Tag Archive for: business people

Central Asia: Disciple-Making in the Marketplace

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In the world of “Business 4 Transformation” we often seem to be enamoured with outward appearance, even though we know that we should be striving for lasting fruit (which usually does not go hand in hand with glitz and glory!) In Kazakhstan, we are facing a similar challenge as the last 10 years have been a time where people have been tested, somewhat by persecution but more so by the coming of the glitz of wealth that believers were not well equipped to deal with. As a result, many are not walking with the Lord and the need for ordinary business people who live like Jesus (even just a little like Jesus) in the marketplace remains a huge need, in order to see expansion of the Kingdom of God in the nation.

Kazakhstan is a largely bi-vocational country where paid pastors remain a small minority. But how do you make a living and do ministry where there are few good examples of Godly business people to follow? Business people are beginning to be seen as legitimate believers within the national church, which is a big change in recent years.

After many years of working in Central Asia, I believe the greatest need is such a simple one that it is often overlooked.  We have so many methods, but the Scriptures say simply, “Go and make disciples.” This is simple but the results are so stunning. We are called to go deep into a disciple’s life with the truth of Scripture, “Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded”. This may sound simple, but it takes lots of effort. In obeying this command, I will be inconvenienced and there will be setbacks as we encounter life’s problems. But, it is so rewarding to see disciples taking hold of the Scriptures for themselves – and then repeating it with another person! Read more

13 BAMers Share: Why Engaging in Missional Business is Important for Southeast Asia

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We ask BAM practitioners – both nationals and expats – all over Southeast Asia to share why they think missional business is vital for their nation, and why they are doing what they are doing. Here is what they told us:

 

Missional Business in Myanmar is very important because business opens so many doors where traditional missions doesn’t. I’ve shared my faith with non-believers more since doing business than when I was teaching youth ministry to local pastors. I think when you work in a country like Myanmar where there is no middle class there are huge opportunities for poverty alleviation through business and also engaging the rich in business as well. I’ve had amazing open opportunities to talk with the wealthy, government, and poor communities. Missional Business is so important for the gospel in a country like Myanmar.

Ryan – from the USA, doing business in Myanmar

 

Engaging in “Missional Businesses” in Myanmar is very needed for both aspects: mission and business. We have had social mission strategies before. But the fusion of business and mission is a new effective way to reach people in the workplace.

Sang Sang – from Myanmar, doing business in Myanmar Read more

Business as Mission from Australia and New Zealand

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It is usually a mistake to lump Australia and New Zealand together! Each is quite different in characteristic from the other and each enjoys a bit of friendly joking about the other, as well as a fierce sporting rivalry. However, one thing they do have in common is that both Australians and New Zealanders have been among BAM pioneers, with a steady interest in business as mission growing in each country. We ask two BAM friends from each nation to share about their involvement:

 

Our journey in BAM started when I was fired from the position I was working in with a mission agency in Nepal. In retrospect, it was the best thing that could have happened. That was 2000. We started a software company, and slowly grew until we now have a staff of 12 in Nepal, 5 in New Zealand and 3 in other countries. We make software for managing pharmaceutical supply chains, which is now used in about 30 countries.

Right from the start we had a strong sense of rightness about starting down this path, and when it’s been tough we’ve hung on to that. It’s a good thing to have. Here are a few things we’ve reflected on along the way:

Things are fragile, especially at the start. A change of mind here, the stroke of a pen there, and we would have a very different story to tell. It’s good to remember this when we start to feel that we’re pretty good at what we do, and good to remember when others fail – it’s not always in our hands. Read more

Six BAM Views from the Continent of Africa

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We asked people working on the front-lines of BAM in different parts of Africa to share some of their experiences and perspectives. They see business as a powerful means to share the message of the Gospel in the marketplace, deepen the impact of Jesus’ teachings on society, tackle evils such as poverty and corruption and mobilise the next generation of African Christians to transform their own nations. Here are six BAM views from Africa:

 

BAM is crucial in South Africa as a key to two major challenges: discipleship and economic empowerment. South Africa is said to have a high percentage of Christians, however, like many other parts of the world, sin is a key challenge. Corruption, sexual immorality, crime and other evils are on the rise, indicating that Christianity has not been making the kind of impact on society as it should. Business as mission could therefore provide an avenue for regular discipleship in the marketplace, as believers model Godly character and leadership.

