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
Sustainability and BAM
New Year Resolutions and Church Planting
Reflections on the Impact of Business-as-Missions
The Power and Beauty of the Simple
Discovering God's Vision in Your Planning
Business and Mission: Is Business Bad for Mission?
Sustainable Leadership Development
Farming, Mission, and Sustainability
GSI Booklet
GSI published a booklet in 2016 which set out an overview of the project and what we had learned so far. An e-copy is still available:
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:
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.
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
Farming
TearFund has resources on poultry farming on their TearFund Website.
The Echo Community is another farming network.
Food & Beverage, Hospitality Business
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 DependencyDealing with the Issue of Dependency in MissionDragon"