Can Business Help Wipe Out Homelessness?

Can business help wipe out homelessness?

On the surface, most of us would answer “yes”. At the risk of generalizing and over-simplifying, it seems pretty clear that business generally produces resources that homeless people lack.

You may be thinking something like “Businesses make money… Homeless people need money…”

But it’s hard to go much beyond that. We get stuck trying to think of ways to transfer those resources so that it would be both sustainable and universally worthwhile.

Clarifying Business as Mission Objectives

The following is another excerpt from the BAM Survey 2007 Report. The BAM Survey 2007 Report is an in-depth assessment of the state of the Business as Mission movement based on survey responses from 497 people in 38 countries. You can purchase an electronic copy of the BAM Survey 2007 Report for $14.99 here.

Who are the Business as Mission leaders? (part 2)

This is the third installment sharing highlights from the BAM Survey 2007 Report. Today we take a closer look at the global leaders of the Business as Mission movement and the beliefs that drive their efforts in spreading the Gospel through global business entrepreneurship.

The BAM Survey 2007 Report is an in-depth assessment of the state of the Business as Mission movement based on survey responses from 497 people in 38 countries. You can purchase an electronic copy of the BAM Survey 2007 Report for $14.99 here.

Embracing the Priesthood of Believers

Considerations for developing a Business as Mission strategy

I just received an email from David Skews of EDP in the UK describing an upcoming conference taking in the UK. The event is being coordinated by Pray4BaM both of which he described in his email -

Pray4BaM.org is part of a UK based charity that was set up to support Business as Mission in prayer, finance and marketing. We felt God calling us to organise a Prayer Conference for BaM. Rather than being a time of teaching about BaM, this is to be a Prayer Conference, supported by times of worship and testimony of what God is doing around the world through business.

Before kings

I am very excited to see this story from the Dallas News.

Barrington is an amazing Kingdom company based out of Dallas with a manufacturing facility in China. I was blessed to get to know them last year and help a little bit as the worked through some organizational development challenges. Here’s how the Dallas News describes Barrington:

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Have you ever seen a broken heart?

In life, in missions, in business it’s important to be reminded why it is that you do what you do. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work out of my house and it’s a wonderful motivator to be able to spend time during the day with my amazing family. When I was leading strategic research projects for Fortune 500 companies, the highlight of the engagement was always to see the client face to face and to provide new insight into their business challenges. As an Elder of my church it is an honor to sit and tearfully bring praise and pleading before the Lord with the men and women I worship with.

As the body of Christ we are Christ’s envoys to the world today. His rescue mission is our rescue mission. Tonight I got a first hand look at a broken, shriveled, and hardened heart. The kind of heart that only the pure and perfect love of Jesus can heal.

Business profit and the Parable of the Minas

“The Parable of the Minas” (Luke 19:12-27) teaches a number of principles that should shape how profit is considered in the Business as Mission context.

1. Profit is good.

During the settling of accounts, the master responds positively to the servants who had earned profit by:

• Saying “Well done!” – the master views their efforts as good.
• Calling the servants “good” and “trustworthy” – the master expected his servants to pursue profit.

2. Profit is not the motivation. (more…)...

What is Business as Mission?

Awhile ago I threw my hat in the “define Business as Mission” ring and wrote the following definition:

The strategic use of authentic business activities to create cross-cultural opportunities to minister and evangelize within the business’s spheres of influence with the aim of holistic transformation.

To me, the value in a definition is primarily that it points to the key ways in which Business as Mission is fleshed out in practice. I want to be careful (more…)...