Tag Archive for: Explorer Short Reads

Get Involved in Doing Business as Mission: BAM Pathways

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by Jo Plummer

 

There are many different ways to get involved in business as mission and the BAM movement needs many types of people, skills, experiences and passions. If you are interested in engaging with BAM, there is a path and role for you!

This article is based on an earlier post on the idea of different routes into business as mission and has been updated to coincide with the launch of the new ‘BAM Pathways‘ initiative. Read about it here.

Some of you reading this are still in early stages of BAM exploration, or maybe you are intrigued by the idea of business as mission and simply want to learn more. Or perhaps you are someone in a related area of work and just want to stay in touch and see how what is happening in the BAM community connects with you. If that is you, we’d love to stay in touch! Please see ways to keep connected with us in the footer below.

 

Actively Engaging in BAM?

Others of you will be look for more active engagement! Perhaps you are looking for tangible ways to get involved in BAM? Or perhaps you are already engaged and are looking for more resources pertinent to you? If so, this post is for you.

Two broad pathways for engagement in BAM are:
1) Doing – getting involved by doing business as mission yourself, in a BAM company context, or
2) Helping – enabling, resourcing or connecting others to do BAM — through activities such as mentoring, investing, praying, building networks, incubating, training, mobilising, and so on!

If option 2 is you, look out for the new ‘Helpers‘ segment of the BAM Pathways initiative coming next month, and meanwhile read this mini blog series on the topic.

Get Involved Doing BAM

If you are interested in option 1, getting involved in doing business as mission yourself, chances are you are thinking about one of the following options:

A: Starting up a BAM company
B: Joining a BAM company that someone else has started
C: Repurposing an existing company to integrate BAM principles into it

 

There is no right or wrong way to get involved in BAM, but here are some helpful ideas and a roundup of resources for whichever option you are exploring…

 


A: Starting Up a BAM Company

Business Planning Blogs

If you are in the business planning and start-up stage, then we have loads of free resources on The BAM Review Blog for you, whether you already have an idea and are testing it, or are trying to identify a product-market fit. Start with Business Planning for BAM Part 1: Overview & Getting Started, then read through blogs on Business Planning for BAM Part 2: Product and Market and Business Planning for BAM Part 3: Financial Planning. You might find blogs on Launching and Landing and Integration are also good for foundation building. More Blog Topics here.

 

Praxis Course

Praxis offer a free course that will help you develop your mindset as a BAM starter. As they describe it, ‘Through a free six-session video and discussion series, the Praxis Course aims to help innovative leaders and builders to develop an imagination for what we call “Redemptive Entrepreneurship,” which means to leverage personal and organizational power for the sake of others, and to create products, services, and organizations that join God in the renewal of all things.’ Watch the Redemptive Frame intro video and find out more here.

 

Lean Canvas Frameworks

Lean Startup concepts have taken the business world by storm over the past decade and more. Kingdom-minded business incubators and BAM trainers have taken these concepts and adapted ‘Lean Canvas’ frameworks  specifically for missional business models. You can find resources at BAM Connect Business as Mission Model Canvas, ThirdPath Lean Canvas Course, and CO.STARTERS. For more in-depth training see the School of Business and Entrepreneurship and other training resources here.

 

Triventure Process

If you are looking for a bit more support to launch your BAM company, then Triventure has the resources for you. Triventure describes itself as ‘the Business as Mission Launchpad’ and offers a comprehensive package of Courses (by ThirdPath Initiative), Coaching, and Capital to help you get your BAM company off the ground. Discover more here.

 

B: Joining a BAM Company

Launching into BAM Blogs

If you are going to help build a BAM company that someone else has started, then we have tons of blog content for you too. Get a strong BAM foundations with some of the resources above, plus BAM 101 blogs and articles on the Integration of Business and Mission. Our Launching and Landing series covers topics on successfully deploying into business as mission. More Blog Topics here.

 

Explore BAM Stories

We recommend reading a variety of BAM stories to get an idea of what kind of BAM company you’d like to join. You’ll find recommended Blogs and Books containing stories on our Stories page. The BAM Stories Podcast is another great source, and do come along to a BAM Global Event where BAM case studies are shared every year and connections to BAM companies will be made!

