Rudy Carrasco, frequent lecturer at Acton University and other Acton events, board member of the Christian Community Development Association, and the U.S. Regional Facilitator of Partners Worldwide, recently posted this on his blog, Urban Onramps:
- We call upon the Church world wide to identify, affirm, pray for, commission and release business people and entrepreneurs to exercise their gifts and calling as business people in the world – among all peoples and to the ends of the earth.
- We call upon business people globally to receive this affirmation and to consider how their gifts and experience might be used to help meet the world’s most pressing spiritual and physical needs through Business as Mission.
What I find interesting in this language is that the recommendation for business owners is to “receive this affirmation” and move into Business as Mission (BAM). The affirmation needs to come from the Church who is being called upon to “identify, affirm, pray for, commission and release” these business people. There is an order here: first the church affirms, then the business owners go out. Yet, most BAM groups are not addressing the Church. There is much complaining about the Church, in that the Church does not affirm business people or sees business people as less holy, or only wants business people for their money. Yet, the Church is not being challenged, taught, or addressed. When I proposed a shift to my work a year ago to engage the Church more in BAM and directly involve them in this work, I was told by a number of people that it would be foolish to do this. I was told that the Church is too difficult to work with, too bureaucratic, too desiring of power, and that it will not be successful.
