A: Christian business people

If you haven’t taken a look at the Business As Mission Network blog yet, please check it out – they are a great resource that is always on top of what’s going on in the BAM community: http://www.businessasmissionnetwork.com/

Here is a great article speaking about the great potentional of Christian businesspeople: http://www.businessasmissionnetwork.com/2010/01/greatest-potential-for-christian.html

Excerpt:

“There is a new generation of business leaders who see the world differently. For them, God has called them into business.  Their company is to be used by God for His purposes. They are passionate about creating products or services. They love marketing and sales. They are always mindful of the bottom line. But there is a higher calling.”

AVODAH is the new generation – working for a higher calling!

Thank you for helping us out!

STUDENTS go here: http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=BOEOH_5ed1611c

PROFESSIONALS go here: http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=BNJEO_89ba3c6d

Confirmation to expand internationally recently came from a brother in Africa. Anthony (Tonny) Okello is a gospel artist and also involved in a micro-finance business in Nairobi, Kenya . He discovered AVODAH through an internet search after praying with others about starting a ministry to high school and college students in Kenya. His vision is to use both music and business to eradicate poverty and reach the youth of Kenya with the Gospel and he desires to establish an AVODAH chapter in Kenya to do this. (Please read his Avodah Student Fellowship (Kenya) vision summary for further information.)

Also, an amazingly timely and relevant article (Mission Spirituality and Authentic Discipleship: An African Reflection) has been written by Serah Wambua about BAM in Africa! In it she states:

“Unemployment is yet another challenge in Africa. This is compounded by a youthful population of 60% in Africa who are under 25 years of age.

This situation presents multiple challenges including crime, idleness, opportunistic diseases and political unrests with young people being used by politicians in conflict areas. Child soldiers have been a significant feature of political strife in Africa including in Northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and more recently in the Kenyan crisis of 2008. The South African case of xenophobia in 2008 involved this same youthful population who out of their own vulnerability targeted their own brothers ‘on the basis of borders that were not even of our own making as Africans’.”

God’s hand is definitely moving in Africa and raising up his people with a common heart and vision to share the Gospel through meeting both spiritual and material needs sustainably. AVODAH prays for the youth of Africa and looks forward with eager anticipation to witness how God will transform lives and communities there for His glory.

We look forward to partnering with Anthony and others around the world in this ministry as AVODAH Student Fellowship International – for Christ and his Kingdom!

Have you ever considered that your career, occupation, or profession is part of your divine calling and meant to be a form of worship? What a radical integration!

For an “Avodah” word study go to: http://ag.org/top/church_workers/wrshp_gen_avodah.cfm and http://www.thehighcalling.org/Library/ViewLibrary.asp?LibraryID=5047

In October 2009  a global consultation on Business as Mission was organized under the theme ‘Business as Integral Calling’. The Wheaton Consultation brought together leaders from the realms of business, non-profit organizations, and Christian ministry with theologians and academic leaders in business, economics, and missions from sixteen countries and five global regions “to explore the place of business in God’s purposes, together with the sacred calling of a life in business”.

One brief excerpt:
“It is our deep conviction that businesses that function in alignment with the core values of the Kingdom of God are playing and increasingly should play an important role in holistic transformation of individuals, communities and societies.”

…Praise God! May the conversation continue and expand!

Business people are NOT second class citizens in God’s Kingdom. The Bible even portrays a businesswoman as a godly example of how to serve others and meet various needs. Let’s briefly look in the Bible, at Proverbs chapter 31:
 
16 She considers a field and buys it;
                      She does a market assessment and invests
Out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
                      She makes a profit and reinvests
18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
                      She keeps books and manages cash flow
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
                      She is involved in manufacturing and retail
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
                      She has set up a supply chain
20 She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
                      She uses part of profit for charitable work
15 she provides food for her family
                      She is the breadwinner of the family
and portions for her servant girls.
                      And provides employment
31 Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
                      Her work in business should be recognized and is certainly commendable

“CBN.com – Have you ever felt that your calling is not as “spiritual” as someone else’s? Has a friend or a leader in the church ever implied that if you were really “on fire for the Lord” you would drop your current profession and enter what is commonly referred to as “full-time ministry”? Have you wrestled with why God would give you skills and abilities in the field of business if that is not a valid use of your time?

In many church bodies, the Christian business community has been effectively marginalized by what Dr. R. Paul Stevens has poignantly described as a “Spiritual-Vocational Hierarchy.” Illustrated in the shape of a pyramid, Stevens shows how unbiblically some in church leadership view business people. Each level of the pyramid supposedly gets you closer to becoming more spiritual since, in the minds of these leaders, God is more pleased with the service of those in the upper sections—those known as “professional” clergy. (Apparently, then, He must be pretty displeased with lawyers, politicians, and others who don’t even make it onto the chart!)

Sadly, these are the prevailing assumptions about work in many churches, and they culminate in apathy, discouragement, resentment, and ultimately, a sweeping demobilization of talented people. The good news, though, is that many leaders are seeing through the fallacy of this pyramid and actively awakening people to the important work they can do for the Lord, both locally and globally, using the skill set He has already given to them”

-Scott McFarlane
Advancing Churches in Mission Commitment

“The difference between the Biblical worldview of competition and the world’s view is that in the Kingdom, we believe that the competitor is not another person, but that the competitor is the devil and his cohorts. He just happens to manifest himself through people. Also, our aim is not to destroy the person the enemy is using, but to win them over to the Kingdom of God, even if we must do it through a higher performing business. No matter what our industry or type of business, if we are to be competitive or have the advantage over our competitor, we must know and walk in our competitive advantage…As Kingdom businesses, our competitive advantage has an eternal dimension. It is the unique approach that we take to serving our customers while being a light for Jesus in the marketplace. It is also the eternal perspective with which we approach our work and our service to customers. Worldly businesses can have a high-grade product, they may develop great technology and efficient systems, but what they cannot do is bring an eternal dimension to their work and service. This is reserved only for Kingdom businesses.”

-Patrice Tsague
The Nehemiah Project

Next meeting will be Friday, October 16th at 4:30p in Alter Hall 240a (breakout meeting room on 2nd floor) – come check it out!

Welcome to Temple University’s Kingdom Business Blog! This is where students can share, discuss, and dig deeper into the subject of “Kingdom Business”. There’s lot’s to come, so please check back often, and feel free to contribute your responses!

For Christ and His Kingdom,

Amber Aureden