 

Sending Organisations with a Business Focus

If you are looking to be equipped and sent out to join a BAM company, then training and deployment with a mission sending agency or ‘tentmaking’ training entity might be for you. Check out Antioch Partners, Interserve, World Venture, Navigators, Tent International, FaithTech and many more—see the ‘Recruiting & Mobilising’ section of the BAM Ecosystem Map. Most mission agencies have a BAM strategy integrated in some way, so find an organisation that resonates with you or works in the region you want to go to and enquire about their business initiatives.

 

Discover Internships & Jobs

If you are starting out in your career then we really recommend getting an internship or two under your belt. Any kind of experience is good, but learning about general business disciplines in a small to medium sized company context can be particularly useful. Ready to search for a BAM job or internship? Check out the Jobs boards at: Transformational SME and the BGlobal Community, the Apprenticeship program at OPEN Network, and the ‘Head Hunting & Jobs Board’ section of the BAM Ecosystem Map

 

C: Integrating BAM Principles into an Existing Company

 

Integrating Faith & Business Foundations

If you’re looking to integrate business as mission into your company, but don’t know where to get started, we highly recommend reading Business for the Glory of God, a short book that sets out a biblical way of thinking about business. Other great resources to help you integrate faith and business and find your tribe, include: Faith Driven Entrepreneur, Theology of Work Project, Faith & Co., Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, LICC, and the Biblical Business Resource Center.

 

Integration Blogs

And yes, we have a whole series of Blogs for that too! Read foundational topics like BAM 101 and Biblical Foundations for BAM. Explore ideas and practical tips for integrating BAM into business with articles on Integrating Business and Mission. More Blog Topics here.

 

Wealth Creation Manifesto & Global Classroom

BAM Global and Lausanne partnered to produce a series of video resources and papers on the critical need for wealth creators, i.e. business people, to partner with God in mission. Watch the Video series here, read the Wealth Creation Manifesto here, and download the Report series here.

 

Rēp – Repurposing Business Training

Rēp specialises in training and resources to equip business leaders for marketplace impact. Rēp’s goal is introduced as follows, ‘God has long used work and business as vehicles for his plans on earth. In centuries past a fictitious divide between work & worship, business & ministry crept into our thinking. Our goal is not to get God into business, but to get businesses into God’s business.’ Check out their training courses here, including a free foundation course for ‘repurposing your business’.

Foundation Resources for Everyone

Whatever your approach or path, here are a few resources that will help everyone get a good foundation in BAM:

 

BAM Manifesto

The BAM Manifesto is our foundational document to frame business as mission; it shares in one page what BAM is all about. Read it here.

 

Start Here Page

Our Start page on this very website is designed to give you a brief introduction to business as mission and is ground zero for the BAM Pathways. Go there now.

 

BAM A-Z Booklet

If you would like to learn your BAM ABCs, look no further than the BAM A-Z booklet that communicates the concepts of BAM with graphics, single words and short texts. Using the 26 letters of the English alphabet, Mats Tunehag has identified 26 key words and concepts related to BAM. They are accompanied by a brief explanation and a graphic. Download your copy here. Watch the BAM Global leadership team share about each letter in 1-2 minute videos here.

 

BAM Global Movement Book

Get an introduction to BAM with one book purchase, this introductory book on business as mission by Gea Gort & Mats Tunehag is for you. It interweaves foundation-laying chapters on the concept of BAM with case study chapters, sharing the stories of real companies. Find out more.

 

Introduction to BAM Courses

Looking for a bit more BAM to study? Two of our partners offer great introduction to BAM courses:

ThirdPath Initiative offer a free 7 part course that will start you on your BAM path – check it out here!

YWAM Colorado Springs offer a more intensive 10 part Introduction to BAM Seminar that can be taken online or in-person in a cohort – discover more here.

 

There are many more ideas on the BAM Ecosystem Map and you can discover more great BAM resources right here at the Business as Mission Resource Centre, in the Business as Mission Resource Library and The BAM Review Blog.

God has equipped each of us with various skill sets and backgrounds, leading each of us on unique paths. No matter how you’ve been equipped, what role you have in business as mission, or where you are on your journey, we hope you will find the resources on this website useful and encouraging.

Check out the new resources for ‘Do-ers’ on the BAM Pathways here.

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

 

 

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash

 

 

3 Ways Businesses Integrate Faith

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

 

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

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

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

 

 

1. Embodied Faith

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

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

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

Read more

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

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by Jo Plummer

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tending the Garden: The Cultural Mandate

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

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

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

Loving Our Neighbour: The Great Commandment

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

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

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

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

Proclaiming the Gospel: The Great Commission

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

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

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

In Conclusion

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

The definition of business as mission is:

  • Profitable and sustainable businesses;
  • Intentional about Kingdom of God purpose and impact on people and nations;
  • Focused on holistic transformation and the multiple bottom lines of economic, social, environmental and spiritual outcomes;
  • Concerned about the world’s poorest and least evangelised peoples.

