Tag Archive for: story

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

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

Fitness Industry, Southeast Asia

 
What do you do and where?

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

Why do you do it?

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

What has it really been like to run your business?

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

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

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

 

 

Hospitality and Food Manufacturing, South Asia

 
What do you do and where?

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

Why do you do it?

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

What has it really been like to run your business?

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

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

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

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

 

>> Read Part 1 here

 

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

 

 

 

Photo by Huỳnh Tiến on Unsplash

 

 

 

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

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

 

Z Engineers – Construction Industry, South Asia

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

What do you do and where?

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

Why do you do it?

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

What has it really been like to run your business?

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

>> Read Part 2 here

 

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

 

 

 

Photo by Jeriden Villegas on Unsplash

 

 

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

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by Merari Peña


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

 

 

Transcript:

Good afternoon, everyone.

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

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

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

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

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

God’s Faithfulness in our Business Journey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.

 

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

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



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

 

 

Photo by Forever Crystals

 

 

 

 

Different Pathways: 4 People Share Their Journey into BAM

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Hear from four people who have got involved in BAM. They share how they got engaged, what they did to prepare to launch, and what they had to overcome.

What helped propel you towards business as mission? What were some of the most important things you did to prepare to launch?

We were working professionals for a long time and felt we reached a certain level of accomplishment in our career and knew it was time for a change. When we decided we wanted to move abroad, we looked at ways on how we could have the greatest impact and found that running a business can hugely benefit a community on many different levels, as well as give ministry opportunities we otherwise would not be presented with. Also, starting a business felt the most authentic way for us to truly become “immigrants” in our new home country and displayed our commitment to the locals that we were serious and in this for the long haul. To prepare we researched and read books on BAM, as well as spending time talking to experienced workers particularly through the Open Network Expo.  – Ben and Yumi, Vietnam [have been operating a software development company since 2014, before that they spent 10 months intentionally preparing to do BAM, 4 months in their home country and 6 months in Vietnam]

Partners Worldwide has been introducing this concept and I heard about it. It was an idea that was developing in my mind but when I heard it from Partners it became very clear that this was the way any Christian or even non Christian should run their business. It helped maximize Kingdom impact and also helped the business flourish as well. BAM has been a game changer for me in many different ways. I think the first thing to do to prepare is pray. God can help in any way. He is our reason to live and also do business. So bringing the issue to him is very important. Once God provides all of the aspects, it’s good to meet with the employees so they can start to see the changes but slowly. Starting the meeting with a prayer can break the ice. Next time start with a prayer then read a verse. Taking it slowly gives employees time to process new ways of doing things. – Daniel, Haiti [transitioned his company to being a BAM-focused company in 2013, he spent 2 years before that preparing to do BAM]

The BAM track at Urbana conference in St. Louis, Missouri, USA helped me a lot by allowing me to meet the people who shaped my life and mentored me. This growth in networking and asking questions helped me to better understand the idea of BAM and propelled me to start reading, traveling, and eventually doing BAM in Nepal. I was quite intentional once I caught the vision. I felt God leading me towards this in my life and so I pursued it fervently to the point of actually going and trying to grow BAM companies. I have a business degree and that helps so much. So many people I see trying to do BAM don’t have any kind of business background or even a desire to learn it, which, doesn’t end well in my opinion. Get some business skills, love God, love others, and then just obey wherever God calls you. Remember that what you’re doing is opening up a business, so actually be good at knowing what that could entail and then follow God’s leading. – Jacob, Nepal [worked for a BAM company in Nepal, after 2 years of God preparing him to go]

There were two things that propelled me toward business as mission. The first thing was a weekly prayer meeting with three other young professionals who wanted to grow in faith/work integration. We would spend half of our time praying out loud and half of our time listening to God and then keeping each other accountable as God gave us steps of faith to take. The other main thing that propelled us specifically toward BAM was seeking a healthy intersection between my wife and my passion for missions and deep desire to use the gifts God has given us in business. For us, taking a two week vision trip to Thailand was extremely valuable looking back. It gave us an idea of what it would look like to work and live there. We also attended Support Raising Solution’s Bootcamp and Missions Training International. These pre-field trainings gave us excellent foundations for personal finances, working cross-culturally, and language acquisition. – Evan, Thailand [has been part of the leadership team of a BAM company for 8 years, after working in a corporate job and then BAM mobilising and training for 2 years]

 

Was there anything that held you back that you had to overcome? Anything you wish you’d done differently, or any tips for effective preparation?

