Tag Archive for: leadership

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 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

 


Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash

 

3 Ways Businesses Integrate Faith

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

 

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

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

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

 

 

1. Embodied Faith

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

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

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

Read more

Raising Up the Next Generation of BAM Leaders

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by Mike Baer

 

We’ve had quite a ride. For over 40 years, the Business as Mission (BAM) movement has been breaking ground (even before it was called that)—taking the Gospel to the marketplace and planting it right in the middle of real life. This idea—that business isn’t second-tier, but rather a high calling from God—has flipped a lot of thinking upside down. From scattered dreamers and explorers in the 1980s to a global movement with countless books, companies, conferences, podcasts, YouTube channels, degrees, and investment funds, BAM has gone from fringe to full-on force. But here’s the big question: is this just the beginning… or the end of a chapter?

It’s possible that we’re at a crossroads. Ronald Reagan once said that freedom is never more than a generation from extinction. I think BAM is the same. If we don’t pass it on with intention and heart, it won’t last. But Paul’s words to Timothy (in 2 Tim. 2:2) give us more hope and a better plan—train up faithful people who will teach others. That’s the long game. That’s how movements survive.

Put those two thoughts together, and you get a bit of a wake-up call. We need to raise up the next generation of BAM leaders—not just to keep the movement alive, but to take it somewhere we’ve never even imagined. This is about legacy, and legacy means people.

Now, I’m not saying we’re old… but let’s be honest, many of us are turning into “OGs.” In hip-hop, that stands for “Original Gangster”—someone who’s been around from the start. In BAM, that’s a bunch of us. We’ve pioneered. We’ve fought the early battles. And now it’s time to pass the baton to the NGs—the New Gangsters. The next wave. The future of BAM.

From where I sit—with my Boomer perspective—I’m actually pretty hopeful. (And I want to call out the Gen Xers and Millennials too, we all need to think about building from generation to generation, no matter our age or stage.) Gen Z (Zoomers) are full of fire. They’re purpose-driven, passionate, and looking for a cause that’s worth their lives. Reminds me a bit of my generation—we protested war, launched campaigns against hunger, reshaped politics, and kicked off the Jesus Movement. There’s power in this next crew. But here’s the issue: most of them don’t know what “missions” even means. They’re globally connected but often spiritually short-sighted. They don’t know the need, the urgency. Most haven’t yet discovered the next step beyond TikTok activism. That’s the first challenge—help them fall in love with Jesus and His mission.

Then comes the second challenge. Once they’re on fire for Jesus, they still face a stale set of choices: either be a good little layperson in the marketplace, or go “pro” and join the ministry as a pastor or missionary. Two tracks. Black and white. But we know better. BAM throws out the old two-track map. We don’t accept the sacred and the secular divide. We preach Jesus as Lord of all, and business is one of His tools to heal and bless this broken world. So let’s show this new generation that there are more than two doors.

Before they choose, we’ve got to reach them. And here are a few ways to start: Read more

Greed Isn’t a Business Problem (Here’s What Is)

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by Erik Cooper

 

I heard (another) infuriating story about a corrupt businessman this morning. A friend shared how his brother might lose a ton of money because someone completely misrepresented himself in a massive business deal.

“It’s the dark side of business for sure,” my friend said over coffee.

That made my blood boil—not just for my friend’s brother, but because these kinds of stories are what so many people associate with business: greed, corruption, deception, selfishness, taking from others, and hoarding for yourself.

These broken counterfeits have become synonymous with business in the minds of many. So when we start talking about business as mission (BAM), business as a sacred calling, or leveraging the marketplace for God-honoring Kingdom purposes, it’s no wonder some people can’t break through the dissonance.

But it’s worth wrestling with…

Is business inherently selfish? Is it just some sinful, cutthroat institution man invented to survive in a fallen world? Is business synonymous with greed? Or worse—does business make people greedy?

I’d like to pose a different take. Check this out:

“So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.” – Colossians 3:5

Greed isn’t a business problem. Greed is a worship problem.

At its core, good business is about adding value to others and the world around us. It’s about seeing a need and meeting it, recognizing a problem and solving it, or creating something the world is missing.

When business is redeemed by the gospel, it actually becomes the antidote to greed—not the cause of it. This paints a beautiful, redemptive picture of what business and the marketplace can be.

Don’t buy into the sin-broken caricature. Business isn’t synonymous with greed; it’s an opportunity to create, serve, and bless. This makes it a perfect tool to make Jesus known to the world.

