Our Mission
Our mission focuses first on who we are, namely a community whose membership is drawn from the world of business and the professions. Our members see and understand themselves as change agents in the marketplace. The mission statement goes on to spell out more clearly in what precise way we are change agents in the marketplace.
Community of Business People and Professionals
The focus here is on community. This is an essential part of how the Lord has called us. Our vision and also our mission is a communal one. We do our mission not as individual operators, but as men and women committed to the Lord and to one another. We are brothers and sisters of one another. We share a common way of life and a common mission. Community is crucial because it means that we will have the support of brothers and sisters. We will receive encouragement or correction when needed. We will receive teaching. We will be able to make all our talents and resources bear on our mission objective. We don’t have to do it alone.
Committed to Christian Values
This applies both to individual members of the BCBP and to the BCBP community. As members we have committed our life to Christ. He is our Lord. His values, his mission, the work entrusted to him by the Father, are our mission. In this we are supported by the BCBP community, which community is committed to the complete Gospel of Jesus Christ. This, of course, is a great support and encouragement for each individual member of the community where Christ is openly proclaimed, honored, and followed.
Change Agents in the Marketplace
We have not joined the BCBP to have an easy life or to be protected from the harshness of the business world. The BCBP community has not been created as an oasis or a refuge for tired souls. The BCBP is an apostolic body and its members are apostles who want to win the marketplace for Christ. In other words, members who want to make such a difference that we can truly apply the words of the song to the BCBP: The business world and the world of the professions has become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.
Corporately and individually we want to bring about a change and that is why we call ourselves change agents in our mission. Becoming an agent for change has to begin with us. The change we want to bring about in others needs to be visible in us. Leadership does not consist in pointing out the way for others, but to lead others by walking ahead of them. Thus we commit ourselves to the following:
• Ongoing personal conversion
We know that taking off the old man or the old woman and putting on the new man in Christ is not a one-time act, but a life-long process. This is the reason why we say we will turn to the Lord in an ongoing way. As his faithful followers we pray for the grace to take up our cross daily and walk in the way of the Lord. In other words, we don’t consider ourselves graduates after we finish the BCLP or the BCMR or any one of the other formation weekends of the BCBP.
• Professional Excellence
If we lack competence or if we are slipshod comptrollers, managers, or supervisors, we lack witness power. Others will not take our testimony seriously. That is the reason why membership in the BCBP demands ongoing learning and development in our chosen profession. We need to be recognized as people who know what they are doing. Laziness and unprofessionalism really has no place in the BCBP, because it makes us ineffective in our task of winning the marketplace for Christ.
• Good Managers
The two major character qualities we strive to grow in are trustworthiness and competence. The reason for this is not only that God wants us to use our talents and to conduct ourselves worthily in the workplace. The reason is based on our Vision. We are to evangelize the marketplace and win the marketplace for Christ. Our greatest witnessing power comes from being examples of good stewards, who administer what is entrusted to them honestly and competently, i.e. with integrity.
• Justice and Integrity
This brings us to the next point in our mission. We want to bring the values of the Kingdom into the marketplace. Faith and justice go together. We cannot be disciples of Christ and at the same time act unjustly. It would be the height of hypocrisy to arrange CLPs for our workers so that they won’t create trouble for management and allow us to take advantage of them. In other words, it does not work to give others Christ and at the same time take advantage of them or worse, in order to take advantage of them. Integrity in short refers to us walking our talk.
• Community and Nation Building
Finally, the goal of our evangelization is not just to win individuals for Christ, but to help the evangelized businessmen and professionals become part of a community of committed Christians so that their walk with the Lord can be supported and they have an environment where they can grow and develop as disciples and servants of the Lord. Of course, we want to bring those we evangelize to join us in our BCBP community.