Category: Blog

There are many ways to express the essential choice faced by every faith-driven entrepreneur every day in every decision:

For purposes of this discussion, let’s just focus on the last expression—“Faithful vs. Willful”.  

“Faith-Driven” vs “Entrepreneur”?

How does a “faith-driven entrepreneur” navigate this choice?  Even the phrase “faith driven entrepreneur” seems to hold the tension of the “faithful/willful” dilemma.  On one side of the choice is “faith-driven” and on the other side is “entrepreneur”.  

A “faith-driven” person wants to put God first.  They want to follow God’s lead, wherever it may go.  They understand that everything they have belongs to God, and they want to surrender their goals and desires—their “will”—for God’s “will” to be done.  They want to live their life in alignment with Biblical beliefs, values and priorities.  The faith-driven person measures success in terms of obedience.

On the other hand, an “entrepreneur” is a businessperson building a business in the world.  They have analysts, markets, investors, employees, and customers to keep happy. They have financial metrics to track and hurdles to achieve.  The world of business measures success in terms of profit and growth.  They are expected to be ruthlessly “willful” in their effort to achieve increased profits and growth.

Ignoring the Tension

Some “faith-driven entrepreneurs” believe there should be no tension between “faith-driven” and “entrepreneur”—being “faith-driven” should lead to success as an “entrepreneur”.  In fact, there is content floating around the faith and work movement that tries to draw people into faith/work integration by emphasizing how God will bless their business with increased growth and profit if they integrate their faith into their work and run their business as a “Christian business”. The promise of blessings may be direct, or it may just be implied.  

I call this “vending machine theology”.  In vending machine theology, God is like a vending machine–if you put in the right stuff, good stuff comes out.  In the case of faith/work integration, that “good stuff” is a financially successful business with higher profits and extraordinary growth.  It is a prosperity Gospel applied to business.

The problem with this “theology” of faith and business (other than the obvious theology problem) is that it starts leaders out with a corrupted “WHY”.  It puts faith/work integration in the same bucket as Six Sigma, TQM, JIT, Lean, etc.–something that has helped others prosper and is worth a try as long as it works.   When faith/work integration is adopted as a means to any end other than glorifying God, the entrepreneur will continue to be “faith-driven” only as long as it is not in conflict with being a successful “entrepreneur”.  As Larry Crabb wrote:

Biblical principles are reduced to basic principles of the world when they’re followed in order to gain the “better life” we demand.

Ignoring the tension of the faithful/willful choice in this way is actually choosing “willful” and convincing yourself it is “faithful”.

Accepting the Tension

“Faithful vs willful” really is a daily choice that a faith-driven entrepreneur must accept and wrestle with.  In the words of Oswald Chambers:

One of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world.

To be “faithful” rather than “willful”, a faith-driven entrepreneur must first accept the tension:

Having accepted the tension, the faith-driven entrepreneur can begin to make choices—faithful or willful.  In reality, “faithful vs willful” is really just a choice of “wills”.  The daily choice is “God’s will” or “my will”—“faithfully” seeking first God’s Kingdom and righteousness or “willfully” seeking first my kingdom and my worldly success.

Choosing “Faithful”

Choosing “faithful” is about “keeping first things first”.  C.S. Lewis wrote “Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first and second things.”  The Bible is pretty clear about what is a first thing and what is second thing.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.   (Matthew 6:33)

Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.  (Proverbs 21:21)

The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.  (Proverbs 22:4)_

In the “faithful vs willful” dilemma, success at “faith-driven” must be the first thing and success at “entrepreneur” is the second.  The hard part is keeping first things first and pursuing them simply because they are “first things” and not in order to get the “second things”.

Pursuing “Faithful”

I believe there are four keys to a faith-driven entrepreneur successfully pursuing “faith-driven” as their “first thing”:  Humility, Trust, Patience, and Prayer.

Humility.  Navigating the tension between “faith-driven” and “entrepreneur” requires Godly wisdom, and humility is a key to wisdom.  The link between humility and wisdom can be seen in Proverbs 11:2:

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

God is the source of all wisdom, and the Bible tells us that God will give wisdom to those who ask (James 1:5).    The faith-driven entrepreneur who operates without the humility to recognize the need for God’s wisdom and the need to pray for guidance is destined to run aground on the rocks of the “faithful/willful” dilemma.

Trust.  Of course, even the faith-driven entrepreneur who has the humility to recognize the need for God’s wisdom will only get the benefit of that wisdom by trusting God’s process, timing, and outcome:

Process: God’s process is often counter-intuitive and counter-cultural.

Timing: God’s timing often seems excruciatingly slow.

Outcome:  God’s best outcome for a business (the “all these things” promised in Matthew 6:33) may not be the world’s best outcome.

Prayer.  The importance of prayer in pursuing “faithful” seems so obvious. Unfortunately, many faith-driven entrepreneurs do not associate God with business decisions.  Oswald Chambers observed:

In spiritual issues it is customary for us to put God first, but we tend to think that it is inappropriate and unnecessary to put Him first in the practical, everyday issues of our lives.

God’s wisdom comes through prayer.  Of course, praying for a particular process, timing and outcome is NOT praying for God’s wisdom, and ignoring God’s wisdom to pursue your own process, timing or outcome is NOT wise–it is choosing “willful” over “faithful”.

Patience:  It is difficult to read the Bible and not walk away feeling woefully impatient.  God’s story is full of people who patiently waited and persevered (the first cousin of patience) a LONG time–a VERY LONG time.  Remember Abraham (waited 25 years for Isaac), Jacob (waited 14 years to marry Rachel), and the most patient of all, Moses (40 years in exile and then 40 years in the desert).  

