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.

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.
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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.

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.

MDC’s work well, and have also contributed to sales growth throughout areas of implementation in Africa. The centers allow for more efficient distribution in high density areas. Rather than wait for infrequent deliveries the supply chain brings small quantities of products to retailers a lot more frequently. In all, over 12,000 jobs have been created through the implementation of the MDC. Likewise total sales have risen to over $500 million per year. The total impact has a direct impact on almost 50,000 people when you consider the dependents of the distributors.

Between the purchased product by the MDC and the retail price distributors earn a profit between 3-5% of the total sales amount and some MDC’s are using bonuses as well. The MDC’s are profitable and are a key driver for sales in Africa. What was not discussed in the report is the impact on poverty. Generally speaking, jobs that increase individuals income is a good thing. Owners of the MDC are not considered to be the poorest of the poor, rather they typically are considered to be middle class.

One barrier to expanding the impact to a broader soci0-economic base is the cost of starting and MDC. On average it costs the owner around $6-10,000 dollars dependent on the area that the MDC is being created. More research is needed to determine how the model can make an even greater impact on poverty. As for now the manual distribution model is off to a good start.

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.

• 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:

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 and two global conquests. We have done very well, but we can do better.

Goodwill Industries is a business plus. It exists for service not profits.

Goodwill Industries is a social service plus. It offers not alms but opportunity.

Goodwill Industries is a religious organization plus. It seeks to serve, irrespective of race or creed or nationality, the needy, in a practical way.

Friends of Goodwill, be dissatisfied with your work until every handicapped and unfortunate person in your community has an opportunity to develop to his fullest usefulness and enjoy a maximum of abundant living.

You have made a good start, but please remember this: No matter what difficulties or problems you face, always remember there can be no failure when you are working for the Kingdom of God. “The past is prologue. The future is in your hands.”

The Goodwill Industries was overseen by the Methodist church until the 1960’s. Business as Mission has a tremendous impact on the world that we live in. The story of the Goodwill Industries is an inspiration to me and I hope it’s an inspiration to you as well.

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.

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

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.