The real question is, what are you worshipping?

 

First published in The Stone Table weekly newsletter and published on The BAM Review with kind permission from the author.

 

Erik Cooper is the President of The Stone Table. After starting his career in the business world, Erik spent 12 years in full-time ministry, both on staff at a large suburban church and as a church planter in a downtown urban context. In addition to his role at The Stone Table, he also serves in executive leadership of Community Reinvestment Foundation, a nonprofit real estate company that provides high-quality affordable housing all over Indiana while investing its profits into missions through The Stone Table.

 

 

Helping BAM Practitioners Start Well and Endure for the Long-Term

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To celebrate the launch of a new BAM Global Consultation on BAM Practitioner Care and Well-being, we are reposting a resource blog from two years ago that first helped us identify the gap in this area. Read more on BAM Endurance here.

by Jo Plummer

Recently I received a question about training resources and spiritual courses from a BAM practitioner who reads our blog. There already are lots of great resources on this site and elsewhere for helping BAMers start well and endure for the long-term. This post is designed to introduce some resources that BAM practitioners may find helpful for both preparing to launch into BAM and enduring long.

However, having asked advice from a few other business as mission leaders, we identified that there are relatively few dedicated, BAM-related resources for what the mission community calls ‘member care – that is helping ensure the personal, physical, relational and spiritual well-being of BAM practitioners. There are, however, many general member care and spiritual life resources that we can glean from in the wider Christian community, and a selection of these are also listed below.

Training & Preparation: Launching Well

How do people get from BAM vision to BAM reality? What training resources are there out there for BAM practitioners? What factors help launch BAMers out into stable, successful business as mission enterprises? What are the skills and characteristics that BAM companies are looking for as they recruit? How do potential BAMers best develop themselves and prepare for doing business as mission?

Here are some places to start:

  • Courses & Training Page – BAM Resource Library
    Looking for some BAM-related training? Start with the Courses & Training page in the Resource Library here on the BAM website for a list of training organisations and course providers related to BAM. Follow that up by browsing the Video & Audio Page which links to many Podcasts and Video Series which have great content and are all totally free to access. (And of course we have great Books and Papers listed too, as well as over 550 Blogs to read – see Blog Categories listed on this page!)

Read more

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

Foundational Principles for Developing a BAM Company Culture

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by David Skews and Jo Plummer

Company culture is vital to success in business as mission. In BAM we ‘show people around the Kingdom, and introduce them to the King’, as one practitioner expressed. Therefore, an important goal of a BAM company is to establish a ‘Kingdom of God’ culture in relationships and the business environment – influencing for God and for good inside the company and in the wider community, among all stakeholders.

Secularisation and mission-drift are a very real threats to a BAM business as it grows larger. The faster a company grows, the greater the threat of culture dilution. The question of how to maintain and strengthen your company culture is something to seriously think about as you prepare to grow as a BAM company.

The Belief Tree

Culture develops out of beliefs and values (roots and trunk) that grow in the ‘soil’ of our worldview. From there comes the principles that guide the decisions we make and the policies we create (branches). These in the turn produce the ‘fruit’ – the actions, behaviours, routines, practices, initiatives, programs etc. in our company.

YWAM_Belief_Tree

Graphic and Belief Tree Teaching by YWAM International

Our worldview is developed by our experiences in the culture and family which we grew up in. We need to first ask ourselves how our own worldview needs to be transformed to align with a biblical worldview – one that is shaped by the Word of God. Then we need to recognise that the people we are working with may have a different set of values, beliefs, principles and practices, growing out of a different worldview to ours. Read more

10 Books that Shaped Our BAM Journey

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

10 favourite books from the BAM Global Core Team

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

 

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

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


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

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

Read more

10 Guiding Principles for Business as Mission

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

 

Introduction

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

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

Foundational Business Principles

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

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

10 Quotes to Inspire You for Business as Mission

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

10 of our favourite BAM-related quotes:

 

1. Ralph Winter’s editorial endorsement

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

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

2. Dallas Willard’s panel gem

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

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

3. Mats Tunehag’s keynote bombshell

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

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

Read more

Business With a Mission: Go With God and the Flow

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A New Year message from BAM Global leader Mats Tunehag, with a reminder to go with God and the flow this year.

By Mats Tunehag

God called Abraham to leave his hometown and go to another country. The direction was clear, but it was a journey with few, if any, details sketched out.

