The Marketplace Magazine January/February 2013

January February 2013

Where Christian faith gets down to business

Coffee for Peace:

Tribal warriors brew up a cup Thrift shop gets a corporate touch Why good people do bad things “How I changed my mind about business” 1

The Marketplace January February 2013

Roadside stand

Suffer the little children Melinda Gates gets a buzz every September. That’s when the United Nations releases statistics on how many children died the year before.

That death count makes her optimistic, she says, because for more than 40 Septembers in a row the numbers have gone down.

Indeed, this last September it was reported that 700,000 fewer children died in 2011 than the year before. And in 2010 the toll was 200,000 lower than 2009.

Since 1970 the children’s death count has dropped by more than half, while at the same time the world’s population nearly doubled. “The child-survival story is terrific any way you slice it,” she writes in The World in 2013, published by The Economist magazine.

What has produced this happy news? A good deal can be traced to international efforts to improve health, nutrition and economic development. It is the source of some cheer in MEDA’s offices that two highlighted interventions are ones in which we are active in Africa — distributing insecticide-treated mosquito nets to combat malaria, and fortification efforts to get vitamin A into the food supply.

Child health is an important building block for long-term success, says Gates, who is half of the philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Children surviving and staying healthy means more children in school and able to learn,

Cover photo of Joji Pantoja by Byron Pantoja

which in turn means productive workers who can drive sustained economic growth across Africa.”

Next September Gates expects to see the child mortality figure fall again. “How far,” she writes, “depends on how hard the world tries to deliver lifesaving innovations to the children who need them.

If all children in developing countries got vaccinated, slept under bed nets and received vitamin A supplements, almost one million more would survive.”

means that workers increasingly scramble to get their ‘real work’ done on the margins, early in the morning or late in the evening,” Silverman writes.

Once distracted, it can take up to 23 minutes to get back up to speed. “It is an epidemic,” Silverman quotes one organizational expert as saying.

Many companies struggle “to get work done on a daily basis with all these things coming at you.” Some companies are encouraging a return to ancient technology — the telephone — for non-urgent internal

MEDA TV? This is cool — a library of video features from the world of MEDA. The newest additions include “A MEDA Fish Tale” (35 seconds) and a look at the power of local investment as depicted in a five-minute video of “Dairy Production in Tunisia.” You’ll also find longer features from MEDA’s recent annual convention, such as the stunning keynote presentation

by Jeff Van Duzer, “Ethical Risks: Why Do Good People End Up Doing Bad Things?”

Go to www.meda.tv

matters. A French company took the extreme step of phasing out internal e-mail after it found that employees were spending two hours a day managing their inboxes.

Marital problems have a way of becoming work problems.

Research by ComPsych, the world’s largest provider of employee assistance programs, shows that nearly a quarter (22 percent) of workers report being distracted on the job by marital problems. That distraction typically made them more vulnerable to reduced productivity and/or the risk of injury. The good news is that employee and family assistance programs (EFAPs) can be a huge help. One survey showed that employees utilizing such programs to deal with personal

Digital distraction. Handling 100 e-mails can use up more than half a worker’s day, writes Rachel Silverman in the Wall Street Journal. Some of those e-mails are necessary, but many internal messages are not. Another time-waster is too many meetings, the result of a misguided attempt to ensure a collaborative atmosphere. “A ceaseless tide of meetings and internal e-mails

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relationship problems resulted in: an 85% increase in attendance at work; a 52% increase in focus at work; a 47% increase in job satisfaction; a 43% reduction in work-related stress; and a 39% increase in productivity. (CLAC Guide) Chocolate baron Milton S. Hershey is often mentioned as having Mennonite roots and now, thanks to writer/historian Rich Preheim, we know more about that connection.

Writing about the Reformed Mennonite Church, formed in 1812 from the first Mennonite schism in North America, Preheim reports that the famed chocolatier’s maternal grandfather was a bishop in the church and his mother was a lifelong member (though her husband wasn’t). While Milton Hershey did not join the church, writes Preheim, “he deeply respected his mother and her faith. He made it a point to attend a Reformed Mennonite worship service at least once a year, even after becoming a successful businessman. According to accounts, he would arrive in a chauffeur-driven limousine, stamp out his cigar, then go sit in the front pew. He also endowed a Reformed Mennonite home for the aged in Lancaster in his mother’s memory. The home closed in 1981.” (Men‑ nonite World Review) Saying thanks. Want to signal that you are brimming with mental health? Then make a point of expressing gratitude.

Christian Century editor John Buchanan noted recently that, according to C.S. Lewis, grateful people tend to be more emotionally healthy: “Praise almost seems to be inner health made audible.” — WK

In this issue

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Brewing up peace

9

Thrift shop gets a corporate hand

Winnipeg’s Kildonan Thrift Store had reached a fork in the road, and was more like a big box than a Mom & Pop shop. It found it could use a few skills imported from the world of business.

MEDA looks at Shared Risk: Cascading Returns. Page 14

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Why good people do bad

14

Pakistan through different lenses

Departments 2 4 19 22

Roadside stand Soul enterprise Reviews News

Editor: Wally Kroeker Design: Ray Dirks

Lawyer and ethicist Jeff Van Duzer reminded MEDA’s convention of the “decade of sleaze” that began 11 years earlier. How did so many seemingly good people get knocked off course?

The country may evoke images of bombs, corruption and misery, but there’s much more to it than that, a veteran MEDA staffer says. There’s also richness, splendor and, above all, hope.

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Volume 43, Issue 1 January February 2013 The Marketplace (ISSN 0199-7130) is published bi-monthly by Mennonite Economic Development Associates at 532 North Oliver Road, Newton, KS 67114. Periodicals postage paid at Newton, KS 67114. Lithographed in U.S.A. Copyright 2013 by MEDA.

Dann and Joji Pantoja returned to the Philippines to calm the strife that has torn their country apart, and soon found that coffee and entrepreneurship combined for a new slant on ministry.

I changed my mind about business

Fresh out of seminary, he was dubious of those who had chosen a “lower path.” Now he affirms business as a legitimate way to serve God and lift people out of poverty. By Phil Ebersole

Change of address should be sent to Mennonite Economic Development Associates, 32C E Roseville Road, Lancaster, PA 17601-3681.

To e-mail an address change, subscription request or anything else relating to delivery of the magazine, please contact subscription@meda.org For editorial matters contact the editor at wkroeker@meda.org or call (204) 956-6436 Subscriptions: $25/year; $45/two years.

Postmaster: Send address changes to The Marketplace 32C E Roseville Road Lancaster, PA 17601-3681

Published by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), whose dual thrust is to encourage a Christian witness in business and to operate business-oriented programs of assistance to the poor. For more information about MEDA call 1-800-665-7026.

Web site www.meda.org

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The Marketplace January February 2013

Jesus and the warm glow

A crisis in meaning?

“We are seeing a real crisis in meaning in the workplace,” Jeff Van Duzer told a seminar at MEDA’s annual convention in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Nov. 1-4. The dean of the business school at Seattle Pacific University cited a Harris poll that found only one in five employees are enthusiastic about the goals of their organization, and only one in five see a connection between their work and the goals of their employer.

Put those together and you get a very small percentage of workers who see any link between their work and anything they care about, he said.

“From a business standpoint a crisis in meaning is a crisis in productivity,” Van Duzer said. “From a Christian standpoint, what a waste to think you are investing a hundred thousand hours of your life in work that you don’t see as having any significance to anything you care about.” (See full report on page 12)

Do you make your kids proud?