We didn’t feel anything holding us back because we were at a point in our lives where we felt called to go and God had already blessed us with the the means and desire. The only thing that we had to work out as a family was to be unified on where to go. If you have a desire to go, just go! Be diligent in laying down a strong foundation, work hard everyday and be intentional about building relationships. In all this, never forget why you are doing it and who you are doing it for. On the business side, there’s always a lot that needs to be figured out on how to setup and manage a company as a foreigner. A benefit for us is that we had some operational and strategic experience in business before starting our own here. For BAM, we are continually working on how to best integrate ministry within business. Speaking with other BAM workers and hearing their experiences and how they do it has been crucial and insightful. – Ben and Yumi, Vietnam 

I think lack of clarity was a big obstacle. I had the idea but it was not defined and was not clear so I couldn’t act on it. Coming in contact with literature that prepared my mind was instrumental in shifting my thinking. Also practice is hard to change. Changing direction requires changing culture and habits – organizational resistance is a major hindrance many times. I think taking it easy was a good strategy. Some employees are more interested than others but eventually they all come to be interested. The bigger issue is to take the BAM concept to our suppliers and distributors. That will be a real challenge but doing so will maximize our impact. – Daniel, Haiti

I partly had to retrain myself on not separating the workplace from a place where ministry could be done. However, the company I work for does that so well that they taught me that it could be done. Adding a cross-cultural environment to the mix is also extremely challenging because the same things or practices that work at home aren’t necessarily what will work in a new country. BAM isn’t the answer to missions or for everyone out there, but it is a way for those who want to use their God given skills to legitimately create value for communities, markets, and people – with a focus on bringing the transformation of Jesus Christ to their sphere of influence and workplace. Most of the things I had to learn where language, culture, who the players were in the business realm, how to work with the government, and then learn the markets. This is all pretty basic stuff but it takes time and energy. Lots of it. So network like crazy, and study hard on the culture, people, and language before opening up a business. If you have a healthy and growing relationship with Jesus, then He will show you the rest. – Jacob, Nepal

For me fear of failure or making a mistake was a big factor. I had worked in a “safe” corporate job for 6+ years and quitting felt like jumping off of a ledge, especially when many of my friends were laying down deeper roots and designing their lifestyles for security, safety, and pleasure. I don’t know if this is something we could have done better or not, but we did realize after being here that we are more inclined toward building businesses than starting businesses. This changed our approach in terms of looking for a business to join instead of start. Although I’ve been told that we might get more of a taste for starting businesses as we get more into BAM! – Evan, Thailand 

 

This post has been adapted for the current BAM Pathways series from material originally published as a four part series in 2016, with eight BAMers sharing their journey. With thanks to the BAM practitioners who shared their experiences. 

 

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

 

 

 

Photo by Erik Mclean 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

 

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

It Takes an Ecosystem to ‘Raise a BAM Company’!

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There are many different ways to get involved in business as mission and the BAM movement needs many types of people, skills, experiences and passions. If you are interested in engaging with BAM, there is a path and role for you! Last month, we started with the topic of getting involved in doing BAM yourself. This month, we are exploring ways to support and resource others to do BAM – in other words, how to help build the business as mission ecosystem!

Business as mission companies and practitioners need many different kinds of support and resources to thrive. To discover the many different and necessary roles in the BAM ecosystem, read Part 1 of this series.

To wrap the series up, we thought it would be fun and interesting to look at this issue from the other side; from the point of view of the BAM practitioner. We asked the owners of two BAM companies about the supportive ecosystem around them.

A well-known saying in English is that “It takes a village to raise a child.” I think we could also say, “It takes a vibrant support network and ecosystem to raise a BAM company!” Would you agree with that?… And if so, how have you seen that play out in your own company experience?
Ryan and Lee, BAM Real Estate Development Company in Southeast Asia

Yes, absolutely. We wouldn’t be where we are today without an incredible network of advisors.  For us, it started with informal advisors from our personal network and over the years it has become much more formalized and strategic. I like to think about our network of advisors in concentric circles with those in the inner circle reserved for a few people who care for and understand everything about you. The highest level of trust and vulnerability happens at the inner circle level. Many people refer to this as a personal board. The next circle is our advisory board which in our case functions more like a governance Board for our BAM ventures. They are concerned about us, but also very much concerned about the mission and vision of the venture and ensuring it’s sustainability and purpose.  The next level of advisors we engage with are subject matter experts, who can be consultants and/or coaches. We normally engage with SMEs for specific challenges or time periods.

As we grow, we have had to learn how to adapt our use of advisors along the way. We are slow to bring a new person onto our Board, so we typically engage them first as an SME. An SME may engage with us for weeks/months, a board member engages for years, and the inner circle is  more of a lifetime commitment.  The relational aspect increases as it goes closer to the center, but in all situations we like to clarify expectations in writing that explains what we are asking of the advisor and how we will review our working relationship overtime. In the past, we didn’t have anything in writing and it was awkward to ask someone to step aside from a role, when in reality we needed someone else with a different set of experiences and giftings for a new phase of growth.  Read more

Starting out on Unique BAM Paths: Two More Stories

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This month we are starting a blog series that will explore different pathways into BAM and different ways to be involved. We begin this month with the topic of getting involved in doing BAM yourself. In the coming months, we’ll explore more ideas for enabling, resourcing and connecting others to do BAM.

In Part 1 of this two part series, we shared two unique stories of how God led people to get involved with BAM.