There are also stories of characters who got impatient and tried to short-circuit God’s timing (and God was not pleased).  Remember Sarah (Ishmael was NOT the fulfillment of God’s promise) and Saul (he got impatient and offered the burnt offering himself–NOT a blessing after all).

Choosing “faithful” over “willful” in leading a business is “playing the long game”, and that takes Biblical patience (and perseverance).

The Risk of “Faithful”

In his book To Change the World, James Hunter warns:

To enact a vision of human flourishing based in the qualities of life that Jesus modeled will invariably challenge the given structures of the social order. In this light, there is no true leadership without putting at risk one’s time, wealth, reputation, and position.

I believe choosing “faithful” over “willful” in running a business necessarily leads to pursuing the maximization of human flourishing (with profit becoming a means to that end rather than the end of the business).

As such, choosing “faithful” over “willful” in leading a business challenges “the given structures of the social order”, which in a fallen world will certainly bring resistance.  Resistance is likely to lead to dilemmas–times when the challenge for a faith-driven entrepreneur trying to pursue “faithful” over “willful” will be prayerfully seeking God’s wisdom, choosing one of two imperfect paths based on a balancing of God’s commands and then trusting in those commands and God’s sovereignty and promises.  Choosing God’s “will” to be done.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally written by Paul Michalski of Integrous LLC and shared with Faith Driven Entrepreneur for publishing. Republishing must be approved by the author.

Source link

Key Messages and Takeaways

A central takeaway of the summit was that God is at work around the world, making ways in the wilderness and streams in the desert through entrepreneurship. God’s Holy Spirit was felt powerfully by many attendees during times of worship, fellowship and discussion, and the fruits of love, joy, peace, and a unity in spirit were evident throughout the week. 

Moreover, the opportunity to catch a glimpse of how God is at work through His people around the world was inspiring. For example, a representative from Pakistan told the story of the Christian business conference they hosted last year. Despite only expecting a small handful of attendees, they were inundated with hundreds of Christian entrepreneurs throughout the day who had been longing for this kind of initiative but not knowing how to make it happen. This resulted in a host of new initiatives and partnerships and around 2000 individuals connected in through the emergence of tens of new WhatsApp groups. Out of obscurity a national movement had begun.

The second takeaway was simply that the power of meeting together in person cannot be replicated through any number of virtual meetings. The fruit of this time spent in developing relationships in person was evidenced not only by the joy experienced together in the moment, but by the interactions and collaboration that has continued spontaneously in the weeks since.

When it comes to key learnings, a central message that emerged during the summit was that a series of pivots, or a ‘great leveling out’, is occurring in the global entrepreneurial ecosystem. It includes a shift from West to East (and North to South), from aid to investment, and from traditional ministry to business and entrepreneurship. Relatedly, many leaders of ESOs caught the vision for building national and global entrepreneurial ecosystems for the first time, seeing the need to think beyond executing their own programs well and beginning to think strategically and to dream nationally or globally.

Next Steps

This summit gave everyone present a glimpse of what is happening, what could be, and how we can get there. Turning this collaboration of programs into a global movement and achieving the vision set out during the summit now requires turning passion, strategy, and good intentions into effective, practical collaboration. 

One step is already settled: this summit will occur again next year. We look forward to joining this gathering again in 2023 and are excited to see what God does to bring life and flourishing across the world in and through these new relationships in the months ahead.

Source link

— by Todd Melby & John Hawkins

We’ve all read stories of people who have seemingly bent the world to their will.  Some believe that Cooper Kupp and Matt Stafford accomplished this in the last 10 minutes of the recent Superbowl LVI.  Many entrepreneurs fall prey to thinking that willing something into existence is a core mindset for leading a successful start-up.  Indeed, all who know anything about start-ups know that endurance and persistence are absolutely needed—but willed into existence?

Here’s the truth.  In faith, I must do all that God calls me to do every day, and then I must leave the results to Him.  Biblically we believe this because of passages like Genesis 12:1-3, Joshua 5:13-6:27, Psalm 127:1-2, Proverbs 3:5-6, John 15:5, I Corinthians 3:5-7.  These passages tell us God is sovereignly accomplishing His purposes in our spheres of influence – both through us and beyond us.  He gives us real work and responsibilities to fulfill as we look to Him for the strength and perspective needed.

But our problem is that we don’t really believe that faithfully pursuing our responsibilities and leaving the results to God is best for us and our businesses.  Whether it’s the next round of funding, the open position, or the latest product launch, we tend to lapse into It’s all up to me, I’ve got to make it happen.   The world, my flesh and the devil are constantly at war with my belief.  Deep and familiar ruts in my mind and heart set disbelief as my default perspective.  Yet, we find that when we do choose to believe, God blesses that belief with eventual peace and freedom, such that we’re free to rest and sleep as Psalm 127:2 calls us to do.  As we faithfully do our part and trust Him with the results, our sanity regarding our responsibilities is restored, allowing us to work and lead more effectively and with better results.

Trusting God for the results is problematic in at least two ways.  The first is that we expect the results to occur according to our plan and time frame.  The second is that we think of results as binary – succeed or fail, complete or incomplete, win or lose.  The results that God accomplishes are usually best understood over time and tend to be more significant than our narrow binary frameworks.  Deuteronomy 29:29 and the book of Ecclesiastes make it plain that there are things about God’s ways and purposes that are hidden from us.  Romans 8:28 says that God works everything to good for those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose – but it is often hard in the short-term and many times in the long-term to see how God is bringing this about.  In Romans 8:29 we’re told that God works things as He does in order to transform us to be like His Son.  This is a lot bigger than our plan, our timeline and our binary options.

The fact that the results God is accomplishing are difficult for us to see and understand should not discourage us from trusting that the results are up to Him and that He is accomplishing them.  Instead, this should rather remind us that faith isn’t sight and that our trust is in Him and not in what we can see or not see.

