Tag Archive for: larry sharp

BAM is Not New: A Short History of Business and Mission Separation versus Integration

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by Larry Sharp

 

Recently, I was reading the Bible verse which says: “What has been, will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Eccl. 1:9. I am sure that in our age of innovation and entrepreneurship, people might want to dispute it but let us take it at face value regarding Business as Mission (BAM).

Some imply that BAM is something new and some even have told me that it is a passing fad; but, what about the essence of BAM? BAM believes Deut. 8:18 where God tells Moses that He (God) gives mankind the ability to create wealth. BAM believes the Great Commandment of Jesus that we love our neighbor (MK 12:31), one application of which is to create jobs. BAM believes we are to make disciples of Jesus (MT 28:19-20). BAM believes that we are to be stewards of all of God’s creation (Gen 2:15).

All of that did not start 30 years ago. The latest iteration of it may have; but not the essence of it. Let’s look at a super-short history of God at work in the world.

Old Testament: Think of any character in the Old Testament and while there are many prophets, most were marketplace people, whom God used to accomplish his purposes—Noah, Abraham, Moses, Boaz, Daniel, David, Deborah, Gideon, Hezekiah, Job, Nehemiah, and more.

New Testament: While the New Testament is rightly heavy on the apostles, especially Paul, Acts 8:1-4 explains how the gospel spread so quickly. “…all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” and they “…preached the word wherever they went…” In fact, they went even beyond to other places such as Asia and Africa. They met in homes and they lived out the gospel in the marketplace.

Early Centuries: Paul’s bi-vocational ministry model was common among apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors in the Early Church. Tertullian, a renowned 2nd century church father, lauded the practice. It not only provided for God’s servants and for the poor but relieved the growing church of heavy financial burdens.

From the 3rd-5th centuries, prominent bishops in different parts of Christendom were tentmakers. Chrysostom of Constantinople spoke of rural pastors who yoked oxen and drove the plough. Of course, local believers lived out their faith in the workplace.

Constantine to the Reformation: We have this era to blame for the “sacred-secular divide.” Constantine (300’s AD) began the practice of paying the clergy and thus began the practice of the professional clergy, something affirmed by Augustine in the 5th century. All the while, the church grew as individuals testified and demonstrated the Good News.

Reformers: As Martin Luther declared the “priesthood of the believers”, he challenged the idea of a divide between the sacred and the secular. Luther, Calvin, and other reformers validated the idea that living out the faith at all times was something normal in all venues of life, not something segmented off for the professional clergy.

Reformation to nineteenth century: Somewhere along the line, the first-century term “tentmaker” caught on again, and bi-vocational missional workers emerged again. Perhaps most notable were the Moravians who took their trade with them wherever they went. These practical skills contributed to the economic development of the people they served, and provided frequent, natural contacts for spiritual outreach.

The Father of Modern Missions, William Carey, was a tentmaker as he brought spiritual and societal transformation to north India as a plantation manager, college professor, translator, printer and publisher. Similarly, David Livingstone, E. Stanley Jones, Robert Morrison, Gladys Aylward, Lottie Moon, and many others integrated “secular” work with their sacred calling in a holistic transformational manner.

Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Phenomena such as colonial dependency, international banking, the faith mission concept, and the dichotomy of rich and poor nations brought about the demise of tentmaking and exacerbated the sacred-secular divide that we have today. By the end of the twentieth century, the norm was to send and pay clergy, called missionaries, to spread the gospel while everyone else was to pray and give money. It did not help that many western countries took a well-meaning political ideology called the “separation of church and state” and applied it to all of life, thus allowing the unfortunate “sacred-secular divide” to raise its ugly head.

Hope for the Future: Toward the end of the twentieth century, the closing of most countries of the world to missionaries and the development of a robust theology of work gave impetus to a tentmaker strategy again along with the Business as Mission movement. Billy Graham set the tone for what many call the Faith-Work movement, or Marketplace Ministries when he stated, “I believe one of the next great moves of God is going to be through the believers in the workplace.” [1]

In the “Business as Mission” iteration of God at work in the world of work today, we have the pioneers of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s to thank for the courage to demonstrate and articulate what it is. These are people whose names are familiar to us today as current leaders in the movement, among many others from all continents.

Our Business as Mission strategy is the latest and best outworking of the integration of faith and work. Gea Gort, a leader in BAM Netherlands, quotes a friend as saying “Five hundred years ago, we had a reformation of dogma. Now, we have a reformation of mission.” She summed it up in one sentence. “It is a missional way of living out the whole incarnated gospel in our daily life, where we work and where we live.”

To my way of thinking, it is a return to the MO (modus operandi) of the New Testament believers who “…went from place to place, proclaiming the word.” (Acts 8:4 RSV) or in the words of Michael Green, “…this must often have been not formal preaching, but the informal chattering to friends or chance acquaintances, in homes and wine shops, on walks, and around market stalls… they did it naturally, enthusiastically, and with the conviction of those who are not paid to say that sort of thing.” [2]

 

First published on the IBEC Ventures Blog and republished here with kind permission from the author.

 

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!

 

 

Footnotes:

[1] Os Hillman in C. Neal Johnson, Business as Mission, 2009, p. 90

[2] Michael Green, Evangelism in the Early Church, 1970, p. 173

 

 

 

Photo by Joanna Kosinska 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

 

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

 

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

 

7 Points of Controversy and Clarity for Business as Mission

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by Larry Sharp

 

According to Mats Tunehag, perhaps the premier worldwide BAM spokesperson, “By God’s grace we have seen an exponential growth of the global business as mission movement in the last 25 years” (The BAM Review, April 2025). It has been my privilege to have been a part of the movement for almost twenty years and it is abundantly clear—God is definitely at work accomplishing His mission in the world through marketplace servants.

However, I continue to be perplexed with one question, “Why is there still so much controversy and lack of understanding in North America (where I am from) surrounding the theology, missiology, and praxis of “business as mission”?

The Meaning of Terms

The phrase combines two familiar yet distinct words: “business” and “mission.”

Business drives the economy, encompassing activities that meet needs or solve problems through value exchange. Christian author Albert Erisman asserts that business is the only institution that creates economic growth and funds all others. Tunehag adds that business should serve people, align with God’s purposes, steward creation well, and make a profit. He emphasizes that business can be a platform for expressing Christ’s love.

“Missions,” as defined in Wikipedia, is “an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith,” often involving missionaries seeking conversions. However, contemporary theology emphasizes missio Dei—God’s mission in the world as an extension of His nature and love. This broader view sees God acting to glorify Himself through redeeming people across all nations (I Kings 8:60, I Tim. 1:17). According to the Westminster Catechism, our purpose is to glorify God, and John Piper reminds us, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is.” (Let the Nations Be Glad).

Missiology has evolved, now framing mission not merely as an activity of the church but something initiated by God. The Trinity sends the church to embody God’s saving love through both word and deed—more than just conversions or church planting, it includes bringing God’s peace (shalom) into every area of life. Jesus modeled this by connecting evangelism with social needs.

Business as mission (BAM) gained traction in the late 1990s alongside the “Faith and Work” movement. Yet, its roots trace back to the early church. BAM involves believers in the marketplace living with kingdom purpose and impact—transforming individuals and societies spiritually, economically, and socially for God’s glory (Tunehag, 2008).

Controversy and Misunderstanding

Among North American clergy, BAM is often dismissed as a trend or distraction from priorities like church planting. Many pastors and mission leaders show limited interest in understanding how BAM aligns with God’s mission and the church.

Although change theorists advocate a “trickle-down” model—where seminaries adopt new strategies first—experience suggests that BAM is not a curricular priority in most Christian colleges.

Mission agencies have also shown reluctance, with some resisting BAM-related theology. Though a few initiatives do exist, most are micro-enterprise in nature and most leadership prefers traditional approaches.