Here are two more stories highlighting different ways to get involved. In the first, Danilo shares how he is has integrated BAM principles into an existing business. In the second, JC started working remotely for a BAM company in his first job out of college. We hope these will encourage you that there are many different paths into business as mission!

Danilo, CEO of Snowman Labs

Danilo, age 34, holds a degree in Computer Networks, and was born and raised in the south of Brazil in a Christian family. His father is a pastor, which deeply influenced Danilo’s upbringing. Danilo loves Jesus, his family, people, technology, and innovation. Those passions opened up the doors for starting Snowman Labs, a digital solution company helping clients navigate their digital transformation challenges. Danilo is currently the CEO of Snowman Labs, where their purpose is to let people experience the kindness and love of God through technology, innovation, and UX/UI design. 

What motivated you to get involved with business as mission?

Actually, it was God who led me to BAM after years of wrestling with my views on the sacred-secular divide in business. I used to see business and serving the Lord as polar opposites. But, through God’s grace, I now see BAM as a natural integration of my faith and professional life.

My journey began in early February 2018 during a service in Brazil, where I heard João Mordomo speak on 1 Peter 2:9. His message, that not all of us would have a call to full-time ministry, but we are all full-time ministers, profoundly changed my outlook. I sought João out for lunch to learn more about BAM, and he has since become a pivotal mentor in guiding me toward integrating these principles into Snowman Labs.

What is your role in Snowman Labs?

As CEO, my role is to steer Snowman Labs toward the vision God has imparted to us. This aligns perfectly with my strengths, especially since it involves overseeing sales, a domain I’m passionate about. My love for our vision and responsibility in sales creates a synergy that drives me daily.

You transitioned Snowman Labs to incorporate BAM principals. Did you run into any challenges or discouragements along the way?

Honestly, starting in BAM felt like a path God had prepared for me, so the initial steps were surprisingly smooth. The real challenges came later as I worked to weave BAM concepts into our company’s culture. Read more

Joining BAM: Stories of People Getting Involved in Business as Mission

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This month we are starting a blog series that will explore different pathways into BAM and different ways to be involved. We begin this month with the topic of getting involved in doing BAM yourself. In the coming months, we’ll explore more ideas for enabling, resourcing and connecting others to do BAM.

Over the past 15 years, there’s been an unprecedented rise in the global connectedness of people involved in business as mission (BAM). As the movement continues to grow, many more seek opportunities to join the movement — specifically by joining or starting BAM companies and resourcing organizations.

As engagement in business as mission grows, so do the range of opportunities. There are almost as many ways to get involved with BAM as there are people on their BAM journey and we’ve  been eager to hear more about the variety of ways to get involved.

We reached a handful of individuals who each had unique stories of how God led them to get involved with BAM. Here are two of their stories:

G, Team Member of a Business Incubator for Refugees in the UK

G works with a team based in the UK that helps local refugees relaunch the businesses they operated back in their home countries. She and the team are driven by BAM principals and hope to see real financial impact with refugees lifted out of poverty and released into economic prosperity for their families. They aim to impact social bottom lines by encouraging and deepening ties between locals and refugees, and to have spiritual impact by sharing Christ with groups who, before arriving in the UK, had limited exposure to the gospel.  

What motivated you to join the organization you’re working with?

I learned about social enterprise during my studies of global business issues at university. After my first exposure to these concepts, I wanted to learn more about businesses doing BAM in a practical and meaningful way.

I am from a very rural area and there didn’t seem to be many opportunities for the practical, hands-on experience I was looking for. During one of my summer breaks, a man from the UK (now G’s team leader) started to share about his community’s desire to serve refugees and start a social enterprise in his area. If anyone was interested in joining them for an internship, he said to connect with him after service.

What did you do to prepare for involvement in BAM? Can you tell us about the networking, research, learning, and formal or informal preparations you did?

As I said, I studied social enterprise in college. But to me, it felt more like most of my learning was “caught” not taught.

My mom is an entrepreneur herself, and I would say most of what I’ve learned has been from watching and helping my mom run her Mary Kay business. She’s always been intentional about networking and connecting to enrich the lives of women, not just to make a sale. She always made sure genuine care for people was never lost. During college, I followed in her footsteps and started my own Mary Kay side business. This taught me a lot about bouncing back from rejection, and how to not take it personally, which is hard!

Running my own business taught me how to talk to people even when I’m intimidated, giving me the confidence to boldly ask questions and follow up with people I’m interested in learning from. This gave me buoyancy to keep following up on this opportunity with the team in the UK, even after it had been repeatedly canceled and postponed due to Covid. Read more

Open Doors to Business: A Report from BAM South Asia

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We are sharing a series throughout October on ‘What in the World is God Doing through Business as Mission?!’ We are aiming to ‘put the global into BAM Global’ by highlighting encouraging BAM developments from different parts of the world during this month.

God is on the move across Asia! To provide an insight into just one part of it, we interviewed BAM Global Executive Director, João Mordomo, who went to India last month.

