The world is changing rapidly. Globalization, urban expansion, and the rise of the middle class have created diverse opportunities for global outreach. This shift necessitates new and different missions strategies. Consequently, a Business as Mission (BAM) approach should be integral to any shift in missions strategy for 2021 and beyond. Here are several reasons why BAM is a valuable tool and how to overcome its unique challenges.
ACCESS
Missionaries increasingly face difficulties securing visas to reside among the world’s unreached populations. BAM initiatives often facilitate easier access to these regions while providing financial stability and housing. However, this model introduces obstacles, such as the demand of working 50 or more hours per week in potentially English-speaking corporate environments that are insulated from the local culture. While these concerns are valid, they are not as insurmountable as they may initially appear.
First, many expatriate positions are less demanding than their counterparts in the United States. For instance, teaching at international schools provides regional access alongside significant time off. Similarly, government or state department roles often feature 30-hour work weeks and schedules that observe both U.S. and host-country holidays. Furthermore, many multinational corporations compensate for the rigors of living abroad by offering additional vacation time, allowing for intentional community engagement.
Beyond this is the fact that the hours spent at work are not necessarily wasted time. As a full-time vocational missionary in Mexico City, I quickly learned that my weekday hours could have been more productive in the workplace, since nobody I was trying to reach was home during the day. In most cities around the world, people spend fifty or more hours per week at work, so to be at work with them is often the only way to build relationships with them. This is particularly true if a worker is attempting to reach the middle or upper classes, who are frequently the most unreached.
LANGUAGE
Effective, long-term ministry will unquestionably be very difficult without learning the host language. However, many government, educational, and even corporate jobs will allow for and potentially even pay for language learning. This may not be easy, and may require an additional time commitment, but it will bear fruit in the long run. Additionally, building relationships with bilingual locals at an English-speaking workplace can provide friends who can serve as bridges into the community as you grow in your language and cultural proficiency.
TIME MANAGEMENT
While there is certainly a reality of the demands that some jobs put on an individual, as discussed above, this is not true of every job. The idea that a BAM strategy adds demands to a marketplace worker sets up a false dichotomy between a BAM strategy and a traditional missions strategy. Where BAM strategy does require time and energy to be spent in a vocation, often a traditional missions strategy requires time and energy to be spent in fundraising.
Fundraising can take years before a family is able to even move to the field, and often requires frequent and lengthy trips back to the US to keep support at a livable level.
While BAM may not provide as many hours in the week to do discipleship and leadership training, depending on your target audience, these activities will likely need to take place outside of business hours regardless of the missionary’s employment status. Just because the missionary has free time during the middle of the workday doesn’t mean those he is evangelizing or discipling have that luxury. Any cross-cultural worker must be diligent to use the time wisely for ministry.
COMMUNITY
Every cross-cultural missionary should be planning for a long-term church presence that is not reliant on them. This requires working as part of a team, which not only includes but is ultimately led by local believers and pastors. There are few, if any situations, in which it is wise for a family to move to a foreign field to attempt missions apart from a team and/or strong support network, regardless of how their bills are being paid. Cross-cultural ministry is stressful, challenging work, and those engaged in such work need others around them to encourage them, support them, challenge them, and keep them accountable.
The world is changing rapidly. As more of the world moves to cities, Western culture becomes less supportive of Christianity, and economies and governments continue to shift, missions strategy will have to adapt and evolve in order to keep up. Much of our missions methodology has its roots in a time when most missionaries reached poor, rural, agrarian or tribal societies.
Around the world people are flocking to cities and the middle class is exploding, radically changing the lifestyles of those we are trying to reach and requiring new strategies and methodologies to be effective. While it is certainly not the answer for every scenario or context, the 21st century will likely need more—not less—BAM workers in order to continue to effectively engage the lost world with the gospel.
This article originally appeared on TheUpstreamCollective.org and is reposted here by permission.