South Africa also has a high percentage of poor people, although it is Africa’s most advanced economy. BAM – especially ‘BAM at the base of the pyramid’ – may be the key to large scale sustainable economic empowerment, particularly through the establishment of SME sized companies in rural areas.

Henry Gwani is originally from Nigeria, now working in BAM in South Africa Read more

What We Learned About BAM in 2015: Reflections from a Year of The BAM Review

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We launched The BAM Review as a brand new BAM-focused blog in January this year. As we end 2015, we would like to share our year in numbers and a few things we’ve learned about the BAM tribe we’re part of.

The BAM Review 2015

We have learned that there are many people trying to get connected to others in the BAM movement. We get enquiries each week from around the world, asking if we can help them connect. There have been Egyptians trying to connect with Dutch, Americans wanting to connect with Romanians, and Peruvians looking for other Peruvians doing BAM. We’ve had questions coming in from Ghana, Spain, Nepal, Brazil, India and Nicaragua, to name just a few. We see a big felt need to network and build community in business as mission.

We have also learned a bit about what your favourite articles are. Our readers love practical topics and stories. Favourite blog posts this year have been on prayer strategies, integration how-tos and financing for BAM companies. Telling stories has resonated with BAMers – whether through our longer story write ups, mini-sketches, interviews or ‘lessons’ posts.

It’s been a wonderful year. We count it a privilege to serve the business as mission community with articles and stories. We look forward to sharing many more resources in 2016.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas celebration and a very Happy New Year.

 Jo Plummer

Editor, The BAM Review

On behalf of The BAM Review Production Team

Jo Plummer Jo Plummer is the Co-Chair of the BAM Global Think Tank 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. 

 

 

 

7 Prayer Habits of Highly Effective People

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AND THE AWARD GOES TO...

Our goal is to provide the BAM Community with the best content and resources available. As we wrap up a great year we will be highlighting various articles and resources which have stood out above the rest. Below is the “Most Popular Post” for the fall of 2015.

Please enjoy and thanks for following!

We asked BAM practitioners what prayer habits, practices or experiences they have found helpful in their business life. We identified some recurring themes that BAMers shared with us: 7 prayer habits for effective business as mission!

Prayer does make us more effective in business as mission because of that vital connection and co-working with the Lord. But while the title of this blog is a play on words from a famous business book by Stephen Covey, it is worth noting that many of the BAM practitioners who shared with us often did not feel very effective in prayer. Some related that they just don’t consider their prayer life particularly victorious, but are grateful for God’s grace. Others said they felt guilty about prayer, or not particularly good at it, or just found it awkward praying in another language. Some have experienced years where prayer has been wonderful, but at other times struggled to be consistent. Just as in any other walk of life, prayer in the business context takes perseverance and commitment and we don’t always get it right. However, the following experiences and habits have helped different people around the world integrate prayer into their BAM companies:

Weave prayer throughout company life

Prayer is something to be ‘threaded’ through the fabric of the business, not compartmentalised or sidelined. BAM practitioners shared many more ways they do this in the habits listed below, however the principle of having prayer integrated in multiple ways stood out: Read more

Prayer Ideas and Resources for Business People

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The Institute of Faith, Work and Economics recently shared 5 practical ways you can turn events in your business day into a conversation with God. We have summarised their ideas and rounded up some ideas and resources of our own. We hope these will spark some idea for busy business people wanting to integrate prayer in to their day.

5 Practical Ways to Integrate Prayer from IFWE

1. Use Technological Reminders – set up tasks with reminders on your calendar or to do app to pray for specific people or specific needs.

2. “Attach” Prayers to Regular Activities or Objects You See Often – link a prayer request to activities which you do often. Can you think of ways to link a prayer request to each? E.g. Brush your teeth – “May my words be clean and honor You.” Clean your glasses – “Help me to see people as You see people.”

3. Use Passwords and Entry Codes as Prayer Triggers – Select passwords and codes to remind you to pray or ask for wisdom. For example, 4Him, LeadMe, with a few extra numbers or punctuation marks are difficult to guess and good reminders to pray. Read more

7 Prayer Habits of Highly Effective People: Part 2

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We asked BAM practitioners what prayer habits, practices or experiences they have found helpful in their business life. We identified some recurring themes that BAMers shared with us: 7 prayer habits for effective business as mission!

