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There must be many perplexing things for someone who comes to faith as an outsider.

I recall my first visit to church here, my first church ever, St. Paul's Onslow Square. I went to the evening service, so none of my friends or relations would see me going. The first thing I looked for on walking in was the shoebox. I wanted to take my shoes off: This is holy ground, and you're asking me to come in with my dirty, filthy feet and go into the presence of God? This is not right; this is not holy. I must take my shoes off. But they told me there was no place for shoes. So I went to sit on the floor, in the proper position of respect, and the usher said to sit on the wooden bench. Then the organ blasted out, and I thought, Who has died? Because organ music was just for funerals in my mind. It was an alien experience. There's a whole lot of unlearning to be done in asking how we can communicate the message of Jesus with simplicity [in a way] that will take these barriers away.

In the end, I've found I've been able to use my skills in business to help start some of these translations. We've produced a series of books and cds that connect with the South Asian experience. Fortunately, I was able to pay for publication, because in the early days, not many Christian publishers were willing to take on a book that talked about Jesus as the bodhisattva who fulfilled his dharma to pay for my karma to negate samsara and achieve nirvana!

Your family's story is part of one of the great diasporas of the 20th century.

More than 50 members of my family have come to Christ. We are all Sindhis. There are very few Sindhi believers in the world, and the majority that have come to Christ, maybe 10,000 out of 20 million, came to Christ abroad, in the diaspora.

This diaspora has largely followed economic opportunities. If you look at the early church and its growth, it also followed trade routes. The gospel was spread from port to port. Well, who paid for those boat trips? Business people.

What opportunities do you see for business as mission?

Business gives you access, geographic access as well as access to relational networks. As an Asian businessman, I have access to people and networks around the globe.

Then, of course, successful business that is generating value and adding value is able to resource and fund others who want to engage in business as mission. Romans 12:2 has really struck me. The goal is to do business in a way that is not conforming to the world's patterns. In global business, there is often corruption. There's no accountability, no transparency. As a Christian, if you're willing to be transparent and accountable, then you're demonstrating a different way of doing things. You're bringing alive Romans 12, which says, "Don't be conformed to the pattern [of this world], but be transformed, and then you will know the will of God, which is your spiritual worship." If we do the work of discerning what transformational business looks like, that is worship.

Business is a uniquely global endeavor. Just on Sunday, I was preaching at my local church and a guy in the congregation came up to me and said, "I'm a New Zealander, I'm working in a salmon business in Chile, and I'm here [in London] just for today, on my way to Norway to see the business owners." There's no other field that so closely matches the global nature of God's mission.

You've also become an advocate for socially responsible investing.

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May 2007, Vol. 51, No. 5