Recommended Reading

Business as Mission

A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice

C. Neal Johnson   Inter-Varsity Press, January 2010

 

Business as mission (BAM) is a mission strategy whose time has come. But Christian companies and business leaders do not automatically accomplish missional purposes. BAM requires mastery of both the world of business and the world of missions, merging and contextualizing both into something significantly different than either alone. C. Neal Johnson offers the first comprehensive guide to business as mission for practitioners. He provides conceptual foundations for understanding BAM's unique place in global mission and prerequisites for engaging in it. Then he offers practical resources for how to do BAM, including strategic planning and step-by-step operational implementation. Drawing on a wide variety of BAM models, Johnson works through details of both mission and business realities, with an eye to such issues as management, sustainability and accountability.  More book information

 

My Business, My Mission

Fighting Poverty Through Partnerships

Doug Seebeck and Timothy Stoner   CRC Publications, 2009

 

My Business, My Mission tells the story of a movement that is changing the lives of tens of thousands of people in the most impoverished nations on earth. It is also transforming business people in the northern and southern hemispheres by exposing them to a revolutionary paradigm: the idea that God has called them into mission through business. Through the work of a remarkable organization called Partners Worldwide, North American businesspeople and entrepreneurs in developing countries are joining together to fight poverty. Their mission is simple: to expand their businesses, create wealth, and provide jobs for the poor in Christ's name.

 

Merchant to Romania

Business as Missions in Post-Communist Eastern Europe

Jeri Little   DayOne Publications, 2009

 

The year 1989 saw the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. In Romania, a bloody revolution toppled dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, ending with his execution. Following these dramatic events, Jeri Little, a young entrepreneur from the white-collar business world of Orange County, California, felt the Lord was calling him to move to Romania to use his business skills in missions. This is Jeri's amazing account of how the Lord has used Church Resource Ministries to birth a variety of business enterprises in Romania. This revealing narrative is laced with cultural and historical insights as Jeri describes each small step of faith in his journey towards establishing 'businesses as missions' in the former Communist bloc. This is a gripping tale of how God has used business in Eastern Europe as a vehicle for reaching people with the good news of Jesus.

 

God is at Work

Transforming People and Nations Through Business

Kenneth A. Eldred   Regal Books, 2005

There is an important role for Christian business people in effecting real change in developing countries, and many are already taking up the mantle. They are pursuing Kingdom business, for-profit business ventures designed to facilitate the transformation of people and nations. God is at Work deals with this emerging missions movement, one in which Christians are meeting significant spiritual and economic needs in the developing world. Learn why Christian business people are uniquely equipped to address poverty, a disease that afflicts many millions around the world. Discover the colorful two thousand year history of business as a missions vehicle. Meet those engaged in exciting Kingdom business ventures today even in areas mostly closed to the gospel. This book is a must read for Kingdom-minded business people, development workers, pastors, missionaries, students, in short, for anyone who wants to see God at work transforming the world.

 

Great Commission Companies

The Emerging Role of Business in Mission

Steve Rundle and Tom Steffen   InterVarsity Press, 2003

 

In recent decades global missions have been revolutionized by such movements as microenterprise development efforts and tentmaking professionals working in restricted access countries. But little has yet been said about the new missions opportunities created by today's globalized economy. Nor has much been documented about the role that corporations and businesses can have in the missionary enterprise. Economist Steve Rundle and missiologist Tom Steffen offer a new paradigm for the convergence of business and missions - the Great Commission Company.

 

Business as Mission

The Power of Business in the Kingdom of God
Michael R. Baer   YWAM Publishing, 2006 

 

Like never before, Christian business leaders have the chance to play a pivotal role in transforming society and spreading the gospel. But seizing this opportunity requires thinking differently about God, about his kingdom, about his purposes in the world, and about business. In this book, Mike Baer rejects the unbiblical thinking that ministry and business are by definition separate activities - that our lives can be compartmentalized into the sacred and secular. Instead he guides business leaders in developing the vital characteristics of a kingdom business - the kind of business that will free them live fully integrated lives and lead organizations that significantly impact the world.

 

On Kingdom Business

Transforming Missions Through Entrepreneurial Strategies
Ted Yamamori and Kenneth A. Eldred (Eds)   Crossway Books, 2003

 

On Kingdom Business proposes a new model for using business in missions: kingdom entrepreneurship. Kingdom entrepreneurs are "job-makers," starting for-profit businesses of all sizes--real businesses that meet real needs. This book provides a conceptual foundation for kingdom entrepreneurship and explores its contemporary development using case studies of kingdom businesses and reflecting on the lessons kingdom entrepreneurs have already learned.

 

Business for the Glory of God

The Bible's Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business

Wayne Grudem   Crossway, 2003

 

Can business activity in itself be morally good and pleasing to God? Sometimes business can seem so shady-manipulating the "bottom line," deceiving the consumer, or gaining promotions because of whom you know. Wayne Grudem introduces a novel concept: business itself glorifies God when it is conducted in a way that imitates God's character and creation. He shows that all aspects of business, including ownership, profit, money, competition, and borrowing and lending, glorify God because they are reflective of God's nature. This biblically based book is a thoughtful guide to imitating God during interactions with customers, coworkers, employees, and other businesses. See how your business, and your life in business, can be dedicated to God's glory.