David Henderson is described as an “angel” investor who puts money into companies that are doing good things with water. He believes investing in water and waste water innovation can provide excellent financial returns while helping to solve environmental problems. A reporter asked him if his young children knew what he did for a living.

Henderson said, “One of the proudest moments I’ve had so far was when I went and observed one of [my eight-year-old daughter’s] classes.

My daughter got up and said: ‘I’d like to introduce my Daddy who is saving the world’s water.’ I was like, ‘Wow’.” (Globe & Mail) The Marketplace January February 2013

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Is there a scientific reason why people are generous?

Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, examined the brains of volunteers as they chose whether to give money to charity or use it for themselves. The scientists used a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can map activity in various parts of the brain. Their findings were reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They concluded that the people who chose to keep the money they were given did not experience the same joy of those who decided to give theirs away.

The researchers had managed to examine what went on inside each person’s brain as they made decisions based on moral beliefs. What they discovered was that when people were giving money away the part of their brain that was active was its reward center, the “mesolimbic pathway” that is responsible for doling out the dopamine‑mediated euphoria associated with sex, money, food and drugs. From this they concluded that the warm glow that comes from charitable giving has a physiological basis.

All this medical research confirms that Jesus was right after all: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” — Adapted from a sermon by Scott Ruddick, MEDA’s director of Integrated Support Services, at Leamington (Ontario) Mennonite Church

Jesus and the business gap “It is interesting to note that if it were not for businesspeople we may not have had the gospel. Think about the people whom Jesus chose to walk alongside him. Of the 12, at least four were fishermen, one was a tax collector and one was an accountant. The point is: Jesus bridged the gap and partnered with businesspeople to preach the gospel and advance the kingdom.” — David M. Miller, pastor, Bellwood Mennonite Church, Milford, Neb., in response to MEDA’s convention workshop on pastors and businesspeople

Outsourcing life itself Has “the market” intruded too far into our lives?

According to Arlie Russell Hochschild, the answer is a firm yes. Her new book, The Outsourced Self: Intim‑ ate Life in Market Times, chronicles how many aspects of personal life have been packaged into commercial expertise and sold back to busy North Americans. She describes entrepreneurial forays into wedding and party planning, dog walking, parenting, photo-album assembly and even the hiring of “gestational surrogates.”

“The market is now present in our bedrooms, at our breakfast tables, in our love lives, entangled in our deepest joys and sorrows,” she writes. “And the more the market is the main game in town, the more hooked we get on what it sells, and the more convinced that paid expertise is what we lack and an even larger service mall is the only way to go.... So as community-starved people come to crave company-provided counsel, comfort, and support, companies extend services — for those who can pay.

“The very ease with which we reach for market services may also prevent us from noticing the remarkable degree to which the market has come to dominate our very ideas about what can or should be for sale or rent, and who should be included in the dramatic cast — buyers, branders, sellers — that we imagine as part of a personal life. Most important of all, it may prevent us from noticing Overheard how we devalue what we don’t or can’t buy.”

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Tricked by the devil?

“The idea that service to God should have only to do with a church altar, singing, reading, sacrifice and the like is without doubt the worst trick of the devil. How could the devil have led us more effectively astray than by the narrow conception that service to God takes place only in church and by works done therein.” — Martin Luther

“People who have good relationships at home are more effective in the marketplace.” — Zig Ziglar

The Marketplace January February 2013

Photo by Byron Pantoja

The Marketplace January February 2013

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Brewing up peace Business skills come in handy for emerging Philippines coffee industry

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offee growers in the Philippines can be grateful country where people love to visit over food and coffee, that Joji Pantoja knows business. Otherwise they perhaps it was bound to happen. might still be brandishing guns rather than toting One day they were engaged in intense dialogue with sacks of Arabica beans. warring sides in the conflict zone.

For Joji and her husband Dann, who are Mennonite “We told one leader to leave his weapons outside and missionaries, the coffee trade they’ve developed among join us for coffee,” says Dann. “We just listened to him highland tribes has become an important cog in a larger talk. Then we had coffee with the guy he was fighting peacebuilding ministry in their native country. It’s also a against, and we listened to him. Then we asked if they sparkling example of how “business as mission” can work would be willing to have coffee with each other — and in unexpected ways. they did!”

Dann and Joji left the Philippines in Someone blurted out, “Let’s Someone said, 1986 to work with Filipino immigrants in have coffee for peace.”

Winnipeg, where they started the city’s first The phrase stuck, and an idea “Let’s have coffee Filipino church. They later expanded their began to percolate in Joji’s mind. ministry to Vancouver where Joji worked as She was no stranger to how for peace.” They did the hospitality trade could enhance a financial planner for a leading investment firm. social outcomes. Years earlier, after In 2006 the couple felt called to return graduating from a course in hotel ... and it stuck. to the Philippines as peacebuilding missionand restaurant management, she aries under Mennonite Church Canada. After decades of had opened a cafeteria for street women and children. being wracked by Muslim-Christian conflict, their native Now she pondered adapting a simple social ritual to a country desperately needed creative approaches to peace. higher purpose that could complement their peacebuildOver 40 years the strife has claimed an estimated 120,000 ing efforts. She knew coffee was the world’s second most lives and dislocated two million people. traded liquid commodity, after oil. Couldn’t the peace Dann and Joji devoted themselves to bringing the dividend be magnified by empowering coffee farmers? evangelical churches and the rebel groups in south Philip“It was Joji’s idea to make it a brand name and open pines together, and in helping resolve ancient land disa shop,” says Dann. putes at the root of much tension.

With the couple’s entrepreneurial skills and vigorous The coffee business was never their goal, but in a peace advocacy, a brisk trade emerged.

“Coffee is a common product in our country,” Joji says, “but as a crop it has been neglected as other prodFacing page: Joji Pantoja — putting old business skills to work as a coffee entrepreneur. ucts like bananas and pineapples got more attention.”

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The Marketplace January February 2013

After tasting a

learning reconstruction and how to treat aggressors. Citing the sample, Level common three Ps of socially responsible Ground officials business — people, planet, profit — Joji were eager to put adds a fourth: peace.

Joji, an outspoPhilippines on their ken apostle of quality, proudly notes that a recent bean sample coffee map. scored an impressive 87.5 percent on the rating scale of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA).

Level Ground has provided encouragement at each step along the way, she says. “They want to see Philippines on the coffee map, along with Colombia, Peru and Brazil.”

As more farmers’ trees approach maturity, Joji wants to collect enough beans for a full container load.

“We’re looking at shipping 5,000 kilograms [11,000 pounds] in this season, which runs from November to January,” she says.

Local institutions have helped out. Coffee for Peace received a $5,000 grant from Citi Bank and Philippines Business for Social Progress. The money went for a roaster.

Dann and Joji are trying to raise capital to move into the big leagues. Up to now they have been spending their own pension money. “We personally put up 60 percent of the money needed to capitalize this so far,” says Dann.

“The rest is from local people who believe in our vision.”

But more is needed for the next step — to buy land and construct a warehouse. Dann estimates they’ll need $250,000.

“We need to look at this as a business, not as two missionaries doing business,” he says. “It can’t stay a Mom & Pop operation.”

Like many entrepreneurs, they are sometimes struck by the scope of what they have gotten into, and the immense possibilities ahead as they prepare to deal with names like Nescafe and Starbucks.

