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This is a presidential election year in the USA and this month of February is the month we remember two great presidents of yesteryear.  Monday is Presidents’ Day, part way between the birth dates of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. We do not readily associate these successful political figures with business, but both were one-time […]

The last two blogs referred to two of the three bottom lines of Business as Mission (BAM): (1) profitability and sustainability and (2) the creation of value, particularly job creation. The third bottom line is the development of spiritual capital – making followers of Jesus. The concept of the Triple Bottom Line has been around

Last week we began a three-part series on the Triple Bottom Line of Business as Mission (BAM).1  The first bottom line was that every business has a goal of profitability and sustainability. The second bottom line is the creation of value, particularly job creation. Mike Baer, in referencing the kingdom of God, understands that the

The Triple Bottom Line is a guiding force for the Business As Mission (BAM) movement.  This is the first of a 3-part series briefly examining the meaning of each of the three bottom lines that drive BAM businesses, starting with Triple Bottom Line #1: The goal of a BAM business is to be profitable and

Many business professionals and church leaders today are hearing of the term “Business as Mission” (BAM). While there are many variances to a perfect definition, I like the expression of J.D. Greear of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, NC, “Christians in the marketplace today are able to gain access more easily to strategic, unreached places.

“Any business that just makes a profit is not a good business.”  Henry Ford I was crossing the country on a long flight from Florida to Seattle recently and I picked up a copy of Fast Company magazine.1  The title is certainly not descriptive of my friends and me but I do enjoy the insights

Earlier this week we cited developments in honor of the past year (2015) in IBEC’s growth and development.  We thank God for those accomplishments and we now want to build upon them as we embrace 2016. Four months ago at our annual retreat we affirmed our purpose statement: We help build sustainable businesses through consultative

I was speaking at a large Christian university in the eastern USA last month and I saw a large engraving in one of the buildings, “Honor the past – Embrace the future”.  Let’s do that as this week we honor this past year in IBEC’s life and next week we will embrace the future. “The

Have you ever set out to check on something only to discover that you should have known the answer?  It just happened to me.  I wanted to check all the countries were IBEC has served and see what their Christmas traditions were.  Well, duh!  From the beginning IBEC has tried to serve the most unreached

My wife and I, being true Northerners, had never observed cotton growing on a plantation until just recently.  Those fuzzy bolls of soft cotton intrigued me to think about the history of cotton in America. Even though cotton had been grown in the South from colonial times, by the 1790’s rice, tobacco and indigo dominated