Business as Mission in History

The last lesson looked at the Bible: work and mission are not two separate things. This lesson looks at history. More than two hundred years ago, people were already taking business into mission. Three true stories give us things to learn and things to beware of, just as Hebrews says: “considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith.” (Heb 13:7)

First, a story that is told widely: in 1732, two Moravian brothers sold themselves into slavery so they could reach the slaves of the West Indies with the gospel. It is often heard in sermons, but J. E. Hutton, who wrote the History of the Moravian Church, says the claim is incorrect: white slavery was not allowed in any of the West Indian islands. That they were willing to pay any price is true; ‘selling themselves as slaves’ is a later legend. According to the same book, one of them said, ‘I am a carpenter, and will ply my trade.’ The first lesson of reading history: however moving a story is, check it first.

The business the Moravians actually ran was on the coast of Labrador in north-eastern Canada. In 1770 Moravians in London formed a shipping company: 100 shares at 10 pounds each. Every year a ship sailed to Labrador with missionaries and supplies, and brought back whalebone, seal oil and furs that local people had traded, to sell in London. In 1771 the first lasting mission station was founded at Nain in Labrador. The trading was done by agents sent for that purpose, not by the missionaries. The church set rules for the business: prices had to be fair; no alcohol was sold; at first not even guns. As Proverbs says, “Honest balances and scales are the LORD’s” (Prov 16:11).

The business made a profit as early as 1773, but troubles came too. Some people said the mission was only a pretext for making money; later the editors of the church’s magazine simply cut the passages about trade, so as not to give critics anything to use. By the late 1780s the price of whalebone had fallen; in 1790 the London brothers said it had dropped by more than half in two years, and from then on the mission depended more and more on gifts. Business has ups and downs; that is normal. But when Paul faced suspicion, he took a different road. Handling the gift, he was “avoiding this, that any man should blame us,” (2 Cor 8:20) and his way was not to say less, but “having regard for honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.” (2 Cor 8:21)

The second example is William Carey, often called ‘the father of modern missions’. He reached India in 1793, and the money he brought soon ran out. In 1794 an English businessman asked him to manage an indigo factory (indigo is a dye for cloth), at a salary equivalent to about 250 pounds a year. Carey saw this as God’s provision. He wrote to the mission society that they need not send him money any more, and he set aside part of his income every month towards printing the Bible in Bengali.

During the factory years Carey preached in Bengali, travelled by boat to about two hundred villages nearby, started a school and studied Sanskrit. By 1798 he had translated most of the Bible into Bengali, apart from Joshua to Job, and set up a wooden printing press at the factory. So Carey was not a ‘full-time businessman’. Running the factory was how he supported his family without burdening the mission; in his heart his main work was always preaching the gospel and translating the Bible. Later the businessman’s indigo venture lost money and he gave up the factory, and Carey moved on.

The third example is the Basel Mission from Switzerland. In South India, people who became Christians were often cast out of their caste and lost their livelihood. So the Basel Mission started weaving mills and tile works to give believers jobs and teach them skills; on the Gold Coast in West Africa (today’s Ghana) it opened shops. In 1859 it formed a joint-stock company, the ‘Mission Trading Company’, which shipped European goods to the mission stations and brought palm oil, cocoa and cotton back to Europe; part of the profit supported the mission. Until 1917 the company was managed by the mission. The same Basel Mission sent Theodore Hamberg and Rudolf Lechler to the Hakka people of Guangdong in 1847; today’s Tsung Tsin Mission in Hong Kong grew from that work.

What happened next is worth pondering. During the First World War, Britain confiscated the company’s property in India and Africa as enemy property. In 1928 the company separated from the mission, and the word ‘Mission’ was dropped from its name; it became the ‘Basel Trading Company’. The Basel Mission archives record that, besides the confiscation and a legal dispute, the separation also came from tensions between the company and the mission committee. From then on the company kept growing; later it even held a controlling stake in a Swiss department store, and by 1998 it had become a purely financial holding company. The business survived, and it was very successful; but the original purpose of serving believers and supporting mission could no longer be seen.

Nobody held a meeting one day and decided, ‘We no longer want the mission.’ But business has a force of its own: compete, grow, earn more. Jesus said, “You can’t serve both God and Mammon.” (Matt 6:24) A business can be the servant of the mission, and it can slowly become the master.

Put the three together. The Moravians teach us to set rules for a business, and remind us that business rises and falls and must be done in the open. Carey teaches us that a business can be the hands that feed gospel work, not its heart. The Basel Mission reminds us that the more successful a business becomes, the more we need to ask: who is master? People change and companies change; only one does not: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Heb 13:8)