One option might be franchising. In 2009 they established a coffee shop in Davao City, followed by another in 2011. The dream is for every community to have a coffee shop where retail consumption can be paired with education.

Other food products are also ripe for investment.

“The Muslims we are working with ask if we can bring in Canadian investors,” says Joji. “They say, ‘we have cocoa, coconut, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, tomatoes and carrots’.”

Dann mentions a Muslim sultan who spoke with him.

“He is tired of the fighting,” Dann says. “He would like to use his land for good.” ◆

She started by encouraging one tribe to plant

coffee trees. Though their ancestral land had been deforested by loggers, the quality ingredients were still there — rich soil, tropical climate, high altitude.

Growing coffee takes time, Joji explains. New Arabica bushes need three years to produce a harvest.

Meanwhile she tested the market abroad. She bought some beans from local farmers and sent them off to be roasted and packaged back in Canada. She contacted Level Ground in Victoria, B.C., a leading distributor of fair trade coffee.

After tasting her sample, the Level Ground folk made a startling request: “Can you supply us with 50 tons a month?”

“That was in 2008,” Joji says. “By 2011 we were able to ship 600 kilograms (1,320 pounds).”

They began to recruit more growers, finally enlisting 450 families from 17 tribes, who now grow a combined total of 2,000 acres of coffee. Many of the growers are former guerrillas.

By any financial yardstick the farmers have done very

Business as mission: Joji and Dann Pantoja during a visit to Mennonite Church Canada offices in Winnipeg.

well. Most had been bottom-of-the-pyramid subsistence farmers earning $1.25 per day. Now they earn $7 a day.

Joji has promoted the cultivation of Arabica coffee plants over lower-quality Robusta plants. Now that farmers realize they will be fairly compensated, they willingly reforest to provide the shade Arabica plants need, thus boosting the local ecology.

Growing coffee has spin-offs beyond increas-

ing income, Joji explains. It helps tribal people establish claims to their ancestral domain and restores denuded forests that have been ravaged by illegal logging. People are building better houses; communities are thriving. In one location the government noticed the surge of energy and decided to build an elementary school.

Growers are also being groomed in a culture of peace,

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Thrift store gets a corporate hand They’d reached a fork in the road. Smashing success had turned a Mom & Pop shop into a big box enterprise

M

any charitable ventures could benefit from a business touch.

Even a thrift shop.

That’s what has happened at the Kildonan MCC Thrift Shop in Winnipeg, a seasoned veteran of the North American network. It went into operation only a few months after the first store was launched in 1972 (see sidebar below).

For years the Kildonan store faithfully served a lowerincome market in the city’s northeast with second-hand clothing, shoes, housewares and other donated goods.

Like other volunteer-run stores, frugal overhead enabled it to contribute heavily to the worldwide ministry of Mennonite Central Committee.

Customer traffic grew, prompting relocations. At each move the facilities were improved — another way to help revitalize the neighborhood. By 2010 the Kildonan store occupied a huge facility only a few blocks from where it began. The extra space came in handy, as a thrift shop needs a lot of room to store all the donated clothes, appliances and books that come in the back door. More space is needed to sort, repair and price goods, not to mention put them on retail display.

The new facility had plenty of space — 39,000 square feet in all. Some people wondered if that was too much; perhaps a portion could be rented out commercially.

As with many ventures, managing growth and success invites pressures. As the volume of donated goods surged, so did the volunteer workload, in some cases creating stress.

Questions were raised: Could the receiving and selling of goods be better handled to reflect optimal stewardship, compete in a fluid environment and contribute more dynamically to the community and to the mission of MCC? Two years ago the board of the Kildonan store invited a review by management consultants Neil and Herta Janzen, who have a long track record of integrating business systems with social enterprise.

The Janzens saw that the store had reached a fork in the road — could it continue with the informal approach that had served it well in the past, or should it make a considered leap into a professional future while still staying true to the original mission?

The previous management approach (essentially a board-run operation staffed by volunteers) was “in line with a Mom & Pop enterprise though it had become a big box operation, with increasing volume, rising sales and more opportunities for community assistance,” says Neil Janzen. “What then should a friendly, caring presence look like in such a big box shop?”

The Janzens made numerous suggestions about defining future vision, long-term planning and maintaining

“Clothing into cash”

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y any measure it was a brilliant entrepreneurial idea.

In the small town of Altona, Manitoba, four women decided in 1972 to open a shop where volunteers would sell donated clothing and goods at modest prices. The profits would go to the worldwide mission of Mennonite Central Committee.

The idea caught on and spread like proverbial wildfire. Within months, three more shops had sprung up in Manitoba. Neighboring Saskatchewan came next. In 1974 the first U.S. shop opened in Bluffton, Ohio.

Today the MCC Thrift Shop network is the stuff of legend. Across Canada and the U.S., 126 such outlets sell all manner of cut-rate goods from clothing and shoes to toys and appliances.

Over the years thrift shops have raised more than $167 million for MCC’s work. As one official noted, the idea became “a machine that will turn clothing into cash.” ◆

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The Marketplace January February 2013

The exterior of the Kildonan thrift shop. Improving the space is another way to help revitalize the neighborhood.

volunteer morale.

They also recommended the thrift shop hire a fulltime manager.

for “making God visible through our interactions with customers, community, staff and our financial commitment to MCC.” “Let’s know the customer and make it more than a revenue opportunity; let’s bond with the customer,” he says.

For his part, Rempel says he loves being out on the floor and interacting with customers, some of whom come in daily and whom he has gotten to know on a firstname basis. “That relationship is the difference between us and Value Village and Salvation Army.”

Victor Rempel had recently retired after a

35-year career with Manitoba Telecom Services, the province’s primary telecommunications carrier. He had worked in engineering, then moved into operations and spent the last 10 years in logistics, supply services and purchasing.

In 2011 he was hired as chief operations officer of the Kildonan thrift shop.

While the store had performed exceedingly well for decades, some areas had been neglected and needed the skill-set he brought the corporate Even well-meaning from world. Even a wellmeaning organization people need staffed by people with hearts of gold robust policies and needs good structures, defined poliprocedures to make cies and operational procedures to make sure customers are sure the customer is serviced well.

One ongoing served well. challenge, faced by any business, was to make sure the commitment to service was evident in every interaction. Volunteers, who are generously donating their time to the enterprise, may need occasional reminders that excellence needs to be foremost. “We’ve got to get out of the mentality that ‘this is good enough’,” Rempel tells them. “Customers will judge us by our worst day. Let’s focus on serving the customer well.”

He points to the store’s vision statement, which calls The Marketplace January February 2013

Thrift shops thrive on volunteers. Kildonan

has 240 of them (plus five paid staff). Women are the backbone, composing 70 percent of the volunteer contingent, Rempel says. “On average, a volunteer will come in once or twice a week. Some come almost daily, others once a month. We have 11 women who started with us in 1972 and are still volunteering. One of them is 92 years old and still comes in once a month.”

An average day will see 600-800 customers, and up to 1,500 on sale days. Rempel estimates that 70 percent are from the store’s target demographic of needy folk in the neighborhood. Others include “thrift store junkies” and customers from all over the city, including a growing younger clientele attracted by exposure on Facebook and social media.

Rempel points to the mission statement, which specifies living out Christian faith by “providing essential merchandise in good condition at affordable prices.”

