#11 From the book (BAM in Indonesia) This story inspires me~~Kind of long but
Let me share a story from Indonesia, which illustrates the potential transformational power of business. It is part of my BAM journey. I witnessed firsthand how a Muslim village was transformed through prayer, Christian businesspeople, and owls. It was a warm and humid day in Indonesia. One may say almost too hot for a Swede. But the story that emerged was more than cool.
I spent a day with the mayor of a small Muslim village. We sat outside his house, drank tea, and nibbled on fruit, nuts, and sweets. He was enthusiastic and composed. As a devout Muslim, he had come to appreciate Christian businesspeople in a way that surprised him. There is a long and sometimes violent history of severe distrust and tension between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia.
The mayor told me that the village used to be quite poor. Rats ate 40 percent of the crops every year, and these creatures also spread disease. Collaboration for irrigation was nonexistent. There was a lack of entrepreneurial spirit, and it seemed that no one thought about praying for a difference.
Then one day, some Christian businesspeople visited the mayor and his village. They wanted to help, and they wanted to build bridges across a religious divide.
At first, the mayor declined. Why did businesspeople come and not charity workers or government people? On top of that, these people were Christiansânot Muslims. But one Christian businesswoman suggested that they could at least pray. She said that prayers make a difference; yes, God can make a difference. It was agreed. Something happened, and it became a turning point. The mayor invited them to come back and they did.
The team of Christian businesspeople did research and explored ways to kill the rats in an environmentally friendly way. They also researched how one could increase the agricultural production and start profitable businesses.
They found an owl called Tyto alba that eats rats but is also very hard to breed. Some told them it was impossible. But they prayed, conducted research, and it worked. I could see birdhouses everywhere on the fields. Since then the loss of crops has decreased from 40 to 2 percent per year, and new wells and irrigation have doubled the annual yield of rice.
I asked the mayor why they didnât dig wells and develop irrigation before the businesspeople came. He said that the Christians changed their mind-set regarding work and working together, and they first and foremost taught them the importance of prayer, to always start with prayer. âNow we are open to change and we take action,â said the mayor. âBut we always start with prayer.â
My Indonesian business friends have started business training courses in the villageâbased on biblical principles. They have also helped start small manufacturing businesses, improve marketing and sales, and strengthen local infrastructure.
This small village with 2,320 people has now become a model village in Indonesia. National televi
At the same time, there was an exponential growth of unemployment and underemployment. It was on a scale that most of us find hard to fathom. With it came all kinds of social problems. How could we as followers of Jesus respond to this need? Businesspeople were needed. But churches and mission agencies did not call upon the people qualified to address these challenges.
So in the mid-1990s we started to explore how we could engage, equip, and connect Christians in business with the needs and opportunities in the Central Asia region. We started the Central Asia Business Consultation and ran it for ten years. The lessons learnedâ including developing processes and networks to listen, learn, share, and connectâwere foundational for the later development of the global think tanks on Business as Mission.
Rwanda, Church Growth, and Genocide
A second game changer was the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. If our sole success criterion is church planting and growth, Rwanda was probably the ultimate success story in the history of church and missions. In about a hundred years, it went from 0 to approximately 90 percent of the population becoming members of various churches. But in the spring of 1994, about one million people were killed in just a few months. It literally was Christians killing Christians. Rwanda had people in church, but not church in people. The gospel had not transformed ethnic relations, politics, or media.
What Is Our Mission?
These tragic events forced me to review our mission. What is the mission of the church? How can we serve people and nations toward a holistic transformation, believing that God can transform individuals and communities, churches and nations? What does it mean to be a Christian in the marketplace? How can we do business as mission, law as mission, education as mission, and city planning as mission? How can we serve God and the common good? What does it mean in practice, and what are the lessons learned regarding seeking the shalom and prosperity of cities and nations as stated in Jeremiah 29? How do we affirm, equip, and deploy businesspeople to exercise their gifts of wealth creation for the nations as in Deuteronomy 8?
