Faithventure Forum

About Wages and People Rebuilding Lives from Addiction, Homelessness and Prison

2012-02-09T15:20:00.001-07:00

In Denver, a living wage ranges from $8.64 an hour to $16.60 an hour depending on whether one is single or the primary wage earner in a family.

In the various Belay programs we start people rebuilding lives at $8 an hour. While our heart is that all employees would be able to make a living wage, we've discovered over the years the value of being very intentional in how we structure our wages.

We hire people rebuilding lives. Our interviewing process is very unusual. If you are qualified to get a job somewhere else, we want you to do that. Our positions are reserved for people who are shut out of the job market because of significant barriers to employability including addiction, homelessness and prison.

When we do hire someone with that background, providing too high of an initial wage is actually counterproductive. There is value at staring over near minimum wage and proving your desire to work for the future. And then, over time, receiving raises up to a wage of $10 an hour as one successfully completes the stages of our job training program. We stop raises at $10 an hour so there is incentive to leave our program and transition into a better, self-supporting job in the community.

It's interesting that back in the 1800s almost all of the leading welfare programs had a work component to them. In order to receive aid at the Buffalo Charity Organizational Society, men had to chop wood. The purpose wasn't to take advantage of the individual needing help, but to preserve their dignity...that inherent part of all humans that needs the value of work to preserve human worth. A person's willingness to stick with work, pointed to their openness to do the hard life work necessary to overcome addiction and prison.

Our wage structure works in much the same way. We think there is something extremely healthy in asking people to start-over near minimum wage and then experience raises over time as the reward of a job well-done. This process reaches its pinnacle each time someone successfully transitions into a prevailing wage job in the community with the skills to succeed over the long haul.

Bud's Warehouse and Belay in the Denver Post

2012-02-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

Last month I wrote about Tina Griego's January 8, 2012, column in the Denver Post exploring ex-offender employment issues. That article spoke movingly about the real life dilemmas faced by ex-offenders in today's economy.

A few days ago, Bud's Warehouse's operation manager, Marcus Weaver attended a meeting on ex-offender issues and ended up sharing our organization's story with Ms. Greigo. She stopped by for a visit later in the week and included Bud's in her newest column that continues to explore ex-offender employment issues.

Kudos to Marcus for being so passionate about the Belay mission and many thanks to Tina Griego and The Denver Post for shedding light on this important issue:

"It's heartbreaking, really," says Jim Reiner, executive director of Belay Enterprises. "The No. 1 factor that determines whether ex-offenders will go back to jail is whether they have a job. Many employers aren't willing to be a felon's first employer, but they are willing to be the second. So, we're the first."

I'll leave you with Patrick Stewart, an ex-con working at New Beginnings, Bud's custom woodworking shop. Stewart is 33 and has been out nine years. He'd never built anything before, he tells me. Now he's making beautiful cabinets and wine racks. He's gone from prison to welfare to work. "At one point in my life, I was just empty flesh walking around," he tells me. "Now, I have confidence. Now, I actually have hope." Denver Post, January 5, 2012.

Belay Update: A Busy Winter Growing Jobs

2012-02-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

It's been an exciting start to the new year as Belay Enterprises strives to create self-sufficient faithventure businesses that provide jobs for individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.

Please review the following quick rundown of happenings around Belay and consider supporting our new start-ups with a tax-deductible donation by visiting our online donation page here:

We're delighted by the successful launch over the last six months of New Beginnings Custom Woodworks, our custom cabinet employment and job training program for ex-offenders. Everything is up and running with sales far beyond our initial projections. We're continuing to expand jobs and training opportunities for ex-offenders as we grow our customers for cabinet-making services.
Our long dreamed of mattress recycling project has revived in a big way with a developing partnership with a group of entrepreneurs. Expect an announcement very soon of the opening of Colorado's first mattress recycling facility located close to Bud's Warehouse. We expect to be adding 3 employment training jobs for ex-offenders in the next 2 weeks.
Another business partner of Belay has decided to move ahead with a commercial kitchen business to manufacture several commercial products. We expect to run it out of the Denver jail employing offenders to provide job training and assist in their transition out of jail. There is still much work to be done but we are close to realizing this dream which will create a sizable number of redemptive jobs.
Bud's Warehouse has enjoyed a great January of sales, the best in years for a traditionally slow month. In addition, Bud's has opened a metal recycling division. We recently negotiated an agreement with a local appliance retailer that should provide 3 semi-loads of working and non-working appliances every month. This translates into more jobs for people rebuilding lives.Unfortunately, we blew an engine in one of our key flatbed trucks.We are seeking the donation of a newer used flatbed truck to help our organization continue to grow.
Madison Chandler and Mark Smesrud have joined the Belay team to open a coffee shop to employ homeless youth leaving the streets in the fall.

