Business as Mission
A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice
- Evangelism & Missions
- Publisher: IVP Academic (InterVarsity Press)
- Published: 2009
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Publisher's Description
Business as mission (BAM) is a mission strategy whose time has come. As global economics become increasingly interconnected, Christian business people and entrepreneurs have unanticipated opportunities to build kingdom-strategic business ventures. But Christian companies and business leaders do not automatically accomplish missional purposes. BAM requires mastery of both the world of business and the world of missions, merging and contextualizing both into something significantly different than either alone. C. Neal Johnson offers the first comprehensive guide to business as mission for practitioners. He provides conceptual foundations for understanding BAM's unique place in global mission and prerequisites for engaging in it. Then he offers practical resources for how to do BAM, including strategic planning and step-by-step operational implementation. Drawing on a wide variety of BAM models, Johnson works through details of both mission and business realities, with an eye to such issues as management, sustainability and accountability. Business as mission is a movement with enormous potential. This book breaks new ground in how faith and work intersect and are lived out in crosscultural contexts, where job creation and community transformation go hand in hand. Come, participate in what may well be one of the most strategic mission paradigms of the 21st century.
Endorsements (8)
“Masterfully combining 'how come' and 'how to,' Neal Johnson has crafted an instant classic on marketplace missiology. His unusually rich experiences in work, ministry and education prepared him to offer in a single volume almost everything we need to know philosophically, theologically, scripturally and practically with the greatest mission opportunity in the twenty-first century--business as mission. While elaborating the complexities and ambiguities of definition and implementation--this is no slick quick fix book--Johnson leaves us with a heart panting after God?s own heart in the words of Jesus: 'As the Father has sent me, I am sending you' (John 20:21), a fully incarnational mission.”
“Johnson's Business as Mission: A Comprehensive Guide to Theory and Practice delivers on its title. If you want simple bromides about business as a mission field, this book is not for you. But if you recognize the centrality of work in God's created order, and if you want to integrate Christian teachings and workplace life through the lens of mission, then this richly resourced book is a must-read.”
“Be prepared to have your view of the marketplace launched into a new orbit! This is easily the most comprehensive and valuable guide to business as mission ever written, perhaps because no one is better qualified to write it than Neal Johnson. This book will serve multitudes who are finding that business may be the primary gateway to extending God's kingdom into every corner of the earth in the decades just ahead.”
“There is a growing awareness throughout the world church that in the twenty-first century business as mission (BAM) may well prove to one of God?s primary, if not the principle, instrument of world evangelization and kingdom transformation. Neal Johnson?s presentation of BAM is masterful, comprehensive, clear, wonderfully readable, motivating and challenging--the best in the field. May this work help to motivate and mobilize biblical Christians around the globe to new, creative and committed missionary action to, within and through the marketplace to proclaim in word and deed the coming of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
“Finally, a complete book on the subject of business as mission. If God Is at Work is the 'why' of BAM, clearly, Neal's work is the 'how.' It is detailed, packed with great advice providing a step-by-step approach to doing BAM. It is punctuated with examples and tells it like it is. As the working encyclopedia for business as mission, it is a must for anyone who is considering work in this field directly or tangentially.”
“The global business as mission (BAM) movement has for many years been on a journey toward holistic transformation through business and the quadruple bottom lines. Dr. Neal Johnson has developed an important road map for our journey. Fellow BAM travelers everywhere: Use this map!”
“The most powerful and complete presentation of business as mission I have seen to date! Neal goes beyond theology and inspirational stories, delving into the real-life issues of doing BAM in a global context. I highly recommend this book for those who are serious about using their business skills for God and who recognize the importance of spiritual stewardship when running an evangelistic business in a foreign land.”
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