Motivations for BAM as a strategy (part 2)

In part 1 I discussed how global trends are leading missions organizations to pursue business as part of their missional strategy. In part 2 of this three post series, I talk about how Business as Mission is appealing in the face of many of the challenges facing those in the missions field today. In part 3 I’ll conclude with a discussion of the benefits of Business as Mission that missions organization look for and shine some light on to how to avoid being blinded by optimism.

2. Business as Mission as a means for addressing challenges facing the organization

According to my work at Unconventional Method developing Business as Mission programs for global missions organizations, some of the top challenges facing both field missionaries and organizational leadership can be classified into five (5) categories:

• Lack of strategic focus
• Security/stability
• Generational change
• Lack of funding for launching projects
• Shifting view of missions field

Lack of strategic focus

One thing that mission organizations from around the world consistently communicated the difficulty they face (particularly in a restricted access countries) in aligning their field missionaries with the overall objectives of the organization. This is primarily attributed to the entrepreneurial nature of the missionaries and staff that are recruited. It seems that the missionaries that are being attracted to the full-time, foreign field these days are typically the adventuresome, self-driven types. No surprise there. However, given the complexity of the changing environments their working in, the difficulty in coordinating global activities across multiple countries and cultures, and the reduction of central resources to bear the cost of fund command and control mechanisms (policies and procedures), it is no wonder that field director-level resources are having a hard time balancing between the requirements of HQ and the ideas and energy of their teams. More often than not, HQ will lose.

Here are some quotes from my conversations with field leaders:

“An internal challenge that comes to mind would be honing the individual desires of our missionaries so that they are more and more strategic, more and more aligned with our vision and strategy.”

“Our area’s top goal? I’m not sure that I could give a top goal for each of our fields, much less top goals for the entire area. We have a diverse set of missionaries, cooperating at various levels and to various degrees.”

Key Insight:
It is likely that Business as Mission will exacerbate this challenge by (1) creating additional areas of activity which (in the absence of a systematic process for creating alignment across all levels of the organization) could further distract field-level personnel; and (2) attracting more entrepreneurial types who’s ambitions and areas of interest are difficult to channel.

Recommendation:
For Business as Mission to be successfully integrated within a missions organization, it must first be shown to be in alignment with the organization’s existing strategy. Additionally, all BAM initiatives must be designed intentionally with clearly defined boundaries and that will ensure that the business resources remained focused on the established goals.

Security/stability

Another challenge facing missions organizations is the hostile and dynamic environments of some of the restricted-access countries in which they operate in. The challenges range from threats to personal safety, to complexity navigating government processes, to difficulty obtaining visas.

“Externally, the environment here changes monthly, no weekly, sometimes daily. Getting a business license legally for instance, you cannot just lay out the procedure for people to follow. It all depends on recent regulations and how the district you want to work in is applying those regulations. And even how the individual you deal with this week wants to implement them… that person may not be there next time you go in. Unlike the ‘Bureaucratic Raj’ in India, we have red tape galore, but you’re never quite sure if you should cut through it, or where the best place is to apply the scissors.”

Key Insight:
Though legitimate business will provide some stability and alleviate some of the challenges highlighted in these categories, it must be understood that business will not fix the root causes of these problems. Business as Mission businesses also face challenges stemming from hostility toward Christianity, government employee inefficiency and greed, and governmental restrictions on foreigners. Experience has shown that the negative influence of these factors can be off-set by the goodwill legitimate business creates through its business activities and their perceived benefit to the community. However, creating and maintaining this requires intentionality toward and investment in business activities.

Recommendation:
Business as Mission will not solve the problems we face regarding security and stability in the field. However, it can make the problems a little better. The key is a business’s goodwill and in order to build that, your organization must be clear in its intentions regarding businesses (regardless of how you relate to the business – directly or indirectly). Invest the time and energy into establishing high standards that will help prevent abuse of business as a means of gaining access.

