Church - Work Word TripUps Create Barriers

Here are some terminology that subtly reveals some pastor's view of the workplace. Really, its a double entendre  "Reach out and redeem your work."
Workplace Ministry as an Out Reach.

The term outreach implies that any activity the church undertakes is to reach out of it's ideal, cloistered atmosphere, and retrieve people from the workplace, bringing them into the church.

While this may be a helpful term to church program developers, to business people it suggests a generation old concept that creates passive Christians in the workplace. It suggests that if you meet someone at work and convince them to go to your church, you have accomplished your church ministry, and you need to get back to the safety of the flock as quickly as you can. Your church staff will "minister" to those to whom you have reached out. After a rest from that "scary" place out "there, those not in full time ministry must run out to the battlefront, and "rescue the perishing." We are the Medics, running to pick up the wounded and bring them back. We can't stay too long, or we may be contaminated.

Redeem Your Workplace

Another phrase that suggests that the workplace by nature is corrupt, is "redeeming the workplace"
 google Redeeming the workplace, you will see a world of people believe that the workplace is a filthy, corrupt place, inherently evil, no matter who works there.  For example, the central question in one conference is "How can I enter a workplace that is less than ideal and redeem it and bring joy to it?

Sometimes Pastors misunderstand the passion of  those called to workplace ministry, because they cannot imagine having a Passion for the workplace.  You see, God brings deep joy to those of us called to workplace ministry when we are up to our necks in work, with people in need all around us; employees, team members, managers, bosses, vendors, customers, people in need everywhere. They would loose their deep joy if we had to labor as a pastor, outside of work dealing with marriages, divorces, family situations, it would drain our passion, steal our joy.

But it gives pastors deep joy to do the work in the context of the church.
Full-Time Ministry

This suggests that only those who serve on the staff of a church are in ministry. The implications is that part time ministry is leading a small group of church member, or serving on a church committee as a volunteer.

Business Ministers, How many times have you heard when interviewing a job candidate. "I am happy to work here for now, but I'm looking for a job in full-time ministry. " This position, dropped with a hint of condescension, seems to say to us that the victim is willing to wait in purgatory until the Lord shows them mercy.

Believer, if this is your view of your role at work, please listen to a cry from  my heart to yours:

Join me in enterprising ministry.

I'm in full time ministry now, where every I am, Including my workplace. If you come to work here,

• Please don't rent your boss your time, by the hour, to subsidize your church volunteer activities.
• Don't be that distant Christian at work, interacting with people like you're under siege.
• Your joyless, passionless efforts make believing in Jesus unattractive.
• You make my job as a minister at work harder ever time you avoid a chance to serve on a committee at work and do just enough work to get by.

Join in, serving your Master, right now, wherever you are at work.

• Who among your peers, your customers, your suppliers, your bosses are lost, or are prodigal?
• Do you pray for them, care for them?
• Do you look for opportunities to demonstrate Christ's love?
• Do you care enough about them to let your work be credible to them so you can earn the right to be heard?

I invite you to join me in full-time ministry at work, if God has called you there. If not, pray that God will find a way to bring  you to a place of service that gives you the deepest joy, so that you add to God's Kingdom and don't detract from it.

In the mean time, right now, right where you are, God calls you to Full-Time Ministry. Join me there.





Lee Royal

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BAM Survey Conclusions Still Relevant

What follows below my comments is an excerpt from a 2007 BAM Study from Kervin Ring's site. The survey sample size was a bit small (497 people in 38 countries), but the conclusions remain useful. It appears that, at the time of the survey, at least among survey participants, 10% may have been involved in "creative access" business ventures, and that the remaining 90% had a significant negative response to those who engage in creative access business.

It is  a personal observation that now, three years later, most "creative aceess" ventures have either failed or become transparent. The premise of these ventures were flawed, and reflected a lack of understanding of kingdom business culture by traditional ministry leaders. In essence, asking God to bless a creative access business is no less a problem than a violation of the James 4:3 warning: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."  it might read "When you ask (pray) you do not recieve because you ask with the wrong motives, a motive to lie about who you are."  A "watcher" in a "creative access" target country woud say:

• " a goat that pretends to be a sheep may some day be a snake pretending to be a sheep. Once a pretender, always a pretender. Nothing he says can be trusted."

