Mission

“I have often noticed that any place where there is little business doing is bad for religious effort … I could indicate districts, not far from here, where business is slack; and there you will find there is very little good being done. All along the valley of the Thames, there are places where a man might preach his heart out, and kill himself; but there is little or nothing of good being accomplished in those regions, just as there is no active business life there”.

Charles Spurgeon, “The Soul-Winner” Chapter 6

People in business are often viewed with suspicion because they deal in wealth creation. Pastors are wary of getting involved and becoming “spotted by the world”. Business people have temptations and trials of which many Pastors have little knowledge or understanding.

In BTPN we hope to redress that balance, so that the saints and their Pastors can work together in partnership.

In addition to teaching Christian business principles and practices to entrepreneurs, we also teach Pastors and church leaders about the needs of businessmen and women. There is a mixture of theological and practical sessions aimed at helping Pastors to deal with business and the people in it.

In Ephesians 4, we read:

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;                                                               Eph 4:11-13 NKJV

It is the saints in the business community who are often neglected, and who need helping and equipping for the work of ministry by their pastors and teachers. 

Objectives

“The 9 to 5 window … of the 132 public appearances of Jesus, 122 were in the marketplace. Of the 40 miracles in Acts, 39 were in the marketplace … 70% of our time is in the workplace …” 

Os Hillman, International Coalition of Workplace Ministries

The objective of BTPN is to transform communities for Christ through Christian Enterprise Development.

We believe business is a holy calling from God. Please go to our section on theology for a full explanation. We can all see the results when business is not run according to God’s will. BTPN operates by:

• Training mature Christians in God-centered business and entrepreneurship;
• Strategically locating a Christian Enterprise in a community where the Gospel is needed;
• Ensuring that the Kingdom Impact of the business or enterprise is fully developed and written into the business structure.

The people of the community are attracted by the jobs and financial activity. As the Christian business owner is faithful in business and in sharing the Gospel, people will come to faith, and a church will form naturally as a result. The church will enjoy financial support from the business from the day it starts…with finances generated by the people who live there.

History

BTPN started in 1992 as a response to the Chernobyl disaster to minister to the people who experienced the disaster at its closest point.

Resettlement villages where people needed humanitarian care were our first focus. We also acted as an evangelism organization to carry the gospel into communities and help the churches to be strengthened. As ministry continued it became obvious that the churches were becoming dependent on us and would not be able to stand on their own without something changing. We soon discovered that we were involved in a “black hole” where money each month would go and never be seen again. There was intense difficulty in maintaining this flow of funds and cumulative frustration with poor results.

The problem was more than just the problem of raising funds in an increasingly difficult global economic environment. It was the level of dependence we were witnessing. A welfare mentality was developing. Our financial support had produced something different to that intended. It was realized that what had been desired as a blessing, was actually damaging or destroying those very churches and Christian ministries. The traditional use of financial support to missions was the prime cause of the “black hole”. Clearly, the traditional way was expensive and ineffective.

A conversation between Rev Bob Crowe and a field missionary was to have tremendous impact. It led to our investigating a new way to do missions and began a change that would eventually become Breakthrough To People Network (BTPN).

God then surprised us. He set an American Christian businessman to us. This man had financially supported much of our previous efforts. He also was frustrated with the “black hole” and was seeking an alternative. As he spoke, it was like God was giving us the beginning of the new process. He asked three questions:

1.Do the people want to work?

2.Would they support their own church if they could?

3.If we found a way to get them jobs, would that help?”

We knew immediately that God was opening the new direction to us. While we needed more ideas to form the skeleton of what would become BTPN, we had begun.

We made mistakes along the way, but we learned constantly, and still do. We started business enterprise development projects through purchasing equipment with the cooperation of the Ukrainian Christian leadership (Baptist Union) in Chernigov. We began putting together a Ukrainian committee for business projects. We trained this group and then took the time to develop a procedural process for their use. This procedure had to reflect their values and needs as well as ours. It took the better part of a year to formulate this process into a seven-page document.

One unique aspect of that document was that two tithes of the profits would be required from the new business created. The first tithe of the business profits would go to the local church, thus beginning the support of local ministry without American assistance. The second tithe of the profits would go into a fund for future projects, so that the day would come where the committee could start a new business from money generated in their own area. BTPN became, in effect, a pump primer.

So What Were The Results?

By the end of six years, the economic projects had generated through their profits sufficient funds to start their own first project.

In an area with only a little over 1000 Christians, over 200 benefitted from jobs to support their families. This was a large enough impact to get the attention of government and religious leaders.

Most importantly, jobs were attracting lost people. As they spent time around the Christians, many of them were saved. Baptisms rose in many of the village churches.

We learned that if we placed a project in an area that had no church, the process of attracting lost people would lead to the development of new churches.

