Transformation Starts Here
Business as Mission. As a name for a mission movement, it certainly has caught on... Many prefer other terms such as 'kingdom business', 'business for transformation' or 'business as ministry'. As we have discovered over the last 10 years, at the heart it is simply business. But it is business done by people who are dedicating themselves to God and allowing Him to bring change in their own lives… and as they do that, transformation begins to happen around them.
What is getting business people involved? In this Issue we look at some of the ways business people are directly making a difference and some of the barriers that still stand in the way. Entrepreneurs on Mission
Mark Russell
There comes a day when we sit back and ask ourselves what we are going to do with our lives. In a sense, I am still asking myself that question. But many years ago I felt a nudge, a call if you will, to spend time in cross-cultural contexts advancing the gospel. At the time, I had no idea what that entailed. The only role models I had to look to were the missionaries I had met in Paraguay. They were either medical doctors or preachers. As a business student, it seemed I would have to leave behind my business interests and develop a new set of skills.
A few years into my overseas ministry, I began to ask myself some new questions about why couldn’t one be a businessperson and a kingdom builder at the same time. At the time I was working in a traditional missionary setting, but quickly found that a lot of people resonated with my search to integrate business and mission. Later, I realized that people all over the world were working independently to the same end. It seems God is up to something.
Over the years, as I have worked in various business as mission activities and talked to many others who have been likewise engaged, two points have emerged as worthy of examination.
First, Westerners tend to live according to categories that are not always beneficial. This tendency is not limited to Westerners but is expressed more strongly there. This is the sort of categorization that leads us to designate one person a “missionary” and another person as not. Second, we have troubling definitions of what it means to be engaged in mission. My Business, My Mission
Making Connections, Making a Difference
There have been some great books published on business as mission in the last year – some great books giving foundations, biblical basis, step by step how-tos, model cases and much more. My Business, My Mission, also published last year, is a wonderful complement to these. Written by Doug Seebeck, Executive Director of Partners Worldwide and co-author Timothy Stoner, My Business, My Mission tells the stories of the cross-cultural partnerships nurtured through the work of Partners Worldwide. These are stories of lives changed and poverty defeated through sustainable business. This is a book which looks full in the face of transformation through business and it is stirring stuff!
I had the privilege of chatting with Doug Seebeck about some of the themes that jump out of the book. These are themes that resonate in the wider marketplace ministry and business as mission movement and are significant for all of us:
The ongoing need for affirmation and mobilisation
My Business, My Mission tells the story of business people from diverse backgrounds, from Haiti, Kenya, North America, Nicaragua, Zambia, Uganda and the Philippines, and over and over again there is a breakthrough moment. Doug Seebeck describes it this way “When business people ‘get it’ – that God wants them to be the way they are, to be these entrepreneurs, that God wired them to be the way they are and that they are exactly where he wants them to be... It’s like a celebration and they begin to live differently and they do their business differently”.
Financier to the PoorA Ugandan Entrepreneur
Timothy Jokkene is irrefutable proof that even in the most inhospitable economic climate there is hope. That economic climate is northern Uganda, where anecdotal estimates place unemployment near 80 percent. Through a variety of business ventures, Timothy enables start-ups, creates jobs, provides cattle and plows for the impoverished, and cared for hundreds of orphans. The road to becoming a financier to the poor, however, was far from easy.
Lessons from the Edge
Insights from a BAM Practitioner
Design it to survive without you
To survive and win in what you are doing, include the locals as much as possible. Set it up so that if you had to step away, it would continue to be fruitful. Work to release others, train them up and let them go - you will see a multiplication of the Kingdom beyond your imagination.
Keep an open hand
Even though you work hard and completely own and lead what you are doing, keep open, keep it 'handed over' to God. The pressures of doing business as mission are significant, but we have learned to lay everything at God's feet. I can sleep at night - even when I don't know which way it will go, even when it could all come down - because I am ready to let go and trust God with it.
Never give up
Don't give up on the dream that God laid on your heart to do or the calling he gave you, He will make a way. I have experienced many times the removal of an opportunity, only to be given a greater one. God is faithful, I may not understand all the pieces, but when God says he will do something, He will do it. Let God lead you.
Rob has been an entrepreneur in China for over 15 years. |
Issue 2 June June 2010
