If we can’t reach this generation by remaining within the wall of the church, and all signs indicate that we can’t, then it’s time for entrepreneurial faith initiatives. We must take the church to the community. And it is not twenty something generation that is being missed. Look around your community and start making a list. The population, the religious people, those who have grown with no Christian influence and those brought up to be fundamentalist without any genuine relationship with God, and many, many others.
Very few of these people will ever be affected by what goes on during a church service, no matter how dynamic, upbeat, and relevant the service is to the church goers. Those who are following traditional religion, those who claim no religion, those who have been wounded in life (sometimes, even by the church), the lost men, women, boys and girls in our community will not typically venture into your church. They have no reason to think they’ll find any answers there. They still have a need to experience the awesome reality of God’s love, but they won’t come begging.
Status-quo ministry says “open the door and they will come.” That might have worked in the past but it long ago lost it effectiveness. We can no longer just schedule church service and programme and wait for those who need God to show up. We must get personal, relate in small groups with genuine love for service to one another to grow bigger.
We must find creative ways to engage the nonchurch goers in our communities. We must take the gospel out of the sanctuaries and synagogue buildings that we now call “Church” and to the people. We must become entrepreneurs as we practice our faith. If we refuse to take this step, we run the very risk of losing literally millions around us who desperately need and want to experience the love of God and who live right in our neighbourhoods or even fail to make the converted entrepreneurial faith mentors.
Whether you’re a pastor, an involved lay person, or a business person concerned about the need in your community, it’s time to start dreaming about how God can use you in new ways, ways that may be scary at times, but adventures that will be exciting as well.
God is working in our world, and He invites us to join Him. But He doesn’t limit himself to tried-and-true methods, and He never shies away from disruptive innovations. In fact, if you study Jesus’ method of ministry, you could easily argue that God prefers bold, people focused initiatives that fly in the face of conventions, Jesus’ entrepreneurship opened people’s eyes to spiritual truth in starling, unsettling, but welcome ways.
When we act on vision individually and collectively, change takes place. Risk taking is a big part of the package. Thus we can move forward with courageous faith, entrepreneurial faith. Creativity and dreaming can become the norm and not the rare exception. God calls us to follow Him in the risky, exciting journey of entrepreneurial leadership faith ministry. He says, ‘Yee are gods’, ‘the head not the tail’, ‘kings and priests’, and dominion victors. We can’t live as true imitators of Jesus without practicing this type of faith. And no bible school is complete without entrepreneurial faith.
No knowledge of the word of God is complete without the kingdom.
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