Moses wanted to help his enslaved fellow Jews, but he acted violently and prematurely. He was sent on a cool down period which lasted for decades. But then God appeared to him and called him on a defined mission: Freedom!

Again, it involved a journey, but little did he and the others know that it would take 40 years. The mission was clear, but it was not a detailed five-year strategic plan that steered them. God guided Moses and the people of Israel on their long journey. They repeatedly had to problem-solve as they faced new issues and entered uncharted territories.

Called to a mission with no plan?

There’s a long list of people in the Old Testament who God called to a mission, but they were not given a plan. They tended to doubt their ability to fulfill their roles and missions. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observes about Moses and others:

“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” said Moses to God. “And how can I possibly get the Israelites out of Egypt?” Ex. 3:11 … “…people who turn out to be the most worthy are the ones who deny they are worthy at all. The Prophet Isaiah, when charged with his mission, said, ‘I am a man of unclean lips’ (Is. 6:5). Jeremiah said, ‘I cannot speak, for I am a child’ (Jer. 1:6). David, Israel’s greatest king, echoed Moses’ words, ‘Who am I?’ (2 Samuel 7:18). Jonah, sent on a mission by God, tried to run away.

They were people who doubted their own abilities. There were times when they felt like giving up. Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah and Jonah reached points of such despair that they prayed to die. … It is almost as if a sense of smallness is a sign of greatness.[1]

Caught between a rock and a hard place

Moses had left the royal court and he was no longer one of them. And his people of birth initially rejected him as a leader. Now he was to talk to two groups which didn’t trust him, and he really wasn’t deeply connected with either one. And the demands Moses presented to Pharaoh did not reveal a comprehensive plan.

We may sometimes feel like Moses, caught between a rock and a hard place, pursuing business with a mission. Not quite accepted by the church, and not fully understood by the business community. At times it may not be easy to convey our mission, as not everything can be quantified and put in a strategic plan. Also, things may progress a lot slower than we anticipate.

It is also worth noting that encounters with God were followed by a mission, people were given an assignment. It was not just a moment of bliss for their own edification. Rather, it often meant hardships coming up, and a life with many unknowns. They were to be true to God and their God-given mission, but they didn’t have a detailed plan, nor could they fully comprehend the implications of the journeys they started. Read more

Long-term Justice: Business Solutions to Human Trafficking

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In our series this month “Exploring BAM as Justice: Choosing Hope in the Face of Challenge” we’re taking a deep dive into the intersection of faith, business, and complex global realities. We’ll be looking at business as mission’s impact on poverty and justice issues across the globe. Our final post for the series is ‘from the archives’, revisiting this post on what it takes to bring long-term justice and transformation.

By Mats Tunehag

In the 1700’s the slave trade was widely accepted and legal. It was, in fact, a backbone of the economy of the British Empire. It was a big, organized and transnational business.

William Wilberforce and the Clapham group decided to fight this evil trade. They chose to attack the systemic issue – the legality of slave trade and slavery. To that end they organized a decades long campaign focusing on justice, aiming at a root cause. They worked politically to change unjust and ungodly laws that permitted the dehumanizing trade.

They could have chosen an easier route of awareness campaigns and a boycott of sugar from plantations in Jamaica, but they knew such initiatives in themselves would not free the slaves or bring about lasting change. The feel good factor may have been higher, but the long-term outcomes would have been meager.

Charity and Justice

Today the slave trade and slavery are illegal, but not dead. Human trafficking is modern day slavery, and it is a lucrative and evil business. Just like Wilberforce and his colleagues, we need to ask what the systemic issue is today – and we need to go beyond charitable actions to fight for justice.

We visited St. Andrew Catholic Church in Clemson, South Carolina early 2016, and their vision statement struck us:

“Charity” is the generosity that alleviates needs that are immediate. “Justice” is the process by which generosity configures our ways of providing education, delivering health care, doing business, and creating laws that lessen the need for charity. There will always be immediate needs even in the most just of worlds.

Charity is the more attractive generosity. We see immediate results for the better and we enjoy – here and now – the gratification that comes from doing good. Justice is less attractive because it usually calls for personal and communal change, and we are creatures of habit.

We often respond to needs and global issues through non-profit charity models. But the danger is that some may have more of a PR function sprinkled with feel good factors, rather than dealing with systemic issues and root causes.

