World Impact’s Kingdom Financial Sustainability (KFS) team conducted their first ever Business as Missions (BAM) Workshop on 3rd July 2021. The main purpose of the workshop was to encourage business professionals in CityLife to “Come and discover how they can play a vital role in helping our partners in the field with this exciting new world of missions”.
In total, approximately 50 registered for the workshop with 30 finally attended. Some could not make it as it had to be postponed from the original date due to COVID restrictions. There was an excellent mix of young and not-so-young, business owners and professionals, employed and unemployed (i.e. retirees!) coming along to the workshop.
The workshop was conducted in 3 parts and included an introduction about the role of business in world missions, and how an individual can be involved. It presented a challenge to any professional and supporter to see business as a ministry and calling. It was also a call-to-action for those who are willing to go on the journey as pray-ers, coaches, practitioners and trainers.
Some of the responses from attendees included –
“I think BAM is a unique concept. Unlike typical church programs where a person commits to a weekly or monthly schedule, the opportunity here is to get involved and facilitate a business venture overseas which is inherently messy (but also rewarding). I don’t think this messiness was communicated early enough and it took me a while to actually clarify what the opportunity was”
“I felt the session was not as structured as it could have been. It conveyed the heart behind well but the ‘how’ was not as defined, and I understand as majority of things are at feasibility stage it is how it is, however I felt it left room for a lot of people to walk away and do nothing.”
Well, there is always scope to improve.
The KFS team will be contacting all participants that have indicated that they want to be involved & committed. We will be exploring specific projects and allocating participants to these teams – the initial task being to develop a robust business case for each project.
For those who initially registered for the workshop but were unable to attend, and for new interested individuals, the KFS team are planning to run the workshop again on 13Nov21 – stay tune for more details and an on-line registration link.
If you can’t wait till then but want to be involved in using your professional / business skills in missions, please contact world.impact@citylife.church
– Pete
