Business and Kingdom Business in India by Joseph Vijayam of Olive Technology
Business may be broadly defined as the production and distribution of goods and services that are felt to be needed for life in this world. “Kingdom business” as used in the title is a deliberate equivocation which refers to two ideas. The first is the “business” of the kingdom – the “Father’s business,” as it were (Luke 2:49) -- or Christian ministry, which seeks to disciple and develop individuals and people groups for eternal life in the kingdom here and hereafter.The second, narrower, meaning of “kingdom business” as used in this article is a modern type of commercial business whose explicit goal and raison d’etre are to subserve kingdom concerns, which essentially consist in developing people and glorifying God.
The writer of this article, is Chief Executive and part owner of an information technology business called Olive Technology which seeks to approximate to this concept. This model of business is a major focus of this article.
Changing equations between business and mission::
The industrial age has changed the character and structure of business and consequently of social life. The net result of this change, for the purpose of this article, is that life and society have become relatively secularized and compartmentalized and that religion has less access to the various departments of life and groups of people, and is relatively isolated from life in general. While it is true that people need God today as much as ever, their need is addressed less often than it was before the advent of modernization. New forms of mission work have, in God’s providence, arisen in response to the changing situation, businessmen going into mission being one of many such initiatives.
To understand the changed equations between mission and business, let us look at some relevant aspects of the complex changeover to modernity. What I say below applies primarily to the developed countries, but it also applies to the others in so far as they too have joined in the march of globalization, leaving them no choice other than to modernize.
Until the end of the Medieval Age, religion was woven into the fabric of the local community and of the culture of the people concerned. Most people were engaged in trades relating to the basic necessities of life such as food and clothing for the subsistence of the family and a limited local community. Trade beyond the boundaries of the local community was minimal and of limited significance to the lives of most people. With the agricultural-industrial-technological revolution came cheaper mass production for the competitive market and an explosive growth of international trade, which, combined with the recent strides in telecommunication and information technology, has given rise to the“global village.”Another relevant aspect of the change was specialization in work, a shift away from basic necessities to numerous new products and services creating new trades and new non-cohesive secular social groupings; and, concomitantly the weakening of the traditional local communities and the religious and cultural roots and nurture supplied to individuals and families. This process was accentuated by the migration of people to urban, industrial and educational centers and, in the process, the marginalization and secularization of many. Another important development that affected religion was mass literacy. It brought religion to the people and facilitated mission outreach on the one hand and, on the other, it resulted in the wide acceptance of the naturalist evolutionary thought paradigm which under girded the secularization of life at the philosophical level. Concurrent with this came the sexual revolution, challenging the hardiest of social institutions, namely the family. Religion and church fellowship, once an integral part of social and family life, is today more a matter of individual choice. Missionary responses among numerous responses of the church to the modern situation, I mention a few by way of illustration.
Overseas mission was one of the earliest responses of the church to the changed situation -- this, however, was a revival of the apostolic model of evangelism. Like Paul and Thomas, many missionaries such as William Carey, the Moravian missionaries and the Swiss Basel Mission adopted the self-supporting“tentmaking” strategy, but with one difference that anticipates the modern businessman’s approach (Christie Wilson, Today’s Tentmakers, pp 28-35). While St. Paul, a hunted and persecuted missionary, could not attempt more than poverty relief to witness to the love of Christ, these missionaries established businesses that contributed to economic development of whole societies and nations.
The Moravian missionaries of the 18th century contributed significantly to the development of some islands of the West Indies by founding industries run on Christian principles, which have thrived and prospered to this day; and the Swiss Basel Mission, a tentmaking missionary society, laid the foundations of the economy of modern Ghana, in Africa.
Educational and medical missions made modern science and technology available to the needy in many backward areas while setting standards of excellence in those societies. The Christian MedicalCollege and Hospital in Vellore, India, founded by Ida Scudder is known to be among thebest healthcare institutions in Asia; and the Madras Christian College founded by Scottish missionaries continues to be the best in higher education in India to this day.Missions oriented to specific social strata and groups was another recent development – examples of this are the Zenana Mission which targeted secluded upper caste women in India; Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission working with child widows in India, and various missions targeting children, youth and the elderly.
Counseling ministries, especially family counseling, is another specialized modern ministry. The use of new media to reach large numbers of people has been another new thrust.
