EMQ » October–December 2021 » Volume 57 Issue 4
[memberonly folder=”Members, EMQ2YearFolder, EMQ1YearFolder, EMQLibraryInstitution”]By Sharon R. Hoover
Names marked by an asterisk (*) have been changed for security reasons.
Clay Worley, NCI Chief Human Resources Officer in the Washington, DC metro-area, had always been asked to be in administrative roles at church but never ministry to reach the community. “The church does need leadership, but I especially wanted to serve outside the church building in ways that fulfill our call to make disciples of Christ.”[1]
When his church began leading Jobs For Life – a faith-based program for men and women stepping out of poverty – Worley discovered he could make use of his expertise. He contributed his HR knowledge to teach interview skills, résumé writing, and employer expectations. Worley also gave many hours to train the volunteers who mentored the adult students.
“Jobs For Life is the first time I have been able to apply the HR skills that I use every day at work in a true outreach way,” said Worley. “I too have learned much about my community by working with the homeless population. Lack of housing, mental health issues, criminal records, and broken relationships are everyday realities for our JFL student participants. To break the cycle of poverty, we walk with them as they work to overcome roadblocks and mend relationships, especially their relationship with the Lord.”[2]
A decade ago, Business Insider declared we are increasingly a “nation of thinkers – web designers, engineers, marketers, IP lawyers, deal guys, inventors, dreamers, and mavericks.”[3] Depending on one’s definition of white-collar worker, professional and technical people now represent between 60% and 70% of the US workforce. These trends show no signs of stopping as we are in the 2020s. In an estimate according to the National Center for Education Statistics, US colleges and universities awarded nearly 2 million bachelor’s degrees and 860,000 master’s degrees in the 2018–2019 academic year.[4] Even as we move out of the global pandemic, our congregations include many professionals with subject-area expertise.
This presents the church with a unique opportunity. Nearly fifteen years ago, the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism recognized the potential of the professionals in our midst. The committee issued an appeal for the greater stewardship of business acumen: “We call upon the Church worldwide to identify, affirm, pray for, commission and release businesspeople and entrepreneurs to exercise their gifts and calling as businesspeople in the world – among all peoples and to the ends of the earth.”[5]
As is well known by now, Business as Mission (BAM) has grown to meet this goal, and there are many stories of men and women who employ their business skills full time in mission work. The next frontier is helping full-time professionals in the United States use their business skills in mission, at home and abroad, on a short-term basis. You might call it, Short-Term Business as Mission.
Short-Term BAM
Over two billion people are unreachable by vocational missionaries. Entrepreneurs, however, create jobs through local business and are able to obtain entry visas and residence permits. As believers engage people through business, they share faith through Christ-centered business practices and relationships. Once restrictions related to the COVID-19 crisis have ended, the expanding BAM movement will return to developing its wide range of vocational roles.
Peter Shaukat, co-founder and CEO of a global investment fund, which has invested in close to sixty kingdom-focused companies, has witnessed the missional impact of professionals time and time again. “One North American entrepreneur, for example, proactively opened a second office in North Africa and a Chicago business owner repurposed his company to employ more Iraqi immigrants. Both businessmen seek to glorify God while adding value to their respective communities.”[6]
Shaukat continued, “The emerging BAM movement needs both business creators (entrepreneurs) and business builders (people who come alongside with complimentary skills and a shared commitment to the cause) to strategically address the physical and spiritual needs of a community. Within our congregations are the HR specialists, supply chain analysts, CFOs, and engineers needed for this holistic business engagement.”[7]
Medical professionals have a long history of supporting impoverished communities through their vocation. Doctors, nurses, dentists, and physical therapists willingly volunteer weeks each year to treat patients in the name of Jesus. With creativity and consultation, the church can connect congregants with the non-medical needs in the field as well. Web designers, for example, can create missionaries’ websites and accountants can assist BAM entrepreneurs. Unlimited opportunities await as we work to connect professionals to the spiritual and physical needs outside the church walls, both locally and globally.
Charles Mitchell*, a systems engineer with forty years of experience, volunteered to work with a new business in eastern Europe. The entrepreneur Rob* had created a wood stove manufacturing facility in an impoverished and isolated community. Although he had a heart for God and for the people, Rob had never set-up a production company. He needed advice. Enter Charles Mitchell.