“We want to be the lowest cost in the city when it comes to essentials,” he says. “For non-essentials we go for near market price.”

Those non-essentials can include genuine antiques, like a finely crafted grandfather clock that is on the floor for $1,750, or a high-quality dining set in the $600-

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One original volunteer, now 92 years old, still comes in once a month. ing; others have sent us notes,” Rempel says.

On the other hand, it can be heartwarming to see honesty from the store’s low income target group. One day someone bought a purse and came back later to turn in the money she found hidden inside. It was $200.

The Kildonan thrift shop has become more comfortable with its big box status, even if it doesn’t use the term. At one point it planned to occupy half the building and lease out the other half. Then they decided to take it off the market and grow into it themselves.

As with other thrift shops, surplus funds have gone to MCC but for now a sizeable amount is going to revitalize the building and pay down the mortgage. At current rates that shouldn’t take long, after which even greater contributions can be made. Rempel reports that in 2011 sales rose 70% and 35% in 2012 to $900,000. Clearly the corporate touch is making a difference to the bottom line. ◆

$700 range. A special area is set aside for vintage items (with prices to match). Some are listed on Kijiji, a free online classified service. “That brings in new traffic,” says Rempel, who is happy to attract additional niche customers.

Kildonan is able to sell about 80 percent of the items that are dropped off. Some that can’t be sold are recycled.

“We make $100 to $200 a week from recycled steel and copper,” he says. “We keep a lot of stuff out of the landfill.”

It’s not always easy being what the mission

statement calls “a caring presence.” Thrift stores aren’t immune to retail travails such as theft. Customers have switched price tags, like one who tried to buy a $170 snow blower for $30.

“Some have come back later and apologized for steal-

An average day will see 600 to 800 patrons, says Victor Rempel, chief operations officer. Each interaction is a chance to “make God visible” to customers and the surrounding community.

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The Marketplace January February 2013

Why good people do bad “Speed, spin and stuff” can knock us off course, ethicist tells MEDA convention

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ntil reminded, no one seemed to recall that the 2012 MEDA convention fell almost exactly 11 years after the demise of Enron.

The collapse of that “darling of Wall Street,” said opening night keynoter Jeff Van Duzer, opened the door to “a decade of high-profile sleaze” which saw numerous business icons fall into the muck of fraud and malfeasance. By the end of 2011, Van Duzer went on, the FBI was investigating 725 active corporate fraud cases plus thousands of other business missteps from price-fixing to Ponzi schemes.

“There’s been a steady stream of this stuff,” he said, adding that “it matters,” not only to those who lost their life savings but to everyone else, as well.

It certainly mattered in his job as dean of the business school at Seattle Pacific University, which has seen an unprecedented drop in interest in business programs

Why business matters to God

as prospective students sour on a future in the corporate world.

Faith in business had plunged generally, with only a minority of Americans still trusting business leaders to do what’s right.

“I’m a lawyer by training and we’re used to living in the basement of public opinion, so I suppose it’s nice to get new neighbors now and then,” he said to chuckles from the Nov. 1-4 audience in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Who were these people who became the new millennium’s models of business treachery? Some of the biggest offenders were decent church-going people; some even taught Sunday school. What caused them to go bad, Van Duzer wondered. Probably being subjected to forces they didn’t understand, plus the existence of “bad systems.”

He concluded that many well-meaning people are “knocked off course” by three things — “speed, spin and stuff.”

In his seminar on Why Business Matters to God (also the title of his book) Jeff Van Duzer said many Christians have a “thin” theology of business and do not see any Christian purpose in business beyond making money to donate to Christian causes. They might exhibit exemplary honesty and personal conduct but have no idea what God might think about business issues like product pricing or mergers.

Business had two important purposes, Van Duzer said. One was to produce goods and services that enable creation to flourish. Another was to provide an opportunity to express aspects of God-given identity in meaningful and creative work.

Why did this matter? For one thing, he said, it brought meaning to that part of life where most people spend the bulk of their waking hours. It also created a sense that a business operation could help solve global issues. He urged Christian business owners to ask how they could run their businesses profitably but also in a way that addresses some of the big problems in the world.

He referred to Jesus’s words to send workers out into the harvest field. “I always thought that meant pastors and missionaries,” Van Duzer said. “I’ve come to believe it means businesspeople.” ◆

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Speed The dizzying pace of business, accelerated by ever-faster communication, was a chief contributor to ethical slackness. As deadlines expanded, business was getting faster and faster and in order to cope, frazzled workers tried to squeeze more and more into every minute, Van Duzer observed. “The more we squeeze in, the more something gets squeezed out. We don’t have time to think and reflect.”

What to do?

For him, the age-old concept of the Sabbath brought a healing rhythm to the frantic pace of business. The concept of the Sabbath was to do no productive work, he said. “Keeping it on a regular basis teaches us that we are not the sum total of what we produce. Our value is not just housed in our capacity to produce. We have value and

Photo by Steve Sugrim

worth independent of anything that we accomplish.”

Keeping the Sabbath, he said, “gives you time to think and reflect, an opportunity to re-orient yourself.”

Spin

be headed toward a crisis.

Without an accountability structure, even the best leaders can go astray. They incrementalize and rationalize what’s right.”

Stuff

Despite the negative image of By “stuff” Van Duzer said he “spin” in election campaigns, meant money and material trying to present a favorable impossessions. age was not inherently bad, Van Noting that U.S. worker Duzer said. “Spin is not unethioutput per hour had tripled cal per se. We all want to put since the Second World War, our best foot forward. But busihe said “the average person ness is spinning more and more works 160 hours a year more and pushing people to make than we used to.” Western more and more extreme claims society had never before seen than can really be justified. such a wholesale willingness “When we spin too much, to exchange time for money. we get dizzy, and we go right But this extra work had across some lines we should not not managed to fulfill decross.” sires, he said, quoting Robert His brake pedal to keep Reich, political economist and spin in check was to employ the former U.S. labor secretary, Christian disciplines of confesthat the more people have, Jeff Van Duzer: “Every time I give money away I am sion and community. the more they think they declaring that it does not control me.”

He had found that meeting need to feel economically periodically with a trusted friend safe. provided a chance to “vomit out all the wrong things For many people, money and stuff had become you’ve done since the last time you met. It reminds you “some deep measure of me,” Van Duzer said. This had that you don’t have to be perfect.” deep ethical implications because “when money ceases to He conceded the discipline of confession was not be just a measure of what we can buy and now becomes always popular among Protestants who believe that a measure of who we are, the temptation to cut corners Christians can confess directly to God and be forgiven. goes way up.”

But, he said, confessing something aloud to someone and One antidote to the power of “stuff” was to “find a being reminded that you marker that reminds you that you do not have to live at are forgiven provided “a the edge of what you can afford.” For him that had been “When we spin tremendous release” that a rusty old car that he drove when he worked as a lawyer “frees us from the need and which he parked beside the gleaming luxury models too much, we get to be always polishing the in the corporate parking lot. This car was a daily reminder apple and spinning a little that “I did not need to live at the edge of what I can afdizzy, and maybe bit more.” ford.”