Business persons in mission ::
Through all the new methods illustrated above more people are being won for Christ than ever before and there has been unprecedented growth of the church in Asia and Africa. South Africa, Philippines, Singapore and several African countries are fast turning into predominantly Christian nations. But there are segments of society and regions of the world which are hardly accessible even to the kind of specialized ministries mentioned above, and which Christian businessmen and professionals can help reach.
Two such classes require special mention. First there are the secularized and busy professionals in the West who have never encountered the gospel and tend to ignore it as a superstition. The lives of their Christian colleagues are the only gospel they are ever likely to ‘read.’ Secondly, 70% of all the countries in the world restrict or exclude professional evangelism, especially by foreign missionaries. But tentmaker professionals and business persons still have access to people in such countries in suitable developmental undertakings. While there is a resurgence of extremist religious nationalism in Hindu and Islamic countries, the disruption of traditional socio-cultural roots and patterns have made many in these countries more open to the gospel of peace – what they need is to see a convincing practical version of it.
Many Christians in business and professions are responding to the challenges; but the response is still in the form of small streams where mighty rivers are needed.
There are five ways in which Christians in business and secular professions have responded to the need outlined above:
(1) witnessing in the workplace
(2) witnessing in the marketplace
(3) tentmaking
(4) business as mission
(5) kingdom business
Kingdom business, the last of them is my major focus. It can in principle include all the others, and so it is convenient to look at the other four in turn first. They are not mutually exclusive approaches, and the titles assigned to them are nothing more than convenient tags.
1. Witnessing in the workplace: This simply means witnessing to one’s colleagues.Here is an example from the story of George Samuel, which illustrates it beautifully.Samuel is now based in Kerala, India, as a full time evangelist. Formerly, he was working in America as a nuclear medicine scientist. His son, Johnny, a handicapped boy whom he loved dearly, died in his hometown in India and Samuel received the news in America.
Soon after, an American gentleman who was an acquaintance called him and started sharing with him some personal problems that had been bothering him. This friend knew nothing about Samuel’s bereavement. Samuel, with his characteristic kindness and gentleness, listened, sympathized, comforted and counseled him. Towards the end of the conversation the American friend discovered that Samuel had just lost hisson! He was deeply moved. “I am griping about my little problems, and you who have lost your son are listening to me and helping me without any complaints!” he exclaimed.
The man put his trust in God and his life turned round. That was not all. A few dozen scientist colleagues of Samuel, who were impressed by the peace and spontaneous kindness that filled Samuel in his grief, came to Christ. They saw Samuel’s life and learned what the Christian faith can supply, which science cannot.In the workplace, witnessing cannot be primarily verbal as it could be in church, since in the workplace people normally meet in their professional roles.
2. Witnessing in the marketplace: This is a matter of witnessing to the customer and the supplier in the marketplace. Once again, the principle of witnessing through one’s life holds good. But there is a characteristic problem that requires mention, namely the obvious conflict between business interests on one side, and the interests of the customer or supplier or of the public on the other.
It is now standard thinking in business theory in the West, if not always in practice, that “honesty is the best policy”; and that serving the public interest ultimately benefits business. In less developed countries like India these ideas need to be promoted and that is part of Christian witness.Here is a typical story from my own experience.
In the year of inception of my business with just four employees, we were struggling to survive. Then a government agent approached me with the offer of a dream project worth half a million dollars. I accepted gladly and reserved my ticket to go abroad to buy the software tools needed.Then surfaced a table of kickbacks that we were expected to pay to all who were involved on the government side of the contract, right down from the minister. It still left an ample profit margin for my company. Finding me unwilling, the agent pitied my youthful ignorance of “normal business routine” and sought my father’s help to persuade me. My father refused and added a strong rebuke.
If we had forsaken the fear of God and accepted the project offer, my business would have stabilized immediately, but we would have forfeited our Christian witness in the marketplace and our character as a kingdom business. The growth that God in His faithfulness gave us subsequently reminds me of Tolstoy’s famous maxim, “God sees the truth, but waits” – and I guess we have to wait, too.