Wilberforce and the Clapham group were not popular; they worked against an institution – slavery – that was broadly accepted. Today, taking a position against human trafficking is among the easiest things you can do. The world will applaud you! But how can your stand free slaves and restore human dignity? Read more

Adding Salt: How to Build and Manage Teams That Work

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by Bernie Anderson

My name is Bernie Anderson and I have the honor of taking over the BAM blog for the next several weeks. I am a certified business and nonprofit consultant with Growability® – read more in my bio below. 

This is Part 4 of a series. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Thank you for following along with this month with this series on business basics. My prayer is that this series of articles will be an ongoing resource for your BAM project.

Like baking a great loaf of bread, we build every organization with three simple ingredients: leadership, marketing, and management.

If leadership is the flour and marketing is the water, I consider management the salt.

While prepping the dough for my loaf of sourdough this week, I mulled over the necessity of salt. Why does bread need salt? In theory, it’s possible to create a loaf of bread with just flour and water, give it some time to ferment the natural yeast, and a perfectly serviceable loaf of bread should appear.

But, without salt, nothing about the loaf of bread will be right. It will have the wrong flavor, texture, and consistency. Salt regulates the yeast, strengthens the dough, and brings out the beautiful complex flavors of a great loaf of sourdough. Salt is essential.

Like good management in your business.

Many consider management in basic terms of resources, operations, and finance. And it’s true, all this is involved. But the heart of management is people. Management is the salt of your business because management is the most human element of your business. Continuing with the Growability® Business Operating System as a model, think of management as having two parts:

1. Empowering Teamwork
2. Equipping Managers

 

Empowering Teamwork

The diversity of your team creates a diversity of opportunities. Many BAM teams are cross-cultural by nature. All BAM teams will bring together a variety of strengths and personalities that make your business unique. Community creates and expands creativity. An excellent team is also critical for capacity. Teamwork facilitates both multiplication and stability in your business. Never forget, God delights in and blesses common unity and teamwork (Psalm 131). Joy is an overflow from quality human relationships.

Global business has a reputation of building teams of human beings in some of the most inhuman ways. We hear horror stories of companies who entice employees with the promise of high pay, but to keep the pay coming, workers must sacrifice their humanity. Golden handcuffs, indeed. While paying your team their value is important, it’s not everything. In his book, The Heart of Business, former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly says:

“The carrot and the stick are pervasive and persuasive motivators. But if you treat people like donkeys, they will perform like donkeys.”

Your BAM project should be different.

Read more

Marketing and Generosity: Sales and Solutions for Human Flourishing

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by Bernie Anderson

My name is Bernie Anderson and I have the honor of taking over the BAM blog for the next several weeks. I am a certified business and nonprofit consultant with Growability® – read more in my bio below. 

This is Part 3 of a series. Read Part 1 and Part 2 here.

 

The day I landed my first “grown-up job” I was pretty excited. It was Summer of 1985 and I had graduated high school. I was not entirely sure what was next in my life, so I took a gap year before figuring out college, university, trade school, or something else. I landed a job in a local shop that sold books and music, two of my favorite things in this world, to this day. For a year, I thrived as a salesclerk. People would come into the store wanting a new series to read or a new album to listen to — and I could authentically help them with that problem. Sales was a satisfying job because I was serving people by being generous with my knowledge of books and music.

We sometimes get jaded with age.

Over the years that love for sales waned, mostly because I hated being “sold to” (and there are a lot hucksters in this world who do just that!) The slick used-car or door-to-door salesperson, trained to be psychologically manipulative, conning you into spending money on things you don’t need.

Later, we were just-married, and I was seeking work to pay bills, I interviewed for a sales job at a mattress store. The first question the manager asked was, “Are you willing to do what it takes to make a sale? Would you lie to a customer, telling them there’s only one mattress left and you will lose it unless you buy now?”

I said “no” and walked away.

In my mind, marketing and sales was a “necessary evil” for running a business.

Yet, marketing is the second simple ingredient in your BAM project and it’s non-negotiable. It’s at the heart of all business. You must take your valuable product to the market. This is unavoidable.

 

Sales is about prioritizing your customer and solving their problem

 

In the Growability® Business Operating System, there are two critical aspects of marketing:

1. Prioritize Your Customers
2. Automate Your Sales

 

Here’s where many of us need a mindset change. Read more

Setting a Course: How to Clarify Vision and Implement Strategy for BAM Pioneers

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by Bernie Anderson

My name is Bernie Anderson and I have the honor of taking over the BAM blog for the next several weeks. I am a certified business and nonprofit consultant with Growability® – read more in my bio below. 