As you can see, everyone at Belay has been very busy.

I am reminded that we can not run all of these projects on our own. We are always looking to partner with Christ-followers that have a heart to use their business talents to create jobs for people rebuilding lives.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayer. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

Purple Door Coffee Welcomed to the Belay Team

2012-02-03T15:42:00.002-07:00

I am excited to welcome Mark Smesrud and Madison Chandler to the Belay team as they spearhead the development of Purple Door Coffee to employ young adults leaving homelessness in partnership with Dry Bones Denver.

Over the next few months, they will be raising start-up funding as well as coordinating the numerous activities that need to be undertaken for an early fall opening.

Mark has started sharing about his journey of opening a faithventure business here. I encourage you to check it out for a front row seat to watch this business as mission develop.

Today, he writes about the idea of opening a "just business:"

“It’s just business”. This is a statement people use when someone gets burned. Someone gets the short end of the stick. It’s become a qualifying statement for when someone has treated another individual as a business deal instead of as a human being.

Because of this it seems that business has become something that is incongruent with the Kingdom of God in many people’s minds. Business is viewed as something ugly completely driven by the almighty dollar, and The Almighty certainly can’t have anything to do with it.

Thankfully in recent years the “Business as Mission” movement is gaining some momentum. Business is being utilized as a way to spread the Kingdom. Instead of “It’s just business” it has become “It’s a just business”. A business that recognizes the value and dignity of all humans. While the business may generate revenues and the operators of the business will intentionally do things to generate more income, it is never at the expense of other people’s value and dignity.

Read it all here.

Feel free to contact us if you would like to learn more about this project. And consider making a donation towards Purple Door's start-up expenses by visiting our online donation page.

The Noble Act of Creating Jobs (Kevin Grenier)

2012-01-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

The following is a guest post from Kevin Grenier.

It is a common stereotype that corporations are greedy businesses and that truly noble work is done by serving the poor. Mother Teresa isn’t expected in the board room. She’s out on the street giving food to the homeless.

What if we have it all wrong?

What if sustaining the poor is the less noble act?

Maybe, rather than helping the poor make it another day, the real God-honoring activities are those of the businessmen – those people who provide work to us so that we are not poor, but can earn a living. Granted, business can be used for good or ill, just as anything can. But maybe business has the potential to be used for far greater good than mercy could ever hope for. Maybe a business whose goal is to help those who can’t work to learn how to work is a far nobler task than the soup kitchen.

The Bible says that if a man won’t work, we shouldn’t feed him. Most mercy organizations side-step this verse because their clients are incapable of holding a job. What they miss in this verse is that true mercy creates jobs that even the least among us can do. If we simply feed a person, we force him or her to purchase their food at the cost of their dignity and value to society. If we offer them work – even the most basic tasks – we affirm their value and they earn their living.

But don’t be fooled. It takes far more effort to create a job and then help someone get and keep that job than it does to hand out a lunch. I guess the question we each must ask ourselves is whether the homeless and broken in our society are worth the extra effort or not. I’m glad there are organizations that have decided that they are.

Kevin Grenier is a writer and speaker living in Castle Rock, Colorado who blogs at Gathering His People. He has spent over 15 years in inner-city ministry and is a friend of Bud's Warehouse.

Ella's Dreams

2012-01-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

When Ella has a dream, I pay attention.

A few years ago, she called worried about a close friend of mine.

"Yes," I said, "she's very sick. But how did you know? You haven't seen her in years."

Ella shared that she dreamed of her the previous night. "I will start praying right away," she said. And over the next year Ella kept checking in on my friend and praying until she was declared cancer free.

