I have a number of friends that are entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs run in our family and that is
likely why I have an appreciation for people of like mind. While we often think of entrepreneurs as
people that risk capital to start their own businesses, there are other types
of entrepreneurs that are looking to transform people, not just their personal
economic conditions.
We need more people to consider becoming spiritual entrepreneurs. People that have a desire
to be personally involved in the fulfillment of both the Great Commandment
(love one another) and the Great Commission (make disciples). This has been the general charge given not
to an institution called the church but the people that are followers of
Christ.
Entrepreneurs are not satisfied with the status quo; they
have an emotional desire to innovate, to change, to challenge. They are also highly resourceful, finding
innovative ways to do more with less; they create enterprise, they build teams and organizations and grow-grow-grow!
In the 1950’s a number of great men came on the scene and
began a revolution within the church.
Bob Pierce started World Vision, Bill Bright started campus Crusade,
James Rayburn started Young Life and Billy Graham began his crusades. They were all entrepreneurs. Under-resourced and passionate they were driven to change
not only a nation but the world. They succeeded beyond what others could have even hoped. They operated outside of the traditional
denominational walls and created a movement.
Today, when a pastor decides to start a church from
scratch, or a church announces a new campus and appoints a campus pastor, an entrepreneur
fills the role. These small, struggling
and modest beginnings are not only led by entrepreneurs but also need individuals, couples and families to join them
as spiritual entrepreneurs. These pastors
need people that can come alongside them, sometimes even pick up and move their residence and find creative ways to do ministry
and to challenge the status quo. Our
communities are full of people that don’t know they desperately need God, don’t know there
is so much more to life than what they are experiencing, don’t know that there
are only two options that are available to them: life and death.
It’s likely more comfortable to fit in to growing
churches, to follow well-established pathways and rely on contemporary but
still conventional growth strategies.
The spiritual entrepreneur however will find great satisfaction in challenging
conventional thinking and will need to rely on the power, wisdom and the
strength of God.