Interview with João Mordomo

I had the privilege recently of going to India and the purpose of that trip was twofold. Firstly, I was visiting in a disputed region of the country where business as mission is proving to be one of the only models that is effective. This is both in terms of Indians or foreigners having a credible presence in that region, as well as creating the actual mission impact that they desire.

If Indians from further south in India, for example, want go up into this primarily Muslim region with the intention of somehow spreading the gospel they are not going to be able to be there legitimately if they’re not doing business or have some other type of job. It was great to see a combination of nationalities doing business there, both nationals and ex-pats. There were Indians, alongside ethnic Nepalis who have Indian nationality, Nepalis who are both nationally and ethnically Nepali, and then some others from further afield.

Open Doors to Business

Some of the BAM practitioners there are working in the hospitality industry and others are doing things related to agriculture or ecotourism. Recently, the ecotourism component is looking very promising. People go to this region for hiking, camping and mountaineering, things like that. But then those tourists need bed and breakfast accommodation, they need refreshments and meals. So there is a small ecosystem that is developing.

One of the most encouraging things that I saw there with foreigners as well as Indians, is that they are employing locals, with the hope of them hearing about Christ alongside having a really positive social impact. What do I mean by that? For instance, if there’s one group that has three enterprises in three cities, one city is predominantly Muslim, another is predominantly Hindu, another is predominantly Buddhist. And they’re looking at the twofold benefit of being able to hire these other people from these other religions in order to experience the gospel. The employees also get a good job, bringing stability to livelihoods, which is great because finding a decent job is often not very easy in this region.

Alongside that, there is multiplication. When one unit or location is successful and making a profit, that sustainability can be leveraged to start a new enterprise. A new unit may not be profitable in the first year or two, it’s going to take a while, but when it does it can do greater good through expansion. In this case, it’s not about making the owner wealthy, they’re not sending the profits outside of the country – they’re actually using them to expand. This creates even more great jobs, more social impact and more opportunities for people who wish to plant and grow churches in these communities – but that need a real job to have a role and credibility in that place.

BAM Multiplication

The second half of my trip, I was down in the south-central region of India for what is considered to be the largest BAM conference in South Asia, an initiative of a partner network of BAM Global. And one of the immediate things that I noticed there, which linked directly to what I was doing the week before in the other region, was that the church in the south of India seems to be taking the Great Commission more seriously than ever, especially with respect to the needs throughout the north of India. I met many Indians doing really, really good business; important people, some influential people, doing some really good things. And I heard them talking about their responsibility to reach the north of India with the gospel. That was very encouraging.  Read more

What in the World? God at Work through BAM in Europe

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We are sharing a series throughout October on ‘What in the World is God Doing through Business as Mission?!’ We are aiming to ‘put the global into BAM Global’ by highlighting encouraging BAM developments from different parts of the world during this month.

God is on the move across Europe! To give you a flavour, we asked just four business as mission network leaders to give us an update on BAM developments in their nation:

Romania

It’s encouraging to witness the growing interest in engaging with God-centered business across various European countries. Romania, in particular, is emerging as a hub for Christian business networks. BAM Romania and the BAM Connect team play a crucial role in this evolving movement.

This movement includes Christian startup entrepreneurs, NGOs aiming to venture into business activities, and companies exploring ways to incorporate missions into their existing organizations. All are seeking inspirational stories, practical courses, teaching, and events to connect with like-minded individuals. In February of this year, we organized the BAM Connect Summit in Bucharest, which attracted over 100 participants from eight different countries. As a team, we expanded our network, believing in Romania’s significance within the BAM movement in Europe.

After the conference, we set aside time for prayer, team discussions on new opportunities, and consultations with various international BAM leaders. As we acknowledge our calling and seek ways to nurture our passion, we are excited about an invitation to participate in a particular project. In this project, we’ll collaborate with NGO leaders and leverage our specially developed BAM Connect platform and tool. Through this platform, leaders can create Business or Mission Model Canvases to optimize the impact of their organization’s mission and activities.

In Romania, it’s challenging to draw a distinct line between an NGO and a business (as mission). Over the last decades, numerous NGOs have had significant roles within Romanian society. However, they now confront impending challenges such as rising costs, fundraising hurdles, and stricter legal requirements. The BAM movement presents itself as one of the solutions to prepare NGOs for the future and to have sustainable impact.

The personnel, the experience, the services, the knowledge, and the network are all present in the BAM Connect team to serve those organizations in Romania and beyond. People can get in touch with us by email or via bamconnect.net

Netherlands

Here in the Netherlands we see a growing number of influential business owners and investors engaging in business as mission, and local BAM initiatives growing in size and influence. Meanwhile we’re involved with some key mission organizations to encourage them towards BAM.

Right now we’re in full preparation for our annual two-day congress on November 9 and 10. This year, our theme is Integrating the 4 P’s of BAM: People, Planet, Profit and Pneuma. This Congress is bi-lingual in English and Dutch, find out more about the BAM Congress Netherlands here. You are welcome!

