, listening, learning, sharing and recommending. The results are captured in a published BAM Global Report and outworked in new projects and communities of practice. These enable the next generation involved in business as mission to go further, faster.  We are excited to announce the launch of a new BAM Global Consultation.

by Jo Plummer

Business is a powerful strategy in the mission of the global Church today. Those engaging in business as mission (BAM) have a unique opportunity to bring the whole gospel to the whole world with for-profit solutions to pressing global issues. Yet these BAM practitioners also face the unique pressures of integrating holistic missional impact with for-profit business. These pressures can take a toll on the spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational health of the BAM practitioner and that of their family and team. Ultimately these attritional effects can endanger the long-term viability and fruitfulness of BAM companies, especially where there is a lack of support and care for the people involved. 

Mature businesses may have access to human resource departments, staff training, chaplains or coaches. Mission agencies often have ‘member care’ provision for their workers. However, often BAM practitioners are at a unique intersection of business and mission with little to no support or resource provision for their personal and inter-relational well-being. There is a corresponding lack of research on the felt-needs of BAMers in this area, nor work seeking to identify and redress resource gaps. The new Consultation on BAM Practitioner Care and Well-being will address these concerns.

Consultation Introduction

Jo and Mike introduce the new Consultation at the BAM Global Connect event in November:

Vision and Purpose

Our vision is for thriving BAM practitioners, with healthy spiritual, emotional, physical, and relational lives, able to effectively lead businesses that are transforming people and nations––for God’s glory!

The purpose of the Consultation is to strengthen the BAM ecosystem to be able support BAM practitioners in the areas of life care and well-being—through greater access to training, coaching, counseling, support structures, and resources—in order to increase the fruitfulness and longevity of business as mission companies. 

Specific Objectives

  1. Identify critical life and career needs of BAM practitioners (through surveys and interviews)
  2. Share case studies and stories that highlight current needs, solutions and approaches
  3. Explore the current landscape (map the ecosystem) and identify current best practices and resource gaps.
  4. Make recommendations about what training, coaching, counseling, support structures, and resources are most effective and how best to intentionally close gaps and provide resources/training going forward.
  5. Strengthen relationships among interested individuals and organizations for this area of work in order to further catalyze partnerships, collaborative projects and action in response to the recommendations made.

Outcomes we anticipate from this work include:

  • A growing community of practice around this area of interest
  • A recommended resource list for BAMers and organizations to utilize
  • A BAM Global Report on BAM Practitioner Care and Well-being to serve as a guide for the BAM movement on this topic
  • New providers that respond to identified gaps with training, resources and solutions

Our Ask – How you can help:

 

Take the Survey

Celebrating 10 Years of BAM Global

 

Help us accelerate the global business as mission movement in the next decade,
give a once off financial gift or join the BAM Global Patron’s Team of monthly supporters

 

SUPPORT US

 

 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 has been developing resources for BAM since 2001 and currently serves as Editor of the Business as Mission website and The BAM Review Blog. 

 

 

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

Multiplying Your Influence by Using Good Words

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by Dave Kahle

 

“Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Did you have that saying in your childhood? Or one like it?

It was a response from our parents when we were verbally attacked, criticized, or otherwise made to feel bad by what someone said to us. It was probably helpful in nudging us off our hurt feelings. However, like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, in my childhood, it was untrue!

The truth lies in the opposite direction. While words may not break our bones, they can have a huge impact on our lives. On one hand, they can build us up and give us confidence and dedication, and on the other, they can generate feelings of inferiority, a defeated self-image and lead to depression and passivity.

Words are one of our most powerful tools for living a life of fulfillment and purpose.

The Bible is full of passages that remind of this powerful truth and encourage us to choose our words wisely. For example, the Bible is God’s Word. Not Gods feelings, not God’s actions, not God’s intentions. It is God’s Word for a reason.

Words are one of our most powerful tools for living a life of fulfillment and purpose.

In addition, God spoke the world into existence. It was His words that formed creation. (Genesis 1, NIV)

And, Jesus is called the Word. ..

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. (John 1: 1, NIV)

In case there is any confusion, Jesus makes clear how important words are to God:

But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. (Matthew 12:36-37)

As with so many other passages, we often relegate the idea to the realm of “church” and give ourselves a pass when it comes to our behavior in the marketplace. But there is no exception here for people in the marketplace. No where does it say, “This applies to your life, except your business or career. You don’t have to obey this on the job.” Read more

Multiplying Your Influence by Striving for Excellence

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by Dave Kahle

 

As a college student, I supported myself by working in a relatively expensive men’s clothing store. It was a small local chain, with five stores around town – one big headquarters store downtown, and four suburban stores in shopping centers.

One of our premium clothing lines was named after the designer – Oleg Cassini. He came to our city to promote his line, and the company’s executives held an evening reception for him. Even though I was just 19, I was one of the few employees from the suburban stores who were invited.

Why was that?

Even though I was young and relatively inexperienced, I was the number one salesperson among the four suburban stores. The company wanted to recognize that excellence by including me in the reception. It was excellence in my work that led to the reception invitation and the consequent recognition and influence.

That was my first exposure to a powerful rule of human behavior by which Christian businesspeople can create a disproportionate impact for the Kingdom: Excellence in your work inevitably leads to greater influence and that influence can create a significant impact for the Kingdom.

Excellence in your work inevitably leads to greater influence and that influence can create a significant impact for the Kingdom.

Since then, I’ve seen the connection between excellence and influence manifest in multiple situations, people and industries.

For example, in athletic contests, it is the outstanding player who is interviewed after the end of the game. Patrick Mahomes, the American football quarterback, to name just one, often gives credit to God in postgame interviews. That’s a perfect example of excellence in work translating to influence for the kingdom.

