I
received an e-mail from a local organization about their 30-year plan to care
for a forest. The subject line read: “How To Think In Decades.” Great advice!
I thought about "thinking in decades" in connection with my friend Jon Sween, President of Marketplace Connections, based near Seattle.
Like the
early Moravian missionaries, Jon has a passion to “multiply disciples through
Kingdom-centered business and gospel expressions.” Marketplace Connections
trains followers of Christ to develop Kingdom-centered businesses in distant
places of the world such as India, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, as well as in the
USA, working in cooperation with such groups as Youth With A Mission, and
Children of the Nations.
Entrepreneurial
Leadership Training courses are taught by Christian business leaders who share
their acumen with local followers of Christ. They teach them income-producing
skills, and help them to know how live out biblically-informed faith in the
context of the "real world."
As Jon
puts it, “It’s so exciting so see western business people sharing their
vast business experience around the world. Christian business people
are often underutilized in the local church, and this vision catches their
heart. We are now training trainers in many countries so Christ-followers
can do a more effective job of contextualizing their faith through
Kingdom-centered business."
Marketplace
Connections has provided training in the cities of Hyderabad, Udaipur and Vizag
in India, where 6 businesses have been started by graduates. In Rwanda, 6 other
business have been started. 40 followers of Christ have been trained in Uganda.
Others have been trained in Malawi, and the list goes on. Efforts are now being
made to expand to Kenya.
In the
process, people are coming to know Christ.
The “Five
Big Ideas” behind Marketplace Connections are:
1. God designs and calls us to use our gifts and creativity to
expand his work and express his character.
2. God enables us to take risks to create something new for
kingdom work.
3. God calls business people to create wealth and build
enterprises that provide jobs and advance the gospel.
4. God uses transformational leaders to lead people to new places
of living and uses profits from business to address social issues.
5. God shapes our character and ethics to express his love, grace
and truth.
Visit http://marketplaceconnections.org/ for more information.
Here is a
short interview with two graduates of the ELT course in
Uganda:
Posted by Dr. Christian Overman
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