This is Part 2 of a series. Read Part 1 here.

 

Like many American kids growing up in the 70s and 80s, my parent’s car always had a copy of the Rand McNally Road Atlas under the seat. In fact, I’m certain my parents still keep one.

Our family habit was road trips to obscure points in middle-America, and sometimes I could sit in the front seat. That meant I took on the position of navigator. In my family, the navigator’s job was to hold the Atlas, make sure we stayed on route, and warn the driver (always my dad) of upcoming turns or changes in directions. It all felt so important. Indeed, sometimes it very much was. A more reliable GPS has replaced the Rand McNally Road Atlas in the lap of a 10-year-old navigator. But the fact remains: Navigation is a crucial part of any road trip.

 

Navigation is the primary task of leadership in a business.

 

Every business leader should know two things:

  • Where we’re going
  • How we’re getting there

In my consulting work with Growability®, we provide clients with a “business operating system” built on the three simple ingredients of every organization: Leadership, Management, and marketing. I can’t understate the crucial nature of each of these.

Let’s begin with the most foundational element.

  • Leadership is your business’ navigation system.
  • Leadership is the flour in your bread.
  • Leadership is the seed and the branches of your tree.

Leadership health is critical. Leadership toxicity will kill a business.

There are two critical tasks for leadership in your business.

1. Clarify vision
2. Implement strategy

Read more

Business and Bread: Build your BAM Project with 3 Simple Ingredients

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by Bernie Anderson

My name is Bernie Anderson and I have the honor of taking over the BAM blog for the next several weeks. I am a certified business and nonprofit consultant with Growability® – read more in my bio below. 

 

Flour. Water. Salt.

Three of the most basic ingredients imaginable.

Yet, when properly combined, processed, and timed, these three ingredients produce what might be the perfect food: Crusty, soft, sourdough bread with complex flavor and texture.

Yes, I was one of those COVID-shutdown sourdough people. And I’m still at it three and a half years later.

I started simple. Created a starter.

Fed the starter until it was active.

Made a few discard recipes.

Keep that starter alive and flourishing.

I was well over a year in before I started creating actual sourdough loaves without added yeast.

Then I went in deep.

The magic of sourdough is the chemical creation of natural yeast. And it really is a miracle. Flour, water, and salt, mixed with a fermented starter made of a living fungus (yeast) and a living bacterium called lactobacillus. They work together to eat the sugars in the flour. These living creatures basically poop acid – a tasty, savory acid that puts the sour in sourdough. When the fungus and bacteria finish their feast and have suitably relieved themselves, the dough is ready and baking can begin.

The result is a crusty, airy, flavorful loaf of delicious. The complexity of flavor and texture in a loaf of sourdough is a veritable miracle given the simplicity of ingredients.

It’s possible to complicate the recipe. Add sugars and oils, preservatives and shelf stabilizers. But complexified breads are rarely as good as simplified loaves. Three simple ingredients, with time and a specific process, will bring extraordinary results.

 

The simple believe everything, but the clever consider their steps.

Proverbs 15:15

 

Like anything in life worth doing, starting a business is difficult. Starting or running a BAM project adds more complexities. But, one of the biggest stumbling blocks for entrepreneurs is overcomplicating the essentials. You can read thousands of business books, take hundreds of online courses, attend seminars, and even go to University and get an MBA – but the simple ingredients for starting a business stay the same.

And that’s exactly what makes a BAM project both exciting and daunting!

Business done right makes life better for everyone involved, from customer to employees to the community where it lives. Let’s simplify your BAM project by extracting the essential ingredients for starting and running a business anywhere in the world.

Every business, no matter how large or small, simple or complicated, grows from a combination of these three simple ingredients: Read more

Get Started Growing: Maximizing Startup Success

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This December marks 8 years of regularly posting content on The BAM Review Blog. This month we are sharing some past posts on practical BAM topics that you might have missed. First published in December 2017 as the first part of a series.

by Stu Minshew

On the theme of ‘maximizing BAM success factors’ we’ve invited guest authors to highlight what they consider key factors contributing to success and growth for BAM practitioners. Previously we’ve covered ‘breaking through your growth ceiling’ for an established business. But what if you are a startup? What if you have a business idea and want to know how to maximize your success from the get-go? We asked entrepreneur and CO.STARTERS trainer Stu Minshew to share what he’s learned about maximizing startup success in this five part mini-series.