3. Tentmaking: There is some uncertainty about the coverage of the term tentmaking. In the literature on the subject a tentmaker is typically defined as someone who intentionally finds placement in a restricted access foreign culture as a secular worker,with the object of sharing the gospel. The Tentmakers Roundtable Conference of Hyderabad (1989) considered this definition too narrow because it excludes St. Paul himself and his associates in Corinth, Aquila and Priscilla. The Conference defined a tentmaker as either (a) a missionary like Paul, who goes into business for partial or full self-support, or (b) a secular worker like Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth, who spares considerable time for ministry.The Conference thought that in addition to evangelism, (c) a goal of the tentmaker should be, after the example of Paul, relief of poverty and, in the Indian context,economic development of the poor.
I take the cross-cultural tentmaker of type (a), as being a subset of, type (c), a secular worker who doubles as a missionary.My concern is with the secular worker who engages in mission. His importance is that he helps penetrate socio-cultural or political barriers to the gospel. He also help stake the gospel across what may be called the poverty barrier. A great example is the late bullock cart evangelist and bishop of the Church of South India, Bunyan Joseph. In the1930s people around him lived in abysmal poverty, most of them eating less than one rice gruel meal a day. Recall Gandhi’s famous saying, “To the hungry man, bread is God.”
Bunyan Joseph not only supported himself by means of simple contextual technologies but taught the same to the poorest and helped meet their physical needs in this way. In the process he gave them both the bread for the body and the Bread of Life. The model he created has launched a contextual technology-cum-evangelism movement in India through the work of TENT (Training for Evangelism Needs and Technology), and through its main projects, namely Joshua Vision India and Indian Women in the Lord’s Labor, which were founded by my father, B.E. Vijayam.
4. Business as ministry: There are some businesses that fit in the mold of a ministry or vice-versa, by virtue of what they do – depending on their product or service.They could be labeled either way. Those involved in such work are said to be employed in “noble professions.” Examples of such businesses are those that are involved in education, healthcare, childcare, etc., which can be profit-making businesses and at the same time minister to those around them. An outstanding example of this is a business owned by a Christian brother whom I know, who runs dozens of educational institutions in India. Though the business is one that generates good profits, these institutions are introducing their staff and students to the gospel message. This model, followed by many Christians in India, has been so successful that it is now being imitated by some Hindus to propagate their religion.
5. Kingdom business: The problem with the secular worker going into mission is that typically he is someone else’s employee, and the fact remains that no one can serve two masters. In this connection, the Tentmakers Roundtable Conference of Hyderabad,referred to above, made a significant distinction between self-employed tentmakers andthe other-employed ones. The great advantage of “kingdom business” is that the business persons concerned are self-employed within limits, somewhat like missionary doctors engaged in what I referred to earlier as “business as ministry.” What then is the difference?
The difference is a matter of the starting point. The missionary starts at the mission end of the spectrum and goes into business; the businessperson starts at the business end and goes into mission, so that their constituencies differ, and possibly their business and mission strategies. The world sees the first as a missionary and the second as a businessperson but they are the same within. The results can be similar whichever end one starts from.
The main purpose of most businesses is defined as “maximization of share-holderwealth.” In a kingdom business, the main purpose has to be to expand the kingdom of God. Profits and an increase of shareholder wealth (which also ought to be ploughed back into kingdom work) come as a by-product. Profit is essential for the survival of any business. But it need not become the very purpose for existence. The writer’s business,built on this principle, has already proved to be successful in commercial terms, while seeing some significant results in mission work in a span of 7 years of its founding. The internal mission statement of the company is to provide human, technological and financial resources to help grow God’s kingdom in India and worldwide. Besides supporting various mission endeavors, the company is itself engaged in assisting ministries through technology tools and services, transfer of technical skills and knowledge through conferences on technology, and finally through an evangelistic website targeting urban youth.
Before I outline the characteristics and challenges of kingdom business, here is how I stumbled into it, so to say, by God’s merciful design and guidance. Under my father’s guidance and encouragement, I took my first step, as a teenager, to plan my life and set my goals. I set my goal as serving the Lord and promoting the gospel among the needy in India as a tentmaker. After completing my academic education overseas, I returned to my homeland to be a tentmaker, forsaking a more comfortable and promising future in the West. Against the advice of others to take up a job with some renowned multinational company in India, I decided to take up a job in a fledgling company, after stipulating a 5-day week and limited office hours that left me time for ministry; but in God’s providence it did not work out. It was only after I left my job, waited on the Lord in prayer and risked my livelihood that a new door opened up for the starting of a business in a small and humble manner.
