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Now Available! Free audio downloads of all our plenary speakers' talks. See the Conference Plenaries page to listen. Audio of many of the seminars is also available, with more coming soon.
The forces of globalization that are breaking down cultural, economic, and language barriers around the world are also opening new doors for the gospel. Christians are identifying incredible opportunities for business to be a force for economic, social, and spiritual vitality, changing both individual lives and entire communities. Many consider business to be the missions strategy for the 21st century. The world is open for business!
The Open for Business Conference at Urbana 06
The Open for Business Conference at Urbana 06 is a specialized track for those who have a passion or growing interest in business and global missions. It will build, mobilize, and equip a multi-generational network of business practitioners who seek to harness the potential of business to contribute to the global advance of God's kingdom around the world.
You should consider this conference if you are:
- a business professional who wants to integrate your business skills and passions with your faith and God’s mission in the world
- a business-as-mission practitioner who wants to network with other practitioners, hear what God is doing around the world, and connect with the next generation of missions-minded business leaders
- a student who wants to pursue business as your Christian calling and seeks vision and guidance in that pursuit
- a pastor, educator, or other leader in the Christian community who wants to see business-as-mission values and strategies integrated into the broader body of Christ
Here’s how the Open for Business Conference fit into the overall Urbana 06 experience.
- Dedicated Plenaries. Open for Business delegates will participate in special plenaries with business-as-mission leaders who will illustrate how business can help alleviate poverty, transform lives, and bring healing and spiritual renewal.
- Learn about how God views business and our role in it.
- Find out about the global opportunity for business to make a kingdom impact.
- Build on and learn from the experiences of practitioners around the world.
- Dedicated Seminars. Open for Business delegates will have exclusive access to seminars that will inspire you, equip you, and deepen your own sense of the life God is calling you to.
- Explore different strategies of business as mission, from microenterprise to venture capital-funded large enterprises. Learn from both successes and failures.
- Develop a Christian view of business by asking questions such as: How do you measure success? How do you understand profit? What ethics should ground you?
- Deepen your spiritual foundations by examining biblical models of business and learning helpful spiritual disciplines.
- Networking Opportunities. Open for Business delegates will be housed with each other in two downtown St. Louis hotels, providing for ample networking opportunities. You will be able to network with hundreds of people who draw experience from a diverse range of countries, specialities, and career stages.
- Dedicated Bible Studies. Ephesians is the scripture for the entire Urbana 06 convention. Open for Business delegates will study Ephesians with each other, drawing specific insights on how God's calling gets uniquely worked out for business people.
- Innovation Opportunities. Open for Business is hosting a business-plan competition - complete with a $40,000 prize pool - to spur innovation and incubate the next generation of business-as-mission ideas.
Learn more about the Open for Business Conference by exploring the conference schedule, the plenary sessions, the seminar offerings, or the presenter bios.
This track was open to third-year undergraduate students and up and was limited to 1,500 participants.
What is business as mission?
Here's our definition, which is adapted from the Lausanne Occasional Paper, no. 59: "Business as mission means releasing business people to use their gifting in business, integrated with biblical principles, to transform their own communities and nations and to carry the good news to the ends of the earth through commerce. Business as mission works both within a business setting and through its purposes and capacities. It seeks to harness the power and resources of business for intentional missions impact in the community, nation, and world at large."
Business as mission includes, but is not limited to:
- Starting a business as mission enterprise in the developing world which impacts a community economically, socially, and spiritually
- Enabling such enterprises through training and availability of capital (e.g., microfinance)
- Infusing Christian values and perspective into the global conduct of business (e.g., ethics, Christian leadership principles)
- Ministering to counterparts in the marketplace with the gospel of Jesus Christ
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