In faith, I must do all that God calls me to do every day, and then I must leave the results to Him.

We’ve come to the following perspectives on how the above statement applies in our jobs, families, churches and communities where people expect us to produce specific results.

We rightly handle our commitments to meet targets, goals, deliverables, or expectations when we practice the following:

We keep in mind – In faith, I must do all that God calls me to do every day, and then I must leave the results to Him.  This perspective fosters humility and dependence upon God and leads to making wise commitments.

We do what God has called us to do wholeheartedly and with all the strength God gives us.  This means that by His grace, we work hard and excellently.

We manage expectations as to what we can accomplish.  Our emphasis should focus more on the great effort we’ll bring than on ensuring specific results that we know will happen.  It is right to believe that God will bless our work as it’s done in faith, for His honor and glory.  However, guaranteeing specific results is increasingly beyond our ability as the complexity of the challenge grows.

We think and pray before we commit to a specific timeframe (e.g., “I’ll have this deliverable completed within these guidelines by next Tuesday”).  We should not commit foolishly or pridefully, but rather humbly with our trust in God to strengthen us to serve well.

We take to God commitments placed upon us (e.g., “You must have this deliverable completed within these guidelines by next Tuesday”), seeking His help in getting them done.  Christians should be known as people who make and keep commitments.  Yet because God controls the ultimate outcome and uses it to serve His purposes, the fulfillment of our commitments is accomplished by God doing it with us (Psalm 127:1).

Did Cooper Kupp, Matt Stafford, and their team, will the Ram’s victory into existence?  No.  However, they undoubtedly fully applied their skill, focus, and strength to that end.  As those who follow Christ, we must do the same in our spheres of influence.  But we do so with our dependence and trust in God alone.  And in Him only, these are well placed.

Source link

— by Brett Hagler

Last year, we welcomed the most unprecedented, the most uncertain, and arguably, the most historic year of our careers: 2020. 

Years from now, we’ll all tell stories to our grandchildren about COVID-19 and how it changed —quite literally—everything. At the onset of this new world, what became most important to me and my team was that we would tell stories we were proud to have lived—yes, even amidst a global pandemic. 

While the country was preparing for one of the worst recessions since the great depression, I held on to faith that New Story would not see any kind of decline. 

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. –Jeremiah 17:7-8 

Despite a massive surge in unemployment, past due rent payments, and bankruptcies, my team learned one incredibly important lesson: There’s only one thing we can control… Our character. We have to trust God for the rest. 

And let me tell you, that’s hard to do. As the CEO of a nonprofit organization, the idea of an uncertain economy, travel restrictions, and international projects forcibly put on hold was terrifying for our future. Our organization’s mission is to pioneer innovative solutions to end global homelessness… That’s particularly hard to do when travel is completely restricted, we can’t physically gather to work on solutions, and an uncertain economy makes it more difficult for everyone to give towards charitable causes they believe in. 

It would have been easy to panic and start preparing for the worst. But instead, we, as a team, decided to come to grips with the fact that we can’t control this pandemic; thus, we can’t control how it impacts the future of our organization. Only God can do that. 

So, we went to work on the controllable instead. And it was the most valuable thing we did all year. 

I started by sending my team a letter. Here’s an excerpt: 

Some teams will fall apart from uncontrollable circumstances, but many more will fall apart due to individuals only thinking of themselves, allowing fear to overtake their character and their values. We will tell a different story. We will not fall for reasons in our control. When it comes to our effort and our attitude, we will not decline, we will strengthen, and we will rise… 

Our opportunity to get stronger comes with a significant challenge. You will be mentally pushed, and we will ask you to work as hard, if not harder, than you have ever worked over the next ninety days. 

The primary objective during Q2 is to strengthen our character. When we look back ten years from now at COVID-19, it will matter less if we fall short of an OKR than if we fall short in becoming better team members, better people. By the end of this, it will matter way more about who we’ve become than what we’ve achieved… 

This quarter is the season that will establish leaders for the next decade. This is a season where our reputations, for better or for worse, will be imprinted… Our character, more so than our OKRs, will win others and make us better as a team for the long haul… 

Once the letter was drafted and sent, we also cut 30% of our monthly operational expenses —something else we could control. In addition, we eliminated nonessential line items. We prioritized our team and our culture because we had faith that this season would make us more creative, resourceful, entrepreneurial, tenacious, and grittier for the future. It was the only way we would be able to advance our mission and impact more families around the world long term. 

And it worked. 

Within weeks of what felt like a worldwide shutdown, our team came together to birth a creative idea to help more people in the U.S. avoid eviction. We normally only work in Latin America, but with our international work paused, our team went to work creating solutions to help families avoid falling into a cycle of homelessness right here in the U.S. 

We called it The Neighborhood. 

The Neighborhood was a simple but transformational idea: Create a monthly giving program that would allow Americans to help pay the rent of other Americans who were previously employed but suddenly jobless due to the pandemic. 

People from around the country came together and helped 361 families stay in their homes. We’ve always dreamed about working in the U.S. So, when the opportunity presented itself, we were ready because we were committed to focusing on areas within our control. 

By the grace of God, we were able to resume our work in Latin America. But that didn’t mean the end of The Neighborhood. Today, The Neighborhood has grown into a generous 

community of donors who are committed to ending homelessness with monthly donations. Because of their monthly gifts, we will be able to serve many more communities in need around the world. 

Beyond new projects, there were a few other areas our team decided to work on during this uncertain season… Other areas we could control: 

Integrity: We will do the right thing even when it is the hard thing. 

Generosity: We will operate out of an abundant framework rather than a scarce one. 

Attitude: We will respond with a growth mindset, and we will always persevere. 

