It is an incredible privilege to be part of this movement. Mission Global has recognized the opportunities of Business as Mission to bring the gospel into new places.
Business as Mission (BAM) is a global missions movement. Generally speaking, “BAM” is an overarching term being used in Christian circles to describe the integration of ministry goals and business activity to make an impact for God’s kingdom. Today, it is practised in bustling urban centres and impoverished rural communities alike. Its strategy is applied by pioneering cross-cultural workers to engage unreached people groups in restricted contexts. The strategy is also used by churches and Christian leaders within Canada and other historically Christian countries. Practitioners of BAM may be skilled workers, such as teachers, doctors or engineers, who intentionally take their careers into the world, carrying the Good News. There are also entrepreneurs who generate employment and create conduits into communities that have not yet received the gospel.
When my wife and I started in missions (nearly 25 years ago), we had not heard the term “Business as Mission.” Yet we knew we were required to respond to the Great Commission and sensed what we felt was a “call” to obey God’s leading as doors opened for us to go overseas. It seemed logical to be willing to go where “traditional” missions workers could not. So, when an opportunity came to enter a Restricted Access Nation through our profession, we stepped into the unknown. Over the years, we have been privileged to disciple both employees and customers to Christ. We have seen the church become established where it had not been. We have also helped local churches of a variety of expressions and contexts establish businesses that not only provide resources for growth, but also create strategic connections within their communities.
Just as the early church availed itself of the Roman roads and Greek culture to reach people with the Good News, today, there are movements of disciple-makers who are using the open doors of business to bring the gospel to the least reached.
It is an incredible privilege to be part of this movement. Mission Global has recognized the opportunities of Business as Mission to bring the gospel into new places. The role of GlobalWorks is to encourage, resource and equip pioneering workers to be more effective in their practise of Business as Mission, especially among the least reached. To this end, we have a variety of programs to help workers with all parts of their planning, from the business nitty-gritty to the disciple-making and church-growth modelling.
Sue represents the type of Canadian cross-cultural worker we serve. She is a retiree who heard about the completely unreached people on a remote island in Southeast Asia. Upon visiting this area, God gripped her heart with the unspeakable injustices of human trafficking that are prevalent in this part of the world and gave her a vision. After years of preparation, planning and building, Sue is in this community as the owner of a restaurant. This restaurant hires locals, providing them with a livable wage, and so much more. Last year, she opened a vocational training centre for at-risk women. Through Sue and her visionary small business, there is now a small community of believers who are being a contextual witness within this once-unreached island.
Manuel has benefited from our partnership to mobilize. He and his family represent the growing number of Latin Americans who are responding to the need to engage the least reached. However, his home missions program lacked the BAM-specific experience to properly support him in his preparations. Through our partnership, we were able to bring one of our programs to a cohort of Latin Americans. Manuel is now with his family, settled among an Asian unreached people group. Together, they are opening a sports club that offers soccer, dance and other activities to the community. We join them in believing for a spiritual breakthrough.
This is just the beginning. Others in Manuel’s cohort have now mobilized to North Africa and the Middle East. These people represent the future of missions. Today, more Latin Americans and Africans are responding to the call to reach people with little to no access to the gospel. Missions today involves people from everywhere to everywhere. Contexts that have received global workers for generations are now sending their own. This reality creates new work for us all. One new project we have begun is on a scale we did not expect. We are now working with a network of around 20 Latin American denominations to build a training program for their workers. For them, the BAM model offers the opportunity to send more workers among the least reached than before. They have workers who are prepared to respond to the need, but they are asking for help with equipping. Within the next few months, we will launch a fully Spanish online program our partners will use to mobilize Central and South American BAM practitioners into North Africa, the Middle East and across Asia.
As we consider the trajectory of missions, there are three factors that we must embrace:
- Much of the world’s population still has little to no access to the gospel.
- Business as Mission creates natural opportunities to access many of the contexts where these unreached people are.
- God is raising up the global church to respond.
The GlobalWorks team is committed to finding innovative ways to lead into the intersection of these realities. Get involved. Check out our websites. Sign up for a newsletter, follow us on social media, or invest in our work. We cannot do this alone.
Rob W. is a restricted access worker. Visit www.globalworkscanada.ca, www.b4tincubator.com and www.seedafricaproject.org. This article appeared in the October/November/December 2026 issue of testimony/Enrich, a quarterly publication of The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. © 2026 The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Photo © istockphoto.com.