What is Business as Mission? ( BAM )

First, BAM or Business as Mission is the idea that there is a "calling" to business. Why, how and where do carry out my calling? How do I interaction with other people in the Body of Christ? How do I connect? Here is a brief introduction.

In 2004 a group of  believing global business leaders gathered, and after much prayer and work, wrote  The Lausanne Occasional Paper 54 They said that God is at work in a new way, all over the world, both in the market place and in the Church. This dynamic movement within the Body of Christ is based  on God’s love for the world and His call to His Church.  It is a new wave of activity that is closely linked with the work of the Holy Spirit throughout history.  It is a relevant strategy for the 21st century.  God is raising up a new work force of men and women from around the world.  These men and women are on a mission for God’s

glory in and through business.  Christian leaders in business, church, missions and  beyond have all concurred that God is at work and business as mission is  dynamically meeting the various needs of a world in desperate need of the whole Gospel.

In a nutshell:

• Workplace ministry or Marketplace ministry  can be done in any workplace and is vital component to BAM but is not, in itself, BAM
• Tentmaking is a way to earn a living while doing missionary work, but is not BAM
• A business owned by Christians may or may not be BAM activity
• Using business as a "platform" to send missionaries is not BAM, and many BAM practioners have questions about the integrity of this approach
• A Kingdom Business Professional is a believer serving his or her purpose in any worplace that may or may not be a BAM activity.

A BAM business is a business a real business, a purpose driven business, created and designed by entrepreneurs with the express -purpose of  serving their role to advances the kingdom of God, not to take anything over, but to full fill the great commission (Matt 28 19-20), using the gifts that some believers were given.

A fully grown and balanced  BAM organization has Six defining characteristics:

1.   It makes a profit

2.   It's enterprises engage the world by creating business

3.   It deliberately engages its believing and non believing employees with workplace ministry

4.   It deliberately engages the community where it lives and works as Ambassadors for Christ

5.   It deliberately engages its customers and venders knowing it overtly represents Christ

6.  It deliberately engages the local Body of Christ as a siblings in the body of Christ here on earth.

There are two kinds of BAM Organizations:

a. A Greenfield BAM organization ( a start up owned by believers designed according to BAM principles)

b.  A Brownfiled BAm organization (a business owned by believers started in the traditional way and having been redesigned.

A BAM activity also usually  has Chaplains integrated into workpliace ministrt, and intercessors integrated into the business processes of the company.

• The Lausanne Occasional Paper 54  is a great start to understanding BAM, because the concept is not clearly understood by everyone who is working at it.

 Here are some Great Resources:

• The Business as Mission Network
• The YWAM BAM Center
• The Regent Universiy's Center for Entrepreneurship
• BAM FAQs

BAM Books:

• Great Commission Companies
• God is at Work

I hope this is you jumping-off place. May God make your way straight and clear, and may the seed He planted in you produce a hundred-fold in advancement of God's Kingdom.

Read More

How Small Ministries Can find Partners to Do Big Things- The 755 Network

If a ministry looks at it's calling and resources in three ways,

(1) - Pick one of 7 Categories of how they intend to influence the world for God's kingdom,
(2) - Pick one of  5 areas of  Christian Saturation where they intend to serve, and
(3) - Pick one of  5 roles they are called and willing to play

 the organization can make good decisions about what kinds of work projects they want to engage in, and who they should partner with. If a number of small groups do this together, they become - a 755 network.

A Real Life Case Study:

Banda Ache and the Tsunami

Its January, 2005, Lewisville, Texas, two days after the worst tsunami in living memory devastates the Banda Aceh region of Java, Indonesia. Reporters on the scene said the area resembled pictures of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. Seven waves 75 to 100 feet went 30 miles Inland, contaminating every fresh water source with sea water, debris, and what ever was in the warehouse of several chemical plants that were washed away in the path of the waves. This was also a place that had been closed to the gospel.

A missionary from a nearby region, in Texas on furlough, called a contact in Banda Aceh. “All the drinking water sources are gone” they reported. “Bottled water is being brought in, but it's going to take months to rehabilitate all the water sources. We need a solution now.”

The missionary contacted a small ministry that specializes in drinking water situations in support of mission projects, with water engineers on staff. A kingdom business offered a conference room and computers for the project. An informal project team formed. After an initial assessment, the engineers and contacted another specialty water purification manufacturing ministry in South Carolina that makes equipment that met the Banda Aceh situation needs. Now that the team knows the costs, a large denominational ministry goes about raising the funds. Finally, space is found on an aircraft chartered by a different international NGO that will pick up the equipment and get it sent to Banda Aceh. The missionary goes to South Carolina for training on the equipment, and then leaves for Indonesia to set up and operate the equipment.