Meanwhile, Christian professionals often experience a divide between faith and work. Few pastors preach messages that help believers live out their faith in the marketplace.

Despite progress over the past 25 years, misunderstandings persist. For those who dismiss BAM, several key points deserve consideration.

Controversy #1: The Theology of Work

What is the controversy? Until recently, most seminaries and theologians gave little attention to a Theology of Work. The prevailing belief held that spiritually significant work was confined to roles like pastors, missionaries, and Bible teachers. In contrast, the BAM movement challenges this notion, affirming the sacredness of all vocations.

In the past two decades, scholars such as Os Guinness, David Miller, Tom Nelson, Mark Russell, Jeff Van Duzer, and Tim Keller have critiqued historical misconceptions about work. These include the ideas that work is a necessary evil, a path to wealth and power, or a vehicle for self-actualization. Such assumptions limit believers’ ability to view their work as ministry or mission.

The heart of the controversy is summarized in Martin Luther’s reminder that all Christians are primarily called to holiness through Christ. He rejected the idea of a “higher” religious vocation, asserting, “There is no special religious vocation since the call of God comes to each at the common tasks.” This foundational idea supports BAM’s emphasis on the dignity and spiritual value of everyday work.

Gene Veith argues that the priesthood of all believers turns all work—not just church work—into a sacred calling. Similarly, R. Paul Stevens notes that the Hebrew words abad (work) and shamar (care) in Genesis also mean worship and obedience. He emphasizes “vocational holiness,” where the profession itself matters less than faithfulness within it.

Work in the Biblical Narrative

Genesis 1–2 presents God as a worker and humans as His image-bearers, entrusted with the Creation Mandate. Work was declared good (Gen. 1:31) and dignifying. Keller asserts that through work, humans reflect God’s creative nature. Van Duzer states, “When humans engage in creative, meaningful work that grows out of relationships and gives back to the community, they become more deeply human.” (Van Duzer, 2010)

Deuteronomy 8:18 affirms that God gives the ability to produce wealth. This idea is championed by missional entrepreneurs like Bill Job and business leaders such as Bonnie Wurzbacher, former VP at Coca-Cola. Wurzbacher noted that “as the sole source of wealth creation in the world, business enables every other social, civic and even spiritual situation to exist.” For BAM practitioners, business is a tool for glorifying God, cultivating relationships, and contributing to human flourishing.

Work as Worship

Wong and Rae assert that when Christians go to work, they offer themselves to God in service. This “work as worship” theology has emerged strongly in recent years. Work is not a result of the fall; Adam and Eve were given purposeful tasks before sin entered the world (Gen. 1:27–28; 2:15). Scripture affirms work’s divine design over 850 times. A frequently cited verse is Colossians 3:23: “Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord…”

Mats Tunehag puts it boldly: “If God has called you to be a businessperson, do not stoop to be a preacher.” Likewise, businessman Michael Cardone remarked, “God did not call me to be a minister or a missionary; He called me to be a businessman—and I see no difference.” Michael Greene affirms, “Work is significant to God; our work is just as valuable as that of a pastor or missionary.” Though widely doubted, this conviction is both biblical and foundational to the BAM movement.

Controversy #2: The Role of Money

What is the misunderstanding? Although Scripture makes clear that money itself is not evil (1 Tim. 6:10), many evangelicals view businesspeople with suspicion—assuming they are greedy or useful only for their financial contributions to the church.

Yet Jesus spoke more about money than about heaven or hell. As Wayne Grudem notes, “Money is fundamentally good and provides opportunities for glorifying God, but also many temptations to sin.” Jesus affirmed the importance of money, while warning against trusting it, loving it, or misusing it (Luke 16).

The real issue arises when Christians fail to distinguish between the abuse of money and its rightful, God-honoring use. Jesus’ command to “engage in business until I come” (Luke 19:13) implies responsibility, not exploitation. Faithful Christian businesspeople pursue ethical wealth creation while avoiding greed, poor stewardship, and unrestrained capitalism.

Controversy comes when believers forget that wealth, when rightly stewarded, is a gift from God as Deuteronomy 8:18 affirms.

Controversy #3: The Disruptive Nature of Missio Dei

What is the controversy? “Missions” is often seen as a narrow church activity, budget item, or sermon theme. In contrast, “mission” begins with God—missio Dei—His purpose to glorify Himself by redeeming the world. This broader understanding opens the door for all believers, in any profession, to participate in God’s kingdom work.

When I started using “mission” instead of “missions,” some saw it as semantics. But the terms “mission,” “missions,” and “missionary” are extrabiblical and shaped by personal or cultural biases—mine included. Stetzer describes missio Dei as God-focused: a movement from God to the world, with the church as His instrument. This view invites all believers to join in gospel proclamation and demonstration, while “missions” tends to mean a specific calling to cross-cultural evangelism.

Looking ahead, if missio Dei is our theological foundation, then the future belongs to God’s ongoing work in the world. As some theologians put it, the church does not initiate mission; rather, the mission of God gives birth to the church. Christopher Wright echoes this, calling the people of God the “primary agent of the mission of God.”

God is a sending God. He sent Adam and Eve to fill the earth, Israel to bless the nations, Jesus as Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit to continue the work. Mission flows from the Triune nature of God. The church today exists because of this divine mission and is a continuation of it.

This reframes our thinking. Mission is not what we do for God, but what we do with God, because of who He is. “Missions” implies fragmented church programs; “mission” reflects a unified purpose. As Stephen Neill wrote, “The age of missions ended. The age of mission began.”

So what difference does it make?

In Genesis 1–2, missio Dei begins with imago Dei—we are made in God’s image. Recent theology has emphasized the connection between these concepts. There’s unity between sacred and secular, faith and work.

Every believer bears God’s image and shares in His mission. Not all are “missionaries,” but all are called to live missionally through their work. As J.D. Greear says, “Whatever you are good at: a) do it well for the glory of God; b) do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God.”

Controversy #4: The Sacred–Secular Divide

What is the misunderstanding? Michael Greene defines the sacred–secular divide as the belief that some activities matter deeply to God while others don’t. Business as mission rejects this, affirming that all of life matters to God.

This divide is often more a misunderstanding than a theological debate. Many believers, like a former graduate student of mine, Michelle—a successful business owner—feel sidelined from “real” ministry. She once said, “It never occurred to me that my business was my ministry,” despite her evangelical upbringing. This mindset persists because missions is often seen as the exclusive domain of professionals.

In contrast, BAM practitioners in restricted nations often respond to questions about ministry time by saying, “My work is my ministry.” They understand that the early church spread the gospel through everyday life, without a divide between sacred and secular.

The historical roots of this dualism trace back to Greek philosophy, reinforced by Augustine and others who prioritized “higher” sacred work over “lower” secular work. This separation still influences modern Christians and undermines a holistic life of integrity. It also divorces the Great Commission from the Great Commandment—discipleship from love of neighbor.

It wasn’t until the Reformation that Luther, Calvin and others challenged this divide, promoting the priesthood of all believers. This provided the basis for the biblical unity of mission, vocation, and daily life.

Eldred notes that this dualism marginalizes most Christians from missio Dei, robbing them of joy and purpose in their daily work. A.W. Tozer echoes this: “It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred, it is why he does it.” Dallas Willard similarly writes, “There truly is no division between sacred and secular except what we have created.”

Church roles like apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers are vital for equipping the saints (Eph. 4:12). But perhaps, like in Acts 8, the model for the 21st century church is ordinary believers living out their trades while preaching Jesus. As Paul reminds us: “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

Controversy #5 – The Kingdom of God

What is the controversy? The Kingdom of God (or Kingdom of Heaven) is central to Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels. While interpretations have varied, many evangelical scholars now affirm the Kingdom is both “already here” and “not yet.”