Next, I agree with the following survey premise that Commercial Function, licitness, and management oversight are hallmarks of a genuine business as mission enterprise, or enterpising ministry. Without these key ellements, registering a business in a limited access country becomes a sham, unworthy to be associated with the name of Jesus, destructive of genuine evangalistic activity.

Tom Sudyk stated it more simply and starkly one day while he helped us review some business we were planning.

"If there's no Profit, There's No Business"

I agree.








Lee Royal


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(the Survey Summary)

In order for Business as Mission objectives to drive the strategic management of BAM companies, the structure of a BAM company must align with those objectives.

Different strategies that integrate business activities with ministry efforts hold to different principles on how a business should operate. How each of these principles is manifest within a business is a subject of much debate. Core principles such as operating with integrity and honesty are universally accepted as important to Christians in business. However, research shows that three key considerations regarding [1] structure (commercial function) [2], licitness[3], and management oversight) are not universally accepted as vital elements of Business as Mission (Exhibit 5).

• Nearly 10 percent of respondents do not think that commercial function and legal structure are vital for Business as Mission. (5.1 and 5.2)
• One out of four respondents expressed no opinion about whether an advisory board is a vital element of a BAM business. (5.3)

Management Considerations

• Aspects of corporate structure (licitness and commercial function) are recognized by 77 percent of respondents as important elements of BAM companies.
• Both licitness and commercial function are considered to strongly influence a business’s ability to make a profit. Both also influence evangelism efforts and focus on the developing world.
• A BAM company’s commercial function influences that company’s role in building the local economy.

Implication:
These results highlight the important role that a Business as Mission company plays in its marketplace and host country. Honoring the laws of a host country and offering a valuable product/service create legitimacy, which puts the business in a position of influence allowing it to achieve its goals.

• Commercial function has a negative correlation with providing access to countries.

Implication:
the negative correlation between "Is a commercial enterprise" and "Provides access to many locations" may be a result of skepticism that has been created by missionaries that have taken advantage of countries’ openness to gain access with no intention of pursuing successful business.

• Simply using BAM to gain access is contrary to legitimate market activities and as a result, associating BAM with creative access has a negative connotation.

Management oversight

• Survey respondents heavily favor Management participation in discipling and accountability relationships (87 percent).
•  Additionally, 68 percent agree that BAM companies should have an advisory board.

Results indicate that the primary influence of these two types of management support is on the company’s evangelism efforts and focus on the developing world.

Implication
There is a general belief that support at the management level is valuable; however, this support is focused on the missional aspects of the company.

• The fact that respondents are doubtful of partnering with social service agencies and that management oversight does not have a perceived contribution to a company’s ability to make a profit, points to an inclination with BAM operators to hold back from engaging outsiders.

Whether this is a result of their entrepreneurial nature, a byproduct of the sacred/secular divide, or a reaction to unrealistic demands placed on BAM operators by people with very little at stake, if the BAM movement can find an acceptable way of engaging outside support, it would greatly increase the impact BAM has.

Sustainability

Sustainability is considered a highly important aspect of Business as Mission, with over 85 percent of respondents agreeing that

• Net profitability of the organization,
• Growth in capital base for future development of kingdom businesses,
• Development of a succession plan are valuable elements.

Respondents correlate net profitability with the ability to build the local economy and to bless the nation.
Respondents also believe that developing a succession plan facilitates the ability to evangelize and the focus on the developing world.

Implication:
in order to have a lasting impact, BAM companies must be able to survive.

Additionally, given the dynamic environments in which these companies operate, it is important for BAM operators to plan for the long term. Considering that company leadership largely determines the mission strategy of a BAM company, a key area of concern is planning for transitions in leadership in such a way the preserves the company’s focus on its ministry.
All three aspects of sustainability are negatively correlated with the goal of gaining access through Business as Mission.
Implication: these results also highlight the association with creative access and spurious business efforts, since sustainability is not a key area of concern for illegitimate businesses.

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[1] The survey data is not robust enough to draw inferences about the nature of such links; however, it does point to the possibility of their existence. Further study of such correlations is important for helping to address the complexities of Business as Mission.

[2] Commercial function refers to the role a company plays in the marketplace, specifically the activities of providing goods and services and may involve financial, commercial, and industrial aspects. (Exhibit 5.1)

[3] Licitness refers to conformity to the applicable provisions of the laws of the countries of operation of a company. (Exhibit 5.2)
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The Rest @ Kingdom Strategist

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