This all takes place in about three days.

The project team formed for this project had a missionary, a denominational mission organization, a kingdom business, two small water ministry specialty organizations and an international NGO. As soon as the missionary, now a water purification system operator, joins the water purification systems in Indonesia, the project team is disbanded, and the organizations never worked together again.

This situation shows as emerging partnership model, and suggests a way to create a partnering framework for the next phase of global ministry so that projects like the one above can happen more often. I call it the 755 network.

The 755 Network

In it’s simplest form, the network is made up of many different sizes and kinds of organizations, each of which has identified themselves along three Dimensions:

• Molders of culture ( 7 Parts of the culture the group intends to address-How they intend to serve)
• Waves of gospel saturation (5 progressive waves of Gospel saturation-Where they intend to serve)
• Five Charters (5 Kinds of organizations-What role they serve )

The framework is based on based on observation of what God appears to be doing already, suggesting some additional structure.

Three Dimensions

Each ministry that participates in a 755 network conducts a self-assessment along these three dimensions. They can identify where their ministry organization exists in relation to other members of the network.

The First Dimension: Where does your ministry intend to reach out to influence the culture, wherever in the world you serve? The seven part of the 755 frame work, listed below, appears to have been originally provided by Bill Blass and Loren Cunningham of YWAM and Bill Blass of Campus Crusade for Christ.
• Religion
• Government, Law, medical
• Media
• Family
• Education
• Business
• Arts and Entertainment

The Second Dimension:
Where does your organization’s Ministry Passion focus among these five transformational Waves?
• The first wave is the Seeding wave- Pioneering, possibly Hostile (Somalia)- 2nd Antioch Church; Acts 17, Matt 28:18-20
• The second wave is the Soaking wave- A Foothold is established (Nigeria, China ).Ephesians 6: 4-5
• The third wave is the Spreading wave- Spreading to the entire local area of influence (Fiji, Mexico –The Church at Corinth).
• The fourth wave is the Sharing wave- Sends Missionaries (US, South Korea, South Africa)(First Antioch Church, Acts 14)
• The fifth wave is the Securing wave- The work to reseed countries with declining Christian Influence (Europe, The church At Ephesus).

The Third Dimension:
What gifting and resources has God given your organization, and whom has he called you to serve?
1.  Mission Project Coordinator: God has given you a vision for a specific mission to a specific area, and you may already have a local ministry Partner, but you may not know how to get it done.
2.  Catalyst  has your team done a lot of different projects and have a lot of Contacts but not Workers?
3.  Workers- Does your group do a a lot of mission trips together, are a church looking for a ministry opportunity and you just want to serve?
4.  Resource - Does your group have assets, skills, training, tools, funding, or other resources you want to use?
5.  Local Ministry- Are you a globally local church or ministry with a special need?
This is related to, but not the same as mission project roles we will describe later. For example:

That’s it...

So How to I set up a 755 Network?

Conferences: Picture a conference where conference sponsors send out a short 755 Network questionnaire ahead of time

an example Attendee wears a badge like this:

Name- Orion Banda
African Christian Fellowship International
• Domain – Religion
• Wave – Second Wave-Foothold
• Role- Local Ministry

Or

Name-Jane Smith
Aviation Missions International
• Domain – Across 7 Domains
• Wave - First and Second Wave
• Role – Aviation and technology Specialists

Or

Name: John Doe
Kingdom Travel
• Domain- Across Church, Business, Govt.
• Wave –Specialize in First and Second Wave
• Role- Travel/Visa Specialist

How it can work:

1. Setting up Conferences and inter-ministry events:
You set up conference with 3 sessions, each offered 3 Times:  

-Session 1 For everyone In the Same Domain (religion, government, media, business, etc) 
                 Topic: lets compare best practices
-Session 2 For every Transformation Wave (for example (Europe/North America) together,
                 (Somalia, Pakistan, Japan)
                  Topic: What Ministry Strategies work best in our areas?
- Session  3  For Every Role:  (Local Ministries, Catalysts, Mission Project Coordinators)
                   Topic: How do we reach out to find other small ministries?

