How do your workers deal with it? This past week, the question came from one of our Brigada participants, “Do people doing ‘Business as Mission’ struggle (with) balancing business and mission? Having a bifurcated focus was always hard for me as a “bivocational pastor”. What resources exist to help people deal with it?” Now, leaving aside the fact that I had to look up the word, “bifurcate” to make sure I knew what it meant (I could GUESS by the context, but wow — who uses that word? Now I’ve decided… I have to use “bifurcate” in a sentence at least ten times today to add it to my vocabulary), what do YOU do to help your workers understand this dual-edged life thing? Of course, the best teaching is that we would have incorporated Christ into our lifestyle to the point that merely by living and working a normal life, we just bring Him up regularly as we walk and talk, right?

I appreciated the fact that this inquirer, whom we’ll call “Charlie,” also cc’d Justin L. on the same email. Justin responded (copying us), “The big challenge I have often heard is the paradigm shift away from bifurcation. That the business IS the mission. In other words, people who run a business in order to make disciples of workers, families, and customers – who model how Christianity is lived out in the context of business, work, social, home life, etc. … There are several BAM networks out there and some literature about it. …

Justin” [Thank you Justin!]

Learn more about these trains of thought at …

http://www.AntiochJourney.com

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But how do you prepare YOUR workers — in your church or organization — to sort this whole question out effectively?