Meeting with a larger Another antidote was to “give, give, give. As you cross some lines accountability group, as accumulate more, give it away. Every time I give money he said he and his wife away I am declaring that it does not control me. It doesn’t have done weekly for identify me. It doesn’t describe me.” Giving money helped we shouldn’t.” many years, provides “break the grip that money otherwise so often has on our a sense of community that undergirds a strong ethical lives.” base. He said he could not succeed as an ethical individVan Duzer said Christian disciplines like Sabbath, ual without community and the accountability it brings. confession, community, markers and generosity were He quoted Eric Pilmore (speaker at MEDA’s 2007 convenhabits to be built into life in advance. He said he liked to tion), who had been called in to clean up Tyco after its tell business students that “If you wait until an ethical CEO was jailed for corporate misdeeds: “Good ethical dilemma lands on your desk, and then you say, ‘Oh, I’d leaders without a web of accountability around them can better have community,’ it’s too late.” ◆ 13

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Pakistan through different lenses MEDA staffer sees hope amid the chaos

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perity, health, early childhood development, security and freedom.

Conversely, it was “no coincidence” that countries mired in conflict, poverty and corruption were also those that “devalue and oppress half of their population,” she said. She cited a recent study that ranked 128 countries on how effectively their leaders were empowering women Photo by Steve Sugrim

ombs, corruption, kidnappings, misery — that may be what comes to mind when people think about Pakistan. But there’s more, much more, says Helen Loftin, MEDA’s director of women’s economic development.

Speaking to the Nov. 2 plenary session of MEDA’s Business as a Calling convention in Niagara Falls, Loftin acknowledged “negative, evil and scary” reports that incite outrage.

“Sadly it is true that all those things are there…but so is a richness, splendor, a spirit and a promise of so much that can lift that country out of much of its despair. We see it in the eyes of the people with whom we are working, the clients, and their children.”

She said working in Pakistan, which MEDA has done for eight years, was not easy. “Stability is tenuous and the trigger points for societal mayhem there seem so fragile and touchy,” she said. But her task on this occasion was to present a different picture of hope and progress that is visible to MEDA staff but often unseen by others.

The country of 180 million people, in a landmass roughly the size of Ontario or Texas, included provinces, federally administered tribal regions and some disputed areas — “all part of a complicated web that veritably weaves instability into its fabric.” Still, each region had its own unique culture producing exquisite artisanal goods such as textiles and jewelry.

Pakistan faced many hurdles such as a population in which 63 percent were under the age of 25 and half lived in poverty; poor infrastructure; industry-crippling energy shortages; soaring food prices; and a currency drop of 40 percent in the last five years.

Plus, Loftin said, “natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods have occurred since we’ve been there, changing the very script of the work that we are doing.”

Unlike in most developed countries, men outnumber women 107 to 100, Loftin said, and “culture dictates that resources are preferentially spent on men and boys before women and girls.”

That makes it difficult for a country to progress, as research consistently shows that empowering women produces broader gains for all citizens in terms of pros-

Windsor, Ont., pastor Paul Dueck provided spirited musical leadership throughout the convention. Here he performs on a harp from Paraguay, where MEDA began.

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“It’s no coincidence

• Pathways & Pursestrings has successfully integrated over 20,000 women into market systems in the milk, seedlings, glass bangles and embellished fabrics sectors.

• A women’s economic empowerment project reached more than 5,000 women embroiderers in some of the most difficult districts in the country.

• MEDA’s Entrepreneurs project continues to build and enjoys a favored position with its funder, United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Despite “tremendous challenges on several fronts,” Loftin said it is nearly half way to reaching 75,000 women entrepreneurs in four key value chain sectors: dairy, embellished fabrics, honey production and medicinal and aromatic plants.

Loftin shared the podium with one of MEDA’s partners from Pakistan, Ramzan Buriro, project manager of the Women Empowerment through Livestock Development (WELD) project. Buriro, who works for Engro, a major milk company, leads a team that ensures close to 19,000 clients are connected to the country’s formal milk sector. He She noted that MEDA has been working in described his company’s perspective on development and Pakistan for eight years and currently works with 13 local women’s empowerment and elaborated on the specifics partner organizations. Current or recent projects include: of the private sector investment made by Engro.

• Working with UBL, a major private sector bank in Another project participant, client Kalan Bai, was Pakistan, and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foununable to secure a visa but was linked electronically and dation, MEDA distributed pre-loaded “smart cards” to shared about the impact MEDA’s work has on her and her victims of the devastating flood in 2010. community.

The evening included a Pakistani dinner featuring Tamater Ka Shorba (a spicy tomato broth) along with Chicken Tikka and Mutton/lamb Korma, as well as A workshop prior to the convention focused on how pastors and busi‑ music played on traditional instruments. nesspeople could better work together in leadership and ministry. The following comments are excerpted from a report by attender David M. At the next day’s annual general Miller, pastor of Bellwood Mennonite Church in Milford, Neb. meeting president Allan Sauder reported that during 2012 MEDA’s mission to “cree explored how business leaders and pastors can connect in ate business solutions to poverty” helped a meaningful way with each other and jointly contribute to more than 18 million families “build a “God‑activity” both inside and outside the congregation. future with healthier, more economically Participants broke into two caucus groups — one for pastors, one sustainable lives. How is that possible for businesspeople. Pastors were asked to share how they experience with only $5 million in private contribubusinesspeople in the congregation. (Do pastors really understand tions last year? Does that mean that for the needs of businesspeople? Can they relate? Are pastors somewhat every dollar contributed we were able to intimidated by their wealth, power and/or prestige?) Business leaders change the lives of almost four families? were asked how they experience the church. (Do they feel as though The answer is yes!” they are only needed for their money? How can the church see them as Not all were helped in the same way, having other gifts to share?) The results were compiled from both cauSauder said. Through MEDA’s Sarona cus groups and shared collectively. It was a great start to a long-overdue fund investments over 14 million houseconversation.... holds at the bottom of the pyramid As first a businessperson for 21 years and now a pastor for five received increased access to financial years, I have a great passion for these two groups to connect. I believe services, jobs and other products.

The tothe real work of ministry doesn’t just happen on Sunday. It takes place tal also included 2.9 million farmers and Monday through Friday when Christian businesspeople have opportunentrepreneurs who are earning better ity to interact with their co‑workers, customers and community.... incomes (often double or triple) through I am excited to see this chasm between these two groups start to training, access to markets and financial close because both are vital to kingdom work here on earth. Can we services provided by MEDA’s partners, as keep this conversation going and begin to reach across the pew? ◆ well as 1.1 million homes in rural Tanzaas economic agents in the marketplace. On that scale, Pakistan that countries placed 118 out of 128. By comparison, mired in poverty the U.S. was 21, and Canada 22. and conflict tend Still, said Loftin, “I have never been so also to be countries hopeful for MEDA’s mission and specifically the mission of our that devalue and women’s economic development team. oppress women.”

The momentum and awareness of the role women play in stabilizing communities is building.”

Bridging the pastor-business gap

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Photo by Steve Sugrim

nia that now have mosquito nets to prevent malaria.

Sauder said MEDA’s development efforts reflected four assumptions that had guided the organization for nearly six decades: 1. The poor need access to markets “Capital investment only works if the poor have access to markets for their production,” he said. “This is what drives our Market Linkages department — ensuring that impoverished producers, whether they are farmers in Ukraine or embroiderers in Pakistan, have reliable access to markets and market information. It also means ensuring that the poor can buy the products they need to live healthy and productive lives — mosquito nets to prevent malaria, quality seeds and other basic farm inputs.”

2. The poor need access to financial services Some 2.5 billion adults, just over half of the world’s adult population, are not yet able to use formal financial services to save or “During 2012 borrow, Sauder said.