Besides that, we see BAM-related initiatives developing, partly as spin-offs from yearly congresses:

  • Itzinya – A course to help entrepreneurial migrants start a business, this training is now available and running in several parts in the Netherlands. Meanwhile the initiating team is helping Hakan Sandberg (based in Sweden) to develop internationally.
  • BAM and church (planting) – There have been steady relationship developments with key leaders involved with church planting and church buildings of the National Protestant Church. Similarly with HeartEdge NL, a network initiated by theologian Sam Wells from the UK (a speaker at our last congress). We facilitate connection between entrepreneurs with a vision in this area and help to bridge the church-business divide.
  • Authentic Lives / Business – Developing life-giving cultures in businesses and organizations. A working group is engaging with this global (and BAM-related) movement based in the UK and their material has now been translated into Dutch.

For the future we are excited that, next to a steady growth in size and influence, we see more depth spiritually. Last year at our congress we introduced prophetic prayer at a workshop led by prophet prophet Sander Wuister. We also gave opportunities during the day for attendees to receive personal prayer. This was meaningful for quite a number of people. Since than some even hired Sander for monthly consultancy. This year at our congress we will have three prophetic prayer-persons available for those who’d like to receive encouragement. Read more

Fruitful Practices for a Healthy BAM Business Team

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‘Team troubles’ were one of the top 4 reasons BAM mentors gave for practitioners giving up and going home. The ability to build effective teams and work through difficult team dynamics is therefore crucial for the sustainability of BAM companies. In this interview, we talk to Luke, a BAM business owner living in the Middle East, about his business story and what ingredients make for healthy business teams.

 

What general principles do you have for any company team for building healthy team relationships?

As soon as you want to build a scalable business the business team becomes super-important. The essence of a successful business is in the team, rather than the individual. To grow you need to be able to manage the business as a team, you need to be able to be on the same page.

I think at the heart of healthy team relationships there is good communication and honesty. These build trust, they reduce the sense of isolation, and they bring unity and agreement on strategy. This is particularly important for teams in multiple locations when there is a high risk of feeling isolated or misunderstood.

Honesty is crucial. Getting to the right level of honesty to enable the team to be most effective can be painful and humbling. Sometimes I don’t want to share when things go wrong, or it’s not looking as good as I hoped. Pride can lead us to partial honesty. I am talking about the temptation to overplay a lead or exaggerate about a potential client because you want to look good. However, partial honesty seriously reduces the ability of the team to manage the business, because they don’t have a clear enough picture of what’s going on.

To reach the kind of honesty required, there has to be trust and commitment in the relationship. It’s a bit like a marriage covenant: you say to someone, “It doesn’t matter what you do, we are going to stay married.” Although a business partnership is different, there has to be a degree of trust and security in the relationship, an appropriate level of commitment.

Read more

How Does Spiritual Impact Intersect with Your Product or Service?

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It goes without saying that the product or service you develop will be tightly interwoven with your missional goals: social, economic, environmental and spiritual. We can learn a lot from mainstream business about how to most effectively develop products and market share that will turn a profit and create economic impact. We can also learn much from the social enterprise movement and other socially responsibility companies about how products and services integrate with both social and environmental impact. But business as mission integrates a fourth bottom line, that of spiritual impact. In what ways does the product you develop or the service you offer intersect with the spiritual impact of a BAM company?

We asked four BAM practitioners in very different sectors in different parts of Asia to share why they chose their business and how it connects with the spiritual goals for their business:

Extreme Sports Equipment – Wholesale and Distribution

For us it’s impossible to separate our products from the impact we want to have as a business. First of all we want to make sure that all our products have integrity. We use the finest quality materials to make our equipment. Factories here tend to use a lower grade of materials when mass producing this type of equipment. We asked our manufactures to use the highest grade of materials possible and have a good standard of quality control in place. We pay more, but we feel that supplying top-quality equipment is integral to our credibility and our message. We also include graphics and images on our equipment that have a gospel meaning behind them. Every graphic has a story and we include booklets with our products that explain what the images mean and essentially tell the gospel. We are actively engaged with the extreme sports community here, we sponsor competitors and hang out with the people who are into our sport. We’ve started a kind of church among this group, we go where they all gather together and we do a bible study there, we regularly meet with a core group of 20 to 30. We send representatives from our company out as they do product distribution to other cities and they are able to build relationships with community leaders and begin to disciple them. – Jon and Dave

Language Academy – Education

I have a passion for training and my wife loves to write curriculum, so taking over a Language Center was a natural fit for us. It was a struggling company at the time, but we could see how it had potential to make an impact in the Muslim nation we are in. People from all over the Middle East come here to learn English and other languages – we offer five languages all together. Some of our staff work exclusively within our Academy, others teach part-time and very intentionally engage in evangelism and church planting work, much of that out of the relationships they build through the center. Education and training work is a great environment in which to be a witness for Jesus and share biblical ideas since we get to spend intensive time with our students. We also have a children’s language program that mostly focuses on English teaching, since the demand for that is so high. We go into Arab Schools and teach children from 4 to 18 years, mainly immigrants from Middle Eastern countries, many coming from difficult situations. The English language represents hope for the future for them and we get to build really good relationships with whole families. We talk in our classes about religious beliefs, for instance at Christmas we were able to share all about who Christ is. We also get to go and drink coffee with the parents and make friends outside the classroom. – Steve  Read more

