Faithventure Forum

Rudy Carrasco recently highlighted a faithventure business operating in urban Detroit in his Urban Onramps blog . Central Detroit Christian Community Development Corporation runs Cafe Sonshine , a family-friendly restaurant at 8902 Second Ave in Detroit. Besides providing healthy food to the community, the restaurant also employs and job trains 7 teens and young adults annually. From their website : Central Detroit Christian CDC is the managing organization of Cafe Sonshine, a family-friendly cafe (which employs 7 teens and young adults yearly). The restaurant serves a dual purpose--as a job training site for teens and young adults and as a store providing delicious food and desserts for the community. In 2007, we acquired the commercial strip just across the street from our apartment building and office. The Freeze, our ice cream store relocated here and Mr. FoFo’s, a famous deli & soul food restaurant, the anchor tenant, was been under our management sin

The Regent Center for Entrepreneurship has announced the development of a domestic Kingdom business initiative in Ohio on its blog . I'm excited about this business with faithventure aims of employing and training individuals rebuilding lives from addiction and homelessness :  Tom Stansbury, RCE Entrepreneur-in-Residence, is spearheading a Kingdom business initiative in a joint venture with Nelson's Food Service Corporation and a residential men's ministry called The Refuge - working with men struggling with alcohol, drug and homeless issues that create barriers to employment. RCE is making this project our primary domestic initiative, with Tom assisting with capital acquisition, business model development and implementation, and on the ground entrepreneurial support building the Nelson's brand with men from The Refuge in markets throughout Ohio. Men who were once on the street struggling with addictions, homeless, and cast-off, are being transformed into re

How odd is it to lead an organization where we often don’t hire the “best” person for the job but people with potential in the eyes of Jesus. That is definitely not what a human resource 101 class would teach. But it’s the whole point of what we are attempting in a faith venture. We seek to run a business as mission that employs individuals rebuilding lives from situations like addiction, homelessness, and prison that would normally make such persons unemployable in society’s eyes. Inevitably, every faith venture organization attempting such a mission is going to wrestle with the hiring decision. The tricky part comes down to walking the fine line between achieving the redemptive employment goals with the need to have employees capable of serving the customer. As a result, hiring is not a science, but an art with an eye firmly on Jesus seeking his guidance every step of the way. To navigate the hiring decision, we look for the following four items when choosing program participants

Rudy Carrasco updated everyone in his Urban Onramps blog with the latest good news coming from Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. Check out the story in the Los Angeles Times . As I've written before, I consider Homeboy one of the innovators and finest examples of domestic faith venture operations in the United States . It was upsetting when they encountered hard times earlier this year. But I'm excited to hear that they are starting to regain their footing and move forward with their mission. Homeboy will continue to have much to teach the rest of us trying to follow in their footsteps.

It’s not easy to rebuild a life from addiction, homelessness or prison. The inherent obstacles to overcoming these issues in an urban environment make success very difficult. It’s like attempting to get to the other side of a roaring mountain river without being swept away by the raging waters. In many ways it takes a miracle to get to the other side. And over the years, I’ve become convinced that apart from hearing and believing the good news of the gospel, the odds of success are very slim. But in addition to the power of the gospel, it also takes the practical to overcome. Individuals rebuilding lives need both supportive living environments and redemptive employment. If either is missing, the challenges of life can quickly become overwhelming and the bad choices of old get repeated with the resulting consequences. At Belay Enterprises and Bud’s Warehouse , we are in the third month of an exciting relationship with local transitional housing provider Providence Network . As p