The Unique Ability of Business to Create Value and Speak Hope to Nations [Video]

by Hakan

 

To continue our series on business as mission through the lens of the Bible and God’s mandates to us, here is a keynote address from the BAM Global Congress 2021.

 

 

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

Read introduction post here.  All posts this month.

Keynote Video Transcript

Thank you for the introduction. Many of us have eagerly been waiting for this [BAM Global] Congress for many years now.

We are gathering because we are excited to take part in what God is doing. You know, we can’t bring Him anywhere! He’s already there waiting for us to join him in all spheres of society and among all people—to the peripherals, to the marginalized and the forcibly displaced and to the worlds of media, government, economy, family, academia, religion, and the artists, He’s already there.

Most of our role models in the Bible have a secular profession. It’s easy to become preoccupied with the kings and prophets and priests and apostles when we’re reading from the Bible. But if we allow ourselves to see it from a different perspective, we find that many of our real role models were actually professionals. Isaac developed real estate. Jacob was a rancher. Joseph, a government official in charge of agriculture, economy, and immigration policy. He served a Pharaoh in a foreign land and he did not choose to leave his well-paid job to start a charity work in order to be able to serve God.

Likewise, Moses was 40 years a sheep herder. Esther won a beauty contest and went into government service. (It doesn’t really work like that in Sweden, but maybe in Finland, from what I can see!) David worked in animal husbandry, the military and statecraft. Daniel attended Babylon’s version of Oxford and became Prime Minister. Lydia was a successful businesswoman in textiles and Peter in the fishing industry, Paul was in tent manufacturing. Perhaps the ultimate expression of how much God values work is Jesus the carpenter. Jesus spent three quarters of his working life in the construction profession, maybe both interior and exterior. You could say the Bible is written by workers, about workers, and for workers.

God the creator gave us His spirit to enable us to co-create with him, to invent, create and design. And actually the first person mentioned in the Bible to be filled with God’s spirit was not a prophet or a priest or a king or apostle, but a professional designer, a craftsman called Bezalel. Now listen to this,

Then the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.” (Exodus 31: 1-5)

So God called Bezalel into service with wisdom and understanding and knowledge to produce something with high quality.

God created you in his image to co-create with Him, and he gave you His spirit so you can do it in his way. You know, God’s design is unlimited! And people of faith have been at the forefront of innovation throughout history and produced things with significant social impact in many sectors like education, healthcare, food security, housing, and a variety of businesses.

Christians have also been at the forefront of innovation in technology, including farming techniques, brewing techniques, and today in techniques like solar energy or sustainable packaging, and you fill in the gaps… We have a mandate as co-creators given to us by God. And there are reasons to believe that we, once again, as God’s followers could lead the way in solving some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Jesus told us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt 6:10) And this speaks about God’s restoration of everything, in every dimension of life. Business is uniquely equipped, when empowered by God’s spirit, to impact four areas—or if you like, four bottom lines—driven by those kingdom values:

People – to restore, transform and unleash

Planet – to steward, protect, and to live in harmony with

Profit – to reclaim every nation’s right to create wealth for their own people

Purpose – to step beyond selfish ambition and realign our lives with God’s design to live in community, for community—to the glory of our creator

We can read in God’s word that he has given us three mandates to do this:

The Great Commandment – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27);

The Great Commission – All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:18-19); and

The Culture or Creation Mandate – God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28)

And the word subdue is kabash and is commonly defined as making a resource of the earth and using it for our benefit.

It is not about choosing the area we feel comfortable in and hoping that other initiatives will compliment our efforts. It is about, while working in our areas of strength (which I certainly believe we should do), then challenging ourselves to look also into the other areas where we do not feel equipped, and ask God to fill us with deep motivation and creativity to also grow those.

When the impact areas and the mandates work seamlessly together, all pointing to Jesus, not to us—not just filling one need, but holistically restoring people and society and creation—it reflects heaven where God’s will is done.