Responding to this MEDA helped more need had been a pillar of MEDA’s programming since the early than 18 million 70s, even before the term microfinance families move was coined. “MEDA recognized that the closer to healthy poor needed access to financial services, not and sustainable only loans but also access to secure savings livelihoods.” accounts, microinsur-

MEDA president Allan Sauder: 18 million families assisted in 2012, four for every dollar contributed.

ance, and a host of other services.”

3. The poor need access to long‑term investment capital Sauder pointed out that patient investments were vital to MEDA’s founding in 1953. Today’s Sarona funds, named after the first dairy in which MEDA invested in Paraguay, was still a global leader in reaching small and medium enterprises that will become economic drivers.

“Sarona funds are at the forefront of convincing the large institutional investors that emerging markets, and particularly small and medium investment funds, are one of the best investments and should be part of every major investment portfolio,” he said. “We know that these investments have impact — in fact we call it impact investing — but institutional investors need to be convinced of the returns and security.”

4. The poor need the wisdom, values and skills of MEDA supporters back home “This is where you come in,” Sauder told his audience. While noting that finanllan Sauder noted that the convention hotel had a special cial contributions reached a record $5 milplace in his personal history with MEDA. “Ten years ago in this lion in 2012, up 65 percent from last year, hotel I accepted my new role as MEDA president,” he said. “our base of supporters (less than 3,000 During that time he was fortunate to observe great growth in giving units) is too small and is stretched too MEDA’s impact: thinly to support our ever‑growing opportu• Staff doubled to 263 nities.”

• Contributions grew four times to $5 million He said MEDA was targeting a signifi• Sarona assets multiplied by four times to $20 million cant increase in private contributions — • Revenue grew six times to $33 million $5.7 million in total — to assist many more • Contracts grew seven times to $186 million millions of families. “We need you to bring • Assets under management multiplied 23 times to $180 million others to us — people like yourselves who • Clients increased 90 times to 18 million are interested in the convergence of faith But, Sauder said, “we don’t exist for the sake of growth. While values, the workplace, and creating effective our vision is that all people may experience God’s love and have a sustainable business solutions to poverty. No sustainable livelihood, we don’t intend to reach everyone even if we amount of mass marketing will reach those could. We want to invite others into that task, and especially our local people; we need you to make the connecpartners. We believe that the best economic development is driven tions for us.” by the beneficiaries themselves — they simply need the right condi-

Decade of growth

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tions.” ◆

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Saturday night’s program featured 16

Photo by Steve Sugrim

Plenty to celebrate: Members of MEDA’s board of directors took time out from serious organizational deliberations to engage in a playful moment, possibly symbolizing their reaction to the Cascading Returns part of the convention theme.

a Canadian woman’s efforts to promote entrepreneurship in Afghanistan by manufacturing fragrances using organic oils from orange blossoms.

Barb Stegemann, founder of 7 Virtues Beauty, Inc., said she decided to start the business when a close military friend was wounded by Taliban forces in Afghanistan and she felt the urgency of finding new ways to bring peace.

She began at a micro-scale, buying one cup of orange oil to incorporate into perfume production. Once production began she cold-called The Bay, a leading Canadian department store, and managed to get the company to stock her products. Today every Bay store in Canada carries products from her Toronto-based perfumery.

Stegemann said every bottle of her perfume contains the oil of 178 blossom petals, creating a steady demand for farmers’ production.

She said she grew up in a poor family so she knew what it was like to be excluded and “not be invited to the banquet.” But “God’s banquet” was open to all, and “our job is to swing the door open.” Stegemann said her desire was to “leave the earth a better, safer place.”

Conrad Grebel University president Susan Schultz Huxman closed out the Sunday program with a message on how Mennonites could connect service with spirituality. When Jesus recruited his disciples, she said, he “walked up to four small businessmen and said ‘drop your nets. Drop your nets and follow me’.”

She shared stories of Mennonites who had volunteered to serve the church in places of need, and encouraged today’s professionals to likewise “jump the track” to pursue “for-cause” careers.

The 2013 MEDA convention will be held Nov. 7-10 in Wichita, Kansas. ◆

Who MEDA hires

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resident Allan Sauder reported that MEDA’s worldwide staff now numbers 263, nearly 80 percent of whom are based overseas. More than 90 percent of overseas staff are locally hired. “This has long been a key operating principle for MEDA — to hire and build upon local expertise (both staff and partners) so that when MEDA leaves, the expertise and dedication remain and the work continues,” he said.

Of 56 North American staff, more than 70 percent are women, including nearly 60 percent of management positions. Eleven percent of North American staff are from visible minorities. ◆

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Taking risks with Peter and Cornelius up what have been very private financial records to your employees.

You might hire someone no one else will hire — an ex‑convict whose very name causes people to be uneasy, someone who has failed at every job they’ve had, perhaps because of an addiction, a person with a disability, or a refugee or immigrant who lacks language or other skills needed in the marketplace. Or you might mentor someone starting up a business.

You may have seen cascading returns, or the returns may not yet be evident.

In making our selections, we need to listen for God’s call. Most often it won’t be as clear as the call to Cornelius and Peter in Acts 10. It might be like the call to the MEDA founders, or it might be a suggestion from a friend.

Many of us may recognize occasions when we heard God’s call but chose not to share in the risk. We might have preferred to keep our time or resources for our own enjoyment or security or not wanted to risk being You might hire criticized for associating with persons who were someone no one shunned by the society us. else will, perhaps around I’m glad it was Peter whom God called to an ex‑convict, or take the good news to Cornelius. Peter had someone who has been unwilling to risk being associated with failed at every job Jesus and denied knowing him three times on the night before his crucithey’ve had. fixion. Nonetheless, Peter was later called to shepherd the church, and in Acts 10 was given a clear demonstration that the good news and the church are for the whole world. God’s willingness to use Peter despite his frailties gives me confidence that he will not give up on us even though we don’t always heed his call. He will continue to provide ways for us to share in the risks of others so that all people may experience God’s love and unleash their potential to earn a livelihood, provide for families and enrich their communities. ◆

Outgoing board member Lorna Goertz opened MEDA’s annual general meeting with a meditation on the con‑ vention theme, Shared Risk: Cascading Returns. She told a story of risk from Acts 10, where Cornelius, a devout Roman, invites Peter, a stranger, to his home. Peter, hav‑ ing just received a vision from God that broke his resist‑ ance to things “unclean,” accepts the risky invitation from this Gentile. Peter now understood that God’s gift of salvation was for Gentiles as well as Jews. The doors of the church were now open to everyone and the cascading returns from that shared risk are the disciples throughout the world. Here is an excerpt:

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n late 1953, a group of businessmen met in Chicago to form MEDA in response to a great need for capital in the Mennonite colonies in Paraguay. MCC had been assisting them but it was organized to provide relief, not capital. The MEDA founders invested time, counsel and money — $5,000 each. The first project they invested in was the Sarona dairy in Fernheim Colony.

There were many more opportunities than the founders could take. Some projects were very successful; others resulted in losses. Lessons were learned.

The successful projects helped establish an economic base in those colonies. The Mennonites there have not kept all of the returns of their efforts for themselves.

They have assisted the Indian colonies in the Chaco in developing their education, health care and economy.

MEDA partnered with them in some of the projects, and provided money for a loan fund. And, to thank Paraguay for accepting them, the colonists built Hospital Mennonita at Km 81 to treat leprosy.

