BaM... Avoiding the Pitfalls

Over the years I have seen or consulted on many Business as Mission (BaM) projects. Unfortunately, many of them were neither strong businesses nor strong mission efforts. This has given me ample reason to ask why and to consider what we can do differently at Kingdom Growers. Many people have told me that BaM is usually unsuccessful because missionaries are ministers and minsters don't make good business people. I just don’t buy this as a legitimate reason. Seminary is no cake walk. Having a grasp of the hypostatic union of Christ is a far more difficult of a concept to understand and explain than, “make more than you spend.” Secondly, the U.S. is seeing continued emergence of mega-churches operating with huge multi-million dollar budgets. This doesn’t happen if ministers aren’t good business people. I think the reason most BaM projects struggle is not a lack of technical ability, but more of a philosophical hurdle. Missionaries are called to reach the lost, and if the business isn’t helping to accomplish that goal, then frankly, the missionary has little interest in operating that business in a way that will allow it to be successful. I have found this to be true for myself. In order to prevent the philosophical pot hole of missionary indifference, we have built Kingdom Growers in a way that successfully operating the business, will drive us toward being successful in our greater mission. Kingdom Growers will never be just about selling coffee or even creating proceeds to “give back.” Rather, Kingdom Growers is very intentional about how we do things and why we do them.  Anyone can buy coffee and sell it. We only buy coffee from communities and groups where reaching people for Christ is more important than the coffee itself; where the contact with the community isn’t just about making a purchase or a sale, but where the coffee is fuel for long-term, mutually beneficial, and even interdependent relationships. It is those relationships, those introductions, coffee discussions, hopes, and plans for the future that provide the opportunity to share our faith and hope in Christ. It is the struggle daily, together; to grow, harvest, transport, roast, and sell the coffee that provides us the opportunity to live and struggle together as brothers and sisters in a global community that one day will become a heavenly kingdom. Our BaM strategy to avoid the pitfalls is simply built on this foundation: Build Great Relationships through Great Coffee to share the Greatest Word and to live together in Great Faith.