In the 20th century, much of the church emphasized the “not yet” aspect, focusing on salvation from hell and avoiding social issues, which were seen as liberal. When I studied theology in the 1960s, the Kingdom of God was taught strictly as eternal. But by century’s end, voices like John Stott, R. Paul Stevens, Os Guinness, Dale Losch, and Tim Keller re-emphasized its relevance to daily life—highlighting the Kingdom as present and active today.

Acknowledging the present dimension of the Kingdom prompts the question: what does it look like now? Luke 17:21 says the Kingdom is within Jesus’ disciples, and Matthew 10:7 says it is “at hand.” Heidebrecht argues this view integrates social action into the gospel, alongside proclamation—reflecting Jesus’ concern for holistic human welfare. Thus, the gospel addresses both present needs and eternal hope.

Paul Hiebert similarly taught that mission includes preaching, teaching (Matthew 28:19), and addressing injustice, poverty, and suffering. Raynor, in The Sacredness of Secular Work (2024), and Nancy Pearcey stress that salvation is not only from sin but for purpose—partnering with God to reflect heaven on earth. Raynor writes, “the good news… is not just that I get to go to heaven… but that I get to partner with God in revealing heaven on earth until I die.” This reflects God’s reign of goodness and shalom in the world.

Controversy #6: The Whole Gospel

What is the controversy? The Lausanne Congress of 1974, heavily influenced by John Stott, affirmed a holistic gospel that addressed not only spiritual needs but also the social and physical conditions of people. This challenged the dominant 20th-century missions model, which often focused narrowly on spiritual salvation. Business as mission embraces this “whole man” perspective by addressing both joblessness and spiritual poverty.

Chris Wright summarizes the holistic gospel as requiring “the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world.” The redemptive work of Christ completes—not negates—God’s commitment to human wholeness and creation care. The gospel addresses the spiritually lost and the socially and economically marginalized, recognizing that people are whole beings.

BAM integrates the theology of work (Creation Mandate), the Great Commandment, and the Great Commission. Jesus taught that we are to love God fully and our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 10:27; Matt. 22:37–39). Kingdom businesspeople understand this means using their God-given capacity to create wealth, employment (jobs), dignity, relationships, and beauty. They are moved by the global realities of poverty and unemployment and inspired by Martin Luther’s conviction that the gospel must engage the issues of the day.

BAM workers see themselves as stewards of both natural and human resources—“vice-regents” over God’s creation (Stevens, 2012). Their work serves others and reflects God’s care.

John Stott put it simply: “We love. We go. We serve.” Loving our neighbor means caring for the whole person—soul, body, and community. Social responsibility flows from love, not as a strategy for gospel credibility but as an expression of compassion.

The Great Commission emphasizes making disciples and teaching all that Jesus commanded (Matt. 28:18–20; Acts 1:8). For Stott, this includes both evangelistic and social responsibility, since Jesus taught and served. His ministry was holistic—feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and comforting the grieving.

Discipleship, as Losch points out, often begins before conversion (John 6:66). Pre-faith followers may be drawn to Christ through acts of love and service. The marketplace, where life and work intersect, is a powerful setting for this kind of pre-cross discipleship and holistic mission.

While we are not divine like Jesus, our mission reflects His—to bring good news and serve. A biblical understanding of mission integrates creation care, love of neighbor, and disciple-making. Business, done faithfully, can demonstrate the gospel in action.

Controversy #7: How Christianity Spread

What is the misunderstanding? Many Christians in the 20th century were taught that the Apostle Paul was the primary model of mission. While Paul and the apostles played a vital role, historical and biblical evidence suggests the gospel mainly spread through everyday believers in the marketplace.

Tim Keller notes that evangelism in the early church often happened in the oikos—households—through friendships. Michael Green supports this in Evangelism in the Early Church, describing early Christian growth as driven by informal missionaries—ordinary believers sharing Christ in daily life settings like shops and homes.

Acts 8 confirms this: after Stephen’s death, “all except the apostles were scattered” (v.1), and they “preached the word wherever they went.” Despite lacking formal training, support, or Scripture, lay believers advanced the gospel significantly. The apostles stayed central, underscoring the continued need for pastors and theologians—but the frontlines were in homes and workplaces.

Acts 11 shows that these scattered believers reached Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, where “a great number… turned to the Lord” (v.21). Billy Graham once said, “One of the next great moves of God is going to be through believers in the workplace.” Perhaps the 21st century will resemble the 1st more than the 20th.

Conclusion

Ecclesiastes reminds us, “There is nothing better… than to enjoy [our] work” (3:22), and to “do it with all [our] might” (9:10). A faithful Jesus follower today should see people as whole beings—spiritual, social, and physical—and follow Christ’s example of holistic ministry. Jesus healed, fed, taught, and loved not just for a future kingdom, but for transformation now.

Business as mission (BAM) reflects this, emphasizing creation care, meeting human needs, job creation, and disciple-making. BAM invites everyday believers into missio Dei, affirming that our work itself is a sacred expression of worship and calling.

We aren’t called to be professional missionaries with programs and systems. We’re called to be witnesses. As Roberts says, “Start with Christology… if you focus on mission, churches will follow. But if you focus on churches, mission often gets lost.”

We don’t go to proselytize or plant “Christianity”; we go to live and love like Jesus in our work and relationships. If we bless others in His name, the gospel is planted and the Church will follow. Each believer should do what they’re good at, with excellence, in strategic places for God’s mission—planting the whole gospel wherever they go.

 

This article was first published on Missio Nexus and is reposted here by kind permission of the author and original editor.

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. 

 

 

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4 Ps in a BAM Crisis: Preparation, Prevention, Planning and Partnering

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by Larry Sharp


This article is for BAM practitioners and those who support them in their work. It’s about what to do when something really bad happens and how to mitigate it happening in the first place

I have been visiting, observing, asking questions, providing help, and writing stories about BAM companies for 20 years. It has been stretching, humbling, enlightening and a total privilege.

The hardest part of it all has been to watch businesses struggle and eventually fail.

The best part has been to see businesses struggle with challenges and for any number of reasons overcome and continue to push on.

Harold Kushner grappled with the subject of When Bad Things Happen to Good People in his 1981 bestselling book with the same title. That is not my purpose here except to affirm that they do.

But how many times have you heard comments like: “They should have known better” or, “Didn’t they get training on that before coming overseas?” or, “Who was the business leader when things were getting rough?” or, “They should have capitalized it with double the amount” etc..

As the supervisor of crisis preparedness and crisis management in a mission agency I experienced numerous crises develop, many with pleasant endings, but also many with really bad endings. I often asked myself and God, “Why?”

While we think of businesses for the glory of God in impoverished and unreached areas, the following categories are critical in processing this subject before, during and after a crisis.

Preparation with Quality Training

If you studied business in the last quarter century you likely heard of the Rumsfeld Matrix which helps us process four quadrants ranging from the known knowns to the unknown unknowns. Business includes the life-long process of trying to understand what we know and learn what we do not know. In the case of being prepared for the unknown crises ahead we need to start with facts or variables that we’re aware of and understand. They form the basis of our knowledge and provide a solid foundation for decision making.

Most startups are owned and managed by intelligent, gifted, skilled and entrepreneurial enthusiasts who may have given minimal thought to crisis issues. The good news is that there are professionals who help prepare us for the uncertainties ahead. For this step I suggest hiring a consulting firm such Crisis Consulting International, Concilium Global, or see courses at the Crisis Training Center.

The net result will be a good understanding of the cultural, economic, political and demographic facts, assumptions and variables that you “know”. This will be assembled into a policy manual or at least a statement which forms the foundation of future actions.

It will include a clear understanding and consequent statement of why you are doing business in that context. It will help you answer questions such as:

  • How do you create value for the community?
  • If God owns the business, what does that mean?
  • Who do you really serve and why?
  • If the secret police show up one night with a search warrant, do you have to hide anything?
  • Can you prove you are a real business?
  • Do you follow your stated values?