“I observed, measured, and learned about their wood stove manufacturing process. Unlike my short-term mission experiences to other places, I was able to directly apply my engineering background,” Mitchell said. “I helped develop a smooth workflow, suggesting a new layout for the production area, adding quality control measures, recommending next equipment purchases, and identifying packaging to reduce damage of stoves prior to shipping.”[8]
The wood stove facility continues providing jobs and the community is noticing the impact. Through his relationships with employees, customers, and vendors, Rob has been able to share the gospel more in the past twelve months than the previous eight years of traditional missionary service.
Another example is Mary Murrill*. When she retired after thirty-three years with a Fortune 100 company, she began considering what’s next? She had been involved in the periphery of global mission through financial support and various short-term mission trips. On one such trip, she discovered the BAM realm and she has not looked back since. Murrill now mentors BAM entrepreneurs working in the far corners of our planet’s least reached places.
“Through my experiences, I can identify priorities and needs of small, struggling companies. Right now, I am working with a tea and beverage distributor in East Asia. We Skype monthly and I am available by email. Prior to each call, I prepare an agenda based on previous conversations as well as potential upcoming challenges. My role is to help manage challenges as they arrive.” Murrill continued, “Our next step right now is to identify a food technologist who can meet with him to formulate new products.”[9]
“Not only am I able to contribute to the success of the businesses, I have been profoundly influenced by the deep faith of the entrepreneurs. Their dependence on the Lord humbles and inspires me. For example, an employee stole significant money from the BAM owner. My response was to fire him. The owner, however, prayed and read Scripture about it. He decided to offer grace instead of firing the employee. He’s on a 2-year payback plan and things are going well.”[10] The community recognizes the unique approach to business practices and employee relations.
Challenges
Just because people are using their professional skillsets doesn’t make the short-term BAM work easy. From the technical side of online communication platforms to the reticence of entrepreneurs to abundant cultural sensitivities, the learning curve can be steep. Laws and expectations vary by country, including tax codes, employer responsibilities, and gender roles. Language differences further multiply the complexity of cross-cultural mentoring. When the BAM entrepreneur’s first language is not English, the pace slows further as both mentee and mentor work to understand one another.
For retired Police Chief Barry Bedford, the shift from supervisor to mentor was the greatest adjustment. “I am not the entrepreneurs’ boss. I am a coach. I offer advice and they choose what to do with it. It’s not like when I was the chief and people had to do what I said. Now, the BAM owner asks for input then chooses how to utilize the information. Sometimes they do the opposite of what I advise. I have to be okay with that.”[11]
“I always told God I wanted to serve him,” Bedford continued. “I believe God called me to my career in the police force. And, I feel now this is how God is allowing me to be part of the Great Commission by working through policies and procedures, financial plans, and employee job descriptions with BAM owners. As a 68-year-old former cop I can now be involved beyond prayer and financial support,”[12] said Bedford.
“I am working with a BAM owner to start up a motorbike rental company in north Africa,” continued Bedford. “The entrepreneur is enthusiastic about God’s call on his life. The details of the business, however, are much less compelling. Right now, we are working through contingency planning. It is not always fun, but he has come to recognize the value. As a police chief, contingency planning was a constant. I help the entrepreneurs anticipate what could happen and then help to prepare responses.”[13]
Another challenge is this: just because one is an expert in a given skill, doesn’t mean that they know how to apply that expertise in the context of another culture. Willingness to learn about the laws and traditions of other countries is critical to the success for a BAM mentor.
From a Central Asian country, entrepreneurs Lauren and Nora* are developing an export business of local handiwork. Their US-based advisor is becoming as familiar with the local business practices as they are. Everything from women as business owners to employee relations differ from the western marketplace. “Our mentors lead us to the next step. We do it, but someone with experience guides us,”[14] explains Lauren.
Any short-term effort also must deal with the criticism of short-term missions as laid out in the book When Helping Hurts. The main criticisms are the dependency caused by charitable giving and the loss of dignity by recipients. Free shoes and clothes, for example, remove the need to work for necessities and implode local cobbler and tailor businesses. Economic development stalls and communities remain in poverty.
Responses from those who are helping facilitate short-term business as mission say there are other ways. “A marketplace strategy incorporates the Great Commission,” said Mark Canada, President and CEO of Marketplace and Development Enterprises. “If we are really concerned about the billions of people who do not yet know the Lord, being involved in the marketplace offers another pathway to go to the uttermost parts of the world.”[15]
Where to Go to Get Started
A number of organizations have been training and helping business professionals find outlets to serve Christ in their areas of expertise. MDE, for example, is building a global network of professionals in support of business as mission efforts. They train and equip a volunteer faculty of advisors, including Charles Mitchell, to walk alongside mission-minded entrepreneurs.