MEDA was not the only group that shared the risks of the early residents of the colonies. I’m sure that all who were involved are amazed at the cascading returns that are so evident.

Those aren’t the only returns from the commitment of the group of businessmen who met in Chicago. There was enough success to embolden them to expand their work to other countries. Today we can celebrate cascading returns from the formation of MEDA.

Each of us faces opportunities to share in the risks of others. For some, the opportunity is to invest with MEDA, perhaps in one of the Sarona or MicroVest funds, directly in MiCredito (Nicaragua) or ACM (Ukraine), or together with MEDA Paraguay in Codip SA. Some might volunteer their time and counsel to a MEDA project.

And there are lots of opportunities closer to home.

Your business might lend itself to employee ownership or a profit-sharing plan so you take the risk of opening The Marketplace January February 2013

Lorna Goertz works in business valuation and quality assurance for a mid-sized accounting firm in Vancouver. During her time on the MEDA board she chaired its audit committee.

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Reviews

Salt & light company Life with Flavor: A Personal History of Herr’s. By Jim Herr, with Bruce E. Mowday and June Herr Gunden (Barricade Books, 2012, 182 pp. $22 U.S.)

munched on chips as they watched. New seasonings were added, from barbecue to salt and vinegar, as well as other snacks like pretzels, dried meat sticks and tortilla chips.

While not an exhaustive history, Life with Flavor is a delightful memoir told in avuncular fashion by a man who seems to have good-naturedly weathered the ups and downs of business in the post-World War 2 era. Along the way he relates the vicissitudes that come with being an entrepreneur — a devastating fire, potato shortages, inventory that goes bad and the inevitable business mistakes which “are just part of life, especially if you tend to take risks.” He relates “decision points,” such as when the company began a profit-sharing plan for employees, or how they dealt with handling waste in an environmentally responsible manner.

It’s fascinating to get an inside look at the Herr family business culture. “There is a tremendous advantage to running a business as a family,” Herr writes. Early exposure “makes it easier for kids to learn the value of money management, of dealing with customers, of relations with employees, and just general knowledge of how to operate a business, such as working long hours.”

Herr died in April, 2012, after the manuscript was completed but before the book had gone to press. By then, the company he founded had 1,500 employees and annual sales of more than $250 million. It ranked in the top five independently-owned salty snack food companies in the country.

Near the end of the book he says, “The best gift you can give your employees is to keep the company good and solid, so they don’t have to worry about job security. It’s gratifying that in 65 years, we have had no lay-offs due to a lack of business.”

Jim Herr brought the snack food industry not only flavor but also spiritual zest. Sprinkled throughout the book are Proverbs that illustrate vital business principles, such as “Don’t withhold repayment of your debts. Don’t say ‘some other time,’ if you can pay now” (Prov. 3:27,28), or “The Lord demands fairness in every business deal. He established this principle” (Prov. 16:11).

Also endearing is the listing of personal business principles at the end of each chapter (see sidebar).

“I believe the Great Creator is the model entrepreneur,” Herr writes early in the book. “He made us to be creative and to work hard at something, just like He did.”

Clearly, Jim Herr learned those lessons well. — Wally Kroeker

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n 1946 Jim Herr heard about a potato chip business that was for sale in Lancaster, Pa., for $1,750. Although snack foods weren’t really part of his Mennonite culture, he thought making chips was something he might be able to do. So he took out a loan and bought the company.

He had no idea how fast his learning curve would have to be. The former owners pledged to stick around for two weeks to teach him the trade, but two days after the sale was completed they took off and were never seen again.

Undeterred, young Jim pressed on. With the help of one part-time employee he peeled, sliced and cooked potato chips, then packaged them and sold them door-to-door. His wife, Mim, did the bookwork at night.

Herr kept up with the times and expanded his cooking and distribution capacity. “The whole snack food industry exploded in the 1950s,” he relates. People were moving from the country to the cities as manufacturing grew. A new invention called television boosted Herr’s market as people

A sample of Herr’s principles • If you are in a profession you don’t enjoy, be willing to make a change. I’ve known people who resign themselves to a job they detest and then complain about it their whole lives.

• If you want to create a business you have to be on the lookout for an opportunity. It doesn’t usually just come to you – you have to be willing to make the effort to look for it.

• Don’t give up too quickly. At first I thought I had made a wrong decision about making potato chips, but as I stuck with it I learned to appreciate the business.

• Be open to giving employees opportunities to diversify in their career paths. If a new position is needed, perhaps someone you already employ would be energized by the challenge of learning something new.

• Every company has a “culture.” Identifying your values and staying true to them helps give your company a firm footing.

• Never stop looking for opportunities to be a blessing to someone else. ◆

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How I changed my mind about business A pastor’s journey from skepticism to affirmation

by Phil Ebersole

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hen I started seminary in 1977, not long before I began my first pastoral assignment in the Mennonite Church, there was a prevailing sense that biblical leadership was quite different than the kind seen in business.

Leadership, we believed, should be egalitarian, meaning everyone leads (which in practice meant that no one led). “Strong” leadership was not desirable. “Good” leadership meant one should never step out ahead, but rather ask everyone where they wanted to go.

It was not uncommon to feel that business and

church did not mix. We knew businesses provided jobs and income for people, but in general business was seen as more likely in the wrong than in the right. If a business was doing well and turning healthy profits, then it was probably doing something unethical.

Many churches seemed ready to roll out the welcome mat for those seeking to follow Jesus as teachers, healthcare professionals, social workers, farmers, electricians and plumbers. But, if you worked in the corporate world or owned a business, you belonged on the sidelines.

Many businessfolk may have received a subtle (or not‑so subtle) message: Even though you haven’t chosen the “higher path” of social services, teaching or healthcare (and may even be doing something questionable as you make a profit) feel free to come to church, participate in worship (but stay on the fringes) ... and we’ll gladly take your money in the offering plate.

That was the context when I came out of seminary. I look back now and wonder what I communicated to the business members in our church, unconsciously and in stories woven into my sermons. I regret if I reinforced the above notions.

Things started to shift as I encountered business

owners who operated their companies with high integrity and with values rooted in their faith, all while making a profit. I noticed entrepreneurs who dreamed, risked, worked hard and made a positive impact in the community. I noticed business owners with a clear Christian faith, loving what they do, and doing it well.

Another big shift occurred when I served as executive director of ASSETS Toledo, a community economic development program established by MEDA. It was an unexpected privilege to be part of and to learn from this program.

I was profoundly impacted by ASSETS. On a very small scale, I witnessed elements of what MEDA is doing globally (creating business solutions to poverty), with changed lives being a result.

ASSETS was a nuts-and-bolts program to help lower‑income persons start or reinforce a very small business

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— a microenterprise. It included a very practical 12‑week, 24‑session business plan course as well as a mentoring component and a microloan program.

My work as director took me into various sectors of the city of Toledo and northwest Ohio. I visited Mennonite business leaders, other Christian entrepreneurs, black churches, the mayor’s office, city and county government leaders, Phil Ebersole Rotary and the chamber of commerce, non‑profit organizations and other civic leaders. My task included recruiting business leaders to teach the class sessions, building collaborative networks and relationships, raising funds, and cultivating a board that owned the vision. As a pastor I had always had one foot inside the church and one outside, but this step outside the congregational setting stretched me far beyond where I had been before.

to integrate their walk with God and business. I’ll mention two such ways: a desire to serve others and make ethical, value‑based decisions in the “messy middle” of life; and giving their time to teach, mentor and help lead the program as a board member.