A good consultant on this subject will likely role play various scenarios while helping the business wrestle with the “known unknowns” which are things you know exist but don’t fully understand.  These things will need to be investigated further—things like tax laws, visa requirements for expats, property ownership regulations, export-import laws, international money transfers and such.  This will take time but will be proven worth the effort.

Mark Russell discovered four characteristics of BAM companies in Southeast Asia that were producing positive ministry and business result.[1] High performers had:

  • A focus on being a blessing in their community and in all business areas
  • An openness regarding their purpose and identity (they were “real”)
  • Partnership with existing local churches and ministries
  • High cultural adaptation

A business with these or similar characteristics has good foundations to tackle potential dangers ahead.

Example

The COVID-19 crisis of 2020 brought ruination to many BAM companies. Tims Bakery in Asia was not totally blindsided because they had taken many of the steps listed above. Stan, the owner, called over 40 managers from three countries (many were not believers) and reminded them that this company belonged to God, who was the chairman.  They prayed and listened to God in three languages. God spoke saying “pivot” and the did just that, opening wholly new product outlets. Tims Bakery thrived because of God’s grace and quick thoughtful pivoting during COVID.[2]

Prevention by Mitigating Risk

Situational awareness is an important component of safety. Training helps business leadership to grow in their awareness of danger around them. There are risk assessment tools which help to identify risks and analyze them in terms of probability and impact. One tool that I used is called the Strategic Risk Forecast.

Once an understanding of risks exists (awareness), steps can be taken to avoid it (i.e. mitigate the risk). This may involve a policy on the subject or simply a general warning. Risk mitigation may range from the broad general things to micro actions of individuals.

Typical risks in the types of countries where BAM practitioners work include possibilities like natural disasters, government overreach, anti-foreigner oppression, economic downturn, kidnapping, loss of product markets. Risk types will likely vary depending on whether the practitioners involved are expats, nationals or a mixture.

Once the highest risks are identified, it is important next to develop contingency plans which will include the likes of a:

  • Contingency file of all items of importance in the event of a crisis
  • Strategy for communication (who needs to know what when?)
  • Basic disaster supplies listed and maintained
  • Strategy steps for identifying trigger points and subsequent action steps
  • Evacuation plans including rendezvous points and travel routes
  • Sources of emergency funds
Example

My youngest daughter worked for a large multinational as a country-wide HR director. She received exhaustive training including simulations, videos, exercises and feedback loops. They had a contingency file which listed trigger points and action steps. One day, in the interior of Sudan when they were arrested and told they were being deported, the training proved vital to their ability to overcome and survive the unfair and illegal treatment.

Planning for Crisis Management

Every crisis needs to be managed and if decisions and plans have been made ahead of time, the management of a crisis will be more efficient and effective. A Crisis Management Team (CMT) should be formed in the prevention stage and once the crisis occurs the CMT should be activated.

The role of the CMT is to assess and understand the crisis, clearly defining the problem and making a plan to respond. The team should identify a communication hub which will follow the procedures established beforehand. This team will coordinate all internal and external communication and implement the communication strategy outlined in the crisis management plan. This will include timely and transparent communication with employees, customers, suppliers, and the media.

There are good internet materials to document management procedures including communication strategies.[3]  I cannot overstress the importance of well-developed and comprehensive communication. Key trust issues reside with communication with all stakeholders which should be determined by the CMT immediately. I have found that upwards of 80% of the information shared is just what common courtesy demanded, and it kept the rumors and gossip to a minimum. Silence is the worst possible thing in emergency times.

Your crisis response team should include members with diverse skills from across the organization, such as senior crisis management teams, public relations, legal advisors, and operations personnel, to provide comprehensive coverage of all aspects of a crisis. Within this group, a crisis manager will be nominated to lead the execution of the crisis management plan, including the organization’s public response to the event.[3]

Depending on the extent and length of time, there may be a need for CMT positions to be further defined such as: leader, finance authority, communications director, compliance officer, HT manager, IT manager, legal counsel, etc..

Example

When the disastrous Haiti earthquake struck in January 2010, my organization had 18 people in the country. I was very thankful that we had a plan and that I had been in country two times for training. Things didn’t work perfectly but certainly much better than if we had never given it a thought ahead of time.  After the initial actions, I called Crisis Consulting International which had personnel with earthquake experience. I subsequently signed a contract for one of their people to fly to Haiti, do an assessment and return within a week with an action plan for us. One is never prepared for a crisis like that, but I felt we were a little ahead of the game because of prior action.

Partners in Crisis Resolution

Just as there are resources on the internet and elsewhere, so too are there likely to be personnel resources which will be handy and willing in a crisis. There is no need to shoulder the burden alone.

Whether managing a crisis from the location or an office in another country, or both, consider the need for language and culture experts, those in political positions, legal and financial experts, pastors, media leaders, those with experience in the issue faced, and other crisis managers.[4]

Examples

A couple of stories help reinforce the importance of partners in crisis resolution:

Two-year-old Evan fell from a 6th story window to the pavement below and was in a Kiev, Ukraine hospital when I got the call. He was unconscious and doctors knew they did not have the necessary medical resources locally. What should we do? I soon knew I had to medivac him to a better hospital in Europe and we settled on Vienna, but how? I turned to my CFO, Phil who had a robust business career and contacts. This resulted in hiring a medically equipped leer jet in Moscow to fly to Kiev, pick him up and get him to Vienna. I could never have come up with or executed the plan by myself.

Ben was the financial manager for the construction of a water dam in Asia but was arrested in the Asian country where he worked and was held without due process in a pathetic rustic jail cell.  I had never faced this before, so I had to seek help from others and continuously keep myself updated on what was going on and get various viewpoints. I received advice ranging from sending in a Rambo-like mercenary group to get him out, to having all-night prayer meetings and waiting on God. Ben did not see the light of day for five months and information and viewpoints for me came from news reports, state department officials, a Virginia senator, the pastor of his home church, a crisis manager in the country in Asia, a politician on site, and the USA Ambassador to the country.  I was glad to have perspectives and help from so many sources, even though it was frustrating at times. After much work from those with expertise in areas far beyond mine, he was released five months later.

 

There are many other components to being prepared for crisis, managing it effectively and eventually recovering. It is important that the business, any related organization, and everyone be debriefed with the goal of caring for them and maximizing next steps. Critical incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) is a post-trauma debriefing for individuals. The business leadership needs debriefing to not only care for them but also restabilize the business. There are organizations and individual operatives with experience to help each person and the business to recover.[5]

 

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!

 

 

Footnotes

[1] Russell, Mark L. The Missional Entrepreneur (Birmingham, AL: New Hope Publishers, 2010).

[2] See a more complete story in Sharp, Larry. Missions Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missional Professionals (Peabody MA:  Hendrickson Publishers, 2022).

[3] See for example, https://mention.com/en/blog/business-crisis-management/

[4] See, https://businessasmission.com/five-essential-reminders-if-you-are-managing-a-crisis/

[5] See, https://missionexus.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/2017-Crisis-Management-       White-Paper-Formatted.pdf

 


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So That They May See your Good Works and Give Glory to your Father in Heaven

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by Larry Sharp

Read Part 1 of this two part series here

Michael Oh, re-affirmed on the eve of the Fourth Lausanne Congress in 2024 that the workplace is the most strategic mission field in the world (watch his opening address here). Considering that workplace believers comprise 99% of the body of Christ, it must be a priority to equip Christians in the workplace to fulfill their role in the Great Commission (Eph 4: 11,12).

