Business as Mission

by Mats Tunehag

Honest business is rooted in God. Consider God’s character, activities and the objects of God’s actions. God is the Creator. God creates for himself and for others (Gen. 1:14). We are created in God’s image so the stamp of God’s character is in us.

Honest business is rooted in God. Consider God’s character, activities and the objects of God’s actions. God is the Creator. God creates for himself and for others (Gen. 1:14). We are created in God’s image so the stamp of God’s character is in us.

When God created he evaluated his work each day and concluded, “It is good.” Two aspects of it proved good: the things that God created (the sea, land, fishes, birds, trees, fruit, etc.) and the process of creation. The outcome and the process itself are good. So it’s good to create.

A few believe that only spiritual things are good. However, God created a birch tree and saw it as good even though it may not be deemed a particularly spiritual end product.

We can create good in the secular realm. God created us in his image so we might create good things for ourselves and for others. So Business as Mission begins in Genesis.

A problem arises in Genesis chapter three, the fall, when sin affected humanity’s creativity, resulting in corruption having the potential to muddy the creative process. Due to our capacity to sin we can produce things that we put to bad purposes as well as good. We can also be selfish and create things to possess exclusively.

However, God declares he will redeem the fallen creation (Gen. 3:15). Jesus restores our relationships with God, ourselves, others and the creative process. To be a business person is often to be a creative entrepreneur, to help to sustain a family, support local enterprise and contribute to the creation of a better society. Businessmen and women can be part of the restoration process in Christ.

We are to mirror Jesus’ life and mission, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). It is a mission in which evangelism and social responsibility go hand in hand. God is concerned about us within our social and environmental contexts. Jesus’ ministry is clearly one of both preaching and demonstrating God’s Kingdom (Isa. 58:6-7; Luke 7:22).

Most people who came to Jesus did so with emotional, physical and social needs, and Jesus consistently met such needs. Nicodemus, an intellectual who had spiritual questions, was the exception, not the rule.

Importantly, Jesus never said to those who came to him with needs, problems and questions: “You have the wrong need. Don’t worry, it could be worse. Really, you should not bother about the blindness, hunger and injustice. Just pray.”

If Jesus were to walk around Africa and Asia today he would meet hundreds of millions of people who could plead: “I don’t have a job, I can’t provide for myself and my family. Jesus, please help.” What do you think Jesus would do and say? What is Good News to the unemployed?

Whether we look at Algeria, Mon-golia, Tajikistan or other places where the name of Jesus is rarely heard, we will often find unemployment rates ranging from thirty to seventy percent.

Two billion people live on less than $2.25 per day. Fifty percent of the world’s population is under twenty-five. In the next twenty years, three billion young people will enter the market place looking for employment. We can’t meet some of the world’s most dire needs unless we address the area of economic development.

If we want to preach the gospel in a way that is Good News to the world, we must meet needs holistically and influence all of society; therefore, we will need to emphasize business and economic development intentionally.

During its first four hundred years of existence the church grew to become a major influence in the world, thanks in part to people who lived their faith in the market place. Lydia was a businesswoman who lived out her faith by sharing the Good News (Acts 16:15). It is highly likely that Christian business people in the early church travelled to new lands to ply their trades and introduced the gospel to other people.

The church and its mission work still suffers from the self-imposed dichotomy between the spiritual and the secular, between clerical and lay ministries.

God has called some people to start and run companies. Sometimes, Christians have denigrated them or held the view that their work is irredeemably secular or only vouchsaved them approval if they gave their money to spiritual works through the church or a mission agency. In the same way God calls and equips people to be Bible translators or evangelists, he calls and equips people to do business to serve him and other people. In areas where the name of Jesus is rarely heard there is a desperate need of entrepreneurs.

There is a growing awareness that God uses business skills and experience within the mission field. Kingdom entrepreneurs need to be involved not merely by donating money to Christian organizations but by doing business in mission contexts, being consultants and developing enterprises as part of a deliberate strategy.

Many countries are throwing open doors, often closed to traditional missionaries, and requesting economic and business investment in their nations.

Christians in business need to be affirmed and challenged: God has given them unique gifts, vocations and experiences to meet great needs and opportunities. Business as Mission is a calling to be prized.

—–

Mats Tunehag is an international consultant, writer, journalist, andpastor. He has developed dozens of global partnerships in the Balkans and Central Asia. He is Lausanne (LCWE) Senior Associate for Business as Mission.

EMQ, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 8-9. Copyright © 2004 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.

Comments are closed.