 

Where There Are No Jobs

Enterprise solutions for Employment and 'Public Goods' for the Poor

David Befus    Latin American Mission, 2005

 

People are expected to work to be able to earn their daily bread. But in a world with increasing levels of unemployment, it gets harder every day to find work. This book presents a variety of methodologies to respond to this need, and explains how the promotion of productive economic activity contributes to the health of communities. Governments and international agencies need to recognize that productive economic activity is one of many tools for social transformation. Economic development should be added to the "community toolbox," along with health, education, and other traditional social promotion disciplines.

 

Business as Mission

From Impoverished to Empowered 
Tom Steffen and Mike Barnett (Eds)   William Carey Library, 2006 

 

In 2005 the Evangelical Missiological Society devoted their regional and annual conferences to the subject of Business as Mission. This book is a collection of resulting essays on this subject. "To put it bluntly," wrote Doug Pennoyer, President of EMS, when announcing the call for BAM papers, "Business as mission (BAM) is a work in progress. It is a field that needs definition, theological clarity, and missiological focus... While this volume will certainly not bring total clarity to the topic, it will provide some needed definition and precision while at the same time identify areas that will demand further discussion, clarification, and maturity.

 

Tentmaking

Business as Missions
Patrick Lai    Authentic Media, 2005

 

Those who are unfamiliar with the world of tentmaking will find valuable information to introduce them to the concept and to help in getting started. Designed to be a manual, Tentmaking is more than just an overview of questions and issues. This work will serve as an in-depth reference for existing tentmakers. This thoroughly researched collection is the result of interviews from over 450 people serving in the 10/40 window. It provides a unique viewpoint on missions, sharing proven, workable alternatives to conventional missionary life.

 

Transformation

Change the Marketplace and You Change the World

Ed Silvoso   Regal Books, 2007

 

God loves us and has a unique blueprint for our life but it is up to us to find it and live it out. Mingling contemporary stories and biblical anecdotes with practical advice, Silvoso shows how God intervenes in human affairs today to transform people and nations. He also shares five critical paradigms for transformation that are pivotal for change: Discipling Nations, Reclaiming the Marketplace, Looking at Work as Worship, Becoming Salt and Light, and Eliminating Poverty. In these pages, readers will find extraordinary stories about the power of God working through those who discovered their specific purpose. Then, they'll be challenged to transform themselves and, by doing so, transform their families, schools, businesses and nations.

 

The Galtronics Story

William Goheen   Wipf & Stock, 2004

Can you imagine millions of acres of grain ripened for the harvest with thousands of laborers seeking to gather in the crop by hand? What would happen if a large shipment of combines were suddenly delivered? We know the grain ripe unto harvest represents those in several thousand people, ethnic, and language groups who have not yet heard the Gospel message. But what if those combines were businesses that could be used as vehicles and platforms for building relationships? Galtronics is one such business and its story will both encourage and enlighten you as to how a man and a woman turned an idea into a global business for the express purpose of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By the time you finish reading this book you will better understand the potential of using your profession and/or business as a great combine to bring in the harvest.

 

Profit for the Lord

Economic Activities in Moravian Missions and the Basel Mission Trading Company

William J. Danker    Wipf & Stock, 2002

 

Danker's informative book is a study of the Moravians and the Basel Mission Trading Company, particularly on the economic structures they created to support their mission work.  The author contends that the Church's ministry in the world must  include ministry to man's economic needs and hopes that it will "help free Christians on mission frontiers on all six continents to find the forms that will carry out the tentmaking mission of the Church in the marketplace today."

 

The Old Testament Template

Rediscovering God's Principles for Discipling All Nations
Landa Cope   The Template Insititute Press, 2006

 

Are you wondering why the Christian faith has become weak and ineffectual in dealing with issues of politics, economics, the family and daily issues of life? What do we do to restore the power of the gospel to change lives and communities as it has done in history? Landa Cope takes the Bible as the template and leads us to rediscover how we disciple our communities and nations, including in the area of economic development. Throughout history, people of faith have thought and acted in ways that influenced communities and nations. This book calls us back to the Biblical thinking that we need to address the issues of the 21st century in an effective and redemptive way.  Read online.

 

Working Your Way to the Nations

A Guide to Effective Tentmaking
Jonathan Lewis (Ed)   Inter-Varsity Press, 1997

A study guide that will help you personally prepare to go cross-culturally in a profession or business - to be a 'tentmaker' or get involved in business as mission. Tentmaking is a subject of strategic importance to world evangelisation. The concept is biblical, historical precedents abound, and today’s missionary context demands it. This book will fill a gap in the area since it provides a collection of essays on effective tentmaking by experienced and knowledgeable missions specialists from around the world.  Download free English, Portugese, Spanish, Korean and Arabic versions.

 

 

 

 

 

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