We are called to do this both at home and to the ends of the earth. Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). Yes, beginning in Jerusalem at home where we are familiar with the culture, language and systems and can prepare ourselves to reach further. If we are not intentional with our impact at home, it will not happen just because we move far away.

Our walk with the Lord is meant to penetrate every area of our lives. And in step with that, it’s also meant to penetrate everything we do and every area of our business. And we are meant to take the good news into the whole world, into every people group and language.

When I was a teenager, I gave my life to Jesus. The paradigm that was then was saving the world through preaching the good news and seeing to it that as many people as possible could hear. Preaching, explaining, teaching, that was all that was deemed really necessary and all the other stuff such as social programs and aid and engaging in politics—or, God forbid, engaging in environmental issues—were simply distractions. So I focused on evangelism.

By the age of 32, I had come to what I saw was the ultimate challenge: to go out in cross-cultural missions to an unreached people group. The country my wife and I felt drawn to had been one of the most closed countries in the world besides North Korea; Albania. After 50 years of total isolation and dictatorship, the country had opened up and we took the chance to move in with our two kids. It was an incredible journey to see this country absorb the gospel, filling the vacuum that the regime, by forcing atheism, had left behind.

So there I was a church planter in Albania, the ultimate challenge in my view, when after five years I realized that there was something fundamental missing in my toolbox. I could do this work that I loved for the rest of my life in nation after nation, but I would run into the same situation again and again…

The unreached live mainly in poor nations and very young populations with higher unemployment. And the young, especially the brave and the entrepreneurial ones, will leave to find opportunities elsewhere. And we’d experience the same brain drain as always, the church will remain poor and dependent with no influence in society to restore and develop or fend for themselves in times of persecution. I was frustrated and I felt I needed more tools. So I dove into business to try to learn how to create sustainability while providing solutions to problems and to share the good news.

I later found out that this was called business as mission. And now, 22 years later, I believe capacity building for entrepreneurship and job creation should go hand in hand with our other efforts in reaching this young, unreached majority in the global south with the good news.

I was reading a couple of days ago from second Peter and felt God speaking to me about including a verse from there in this message. And then yesterday I was out jogging, as always I was listening to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast, and the team was interviewing Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee, he mentioned the same verse and a helpful current context to it. As the world has lately experienced so many crises; political, health, environmental, and financial crises, many are wondering, so is this it? Is this the end? Is [Jesus] coming now?

I have not come across this particular verse in at least a year and now two times in two days. My experience is that when a prompting from the Lord comes repeated like this, then there is someone in particular that the message is for. So if this is for you, here it is.

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

And I think this verse should be coupled with the words of Jesus himself from Matthew 24,

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matt 24:14)

Now, I’m not a theologian and I’m as puzzled as you when it comes to the exact when and how. So as a simple Bible reader, I focus on what I do understand, and that is that the good news is going to go out there into the whole world.

Many of those that are still not reached are not reached because it’s hard to reach them. In creative access nations (or CANs), we have to be creative to be welcome. But our unique design, gifting and experience as entrepreneurs and business people is that we naturally create value that can be recognized by everybody—and therefore, we are welcome everywhere. This gives us needed credibility to also speak hope into those nations. Maybe this is what God has prepared for you personally?

Well below 10% of all cross-cultural missions go to the unreached people. Though we can understand some of the reasons for this, it is totally illogical and unacceptable considering the task Jesus has given us.

I think we are uniquely equipped to change that and with that resource comes responsibility. We’re not doing this because it’s easy, we do it precisely because it is hard. Entrepreneurs are not asking if the task is difficult, we know it is. We’re asking if it is worthwhile—and this is a worthwhile mission.

I would challenge you, as I challenge myself, to listen during these days for what God says. What is your part to play?

Dare to think anew. Reclaim the creation mandate and ask God to help you see solutions to problems the way He sees them. And dare to think big enough, that there is room for God. He wants to do this together with you, and he has equipped you throughout your life.

So if not you, who?

 

Transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

All posts this month.

 

 

 

Photo by Taylor Wright on Unsplash