SfK Ministries

SfK Ministries

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Newsletter - July 2017

SfK Newsletter Vol. 2017-07
July 9, 2017
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A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
(John 13:34,35)



SHALOM

3rd Installation of The Missional Entrepreneur by Mark Russell series

The spiritual mission of business is not to establish a kingdom of wealth and power but to bring the kingdom of God into tangible reality. The kingdom of God can be most simply defined as God’s reign. So, the kingdom is the manifestation of God’s ideals, principles, values, and will. It can also be understood as a physical expression of a spiritual reality. Continue...

MINISTRY UPDATES
  • Jehovah Jireh! God Provides! God has sent a few key Kingdom Fellows to help share the burden to carry out the ministry. Ms. Kaye Min has joined SfK as the Regional Director for Resource Development (New York/New Jersey). God has also sent us Mr. Danile Ryumugabe as the Director of Transformation, Let us welcome these valuable assets to God's Kingdom and share the excitement of having them on board with SfK Ministries!  Visit www.sfkministries.org to learn more about our SfK's new Kingdom Fellows.  
    
  • SfK would also like to welcome a new accounting professional to kick-start SfK's Shared Accounting Service. She is from originally from Singapore, but currently lives in Kigali, Rwanda. Praise be to the Lord! We are continually looking for additional accounting professionals to formalize the shared accounting services. 
  • IBA Leaders Forum (June 19-21) and IBA Conference (June 23,24) - Jeffrey participated in both events and delivered a presentation about how to help the socially disadvantaged people sustain themselves with innovative finance. During these events, the Lord led Jeffrey to meet several Kingdom minded people. We are excited to see what God has in store for these new relationships!
  • SfK's implementing member in Thailand, Skybay Thailand, has been registered with the Thai Government and its registration under the Thai American Amity Treaty is now in process. We are hopeful the process will be completed in mid-July.  Once completed, additional capabilities will be established for Skybay Thailand.
  • SfK has decided to hold two important Missional Business Academy (MBA) sessions in Chiang Mai and in Rwanda. For more details on the event, please see the "upcoming events" section below.

UPCOMING EVENTS & PRAYER REQUESTS
  1. August 3, 2017:  SfK Korea's first board meetingPlease pray that this important meeting will help lay the foundation right for the next steps.
  2. August 20-24, 2017:  Freedom Business Forum is to take place in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This forum will focus on how to free people trapped in human trafficking through missional businesses carried out with the love of Jesus Christ. Jeffrey plans to attend this important event. Please pray that powerful relationships and alliances may develop from the forum to bring glory to God who created all human beings in His image.
  3. September 11-15, 2017:  K-BAM Gathering in Mt. Sorak, Korea. Previously called BAM Global Consultation, this gathering is for Korean BAMers and those who are strongly interested in BAM. Please pray that this gathering will help develop an effective network of Korean BAMers to multiply the Kingdom impact.  
  4. September 15-17, 2017:  BAM Conference in Dallas, Texas. BAM Global will hold this conference that attracts a growing number of people who are interested in BAM. If you are interested in attending this conference, please register through www.bamconference.com. Please pray that this conference will produce a significant impact on people who will attend. 
  5. September 14-16, 2017:  Transformational Business Network (TBN) of Asia Conference to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia. This conference pulls not only businesses that seek transformation but also investors who are willing to put impact capital in these businesses. Please pray that the conference will be fruitful. 
  6. September 18-27, 2017:  SfK MBA (Missional Business Academy) Chiang Mai 2017.  SfK Ministries plans to hold this training session regularly so that missional entrepreneurs may plan to attend in advance. This training session is open primarily for existing missional businesses, but may also accept those who have strong commitment to starting up a missional business. We plan to hold a Business Plan Contest along with this MBA. Please pray that the preparation will be made prayerfully and thoughtfully.
  7. October 30-November 10, 2017:  SfK MBA Kigali 2017 II.  This MBA is to equip trainers or committed missional entrepreneurs selected from hundreds of churches within the Kigali Diocese of Rwanda Anglican Church. Please pray that this MBA may raise up several effective trainers who will trickle down to other Rwandan entrepreneurs who will share the vision and mission designed for missional businesses.  
  8. Kingdom Fellows for Accounting Professionals and Resource Development - A few people have responded to this calling and we are deeply grateful for God's provision. We are continually looking for additional fellow Kingdom workers who will share their talents to carry out this noble task of nurturing and empowering missional businesses in Asia and Africa. Please let us know via info@sfklife.org if the Holy Spirit leads you to join our ministry. Please pray with us and for us so that this essential services may be fully functional to support missional businesses that produce significant transformation impact for His Kingdom and the people they serve.