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

 

Photo by Rachel Strong on Unsplash

What is Business as Mission? A Short Introduction

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by Jo Plummer

Business as mission, simply put, is the seamless integration of excellent business with intentional mission. It is doing business for God’s glory, the gospel, and the common good.

Business is a God-given vocation and institution in society, with the potential to bring multiple benefits to people, communities and nations. Business as mission intentionally leverages this intrinsic power of business to address spiritual needs, hand in hand with social, economic and environmental needs. Business as mission is strategic today because it is often best placed to meet a wide range of needs in communities around the world.

Let’s start with business

Dallas Willard once said, “Business is a primary moving force of the love of God in human history.” Business, done well, is glorifying to God. Period. We see in the Bible and throughout history that business is able to create dignified jobs,  multiply resources, provide for families and communities, push forward innovation, and, in short, do good in society. A company does not need a business as mission strategy to justify its purpose or to somehow make it more ‘holy’. Business professionals following Jesus in the marketplace already have a sacred vocation. Business is a good idea that comes from God.

Yet, God has called us, His Church, to partner with him in the work of mission. To love our neighbour as ourselves, to care for the poor and vulnerable, and to share the gospel and make disciples in every part of the world. And business people, along with their skills and experiences, are some of the most needed in the work of global mission today. Alongside more traditional forms of mission, the world is crying out for for-profit, business solutions to some of its most pressing issues. These issues include job scarcity, human trafficking, economic exploitation, corruption, environmental degradation, dire poverty, and the challenge of sharing the love of God and His good news with those who haven’t yet heard it.

Business as Mission

In the global marketplace today, we have an opportunity to harness the God-given power of business to address these pressing spiritual, social, environmental, and economic issues. Business as mission is a movement of business professionals, mission leaders, church leaders and academics who are doing just that. They are taking the instrument of business, with its innate, God-given ability and power, and intentionally using that power in the work of mission. They are using their professional know-how and the gifts of entrepreneurship and good management to bring creative and long-term, sustainable solutions to local and global challenges. They are making a positive impact through for-profit business, along the ‘four bottom lines’: social, environmental, financial and spiritual. We sometimes refer to these as the 4Ps: people, planet, profit, and eternal purpose.

Defining BAM

There is no one universally agreed definition of business as mission, but there are some key common denominators in the global BAM movement. And while there is growing consensus around the concept, many other terms are also used for the same, or similar, idea. Many prefer terms such as: missional entrepreneurship, transformational business, missional business or business for transformation (B4T), among others. Business as mission, or ‘BAM’, is just one widely used term in the English language, other terms have developed in other languages.

This is the working definition of business as mission used by BAM Global:

Business as Mission is:

  • Profitable and sustainable businesses;
  • Intentional about Kingdom of God purpose and impact on people and nations;
  • Focused on holistic transformation and the multiple bottom lines of economic, social, environmental and spiritual outcomes;
  • Concerned about the world’s poorest and least evangelized peoples.

Intentional and Integrated

Business as mission is not a new idea! Business and mission have been combined in different ways, at different times throughout Church history. However, the contemporary business as mission movement represents a growing intentionality in the global Church to fully integrate business goals with the call to the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world. It is an answer to the prayer, ‘May Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’, as people and communities are positively transformed through for-profit business activities. BAM is the intentional integration of business and mission.

The idea of integration is important. This is not ‘ministry’ tacked onto business for convenience or business tacked onto ministry. Instead the mission is worked out in and through the business, through its activities, through the products and services and through relationships built in daily business life—with employees, customers, suppliers, officials, business networks, and the wider community.

As already stated, business is designed by God to provide livelihoods, multiply resources, and enable communities to flourish through a combination of creativity, hard work and risk. A profitable and sustainable business is able to create new jobs, drive innovation, provide needed goods and services, and help societies develop. Through business as mission we can intentionally tackle poverty, bring positive social and environmental change, and carry with us the message of eternal life.

Business as mission is a concept that can and should be applied everywhere, but the business as mission movement has a special concern for people and places where there are dire economic, social, environmental and spiritual needs – Mats Tunehag

We invite you to be inspired and equipped by the stories and resources that we’ve created and curated on this Business as Mission Resource website.