Seating at meals is always role cross-functional : 

The networks will develop naturally under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

2.  Setting up a project 

     Using this framework, Like the Banda Aceh Project, a  Mission Project Coordinator and Local Ministry might hunt down a Catalyst who could help them structure their project, point them in the direction of  workers and resources for the project.

3.  Assessing a current Project that may be meeting resistance? 
     What parts of the Framework are missing?

Conclusion

The 755 network is ministry strategy that facilities the partnering of diverse ministries of variable size to work together on mission projects of short to long duration. The network itself can be formal or informal. The frame work works best when an organization member, after assessment, self identifies along three dimensions. Armed with this understanding, they can operate in the network to find the right kinds and quantities of other mission organizations to develop relationships and later to possibly partner with for a mission project.

There will likely be many 755 Networks for different sizes and emphasis, formal and informal of short and long duration. Finally, there are still issues to be explored, including creating partnership agreements and internal conflict resolutions processes.


Next: Now that I have my 755 Network, what's next?

Then: Once a 755 network emerges, How do I manage and grow it?

Lee Royal
Editor, Enterprising Ministry

Read More

WHAT IS BUSINESS AS MISSION?

 A group of global Christian business leaders got together in 2004 and developed an historic working document, the Lusassane Occasional Paper 59 guiding an emerging concept called Business as Mission ( BAM. Luassane leaders recongized that this was different from Tentmaking Some BAM pioneering events and organizations which followed were:

• The YWAM BAM Initiative
• Conferences like the ICBMI and Urbana
•  Global Advance
• The Business as Mission Network
• The Regent Center for Entrepreneurship
• The Break Through To People Network

The first acheivement of the authors of Lusassane Occasional Paper 59 was to define what BAM was, was and what it was not, for clarification purposes.

-Lee Royal

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to briefly clarify a few key terms and
expressions. The descriptions used here are simply to aid us to communicate clearly
and consistently. It is not our aim to create a ‘Business as mission orthodoxy’ or
terminology, or to exclude groups or initiatives that prefer other terms and definitions.

Other expressions commonly used in the movement include ‘transformational
business’, ‘great commission companies’ and ‘kingdom business’. The authors
recognise that in some contexts ‘Business as mission’ is not the most helpful or
preferred term. The expression ‘Business as mission’ itself can be considered a fairly
broad term that encompasses various areas where business and missions connect.
Our terms here are further limited both culturally and linguistically, since this
paper was prepared in English.

We expect alternative expressions to be developed which communicate meaningfully in other languages, and other religious, political and cultural settings. The parameters outlined in this document should beconsidered as a ‘dotted line’ that allows for future change and for anomalies which will force us to reconsider and revise according to the situation and its specific needs.

Business as mission is based on the principle of...HOLISTIC MISSION Holistic mission attempts to bring all aspects of life and godliness into an organic biblical whole. This includes God's concerns for such business related issues as economic development, employment and unemployment, economic justice and the use and distribution of natural and creative resources among the human family.

These are aspects of God’s redemptive work through Jesus Christ and the Church.
Evangelism and social concerns are often still addressed as though they were separate and unrelated from each other. This assumes a divide between what we consider ‘sacred’ or ‘spiritual’ and what we consider ‘secular’ or ‘physical’. The biblical worldview rather is one that promotes an integrated and seamless holistic
view of life. Ministry should not be compartmentalised or fragmented into the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘physical’. Business as mission is an expression of this truly holistic paradigm.

Business is a mission, a calling, a ministry in its own right.

Human activity reflects our divine origin, having been created to be creative, to create good things by good processes, for us to enjoy – with others. Business as mission has a Kingdom of God perspective... KINGDOM BUSINESS

Kingdom businesses start from the theological premise that all Christians have a calling to love and serve God with all of their heart, soul, strength and mind, as well as to love and serve their neighbours. God calls people to work for His kingdom in business just as certainly as He calls people to work in other kinds of
ministry or mission ventures. In this paper, we will often use the term ‘kingdom business’ rather than
‘Business as mission-business’. We recognise the importance of extending God’s kingdom through business in any context. However, we want to highlight the biblical mandate to serve the poor and oppressed, in particular in those areas where the gospel has yet to be received. This will lead us to a focus on cross-cultural activity and should draw our attention to areas of endemic poverty and/or unevangelised communities. We acknowledge that this does not automatically suppose the crossing of international boarders and will be necessary within culturally ‘near’ communities as well.