Jerry White and Bill Peel wrote in 2023,

“What if the 99 percent understood that playing a part in someone’s journey to faith in Jesus could begin with something as simple as having a cup of coffee with a colleague, encouraging someone who had a rough week, or offering a helping hand to a boss or coworker under stress? What if they understood that doing good work can turn on the light for coworkers ‘so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven’ (Matt 5:16)?… We might be tempted to believe that the exponential growth of the early church was the result of effective preaching by Peter, Paul, and a few other gifted communicators whose work was spreading the gospel. Or we might credit Paul’s strategy of targeting key cultural centers and planting churches that could infect the surrounding countryside. These efforts were no doubt noteworthy and important, but even more so is the fact that early Christians of every ethnicity, gender, and level of society were passionate about extending Christ’s kingdom”.

According to theologian Michael Greene, these early Christians were determined to ‘act as Christ’s embassy to a rebel world, whatever the consequences’. [1]

As early as Acts 8 we find that it is not the apostles but those persecuted in Jerusalem who became workplace missionaries, taking the gospel wherever they went. This was not formal preaching, but informal chatting with friends and chance acquaintances, in homes and wine shops, on walks, and around market stalls. They went everywhere gossiping the gospel; they did it naturally, enthusiastically, and with the conviction of those who are not paid to say that sort of thing. [2]

Contemporary context and application

Back to my friends’ perplexity in his corporate world in East Asia that I shared in the opening of Part 1. How should he start with the human condition, move to living out contextualized values which make common sense in the culture – all without “spiritualizing” any of it? Yet!

While my thought and action process is still a work in process, a simple grid developed which lists a value for human dignity and flourishing (column 1), the biblical source of that value which is not readily known and available to the employees (column 2), and thirdly a plan of action (column 3). All of this is prior to any planned verbal testimony to Christian values and gospel witness. Read more

Toward a BAM “Kingdom of God Purpose and Impact” with a Secret Start

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by Larry Sharp

Part of the working definition of business as mission is being “intentional about Kingdom of God purpose and impact on people and nations”, but what does that look like in practice?

A while ago I was in communication with a BAM worker in a large Asian country. During our conversation, he remarked that he wished he knew how to be intentional about teaching Christian values on the job without overtly revealing the source. He assured me that he was living out the values personally, but he wanted to do more, before they identified him as a Jesus follower.

I began to pray and think about the challenge and with the help of a grant from the Pollard Fellowship, I started to look for models and try to develop something concrete that he could use.

I became interested in comparing the need for a low-key witness in countries which forbid Christianity and proselytism with the various occasions where Jesus required those who were healed or who were otherwise benefited from his ministry to keep quiet about it. Matthew 9, 16, Mark 5, and elsewhere records events where Jesus commanded that they “tell no man.”

Some theologians believe that one of Jesus methods was to do work in secret before in public. The idea was that open news of a miracle would hinder his ability to move on and do ministry elsewhere. Notoriety could disturb and interrupt what his intentions were. He wanted to make certain progress before it was known that he was God.

So with these thoughts, first we will consider foundational assumptions, then some contemporary applications.

Some Foundational Assumptions

In his classic book The Soul of the Firm, Bill Pollard, long time CEO of ServiceMaster, presents the question, “How then do I relate my faith to a diverse and pluralistic marketplace?” He suggests four options:

1. Do I redefine my faith to be more inclusive and tolerant and acceptable? Water it down so as not to be offensive?

2. Or do I maintain the old separation between sacred and secular? Live a bifurcated life and accept the premise that religion and business just don’t mix, and
keep my faith a very private matter.

3. Or do I use my leadership to promote and propagate or impose my faith?

4. Or do I seek to live and share my faith in such a way that it can be examined, tested by my colleagues, and fellow workers and yes even be embraced by some, all within the context of a community that works together to produce goods and services and generates profits.

In selecting option #4 Pollard assumes the codes, commandments, guidelines and principles of God’s word as the foundational truths. These include such well known documents as the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, the Golden Rule, and the Parables. He proposes that we enter the lives and space of those in the workplace and community, just as Jesus did when he came to the shepherds, the hungry, sick and needy.  Read more

5 Principles Learned from a BAM Journey: Matt’s Story

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by Larry Sharp

This past month we have been featuring stories from Larry Sharp. Larry’s new book ‘Mission Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missionary Professionals’ tells 27 stories and is out now!

Matt lives in a crowded city in Asia’s largest country where his business demands a driver to take him from place to place. Naturally he has become close friends with the driver, Wang Wei who had plenty of opportunities to observe Matt’s family and he saw something quite different from what he was used to, and he wanted that for his family too. He kept watching and then began talking to Matt about what he was seeing. There were plenty of conversations before Wang Wei became a true follower of Jesus. Matt now is privileged to disciple him in his new life in Christ.

I had visited a mid-sized business in this same country some years ago and observed how God had used Matt to help a business flourish with clear Quadruple Bottom line results.  He returned to his home country to complete an MBA and renew his interest and experience in property sales and management. I knew that he would be a success in this new endeavor so my conversation with him turned to questions related to his journey, his driving passion, and how he got to where he was in his faith-work understanding and in the integration of his mission in life with workplace success.

During that conversation he shared five noteworthy principles:

1. Spend Time with God-Fearing People in Church, Family and Community

Matt is a multi-talented guy with various skills. He had learned another language and he had lived in another culture. And he wanted to make a difference for God in the world, so he asked people to pray with and for him. As he talked with family and friends, an opportunity opened to work overseas, and they advised him to move in that direction. And he did. Read more

Nguvu Dairy: A Trauma Informed Workplace in Northern Uganda

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by Larry Sharp

This month we are featuring stories from Larry Sharp. Larry’s new book ‘Mission Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missionary Professionals’ tells 27 stories and is out now!

Abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Gloria was forced to be a child soldier in northern Uganda. Although girls sometimes carried rifles on the front lines, they usually did the cooking for the boys involved in guerilla warfare and served the sexual wishes of the commanders. After eight years, she managed to escape the LRA and returned home. Life, however, continued to be hard. No one trusted her, not even her sisters. They thought she was a killer and to be avoided at all costs. She couldn’t find work and barely survived on the few things she could grow on a tiny subsistence plot of land. But then her life changed:

The moment I stepped inside the gates of Nguvu Dairy I felt a sense of peace. James was so kind and friendly, and he taught all of us victims how to make yogurt. He was patient and encouraging. Nguvu Dairy has changed my life. I have a job and can rent a little house in town and afford school fees for my son.

As a highly traumatized young woman, Gloria was forced to labor as an exploited, brain-washed, and hopeless child. But by God’s grace she was one of the few who found  hope of the more than one hundred thousand children worldwide forced to serve in state and non-state military organizations.

James Dirksen is a seasoned entrepreneur and business owner and while in northern Uganda asked himself the foundational question, “what happens to survivors when they finish a program of the NGO, mission or care organizations?” After plenty of research and planning he began to focus on starting real businesses to take the next critical step to bring healing to survivors and provide full-time employment.

Human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar business, trading in people. Creating safe jobs is critical to ending the cycle of economic vulnerability at the root of this global crisis. Without safe employment 80% of those rescued return to trafficking or voluntary enslavement. Read more

Coffee at the Capital Roasting Company

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by Larry Sharp

This month we are featuring stories from Larry Sharp. Larry’s new book ‘Mission Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missionary Professionals’ tells 27 stories and is out now!

Some years ago, I found coffee in a tea-loving country in central Asia, which I will call Tealand, at the Capital Roasting Company (CRC).

Tea is a wonderful drink with a complex history of more than two thousand years dating back to China. But it is not coffee. As legend has it, coffee originated on the Ethiopian plateau and by the 16th century moved east to the Arabian peninsula where it was cultivated.

Coffee made its’ way to Europe where Pope Clement VIII finally gave his approval, and it no longer was considered the “invention of Satan”. By the mid-17th century, there were 300 coffee houses in London. Apparently, tea still dominated the American colonies until the Boston Tea Party, after which Thomas Jefferson called coffee, the “favorite drink of the civilized world.” Who wouldn’t want to switch from tea to coffee?