Download this article as a PDF.

Watch the 3 Minute What is BAM? Explainer Video

The first version of What is BAM? was published on The BAM Review in 2015, this version was updated in 2024.

Want to find out more about BAM?

Join us at the BAM Global Connect on the 13th November

 

 

More About Event

 

 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 M. Cooper on Unsplash

 

 

 

10 Guiding Principles for Business as Mission

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

 

Introduction

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

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

Foundational Business Principles

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

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

10 Quotes to Inspire You for Business as Mission

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

10 of our favourite BAM-related quotes:

 

1. Ralph Winter’s editorial endorsement

Really big and sudden changes in the world of missions don’t come often. But now one is upon us. It’s the major optimism and thrill of business people who are devout believers starting or extending ‘Kingdom Businesses’ around the world. – Ralph Winter

Ralph Winter identified business as a major force in world mission in his Editorial for an issue of Mission Frontiers magazine in 2007. This bold statement from an elder statesman of evangelical missions in the first decade of the contemporary BAM movement was a great boost.

2. Dallas Willard’s panel gem

Business is a primary arrangement on God’s part for people to love one another and serve one another… Business is a primary moving force of the love of God in human history. – Dallas Willard

This is Jo’s favourite quote on business and she almost always shares it whenever she speaks. Originally made in a panel response, Dallas expands on the question ‘What is business for?’ and comes out with some gems. This quote is echoed in the title of the booklet Called to Business: God’s way of loving people through business and the professions published posthumously by Dallas Willard Ministries.

3. Mats Tunehag’s keynote bombshell

If God has called you to business, don’t lower yourself to be a pastor. – Mats Tunehag

We’ve included this quote by our very own Mats Tunehag from his presentation at the Lausanne Congress in Cape Town 2010. That’s because out of the many, many things Mats has said about business and BAM, this is the one that most often gets quoted back to him. Provocative, but true!

Read more

7 Creative Ways that Practitioners Integrate Business and Mission

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Read this classic blog from our Archives, first published on The BAM Review blog in June 2015 and republished for the Summer Series 2022.

A defining characteristic of a BAM company is that it intentionally integrates mission with business. But what does that look like in practice? What are some creative ways that practitioners work out their goals for spiritual impact, alongside their commercial, social and environmental goals?

We asked a small group of practitioners to share what they do in the business context that moves them towards their missional goals and spiritual impact. This could be something they did when establishing the company, or practices they do on a regular basis in the day-to-day life of the business. The practitioners shared a diverse range of specific practices, but there were some common themes. These seven ways to integrate business and mission stood out:

Keep Purpose Front and Center

Keeping the purpose, vision and objectives of the company at the forefront emerged as a key principle. This is important all the way through the life of the company, from the planning stages and goal setting, to evaluating those goals and choosing measures, to on-boarding processes for new hires, to daily communication with employees. Read more

4 Things You Need to Know About Business as Mission

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by Jo Plummer

 

1. We can’t talk about ‘business as mission’ until we talk about ‘business’

Business is part of God’s good plan for human flourishing and has a God-designed power and role in human society. Business as mission takes this intrinsic God-given power and role of business and intentionally uses it as an instrument for mission. Just as water or wind power can be intentionally harnessed to do more good (or harm), business as mission is harnessing the power of business for God’s glory, the gospel, and the common good.

It is therefore vitally important that we have a good grasp of what the Bible says about business – and indeed, economics, human flourishing and God’s mission to the world – before we then apply those fundamental truths about God’s purposes to doing business as mission. Let us build on solid biblical foundations!

What we don’t want to do is create a new ‘sacred-secular divide’ while trying to break down the old one. Business does not need to be sanctified by being engaged as an instrument for mission, it is already part of God’s good design. Just as one vocation is not more spiritual or sacred than another, the same goes for different kinds of business. We can glorify God through work and our vocations, wherever we are.

For more on this idea read here and for a biblical foundation for BAM read here.

 

2. Business as mission is part of a broader movement, but also has a unique and distinctive response to the world’s most pressing issues

For example, business as mission is part of the wider shift in the global church towards more integral (or holistic) models of mission that break down the dichotomy between evangelism and social responsibility. But it is also distinctive in that it emphasises for-profit solutions to mission challenges, rather than charitable or donor-driven mission models.