Love: We will actively check in on others, pray for others, and care for some the way we wish we could care for all. 

Standards: We will continue being a team of founders expressing gratitude and empathy and pursuing excellence with humility. 

Humility: We will value others above ourselves, not looking to our own interests but each of us looking to the interests of others. 

Those six characteristics are things we can all control. As leaders, as founders, as team members, we all have the opportunity to model the impact a character-driven team can have when they decide to control who they become through a crisis… and leave the rest to God. 

I believe we all have this in us. It’s hard work to relinquish control, but it’s this type of 

surrender that God uses to create beautiful things out of dust. 

“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger, but recognize the opportunity.” –John F. Kennedy 

2020 was a hard year for everybody. But it was also a season full of opportunity. And because we chose to see the crisis through that perspective, we continued to bear fruit in the drought. It was a lesson well worth learning. 

I hope you’ll take this lesson and apply to your own business or organization. Together, let’s live out stories we’ll be proud to share. And the best way to do that is to practice—especially in a crisis—controlling what you can control and trusting God for the rest.

——

Article originally hosted and shared with permission by The Christian Economic Forum, a global network of leaders who join together to collaborate and introduce strategic ideas for the spread of God’s economic principles and the goodness of Jesus Christ. This article was from a collection of White Papers compiled for attendees of the CEF’s Global Event.

Source link

Where would you place your bet? Tough exercise, right? You likely know a Hector, John, and Camille in your life and love their passion, drive, and capacity. And of course, there is not a “right” answer to the question—any of them could lead an organization towards great Kingdom effectiveness. It has been our experience, though, that there is one pathway that is often ignored and yet builds a deep Christlike love along with a unique skill set that could be the ideal starting point for a redemptive entrepreneur—the path of Hector, the missionary.

The Case for Cross-Cultural Missions as the Ideal Training Ground for Redemptive Entrepreneurs

Given that formative discipleship experiences most often happen in church and ministry contexts, it can be easy to neglect the role that our environments play in our shaping and formation. We would posit that the following factors of the mission field environment are ideal for shaping redemptive entrepreneurs.

People-orientation: Cross-cultural missionaries are discipled towards greater commitment to people than those who are developed in a purely market-oriented environment. Finding persons of peace, forming deep relationships focused on growth, and building trust with diverse stakeholder groups are just a few skills missionaries develop. People are the goal, and missionaries must learn to work effectively with them.

Vision and impact orientation: Missionaries are trained to think of success over the long-term (think Hebrews 11) and to define success in ways that are pronounced and real yet difficult to measure—culture change, movements of God, hearts and minds transformed for Christ. This lends itself well to developing the skill set needed for casting vision and building frameworks for pursuing important non-financial outcomes.

Resilience and sacrifice: Cross-cultural missionaries have a clear calling to a place and a people, and they often face great sacrifice to see the calling fulfilled. Despite hardship, trials, or setbacks, they are trained to trust God, steel their resolve, and continue on. Cross-cultural challenges and complexities require incredible faith, as life often feels out of control. This faith establishes great resilience and flexibility, an essential leadership quality for managing through failure and onto the next iteration of strategy or tactics.

Language and EQ: Learning a foreign language is one of the best formative experiences available in developing deep communication skills—the ability to listen to the point of understanding, to understand nuance and non-verbal communication, and to have empathy for those different from oneself. Research finds real advantages in multilingual people, including improved neurological processing, higher cognitive/executive function, broader vocabularies, better conflict management, and more adaptive learning abilities.[9]

Organizationally-minded: While not a trait frequently associated with missionaries, truly effective leaders on the mission field recognize that they must build sustainable, indigenous leaders to carry the mission forward. This means learning how to train, delegate, organize, and allocate scarce resources across a growing network of churches or discipleship groups over time.

For this pathway to bear its fruit, cross-cultural missionaries must pass a threshold of time and experience in another culture and environment. They must have had sufficient time for language learning, cultural integration, and ministry successes and failures to experience this deep learning. While it may sound heretical in some circles, we believe that they must have been effective in their context for the formative benefits of the environment to truly take root. This is effectiveness not measured in “fruit” but in learning, growth, and capacity to fulfill their calling—the outcomes of which can vary widely across contexts. We’ve seen that this will most often require a minimum of 3-5 years—perhaps up to a decade—but the length of time is less important than reaching a measure of depth of experience in their context.

Building the Pathways and Ecosystem

In recent years, missions sending organizations such as IMB, Navigators, and Cru have all been developing new pathways to mobilize professionals from the marketplace to the mission field or to equip missionaries with the training necessary to establish business ventures in their posting.[10] There are much-needed efforts that must be quickly expanded and strengthened for next-generation missionaries to thrive in their contexts, not just as a “cover” for mission work but also to create redemptive enterprises that allow for deeper mission fulfillment. The skills of the marketplace are desperately needed on the mission field.

In our personal experience, what is clearer still is that not enough is being done to repatriate missionaries back from the field, other than into full-time pastoral or ministry posts. These can be a perfect option for those thus called, but we believe more can be done to expand on these limited options. What pathways should we be creating for taking skills developed on the mission field, mapping them to the marketplace, and honing them in the direction of redemptive entrepreneurship? How can we utilize these talents to make current operating businesses more effective at integrated management of a multiple bottom line? Who can create the pipeline of opportunities, prepare the resources, and mentor these leaders towards effectiveness? With thoughtful planning and intentional investment, we believe these efforts would reveal some of the most potent candidates available to build effective, missionally-integrated Kingdom enterprises. The skills of the mission field are even more desperately needed in the marketplace.

We believe that the broader need is for the development of a full ecosystem—

equipping and sending, then repatriating and transitioning—training missionaries to function effectively as redemptive entrepreneurs both on the field and upon their return home.