After the collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1991, the residents of the new Central Asia republics developed an intense interest in the rest of the world, and this included Tealand. However, Russia did not leave Tealand in the best of shape. When I arrived for my visit I discovered how much the citizens wanted to be like the western world and some of the young people even wanted to leave Tealand, hoping to migrate to the west. Women began to shed their head covering and other social customs began to change. The intense interest in the west included viewing television programs from the USA and western Europe, learning the English language and social customs formerly unknown.

The Capital Roasting Company began as the vision of a small group, all of whom had arrived in Tealand in 2008. As the startup team began to learn the language and make friends, they saw an opportunity in this milieu of social change. The Capital Roasting Company (CRC) began to build their business model around the current needs. Read more

Outland Denim: To God Be the Glory

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by Larry Sharp

This month we are featuring stories from Larry Sharp. Larry’s new book ‘Mission Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missionary Professionals’ tells 27 stories and is out now!

On October 18, 2018 Prince Harry and Meghan landed in the outback of Australia as the first stop in their royal visit to that country.  As is always the case, the media surveyed every aspect of the royal’s appearance including the black stove-pipe Hariett jeans the Duchess was wearing. Why those jeans?  Where were they fabricated? How much did they cost?  What was the brand?

As it turned out Meghan was making a statement in support of those fighting human slavery and trafficking.  Her jeans were manufactured by Outland Denim, a BAM company owned by a kingdom minded Australian couple with a factory in Kampong Cham, Cambodia.

As a new board member of the Freedom Business Alliance in 2017 I realized I had much to learn so planned a trip to visit seven freedom businesses in Cambodia.  Outland Denim was one of those businesses.  Later it was a delight to interview one of the founders in preparation for telling the story in the book Missions Disrupted:  From Professional Missionaries to Missional Professionals.

Human trafficking is a lucrative multi-national 150 billion dollar per year illegal industry of exploitation and enslavement; and two-thirds of that total comes from sexual slavery.  Estimates indicate that up to 40 million people are trapped in modern slavery and most are women and children – a crisis of epic proportions.  It is something demanding the involvement of anyone sensitive to the plight of hurting people.

I learned that there are three phases in the efforts to bring change to the lives of those who have been traumatized and now desire to be transformed into successful survivors:  1) rescue, 2) restore; 3) reintegrate.  Most activity for those giving aid is concentrated in the first two phases of rescuing victims and working to restore them.  It is the third phase which is largely ignored – reintegration into the workplace so they can be gainfully employed.  This is where the need is for freedom businesses which provide employment with managers that understand their journey and have a plan for helping them learn a skill and live a post-trauma life. Read more

Poultry, Profit and Proclamation: A BAM Story

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by Larry Sharp

This month we are featuring stories from Larry Sharp. Larry’s new book ‘Mission Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missionary Professionals’ tells 27 stories and is out now!

It started 45 years ago when Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham, living near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe gave 50 newly hatched chicks to their seven-year-old son, Peter.  “See what you can do with them,” they said.  By the time he was 17 years, he was raising 10,000 chicks a week and was on his way to a successful and colorful missional business career.

Today Peter is a visionary, entrepreneurial, God-fearing, faith driven guy and the CEO of Hamara and Heartland Foods in Zimbabwe.  The heart of the business is the poultry industry – including hatching, broilers, and layers.  He explains it in its simplest iteration:  30 birds will lay 22 eggs daily; the farmer can save five for his family and sell seventeen.  This provides more income than half of the poor families in the country.

Hamara’s influence extends to one-stop distributors in 13 cities making them one of the largest chicken distributors in the country.  One of the genius components is their outgrower program with over 300 small scale farmers since 2002 growing an average of 20,000 chickens a week each.  They are propelled by an incentive “model farmers” program by which farmers can move from the Bronze stage to Silver, Gold and then to Platinum, and be part of something bigger than themselves.

In a country where one third are extremely poor, there is opportunity (market pull) to break the yoke of poverty.  Peter cites David Livingstone as an example, who was the first European to reach the area in the 19th century and was motivated to break the yoke of slavery.  But while working hard to reduce poverty, Peter never misses an opportunity to link his work and company to the grand eternal purposes of God – that more and more people come to worship and follow Him.  And he does so by daily reminding himself and his staff of the amazing life and grace of Jesus.  Says Peter, “Jesus chooses ordinary people like us and wants us to live in relationship with him as he gives the favor to share his amazing life with others.” Read more

5 Risk Factors Guaranteed to Doom a BAM Business

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by Larry Sharp

Read this classic blog from our Archives, first published on The BAM Review blog in January 2016 and republished for the Summer Series 2022.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Stories from the Frontline

Last year I was leading a seminar in a conference in Arizona, when a local business owner asked the question, “Are there no failed BAM businesses?” While I readily agreed there were, I began to think about the question in a more profound way. What is the “good, the bad and the ugly” of real life BAM business experiences – those that demonstrate that there are BAM failures along with the successes?

Over the past 10 years, I have observed risk factors for BAM enterprises which should stimulate every stakeholder in the BAM community towards better recruitment, better preparation, better deployment and better accountability. Many a sports leader, military hero, or young entrepreneur has demonstrated the oft-quoted statement of Benjamin Franklin, “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.” And that is true in the Kingdom business endeavors of today.

So what are these factors and where are the stories which help us understand basic principles for launching and landing well in a cross-cultural business? How do we best start companies designed to work out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission? How can we improve so that there will be fewer failures and a greater chance of successful transformational businesses in the areas of the world that need them the most? If these five risk factors don’t actually doom your BAM company, not paying attention to them will seriously endanger it… at the very least!  Read more

Seven Reasons Why Everyone Needs a Coach

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by Larry Sharp

When I was a collegiate hockey player, it never dawned on me that I might not need a coach. Not only did the coaches help me with personal skill development like skating, passing, shooting, and checking, but also how to develop my team play so together we could be successful.  Although I had good coaches and poor coaches, I always knew that I needed a coach.

Why then did it not dawn on me that I needed a coach when I was supervising 120 employees just months after graduating from university?  It was not like I had a super-mentoring boss because I did not, and I don’t think I was arrogant and thought that I knew it all.  Why did I not think I needed a mentor?

While it is true that my management career began long before Bill Gates affirmed that “everyone needs a coach”, I have often reflected on why it is that people still today think they don’t need a mentor, or a coach or consulting help?  These few thoughts are intended to help encourage business owners and managers to seek a coach, mentor or consultant.  Read more

Five Essential Reminders if you are Managing a Crisis

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by Larry Sharp

I was responsible for matters related to a crisis for many years as the VP of a mid-sized mission agency. During that time I faced the challenge of evacuating an unconscious child from a high risk country, rescuing an imprisoned employee in East Asia, a mega-earthquake in Haiti, famine in Africa, automobile death of an employee in France, child abuse situations, among other similar critical incidents.

Our English word crisis comes from the Greek krisis which was defined as a “separating, distinguishing, discrimination, decision, judgment”. The sense of “decisive moment” in reference to crisis is first recorded in English in 1627 as a figurative extension of the original medical meaning. Crisis historically signified “a turning point in a disease; a sudden change for better or worse.”1

The COVID-19 crisis of 2020, as with all crises, indicates a sudden change and a turning point and has many components; however only one is treated in this article. 

A response to crisis is dependent on company policies, risk assessments and contingency training and planning, all of which prepares one for the actual crisis. Once the crisis “hits” comes the actual management with functional team roles to include the crisis manager, information officer, financial officer, consultants, and others. So then, when it comes to managing a crisis such as COVID-19, what are the managerial components, especially in light of the “decisive moment” for all of us?  Read more

Three Things I Learned During the Epidemic of 1974 That Apply to BAM in the Pandemic of 2020

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by Larry Sharp

In the early 1970’s I was living, along with my family, in the Brazilian Amazon port city of Belem where I was the administrator of a school for children of expatriates. The Amazon Valley Academy is a K-12 school following an American curriculum but also in the 1970s and 80s taught a German program for grades 1-10 and tutored British O-level classes.

