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Being More Effective in Business as Mission
Business as mission is a very good strategy under many circumstances, with infinite models and applications. However, I believe we are missing out when we think about business only in terms of a particular strategy. We need to think bigger about business. What does God say about business? What were his intentions when he made enterprise part of his design for human society? I believe understanding this is a key to releasing the power of business for God’s kingdom... Read More
By: Barbara Thau
Jessica King, 37, has been shopping at the Ten Thousand Villages store near Lancaster, Pa., since she was in grade school. She remembers her mother buying gifts like note cards, candles and soaps at the fair-trade retailer, which sells handmade merchandise crafted by artisans in developing and impoverished countries.
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Partners Worldwide - January eNews
Winding through the labyrinth of shops, the beams and walls of one store are draped in colorful lapas and used clothes. Kebeh Sumo emerges from the dimly lit interior of the shop and introduces herself. She explains she is in the midst of repaying her second business loan this year.
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Reversing Babel
By: Katherine Britton, Crosswalk.com News & Culture Editor
Coca-Cola created a cultural meme of epic proportions with a TV spot in 1971. You've probably heard it. The brand jingle "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" met such popular appeal that it merited a full song minus the Coke references. The New Seekers took their happy song high on the Billboard Hot 100 that same year, as people sang along with the hilltop melody. In case you've forgotten the original jingle, a few sample verses ... read more
Issue 8, December 2011
Featured Articles:
Events and Courses
Featured Resources
The Spice of Life
Turbocam India
Embracing the Call to Business
Daniel in the Lions Den
Lessons from the Edge
BAM in a Box:
Accelerating the Impact of Business as Mission
By: Mats Tunehag
One can identify 3 essential activities which have helped to catalyze and grow the global Business as Mission (BAM) movement: 1. Developing the concept, 2. Spreading the concept and 3. Applying the concept.
Of course one cannot credit just one book, event, person or organisation with the current interest in Business as Mission amongst Christians today. BAM is a Biblical concept and thus as old as the foundational stories of creation. It is based on theology and anthropology; who God is and what he does, and who we are as human beings and what we are called to do. Good and godly principles of work and value added processes are found in the first chapters of the book of Genesis. God has used women and men throughout history to serve God and nations in and through business.
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Bribe-busting Bill
In India, where corruption costs the public and private sectors millions of dollars a year, demands for petty bribes are frequently signaled in code: "Take care of me" or, for a two-note handout, "Make Gandhi smile twice." Illegal demands by police and bureaucrats are "deeply ingrained in the culture," says anticorruption crusader Vijay Anand, and are "taken as the norm."
But, 5th Pillar, Anand's grassroots citizens group, is trying to create a new norm - by printing and passing out notes worth nothing at all. Since 2007, 5th Pillar has distributed 1.3 million zero-rupee bills. People give them as a polite protest to officials trying to squeeze extra payment for routine services like issuing driver's licenses or loans. The effect has been to shame or scare some public servants - who can go to jail if they're caught - into honest behavior. The zero-rupee note, says anticorruption researcher Fumiko Nagano, emboldens people to assert their rights, because when they're backed up by 5th Pillar, "they realize they are not alone."
Nor is India. Zero-currency notes are spreading to help fight corruption to Mexico and Nepal as well - an affirmation of nonviolent resistance that would surely have made Gandhi smile for real. - Hannah Bloch
Being For the World by S. Michael Craven
We enter the world each day as ambassadors of Christ and his kingdom—sensitized to the effects of sin—loving others by seeking their welfare through the proper ordering of things and relationships. We look for and respond to opportunities to bring relief to those who are suffering. We seek the good of others and when possible, we create systems and institutions that serve the common good and promote human flourishing. We work for remedy in the daily situations and when necessary, the reformation or abolition of whole systems that oppress. We disciple people in the Truth, showing them the way that leads to a life that thrives through having a right relationship to God, to self, to others, and the rest of creation.
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Called to Journalism
The well known theologian Karl Barth said the following in Time Magazine May 31, 1963:
"Newspapers are so important that I always pray for the sick, the poor, journalists, authorities of the state and the church - in that order. Journalists form public opinion. They hold terribly important positions.”
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Chinese Officials: Christian-run businesses good for China
The notion that Christian faith and work ethics can inspire to increased levels of productivity is being taken seriously not only by Christian businessmen, but by China's Communist - and officially atheist - leaders.
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Global Impressions: Views on Business & Culture around the world.
- Blog by Joel Montgomery
"Why is it that most organizations in the social sector ignore the very customers that they are trying to serve? Often times this critical business oversight is compounded by the fact that many organizations work in a vacuum, oblivious to other initiatives that may be partly of fully serving the very same need."
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Business as Mission: A Threefold Mandate
- Mats Tunehag
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Seven Areas of Preparation in your Business Service
By Al Caperna
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YMCA Young Adult Leader Essay
This article is a great example of how an organization serving in the family sphere can influence the community and culture.
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The Church and Business
"Most people don’t have a full appreciation of the church and of business, much less
an appreciation of how they should work together to accomplish God’s plan to
redeem mankind and the earth. Instead, they see them as oil and water - they don’t
mix."
By John E Mulford, Ph D
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Kings and Priests
"And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on
the earth." - Revelation 5:10 KJV.
By Os Hillman (2009)
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BAM - GOD MEANS BUSINESS
"The dichotomy between sacred and secular is not Biblical, but this false dichotomy has deeply affected our views on work, business, church and missions. BAM is a part of a wider global movement, recognizing and responding to God’s call to take the whole gospel to the whole man in the whole world. The applications of BAM may vary from country to country and from business to business."
By Mats Tunehag (2008)
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HISTORY OF THE MORAVIAN CHURCH
"If a man would work he might stay, and worship God according to his conscience; but if he was lazy, he was ordered off the premises. As the Brethren met on Sunday morning for early worship in the public hall, they joined with one accord in the prayer, "Bless the sweat of the brow and faithfulness in business"; and the only business they allowed was business which they could ask the Lord to bless. To them work was a sacred duty, a delight and a means for the common good. If a man is blessed who has found his work, then blessed were the folk at Herrnhut. "We do not work to live," said the Count; "we live to work." The whole aim was the good of each and the good of all. As the grocer stood behind his counter, or the weaver plied his flying shuttle, he was toiling, not for himself alone, but for all his Brethren and Sisters."
By J.E. Hutton (1909)
(Chapter IV)
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