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BAM in a Box: Accelerating the Impact of Business as Mission

Sep 1st, 2011 by

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.

Developing and Spreading the Concept
Nevertheless, in our time there is a new growing global movement of people, organisations, churches and businesses who are understanding and embracing Business as Mission (or ‘BAM’) as an idea. Consultation work on Business as Mission, including a Global Think Tank on BAM under the auspices of the Lausanne Movement in 2004, has helped with the assessment of BAM practices and have been key developing our understanding. (You’ll find the Lausanne BAM Paper 2004 under ‘Further Reading’.) Since then the number of books and organisations focused on BAM has multiplied.

Applying the Concept
Although the number of BAM businesses in the Arab world and Asia have been growing steadily, this growth has been relatively slow. There are many more who accept the business as mission concept than those who are actually applying it.  Of course there will be some natural time lag between understanding and action and not all who hear about BAM will be cut out for business as mission practice. But even allowing for this, there is still much more ‘BAM talk’ out there than BAMers taking up the challenge of starting and developing BAM companies. How do we bridge that gap?

I have observed in the global BAM movement since the mid-90s, that many pioneering and gifted entrepreneurs have started and developed successful BAM businesses. There have also been many failures, often related to the wrong people trying to do the right thing. But I don’t believe that’s the end of the story.

High and Medium Level Entrepreneurs
In any given context there are more medium-level entrepreneurs than high-level entrepreneurs. There are just a few Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Ingvar Kamprads (IKEA) who can start from scratch and build big. There are others who can start with an idea and develop a growing business in the small to medium size range.

But how are we to tap into the many more medium-level entrepreneurial people who also are good managers, but probably won’t start from nothing?  People in this category can often run a franchise successfully, a McDonalds, a Starbucks, a Chick-fil-A, etc… These are businesses ‘in a box’ so to speak. Not quite as simple as unpack, read the manual and go… but nor are they as difficult or high risk or demanding as starting something from nothing.

BAM in a Box
I recently met a fellow BAMer who has a background in franchising in the US. Now based in the Middle East, he told me about a recent gathering in that Region that consisted mostly of aspiring BAMers. They were enthusiastic, but had little or no prospect of succeeding.

Are we missing something in BAM because we are assuming everybody can start from scratch? Are we missing an opportunity to tap into this pool of committed people because we don’t have a ‘BAM in a Box’ to offer? Could these people become good BAMers if there were franchising options? Many people are medium-level entrepreneurs, medium risk takers and good managers. These are good qualifications for franchise operators.

BAM in a Box is also worth exploring and pursuing as we deal with human trafficking. Regions with high unemployment are high risk areas for human trafficking and unemployment makes people vulnerable to traffickers’ cunning schemes.

Rescuing people out of trafficking and prostitution is insufficient unless there is a job with dignity at the other end. Thus BAM in a Box can be one answer to scalable job creation measures both in prevention of human trafficking and restoration of its victims.

The spiritual, social, demographic and economic challenges of the Arab world and Asia are enormous and growing. How can we begin to meet the many needs there?

BAM in a Box could potentially engage more people in applying BAM. That would mean more opportunities to serve people and nations by providing employment and good services and products, and so on.

Global conversations are underway on business as mission and franchising. We need to move further. Are you an entrepreneur who can help develop BAM in a Box?

(This article was originally published in e.zine, a quarterly magazine for the business as mission movement. The September issue has more articles dealing with BAM in a Box)

PS. Under ‘Further Reading’ you’ll find a three page memo on BAM in a Box which I wrote in May; it elaborates further on the issue. There is also a Korean translation of the article.

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Posted in Business as Mission | 3 Comments »

Is Judeo-Christian ethics passé or the backbone of society?

Aug 25th, 2011 by

Britain’s Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has made a brilliant analysis in the Wall Street Journal of the riots in the UK recently. He writes: “It took everyone by surprise. It should not have. … Britain is the latest country to pay the price for what happened half a century ago in one of the most radical transformations in the history of the West. In virtually every Western society in the 1960s there was a moral revolution, an abandonment of its entire traditional ethic of self-restraint.”