Results show that one new church is planted for every three businesses started.

We discovered that, through business activity, we had the ability to empower the Christians in a deeply economically depressed area to support and develop meaningful ministry.

Charles Spurgeon was right.

What is a Kingdom Business?

1. A Kingdom Business is Vocational ... That means that a person is called by God to be in business. To have a “kingdom business” you must know that God is calling you into business. Do you know?

2. A Kingdom Business is Intentional ... That means that there is a clear purpose for the business that impacts God’s kingdom. To start and operate a “kingdom business” you should be clear in your heart as to how that business will make a difference for Christ in the world.

3. A Kingdom Business is Relational ... This means that it is vital how you treat people who work for you, whom you buy from, or whom you sell to. “Kingdom businesses” are devoted to treating people as Jesus would treat them and to consistently demonstrating in word and action that He is Lord of their lives and business.

4. A Kingdom Business is Operational ... If business is a calling from God, the business is run with excellence and great attention to quality. Conducting business, if it is God’s will for you, is like worshipping. It should be done as an act of devotion to God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Who is BreakThrough To People Network (BTPN)?

BTPN is a Christian Mission Organization with a clear purpose:

“Working towards Self-Sustained Communities

of Faith through God-Directed Business

Enterprise Development.”

What that means is:

1. We want Christian communities to be able to be sustained without outside assistance – through the leadership and work of the people in that community in that location.
2. We believe that God directs this process by using the marketplace to present Christian principles in everyday situations.
3. We develop new micro enterprises to enable the community of faith to develop skills for supporting themselves.

What BTPN does:

1. We bring Christian business coaches to a location in a country to develop enterprise skills in God-gifted believers.
2. We help believers to develop a new enterprise based on their idea – what we do has been compared to an incubator where we ‘hatch’ their idea.
3. We follow a three phase cycle to accomplish this process:
   1.    Phase I:  The Foundations of Business (28 hours of intensive instruction giving the skeleton of business skills and equipping the candidates to do a marketing survey)
   2.    Marketing Survey: An assignment which prepares the candidate to put together a good business plan. Based on the quality of the survey turned in, the candidate proceeds to Phase II or returns to Phase I.
   3.     Phase II:  A more personal one-on-one approach where candidates work directly with business professionals to develop a workable business plan and three-year financial projection.
   4.     Funding Process:  At present, the candidate in the BTPN training must pursue finding funding on their own. In the past, based on the quality and vision of the business plan, the candidate's business plan was made available to American and European Christian business people and churches for funding. 
   5.     Phase III:  Those candidates who have been funded will be invited back to further develop their understanding of business management and financial skills. Those candidates not funded are invited to come back the following year in hope that they will be more fortunate then.

What is a micro enterprise?

1. Micro Enterprise is not adding to an existing business. If you already have a business in place, you are welcome to receive information and advice from our Phase Conferences, but we will not fund your idea to expand your present business.
2. Micro Enterprise is not Small or Medium Enterprise. Small and Medium Business involve many employees and larger location requirements than BTPN is set up to accomplish.
3. Micro Enterprise is usually one or two people doing a type of work which can be set up in a small setting – perhaps even in a home setting. It tends to be simple, but very expandable.
4. BTPN Micro Enterprise projects should be developed with the idea that the new enterprise will grow as the expertise of the candidate grows.

What will the Phase Conference cost?

1. It will cost the candidate many hours of prayer and study to accomplish this task. Their hard work is the basis of any new enterprise.
   

2. The candidate will provide their own transportation, housing and meals for the four day conferences. They must have some investment in this effort to start a new enterprise – this is some of that investment.
   

3. The candidate will need to be on time for all sessions.
   

4. BTPN will provide a lunch meal for the candidate each day of the conference and BTPN will provide all conference materials.
   

Who can be a candidate for this process?

A Christian with a strong testimony of their relationship with Jesus Christ. This includes a man or woman who has an:

• Active involvement in the local church.
• Willingness to explain the Gospel to unbelievers in their community.
• Approval and nominating of their Pastor.

1. The candidate must be willing to work in a team with the local Pastor to impact the community with the Gospel of salvation. This willingness needs to be shared by the Pastor.
2. The candidate must be ‘people focused’ instead of ‘money focused’ – while making a profit will be important, employees and customers are more important.
3. The candidate must be actively looking for opportunities to assist the work of the church including looking for ways to start new churches and develop new believers. This may involve working with a Christian missionary in your area.
4. The candidate must be willing to work hard and demonstrate Christian principles through their life and the business. Many of these principles are introduced through our Phase Conferences.
5. The candidate must have a good idea for a new enterprise.

The candidate's Pastor needs to attend the conference on the first day with them to hear and see what they are involved in and understand the nature of the teamwork we are asking for between the candidate and the Pastor.