By James M. Helms on November 22, 2009
It’s that time of the year again, that’s right, it’s time for the quarterly Guns and Beer for Christ get together. This year I had some extra time and I decided to create a logo. I’m also considering a website for some reason…I don’t really know what I would do with the website right now but that’s just what I do.
What is Guns & Beer for Christ?
In every area of our life we need to allow God to take the center piece. As humans we fail constantly yet still this is the goal. I’ve noted over the years how people who attend Church frequently seem to develop a degree of Christianese, that is, they create a Church persona, language and all. I believe that I need to be the same person, a struggling Christian no matter where I am and what I am doing. If I can’t include God in the things that I do then I need to stop doing them.
In my case I like to drink an occasional beer, I also like shooting guns. God needs to be the center piece of my life even when I am doing these things. As a result I created a ministry called Guns and Beer for Christ. The ministry is simply what it says: Shooting guns and drinking beer. In an effort to be responsible in the things that we do the two are separated, the shooting comes first.
Posted in Ministry |
By James M. Helms on October 18, 2009
“DEVELOPING ECONOMIC ENGINES THAT DRIVE MISSION-BASED MOVEMENTS”
Do you have a passion for business or a zeal for entrepreneurship? Do you feel like there is still more to life than 
business, no matter how much you get out of it? If so, there is a pretty good chance that you have a deeper calling on your life, one that can only be fulfilled through life purpose transformation. What is a Mission Based Entrepreneur? You might be one and not even know it. Is it possible that God gives passion and vision for a reason beyond ourselves?
Eric Bahme, the executive pastor for Eastside Foursquare Church in Portland, OR., examines how business can play a vital role in mission-based movements. He speaks beyond theory and shares the experiences that he and his Church endured leading up to, purchasing, and operating two hotels in Portland Oregon. A Church owning a hotel, what gives? Beyond operating a hotel Eric highlights how the decision has brought ministry staff in contact with over 33,000 people a year and has annual sales of over $2 million. Eric writes with much enthusiasm “Last year we reached tens of thousands of new people with out leaving our Church grounds!”. What gives is that over time Christian strategy changes, but the message that Jesus Christ loves you and is seeking reconciliation never does change.
Up to this point it may sound as if the book only speaks to what Eastside Foursquare Church has done. Not so, in great part Eric shares the qualities, challenges, and potential of MBE’s in the future, this is only the beginning. The book is written from the heart and when you finish the book you may realize a couple things. First of all you may realize that Mission Based Entrepreneurship isn’t about the entrepreneur, it’s about being faithful in what God calls you to. You may also walk away understanding that through Christ anything is possible and the Glory of two hotels owned and managed by a Church in Portland Oregon goes to God. You may even walk away with a renewed hope, passion, and desire to allow God to be the center of your life in everything that you do.
Through the development of economic engines (say like a hotel) it’s possible to take your mission to new heights. What are you passionate about? What mission is on your heart or what ministry do you feel called to? While the book isn’t going to give you all of the answers it’s going to give you a renewed hope. Read about how one leader and his congregation have spearheaded The MBE Revolution in Portland Oregon. Greater things really are yet to come.
Buy the book today: Purchase it at KingdomPoint.
Partner With KingdomPoint: Get the book in the hands of more leaders.
Posted in Entrepreneurship, books |
By James M. Helms on October 1, 2009
Good day to you all. I wanted to keep you updated about changes to the Form It link shortening tool. I’ve updated the tool to include a couple different features that make using the tool a little easier and useful. Now when you create a link the target url displays near the shortened URL. If you’re creating a few different links this will make it a little easier to remember where the link is pointing to.
Likewise I’ve added a list of some of the more popular Social Network sites on the shortened link page. This will enable you to share your links with your network faster and easier. After posting to the network that you wish you will be redirected back to the shortened link page.
Special thanks to Pretty Link for providing the extended functionality for Form It.
Posted in Tools |
By James M. Helms on September 30, 2009
Recently Coca-Cola has been receiving some attention concerning their Manual Distribution Center’s (MDC’s) in Africa. Much of the attention has most likely come from the release of a joint report from the Harvard Kennedy School and the International Finance Corporation. You can download the report from the Harvard Kennedy School’s site here. There have been several articles generated around the web that tout the MDC’s as being a prime example of how big business can have a big impact on job creation and subsequently poverty around the world.
