Purpose
This short article addresses the question - is there a role for business in efforts to extend God's kingdom in Zambia and Africa? Our interest is to explore how business and its intrinsic values can be harnessed and deployed to help grow and consolidate the reformed movement in Zambia and beyond. Here I make a heroic assumption that my readers are aware of God's gracious hand in reviving biblical preaching in Zambia and the founding churches that hold to the reformed tradition. Leaders of Zambia's reformed churches are burdened with planting churches in the country and to support reformation on the continent as a whole. Despite this, the reformed movement in Zambia is still young. Away from Lusaka (and the Copperbelt to a certain extent), churches are struggling to retain a stable membership and a level of income that supports their core functions including paying their pastor. The face of reformation outside Lusaka is typical to what we see in most African countries. The twin needs of growth and consolidation are as necessary today as they were at the beginning. Could business play a role? How can this be done?

A Theology of Business
To get there, we must first expel out of our minds the notions often intuitively held that business is intrinsically evil. We fear that embracing business for missions opens an avenue through which all sorts of worldly passions get to the heart of the church. And yet, business is not evil in and of itself. Rather, it is an important part of our cultural mandate for us to rule the earth as its benevolent kings (Gen 1:26). The various elements of the mandate are to be fruitful, to multiply and to fill the earth on one hand and to subdue it and have dominion over all its elements on the other (Gen 1:28). This mandate requires man to adapt the world around him for various uses to his advantage through work, as in working and keeping the land (Gen 2:15). We are to find fulfilment in work. Idleness is defacing to human dignity and the reason why even billionaires continue to work so hard.

But what is the relationship between business and this cultural mandate? Simply, business is a component of our framework to organize labour so that the core elements of the cultural mandate are maximized. The other component is social order - social institutions, families, regulations and enforcement, skills building, etc. Business brings man to the market place to find his place in multiplying what God has given him and play his part in subduing the earth.

Man can work as an individual or as a family but will be greatly constrained in fulfilling all his needs without business. With business he can choose to produce to the maximum what he is able to do best and exchange it for what he is less capable of producing. He also has a choice to simply sell his labour (as most do) and be rewarded for it and use the proceeds to support himself and his family. Business allows for innovation and higher productivity, two factors that have driven civilization, economic growth and ultimately greater standards of living. Thus it is difficult to see man having dominion of the earth without business.

Deploying Business in Missions
But can business be harnessed and deployed for missions? For this to happen, more and more Christians (reformed believers even better) should get into business and be very intentional about their businesses supporting missions. This will affect the choice of business and location. But how they do this is a matter of choice dictated by opportunities, assets they are able to deploy and the missions needs close to them. They should run their enterprises profitably without which they cannot support missions.

Here are a few ways without much elaboration. First, a business can give directly to missions. This is what comes to mind most obviously. Second, a business can help stabilize the income and church membership of a church plant. This could be by deliberately locating itself in the same place as a church plant. The business could endeavour to employ believers who then join the church plant. Even two or three truly spiritual couples joining membership will make a significant difference in most of these struggling churches. Even more, regular giving to the church from their incomes could stabilize the income base of a church plant. It would be pivotal were believers to get together and jointly establish businesses around church plants.

Third, making assets owned by a business available to the use of a church plant. Churches in Lusaka and the Copperbelt benefit from this in one way or another. Were Christian owned businesses to locate in mission fields as well, they could support the church plants there by allowing them use of their assets. An example is a farm that decides to have part of the land for a camp site in support of the church and perhaps especially its youth ministry. But assets so deployed can range from the use of a photocopier of a business centre, passenger transport for a bus company to recreational facilities of a botanic garden.

Lastly, business can be used as a social mobilizing force in support of missions. The outgrower model used by some agriculture companies is attractive. Organize small producers into groups, help them with skills and inputs and give them the market (a big constraint for most of them) by buying from them. These groups although mobilized for business are ripe for the gospel. There are even prospects of lead farmers carefully selected to be tent making missionaries in their communities. This needs a lot of money but this is where perhaps partnerships can work.

Conclusions
With little resources, the work of missions by reformed Baptist churches in Zambia has prospered in the past few decades. We acknowledge God's good hand in this. To be acknowledged as well is that the work has reached a critical stage where it must move out of the major population centres but exist sustainably. This is a call to prayer. It is also a call to mobilize every arsenal at our disposal to help achieve this. Business could be one.

It is a challenge to all Christians in business no matter how small to think through their businesses and have them focused on missions much more. Believers thinking of getting into business are encouraged not to linger if truly God is placing this on their hearts because they can do much good for the church.

I end with two words of caution. First, although business can play a significant role in missions, it should be accorded its rightful place. Missions is the business of the church and not of business. The church should be in the forefront of missions by providing the vision and setting the pace. Business should come along to lend its support to what the church is spearheading. The reverse is also true. The church has no business running business. This will just distract it from its core mandate. As with civil responsibilities, this is an aspect that should be left to individual members. Second, as in all things, for business to have an impact on missions, it must be run by men and women driven by a passion for the glory of God. Without this, the evil so common in business will simply be brought closer to the church.