Welcome to our Resources page! Here, we curate articles written by GSI team members and other OM-ers - see our practical "How to BAM" series and "Sustainability and BAM" articles, as well as a series of missiological reflections by Jason Mandryk (author of Operation World, and formerly a GSI Project Team member). Scroll a little further down for links to useful external resources, and how OM-ers can receive regular updates and information from us.

How to BAM

In this series, we give practical Business-as-Mission tips

How to start a BAM

How to Generate Wealth to Bless Others

How a Business can be Missional

Sustainability and BAM

New Year Resolutions and Church Planting

Reflections on the Impact of Business-as-Missions

How to make Realistic Church-Planting Goals

By Abdul Bundu Conteh

The Power and Beauty of the Simple

Why GSI likes Simple Ideas

Discovering God's Vision in Your Planning

How to use "Revelation-Based Planning"

Business and Mission: Is Business Bad for Mission?

The missiological basis for Business as Mission

Sustainable Leadership Development

GSI reflects on what we have learned about Global South leadership development

Farming, Mission, and Sustainability

Farming as a mission and sustainability strategy

Jason Mandryk on The Bigger Picture

In this series, Jason Mandryk of Operation World (and formerly a GSI Project Team member), explores the larger missional and geo-political issues surrounding Global South mission sustainability:

In Sustainability, Change is the only Constant

The Mission of God: The Task Remaining - part 1

The Mission of God: The Task Remaining - part 2

Missional Urgency

What is OM's Missiology?

Our Mission and the End Days - part 1

Our Mission and the End Days - part 2

Money and Prosperity

Confidence

Be in the Loop

(for OM-ers)

Get involved in the GSI discussion by joining our Facebook and Yammer groups, and signing up for our quarterly newsletter for project updates, ideas.

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External Resources

The Lausanne Movement

The Lausanne Movement website has some great resources, including papers on Business as Mission, Tentmaking, and Issues of Financial Sustainability.

A May 2017 article on Finishing the Remaining 29% of World Evangelisation is particularly pertinent. Apparently, only 3% of all missionaries go to the 29% of the world's population who have little or no Gospel access. Responding to this is the core of why GSI exists. Many more must be mobilised to the 29% and the growing Global South church must be part of this wave. Radical church-planting movement or disciple making movement methodologies are seen as a key strategy to reach the unreached. Again, this ties in well with GSI, as business-as-mission strategies can sit well with CPM/DMM.

Business-as-Mission Resource - BAM Global

A great general resource on business-as-mission is the BAM Global Website. The BAM Global network had its origins in the Lausanne Movement ThinkTank for Business-as-Mission. Their website has readable and useful articles on business-as-mission (e.g., on farming businesses, on the hospitality sector, practical tips from practitioners), and well as more in-depth papers (e.g., on "BAM and Church Planting" and "Measuring BAM Impact"). You can also sign up for their regular newsletters.

Farming

Conservation farming is already being used to great effect to empower church-planters in one of our GSI projects. The methodology they use is adapted from the Foundations for Farming work in Zimbabwe - check out their work on their FfF Website.

TearFund has resources on poultry farming on their TearFund Website.

The Echo Community is another farming network.

Food & Beverage, Hospitality Business

The RestaurantOwner Website provides a dose of 'restaurant reality' to those who think they want to open a restaurant. With 1000+ resources for members, they also share some free resources. They aim to improve the proficiency of restaurant owners and key personnel to become better business managers, implement effective systems and create a culture of hospitality, excellence and accountability.

This Article on the Businessasmission Website talks about the importance of food and beverages, how an F&B business can be missional, and also address common pitfalls.

Miscellaneous

Missionaries make Good Entrepreneurs? In this article in the Harvard Business Review, a successful investor in businesses identifies characteristics he terms "missionary" characteristics as contributing to businesses that stand out. He sees that these "missionary values" make the most difference, such as being strategic, taking a long-term view, commitment to excellence, and a devotion to making meaning.

Dependency:- Mission Frontiers had in 2016 devoted an edition of the journal to the topic of "Slaying the Dependency Dealing with the Issue of Dependency in MissionDragon"

Resources