Entrepreneurial skills
in a Christian context
Have you ever started
something new?
1.What was it?
2.What was the process?
Ephesians 4; 11-12.
apostles = entrepreneur
prophet = questioner
evangelist = communicator
pastor = humaniser
teacher = systematizer
Frost and Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to come.p175
Missionary Entrepreneur
‘ This 10 to 15 % of the population should be the leaven
that affects the whole. The leaven is not able to do
its job because our institutions and bureaucratic
systems prevent it.
The problem lies deep. Our education system are all
too often learning
regimes rather than talent spotters or developers.
Our institutions stifle entrepreneurial initiative.’
p4
‘Releasing the entrepreneurial talent
among Gods people is the
greatest task facing the church today.
It is the Entrepreneur Imperative’
p4
• they are people
•habitual
•creative and innovative
•builders
•build something of value
•build using opportunities
‘A person who habitually creates and innovates to build
something of recognised value around
perceived opportunities. p12
The Five Habits of Highly
Innovative Leaders
Questioning
Observing
Networking
Experimenting
Associational Thinking
/
• confident
•decisive
•energetic
•disrupt status quo
•visionary
•risk taker
•not give up
‘ The essence of entrepreneurial behaviour is
risk taking.’ p38
Questions for discussion?
• In what way could you
describe God as
an entrepreneur, if
entrepreneurs create?
•Who are the great entrepreneurs
of the Bible?
Two ways of seeing
entreprenurship
Recipe Approach, causal thinking
Jim Collins
www.jimcollins.com
Great to good
Good to great
Question for discussion?
•What do you make of this theory
about entrepreneurship?
•What parts of this might help
you in your ministry?
Fridge Approach, effectuation thinking
Saras Sarasvathy
http://www.effectuation.org/
1.They really wanted to do this
2.They begin by taking a small step
3.They stop to see what they have learned.
4.They take another step
Act-learn-build-act………….
‘ Entrepreneurs thrive on contingency.
The best ones improvise their way to an
outcome that in retrospect feels ordained.’
Effectuation
• organisational mindset
– objectives, strategic plans, timelines
– love market research
• pioneering mindset
–
–
–
–
–
start with what you have got
collaborative
experimental
objectives arise from experience
prefer to network than do market research
• both are valid – in the right context
Saras Sarasvathy, Effectuation, 2008
Question for discussion?
•What do you make of this theory
about entrepreneurship?
•What parts of this might help
you in your ministry?
•Are there common threads
between the two theories.
A Vision from failure
The process of trial and
error is essential
1. Try new things
2. Make failure survivable
3. Know when you have failed
Pioneering teams
‘ one of the great myths of entrepreneurship has
been the notion if the leader as a lone hero…
The reality is that successful entrepreneurs either
built teams about them or were part of a team
throughout.’
Thomas Cooney, What is an Entrepreneurial Team
How do we see the role of the leader ?
• General on a hill
• Make sense of what is happening
‘ Leadership is not in a leader or done by a leader.
Leadership is an emergent event, an outcome of interactions
between individuals.
Three temptations
1. Focus on goals rather than internal processes
2. Deal with generalities rather than specifics
3. Leader can control their team.
Three requirements
1. Diversity
2. Responsiveness
3. Associative Capacity.
Social entrepreneurship
A blending of a business model with mission.
Innovative solutions to social problems which yield
and sustain social benefits
How we make decisions in
a fast changing environment
cynefin
1. Vision is too small
2. Vision is too generic
3. Implementation is too restrictive
4. Methods are too safe.
Seth McBee