A few weeks ago, Ella called concerned about a former Bud's Warehouse program participant from 7 years ago. We hadn't heard from him in awhile. A few days later he called. And now he's on his way back from a tough relapse with Ella praying for him every step of the way.

One of the great joys of running an urban business as mission is the friendships with people of great faith who actively share God's love with the community around them.

Ella likes to speak with God all of the time. And God helps her to dream about a better world.

Ed and Jackie

2012-01-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

I met Ed at a homeless shelter 12 years ago and he's been our part-time janitor at Bud's Warehouse ever since.

Today, Ed picked up Jackie from the nursing home to bring her by Bud's Warehouse so she could say "hi" to everyone.

It's hard to believe that Ed and Jackie have been dating for 21 years. Nothing would make him happier than to get married and move in together. But because of her health, they've had to settle on declaring themselves married by common-law and live apart.

So on his days off, Ed picks up Jackie at her nursing home for short trips by bus around town. "She has to stay with me," Ed notes, "and I have to have her home by dark."

"You can't keep us apart," Jackie says. "People in love need to be together."

Start-up Faithventure Dirt'N'Nails Hopes to Employ and Provide Transitional Program for Homeless

2012-01-16T15:06:00.001-07:00

A few years ago, I met an individual who was starting a Chicago area greenhouse tomato business to employ homeless individuals. His idea was very exciting because it's easy to see how such a venture could provide a fantastic environment for people rebuilding lives using the healing nature of gardening. Ever since then I've encouraged people in the Denver area to explore such an idea as a faith venture.

Today, I learned of a new farming start-up in the metro area that has the vision of transitional housing and employment in a farm setting. From their web site:

Dirt’N’Nails Farms Inc. came into being as a thought and then a vision March of 2009, starting with the thought of giving plant starts and potted vegetables to those in need to boost not only their food supply but also their morale. Whether we’re talking about homeless families or hungry ones, mental and spiritual well-being is as important as physical well-being. Simply giving the homeless a place to live is not enough. Simply giving the hungry food is not enough.

Then came the vision. A commercial greenhouse filled with vegetable starts and potted vegetables waiting to be delivered; farm land used to grow not only money-making things to keep it running but also food to feed the hungry; a staff made up of the adults of homeless families working part-time on the farm while working out financial, intellectual, and emotional issues that came from their time being homeless; education opportunities for school kids and organizations like 4H programs; and so much more.

Should They Stay or Should They Go?

2012-01-12T16:05:00.002-07:00

It's the hardest decision you will ever face in a faith venture employing people rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison. The reality is there comes a time when you need to make a judgement call whether to keep working with an individual in the program or let them go.

As long as someone is showing growth, we are prone at Belay Enterprises to walk alongside them within the structure of a three-strike rule. Ultimately, our faith ventures are places about grace. But that's where it gets really hard.

Sometimes grace is walking alongside someone when that is the painful, difficult route. And sometimes grace is firing someone from the program because there is a lesson to be learned and other people need the opportunity of the program.

I wish there was a formula for making such decisions. There's not.

It's more of an art, a feel, an active seeking of what God wants.

And a trust that no matter what decision is made, God will use it to birth something new... a new life growing out of brokenness.

Denver Post Columnist Explores Ex-Offender Employment Issue

2012-01-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

Excited to see the Denver Post focus on the very real problem of finding a job as an ex-offender in Denver. It's a very good article but I wish it had included more detail on how much money taxpayers save when people coming our of prison successfully find employment.

Ronald Sena's troubles started with heroin, which led to thievery and shoplifting and larceny, which led him to prison. He was 19 the first time he went in. For most of the next 20 years, he made regular use of the revolving door, accumulating a lengthy record of nonviolent crime.

That was many years ago, but I'm laying it out first because Sena's past refuses to stay in his past and because his terrible choices will be all that matters to some readers, so I'll save them the trouble of reading further.

"Prison record is a ball and chain for jobless ex-felon," Denver Post, Tina Griego, 1-8-2012

I encourage you to read the whole article here.

New Life Born From Brokenness

2012-01-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

Relapses happen. The old life sometimes exerts a seemingly irresistible force on people rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.

I remembering feeling great discouragement when I first faced that reality at Bud's Warehouse. An individual who had come back from heroin addiction, who was thriving in our program and ready to graduate to a job in the community, suddenly disappeared back into the world of drug abuse.