What is not really being talked about is corporate philanthropy. The term that is being used to a greater degree is called “inclusive business model”. This model seeks to encourage businesses to take their core business strengths and include the poor in the value chain. A main factor in the success of the model is that MDC’s are not a corporate hand out, it’s a viable distribution model that CCS, Coca-Cola’s bottling partner, relies upon. The MDC’s are accounting for over 80% of all product sales in over 5 countries throughout Africa. Continue reading “Examining Coca-Cola’s Manual Distribution Center’s in Africa”
Posted in Entrepreneurship |
By James M. Helms on September 18, 2009
This is a great slide presentation that will help you or an organization understand and implement a well thought through business model. I found the view of a traditional agency seeking donor support very interesting. It’s a flawed model that requires an organization to focus on the donors more than the intended end beneficiaries.
I created an Excel document with the framework for you to download and use here. I hope that this helps you as much as it did me.
Posted in Entrepreneurship |
By James M. Helms on September 18, 2009
I earned a BA in Business Administration and my minor was entrepreneurship. One of the things that we encountered a lot was business models of entrepreneurship. While reflecting on how social entrepreneurship was different than traditional entrepreneurship I remembered the Timmons model of Entrepreneurial Success. The three major components were:
- The Team
- The Resources
- The Opportunity
Taking that model into account what is different? I’m seeing three areas that have changed the most:
- The Purpose
- The Collaboration
- The Benefits
I’ll keep working on it as I advance but for now here is:
Posted in Entrepreneurship |
By James M. Helms on September 18, 2009
I wanted to share a statement that my great-great Uncle Edgar James Helms wrote. His statement is truly an inspiration to me in my journey. His view on how business can support the efforts of both social and spiritual causes is inspiring and can be read about in great detail in a book he wrote titled “Pioneering in Modern City Missions”.
I, Edgar James Helms, have often been referred to as the founder of Goodwill Industries. This is not strictly true. The originator of Goodwill Industries was the Master of men, who spoke from a Galilean hillside 1900 years ago and commanded His disciples to “gather up the fragments that nothing be lost.” We, His disciples, are commanded to “Go thou and do likewise.” We receive our marching orders from Him who commanded us to “seek and save the lost.” He expects us to literally, “Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those who are sick and in prison.”
In our Goodwill Industries, let us observe the highest standards and best methods, always giving first place to human and spiritual values. During the 50 years of history our Goodwill Industries have survived three depressions Continue reading “Business as Mission Offers Not Alms But Opportunity”
Posted in Quotes |
By James M. Helms on September 17, 2009
I came across this slide show from MFTransparency it covers many of the principles of micro-credit and interest rates. My personal stance on interest rates are to keep them as low as possible. This isn’t necessarily the stance of many micro-finance organizations, what it really comes down to are your objectives (motives). Are you using micro-finance as a way to alleviate poverty or are you trying to maximize profit?
While I’m more interested in poverty alleviation than profit we need to cover our costs too. A sustainable institution needs to also generate a profit for expansion. These are the issues being worked through at this time. This slide show is great if you are considering these same issues.
Posted in Micro-Credit |
By James M. Helms on September 15, 2009
I happened upon this quote that seems to be hitting home right now:
The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both. ~James A. Michener.
That is totally what I’m looking for, that quote was written for someone just like me
Posted in Quotes |
By James M. Helms on September 15, 2009
We made it home from our quick trip to Nicaragua. The time went really fast and all being said and done it was quite the journey. The experience cannot be summed up easily and it’s not an easy story to tell. If I told you our experiences from beginning to end it wouldn’t really make a lot of sense, not to mention I’m sure it would be pretty boring. Over the next week or so I’ll have some additional details to help in the assessment of things too.
Perhaps I could just start by telling you a couple stories? Like I could tell you about one young lady who was able to bring her income from $5/week to over $50 making tortillas. A $100 investment enabled her to buy some supplies and construct a wood burning stove with a flat cooking surface. She sells out every day in a very short time, she makes enough money to pay extra on her loan and even pay her husbands off after he defaulted.
Then again I could tell you about another older woman who was paying 10% a month on loans to a money lender, a rate that caused her to close down operations for awhile. The loans that we are offering cost far less and have allowed her to expand her business. We don’t have a good handle on the cost of administering the loans but currently feel that at just over 1.6% a month we may be able to scale up our lending and be fully sustainable.
For now I think I’ll just take some time to get up to speed with my pile of emails that have accrued during my time being gone.
Posted in Micro-Credit |
