Business As Mission (BAM) has been an effective tool for spreading the gospel of Jesus and building the church around the world, particularly in places where traditional mission outreach is diffcult or impossible. We salute our brothers and sisters working in this space, though at times we have wished creation care was a more prominent part of their strategies.
Mark Polet, long-time member of the BAM community, has recently published “A Cup of Cold Water: Business and the Stewardship of Creation” in the BAM Review (their blog). Here’s an excerpt – click through to read the whole thing, and by all means let Mark know if this is encouraging to you:
The purpose of this blog is to reflect and comment on the eleventh affirmation of the Wealth Creation Manifesto:
11. Creation care is not optional. Stewardship of creation and business solutions to environmental challenges should be an integral part of wealth creation through business.
The Wealth Creation Manifesto is an integrated whole, and so I would like to continue from Dr. Rod St. Hill’s blog on affirmations 7 and 8. Rod argues that the BAM movement is committed to the quadruple bottom line – economic, social, environmental and spiritual. He then quotes Amartya Sen, saying threats to environmental sustainability is an ‘unfreedom’ that must be overcome to foster development.
Creation is a gift from God. Eons ago, God created everything we need right now for our businesses. What are we going to do with the gift?’ Specifically, how do we “set the captives free” [1] answering the challenge given by Rod St. Hill?’