Perhaps, I unrealistically hoped that once people experienced new life and the satisfaction of supporting themselves in a job, they would never be tempted to make their former mistakes. It seems so naive to write that down today almost 13 years later. But the unsatisfying truth is that sometimes people never relapse but often they do...and that is all part of God's plan of redeeming lives where brokenness is the only path to life.

I remember my surprise when our former employee returned from his relapse into heroin wanting to share his new story of life. Yes, he had made a mistake. Yes, he needed to be let go because of his bad choice to use. But a few months later, he realized that if Bud's Warehouse, the best place he had ever worked, the one place willing to give him a second and a third chance, a place of grace trying to mirror Jesus' forgiveness and offer of life, if that place had to let him go, maybe he had a real problem. And he needed to get serious about whole-heartedly pursuing his recovery.

The reality is that we will always have some that relapse. And we all are guilty of relapses one way or another when we revert to our old way of life that focus on the self whether it shows up in addiction, pride, greed, or anger among many others. But we know that future mistakes have less power because of the prior experience of God's grace.

We need to pray for people rebuilding lives that these relapses don't last long because the power of the new life outweighs the strength of the old.

And we celebrate together when we learn that one former program participant may be returning with a new outlook on life and the strength born of brokenness to make it.

Experiencing New Life on the Job

2011-12-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

I'm a big believer in the career and life skill program we use at Bud's Warehouse to train people rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.

A big part of that program is our weekly hood-check on Wednesdays where everyone shares what is going on in their life. I'm such a fan of this activity because of the tremendous camaraderie and personal breakthroughs I've witnessed over the years during this time. Every company would see big benefits by implementing a weekly hood-check.

I've never heard of anyone following our lead...until now.

A close friend of mine with a new start-up company just called me bubbling over with stories related to his recent start of the hood-check at his business. Every day on the job they are gathering in the morning to implement pieces of the Bud's Warehouse program in a for-profit setting.

He told me it's turned into one of the most incredible experiences of his adult life. The employees have grown incredibly close to each other while experiencing some amazing stories of God acting in their midst.

My friend struggled for words to explain what was happening in the lives of some of the employees. One word came to mind. Resurrection. Employees were seeing new life spring up in places formerly occupied by pain and long-term struggles.

He shared with his staff that he was modeling his organization on this place in Colorado called Bud's Warehouse and everyone expressed great enthusiasm for supporting our organization. I'm most excited that he plans to hire people rebuilding lives sometime in the near future because his particular business will provide one of the best environments for people seeking to overcome past difficulties while building significant career skills for the future.

Once again, I'm amazed at the impact Jesus-following business people can make by approaching their business as a ministry.

Advance Memphis Operates Staffing Service and Outsourcing Businesses

2011-12-08T09:45:00.001-07:00

In one of Tennessee most disadvantaged communities, Advance Memphis operates two faithventure businesses as part of its goal to develop economic opportunity for the neighborhood surrounding the Cleaborn/Foote public housing developments.

The organization started Advance Memphis Staffing in 2009 to employ program participants while meeting the staffing needs of businesses in the community. Program participants use the skills they developed in Advance's six week Job for Life job training program while working for clients like KTG USA, a local mill that produces paper products for its global parent company, Kruger. For more information on Advance Memphis Staffing, visit here.

The faith based community development agency also runs Advance Memphis Outsourcing which provides assembly and piecework services for area companies like National Guard Products, C&D Plastics, and KAM Cross-Supply Services. For more information on this program, contact them here.

Faith and Action

2011-12-07T17:24:00.001-07:00

Sometimes it seems that you pour all your time, energy and heart into a project or task only to see little movement towards your goals. Other times, all you did was get out of bed and big things started happening. On those days, it seemed as if you were operating in the sweet spot between God’s desires and your efforts in faith.

I think it’s one of the great mysteries of following God: how to negotiate the balance between moving out in faith and waiting expectantly for God to move.

In my life, I’ve found that I have a tendency to hang out in one or the other of the two extremes. Either, I find myself charging ahead with the doing or holding back praying for God’s guidance. More often than not, it’s the former because I am wired to be a doer. If I sense something would be good for God’s kingdom, I’m quick to attempt to make it happen. But sometimes I am wrong.

