What My MBA Taught Me About Being a Missionary

I graduated with an MBA in 2017. Two years later, I found myself in Guatemala.Those two things did not seem particularly connected at the time.

My journey to Berkeley was, in itself, a story of God's providence. Getting into a top-tier program involved a ridiculously generous boss, six months of studying for the GRE, applying after the deadline, and having morning sickness during the final interview. I also happened to be the youngest person in my graduating class and one of only 8 women in my cohort. There were plenty of other little miracles along the way, too.

Looking back, it is pretty hard for me to see that journey as anything other than God opening doors I could never have opened myself. At the time, I thought I was getting an MBA because I was building a career. And I was. I had a pretty clear idea of what I thought my life was going to look like.

Then God sent me to Guatemala.

My journey into the mission field was not smooth sailing. For the first five years, I felt horrendously ill-equipped for the work I was doing. I was depressed and miserable, and constantly aware of how much I didn't know. I was navigating another culture, learning a new language, parenting overseas, trying to lead in an environment where I didn't understand all the cultural dynamics, and learning to trust God when I had absolutely no idea what came next. It was a stark contrast to the world I had left: the predictable trajectory of the corporate ladder, the competence I had built in my career, the community where I felt a deep sense of belonging, and, perhaps most significantly, a life where I had learned to depend on myself and my own capabilities.

For a long time, I wondered what to do with the other part of my story. What was the point of all that business experience?

But something has changed over the last few years.

As AMIIS and the ministry center have grown, I've found myself drawing on my MBA more and more. Not because ministry is a business—it isn't. And certainly not because people are products—they aren't. But ministry involves organizations, people, resources, leadership, communication, decision-making, problem-solving, risk, and stewardship.

I began to realize that maybe God had been preparing me all along. Not necessarily preparing me to be a missionary. The first five years made it pretty clear that there were plenty of things I had to learn that no business school could teach me. But perhaps He was preparing me for this particular kind of missionary work—for helping lead an organization, building something, stewarding resources, making difficult decisions, communicating a vision, leading people, and telling the story of what God is doing here.

Here are four things my MBA taught me that have been surprisingly useful in the mission field.

1. Fail Fast. Fail Often.

This might be one of the hardest principles to embrace in ministry. When you're serving people you love, you don't want to fail. Sometimes the stakes feel too high. What if I represent my church poorly? What if I make a mistake? What if I fail in this mission God has entrusted to me?

But one thing I learned in business is that failure is part of discovering what works. You take calculated risks, see what happens, learn from it, and make the next version better.

I've had to learn that this applies to ministry too. We've tried things that didn't work. We've made mistakes. My husband and I joke that COVID hid a lot of our mistakes: Kids weren't learning? COVID. We didn't have the right materials? COVID. Church wasn't growing? COVID. We didn't know what to do? COVID.

But some of those things weren't COVID. They were poor decisions or simply the result of not having enough experience. And that's okay. We learned.

The goal isn't to avoid ever getting it wrong. The goal is to learn, grow, and keep moving forward.

There is also something deeply freeing about remembering the Gospel in all of this. We are works in progress. We will make mistakes. Jesus' grace covers us, and when our hearts are oriented toward Him, we can get back up, learn from what happened, and try again.

In business, failure is data. In ministry, failure can be data and discipleship.

2. Stewardship

One of the most practical things my MBA taught me was how to steward resources well. I learned how to think about money, evaluate risk, do decision analysis, and communicate clearly about funding. I didn't realize how useful those skills would become in ministry.

In the mission field, we are constantly stewarding resources that aren't really ours. The money that comes into a ministry is given by people who trust us to use it well. We have to ask: What is the potential impact? What are the risks? What are we giving up by choosing this? Is this the best use of what God has entrusted to us?

Jesus talks about both sides of this. In Luke 14, He talks about counting the cost before building a tower. And in Matthew 25, the servants entrusted with resources were expected to put them to work and multiply what they had been given.

Stewardship isn't just about protecting what we have. It's about faithfully putting it to work.

I've also learned that stewardship means being able to talk honestly about money—where it's going, why we're asking for it, and what it will accomplish. That transparency builds trust with the people who make the ministry possible.

