Business as Mission

By Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith is a student of missions theology and practice on both the graduate and post graduate levels who seeks to create sustainable restoration strategies that allow the church to once again be a restorative force in our culture. 

During the last twenty years there has been a substantial decline in overall church health as can be seen in average weekly attendance, charitable giving, and churches positioned for closing. The Giving Institute reported that from 1987 to 2015 the North American nonprofit sector saw an increase in overall charitable giving, while the percentage of the total charitable contributions going to churches dropped from 53 to 32 percent. Additionally, church closures are projected to be as high as 250 per week for the coming year. This does not paint a very positive and uplifting picture of Christianity and the church in America. 

There has been a shift in thinking that has been taking place over the last twenty years with regard to how the church seeks to reach people in their own communities. The models for worship and mission have both undergone dramatic change, and many people have sought to engage the idea of rethinking the dominant invitational model. While the music has changed and there is an increased sensitivity to cultural need in our missional activity, has anything really changed? Is the church better off today than it was twenty years ago with regard to impact on people’s lives and sustainability? 

I would challenge that the answer is unequivocally no! All indications are that the church is far worse off than it has been in the last several hundred years. I certainly do not have the answer to the issues and challenges that the church faces, but I do know that we do not have to reinvent the wheel to recapture relevance and develop new ways of sustainability beyond the donor model. 

C. Neal Johnson, in his book Business as Mission, broadly defines the concept of Business as Mission (BAM) as a “for-profit commercial business venture that is Christian led, intentionally devoted to being used as an instrument of God’s mission (mission dei) to the world, and is operated in a crosscultural environment, either domestic or international.” There was a time in the American culture that a case could not have been made for it being a crosscultural environment. That is no longer possible. America is one of the most diverse populations in the world, with different languages, dialects, customs, and worldviews living within the same neighborhoods. We are uniquely positioned to reap the benefit diversity to transform how we do church and mission. 

Business as Mission provides a pathway for the American church to recapture relevance while engaging the cultural needs of local people through jobs and marketplace initiatives. Business as Mission, when successfully implemented, creates financial sustainability that moves the church beyond the donor model to one that aligns local community need with revenue generating, Christ centered solutions.