Read more

Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done… in Business

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As we begin a new year, we are posting some ‘foundational’ material on our biblical foundations for business as mission and how we respond to God’s call in each of our individual lives and circumstances.

Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done… in Business

This was the title of a report for the BAM Global Think Tank with the subtitle “Biblical Foundations for Business as Mission” of which this blog post is an excerpt.

The working group who produced the report defined its purpose as identifying principles, models and practices of business that give expression to its role in advancing God’s purpose or mission in the world. Broadly speaking, they worked from the premise that God’s purpose is to establish His Kingdom—a Kingdom to be fully consummated with the second coming of Jesus Christ, but inaugurated in ‘this present age’ (Tit 2:11–14). The establishment of His Kingdom presupposes the redemption of the whole of creation (Rom 8:19–22).

What this means for business is that although profit matters for the sustainability of any business enterprise, it is not the raison d’etre for business as mission (BAM). BAM exists to pursue a different ‘p’, that of (God’s) purpose.

Thoughts on the Fundamental Biblical Purpose of Business

God calls His people to do good… Whenever business is carried out justly, it does good and is God-ordained because we are assured that all good things ‘come from above’ (Jas 1:17). God created the marketplace to serve positive ends. Human provision, facilitated by the beneficial exchanges of the marketplace, is a fundamental function of creation. Commerce can also be, at least informally, a means of revelatory grace, specifically as immanent charis, the kindness, mercy, and goodwill of God in the world, as business generates wealth that can be used to pay wages, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for widows and orphans. Business can be evangelizing witness to the glory of God… Christ is present in the marketplace when the devout carry out their business in accordance with God’s will, purposes, and character (Doty, 2011, pp. 93–4).

Understanding God’s purposes for business comes through understanding God’s purpose for humans outlined in Genesis and understanding God’s purposes for institutions (principalities and powers outlined in the New Testament writings). Broadly, the purpose of business lies within the context of the purpose of life―that is, the ‘chief end of humankind is to glorify God and enjoy God forever’  Read more

7 Markers for a Kingdom Business: A Framework for Entrepreneurs

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TOP 5 BLOGS IN 5 YEARS

This month we are celebrating 5 years of publishing weekly blogs on The BAM Review and sending out bi-weekly emails!  To celebrate, we are re-posting the TOP 5 most read blogs from the past 5 years for your reading enjoyment.

by Courtney Rountree Mills

A quick framework to help entrepreneurs learn how to integrate their faith life with their business life in a practical way.

Let’s face it. Life is hard enough as an entrepreneur. The whole world always seems to be resting on your shoulders. The pressure to succeed is immense. After all, if you don’t, you let down not only yourself and your family, but also your staff and their families! What gets you through the pressure? Mainly prayer and the passion you have for your business. You love the challenge of being an entrepreneur. It energizes you more than almost anything else. Sometimes thinking about your business becomes more like an addiction – you could work on or think through challenges you face all day, every day and never feel like you are completely caught up.

The only thing you care about more than your business is your relationship with Jesus and your family. Still, it seems your business ends up taking over your prayer life and family life, too. You keep hearing about how you should live an integrated life, but you have no practical idea how to achieve this. You hear people around you using the phrases “Kingdom Business” or “Missional Business.” These sound great to you, but you don’t even know what the definition of a Kingdom Business is. Measuring your business’ Key Performance Indicators is easy, but how do you measure your KPIs when it comes to integrating your life as a believer and business owner? This article provides a quick framework to help entrepreneurs live out their faith in their business. This is a topic that resonated most with the 450 entrepreneurs we have accelerated who were asking the same question. Most of this is not material I wrote. Rather, it is a compilation of some of the best material I have found on living out business as mission.

Kingdom Business: The Definition

First, what is a Kingdom business? The best definition I found is one I slightly adapted from Acton School of Business in partnership with Gateway Church:

A kingdom business is an enterprise directed by the Holy Spirit and managed by a godly leader that uses its time, talent, and money to meet the spiritual and/or physical needs of the community around them to advance God’s purpose.

Ok good. We’ve defined it. Sounds pretty simple right? Now, let’s break apart this definition piece by piece to define the characteristics of a Kingdom Business. From this definition, Acton matched 6 characteristics they believe a Kingdom Business should exhibit. Each one has an associated question you can use to evaluate yourself and your business. I have slightly modified this framework to add a seventh dimension (“Reflection of God’s Character”) that I think is quite helpful. Read more