Final Word

While the methods and means for the Gospel to reach every corner of the globe are beyond our temporal wisdom, one thing we know for certain—the Gospel will go forth, Jesus will build His church, “and then the end will come” (Mt 24:14). From our current vantage point in world history, it appears that the opportunity for Christ-centered small businesses to advance the coming of the Kingdom is substantial, both increasing the effectiveness of current missions sending efforts and unlocking the potential of missionaries in the marketplace upon their return. The role of current faith-driven leaders in the marketplace is to boldly create these pathways for them. If we can do so, we believe we will catalyze a host of new redemptive enterprises marked by sacrificial leadership and committed to creative restoration.

 ——

[1] http://missionaryportal.webflow.io/stats India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and China

[2] Burnside, C., and Dollar, D. (2000) “Aid, Policies and Growth.” American Economic Review 90: 847–68. and Easterly, W., and Levine R. (2001) “It’s Not Factor Accumulation: Stylized Facts and Growth Models.” World Bank Economic Review 15: 177–219.

[3] Cameron, D (2016) “The growth of impact evaluation for international development: how much have we learned?” Journal of Development Effectiveness 8:1, 1-21.

[4] https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx

[5] https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2018/04/03/stronger-open-trade-policies-enables-economic-growth-for-all and Ayyagari, Meghana, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, and Vojislav Maksimovic. “Small vs. young firms across the world: contribution to employment, job creation, and growth.” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5631 (2011).

[6] https://www.marketingcharts.com/cross-media-and-traditional/local-and-small-biz-114681

[7] Every Good Endeavor by Tim Keller, Culture Making by Andy Crouch, Praxis’ Redemptive Frame and The Call by Os Guiness are among our favorites.

[8]https://www.globest.com/2020/03/11/competition-soars-in-debt-markets-as-capital-availability-remains-at-record-highs/?slreturn=20210420101833,and https://medium.com/@nick_haschka/from-unicorns-to-main-street-why-small-business-is-the-next-big-thing-c252aa3cc99, and https://www.oecd.org/cfe/smes/ministerial/documents/2018-SME-Ministerial-Conference-Parallel-Session-2.pdf

[9] https://www.dana.org/article/the-cognitive-benefits-of-being-bilingual/

[10] https://www.imb.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Student-Roadmap-Business-Professional-2020.pdf is a good example of a resource used to prepare missionaries for overseas marketplace ministry.

 ——

Article originally hosted and shared with permission by The Christian Economic Forum, a global network of leaders who join together to collaborate and introduce strategic ideas for the spread of God’s economic principles and the goodness of Jesus Christ. This article was from a collection of White Papers compiled for attendees of the CEF’s Global Event.

Source link

— by Dan Owolabi

“I have no one. I do this by myself.”

A few years ago, I traveled across the world to ask one person one question. I had taken the long drive, and even longer plane ride, to sit in Abonzo Coffee. Abonzo was a sprawling, chic coffee shop with an incredible view of the foggy Doi Chiang mountains outside of Chiang Rai, Thailand. I was there to meet Pat, a young, ambitious, faith-driven entrepreneur. I had heard about him a few months before and was eager to hear his story. Born just a few miles from where we were sitting, Pat’s story was nothing less than impressive. He showed me the impoverished village where he grew up. He shared how he found his way to college then to seminary to be a pastor, only to quit to start a business brewing and exporting coffee.

He laughed about the negative reaction of his seminary professors when he quit and about his initial lack of business experience. But despite objections from mentors and initial challenges, Pat persisted in his belief that entrepreneurship could be an incredible way to expand God’s Kingdom in his community. The way he treated his customers, employees, and suppliers mattered. Providing employment and introducing people to Jesus through natural, healthy relationships mattered.

Since then, Pat had invested nearly a decade of his life to build Abonzo coffee shop and a thriving business around it. When he started, he never would have guessed that God would lead him to export coffee all over the world, do millions of dollars in business, become the #1 tourist destination in his region, or employ more people than anyone else in his community. He was thrilled at how God had worked through him.

After he shared his story, I thanked him. Then I raised the question I had traveled across the world to ask. I said, “Pat, you have invested so much into your community… But who invests in you? Who sharpens you?”

He looked at me for a long moment, then his eyes lowered in sadness. “I have no one. I do this by myself.”

In my work with Branches Worldwide, I have met incredible faith-driven entrepreneurs all over the globe. Each of them has a story of a strong call from God, overcoming odds, and building a business that is a significant blessing in his/her community. But when I ask, “Who sharpens you? Where are your peers and mentors? Who invests in you?” I repeatedly hear the same answer: “No one. I do this by myself.”

We Are Better Together

It’s self-evident that leaders can accomplish more together. Like hot campfire coals, we burn hotter when we stay close to each other. But why do so many of us end up leading alone? Jesus is our ultimate example of leadership, and he strategically steered away from the temptation to lead alone. In fact, he spent extra time cultivating close relationships with Peter, James, and John in order to bring them into his inner circle. And as he approached his most difficult day on earth, Jesus pulled these three disciples closer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus did not attempt to lead in isolation. Matthew 26 documents Jesus saying, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Jesus essentially said, “Stay close to me. I don’t want to do this alone.” He understood the dangers of isolation, and He leaned on his inner circle during critical, vulnerable moments in His ministry.

I have come to see isolation as a powerful temptation that cripples even the best leaders. But isolation is inherently different from loneliness. You and I may have loving family and friends that help us feel socially connected. But the absence of peers who understand our unique challenges in leadership or mentors who can empathize, leaves us vulnerable to fatal leadership mistakes. When you and I are isolated, we make poorer decisions, experience more stress, and develop an increasingly inaccurate view of the world.

