B4T: Redeeming the Time

Today, my girlfriend & I were talking about God’s impact on families. We were talking about how God can transform one person in a family and use their transformation to impact generations to come. He sets up the future of many by changing one person’s right now. 

In the same way, a B4T business can set up the future of an entire community. 

B4T: Outreach 

When one person is redeemed by God, they can suddenly have an impact on all those around them. While this still reserves some responsibility of this redeemed individual, it also begins working a miraculous influence into the lives of those near them. They radiate something different. 

When we look at B4T, Christian businesses, or even a church, this same result is what we can expect to see in the community surrounding them. They radiate something different.  

A B4T business is something that can radically transform the culture of an entire region. 

While culture is not something that is changed overnight, but over the course of faithful work, outreach, and servitude, the B4T practitioner(s) can make an impact in their communities that resemble the life transformation of one person being redeemed by God. 

The redemption in their work, and their understanding of it, can work to redeem an entire community. This is the heart power of a B4T business. I wrote another article on the heart of B4T in October, which you can read here.   

Ultimately, B4T becomes a powerful agent of transformation in the surrounding community. This is what a church can do, a Christian business can do, and a B4T mission can do. (Surprise, they’re all holy). 

Save Them All  

Going back to the earlier conversation about God’s desire to transform generations, it is evident throughout Scripture that God cares about both the individual themselves and about all individuals everywhere, all at one time. He is both personal & corporate, immanent & transcendent. 

A community can be radically transformed by Spirit-empowered acts of generosity & love. Kindness goes a long way in a broken world, but how much more would it be transformative when it is empowered by the Spirit and not simply human willpower? 

The Apostle Peter writes in 2 Peter,   

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9). 

God desires for all people to be saved [by coming to repentance]. He is patient with us, just as He was with you, and will continue to exercise this patience until He deems the time right to return in glory. 

In the meantime, we have a doorway through B4T to make a difference in the lives of those around us. Not just for one person or one community, but families of people for generations to come. 

What if B4T could change the life of one individual? What if that one individual was set on fire by the compassion, courage, and generosity of your business and began drawing others to meet the Lord through the work you do every day?  

Truly, what if all it took for us to spread the Gospel was opening our hearts to the community? What if all it took was for us as business owners, marketplace missionaries, and “regular day job workers” to live out the Gospel in all that we do? 

B4T gives us the opportunity to make a difference in the world by being a business that is set on fire for Christ. This kind of redemptive fire is noticeable by others – people see it. And they should! 

B4T for Generations 

There are coffee shops, restaurants, and CrossFit gyms all over the world today that are transforming communities for the Gospel. These missional operations are strategically planted in communities that need the light of the Gospel, and their owners & employees are working “everyday jobs” by the power of the Spirit to redeem people for God’s glory.  

B4T becomes a hub for missional work, an HQ or base of operations for the power of the Gospel to reach out into the community. It is here that people can come to meet the love of Jesus through His radically transformed people.  

There are many that may not willingly walk into a church, but a B4T business can be one easy way for the Lord to reach the hearts of the lost without them wandering into a church on their own. 

Imagine being that light for someone every day, serving them coffee with the joy of the Lord, and allowing that beacon of hope to extend into their heart. What would it look like if Christian business leaders and B4T practitioners were popping up in broken communities all over the world? What would it mean for neighborhoods? Cities? Nations? 

The fact is, B4T practitioners, as well as all Christians, have the potential to impact thousands of people in their lifetime; not only through the thousands of people they see during the day, but through restoring one person to the Lord. This one person becomes a new link that reaches their own family, their kids, and their kids’ kids, for generations to come. 

If one life is worth saving for Jesus, why not take a chance to save thousands? 

Understanding that we carry the ministry of reconciliation and using that ministry to reach people through a B4T business is something that can radically revolutionize the way we do business – and missions. 

We can impact entire families for generations upon generations by delivering the love of Jesus through our everyday work. Isn’t that something? 

Redeeming the Time 

We as Christians all have the charge to be delivering the Gospel throughout our everyday lives. This is something Jesus demonstrated and spoke as an imperative after He rose from the dead in Matthew 28:18-20.  

Following that, the Apostle Paul gives us instructions on our interactions with non-believers. He writes, 

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:5-6).

This is loving our neighbor, not just our church friends. We must speak in love, grace, and truth, making the most of every opportunity because each opportunity is a chance to love someone like Jesus loves them, and each workday provides more than one opportunity to love people.   

Paul further writes, 

“Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:10-11).

His charge echoes Jesus in stating the law is fulfilled in loving your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31), but he gives us the exhortation to do so considering the present time: a time nearer to the Lord’s return than when we first believed in Him. 

Knowing our call, we can use our B4T platform to sow equity, justice, and righteousness into one community at a time, redeeming the time and the neighborhood, and pointing people to Jesus. 

For more on Business as Mission (BAM), Business for Transformation (B4T), or their related terms, click here.

If you’re interested in joining the work on the field, we want to encourage you to GO! You can sign up to intern with existing businesses or learn about joining a missions team.