Business as Mission

Latest News and Events

The Impact of 'iBAM Impact'

The first iBAM Impact was held in November 2011 in Denver, Colorado. This 3 day business as mission conference delivered some of the best content of the iBAM Courses in an intensive format. There are a number of marketplace ministries conferences out there, helping business people to integrate their faith into their business life. However, the iBAM Impact course has a unique dimension, focusing on business for Kingdom impact not only within your own company, but also in the community and among the least reached and most needy communities, to the ends of the earth. iBAM Impact is for those who are exploring doing business as mission, and who are looking for next steps.

Here are a few comments from 2011 attendees:

“The iBAM Conference was excellent.  It was a great balance of biblical foundation, business philosophy, and practical resourcing". Ryan

"Great training. An opportunity for a Christian business person to be surrounded by other Christian business people and worship together, learn together and be encouraged to join Jesus in a radical opportunity to be transformational through business."  Kathy

"More than just a Business as Mission Seminar, this content teaches a whole-life view of mission endeavour that everyone desiring to serve in an authentic way can benefit from." Bill

"The seminar not only gave me a solid foundation for business as mission but also gave the affirmation of my personal conviction and direction as to how I could pursue business as mission." James

The next iBAM Impact 3 day event will be held in Charlotte, USA in September 2012.  More iBAM Impact Course details.

Historic Business as Mission Event in India

The Call2Business team share this encouraging testimony from an attendee at the recent Call2Business event in Hyderabad, India: "Through our involvement in equipping and mobilizing a growing church-planting movement in India, it's become clear that business generation is critical to self-sustainability of the rural church. Our first two years of work in this direction have been slow and yielded little. The Call2Business conference in Hyderabad probably pushed our work ahead five years at least, in terms of the networks and contacts we developed, and the teaching and encouragement we received. Through this conference we have new relationships with brothers and sisters who are ahead of us in this effort and who are willing to walk together with us as we learn. What a huge encouragement!”

Mike Brian, one of the host committee members earlier shared how this event is significant for the business as mission movement in India "This Call2Business event has given us not only a unique opportunity to bring together Christian business networks, but also to ask ourselves how are we going to collaborate and encourage others in their call to business into the future. There is an emerging generation of Christian entrepreneurs in India and we have an opportunity to expose them to what God is doing in our nation and around the world through business. I am excited by the possibility that this not just about one event that comes and goes, but with God as our helper we can continue to partner together.  Working together we are positioned to take up the task of encouraging, mentoring and connecting in an Indian context, so that the next generation will catch this vision for business as mission."  Read more about it here. We will be continuing to report on what happened and write up articles and case studies of business as mission in India. You can follow us on Twitter or Facebook or subscribe to our quarterly e.zine here.

iBAM 2011 Course: Revolutionizing Thinking!

We are excited by all that God has done amongst us as we get ready for the iBAM Prepare graduation tomorrow! In all 28 students have gone through the iBAM Explore and Prepare Courses this year in Chiang Mai, getting ready to more effectively engage in business as mission. Here is what one participant said about his experience:

"I’ve been interested in business most of my life, but I have felt a call to mission too.  I thought should become a missionary or pastor in the traditional sense, but I didn’t really want to! I began to see that I could serve God in business and started my own company in 2007. As an entrepreneur iBAM has brought a greater freedom to me and affirmed that I can really fulfill God’s calling on my life through business. It helped me externalize the concepts that I had begun to think about and understand them better. iBAM has revolutionised my thinking about business as mission so that I will have a much more integrated approach to my business"

We are now taking registrations for the November 2011 iBAM Impact USA and February 2012 iBAM Explore/Prepare Courses in Thailand. Jump to Next Course Details.

COMIBAM embraces Business as Mission

 “In order to serve the Iberoamerican missions community, and the peoples they are seeking to reach, COMIBAM (the Ibero-American Missions Cooperation) must stay fresh, aware and connected with current issues, trends and opportunities,” says Decio de Carvalho, COMIBAM’s Executive Director.

With that in mind, de Carvalho initiated a dialogue on the subject of Business as Mission in early 2010, which culminated with a BAM consultation in Panama in mid-March 2011. COMIBAM leaders, as well as leaders from both the business and missions arenas were involved in the discussions concerning COMIBAM’s role in catalyzing a BAM movement from within the Iberoamerican missions community. “BAM is certainly a huge area of missions that we need to learn more about, get involved in, and help to equip and facilitate those God is calling from among us as BAMers,” affirms de Carvalho.

“A growing number of missionaries from the region are running successful BAM enterprises in many countries, especially in restricted-access contexts and sub-Saharan Africa,” says João Mordomo, coordinator of COMIBAM’s BAM initiative. Mats Tunehag confirms, "Business as Mission is not new to Latin America." Tunehag was involved in the Consultation in his capacity as the Lausanne Senior Associate on Business as Mission and will continue to serve as an advisor. 

COMIBAM was established about 25 years ago to bring together mission agencies, denominational missions departments, churches, training centers and other entities involved in the Great Commission. Currently 25 national entities, representing all of Latin America, the Spanish speaking Caribbean, the Hispanics of the USA and Canada, and Spain and Portugal, form COMIBAM International.

Got a news item or event?  Tell us about it