Even in light of the apparent pitfalls, isolation remains a significant temptation. This is primarily because isolation allows leaders to maintain an illusion of control. We can easily avoid uncomfortable conversations when employees rarely give unvarnished feedback on our leadership or when our boards are disengaged in our day-to-day performance. So, when we make decisions, set goals, and create systems apart from a community of high-capacity peers, we can easily avoid accountability, sidestep taking responsibility for poor choices, and stop challenging ourselves to be better. In isolation, we can control the narrative. We don’t have to be honest about facts, and we can evaluate ourselves based on our intentions, rather than our actual impact on others.

But most leaders don’t intend to avoid the companionship of other leaders. In fact, they may desire honest feedback from others. They may long for the freedom to speak without a filter, to share new, unprocessed thoughts, and to unload the burdens of leadership on one or two trusted peers. However, the fear of vulnerability, overcrowded schedules, or the inability to identify other high-capacity peers nearby leads them to drift into isolation. And the deeper they drift, the more ineffective they become.

Great Problems and Good Friends

God rarely calls leaders to accomplish His work in isolation.

The most significant challenges of any generation have always demanded the collective wisdom of committed, courageous, and creative followers of Jesus. We are better together.

In addition, God created leaders to posit solutions and solve problems. By design, the best of us yearns for significant challenges to tackle. My Thai friend, Pat, was troubled by the poverty plaguing his community. In response, he quit seminary and decided to start a faith-driven business—an ingenious solution that has given him a platform to communicate his faith and an economic engine to alleviate poverty. Pat believes what many believe… that at the foundation of our faith is the idea that Christ is working through us to redeem the world.

Our faith animates our work, compelling us to ask God to apply our best efforts to the world’s worst issues.

We long to immerse ourselves in the most perplexing challenges of our day—the greatest problems of our generation—because we know the work itself will serve so many and bring out our best in the process.

But I believe God has reserved the most significant blessings for individuals that tackle great problems with good friends. The camaraderie, intensity, and satisfaction that come from these relationships can be found nowhere else. The creative energy and uniquely potent solutions benefit everyone involved in an endeavor. Proverbs 27:17 reminds us that, “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Great leaders grow when they have sharpened each other for the work God has called them to. When iron sharpens iron, sparks fly, and the world is richly blessed.

Branches Worldwide is advancing a solution rooted in God’s design for how great leaders grow. We believe the faith-driven leaders of this next generation will solve bigger problems, do better work, and bring more honor to Christ… only when they are supported and sharpened in relationships with other high caliber, faith-driven leaders. That’s why we inaugurated an initiative to build a community of 30 individuals from 30 countries and invest in them for 30 years.

The 30 Leaders

Our 30.30.30 initiative started with the desire to serve the leaders who were serving their neighbors. We looked for people dedicated to solving pressing economic and spiritual challenges in their communities. We were careful to identify and invite men and women who loved Jesus and were already engaged in extraordinary work in the Kingdom.

Early in the process, we decided to focus on experienced leaders within the business community. Entrepreneurs have immense potential to impact a community. As natural change agents with hundreds of connections, these leaders are often closest to the heartbeat of the community. They know what’s working, what’s broken, and how to fix it.

Finally, we focused on Millennials. We looked for young leaders between the ages of 25-40, not only because we wanted natural affinity between leaders, but we also wanted men and women with three decades of leadership potential ahead of them.

When Iron Sharpens Iron, Sparks Fly

Leaders are sharpened by each other. But as it is with traditional metalworking, skill, intentionality, and patience are required to bring the best results. As sharpening is much more than two knives rapidly, haphazardly clanging together, genuine leadership development is more than short-term, unfocused training.

Often leadership training is a short-term endeavor, dedicated to adding new competencies to an individual. A leader could be trained in more effective ways to develop employees, for example, or on new methods for delegating more effectively. When we launched Branches Worldwide, we believed that faith-driven leaders would be best sharpened and developed by long-term relationships that contained three strategic elements: Support, Information, and Challenge. These three elements not only compel leaders to develop new competencies, but they also change a leader’s mindset and mental model. As Branches identifies and invests in leaders around the world, we are building a community rooted in Christ, focused on providing support, information, and challenge. Let’s explore each element, one by one.

Challenge:

When we invite leaders to join Branches Worldwide, we ask them to identify significant challenges they want to solve within three years. We ask each leader to pray about ambitious three-year goals that are God honoring, community serving, and personally challenging.

These goals are critical to our relationship with the leader, because pursuit of those goals inevitably places them in situations where they cannot make decisions with their current patterns of thinking. Once they face new and significant challenges, their minds are open to better and improved ways to lead. The challenge initiates the need for the remaining two elements.

Information:

Access to information about how to navigate new leadership challenges is critical to the development of the leader. Sometimes people are motivated to tackle a challenge, but they simply need more information. They need the exact words to say, steps to take, or book to read. Branches leaders have access to resources that can give them that information.

When an entrepreneur joins Branches, they join a community of faith-driven leaders from 30 countries around the world. These varied perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds provide the primary source of information. They are also exposed to books, videos, and workshops which invite them to alter their existing mindsets and apply new methods to existing challenges. Finally, they are invited to share their knowledge and experience with other Branches leaders in order to codify their own areas of expertise.

Support:

When leaders feel appreciated and valued beyond their ability to produce results, a fertile ground for creative ingenuity is fostered. For this reason, Branches Worldwide makes a unique promise to each leader. We will walk with them for 30 years. Practically speaking, that means Branches is committed to supporting them for the duration of their career. As long as they are committed to building a faith-driven business to bless their communities, we are committed to them. Each leader is paired with a mentor who is dedicated to his/her success.

