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Business

Posted by Justin Long ⋅ June 13, 2008 ⋅

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In the swarmish strategy outlined the other day, we envisioned a small pioneering team raising up 100 local ministries which impacted 1,000 people. These local ministries would be led by cultural insiders—believers in Christ who come from within the culture (or nearer to the culture than the pioneer team). These cultural insiders would encounter fewer barriers to the Gospel, because of their understanding of the language and culture.

What form should these ministries take? We need to think “outside of the box,” to use a quaint buzzphrase. They do not need to be pastors or street-corner evangelists.

We need to think about how the Gospel is to be translated and contextualized into every culture: how we need to practically apply what the Good News of the Kingdom means in every sociopolitical segment within a culture—to employers and employees, to governors and the governed, to slaves and servants, to criminals and the imprisoned, etc. The “Good News” is not just the announcement that you should give your heart to Jesus. That is only the beginning. The “Good News” is that the Kingdom is near, and the Kingdom will bring the beginning of joy and the end of sorrow.

These 100 local ministries, then, could also be thought of as 100 local “sociocultural translators” or “implementers.” They are witnesses who incarnate the Gospel, who give it face and presence in the culture, who begin to live out what it means to be a Kazakh who follows Christ, or a Han Chinese who follows Christ, or a Fulani who follows Christ, etc. If you are a follower of Christ, what does discipleship enhance in your culture? what does it get rid of? what does it change slightly? what does it change deeply? I have seen believers in Christ who pray fervently to Jesus—in the Muslim way, on their knees, faces bowing to the ground, hands outstretched.

So if you are one of the 100, and your vision is to impact 1,000 people with the Good News, one way that you might do so is through a business. It doesn’t have to be a church or a cell group—if your business impacts, for example, 250 people, each of whom in turn affect an additional 4 people (family or extended family?), then you would be affecting 1,000 people. What kind of message can you pass on through your words and deeds as a small business owner? through your integrity, through how you help your community, through your employment practices?

And further, how can a pioneering team help a small business get started, and model Christian integrity?
I bring up this example for a specific reason: I am happy to welcome Jason Benedict as our first additional contributing editor to this site. Jason has brought us great articles in the past and will be taking on a role as a regular writer for Momentum, focusing primarily on issues related to missionary training and business as missions. He presently works at Regent University, and has a passion for the unreached. I’ll let him introduce himself more fully in his first posting. I will say here only that I am excitedly looking forward to the additional perspectives on business and tentmaking that are so vital to a vision for transforming nations.

Welcome aboard, Jason!