What is it that allows some people to achieve more than others when all else seems equal? How do I reach past the storms I am facing to fulfill my potential? How do we extend beyond our comfort zone to our capacity zone? These were some of the thoughts I was pondered...
My flight was scheduled for 6:15am. That was wheels up. So even though I wasn’t checking any bags, that meant an 0-dark-30 arrival time at Indianapolis International. As I wandered through the terminal with a few hundred other half-sleeping passengers, I figured I had...
You’re probably reading this and you were most likely not the winner of the recent Mega Millions or Powerball jackpot. While listening to the radio the other day, the hosts talked at length about the possibility of being the winner of the jackpot. The first host...
We all deal with insecurities. All of us. Those nagging little voices that whisper, “you’re not enough.” This, of course, is completely true. On our own, you and I are not nearly enough. These voices sort of have a point. So what do we do with all this messy stuff...
You were created to create. As a Christian, that’s what I believe. I believe this because “God created the heavens and the Earth” (Gen. 1:1, NIV). And He also “created mankind in his own image” (Gen. 1:27, NIV). So, if God created everything and He created you...
“Something happens when you feel ownership. You no longer act like a spectator or consumer, because you’re an owner. Faith is at its best when it’s that way too. It’s best lived when it’s owned.” -Bob Goff Earlier in the day, I had spoken to a group of ministers about...
Do you remember the feeling of having “the wind knocked out of you?” I know scientifically that’s not an accurate description, but you get the picture. That happened to me today as I began the long journey home from a recent overseas trip. This is Anton. As I was...
I just spent the day in Chechnya. Less than two decades ago, this Russian republic in the southern region known as the Caucuses was completely decimated by war. In fact, the UN called Chechnya the worst war-time destruction in any territory since WWII. Even as the...
The phone rang with some discouraging news. A project we’d been working on for months, that we thought was in the bag (at least in principle), was starting to look unexpectedly shaky. It really caught me off guard. I found my mind wandering during my other morning...
The colorful flags of the nations were everywhere. They adorned a cluster of poles in the parking lot. They covered the back walls and stairwells of the auditorium. A giant globe sat atop a spare change fountain in the lobby, and about 300 plaques with faces of...
And at The Stone Table, we define BAM this way: Business as mission is the intentional integration of business and ministry to create a sustainable, missional presence of the kingdom of God in a particular community. Across the globe, all kinds of marketplace work is being embraced as a Great Commission opportunity to take the Gospel to every ethnos. We have missionary entrepreneurs that are starting sustainable farms, tourism companies, CrossFit gyms, and coffee shops in areas devoid of Gospel witness. We have gig economy workers like graphic designers and book editors that are moving their base of operations to strategic missions’ outposts. We have take-a-job missionaries that are partnering with local church planting teams and are embedding in local corporations that are moving them to unreached parts of the world. We have business owners that are franchising their models to missionary teams that could take the Gospel into places that traditional missionaries cannot go. And missionary investors are underwriting the risky startup costs of these strategic BAM projects through grant and investment dollars. And they’re embracing this multiple bottom-line definition of success and Great Commission returns.
So, what is the Great Commission? Do you know? The Great Commission is Jesus’ last instructions to his disciples as he ascended into heaven. These instructions weren’t just for professional pastors and missionaries. Jesus’ words were aimed at all of us who call him “Lord,” including those of us with marketplace jobs. Look at Matthew 28:19. It says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” It says “go,” to move out, to train up followers of all nations. And the Greek word here is actually ethnos. It’s ethnos or a people joined by similar customs or culture. We can better translate this word, not as geo-political nation states, but as people groups. And Jesus said to go make disciples of all of them. But the Joshua Project estimates there as many as 7,400 unreached people groups in the world today. These 7,400 people groups total 3.1 billion people or 42% of the global population. And for many of these people, were not just talking about a general disinterest in Christianity, we’re talking no access to the Gospel. If you are born into this 42%, there is a good chance that you will live and die without ever as much as meeting a Christian let alone hearing the life-giving message of Jesus. And this should disturb all of us. See, if you belong to Jesus, the Great Commission belongs to you.
That’s why two recent Barna surveys on global missions and evangelism really shocked and troubled me. Maybe you saw these. According to Barna, over half of all churchgoers, 51%, are completely unfamiliar with the concept of the Great Commission. But I think even more disturbing, they found almost half of practicing Christian millennials believe that evangelism is wrong. And perhaps these responses reflect a rejection of some historical missions’ missteps that were rooted more in western colonialism than the gospels full redemptive work. Perhaps, but I fear something worse. I fear God’s people may actually be losing God’s heart for the nations. I fear we’ve turned the Great Commission into more of a great suggestion. If we really love people, won’t we move heaven and earth to tell them how their sins can be forgiven, how they can find union with their heavenly father, and how they can function in the fullness of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. The answer is yes, and we passionately believe that mobilizing entrepreneurship, business, and the marketplace is a vital part of that Great Commission calling.