The sense of support this gives to entrepreneurs is immeasurable. They are free to try to tackle challenges, to fail, to learn, and to try again. The network of high-capacity peers, mentors, and consultants around the world serves the function described in Proverbs 11:14: “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” These leaders regularly tap into a community that is there to support them with suggestions, prayer, and perspective. The result of this kind of support are leaders who readily integrate new practices and develop a larger, more advanced worldview.

Ultimately, Branches Worldwide is dedicated to seeing communities transformed by the influence of faith-driven entrepreneurs. We believe relationships rooted in Christ and focused on providing challenge, support, and information are essential to sharpening high-capacity leaders. We anticipate that our long-term, goal-oriented, relationship-driven approach will help Branches leaders develop the wisdom to choose the right strategies as well as the correct skills to implement them.

What’s Next:

When we started Branches Worldwide, we had three primary challenges: finding leaders, facilitating community, and funding our work. Since that first plane trip to visit Pat in Thailand, we have solved many of those early problems. As Covid-19 gave the world the gift of Zoom, our leaders have been able to develop the initial roots of relationships through virtual prayer meetings. We have learned how to find the right leaders and invite them to join our community. And we’re thrilled by the robust community of donors and business partnerships who help fund our work. But we know our work is not done.

Leaders need the loving perspective and face-to-face sharpening that close accountability provides.

As we look forward to the day when travel is easier and Covid-19 is behind us, we are planning opportunities for mentors and leaders to meet in person. We know 30 years is a long time, and we’re building our community of leaders to be sharp and ready for the challenges God asks us to tackle together.

Since that day with Pat in Chiang Rai, I have prayed for a day when our 30 Branches leaders are asked, “Who sharpens you?”

And the answer will be, “I have Branches Worldwide. I do not do this by myself.”

——

Article originally hosted and shared with permission by The Christian Economic Forum, a global network of leaders who join together to collaborate and introduce strategic ideas for the spread of God’s economic principles and the goodness of Jesus Christ. This article was from a collection of White Papers compiled for attendees of the CEF’s Global Event.

Source link

At Halftime, we are passionate about helping high-capacity leaders find and live out their Ephesians 2:10 calling. We are world-class at helping people live lives that are both successful and significant. We do that by providing programs, coaching, and making connections to come alongside men and women on their journeys through the abundant lives God has called them to live.

However, over the years, we gradually shifted focus on what drives our resource engine to the point that we primarily focused on our signature program—The Fellows Program—as if it were our hedgehog. Growth became about increasing the number of people in the program or replicating the program in various locales around the globe, particularly in the U.S. The more we focused on our programs, the more pragmatic we became. We even changed our name to Halftime Institute and took on a more academic tone. We became known as The University for Your Second Half, a world-class program you attended, paid tuition for, and graduated from at the completion of a process.

Eventually, we thought of ourselves as a “bounded-set” rather than a “centered-set” organization. A bounded-set organization defines itself by its boundaries. A bounded-set organization says, “We operate a certain way with a certain set of people; therefore, other people and other ways of interacting are outside our boundaries.” When a company grows with this type of model, it typically employs a franchise method. It holds ruthlessly to the specific model developed and guards operations and quality to ensure new operations behave exactly like all other operations. Over the years, Halftime attempted to develop a franchise model for growth. But this goes against the key understanding that Halftime is a platform, not a program. Bob Buford was fond of saying that, “Our fruit grows on other people’s trees.” This is movement thinking at its best, and we needed to embrace it not just for our clients but also for ourselves.

In contrast, centered-set thinking focuses on a very clear understanding of who you are at your core (your hedgehog). Holding tightly to this allows unlimited options for operations if you don’t stray from your core identity. When Jim and I assumed leadership of Halftime, we started day one with this mantra: Question everything. That included answering the question: What is the core of Halftime?

2. Question everything.

Questioning everything does not mean you have to change everything. But it does mean that you are willing to investigate things in a manner that allows you to widen your perception beyond your assumptions and to accept ideas and observations from others who have different perspectives. When you allow yourself to look beyond results to evaluate not only how you do what you do (process) but also who does what you do (structure) and, finally, why you do what you do (culture), this can result in big changes. By going through this process at Halftime, we identified necessary shifts, changes, and subtle tweaks in all three areas of process, structure, and culture. Over time, we believe these actions will make all the difference—case in point, our hedgehog.

Halftime is most widely thought of as a program designed to help a person when he or she is facing the end of the “first half” (generally, career) and moving into the “second half.” After all, the subtitle of Bob’s book was “Moving from Success to Significance”—as if this were a one-time or one-step thing.

We recognize that God calls us to different things at different times. We know that, over time, our core (passions, strengths, and experiences), our capacity (time, resources, and spiritual overflow), and our context (what we do and how we do it) all change. God’s call on our lives is dynamic, not static. Over the years, Halftime has supported individuals through these changes. But, to embrace movement thinking, we need to make this value obvious to whom we serve and how we serve them.

When we would ask people, both inside and outside of the Halftime network, what our core was, the answer we most often received was, “to help high-capacity leaders find their Ephesians 2:10 calling.” When we asked how we did that, the answer always included at least two parts:

As we considered this, it became clear that the real value Halftime provided was not just helping a person find his/her calling (today there are many programs that try to do that); rather, we are experts in helping a specific set of individuals both find and live out their callings.

The specific set of individuals we are called to serve is that of a “high-capacity leader.” As with everything, this definition faced rigorous questioning to determine what we really mean by that identifier. To some, Halftime is seen as a ministry focused only on wealthy individuals—specifically, individuals who have also reached a point in their lives where they can “stop working and start serving.”