At other times, when I’m unsure about God’s will, I find myself holding back, really wanting God to give clear guidance before moving ahead because I’m afraid or I genuinely want to do the right thing. This can result in becoming stuck and missing out on what God desires. Or this could be where God wants us in this particular decision.

Like I said, it can all be a bit of a mystery.

It would be better to inhabit the territory between impulsively moving forward and fearfully holding back. It’s that sweet spot where my actions are in faith and require God’s help in order to succeed, yet the place where I haven’t allowed myself to get out ahead of God. This is the opposite of what some call Christian atheism where one’s actions leave no room for actual faith…for God to act. Such a person believes but outwardly shows no evidence of trusting God.

Over the years, I’ve discovered the answer to this problem.

There really isn’t an answer.

We all learn by trial and error within the safe confines of Christian community and God’s love.

When faced with a decision, we need to first seek guidance from God in community with other followers of Christ. Then, when we hear from God, we need to move out in faith.

Sometimes, we will be right and find that sweet spot. And other times we will blow it and have to prayerfully learn from our mistakes. But in all cases, God will use our successes and failures to accomplish his will.

Where have you learned through trial and error to find the sweet spot of God’s will?

Support Belay Enterprises and Make an Impact for Jobs in Denver

2011-11-30T15:06:00.007-07:00

In today's world, it's not hard to see the importance of a job.

But imagine trying to find a job in order to support your family while living on the streets. Or envision trying to obtain employment if you are just out of prison with a felony conviction.

Over the last couple years, it has been difficult for many people to find employment. And research shows that a job search becomes almost impossible when one is trying to rebuild a life from prison, addiction or homelessness. This is the problem that Belay Enterprises seeks to solve with its mission of partnering with the church to develop businesses that employ and job-train individuals rebuilding lives.

Out of this vision, Belay launched in 1995 its first faith venture Bud’s Warehouse, a home improvement thrift store selling recycled building materials. In 2002, Belay opened Baby Bud’s, a baby products thrift store that employs disadvantaged single mothers and Freedom Cleaning Services, a commercial cleaning company that also employs single mothers. These projects were followed in late 2003 by the incubation of the Good Neighbor Garage, a job training and car placement program, which has since incorporated into its own independent organization. Baby Bud’s and Freedom Cleaning Services were also spun off into their own non-profit organization in 2009.

And this year, Belay successfully started its fifth faith venture, New Beginnings Custom Woodworks, a custom cabinet manufacturing business that employs and job trains ex-offenders. Last year, these five Christ-centered enterprises employed 80 individuals with 41% of participants successfully graduating into better jobs in the community. Christianity Today recently profiled Belay Enterprises as part of its “This is Our City” Project viewable here.

Bud’s Warehouse employs single moms like Rachel who came to the program last year shortly after making a commitment to live drug free.

“I was absolutely jobless and living completely off of government assistance, but I didn’t want that anymore.” Rachel remembers. “I was tired of the ex-offender, former drug addict pity party and wanted to make a big change.” Within weeks of coming to work at Bud’s Warehouse, Rachel was quickly able to realize her biggest goal. Her young daughter moved back in with her. And today, Rachel has graduated the program into another job in the community.

“When I joined Bud’s, I had no self-worth, but I gained confidence working alongside others in Bud’s positive Christian environment. In five years, I plan to be driving an ambulance for a living,” Rachel says with a smile.

Rachel's Story from Andy Magel on Vimeo.

As we enter our 17th year as an organization, would you consider partnering with us by making an end-of-the-year donation? Over the next five years, Belay Enterprises hopes to grow our employment and job-training opportunities to 750 self-sustaining positions a year. Your contribution will help provide start-up funding towards several new projects including expanding New Beginnings Custom Woodworks, starting Purple Door Coffee to employ homeless youth, a new location for Bud’s Warehouse, and a new commercial kitchen project in partnership with the Denver Jail.

And your donationwill be deposited into a revolving venture fund at Belay to be invested in theabove projects. When the new businesses become self-sustaining, these monieswill be repaid back to the fund for future investments in other new projects.So your donation today will invest in job creation for many years to come,making a big difference for the kingdom.