Part 1: Get Started Growing

Starting and growing a business is a calling from the Lord. If you ask anyone who has done it, they will tell you how exhilarating it can be, but also how it sometimes seems overwhelming and impossible. The truth is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Yes, it always requires hustle and flexibility, but taking a few simple actions can equip you to overcome obstacles to starting and growing your business to a level of sustainability.

During this series, we will explore these steps, but before we get to those, we need to discuss a few foundational points.

Foundational Point 1: Startups & Small Businesses Have Different Needs

In 2016, The Bureau of Labor in the United States shows that about 50% of businesses make it five years, while only about 30% make it past the ten year mark. If this is the reality, then starting a business doesn’t look like such a good idea.  Read more

10 Guiding Principles for Business as Mission

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

 

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

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

Foundational Business Principles

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

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

Helping BAM Practitioners Start Well and Endure for the Long-Term

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by Jo Plummer

Recently I received a question about training resources and spiritual courses from a BAM practitioner who reads our blog. There already are lots of great resources on this site and elsewhere for helping BAMers start well and endure for the long-term. This post is designed to introduce some resources that BAM practitioners may find helpful for both preparing to launch into BAM and enduring long.

However, having asked advice from a few other business as mission leaders, we identified that there are relatively few dedicated, BAM-related resources for what the mission community calls ‘member care – that is helping ensure the personal, physical, relational and spiritual well-being of BAM practitioners. There are, however, many general member care and spiritual life resources that we can glean from in the wider Christian community, and a selection of these are also listed below.

Please get in touch if you would be interested in being part of a future task force on the specific topic of ‘Member Care for BAM Practitioners’.

Training & Preparation: Launching Well

How do people get from BAM vision to BAM reality? What training resources are there out there for BAM practitioners? What factors help launch BAMers out into stable, successful business as mission enterprises? What are the skills and characteristics that BAM companies are looking for as they recruit? How do potential BAMers best develop themselves and prepare for doing business as mission?

Here are some places to start:

  • Courses & Training Page – BAM Resource Library
    Looking for some BAM-related training? Start with the Courses & Training page in the Resource Library here on the BAM website for a list of training organisations and course providers related to BAM. Follow that up by browsing the Video & Audio Page which links to many Podcasts and Video Series which have great content and are all totally free to access. (And of course we have great Books and Papers listed too, as well as over 550 Blogs to read – see Blog Categories listed on this page!)

Read more

Stewarding a Fruitful and Balanced Life: Questions for Self-Evaluation

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by Jeff Hostetter & Evan Keller of Creating Jobs Inc

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

Want a tool for 2022 growth? In the tradition of assessing areas of growth in the new year, Jeff and Evan created a set of penetrating self-assessment questions in these various aspects of life: growing spiritually, investing in self, managing God’s gifts, stewarding vocations, and nurturing relationships. 

Self-Evaluation Questions for Intentional Growth in Following Jesus

“…so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” – Colossians 1:10

Growing Spiritually

  • Christ-centered: Am I keeping Jesus, his person, his grace, his example, and his Kingdom mission at the center of my life?
  • Scripture: Am I regularly soaking in God’s Word in multiple ways (listening, meditating, memorizing, studying, and applying)?
  • Character: Do my choices reveal an intention to become more and more like Jesus? Am I growing in Christlike traits, including the fruit of the Spirit?
  • Integrity: Do my private thoughts, words and actions match the person I portray to others?
  • Humility: How am I battling pride and putting others first in my thoughts and actions?
  • Gratitude: How am I replacing complaining with gratitude throughout each day?
  • Identity: Am I secure as a child of God or do I try to prove myself by what I say and do?
  • Purpose: Am I joining God in his mission by using my gifts to glorify him and bless others?
  • Spiritual Gifts: How am I using my spiritual gifts to build up the Body of Christ?
  • Accountability: Who do I regularly lean on for prayer and support in my areas of weakness? What sins am I confessing and repenting of lately?
  • Mentors: Who am I seeking mentoring from in key areas of needed growth?
  • Maturity: How have I grown in the last six months?
  • Idols: Am I examining my heart and inviting God to destroy anything that seeks to usurp his supremacy?
  • Corporate Worship: Am I regularly encountering God and exploring His Word with other believers?
  • Prayer: Am I praying regularly for my family, community, nation, the lost, the poor, the local and global church, and for God’s Kingdom to come “on earth as it is in heaven”?
  • Death: Defying the cultural denial of death, am I “numbering my days”, preparing spiritually, relationally, and financially for my eventual passing?
  • Kingdom: Am I nurturing a longing for God’s Kingdom, including regularly imagining how small and large things in various aspects of life will be different in the Shalom of the Kingdom?