In truth, more than 65% of those who participate in our programs remain in the workplace. As they gain clarity on their individual callings, many see opportunities to re-purpose their current platforms as the place for greatest impact. However, it is true that the majority of people we serve are very successful professionals. They are typically professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners, senior military officers, or in the “c-suite” of corporations. They acknowledge that God has blessed them with time, talent, and treasure but sense a “smoldering discontent”—that nagging, there’s got to be something more feeling—that drives their desire to do more to honor God with what He has given them.

Reminding ourselves of who we are called to serve, let us consider one of our greatest values—one that we all appreciated, but never officially recognized—which is our global community of like-minded, highly-capable Christian leaders and influencers that supports any person who joins us through a program, so that they don’t have to go it alone. Further, this community lasts far beyond the conclusion of a program. We have great content, models, and processes to help individuals get clear on their callings. But, even more, we have a network that is ready and willing to help them get free from their constraints and get going into a life of significant success. Leaders around the globe stand ready and willing to prayerfully support them in exploring their passions, testing ways to live out their callings, and walking alongside them on a journey of significance for many years to come.

Now, this may seem like merely semantics, but it, in fact, was some very heavy lifting. The result is a larger vision (a movement-oriented vision) that is expressed in how we now define our core:

To help high-capacity leaders find and live out their Ephesians 2:10 callings.

With that clarity, we could move to concept three.

3. Form follows function.

 This concept is certainly not new to anyone dealing with organization change. Many would say it’s “where the rubber meets the road.” That’s why, too often, organizations will jump to this before they are ready. This is the tangible stuff—boxes on organizational charts, changes in process flows and policies… the tactics. And it’s easy to see the change and to measure results in this phase, so it’s natural to want to gravitate here. But, unless you put in the time and effort to address the first two concepts thoroughly, you will make changes through the lens of your past organizational constructs, rather than with a movement-oriented perspective. You will be putting “new wine in old wine skins.” (Luke 5:36-39)

We are currently implementing many of these changes, utilizing a concept that we recommend to every individual we serve: low-cost probes. It is the idea of making a short-term commitment to an effort to try it and see if it is truly what God is leading you to do before you jump all the way in. As we address changes at Halftime, we are using the same approach. Let me highlight three examples:

1. A process change. This refers to what we offer to our clients and how we source our clients. As we now see our programs not as the goal but as the “on-ramp” to the journey with community, we are implementing multiple programs to reach a broader scope of our target client. Now, in addition to our signature Fellows Program in Dallas, we have added a program that we call Round Tables. These are local or virtual programs that cover much of the same content as the Fellows Program but in a different context. The Fellows Program delivers an exclusive, high-touch experience to a Cohort of individuals from around the world who come together several times a year across the U.S. Now, by offering a Round Table, we can work with individuals and with other organizations to bring value not only to our clients but also to our partners as well—meeting them where they are. By training individuals to become facilitators or coaches within their own circles of influence, or equipping organizations with customized resources, we can bring Halftime into a new culture or context.

2. A structure change. There is a difference between selling someone a program and inviting them to join you on a journey. Movements invite people into a community on a specific mission; institutions sell people their products or services. We know that Halftime, like any movement, grows more through person-to-person interaction than through fancy marketing campaigns. When an alum refers a person to one of our programs, the conversion rate is +70%. So, why do we continue mass email campaigns? Instead, let’s turn the “funnel” on its side. Rather than blasting broad marketing messages to build a big funnel with the idea that it will eventually trickle down to a handful of individuals who are really our clients and are ready to embark on this journey with us, let’s create more conversations with those we have already impacted. These conversations will do two things: create referrals and—even more importantly—allow us to continue to serve our network with excellence.

To do this, we created a new part of the organization focused completely on serving our global network. Today, Halftime has partners in the United States (Dallas, Charlotte, and Nashville), Europe, Africa, China, Singapore, Australia, and Canada. At one time, we called these expressions of Halftime “hubs” or “offices.” We have changed the language to that of partners—each unique yet aligned. Each is successful, but there is great opportunity for more collaboration. The creation of this entity will allow us to work together better to innovate, support, and leverage our global capabilities.

Additionally, this new initiative will focus on providing four core areas of value to our global network:

A connected community. To do so, we are building a database that will allow members to find, contact, and connect with Halftimers all over the world.

Collaboration that can be channeled into local cohorts, affinity groups, and learning communities. This will create opportunities for collaboration among members to learn from one another, work together, and create even more impact.

Continued equipping. We are developing new programs, workshops, and training to help people through their entire This includes helping them navigate relational topics like alignment with their spouses, integrating their families into their mission, and/or developing a legacy. We can support their continual spiritual development with such things as access to resources around spiritual disciplines and guided or solo silent retreats. We open new avenues for ministry by providing exposure to new and different ministries, non-profits, and supporting organizations.

On-going coaching as we expand access to our global coaching network to help individuals with their personal growth.

3. A cultural change. It’s been said that “culture eats strategy for lunch.” Culture is a tricky thing to navigate, as it can be built—but it can’t be forced. One area that is of vital importance in culture change is language. At Halftime, we have moved away from corporate titles. Jim and I are Co-Executive Directors, not Co-CEOs. We refer to each other as “team members” and “partners,” instead of roles and titles. Another area we are addressing is in our brand name. (Remember? You must be able to question everything.) Currently, you can find us on the web at halftimeinstitute.org. You’ll notice that “Institute” is still in our name. Along with that term goes language of program admissions, tuition, and graduation. These descriptors served us for a time, but they certainly are not indicative of movement-type language.

Making these types of change are sure to be difficult for everyone. Team members are unclear of their new roles, clients may be confused about our offerings, and even with a clear, new vision, how to get there will entail trial and error. This brings us to our last concept.

4. Embrace liminality.

Liminality is defined as the space between no longer and not yet.

Source link