He refers among other things to the breakdown of families, absent fathers and lack of good male role models. He observes that is has been a “tsunami of wishful thinking that washed across the West saying that you can have sex without the responsibility of marriage, children without the responsibility of parenthood, social order without the responsibility of citizenship, liberty without the responsibility of morality and self-esteem without the responsibility of work and earned achievement.”

Sacks asks if this has happened before, and if there is a way back.

“The answer to both questions is in the affirmative. In the 1820s, in Britain and America, a similar phenomenon occurred. People were moving from villages to cities. Families were disrupted. Young people were separated from their parents and no longer under their control. Alcohol consumption rose dramatically. So did violence. In the 1820s it was unsafe to walk the streets of London because of pickpockets by day and “unruly ruffians” by night.

What happened over the next 30 years was a massive shift in public opinion. There was an unprecedented growth in charities, friendly societies, working men’s institutes, temperance groups, church and synagogue associations, Sunday schools, YMCA buildings and moral campaigns of every shape and size, fighting slavery or child labor or inhuman working conditions. The common factor was their focus on the building of moral character, self-discipline, willpower and personal responsibility. It worked. Within a single generation, crime rates came down and social order was restored. What was achieved was nothing less than the re-moralization of society—much of it driven by religion.”

Religious people in general and Christians in particular are often looked down upon in Europe and among liberal elites in America. But Sacks refers to Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam who wrote in the book “American Grace” about the importance of social capital created by Christians and other religious people:

“Religious people, he discovered, make better neighbors and citizens. They are more likely to give to charity, volunteer, assist a homeless person, donate blood, spend time with someone feeling depressed, offer a seat to a stranger, help someone find a job and take part in local civic life. Affiliation to a religious community is the best predictor of altruism and empathy: better than education, age, income, gender or race.”

The Chief Rabbi draws attention to what a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had learned when tasked with finding out what gave the West its dominance: “At first we thought it was your guns. Then we thought it was your political system, democracy. Then we said it was your economic system, capitalism. But for the last 20 years, we have known that it was your religion.”

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Posted in International Affairs | 5 Comments »

A Wounded Healer

Aug 21st, 2011 by

I have a passion for the least, lost, and the lowliest – with a special focus in the Arab world and Asia.

Sometimes I feel at home everywhere, and sometimes I feel at home no-where.

I have lived and worked in half the countries of the world, lived in fear at home because of severe threats against my family.

I’ve been a part of starting and developing the modern global Business as Mission movement, and for many years waking up every morning not knowing if one of my loved ones survived the night.

I’ve worked internationally all my life, started in traditional mission. The last thing I could imagine getting involved in was business – BORING – God surprises.

I have started and developed 30 or so international partnerships, and suffered through dysfunctions, hurts and breakdowns in my own organization and family.

I have rejoiced in fighting and winning a religious freedom case (Supreme Court in Sweden) which had good global legal impact and setting a precedent, and I went through a severe depression where life and most things were meaningless; I sometimes cried days on end.

I started a national newspaper in Sweden which has had an impact on public opinion and the parliament; I have been fighting the Swedish police that beat up my youngest daughter.

I’ve been mugged by the police in Central Asia, and harassed and interrogated at night by police in China, I was invited by a Congressman in the US to address a dozen of ambassadors and diplomats from Central Asia and share about Business as Mission.

So who am I? May I be audacious and use a term from Henri Nouwen: I am a wounded healer. I have a passion for the least, the lost and the lowliest – and they may be unreached, persecuted, trafficking victims, unemployed – especially in Asia and the Arab world.

Life has elements of joy and pain, laughter and tears, successes and failures. And I am a wounded healer…

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Posted in Okategoriserade | 14 Comments »

From church planting success to genocide

Aug 18th, 2011 by

In just 100 years, this country went from ‘unreached’ to ‘churched’, with approximately 90 percent of the population attending church as members.  It is the ultimate success story in the history of Christian mission – if the success criteria are church planting and church growth.

In just over 100 days, nearly one million citizens (and church members) were killed – by other citizens and church members – in a brutal genocide in the spring of 1994. The country? Rwanda.  It had seen tremendous success in evangelism and church planting but little penetration of the gospel in ethnic relationships – it had people in church but not church in people.

