Entrepreneurial Faith Launching Bold Initiatives to Expand God's Kingdom

INTRODUCTION An Open Letter to Entrepreneurs of Faith You have in your hands more than just another leadership or self-help book. You have the beat of our hearts. We are followers of Jesus who have never been interested in maintaining the status quo. We are pastors who are passionate about serving God and answering the questions our hurting communities are asking. We have learned that maintaining the status quo serves neither God nor the people that He loves. That explains why we are sold out to the vision and practice of entrepreneurial faith. We never want to be limited by what already exists. We aspire instead to pursue what should be. We desire to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of God in the places where we live and serve. We want to be catalysts of radical, Kingdom-on-earth changes that enrich the lives of the walking wounded who live all around us. We have been pastors for a combined sixty years, and we know from hard experience that "church as usual" is guaranteed to fail. Status-quo ministry will never meet the diverse and growing needs of hurting people. The role of the church has been so narrowly defined and lived out that too many churches have lost touch with the communities they are supposed to minister to. Most of us continue to devote our resources and our best thinking to organizational maintenance and to meeting the needs of the people we already have. We might collect money for foreign missions, but when it comes to local needs, most churches are blind to what is happening outside the church walls. There is a curious vision problem, a short-sightedness that limits most ministry to the internal faith community. There is nothing wrong with believers ministering to one another, unless ministry stops there and goes no further. We are convinced that God wants to rip off our blinders and turn us loose in our world. If you attend a church regularly, or even periodically, you are likely aware that your church can do more to address needs in your community. If you catch God's entrepreneurial vision, you can become an agent for change within your church and community, as you help connect your church's mission with the needs of people outside the church walls. Perhaps you are part of the business community, and your daily work makes you aware of opportunities to touch people's lives with the grace of God. In your line of work, you are constantly formulating strategies that match services to areas of need. As you work in the community, you probably notice areas of spiritual and physical need where a church could make a significant difference if only it had bold vision. If that describes you and others you know in the business world, you could become a partner in entrepreneurial faith, assisting your church in launching bold initiatives to meet spiritual and physical needs. Or maybe you are a pastor with big dreams for your church to touch the lives of hurting people. But you might be leading a "status-quo" church that is uncomfortable with change and unaccustomed to ministry that moves beyond the walls of the sanctuary. You might feel that you can't share your visions and dreams, let alone pursue them. If that describes you, then listen to the urgent cry of our hearts: Give yourself permission to dream new dreams! Then boldly follow your dreams. When obstacles loom, ask yourself, What does God want my church to be and to do? And what does God want me to be and do that I haven't yet seen? These are two core questions of entrepreneurial faith. The life of spiritual entrepreneurship sees what others are blind to. A spiritual entrepreneur dreams of new realities that others find threatening. He or she identifies needs and opportunities and seeks new ways to meet those needs, with little regard for what has already been tried or has never been attempted in theKallestad, Walt is the author of 'Entrepreneurial Faith Launching Bold Initiatives to Expand God's Kingdom', published 2004 under ISBN 9781578568376 and ISBN 1578568374.