Read Part 1 for the first three prayer habits that BAM practitioners shared with us. Here are the final four:

Write it down

Some practitioners have found value and encouragement in writing down what to pray for and keeping track of answers to prayer.

Part of the culture in my organization is to write down the seven most important prayer points in a journal and pray for one item daily. For instance every Monday our prayer focus is on integrity, that God will help us pursue our goals ethically and grow in character. This way, we track answers to prayer as they happen and it’s a great joy to look back from time to time and see how God has answered prayer in very remarkable ways. – Henry, South Africa Read more

7 Prayer Habits of Highly Effective People: Part 1

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We asked BAM practitioners what prayer habits, practices or experiences they have found helpful in their business life. We identified some recurring themes that BAMers shared with us: 7 prayer habits for effective business as mission!

Prayer does make us more effective in business as mission because of that vital connection and co-working with the Lord. But while the title of this blog is a play on words from a famous business book by Stephen Covey, it is worth noting that many of the BAM practitioners who shared with us often did not feel very effective in prayer. Some related that they just don’t consider their prayer life particularly victorious, but are grateful for God’s grace. Others said they felt guilty about prayer, or not particularly good at it, or just found it awkward praying in another language. Some have experienced years where prayer has been wonderful, but at other times struggled to be consistent. Just as in any other walk of life, prayer in the business context takes perseverance and commitment and we don’t always get it right. However, the following experiences and habits have helped different people around the world integrate prayer into their BAM companies:

Weave prayer throughout company life

Prayer is something to be ‘threaded’ through the fabric of the business, not compartmentalised or sidelined. BAM practitioners shared many more ways they do this in the habits listed below, however the principle of having prayer integrated in multiple ways stood out: Read more

How Prayer Can Shape a Business

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How does prayer and direction from God shape a business? What role does prayer have in the birth of a company?

We asked BAM practitioners to share how prayer has been significant to them in the preparation and launch stages of their companies. They shared how prayer has led them to discover new business opportunities, brought them to early crucial business breakthroughs, and also helped shape their:

  • Business model
  • Vision and mission for the business
  • Company values and practices
  • Business plan and strategy

In his description of 5 Stages of the Birth of a New BAM Company, Peter Shaukat outlines different activities involved in incubating the emerging business. Many of these involve identifying what God has already done or is doing:

The preparation stage includes recognizing what God has already done in the practitioner’s life in regards to their sense of missional call and life experiences. What has God been doing to both missionally and professionally prepare the person, in terms of their skills and competencies? This is where mentoring should begin: Tell me what God has been doing in your life? Tell me what your sense of call is? Tell me how God has been preparing you? The incubation of a new BAM business is the result of the process that God has already been doing before that. The perception stage is the next step. This is about gaining an understanding of what is going on in the environment that God has called you to do business as mission within; and what God wants to do through the business. What is going on in that environment in commercial terms? What is the missional calling to the people group? How is God raising up your business? The perceiving stage addresses the question: What is your business going to be about, commercially and missionally? This is the beginning of the gestation stage of the new business.

Spiritual preparation and prayer go hand in hand with good commercial practices to build strong foundations for BAM companies. Here is how nine BAM practitioners have experienced prayer in the birth of their business: Read more

Friday Links: Posts and Resources from the Business World

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Every Friday we connect you with some of our recent favourite links. This week:

Posts and resources from mainstream business publications

5 Steps You Must Take Before Becoming an Entrepreneur – Entrepreneur

Starting your own business can reap deep personal and professional rewards, but if you take the leap, your days of punching the clock on a regular schedule will end. If it’s work you love and you crave the freedom of operating under your own steam, starting your own small business will energize your career and make the long hours that await you melt away. But don’t go off half-cocked. Before you quit your day job, here are five steps you should take to ensure you’re ready to go out on your own.