Investing in Self 

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Called to Bring Servant Leadership in the Marketplace?

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

by Peter Shaukat

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

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

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

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

Moral leadership does not depend on title, role or profession. We all can and should bring moral leadership in any situation. Moral leadership is drawing on biblical ethics in each situation and applying the relevance of God’s truth into our business life. It is building relationships of trust, dignity and reconciliation. It is something we walk and model as we create an environment around us that reflects the Kingdom of God.  If we are a business owner or manager we will have a particular opportunity to think carefully through the principles and values that we want to permeate our company or team. However, we all have a divine calling to bring moral leadership, regardless of any official position.

Operational leadership is exercised through our professional competence and excellence within our formal duties and responsibilities. Business involves a complex set of interlocking components all requiring skill and competency. We need to ask ourselves: Are we building our skill set? Do we have the necessary skills within our team to succeed?  Not everyone will be the entrepreneur, we need many kinds of ‘business builders’ to make their contribution in business as mission. Each component of a business enterprise requires Christ-honoring servant leadership.

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Most Read 2020: The Coronavirus Pandemic and BAM: Seven Things We Can Do

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MOST READ POST 2020

Our goal is to provide the BAM Community with regular content and resources. As we come to the end of what has been a very challenging year, we are highlighting your and our favourite articles of the past year. Below is the “Most Read Post” for January to December 2020.

Please enjoy and thanks for following!

The effects of the coronavirus are disruptive beyond comprehension. The situation is changing by the hour. The consequences vary from difficult to dire for billions of people, and nobody knows what the timeline is for this crisis.

Media across the world updates us constantly on the negative effects on businesses and on people’s lives, so this short article will have a different focus: what can we do?

But first let’s note that throughout history the Church has a track record of serving others in the midst of major plagues and catastrophes.

“The sociologist Rodney Stark has written (in The Rise of Christianity) that one reason the church overcame hostility and grew so rapidly within the Roman empire traces back to how Christians responded to pandemics of the day, which probably included bubonic plague and smallpox.  When infection spread, Romans fled their cities and towns; Christians stayed behind to nurse and feed not only their relatives but their pagan neighbors.” (Living in Plague Times – Phillip Yancy)

Why has the Church done this for centuries and why should we do it now? One fundamental reason is that we are to love God and our neighbors, and the two are connected. As Bishop Barron says: “Why are the two commandments so tightly linked? Because of who Jesus is. Christ is not simply a human being, and he is not simply God; rather, he is the God-man, the one in whose person divinity and humanity meet. Therefore, it is impossible to love him as God without loving the humanity that he has embraced. The greatest commandment is, therefore, an indirect Christology.” [1]

Many businesses are facing challenges with cashflow, lockdown, sales, having to let staff go, supply chain disruptions, bankruptcies, et cetera. So, what can we do now?

Let me suggest seven areas for action as it relates to BAM businesses and the global BAM community. We also invite you to add your suggestions.  Read more

Wealth: A Tool or a Trap? 33 Questions for Reflection

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by Evan Keller

Is wealth a tool or a trap? Well, both. Before we can sharpen it into an effective tool to serve others, we have to ask God to free us from the ways that money entraps our hearts. No surprise: with God it always comes down to the heart. Does how we use wealth reveal worship of God or of self? Who’s at the center of our story? The answers expose our two biggest money problems: pride and idolatry. Those may be our most serious and stubbornly entrenched sins – like insidious garden weeds that seem to spring back as quickly as you pull them out. Pride and idolatry sneakily capture our hearts, replacing God as our go-to for security and fulfillment.  

Pride intentionally forgets the source of all abundance. King David admits to God that “wealth and honor come from you” (1 Chronicles 29:12), And pride is only one of many pitfalls of the heart that come with wealth. 

How can I guard my heart from its sinful tendencies? I’ve developed this list of reflection questions to help me do just that in the coming months and years. Please join me in using these to see where our hearts are at, discovering in what we are placing our trust and finding our joy. 