In the spring of 1974, we noted children getting ill in unusually high numbers and eventually it was determined that Hepatitis A had struck the community. We were forced to close the school and it did not re-open for five weeks.

Hepatitis A is a communicable disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis A virus (HAV). It is usually transmitted person-to-person through the fecal-oral route or consumption of contaminated food or water. Most adults with hepatitis A have symptoms, including fatigue, low appetite, stomach pain, nausea, and jaundice.

But in those days, the doctors did not know any of that. In fact, they theorized that the condition might be caused by a mosquito. And so the government epidemiologists set up tests in the community and on campus to capture and test mosquitos; meanwhile the children from our three boarding homes and others from the community were required to stay home and rest since there was no known cure and no vaccination.

After five weeks had passed most students seemed to be returning to normal health so we decided to re-open the school and most of the children returned. But then another emergency – most of the teachers got sick – yes – Hepatitis A. What should we do now?

There were a few teachers and myself (I was the high school principal at the time) who had escaped infection. As we sat around one evening thinking and praying through some options, one of the math teachers came up with an idea. “Let’s take high school seniors and juniors and use their strengths to teach the middle school students” he said. We settled on Charles to lead the science teaching team, John to lead the history team, Bruce to lead the math team and Anita to lead the English language team.  Read more

A Business as Mission Crisis: How Can We Pray?

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by Larry Sharp

During these days of uncertainty due to the worldwide coronavirus, business startups are hurting, and many of them will fail due to the outbreak of COVID-19. This is particularly true of BAM startup businesses, which are affected in many ways.

Just today as I write this, I received an appeal from a Freedom Business in India to encourage others to buy their product on-line.  I also received a note from a person who works as an HR-disciple making person in a business in Cambodia. She is losing her visa and needs to return to the USA within 30-days due to new regulations connected to the virus.

Here are some ways to PRAY based on what we know right now:

1. For wisdom for business owners who have very little margin or capacity for downsizing and will ultimately need to make hard decisions.

2. For the poor who desperately need the jobs that BAM companies are providing, and now face job loss.

3. For innovative means of providing capital. Some of the ways may include increased donations or short-term low-interest loans to BAM businesses.

4. For God’s people in the west who have expertise and can provide a helpline; that they will make themselves available and know where their help can be best applied.

5. For innovators and inventors to have their creative juices unleashed to develop solutions which will help BAM businesses in this difficult time.

6. For leaders connected to many BAM/B4t businesses who are right now considering options for how to help – RN, PL, CS, MT, JP, RB and others.

7. That all believers will respond toward the most vulnerable in ways similar to how Christians responded in other pandemics. Check out this link.

 

Mats Tunehag has also adapted St. Patrick’s prayer to use during this time, either as a BAM company leader or to pray for others in the BAM community.

Read more

12 Stakeholders You Should Engage in Your Business Startup

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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.

We asked a team of BAM experts to give some practical advice for BAM practitioners creating business plans. For this post we asked them about key stakeholders in the business planning process.

A stakeholder is anyone with an interest in a business. Stakeholders are individuals, groups or organisations that are affected by the activity of the business. – BBC

Mats Tunehag, Larry Sharp and Garry all actively mentor frontline BAM companies – as well as  teach and write on BAM. We also asked business woman Julia to share about a stakeholder she has found helpful in her business in Mongolia. Read more about them below.

Here are 12 stakeholders they mentioned, there are others:

  1. Investors – owners, bank or investment company
  2. Business people – in companies working cross-culturally in your business or industry
  3. Business consultant – someone with specialist knowledge
  4. Colleagues – management and staff
  5. Customers – those likely to be your clients
  6. Suppliers – of essential materials and services for your business
  7. Community – local society and also the physical environment
  8. Cultural expert – someone with insight into engaging with local community
  9. Government official – someone who can give you insight and be an advocate for you
  10. Body of Christ – local church community, mission organisations and supporting churches
  11. Spiritual advisor or mentor – someone with wise counsel you can be accountable to
  12. God – the most important stakeholder

Read more

Transforming the Church, One Engaged Business Person at a Time

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by Larry Sharp

Over the years I have had various business owners and executives travel with me as I’ve coached and supported companies around the world. On one particular trip, the VP of a Fortune 500 company came with me and some others to a former Soviet Republic country. He had gone on many mission trips, built churches, passed out tracts, and tutored English – all good things! But in Kazakhstan he helped Kazakh believers and expats with business mentoring on topics like making financial projections, contract law, and international marketing. On the trip home he told me that he finally saw how his skills can be used to build the kingdom of God. “Where are we going next?” he asked, after a short time of reflection at home.

I have had many experiences like this, witnessing firsthand the moment business people have felt affirmed and become engaged in using their skills and experience in business as mission. They go from seeing their contribution as limited to PRAY or PAY, and start to realise they can be actively involved – i.e. PLAY! And there are multiple ways for people to get engaged.

For the first time she saw that her business ability and position was a God-given asset.

A young fellow about 30 years old heard me speak in a large mega-church in Pennsylvania. He asked to meet with me and said, “All this is new to me and I don’t think my wife will want to move outside the state, what can I do?” After finding out he was the owner of an SEO company with 14 employees, I said absolutely – and you don’t even have to leave your computer. He has been a wonderful contributor to business startups in unreached areas of the world.

On another occasion, I spoke in a church in the Philadelphia area one Sunday morning. The pastor seemed open to all I spoke about that morning but the real encouragement was talking to several business people afterwards. One woman was a chemical engineer, a former Proctor and Gamble manager who supervised the development of Pampers. She joined our team and helped us with our “product development” when we were just getting going as a BAM consulting group.  Read more

8 Business Failures: What we Learned

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by Larry Sharp

‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ (George Santayana-1905). In a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill changed the quote slightly when he said (paraphrased), ‘Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.’

I was recently cleaning up some physical files, when I ran across a spreadsheet from 2008/09 listing IBEC projects which provided data on the status of the start-up, metrics for success and other interesting information. I found it curious that many of these businesses we worked with in the first two years of our existence have “failed”.

It reminded me of a conference in Arizona a few years ago, when after I had cited many success stories, a person in the audience asked me, “don’t you guys have any failures?”

Now I would be the first to recognize that “failures” are not really failures, but more accurately experiments in learning. In the famous words of Thomas Edison, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” And so it may be with those early years in IBEC.

There is no perfect assessment of a cause-effect relationship, and I acknowledge that my perspective is personal and anecdotal, however I believe those closest to these situations would concur that what I relate here is at least at least one primary reason for the demise. Here is an effort to “remember the past” with a view to giving reasons for the demise of each dream and a statement of what we learned. I will not provide specific identification of the geographical area nor the persons involved out of respect for security issues and the fact that I do not want to disparage the efforts of anyone.  Read more

6 Ways to Build Trust for Greater Impact

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AND THE AWARD GOES TO...

Our goal is to provide the BAM Community with the best content and resources available. This summer, we are highlighting various articles and resources which have stood out in the past 6 months. Below is the “Staff Pick” for January to June 2018.