Until our next update, may God bless you richly so that you may become a greater blessing to your neighbors!
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Friday, July 7, 2017

Shalom


Excerpt #3 from The Missional Entrepreneur by Mark Russell

The spiritual mission of business is not to establish a kingdom of wealth and power but to bring the kingdom of God into tangible reality. The kingdom of God can be most simply defined as God’s reign. So, the kingdom is the manifestation of God’s ideals, principles, values, and will. It can also be understood as a physical expression of a spiritual reality.             

The kingdom of God is not an esoteric, abstract concept; rather it is observable and concrete. When we see expressions of love, generosity, and grace these can be said to be a glimpse of the kingdom of God. This is not to say that everything about the kingdom of God is observable and physical. The kingdom of God refers to God’s reign over all things, both visible and invisible, both physical and spiritual, throughout all of creation. But it is, as Methodist missionary and theologian E. Stanley Jones pointed out, realism and not idealism.
            
Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God. It is His primary message as well as the message of Scripture. It is something real that has been happening for all eternity and since the beginning of time. Thus it has a historical quality. It is the unfolding story of God throughout creation. It is seen through the Old Testament, particularly in the concept of shalom, which is typically defined and translated as peace. However, it carries a stronger connotation than peace. It is more of a worldview where all things function in harmony.
            
Like shalom, the kingdom of God is a holistic paradigm, meaning that it covers every area of life. It is not simply about church activities or Sunday sermons, although these are definitely a part. It is focused on God’s redemptive plan of reconciling all things unto himself (Colossians 1:20).
            
God’s enemies oppose His kingdom. They are attempting to establish their own kingdoms and seek through antagonistic and antithetical practices to bring harm to the kingdom of God. Human Human uman beings choose which kingdom they will promote. Though they may not be aware of the importance of their choices, they are responsible for them.
            
The kingdom of God is one of grace, mercy, love, justice, righteousness, and judgment. Though these may seem like mutually contradictory aspects, they are not. God in His wisdom and sovereignty rightfully balances these aspects and the tension involved in human responsibility and the results of our moral choices.
            
Many Christians think of the kingdom of God purely in future terms. However, there is biblical warrant for understanding the kingdom of God as being manifested on earth in the current age, at least in part. Christ prayed for the kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Would it not be odd for Christ to pray for the kingdom to come if it were purely a heavenly reality? Failing to understand the present reality of the kingdom of God has caused many Christians to become withdrawn or inactive.
            
Business can be at the forefront of creating chaos or it can bring spiritual good into physical reality. The integration of economic and social systems transpiring in the world today is most commonly referred to by the term globalization. The reality of globalization means that we are more interdependent than ever before. Now, when we call a customer service line we are likely to be connected to someone in another country. But it is not just offshore call centers. It’s everything. Businesses of all types are integrated around the world. Supply chains spread across continents and wire transfers unite financial institutions just as fiber-optic cables across the ocean floor enable us to communicate broadly and quickly. 

            
Nearly every day I relate with people in several different countries. For the most part I use email, but I also frequently have video conference calls over the Internet. On some days I’ll communicate directly with people in more than ten different countries. Most of it I’ll do through the Internet, without any fees charged to me. We are living in interesting days, indeed.
            
As the world is becoming increasingly integrated, we are becoming more aware and knowledgeable of various illnesses, injustices, problems, and suffering around the world. The population in developing countries is growing exponentially. Sadly, suffering instead of success is accompanying this increase. Every day, almost 2,000 babies are infected with HIV, either during pregnancy, at birth, or through breastfeeding.1 A sixth of the world’s countries receive two-thirds of the world’s income. For every $1 created through exports, $0.03 goes to low-income countries.2 More than 2.8 billion people live on less than $2 a day, and 1.2 billion people live on $1 or less.3
            
Business can be a means of bringing justice to the poor and disenfranchised around the world. Or it can be a way to exploit them and/or the natural resources of their land. Jesus called us to love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39). In our new global reality, our neighbor can be rightfully understood as numerous people groups scattered around the globe.
            
This love for God and neighbor needs to be the foundational principle on which the missional entrepreneur stands. Christ said this love for God and neighbor was of utmost importance (Matthew 22:37–39). Paul said that love was the greatest attribute (1 Corinthians 13:13). John wrote, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God…If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:7, 20). We must emphasize the importance of love in all that we do, including business.
            
Business as mission reflects a desire for the kingdom of God to be manifested in a substantive way in the present age. When business fulfills its spiritual mission it can contribute significantly to creating economic shalom for many of the world’s peoples.

            
Missional entrepreneurs can have an important and vital role in an age of economic globalization. They can serve as practical extensions of the church to relieve people’s sufferings, and they can demonstrate physically the love of God by loving their neighbor. In doing this they can extend the kingdom of God, God’s reign on earth, and spread the shalom of God around the world.