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Having recently met as an IBEC leadership team to cast vision for the years ahead, we also took time to look back and reflect on the things we’ve learned over our 11-year history. We continue to be humbled to see God at work and share this retrospective from Larry Sharp and Gary Willett, reprinted from […]

Thankfully much is being written nowadays about the Theology of Work and how God, as the worker God, gives we humans the ability to create wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18). The following “Wealth Creation Manifesto” was created by the Lausanne Movement and BAM Global and it helps us to understand how work is ordained of God and

This is a true story but the names of the people and the places have been disguised for security reasons. Charvi is an Indian girl born into the largest red-light district in Asia. Her mother, Aashi, had been “trafficked” as a young woman and had been in the sex trade for many years. As a

I am teaching an on-line class in innovation and entrepreneurship this summer. While preparing for the class I came upon this article in LinkedIn by Betty Liu, Founder and CEO at Radiate, Inc.. For BAM startups, it seems to be a “must read.” Larry Sharp, Director of Training, IBEC Ventures Larry.Sharp@ibecventures.com   What You Should

I recently went fishing with my daughter in the Kenai river of south-central Alaska – first for king salmon, then for the famous sockeye (red) salmon. Fishing was slow so I began to contemplate parallels to the world of Business as Mission (BAM) startups. 1. Love what you are doing. There were maybe 50 men

Dave Kier is an IBEC Board member and CEO of DFS Feed in Iowa. He writes a daily devotional for his more than 200 employees. I am privileged to be allowed to read them; one of which is reproduced here with his permission. Feedback from a recent Business as Mission conference I attended revealed a

The facts of this story are real and true; but due to security issues, names have been changed. As I travel around the US and Canada, I am often asked, “are you seeing any results for all your work with Business as Mission?” In short what they are demanding is “Show me the money”. It

Recently I watched a “60 Minutes”1 documentary describing the phenomenal rise of Chobani Yogurt to become the top selling yogurt brand in the United States. Founded in upstate New York in 2005 by Turkish immigrant Hamdi Ulukaya without outside investors, Chobani is a charming feel-good story of entrepreneurship. The story seems to have all the

Not long ago, I was talking with Ken Leahy, former IBEC Director and board member. He was giving me an update on the for-profit Discovery Eye Institute (DEI) in Ethiopia (owned by Sight for Souls in the USA). Ken is the treasurer of DEI and along with Gwen Rapp provided IBEC consulting services for DEI.

Historian Richard Morris suggests that there are seven key Founding Fathers.  Predictably they are John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington. If you are an entrepreneur or a business owner, you may identify most with Benjamin Franklin. Arguably he may have been the most successful inventor, entrepreneur