Generational change

A lot of organization are struggling to understand how post-modern Christians and millennials fit within their organization. One thing is certain, the power of these individuals stems from the fact that they don’t need a centralized system to be effective.

Key Insight:
The concept of Business as Mission is attractive to younger generations that appreciate what they perceive as a progressive approach to Christian missional strategy. Additionally, these individuals desire to engage their faith within different elements of culture, including business. To that end, Business as Mission can create a powerful draw for recruiting younger Christians to your organization. However, a challenge facing the Business as Mission movement is that in general, younger individuals have limited business experience, limited financial resources, and smaller support networks and are thus constrained in their individual effectiveness in creating and running businesses.

Recommendations:
The Business as Mission movement is facing a catch-22: it is getting a lot of interest from younger Christians who want to live out their faith in the marketplace; however, there are not very many positions available in BAM companies that are suitable for younger people. Incorporating Business as Mission is a good way for a missions organization to attract younger Christians. However, it should not be assumed that they will be well suited for starting Kingdom businesses. There a tremendous opportunity for missions organizations who are able to either provide or connect them with employment opportunities overseas.

Lack of funding for launching projects

Western giving levels are declining, especially in today’s economic climate. Missions organization are limited in their ability to fund its activities using donor dollars. Additionally, business projects often have higher funding requirements due to start-up, capital costs.

Key Insight:
One of the reasons Business as Mission is gaining popularity is because it is a means for self-funding missions efforts. However, it is important to recognize some limitations on businesses in terms of their ability to generate extra funding:

• Profitability is not a given. A number of factors influence the profitability of a company.
• Ownership and control influence how business profits are used (e.g. funding of extracurricular missions activities will compete with internal ministry activities, purchasing supplies, compensating investors, and re-investing in growth).
• Extraneous activities increase the cost burden of operating the company and limit the overall profitability. Mandatory conditions- (e.g. language training) and legacy ministry requirements may impede profitability.

Recommendation:
Business as Mission operations have a great potential for creating additional profit which can be used to supplement your organizations’ financial needs. It is critical that you identify and clearly define funding expectations with any partner businesses and establish governance and control mechanisms that create the necessary and appropriate levels of influence over how profits are used. Additionally, you will want to show how these requirements align with the strategic objectives and creates benefit for the business in order to avoid limiting the potential of the business to earn profit.

Shifting view of missions field

As views of Christian missionary work changes (long-term focus to short-term, shifting focus from evangelism to relief, increased emphasis on national workers), new missionary model are needed to adapt.

Key Insight:
In many ways, the Business as Mission movement has evolved as a result of these shifting views. To that end, educating yourself about Business as Mission will help your organization to adapt. However, the Business as Mission movement has not clarified fully where it lies within the different spectrums of opinions. For example, in the shift of focus toward relief, Business as Mission is often identified with micro-development and micro-enterprise; however, there are important differences between each strategy.

Recommendation:
I recommend that all organizations take a good look at these shifts in order to understand where the organization stands on each spectrum. It is also important to limit the arenas in which you operate to areas that clearly aligns with your organization’s identity. This must be clear before a Business as Mission strategy is further developed to avoid potential conflicts that may arise due to misaligned expectations.

Overall Recommendation

It is important for any organization that is considering Business as Mission to identify and capture all of the challenges facing the organization and rank them based on some established criteria (e.g. relevance to overall strategic goals, cost to organization, etc.). This gives a framework for universal understanding of what the organization is up against. For there you should explore how BAM will either address, run in parallel, or compound these challenges and estimate the magnitude of impact (either positive, negative, or neutral) on each challenge.

This understanding will allow your organization to:

• Focus investment in areas where BAM has a positive impact;
• Create linkages for transforming areas of neutral impact into positive impact;
• Develop processes to ensure that BAM does not become a liability in areas of negative impact.

I will conclude this series in part 3 where I will discuss how mission organizations believe BAM will benefit their organization.