Earlier this year two evangelical groups, the Lausanne Movement and BAM Global, released a paper on the role of wealth creation in the church to address these question.
In the paper they note that wealth creation is a godly gift that is frequently misunderstood. Too many Christians still have a rigid divide between the sacred and secular, which causes them to miss that “God’s concerns are holistic, and so is the mission of the church.” Another problem is that many pastors lack any experience with the business world and so are unable to engage with people who spend most of their time in wealth creating activities.
The paper proposes four steps to address these obstacles and to engage the church in equipping business people to serve in the marketplace:
1. Enlighten: to create awareness through conferences and other means.
2. Educate: to accomplish a ‘shift in the minds of people from interest to commitment’.
3. Equip: to serve as a ‘boot camp for aspiring BAMers to become missional entrepreneurs’.
4. Empower: to design a roadmap for action; ‘at this point the church should proactively seek help and collaboration from other ministries or churches for the sake of the Kingdom of God.’
