Most Admired Kingdom Company #6: Bethany Press :: USA
Bethany Press (www.bethanypress.com) is a Christian owned and managed book manufacturer providing publishing solutions for manifesting, production, printing, binding, fulfillment, and warehousing of Christian literature.In over 50 years of serving both publishers and authors, they have produced over 100 million life-changing Christian paperbacks in partnership with the majority of Christian publishers and ministries in America. They provide complete custom publishing services and project management for independent authors, ministries, and small publishers.
According to President and CEO John DePree, "Bethany Press began as a business for missions company, but is striving to become a Business as Mission company. We have only recently begun this transformation, and although it has been changing the way we do business every day, we have not arrived yet. We are committed, however, to measuring our progress and striving for continuous improvement."Under John's leadership, the team has adopted a quadruple bottom line criteria for evaluating their success as a BAM practitioner: social, economic, spiritual, and environmental transformation.
One distinguishing emphasis of Bethany is it's commitment to be a catalyst of environmental transformation. Bethany Press has been an industry leader in environmental impact. They have signed the Green Press initiative (http://greenpressinitiative.org/), and are working towards improving their shop waste and office recycling programs.
Another imporant characteristic of Bethany's culture is the fact that they are a tax paying for-profit business that was founded by a non-profit world missions organization. As a result, Bethany Press provides financial contribution back to the parent non-profit (Bethany International) which funds world evangelism, missionary training, and church growth.
Bethany International (www.bethanyinternational.org) maintains over 125 missionaries in 30 countries and Bethany College of Missions trains more each year. In 2005, Bethany witnessed the graduation of over 500 nationally trained missionaries through 100 training schools located in Kenya, Indonesia, India, Brazil, and the Philippines…
This said, Bethany Press is overtly profit focused. They see a compelling need to steward and therefore multiply the resources that God has entrusted to their care so that God's Kingdom may be further advanced by the proper use of those resources.
According to John, "The team used to view Bethany Press as the business that made profit to fund missions (Business for Missions). Profit was the main motive, and the work itself, although producing life changing Christian literature, was not viewed as ministry by the employees, leadership, or ownership. About two years ago, God began leading me on a journey that has brought me to understand work as a divine calling, Bethany Press’ identity as a BAM company, and the sacred/secular divide that has caused so much damage to the body of Christ.
As I have been transformed by this journey, I have invited the leadership team and our ownership to journey with me, seeking to discover God’s calling for Bethany Press and for each of us individually. This has led to many revelations about how our business had become misaligned with our vision, and ultimately God’s desire for our company.
Our business is currently in an extremely exciting phase. We are in the beginning phases of developing BAM ventures around the world. These new ventures will give us a chance to found BAM companies and have their values, priorities and vision rooted in BAM principles from the beginning. It’s a bit like building a ship in a dry dock versus trying to rebuild it while at sea. As I mentioned above, Bethany Press exists to help distribute the Christian message to a world in desperate need. The sky’s the limit as we dream about the future.
I’m excited and hopeful as we have already seen great strides taken, and transformation occurring within the business as we seek to follow after God and align ourselves with the mission he has given us."
Labels: 25 Most Admired Kingdom Companies 2007, Case Studies