A function of Business as mission is to act as a catalyst, to inspire and encourage people to get into business and to stay in business, especially in the developing world.

Business as mission is different from but related to...WORKPLACE MINISTRIES

Workplace Ministries are primarily focused on taking the gospel to people where they work, preferably through the witness of co-workers and professional colleagues. These ministries encourage the integration of biblical principles into every aspect of business practice, to the glory of God. Business as mission naturally includes these elements of workplace ministry.

When a workplace ministry is initiated in a business owned by believers to intentionally advance the kingdom of God, there will be substantial overlap.Workplace ministry can choose to limit its focus solely "within" the business context itself. Business as mission is focused both "within" and "through" the business. It seeks to harness the power and resource of business for intentional mission impact in the community or nation at large. Workplace ministry may occur in any setting.

However, Business as mission is intentional about the "to all peoples" mandate, and seeks out areas with the greatest spiritual and physical needs.

Business as mission is different from but related to...TENTMAKING

"Tentmaking" refers principally to the practice of Christian professionals, who support themselves financially by working as employees or by engaging in business. In this way they are able to conduct their ministries without depending upon donors and without burdening the people they serve. Tentmaking infers the integration of work and witness, with an emphasis on encouraging evangelism by lay Christians
rather than clergy and ministry professionals. Where tentmakers are part of business ventures that facilitate their mission goals, there is substantial overlap with Business as mission. However, although a tentmaker might be a part of a business, the business itself might not be an integral part of the ministry as it is with Business as mission. Business as mission sees business both as the medium and the message. Business as mission most often involves ‘job-making’ as an integral part of its mission. Tentmaking may involve this, but is more often simply about ‘job-taking’ – taking up employment somewhere in
order to facilitate ministry.

Business as mission is different from...BUSINESS FOR MISSIONS

Profits from business can be donated to support missions and ministries. This is different from Business as mission. One might call this business for missions, using business ventures to fund other kinds of ministry. We recognise that profit from a business can be used to support “missions” and that this is good and valid. Likewise employees can use some of their salary to give to charitable causes. While this should be encouraged, none of us would like to be operated on by a surgeon whose only ambition is to make money to give to the church! Instead we expect he has the right skills and drive to operate with excellence, doing his job with full professional integrity. Likewise a Business as mission-business must produce more than goods and services in order to generate new wealth. It seeks to fulfil God’s kingdom purposes and values through every aspect of its operations. A 'business for mission' concept can limit business and business people to a role of funding the 'real ministry'. While funding is an important function, Business as mission is about forprofit
businesses that have a kingdom focus.

Business as mission does not condone...NON-BUSINESSES AND NONMISSIONS

Two approaches to business that do not come within the scope of ‘Business as mission’ by any definition are:

• (1) Fake businesses that are not actually functioning businesses, but exist solely to provide visas for missionaries to enter countries otherwise closed to them.
• (2) Businesses that purport to have Christian motivations but which operate only for private economic advantage and not for the kingdom of God. Neither do we mean businesses run by Christians with no clear and defined kingdom strategy in place.

Business as mission pursues...PROFIT

Business must be financially sustainable, producing goods or services that people are willing to pay for. Sustainability implies that the activity is profitable. Profits are an essential element of all businesses, in all cultures. Without profit the business cannot survive and fulfil its purpose. Accordingly, Business as mission - businesses are real business that genuinely exist to generate wealth and profits. Business as mission does not view profits as inherently evil, bad or unbiblical. Quite the contrary, profits are good, desired and beneficial to God and His purposes, as long as they are:

• not oppressive,
• or derived from gouging customers
• or selling products and service that do no honour Christ and His gospel.

Temporary subsidies may be utilised to establish a Business as mission initiative. Permanent subsidies or financial support without expectation of ultimate profitability are closer to charitable or donor-based ministries than Business as mission based ministries.

The business of business is business. And the business of Business as mission is business with a kingdom of God purpose and perspective.

Business as mission comes in all...SHAPES AND SIZES

The methodologies, as well as the business and ministry strategies used, will be creatively diverse, just as God created us in infinite variety. Does the size of the business matter? Yes and No! Christian micro-enterprise programmes exist that help provide necessary income for families and individuals resulting in community development, churches being planted and discipleship taking place. In short, Christian micro-enterprise development has been well accepted and is highly effective for the kingdom. A significant body of work already exists dedicated to it. It has a legitimate place in the broader definition and practice of Business as mission.

