Profit for the Lord: Economic Activities in Moravian Missions and the Basel Mission Trading Company

Today the problem of the relation of the Christian Church to the world stands front and center on the stage of world mission. As never before, the call goes out to the Church to help people all over the world lead a truly human life as the children of God. The Church’s ministry in the world must therefore include ministry to human economic needs. In this nationalistic age, moreover, each new church must find its own particular economic structure, not adopt one that is dictated by the tradition of other countries. Western mission leaders and laity who demand that churches in the Third World follow the Western Churches’ collection-plate economy may be unaware of the rich diversity of practice in their own history represented by such missionary pioneers as the Moravians and the Basel Mission Trading Company. Danker’s informative book is a study of those two groups, concentrating particularly on the economic structures they created to support their mission work. The author hopes that it will help free Christians on mission frontiers on all six continents to find the forms that will carry out the tentmaking mission of the Church in the marketplace today. Profit for the Lord will appeal to those interested in church history and government as well as those involved in missions.