33 Reflection Questions

Questions to reflect on regularly to direct my heart in God’s ways:

1. Am I possessive of what I have or eager to share it? Do I give away or loan out my most prized possessions?

2. Am I covetous of what I don’t have? (Exodus 20:17)

3. Am I content both in plenty or in want? (Philippians 4:11-13)

4. Do I seek God’s Kingdom first, or is my primary focus on money or the prestige it can bring (Matthew 6:33)?

5. Does God’s Kingdom so enthrall me that I hold possessions loosely (Matthew 13:44)?

6. Am I directing my heart towards God’s values by investing significant “treasure” in God’s priorities (Matthew 6:21)?

7. Do I leverage all I am and have (time, money, possessions, influence, relationships, business, creative energy) to advance God’s Kingdom?  Read more

From All About Me to What About Me? A Personal Journey

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by Evan Keller

Obviously, it was “all about me” with the “rich fool” (from Luke 12:15-21) we discussed in the previous post; let’s flip now to one whose heart was all about God. We’re jumping from the New Testament to the Old, from a fictional character to a historic one.

King David was much richer in wealth, fame, and power than the nameless “rich man” in Christ’s parable. Yet he saw those accomplishments for what they were: gifts of grace from God. On the other hand, the “rich man” couldn’t see past his inflated view of himself. He didn’t even acknowledge God. Twice in his psalms, David wrote: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1; 53:1). And “fool” is precisely what God calls the “rich man” upon his death in Christ’s parable. Conversely, God called David “a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22).

Everything Comes from You Lord

Old Testament scholar Christopher Wright explains: “David’s example of putting his personal wealth into the temple project (1 Chronicles 29:2-5) motivates the rest of the leaders to do the same (29:6-8), which then seems to motivate the rest of the people in turn” (29:9). (Christopher Wright, The Righteous Rich in the Old Testament) He prays in disbelief: “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand” (1 Chronicles 29:14).  Read more

Creating Wealth and Being Rich Towards God

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by Evan Keller

Scripture doesn’t condemn wealth, but is very concerned about how we get it, what we do with it, and whether it takes precedence in our hearts above God’s “house”. Gifts from God are not like the new, shiny bike you got for Christmas as a child, meant for you alone. No, gifts that come from God are to you but for others, “not a privilege but a responsibility – the Abrahamic responsibility of being a blessing to others. (Gen. 12:1-3)” (Christopher Wright, The Righteous Rich in the Old Testament)

This message doesn’t quite sit well with us fallen (yet being redeemed) humans. We want our shiny gifts to shine our own reputations. The Apostle Paul knows this, so keeps insisting that gifts are meant to serve the Body of Christ – the church – and bring glory to God. Likewise, the Old Testament prophet, Haggai asks: “Whose house are you building? Yours or God’s?”

Each of us use our gifts to build something every day. Are our efforts focused more on building our own little empire or God’s glorious one? According to 1 Kings 6:38-7:1, Solomon built God’s temple in seven years but spent 13 years constructing his own palace! As someone who’s currently building a house for my family, am I spending even more of my time and my gifts to build God’s house? I would say so, but those who know me best should make that call given that I’m not immune to self-deception.  Read more

Four Hands in Two Countries: A Parable of Talents!

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by Evan Keller

What brings a stone carver and a mechanic together? Although they‘ve never even met, this story connects two (of my favorite) people who revel in lavishing generosity on others. Both Josue and Don beautifully embody the joy of giving that my new book explores. They are master craftsmen who love blessing people through their handiwork: Josue’s hands work in stone and Don’s hands master mechanics. Their Haiti-Florida bond was born in February of 2012 as we at Creating Jobs Inc mentored Josue Jean-Gilles in his business of creating plaques and gifts carved from stone.

At the epicenter of the 2010 earthquake, Josue suffered damage to his Léogâne home and workshop while fellow church members lost their very lives. Important foundations of his life continued to crumble as his mother died of a likely curable illness and his wife abandoned him and their children. After we heard Josue preach with passion one Sunday morning, his divorce forced a year-long furlough from teaching and leading at his church, which shook him further. So, you can see that his youthful face masks more heartache than a young man should have to bear. Yet his soul has not shrunk in self-protection but keeps giving, hoping and investing in others. It would have been natural to closely guard what remained, including a regional monopoly on his type of artisanal stone carving. Instead, he spread his skills far and wide by sharing his well-honed techniques with not only employees, but many orphans, and several new competitors he helped to raise up. Now that’s a mindset of abundance!  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

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