Informed Or Infected?

Legacy Ventures Network Kingdom Capital Fund
Legacy Ventures Network Kingdom Investment Clubs

Richard H. Weidner, General Partner 

We live in a world of informational overload. We are inundated with information, instantly available, force-fed, and constantly streaming. I was speaking to a friend in the IT industry who estimated that we are approaching the point where available information will be doubling daily. My brain finds it difficult to truly grasp the enormity of that statement.

However much information is available, we only respond to the portion of it that truly motivates us. For example, consider the opioid crisis. We comprehend the devastation that it causes, but in all likelihood, we will not take any action unless it touches someone we love or care about. A former pastor of mine said it this way, “We only truly believe that which motivates us to take action.”

In today’s glut of information, it is ever more difficult to filter out that which truly motivates us. We are immobilized by the enormity of information overload. I use the term “we need to be infected.” We do not need more statistics about the lost and unreached in this world. What we need is a Holy Spirit infection of our minds and hearts to stir us to action.

In the Business As Mission (BAM) space there are plenty of examples of God at work. There are numerous books, blogs, videos, Ted Talks, podcasts, etc. There is a conference going on somewhere in the world at least quarterly, replete with great speakers, stories, new ideas, and opportunities. However, if it remains only intellectual information, we’ll be experts and teachers of the subject, and not participants or practitioners.

Unless the call to become involved in BAM as a practitioner, investor, support staff, prayer partner, or in any other capacity causes us to take action and do something, we have just added another book to the shelf of our mental library.

Why is it that those who are actually exposed to the plight of the least reached, mostly through short-term mission trips, seem to become infected by the missions virus? They have looked into the hopeless eyes of the lost and marginalized of this world who have yet to hear the Gospel. They have seen abject poverty and have smelled the aroma of despair. They have heard the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit asking them, “So, what are you going to do about this?” The abstract information has become experiential reality. These are real people, living in dire circumstances, with life and death, heaven and hell, hanging in the balances.

Just as when you have a cold and find yourself unable to suppress a cough, no matter how hard you try, when you are infected with the missions virus, you just need to respond somehow.

For centuries, that “somehow” was pretty much defined by the traditional missions model, which is still viable in many locations. It resulted in the few who went and the vast majority who stayed, prayed, and gave. Today, however, in the many nations containing the majority of those least reached, missionaries are no longer able to penetrate using the traditional model.

That is why I am passionate about BAM. It affords me the opportunity, at this late point my life, to participate in fulfilling God’s Great Commission by using the talents and gifts God has given me. In whatever stage of life, you find yourself, there is a place for you to participate in the BAM movement as well.

If you can’t actively participate in a missional business, you can be a part of the process by partnering in viable BAM projects through investment in the Kingdom Capital Fund or in a Kingdom investment Club for as little as $400 a year.