Please enjoy and thanks for following!

by Larry Sharp

In early 2016 I picked up a copy of the The Economist, entitled “The World in 2016”. An article on page 90 intrigued me entitled, “A Crisis of Trust” by Richard Eldelman.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 poll2 indicates that only seven percent of workers strongly agree that they trust their senior leaders to look out for their best interest. 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:

Read more

6 Ways to Build Trust for Greater Impact

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by Larry Sharp

In early 2016 I picked up a copy of the The Economist, entitled “The World in 2016”. An article on page 90 intrigued me entitled, “A Crisis of Trust” by Richard Eldelman.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 poll2 indicates that only seven percent of workers strongly agree that they trust their senior leaders to look out for their best interest. 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:

Read more

5 Positive Things About Being Second in Command

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by Larry Sharp

Business as Mission (BAM) narratives oftentimes focus on the founder or the entrepreneur credited with the initial startup leadership; and rightly so; but sometimes the real reason for success may rest with the #2 or #3 person. Sometimes key success factors can be traced to the “second in command”.

Since graduating with a business degree in 1968, I have had more than one opportunity to lead an organization both in Brazil and in Pennsylvania, but most of my life in management has been as the #2 guy – in Alaska managing a fish plant; in Brazil; and as VP of operations and business partnerships for Crossworld for 19 years. What is positive about being second in command?

1. Flexibility in use of abilities.

My years as the second guy gave me an opportunity to maximize my skills, giftedness and interests. Oftentimes the CEO is required to do things because of his/her position which are not aligned with skills and interests. I observed my bosses consumed with fund raising, capital development, spontaneous thinking, or public speaking, all of which were not appealing to me. The scriptures are clear that God creates all people differently and when it comes to a Kingdom business, employees contribute best when in positions that maximize their God-given wiring and experiences.  Read more

Flying Fish: Lessons I Learned from a Risk Taker

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by Larry Sharp

I was recently driving through Tucson, Arizona and decided to go out of my way and visit the famed airplane graveyard in the desert. Hundreds of planes are parked there because it is a safe, dry place. Many will never fly again but many are still very useful; it is just that there is no market for them.

The scene reminded me of my mother-in-law who was the first person I met who was a true entrepreneur, one characteristic of which is having a high tolerance for taking risks. I had taken a job in a fish processing plant which she owned. I quickly learned the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of fish processing in Alaska and the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of working with a risk taker.

First a little background on the salmon industry in Alaska. The salmon return to their streams to spawn on a God-given cycle and they return at different times throughout the summer. So when they come to Cook Inlet, the fishermen are ready for the summer’s catch; similarly when they come to Bristol Bay, or to the Copper River area or to the Yukon River. The trick is that no one knows when that time is.

The net result of all this is that the processing plants (such as the one we operated) have a feast or famine situation. There are either so many fish we can’t keep up processing 24/7; or we are sitting around waiting for the fish, paying stand-by crews to do nothing.

An innovator comes up with a novel workable idea; and the entrepreneur makes it happen.  Read more

Is Business As Mission Disruptive Innovation?

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by Larry Sharp

A disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market leading firms, products and alliances. The term was defined and phenomenon analyzed by Clayton M. Christensen beginning in 1995.1

BAM takes into consideration, the human condition of poverty and pain (both spiritual and physical) with the creation of a profitable business which creates jobs, which in turn creates wealth (a Biblical value stated in Deut. 8:18). It links that with the goal of making followers of Jesus and with the importance of wise use of human and natural resources. In summary, Business as Mission (BAM) at its core has a Quadruple Bottom Line: 1) Profit and Sustainability, 2) Job Creation, 3) Followers of Jesus, 4) Stewardship of Resources.

So how might this be innovative and how might it be disruptive?

First look at some well-known disruptive innovators. Jeff Bezos did not just improve book sales when he started Amazon. He disrupted everything – speedy book deliveries, then other products to become the world’s largest online shopping retailer. His latest disruptive talk: drones and space warehouses. His mantra, “if you are going to invent, you are going to disrupt.”  Read more

Damaging Beliefs About Work and Missional Calling

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by Larry Sharp

In recent years I have taken notice of what pastors have stated on topics related to Business as Mission (BAM), the theology of work and the Great Commission. Here are some comments which give me particular concern and have caused me to wonder how typical they are or if they are part of the cause for the slow growth in the BAM movement.

I was part of a workshop at a BAM conference designed for pastors with about 30 in attendance. At one point after much had been presented and then discussed by the group, one pastor remarked that he was not in agreement with some things because “after all work was a result of the fall of man.” I was shocked, and wondered how long it had been since he read the book of Genesis.

The truth:  God is a God of work demonstrated in the creation of all things, and then He gave a job description to the earth’s first human inhabitants.

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5 Risk Factors Guaranteed to Doom a BAM Business

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by Larry Sharp

 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Stories from the Frontline

Last year I was leading a seminar in a conference in Arizona, when a local business owner asked the question, “Are there no failed BAM businesses?” While I readily agreed there were, I began to think about the question in a more profound way. What is the “good, the bad and the ugly” of real life BAM business experiences – those that demonstrate that there are BAM failures along with the successes?

Over the past 10 years, I have observed risk factors for BAM enterprises which should stimulate every stakeholder in the BAM community towards better recruitment, better preparation, better deployment and better accountability. Many a sports leader, military hero, or young entrepreneur has demonstrated the oft-quoted statement of Benjamin Franklin, “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.” And that is true in the Kingdom business endeavors of today.

So what are these factors and where are the stories which help us understand basic principles for launching and landing well in a cross-cultural business? How do we best start companies designed to work out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission? How can we improve so that there will be fewer failures and a greater chance of successful transformational businesses in the areas of the world that need them the most? If these five risk factors don’t actually doom your BAM company, not paying attention to them will seriously endanger it… at the very least!  Read more

Do You Have Clear KPIs for Your Kingdom Business?

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by Larry Sharp

What if Jesus was your boss? What if he was the chairman of your board? What if you reported to him each month for your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?

What would he expect that those KPIs would be? How would he measure how you are doing?

A wise owner or manager continuously keeps his KPIs in mind. He knows that accountability is a key factor in driving results. So it is with God as the owner of our businesses because Kingdom business owners see themselves as stewards.

KPIs should be clear, short and understandable to everyone in the business. They should be measurable and uncomplicated. Either you achieved them or you didn’t; they are not fuzzy.

Profitability

We expect secular entrepreneurs to think profit margins and growth. But what about Kingdom business owners? Yes, definitely. Jesus himself established a KPI for profit as a measure of success when he told the parable of the talents (Matthew 25: 14-30). He made it clear that everyone is entrusted with wealth in unique proportions. In his example he told of one who received five bags of gold and he doubled it; another received two and he doubled it. Both were commended because they “put their money to work.” Jesus said, “Well done.”

On the other hand, one person received one talent and did nothing with it. We might have thought Jesus would have said: “…oh well, he is just not a business guy!” No – he also was expected to be profitable and when he did not even invest the gold in low-interest accounts, he was called “wicked”. Read more

7 Things We Have Learned in 10 Years of BAM Consulting

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by Larry Sharp and Gary Willett

IBEC Ventures was incorporated in 2006 as a consulting group to provide consulting services primarily to Business as Mission startups in areas where there is high unemployment, great injustice and where there a few followers of Jesus.

IBEC’s Purpose: IBEC helps build sustainable businesses through consultative expertise that changes lives and transforms communities.

IBEC’s Vision: We envision an increasing number of small-medium sustainable Kingdom businesses with our special emphasis on areas that are both economically impoverished and spiritually unreached.

So what have we learned in these last ten years? We have made significant mistakes to be sure; and we have seen some successes, but recently three of us senior leaders considered the question of what we have learned. Here are some of those lessons:

1. Business as mission should be fully integrated

We have learned that this is not business as usual, and this is not missions as usual. BAM is a based in a theology of a ‘worker God’ who created man to be a worker and a creator (Gen 1-2). He also created mankind with various ‘wirings’ and gifts and many are business people with abilities to create wealth (Deut 8:18), as an act of worship and as their unique ministry. Business is a high and holy calling and those gifted to serve the kingdom of God in this way are ministers, fulfilling their spiritual calling. Read more