However, our focus will be on larger scale business, where there has been a comparative lack of attention. If we are to tackle the enormity of the challenge before us we need to think and act bigger, beyond micro to small, medium and large size businesses.

The Russian Mafia also creates jobs and gives people a chance to earn money. Creating jobs and earning money is not an end in itself. Work and business are ordained by God. Work is a human and divine activity providing a means to support our families and to contribute to the positive development of our communities
and countries. However, Business as mission is not a Christianised job creation scheme. The goal is not simply about making people materially better off. Business as mission is actively praying and incarnating Jesus’ prayer: “May your kingdom come, may your will be done” even in the marketplace. The real bottom line of Business as mission is “ad maiorem Dei gloriam”, for the greater glory of God.

Laussane Occasional Paper 59. Section 1. you can see the entirer 88 Page document here.







Editor

Read More

Tent Makers Are Alive and Well

Originbally published
Sunday, November 01 2009

For Stuart Hake, his personal venture into missions has been mind-bending.

“I’ve come to recognize that much of our thinking about mission has been influenced by Greek thinking—that spiritual is superior to physical,” he says. “The problem with that is it is not biblical. We base so much of what we do on an unbiblical concept.”


Stuart and Debbie HakeIn the summer of 2008, Stuart and his wife, Debby, left their comfortable life in northern Indiana and moved to Bangkok, Thailand. He had spent the previous 12 years as chief financial officer at Grace Brethren International Missions (GBIM). She had a successful career teaching disabled children in the local public school system. Their three children were grown and settled in careers or families of their own.

“I’m recognizing I have only so many years left in my life where I can invest my life for the kingdom,” says Stuart.

In Bangkok, his focus has been to explore business as mission, a concept that encourages economic development at the local level, providing support for the physical needs of the indigenous people while teaching them about Jesus. It’s a biblical mandate that seemed largely forgotten throughout much of the 20th Century and only in recent years has been re-invigorated as thousands of Christian workers around the world strive to share God’s love with the poorest of the poor while helping them learn to support themselves.

The Hakes are virtually self-supporting, needing to raise only about a third of the support a traditional missionary must raise. Though sent by their home congregation, the Winona Lake (Ind.) Grace Brethren Church (Bruce Barlow, lead pastor), Debby joined the staff of the International Community School to help with their support. (The English-speaking school uses biblical principles in their teaching methodology.)

“It’s demeaning to the people we are working with to assume they are needy and we’re not,” Stuart stresses. He feels it leads to an attitude of superiority on the part of the missionary, even if unintentional. “Let’s find out what assets they (the nationals) have,” he adds. “That doesn’t mean we don’t want to assist; we just don’t want to cripple them by doing things they can do for themselves.”

Wayne Hannah, who travels regularly in Asia as the GBIM director for that region, sees business-as-mission as “planting uniquely cultivated, contextualized seeds.”

“We kept bumping up against a cultural glass ceiling,” he remembers. To develop a ministry among many of the unreached people groups was difficult. “We couldn’t go further. There were cultural, linguistic, and economic barriers.”

He also notes that those who study church-planting movements say that to the extent that a people depend upon a subsidy from the west, there is an inverse correlation, to that extent they will not likely reach their own people with the gospel.

“We need to encourage enterprise on a small scale to help the nationals subsidize themselves,” he recognizes. “When that happens, stand aside. When they take ownership, you see that God can empower them to reach their own people.”

Stuart has spent the last year analyzing the region to determine what methods fit best in GBIM’s ministries in Southeast Asia. Soon there will be nearly 12 staff members who will have some role in holistic or benevolence ministries and businesses in the region, according to Wayne, who has overseen missions in Asia for 14 years. He hopes to take the concept of holistic missions throughout Asia.

“It’s a way to approach a country and reach the least reached,” Wayne says. “Without it, the national church will never take full ownership to reach their own people.”

Stuart hopes to play a role in one of four ways—as a consultant with enterprises created by missionaries to work with local people; to mentor interns or students coming to Southeast Asia to learn or study; to be a catalyst for business as mission while promoting the concept in U.S. churches and with business people or pastors; and possibly working as a professional manager in an existing business in the region.

The recent economic downturn has only emboldened Stuart in his quest. “People are seeking help,” he says. “We need to be positioned to help people in all aspects of their lives.”

(Editor’s Note: If you would like to help Stuart and Debby Hake in their unique mission, contact them at sahake@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .)

The Rest @ FBGC World









LeeRoyal

Read More