Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role of Business in Missions

Resources for Great Commission Companies by Steve Rundle and Tom Steffen

Here are some fantastic resources from Great Commission Companies. You can also find Great Commission Companies available for free on Google Books.

You can also check out their Great Commission Companies (a 6 page article in PDF form) which helps guide growing christian entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, and those passionate about micro-enterprise development:

1. Evaluate the business opportunity
2. Evaluate the missions opportunity
3. Assemble a management team
4. Build an advisory network
5. Develop a business plan
6. Develop a Great Commission plan

In the book Great Commission Companies that outline a couple solid questions for determining the financial viability of a Christ based Great Commission Company:

• How much money will it take to turn this into a profitable business?
• Where will the money come from?
• What other resources will be required (management skills, technology, and so on)
• What is the expected timeline for payback?
• How “mobile” are the assets? If things go badly, can they be redeployed or sold?
• How flexible is the business model? Is there room for expansion, changes in direction or allianaces with other companies?
• What will be the return on investment?

One method to evaluate the missions component of a Great Commissions Company:

• What location or people group will benefit the most from this type of company?
• What can this company do that other Christian organizations in the area cannot?
• Where will the resources for ministry-related activities come from?

Here are Great Commission Companies mentioned throughout the book:

Silk Road Handicraft Company (dead URL. Discussed and profiled in Chapter 7. See also Doing God’s Business: Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace)
Bergman Labs (no URL?)
Olive Technology
Homestead Partners (not sure about the URL) Discussed and profiled in Chapter 8
Pura Vida Coffee Discussed and profiled in Chapter 9
(World Visions, Sojourners, Habitat for Humanity)
Take Uplift (?)
Youth for Christ (not a GCC to my knowledge)
Global Opps [tons of resources]

Here is an initial list of 15 business as missions resources:

• Business as Missions Network

• Caleb Project

• Centre for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (Google results don’t display it)

• CIA World Factbook

• Connecting Business Men to Christ (CBMC)

• Country Commerical Guides (USA Trade.Gov) [note: government websites have apparently reorganized since the publication of Great Commission Companies)

• Fellowship of Companies for Christ

• Global Mapping International

• Global Opportunities

• Human Development Reports

• Intent

• InterVarsity Christian Fellowship

• Joshua Project II

• National Trade Data Bank

• People Teams

• Scruples

• Great Commission Companies

The Before you launching a business as missions project checklist in Great Commission Companies [along with other great resources]

Great Commission Companies Author Bios
Steve Rundel is associate professor of economics at Biola University. He has been a pioneer in researching and advocating the intersection of business and missions.

Tom Steffen is a professor of intercultural studies at Biola University. He was a mission in the Philippines for fifteen years is the author of several books on missions and cross cultural ministry.