Today, my hopes for church and business are these:

• I hope businesspeople in our churches will be welcomed and given support. This means we will eliminate any message that business owners and leaders are second-class or fringe members of the church. The church will welcome their participation and input, not just their financial resources. I hope our congregations can express gratitude for business members who provide products, services and meaningful work in our communities.

• I hope the church and business leaders will learn from each other. Certainly, some frustrations can be expected, e.g. “the church moves too slow” (business leader) and “business leaders want to move too fast” (pastor). However, what wisdom can business leaders offer the church to fulfill our purpose and calling? How can the church help business members face tough ethical questions, wrestle with decisions that don’t have a clear, immediate answer, and consider the biblical call to be stewards of all that is God’s? We need each other.

• I hope the church will celebrate where the poor are lifted out of poverty through business solutions. Yes, we need relief and development work where there is poverty.

Yes, sometimes an immediate meal, shelter or clothing is needed. And yes, “creating business solutions to poverty” is having an incredible impact on alleviating poverty.

• I hope for a growing awareness that our daily work is a critical place to live out our Christian faith. This includes embracing all the various settings and vocations where God calls us. ◆

I began to see the world through a different lens, rather than only through the window of the pastor’s office. I began to see the world more from the standpoint of business owners, professionals, managers and leaders.

Here is part of what I learned: • I’m grateful for “I saw how a small business leaders. When these leaders in the church and community business can be believed in this microenterprise program, they a significant way rolled up their sleeves and went to work. to escape poverty These men and women in business offered and establish a insightful ideas, shared solid business principles, sustainable living.” financially supported it and volunteered their time to teach and mentor the participants. I witnessed faith in God put into practice. They got things done.

• The discipline of business can help alleviate poverty.

God’s call to stand with and for the poor is clear throughout Scripture, though we are not prescribed one way to do this. I saw firsthand how operating a small business can be a significant way to escape poverty and establish a sustainable living.

• Businesspeople in our churches put their faith into practice. I met Christians in business, both in my Mennonite world and in other Christian churches, who sought

Phil Ebersole, Denver, has been appointed to a short-term MEDA position as interim chaplain for business and church relations.

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News

Hershey takes steps to reduce child labor Call it an example of how quiet dialogue can make a global difference.

A decision by Hershey, the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America, to move toward using only certified cocoa in all its chocolate lines is being praised as a step toward reducing child exploitation in Africa. The company recently announced that by 2020 it will source 100 percent certified cocoa and strengthen programs to eradicate child labor in the cocoa industry.

The move was praised by Praxis Mutual Funds, which for the last three years has encouraged Hershey to address its

cocoa sourcing to help increase pay for farmers, provide fair labor standards for workers and put an end to child slave labor. Praxis (advised by Everence Capital Management) has led the dialogue with Hershey, along with the Tri‑State Coalition for Responsible Investment and members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.

Certified cocoa meets sustainability standards to protect the environment, employees and communities. Hershey intends to use an independent, third‑party certification system to ensure its cocoa is grown sustainably and without the

use of forced and child labor.

“Seventy percent of the world’s cocoa is grown in West Africa,” explains Chris Meyer, stewardship investing specialist for Praxis and co‑convener of the Hershey dialogue. “Tens of thousands of children are forced — often smuggled in — to work on cocoa plantations, especially in Ghana and the Ivory Coast.”

Hershey’s commitment is expected to significantly increase the supply and demand

Magazine marvels at Africa turnaround Africa is on the cusp of a “tsunami of change” as years of aid and investment begin to pay off, according to an enthusiastic report in Time.

“Africa,” the magazine says, “is in the midst of a historic transition, and during the next few decades hundreds of millions of Africans will likely be lifted out of poverty” as more African countries record GDP increases of five to seven percent annually. “From vendors at traffic lights selling iPad chargers to millions of neatly suited commuters, signs of change are everywhere.

Average incomes have close to doubled in a decade, and if the economy continues to expand 5% annually as expected, a nation of mud huts will become a middle-income country by 2016.”

What has fuelled the boom? A combination of “accelerators” ranging from money spent to fight malaria

for certified cocoa, which currently accounts for less than five percent of the global trade.

Praxis president David Gautsche called the Hershey decision “a big step in eliminating labor abuses in West African cocoa plantations.”

Similar discussions are under way with Kraft Foods Inc., the world’s largest chocolate manufacturer, to strengthen its cocoa sourcing policies and local development activities. ◆

Goshen ranks in top 10 of accounting programs Goshen College’s accounting program has been ranked 10th best in the nation and 2nd best in Indiana (just behind Notre Dame).

The ranking by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) is based on the Certified Public Accountant exam that all accounting graduates take. Goshen’s ranking was in the small program category, which comprises 265 schools.

The ranking is based on exam passing rates. While the national average pass rate for 2011 was 45.5 percent, Goshen’s pass rate for first‑time exam candidates was 68.8 percent. “We have always believed that our pass rates were above the national average,

and HIV/AIDS to improved education to better roads so farmers can better haul their manioc to market. “Business increasingly dominates foreign interest in Africa,” says Time.

“Investment first outpaced aid in 2006 and now doubles it.”

An underlying force is a lively entrepreneurial drive born of relentless need.

Where, asks Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof, does Africa get its spirit of enterprise? “If you’re constantly scratching for a living,” he says, “you’re an entrepreneur.” ◆

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although this was based on anecdotal evidence only when students told us they passed and how many attempts it took them,” says Michelle Horning, professor of accounting.

Nearly 100 percent of graduates in the Goshen program get jobs in accounting, she says, with many students having offers prior to graduation and the rest finding jobs within a few months after graduating. “It is unusual for a school our size to have as many accounting firms and companies come to campus to interview and recruit students,” Horning says. “Three of the top 10 accounting firms in the nation actively recruit students from Goshen College by coming to campus.” ◆

CMU business school offers MEDA scholarship A new scholarship has been established for a student endorsed by a MEDA supporter to attend the Redekop School of Business at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.

The first-year full-tuition scholarship is worth approximately $6,500 in tuition savings, says Jeff Huebner, associate professor of international business.

The scholarship is being offered for the 2013‑2014 academic year.

In order to qualify for the tuition award, applicants must meet the CMU admissions requirements for their province and be admitted to

what inspires them to pursue studies in business at CMU (attached to their scholarship application). They should also submit a letter of nomination from someone who is a supporter of MEDA attesting to their suitability for the program (see nomination form for details: http://www.cmu. ca/programs/business_awards. html).

The Redekop School of Business, established in 2011, emphasizes the integration of faith and academics, including active learning, community, faith, peace and justice.

International study tours are offered in conjunction with

the Redekop School of Business, and be endorsed by a MEDA supporter. If more than one qualified student applies faculty will select one recipient using a combination of academic grades, the strength of the applicants’ personal statements and the nominations submitted.

Students who wish to apply for the scholarship should begin by applying to CMU using the general entrance application and indicate intent to study business.

They should complete the scholarship application form for business awards including: a 250-word statement on

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studies of international business topics.

For more information contact Lisa Kelly, assistant director of enrolment at lkelly@cmu.ca or call 204‑594‑0523 (toll free 877‑231‑4570). ◆

Comments?

Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith?

Feel free to send your thoughts to wkroeker@meda.org

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