In company meetings, it’s the star salesperson who is often asked to opine on the new product line or lead the discussion on strategy or tactics. In my work, I often interview some selected representatives of the sales force for a client company. The people that management selects to talk to the consultant are invariably the best. Those who are struggling with mediocrity aren’t considered.

In industry associations, it is the leading companies who are asked to be on the committees and chair the task forces. Read more

Whose Business Is It? The Why of Business as Mission [Video]

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Business as mission is a response to some of the world’s most pressing issues. Humans are exploited and trafficked. Communities are suffering with dire poverty. People around the world have never heard about the love of Jesus. Whose business is this? Why should it be ours?

Business as mission is also a growing movement. It is accelerating around the world! At BAM Global we are passionate about connecting individuals and organizations to help drive this movement forward. The BAM Global Summit is a great time to do this because it’s BAM… on a global scale. Hundreds of people gather for the same purpose: to get more connected and equipped for their own BAM journey.

Want to get a taste of online BAM events?
Want to be inspired for business as mission?
Want to find your ‘Why’?

Watch Annie Dieselberg’s incredible testimony and amazing challenge to us all in her keynote address at the BAM Global Congress in 2021.

 

“Trafficking for human beings is now tied for second place in illegal global crime. It is a global crisis affecting millions in every sphere of society, every gender, every age, every nation, every status. The roots run deep beneath the surface of everyday business. Without realizing it we walk on surfaces paved by exploited laborers,we wear garments made from the sweat of the desperate, we eat from the hands of the bound, we are entertained by the violated and we profit daily in part because somewhere, someone by no will of their own is supplying our wants, needs, and desires.” – Annie Dieselberg

Respond to the challenge… Join us at the BAM Global Summit on Thursday 9th May!

Read more

Accelerate Your BAM Journey: Join the Summit

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Business as Mission is a movement that is growing globally. It is accelerating around the world! At BAM Global we are passionate about connecting individuals and organizations to help drive this movement forward. The BAM Global Summit is one of the best times to do this because it’s BAM on a global scale. Hundreds of people gather for the same purpose: to accelerate the movement and get more connected and equipped for their own BAM journey.

 

Attendee Testimonies

Every year, after the Summit we get to hear testimonies about the connections that were made that lead to mobilised resources, new partnerships, new BAM businesses getting started, and so on. Here are a few things that past attendees have shared with us about what they gained by coming to an online BAM Global event:

 

Attending this summit and listening to the speakers and panelists, was really encouraging because I felt God confirming the desire to start a BAM and take the necessary steps to achieve that! – BZ, BAM Summit Attendee

 

Love seeing how BAM is growing around the world. God is moving in the marketplace! – CB, BAM Summit Attendee

 

For me, getting to know new people who are doing business as mission around the world and learning from them is the most important take away. I am not so good in attending online meetings, I have a kind of attention disorder when I am in them, but I really enjoyed meeting new people and listening to their stories. – Adrian Buhai, BAM Romania

 

I was encouraged by all the wisdom that God has granted many in the BAM network. We now have so many good examples to learn from and seasoned people to be coached by. – Hakan Sandberg, BAM Global Ambassador

 

I am encouraged by the devotional, all the testimonies of the business people, the workshops, my new network and everything in this event. I really enjoyed my first time experience. I really admire their desire to do business is not just to earn money but to really use this opportunity to share the gospel and reach the unreached. With all the helpful insights I heard today, I will apply the most applicable one to my new role and also to my small business. I will always remember that Christ should be the center and the goal is to reach the unreached and help the needy and also to provide services to people the people with less opportunity. – A, BAM Summit Attendee

 

I took away lessons from real BAM business experiences. It also reinforced that business as mission is one of the ways God uses to bring complete economic, social, environmental, and spiritual transformation, bringing dignity and life to people. It motivates me and encourages me to continue to work for this vision! – Samara Bramen, BAM Brasil

 

The greatest impact for me was being enlarged in what God is doing globally, and a view of how my work/life calling and BAM intersect! Kingdom expansion to bring all to Jesus. – WS, BAM Summit Attendee

 

I loved the diversity of people attending and the genuine desire to see more BAM activity in their region, plus all the encouraging stories of BAM projects already in action. – WG, BAM Summit Attendee

 

It was encouraging to see that the concept of business as mission has taken root across many regions of the world. It was also exciting to see a significant number of new entrepreneurs and those who are thinking of starting businesses learning about BAM through the event. The program was well designed with something new and valuable for everyone. I was encouraged to see that there are a growing number of BAMers from non-western countries, which I applaud. – Joseph Vijayam, BAM South Asia

 

I loved how Christ-centered the whole conference was! I definitely want to connect more and signed up for the online community. – Anon, BAM Summit Attendee

 

My major take away is the diversity, breadth and depth, and unity of the BAM movement. First, the unity of purpose of so many diverse faith traditions is inspiring and encouraging. BAM and the BAM Global events truly exemplify the Body of Christ as I believe Jesus intended. Second, much as Elijah needed to know he was not alone while in the wilderness, the conference showed us just how many BAM-involved people there are around the world. BAMers are not alone! If you feel that way, get involved in BAM Global and you will soon be a part of something so much bigger than you could’ve anticipated. – Mick Bates, BAM Academics

 

Compiled and edited by Jo Plummer.

 

REGISTER FOR BAM GLOBAL SUMMIT 2024

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see what God is doing through business as mission and join in.

Join us at the BAM Global Summit this year!

 

REGISTER NOW or FIND OUT MORE

 Jo Plummer is the co-chair of BAM Global and co-editor the Lausanne Occasional Paper on Business as Mission. She has been developing resources for BAM since 2001 and currently serves as Editor of the Business as Mission website and blog.

 

 

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