Business with Church Planting 
Business as mission is a powerful strategy when combined with church planting.
The newly planted church can face a huge challenge in pulling people from the community into the church family—the Body of Christ.
A business penetrates outward into the community rather than simply attempting to pull people from the community. When the business is Christ focused, it thus has a capacity to reach a large segment of the community with the love our Lord.
The combination of church and BAM is very important. As people are reached from the activity of the business, the church becomes a home for assimilation and discipling new believers.
I am researching some examples to share in the coming weeks. One that is of interest to me is from an organization called “Peru Mission.” This is of particular interest to me, as this church and business are located in Trujillo, Peru. Trujillo is fairly close to the project planning which we recently featured for the church team in Otuzco, Peru. Trujillo is near the coast, and Otuzco is above Trujillo in the Andes. I hope these pastors and project leaders can share information and learning in the very near future.
Here is some information from the websites of Peru Mission and also Christianity Today.
In Trujillo, Peru, a hybrid effort is underway, teaming the church with a for-profit business. Peru Mission began in the late 1990s, under the care of Christian Missionary Society based in Statesboro, Georgia. Much of Peru Mission's funding comes from Presbyterian Church in America congregations. "We have a high view of the church as community," explains Brad Ball, a businessman and early Mission member. "When you work in the context of the church as community, the church isn't just a club you belong to, but it's a place where people's lives get intertwined and people are interdependent, and it's territorial."
Peru Mission has already planted two churches, one of 200 members and another of 50 members, both led by ordained Peruvian pastors. Medical missions are operating. The next step is to boost the local economy. Unlike the typical BAM, Peru Mission starts a church first, and then follows with businesses.
Peru Mission is working in the midst of great poverty. Less than 50% of the country is employed in the formal economy, which means that most of the rest are getting by as day laborers or street vendors. In urban neighborhoods, there are a staggering number of single mothers struggling to feed their children, as men drift between jobs and families.
However, after providing temporary band-aids for financial difficulties for a while, we saw time and time again the need to be actively pursuing long-range solutions to economic problems as well. So, as we strive to rebuild the ruins and lay the foundations of a righteous community, part of our work here includes economic development. Currently we have several economic development projects designed to create jobs and help poor families steward their limited resources more wisely, as well as provide training and skills to improve their chances for employment in the future.
As you can see, they see the power of combining the planted church with BAM projects.
I hope to visit them in Trujillo on our next trip to Peru.
Blessings,
Larry
| 