The Power of Business to Bring Freedom to the Enslaved

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This month we are exploring different motives a missional entrepreneur may have for pursuing business as mission as their strategy of choice. In this third post, we are exploring the power of business to bring economic solutions to human trafficking and freedom to the enslaved. Download the 2022 IMPACT Report from the Freedom Business Alliance below to learn much more.

by Freedom Business Alliance

Ghanaian diplomat and former Secretary-General of the UN Kofi Annan introduced the issue of human trafficking to the UN General Assembly in 2000 with this statement:

I believe the trafficking of persons, particularly women and children, for forced and exploitative labor, especially for sexual exploitation, is one of the most egregious violations of human rights which the United Nations now confronts.¹

Over twenty years later, this egregious violation not only still exists, but has increased. The International Labour Organization estimates that at any given time, 50 million people, predominantly women and girls, are trapped in modern slavery, an increase in 10 million compared to 2016 estimates.²

The Business of Human Trafficking

While awareness of this global crisis has grown in recent years, many still do not recognize the economic aspects of the issue, leaving a complete solution just out of grasp, until now. Freedom Businesses have been launched to address this gap, arising as a groundswell response from entrepreneurs operating in the anti-trafficking ecosystem, all of whom are on mission to create life-giving jobs for survivors of human trafficking and labor exploitation.

Make no mistake: human trafficking is a business. It is estimated that the total profits obtained from the use of forced labour in the private economy worldwide amount to US$150 billion per year. 3 While there are still legal and law enforcement issues to be improved, a major root cause of trafficking is economic vulnerability. Places with high unemployment and under-employment are high-risk areas, where traffickers lure vulnerable people, most of them women and girls. People are making money from the sale of those most economically vulnerable among us. This is business in its most evil form.   Read more

6 Product and Market Bloopers: What to Do and Not to Do

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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.

Some things are learned the hard way. Mistakes are part of life. But we can also learn from others’ mistakes and hopefully avoid them. We asked BAM practitioners in very different sectors in different parts of Asia to share a lesson they had learned about developing their product or service. Here is their BAM blooper reel:

1. Don’t jump from your idea to… we’re going to do it!

Do your research. Don’t do, “I’m just believing God” and not do your homework. Take time to do some basic surveys and cost comparisons. We’ve always done market research and surveys, asking: is it out there, what’s the competition, how long have they been around, what they are charging? If there is nothing out there then look at a nearby country or look at a product that is close to the one you want to offer. We’ve seen businesses come in with a ‘good idea’ and just go ahead, with no research. One man I met came in with an idea for selling waffles, a business he’d done before. However, he was very badly advised by a local consultancy. He only had one product and here in this country if you don’t have at least 10 things on your menu no one will come in and buy. I walked into his shop and saw in five minutes that it wasn’t going to work as a business. He’d spent his retirement money and closed up after only 6 months. – Ron 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

Scarcity versus Abundance

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by Don Simmons

Many of us suffer from a “scarcity” mindset in which we believe that life is a finite pie and if one person takes a big piece, there will be less for everyone.  Counter to this is an “abundance” mindset in which there is plenty available for everyone.

The Apostle Paul challenges the scarcity mindset in his discourse on sowing and reaping in 2 Corinthians 9:6-10.  As you read, you will see words like generous, abundant, abounding, increase, and enlarge—which are an obvious contrast to the limits of scarcity:

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:

‘They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.’ [Ps 112:9]

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.”

Wealth Creation: Making More Pie

What Paul seems to suggest is that giving  leads to abundant blessings so that the giver is not depleted, but rather added to. The addition should not be misunderstood to be for our own benefit, but it is given so that we can continue to bless others. The same principle can apply to harnessing the power of investing to increase the wealth in our worldwide economy. Read more

Matching A Steward Investor’s Goals with God’s Goals

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by Don Simmons

In my previous post I offered the good news of engaging in worldwide missions through investing into missional businesses.

In order to effectively move capital from where it is stored up (retirement accounts, charitable funds, savings accounts) to where it is in short supply (SMEs in emerging markets, corrupt communities, or impoverished lands), we need to reconsider our personal investment goals.

What are your investment goals?  If you are like most people, your goals probably include high financial return, minimal risk, and tax avoidance. Have you ever thought about why you have those particular goals?

What do you believe matters to God? Frequently people respond by saying that the Great Commission and the Great Commandment matter to God. Have you ever considered that your investments should be aligned with God’s objectives and His purposes since He is, in fact, the true owner of your investments?

What is the connection between our wealth and the kingdom of God?