Read more

Friday Links: Posts and Resources from the Business World

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Every Friday we connect you with some of our recent favourite links. This week with a focus on our current topic, Human Resources:

Posts and resources from mainstream business publications

12 Ways Successful People Handle Toxic People – Entrepreneur

Recent research from the Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology at Friedrich Schiller University in Germany found that exposure to stimuli that cause strong negative emotions—the same kind of exposure you get when dealing with toxic people—caused subjects’ brains to have a massive stress response… 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control. One of their greatest gifts is the ability to neutralize toxic people.

Read more

Friday Links: Posts and Resources from the Business World

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Every Friday we connect you with some of our recent favourite links. This week:

Posts and resources from mainstream business publications

The 6 Key Components of Writing a Business Plan – Forbes

Having prepared a good business plan before starting your venture can often be the difference between startup success and failure.  I am not saying you need a 50 page detailed report, as investors don’t typically have the time to read them anymore.  But, it is more about taking the time to think through the below 6 key components of a preparing a business plan, to make sure you know what you are up against in your industry and have reasonable foresight into where the business is heading in terms of go-to-market strategies and financial returns for the company and its investors.

Read more

Who is a BAMer? Five Sketches from Around the World

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Who is a BAMer? What does ‘business as mission’ really mean? Not very much without a human face and real stories of the blood, sweat and tears that it takes to build a business. At the heart of every Kingdom-focused business there is that small team of dedicated human beings, carrying their personal passions and experiences, determined to start businesses that will bring sustainable change. Here are five that are making a difference in very different circumstances around the world.

Scroll through the slides and read more about each story below.

 

  • Famous Ray’s

    With a passion for the Burmese, biking and burgers, Ray and Candace Ward are creating jobs in the border town of Mae Sot in Thailand.

  • TL Made

    Artistic skills and experience in eCommerce enabled the TL Made team to come together to meet some of the needs in the Tenderloin, San Francisco.

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Read more

Lessons from the Edge: Inspired by Quality Coffee

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Insights from a BAM Practitioner

‘Ben’ has spent a decade and more of his life in the specialty coffee industry. He has an unwavering passion for quality in coffee that has grown into a pursuit of quality in all aspects of his life – in business, in mission, and in relationships.

The quality of relationships in the company matter as much as the quality of the product.
In a sense, the quality of care for one another in the company is an equally desired product of the business. Let reconciliation have a major role in the company culture. Concepts we teach, like forgiveness, kindness and so on, become real and implanted in a persons character, in the context of relationships. This is where the real meaning of those company values comes alive.

Intentionally embody the mission in all aspects of the business.
I have realized that my mission is not to bring people into the church, but to help them to see Jesus. When Jesus’ values are synonymous with the company values, corporate life together becomes a training ground for life in the gospel. Business is a place where the values that Jesus embodies are taught and lived out through daily business life together.

Do business with excellence and ask God to show you all that he has intended for it. 
It is important to take business seriously and see it as something to be honored and stewarded as a gift from God, to be used for his purposes. It is important to invest my utmost into it and hope for the most from it. God designed business to create wealth and so I need to have a healthy view of money and wealth. To hope for success and growth is good!

Friday Links: Posts and Resources from the Business World

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Every Friday we connect you with some of our recent favourite links. This week:

Posts and resources from mainstream business publications

The 4 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read This Year – Entrepreneur

As an entrepreneur, I’ve made it a point to use all resources available to me to make sure I’m running my company to the best of my ability and considering all perspectives. Of course, this includes talking with my mentors and teammates, as well as getting consistent feedback from my customers. What I’ve also found extremely valuable is taking the time (which I know is hard to find) to sit down and read.

Read more

Servant Leadership in the Marketplace

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by Peter Shaukat

Christians are called by God to bring servant leadership in the marketplace.  There is critical need for servant leadership in the world today and this is especially true of the marketplace where so much of the world’s agenda and the pace for development is set. The marketplace can and should be a primary context for God’s redemptive action.

Although this need to bring servant leadership is not confined to those called to business as mission, it is vital for BAMers to get to grips with our leadership role in the marketplace.

Psalm 78 verse 70 tells us that God chose David to be his servant leader, taking him from tending to sheep to being a shepherd for His people Israel. Verse 72 describes David’s leadership: ‘David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them’. Servant leaders must conduct themselves with integrity, and they must also be competent.

This represents two spheres for servant leadership in a business context: our moral leadership and our operational leadership. Read more

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