BAM x Three
BAM has three components: concept, praxis, and a movement. BAM is a biblical concept that is increasingly being applied around the world in many industries. The two global BAM think-tank processes, starting in 2002, have been instrumental in bringing about global cohesion and an increasing mutual understanding of the BAM concept.
But it is also a growing global movement of leaders in several constituencies: business, church, mission, and academia. The BAM Global Think Tanks have gathered intellectual and social capital: it has developed the BAM concept and a common language around it, as well as connected people and developed various networks. This has created an unprecedented connectedness of people and ideas.
BAM is certainly not a Western idea or network, and a large part of my journey into BAM has meandered through non-Western contexts.
BAM in Indonesia
Let me share a story from Indonesia, which illustrates the potential transformational power of business. It is part of my BAM journey. I witnessed firsthand how a Muslim village was transformed through prayer, Christian businesspeople, and owls. It was a warm and humid day in Indonesia. One may say almost too hot for a Swede. But the story that emerged was more than cool.
I spent a day with the mayor of a small Muslim village. We sat outside his house, drank tea, and nibbled on fruit, nuts, and sweets. He was enthusiastic and composed. As a devout Muslim, he had come to appreciate Christian businesspeople in a way that surprised him. There is a long and sometimes violent history of severe distrust and tension between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia.
The mayor told me that the village used to be quite poor. Rats ate 40 percent of the crops every year, and these creatures also spread disease. Collaboration for irrigation was nonexistent. There was a lack of entrepreneurial spirit, and it seemed that no one thought about praying for a difference.
Then one day, some Christian businesspeople visited the mayor and his village. They wanted to help, and they wanted to build bridges across a religious divide.
At first, the mayor declined. Why did businesspeople come and not charity workers or government people? On top of that, these people were Christiansânot Muslims. But one Christian businesswoman suggested that they could at least pray. She said that prayers make a difference; yes, God can make a difference. It was agreed. Something happened, and it became a turning point. The mayor invited them to come back and they did.
The team of Christian businesspeople did research and explored ways to kill the rats in an environmentally friendly way. They also researched how one could increase the agricultural production and start profitable businesses.
They found an owl called Tyto alba that eats rats but is also very hard to breed. Some told them it was impossible. But they prayed, conducted research, and it worked. I could see birdhouses everywhere on the fields. Since then the loss of crops has decreased from 40 to 2 percent per year, and new wells and irrigation have doubled the annual yield of rice.
I asked the mayor why they didnât dig wells and develop irrigation before the businesspeople came. He said that the Christians changed their mind-set regarding work and working together, and they first and foremost taught them the importance of prayer, to always start with prayer. âNow we are open to change and we take action,â said the mayor. âBut we always start with prayer.â
My Indonesian business friends have started business training courses in the villageâbased on biblical principles. They have also helped start small manufacturing businesses, improve marketing and sales, and strengthen local infrastructure.
This small village with 2,320 people has now become a model village in Indonesia. National television has portrayed it as a model on how to build bridges between Muslims and Christians, and as a model on how to develop transformational businesses. The village is also now a national learning center on how to breed owls that kill rats.
During my visit, I heard other testimonies on how concrete prayers had led to concrete answersârelated to rain, a paved road, a job, a motorcycle, and more.
As we left the village, I was encouraged and felt privileged. I had witnessed significant indicators of economic, social, environmental, and spiritual transformation. I asked myself: What were some of the key contributing factors? Prayers, Christian businesspeople, and owls.
It has been an exciting journey, both surprising and overwhelming. But it is a true privilege to be a part of a global community that is on a rediscovery journey of biblical truths about work, justice, business, profit, and creating in community for community. We are witnessing a great reawakening in the church worldwide. May this lead to a reformation, as we shape and reshape our businesses for God and the common good.