Good stewardship doesn't mean avoiding risk. Sometimes the right decision is the risky one. The question isn't simply, "Could this fail?" It's, "Is this worth the risk, given what we're trying to accomplish?"

We aren't called to bury what we've been given out of fear. We're called to count the cost, take wise risks, and faithfully multiply what God has entrusted to us.

3. The Importance of Storytelling

During my MBA program, I did a Lean LaunchPad project where we actually launched a product. It was viable, exciting, and I had partners working on it with me. By all the measures we were learning in class, it was working.

And yet, I eventually abandoned it.

Why? I just couldn't get excited about the story anymore.

Part of the class required us to talk to 10 new people about the product every week. Over the course of the class, I talked to hundreds of people about it. And eventually, I literally got bored talking about it.

That experience taught me something about myself: I need to believe in the story I'm telling.

And this is about to get really meta, because I know how important telling the story is in order to be a missionary.

Yes, we need to do the mission work. But in order to stay in the mission field, we need partners in prayer, partners financially, and partners in the field. We cannot do this alone, and I don't believe God intended us to. We are part of a global Church, serving the nations together. That includes the nation I am in and the nation I am coming from.

That means I have to communicate the story of how God is working here, regularly—through newsletters, this blog, churches and church partners, people we meet, and short-term mission teams. And I have to do it over and over again.

But here's the thing: I don't get tired of this story.

The work God has ignited in me—education in Guatemala—is something I can talk about again and again. I can tell stories about our students, teachers, families, school, and what God is doing here, and I still get excited.

Part of being part of the global Church is shining a light on what God is doing. I want to shout from the rooftops about the goodness I have seen, the ways God has worked in my life, the ways I've watched Him transform others, and the good work I see other people doing.

And I hope I never stop telling the story of what God is doing here.

4. Authentic Leadership

One of the biggest themes I took away from Berkeley was how to be an authentic leader. We studied many leaders, and I've also had wonderful examples of leadership in my own life. What struck me was how different they all were—in their strategies, strengths, weaknesses, personalities, and styles.

But the leaders I admired most had one thing in common: they were deeply themselves - authentic . They were true to themselves, true to the mission, transparent with others, consistent over time, willing to learn, and grounded in their values.

I don't think most successful leaders are successful because they are polished or perfect. I think it's because people know who they are. People get to know them, trust them, and believe in their vision. They may not even like them all the time, but they respect them enough to follow.

That has been especially true for me in Guatemala. Vulnerability, humility, and a willingness to learn and grow have proven to be some of our strongest assets. After seven years, people know us deeply. At that point, you can't really fake leadership. People know what you value, what you care about, and whether your words match your actions.

I think this is also where authentic leadership connects beautifully with Christian leadership. Jesus modeled leadership through humility and service, not status or power. Paul tells us to "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves" (Philippians 2:3).

I've learned that leadership is easier when it comes from your true self and nature. I'm not trying to perform a role or become some ideal version of a leader. I'm trying to lead from who God has made me to be, while continuing to grow and learn.

People don't need a perfect leader. They need to know who you are, what you value, and that they can trust you.

Nothing Is Wasted

When I went into the mission field, I had a lot of people around me who were surprised. What? Stephanie is giving up her career? Her MBA trajectory? Perhaps there was an unspoken thought that all of that had been a waste. If I'm honest, maybe it was a thought I had, too.

But after seven years in Guatemala, I've come to see it very differently. God didn't waste my experience. He repurposed it.

The MBA I thought was preparing me for one kind of career was actually preparing me for something I couldn't see yet. The leadership lessons, financial skills, business frameworks, failures, stories, and ways of thinking have all found a new purpose here.

And maybe that's one of the things I love most about following God: nothing is ever wasted in God's economy.

The career that seems like a detour. The skill you aren't sure you'll ever use. The season that feels like preparation for something that never comes. God can take all of it and repurpose it for His kingdom.

I don't know what God will do with the things I'm learning today. But I do know this:

God is not wasteful.

Sometimes what we think is a detour is actually preparation for something we simply aren't ready to see yet.