The familiar story of Jesus’ conversation with the Rich Young Ruler, in which he asks him to sell everything and give to the poor, challenges the common blindness we exhibit when viewing the connection between our wealth and the kingdom of God.

Fiduciaries are obligated  to manage another’s resources according to the true owner’s wishes. As God’s fiduciary, managing God’s resources, we must do some hard work and think through questions like these:

1. Does my portfolio look any different than someone’s who does not proclaim Jesus as their Savior?

If we are merely investing to achieve financial returns and protect our holdings either for our own comfort or to pass on to our children, then we are not investing any differently than the majority of investors on the planet.  We cannot ignore Jesus’ teaching on Mammon in Matthew where he challenges the assumption that a person can serve both God AND Mammon. Read more

God’s Steward Investor and the Great Commission

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by Don Simmons

I want to challenge those of us who have achieved basic financial competency and have plans in place for our investments to earn financial returns. If we truly believe that God owns all of our resources, we must believe that includes our investment holdings as well.

We need to become God’s steward investor, one who is charged with managing His resources for His purposes.  He is the true owner, and we are his managers, his oikonomos. An oikonomos, in a Greek household, was the manager of the owner’s resources. As God’s oikonomos in the 21st century, the investments under our management are actually assets that belong to God himself.

An oikonomos commits capital with the expectation of furthering the kingdom of heaven on earth. These steward investors do this by seeking to achieve not only financial returns, but also positive spiritual, social, and environmental impact. A steward investor knows first and foremost that they are a fiduciary,  managing someone else’s resources.

Fulfilling the Great Commission through Investment

Inherent in the term “Business as Mission” is the word mission. Ever since Jesus sent out the seventy-two  into his harvest field, and then charged the believers gathered after His resurrection to go and make disciples of all nations, many followers of Jesus have accepted the call to go as missionaries.

Often willing to risk what’s familiar for what’s foreign, what’s comfortable for what’s complicated, what’s predictable for what’s problematic, men and women stake their lives on God’s faithfulness to go ahead of them and produce fruit from their ministry for His kingdom. Read more

God’s Steward Investor: Investing for Eternal Impact

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by Don Simmons

To the BAM Global audience: thank you for the chance to engage with you this month through a series of blogs dedicated to themes of investing God’s resources for eternal impact.

I have been a financial planner for over three decades and a follower of Jesus during my entire career.  In recent years, God has opened my eyes to truths I cannot escape regarding the role we all have to play in connecting our financial resources with God’s eternal purposes. In short, I have come to believe that we are all God’s resource managers, his fiduciaries, and as such we are to become his steward investors. Simply put, we must move beyond financial competence to proactively investing God’s resources to achieve His eternal purposes such as the Great Commission. We must not simply invest for our own temporal financial goals.

What is a Steward Investor?

A steward investor is a person who acknowledges that God owns it all and seeks to invest in a way that accords with God’s purposes.

By definition, a steward is a manager of someone else’s resources. It derives from the Greek word oikonomos, who was the manager in an ancient Greek household. A steward knew he didn’t own anything but had an obligation to manage the resources and affairs of the owner as the owner himself would.

All of our resources—financial and otherwise—have been given to us by God, the true owner. God tasks us as his stewards with managing those resources according to His values, goals, and precepts communicated in scripture.

While many of us value “good stewardship” of our finances, making sure we live on a budget, save, and give generously, most of us have not considered how to steward our investments. Read more

2 Company Leaders Look Back: Financial Planning Highs and Lows

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

 

When we have a major decision to make, we often ask those around us for input. Sometimes we follow that advice and other times we don’t. Occasionally we might look back and wish we had followed the advice we received from others. Hindsight is a beautiful thing!

Drawing on the wisdom of others can be helpful and the benefit of hindsight is illuminating. With those two things in mind, we asked a couple of well established BAM leaders for their advice about financial planning. We asked them to share what has been fruitful and has enabled them to grow companies that are doing well. We also asked them to share the lessons they’ve learned the hard way and what they would do differently in hindsight.

Hospitality Company 

Company A is a Hospitality company with 125 employees, it has two owners and was established 12 years ago.

What financial planning have you done to grow your company to the place it is today?

The growth of our company over the past five years has been quite substantial. We have seen our revenue increase 475%, and our earnings grow 540%. Though our financial planning was not the driver of that growth, it was certainly the foundation. Without the steps we have learned and taken over the years, we would not have been able to facilitate the amazing growth we have seen.  Read more

3 Different Routes into Business as Mission: How They Got Started

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

From Dream to Island Reality: Samantha

At the tender age of nine, rather than dreaming of make-believe castles and glass slippers, Samantha dreamed about living her life on a certain archipelago in Asia. After college Samantha spent a year in China teaching English then returned to the States to get her Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Upon graduating, she taught English for several years at high school level. Then one day God began stirring that dream from her childhood of living in Asia. After months of seeking wise counsel and pushing on doors, a plan began to take shape. True to His word, God did “more than she could ask or imagine”, doors opened for her to join an organisation that fit her youthfulness and passion. She raised long-term support, and took a survey trip. Within a short time Samantha had moved and begun studying the local language on a main island of the archipelago. She was open to God’s provision, setting no expectations on how long she would remain long-term in the country.