There are several ingredients that go into the making of a kingdom business. First, the founding members should be committed Christians who are faithful to God and committed to a common kingdom-oriented vision, not only in general abstract terms, but also in concrete objectives that involve the business. I am fortunate to have such men and women of God on my Board and on the management team.
Secondly, the leader or CEO of the business should see his or her role as primarily being a missionary in the marketplace and secondarily as a businessperson. The intention should be distinct in philosophy and distinguishable in practice from that of the typical businessperson.
Thirdly, there must be a continual emphasis on the business being a ministry as well as a business rather than one or the other. This has to be done at all levels beginning with the board room to the hiring practices of the company, by giving priority to excellence, integrity, fairness, honesty and concern for people as people, over growth, profits and efficiency.
To recall what I said above, the latter will follow when kingdom values are followed with the faith that dares. The world is beginning to realize and appreciate this truth, going by the record-breaking sales of recently published popular business literature recommending such values as best practices in the marketplace.A recent example from my own experience explains how we are sometimes required to choose a less efficient or unprofitable option that defies conventional wisdom but follows the path of the kingdom.
The company accountant, an orthodox Hindu, fell sick with what appeared to be an incurable condition of the liver that was rapidly deteriorating. There was little chance of his returning to work, let alone returning quickly. I had to decide whether to replace him in order to ensure smooth work or whether to wait and appeal to the board member, management and staff for prayer, and have the company pay in part for his treatment. The latter was done. At first we rejoiced to see an apparent miracle of instantaneous healing, and the decision seemed to have been wiser even in business terms, because it saved time and the problems entailed by a transition. But while convalescing he took worse and died of complications soon after.Was all the waiting and the risk-taking worthwhile? We have had the satisfaction of standing by an employee in a difficult time in his life. We made an investment inkingdom values that the company could afford and we leave the results to time and to God. A corollary to this approach is that profits are ploughed back into ministry in thefirst place; and secondly into business development, not undertaken for its own sake, butto subserve business-cum-mission goals.
A related point is that a kingdom business undertakes public service and mission tasks untied to profit.In a kingdom business riddles are solved by prayer and by God’s power. No business can survive without making adequate profit. As we noted above, conflicts arebound to arise between business requirements of economy and profit-making on the oneside and Christian ethic, love and public interest on the other. It is a riddle as to how farone should forgive an erring or inefficient employee, (or keep a sick employee) in orderto build him up and train him, at the expense of immediate profit and economy. No rulecan yield an answer, but the Ruler, whose guidance should be sought and whose powertapped by prayer and faith. But no one can prescribe how much faith another personshould have in his personal and professional situation. Each is given a measure of faith,which is for him to discover honestly and to develop (Romans 12:5). One feature of Olive Technology that enables us to function as a kingdombusiness is the policy of delegation of work and the building up of a second line ofleadership.
More by God’s grace than by my design, I have a splendid team of colleagues, some of them mentors, both in the management and on the board, whom Ilook up to for guidance in spiritual and business matters. I find it increasingly possible to leave responsibilities and decisions to others, so as to be free when demand arises. As a result, I have been able to take over recently as Director of TENT, referred to earlier,while continuing as CEO of Olive Technology. I owe this to my team and to God.
Application steps::
The steps outlined below are based on my account of kingdom business above.
1. Set one’s goals according to the principle, “Seek ye first His kingdom and Hisrighteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matt 6:33).
2. Wait on God for guidance into a business ministry of His choice.
3. Allow God to choose life and business partners who identify with the founder’sGod-given vision and mission objectives.
4. Plough back profits into mission and business in the same way under God’sguidance.
5. Be committed to the development of one’s employees, partners, suppliers andcustomers, all as God’s children, and to public interest.
6. According to one’s ability, undertake kingdom tasks which bring no profit incommercial terms.
7. Resolve inevitable conflicts between “business” and “kingdom” interests throughprayer and faith, according to the measure of faith imparted by God.
8. Delegate responsibility and build up a second line of leadership, so as to be freefor ministry when the demand or call comes.
9. In case the conflict between kingdom commitments and business interestsbecomes unresolvable, count the cost in advance and resolve to choose thekingdom.
Joseph Vijayam is the CEO of Olive Technologies, a ten year old service delivery organization that delivers outsourced services in software development from their offices in India. His company was recently featured in our countdown of the most admired kingdom companies (Click here). He is a recognized speaker on issues involving business as mission and frequently appears on the Business as Mission Network site.
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