How we define our mission has both short and long term implications. Church planting and growth is not wrong but clearly insufficient as a success criterion.

As we look at sub-Saharan Africa today it has some of the most Christian countries in the world (percentage of Christians), some of the poorest countries in the world and some of the most corrupt countries in the world. What is wrong with this picture? Is this success? Is this in line with our mission as Christians? Is this what God wants?

Our mission and success criteria must include transformation. We want people and societies to be transformed – holistically.

The global Business as Mission (BAM) movement is aiming at transformed lives around the world through ethical business with integrity. Sounds grand. But what does it mean?

Transformation: It is about a good and lasting change. And that takes time; we need to have an inter-generational perspective. BAM is an intentional praxis of faith at work in all relationships in and through business. BAM is about practicing business based on ethical principles. It is about following Jesus in the market place to see people and societies transformed.

We also need to give a priority to small & medium size businesses (SME’s).  They are strong transformational agents – not only economically. They are in many ways the backbone of developed economies. SME’s are often missing to a large extent in the poor countries and regions.

Lives: We are all people with physical, social, spiritual, emotional, economical and other needs, operating in a political and cultural context. So transformation must be holistic – for people and societies. This is also what the word ‘integrity’ means – something whole and complete. Our mission is and must be more than evangelism and church planting – we don’t want to create another Rwanda!

Around the World: The BAM movement can never be true to God and our mission if we limit ourselves to a local outlook. We must be a part of God’s centrifugal force, moving out and beyond our immediate comfort zones. To all peoples and nations.

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Posted in Business as Mission | 5 Comments »

Can you mix God and business?

Aug 1st, 2011 by

If business was only about maximizing profit one may get involved in human trafficking, which is relative low risk (few traffickers are caught and sentenced) and it has a relative high profit margin.

If job creation was the only purpose of business one could commend the Mafia for the jobs they create.

Businesses should serve various groups through its products, services, relationships and conduct: employees, owners, suppliers, customers, families, communities, and others.

Businesses should strive towards having a positive impact on individuals and societies, not only economically but also socially and environmentally.

Businesses should embrace a godly ethical framework to shape all aspects of the business. Good corporate values will also help building healthy societies.

Businesses need to make a profit to survive but they should also look beyond that. The Pope John Paul II wrote: “The purpose of a business firm is not simply to make a profit, but is to be found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways are endeavouring to satisfy their basic needs, and who form a particular group at the service of the whole of society.

This was even understood by a so called capitalist like David Rockefeller: “The old concept that the owner of a business had a right to use his property as he pleased to maximize profits has evolved into the belief that ownership carries certain binding social obligations. Today’s manager serves as trustee not only for the owners but for the workers and, indeed, for our entire society.”

John Paul II says that the church ”recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector”. However, he adds that there must be a strong juridical framework which at its core is ethical and religious.

But can ethically run businesses survive in a today’s tough global market? Can a business have Christian values and be profitable at the same time? Yes, here follows one example.

The R.W. Beckett Corporation (www.beckettcorp.com) was founded 1937 and is now a third generation family business which “endeavors to apply a biblically-based philosophy throughout every phase of its operations”. Its mission is: By God’s grace we will grow, relentlessly improve and passionately serve our customers and fellow employees.

Here are some of the values guiding the business:

  • Our intention is to be a Christ-centered company.
  • We will conduct ourselves with dignity, adhering to the highest ethical and moral standards.
  • We desire to be known as honorable, reliable and trustworthy, always willing to go the extra mile for something we believe in.
  • Profits are important and necessary, but never at the expense of good, long-term business judgment.
  • Recognizing there are business cycles, we have a high priority to provide employment stability.
  • We want to be good “corporate citizens” – active in serving others, helping meet human needs in the community and beyond.
  • We realize we are not an end in ourselves, but a part of God’s larger purposes. As such, we are called upon to work as “unto Him,” to view our business as a trust and to be wise and able stewards of the trust He has placed with us.

So can a business have Christian values and be profitable at the same time? Yes! Beckett has 74 years of experience.

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Posted in Business as Mission | 3 Comments »

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