Three months into her language studies Samantha received a phone call from a certain small business ministering out in the islands asking if she would join them in their endeavor. Samantha had connected with this business months prior during her survey trip, hoping that God would open the door for her to join their business since their vision was the same as hers for the islands. With her teaching skills and a passion for the Islands, she immediately said, “Yes!” – believing she could do anything God called her to, including small business. 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

From Idea to Impact: Accelerating Communities of Kingdom-Minded Entrepreneurs

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During our October Webinars this week Mats Tunehag had the privilege of interviewing six BAM leaders in a series of three Fireside Chats, on the themes of each day: Start-up BAM, Fruitful BAM and Long BAM.

On day two, on the theme of Fruitful BAM, Mats interviewed Matthew Rohrs and Yvonne Otieno. Yvonne is an award winning entrepreneur and CEO of Miyonga Fresh Greens in Kenya. Matthew is the CEO of Sinapis Group, a Kingdom-minded business accelerator and entrepreneur academy operating in eight countries.

Here are some excerpts from their Fireside Chat Interview:

Mats: Matthew, Sinapis is 10 years old this year, congratulations. So tell us, how do you integrate faith into your programs?

Matthew: Sinapis is an entrepreneurship training and acceleration organization. We have a variety of programs to help entrepreneurs build capacity. Then over time we build vibrant long-term alumni communities where entrepreneurs can do business with one another, solve problems together, grow in their faith, and grow in their application of what it means to lead a Kingdom business.

The name Sinapis is the Latin word for mustard seed. So when we think about that gospel story of how the smallest seed in the garden grows to become one of the largest plants and the birds of the air come and perch in the branches, we think that is an interesting picture of the kind of impact that a gifted Kingdom-minded entrepreneur can have. They start out with a small seed of an idea, and that company then grows and grows. As that company begins to have more influence, this image of the birds perching in the branches is a beautiful picture of what happens with their employees. The impact that a company can have on the employees and then their dependents and others in the community…

On the question of how we integrate faith into what we do. At the programmatic level, we gently, respectfully, but very intentionally integrate God’s truth into our programs. We’re very open to share with people that there’s biblical content and we want to talk to you if you are not a follower of Christ, what would it mean to consider following Him? And if you are a follower of Christ, how do you step in, with passion, to this beautiful calling to the marketplace?

We think our alumni communities are actually the greatest opportunity for long-term spiritual investment, to walk with entrepreneurs over time, just like Yvonne. We help them and support them in the integration of their faith into the business, but also the continued growth of the company as their challenges become more complex.

Mats: Yvonne, you are one of those mustard seeds! How did going through the program change you and the impact on your various stakeholders?

Read more

Business as Good News to the Poor

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by Rachel Rose Nelson

It is now three years since the Global Consultation on The Role of Wealth Creation for Holistic Transformation and subsequent publications. During August and September 2020, we’re publishing a series of articles on wealth creation, reflecting on the eleven affirmations in the Wealth Creation Manifesto, which now exists in 17 languages.

Affirmations 9 and 10 of the Wealth Creation Manifesto addresses the power of business to lift people out of poverty and fight injustice:

9. Wealth creation through business has proven power to lift people and nations out of poverty.
10. Wealth creation must always be pursued with justice and a concern for the poor, and should be sensitive to each unique cultural context.

Taken as a whole, the Wealth Creation Manifesto builds a sort of theology of business. It starts where every good theology must – in the identity of God, rooting the reader in the wealth creator’s role model – no less than the Creator of Heaven and Earth. It continues through affirmations of wealth creation as a holy calling, a provocative claim to many church and business leaders alike. But those willing to suspend disbelief at claims of holiness soon reach Affirmations 9 and 10 which tread on nothing less than the holy ground of Jesus’ own announcement of his ministry, words he drew directly from the prophet Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Luke 4:18-19

Jesus defined his ministry by its benefit to the poor. The people of Nazareth were moved at first but quickly turned against him. Many explain the drastic shift occurred as the crowd realized the man they knew since childhood was essentially claiming to be Messiah. But it’s worth noting that it was directly after Jesus denied big blessings for his own people that they moved to throw him off a cliff.

Wealth Creators on the Sidelines?

Are we so very different? How do we in the church receive these two Affirmations? Too often we love wealth creators when we think the blessings from their benevolence are headed our way, funding church programs, global missions, and charity to the poor, etc.. However, many harbor suspicions about what good can possibly be accomplished for God’s Kingdom by the businesses themselves.

And how do we in business receive the prophetic summons to bless the poor and vulnerable when stewarding our gifts? Most faith-driven entrepreneurs are certainly willing to give out of the overflow of their business, but never ask God how to use their business model to model Christ, making Him manifest in the places and for the people who need Him most.

Read more

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