To take the next step, BusinessAsMission.com offers an extensive list of networks and resources. Job openings, coaching, and investment consulting – like IBEC Ventures – demonstrate the plethora of needs. Opportunities to serve exist in all economic sectors. Educators, marketers, electricians, and engineers can collaborate with BAM entrepreneurs to bring the work of the church into the marketplace.
The local church is the other place where business professionals can connect with mission needs at home and abroad. For example, NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas strives to connect every member to a mission as an extension of his or her vocation. “Instead of the drive-and-dash engagements, we wanted to connect with the people in the community” said Bob Roberts, NorthWood’s Senior Pastor. “What if the church were the missionary? The great commission is inherent to being a disciple. As part of the body of Christ we need to work together across all domains of society.”[16]
Over the years, NorthWood has invested heavily in Vietnam and several other international locations, sharing from their expertise and abilities. Educators have written special education curriculum for schools. Plumbers have built water filters. Landscapers have designed animal corrals.
“We connect through vocations, using jobs to help share the gospel,” said Roberts. “We never say ‘what do you need?’ in the field, instead we volunteer what we have. My role is more of a traffic cop, directing resources of the expertise in our church.”[17] Their commitment to intelligent and vocation-based engagement has opened many doors to discuss faith with business and government leaders in their target locations. They engage those who do not yet know Christ by caring first for the community, often through business enterprises.
Conclusion
Influence of professionals will be the next wave to widening the church’s expression of missions. In new venues, among new colleagues, we broaden our capacity to be Christ’s witnesses.
“For twenty-five years I traveled the world introducing my company’s technology to global customers. I was active in my church during this period, often serving as an Elder on the Session. I also helped with various benevolent ministries but didn’t feel that I was giving as much as I could,”[18] said John Garrison, retired owner of a manufacturing and engineering business.
Then a friend introduced Garrison to BAM. “At first I struggled with how I could be relevant in this role as a mentor, but soon discovered my accumulated business wisdom can be brought to bear in a wide variety of situations.”[19]
Garrison now invests many hours and resources to BAM companies. “I have met so many amazing people, young people. The owner of the East Asia apparel company I am working with now, for example, is humble and generous, and so relational with the local people. His ethical practices are earning the trust of vendors and customers. The opportunity to learn about other parts of the world, to understand the risks, and to develop relationships with other believers who have such a deep commitment to faith is the greatest reward.”[20]
Murrill concluded, “I don’t live by regrets. It’s not fruitful. But I wish I had known about BAM while I was working. I would have been more mindful about business and my actions to live out the BAM life in my own job. But now, I am being challenged in ways I never anticipated, and I am directly involved in global missions.”[21]
Sharon R. Hoover is the Director of Missions at Centreville Presbyterian Church in Virginia, where she has served over twenty years. She is the author of Mapping Church Missions: A Compass for Ministry Strategy and is currently a student at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
[1] Clay Worley, interview by author, April 8, 2019, Virginia.
[2] Worley, interview.
[3] Marc Cenedella, “Great News! We’ve Become a White-Collar Nation,” Business Insider (January 7, 2010), accessed April 2, 2019, http://businessinsider.com/great-news-weve-become-a-white-collar-nation-2010-1.
[4] Digest of National Statistics, “Table 318.10 Degrees Conferred by Postsecondary Institutions” National Center for Education Statistics (2018), accessed May 23, 2020, https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_318.10asp.
[5] Mats Tunehag, Wayne McGee, and Jose Plummer, eds., “Business as Mission” Lausanne Occasional Paper No. 59 (2005), https://www.lausanne.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/LOP59_IG30.pdf.
[6] Peter Shaukat, interview by author, July 28, 2019.
[7] Shaukat, interview.
[8] Confidential interview (Name of interviewee is withheld by mutual agreement), August 7, 2019.
[9] Confidential interview (Name of interviewee is withheld by mutual agreement), July 31, 2019.
[10] Confidential interview, July 31, 2019.
[11] Barry Bedford, interview by author, July 26, 2019.
[12] Bedford, interview.
[13] Bedford, interview.
[14] Confidential interview (Names of interviewees are withheld by mutual agreement), June 4, 2019.
[15] Mark Canada, interview by author, May 29. 2019.
[16] Bob Roberts, interview by author, May 31, 2019.
[17] Roberts, interview.
[18] Confidential interview (Name of interviewee is withheld by mutual agreement), August 6, 2019.
[19] Confidential interview, August 6, 2019.
[20] Confidential interview, August 6, 2019.
[21] Confidential interview (Names of interviewees are withheld by mutual agreement), July 31, 2019.
