Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role of Business in Missions

by Steve Rundle and Tom Steffen

“Globalization is a part of God’s plan to integrate the entire body of Christ into his global plan (mission)” (47). People can and should become a part of this plan by creating Great Commission Companies (GCCs) throughout the world.

InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426, 2003, 204 pages, $16.00.

—Reviewed by Bruce Howard, chair, Department of Business and Economics, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.

“Globalization is a part of God’s plan to integrate the entire body of Christ into his global plan (mission)” (47). People can and should become a part of this plan by creating Great Commission Companies (GCCs) throughout the world.

Whether you agree with this statement or are simply interested in learning more about it, you should read Great Commission Companies.

Many people are debating the positive and negative consequences of economic globalization. Rundle and Steffen address this issue fairly and view globalization as an undeniable force to be reckoned with. They conclude that it offers an opportunity for a new kind of mission strategy in bringing the “transformation of the minds and hearts” so that the societies of this world can enjoy sustainable social and economic change.

The instruments for bringing about such changes are Great Commission Companies. The authors define a GCC as “a socially responsible, income-producing business managed by kingdom professionals and created for the specific purpose of glorifying God and promoting the growth and multiplication of local churches in the least-evangelized and least-developed parts of the world” (41).

Characteristics of a GCC include being socially responsible, operating profitably, and being managed by kingdom professionals with cross-cultural training and experience who strive for excellence. Managers of GCCs should be spiritually mature people who are grounded in the spiritual disciplines. GCCs participate directly or indirectly in multiplying local churches and intentionally focus on the spiritually and economically least-advantaged peoples of the world.

Rundle and Steffen provide useful “how to” advice on starting a GCC. They offer insights on corporate/business governance issues that are important to sustaining long-term success.

In the second part of the book, the authors present examples of four GCCs in a typology that I found more artificial than useful. Their examples were not as compelling in practice as their general thesis was in theory. That is probably both the weakness and the strength of this book—life is almost always harder in practice than in theory. While the examples are less compelling, they are also more realistic, and in the end, we should be grateful for honest authors who presented things as they found them.

Rundle and Steffen are onto something. Economic globalization has drawn many business people away from their homelands and placed them in foreign lands. Hopefully the authors are right that this trend affords the church a new opportunity to bring the gospel’s salvation and transforming power to the world’s neediest places.

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.

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