Thank you for your consideration. If you need more information on our programs, please feel free to give me a call at 303-296-3990. Visit the Belay Paypal web site to make an online contribution here. All contributions are eligible for an additional state enterprise zone credit.

I pray that your family will be blessed during this season of Christmas with the celebration of our Savior’s birth!

Merry Christmas!

Belay Enterprises in Christianity Today

2011-11-29T15:16:00.003-07:00

Christianity Today's "This is Our City Project" profiles Belay Enterprises and Bud's Warehouse in an excellent piece that beautifully shares our mission and vision. Join me in praying that others around the country sense a calling to create businesses to employ individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.

Doing Good and Turning a Profit

Recidivism is an ungainly word for a disturbing reality: the proportion of people released from prison who are rearrested or returned to custody. In the United States, according to a recent study from the Pew Center on the States, 43.3 percent of convicts released in 2004 were back in prison three years later.
There are many reasons for this stubbornly high rate—it has barely budged in at least a decade—but high on the list is the difficulty former prisoners have in finding legitimate employment. Who wants to hire an ex-con?

In Denver, the answer is Belay Enterprises. Founded in 1995, Belay's mission is to partner with the church to create businesses that employ people rebuilding their lives after serving a prison sentence. Executive director James Reiner has been working for the company for over 13 years. "We create businesses for folks who have been excluded from the job market."
Read the whole article here.

Hiring for Potential

2011-11-23T16:23:00.001-07:00

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 at Belay and Bud’s Warehouse:

Evidence of Grace- Can we see some indication, no matter how slight, that God is working in the potential program participant’s life? This doesn’t mean that the individual needs to be a follower of Christ—in fact, we like it when they aren’t--, but that you can see that God is pursuing this person. To keep my senses finely tuned in this area, I return often to the gospels for stories of Jesus’ love for the outcast and forgotten.
A Turning- Does the person show some evidence that they have turned away from their old lifestyle choices and now want to move forward in a new direction? Even if it is very tentative, it is still so necessary for an individual to want a different life. Without it, the person will not succeed in our program.
Brokeness- Be wary of the individual who presents himself as having it all together. Every person in a faith venture organization, especially the leadership, needs to have an understanding that their life is inherently broken. Sometimes you have to pry during the interview process, but everyone needs to be comfortable presenting themselves as not having it all together. Because people who have it all together are not in a place to rely on God, the necessary ingredient for healing and wholeness.
Partnerships- Is the candidate enrolled in another program such as a faith based transitional living program? As I discussed here, the potential for rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison go up with the involvement of more than one program and/or a faith community.
Listening to God- And finally and most importantly, what is God saying? I’ve had times when against my judgment and the prior four points, I sensed very clearly that God wanted us to hire a particular individual. The whole process needs to be bathed in prayer with ears attentive to God for each hiring decision.

At the various businesses of Belay, our hiring decisions don’t always work out. But when they do, it’s something of true beauty. After all, God is in the business of restoring that which has been broken. And what a joy it is to have a seat front and center watching God’s grace in action.

Job Interviewing Bud's Warehouse Style

2011-11-22T16:05:00.006-07:00

In most job interviews, an employer looks for the most qualified person for the job. At Bud’s Warehouse, we put a different twist on the idea of “most qualified.” As a faith venture that provides employment and job training for individuals rebuilding lives, our interviews are less about finding the most qualified and more about finding someone who can’t find a job elsewhere because of a felony conviction or a past addiction. If someone appears able to find a job somewhere else, we are less likely to hire them and quick to refer such a person to a job placement organization like Denver Works.

One of my favorite stories is about how far we are willing to take this idea. A few years ago, an owner of a neighboring business discovered someone stealing copper from our yard at 3am in the morning. He called the police with a license plate number and they arrested the individual. The next day, the police called us to see if we wanted to press charges. The policeman, who was familiar with our project, suggested that there might be some other way to resolve the issue. Our warehouse director offered that the man could volunteer at the warehouse to pay off what he stole. The man agreed and started working at Bud’s later that week. We really liked him and discussed him coming to work for us. But he disappeared the day after he paid off his debt. We were saddened by his departure because we thought it would be fun for him to share about the job he literally stole.

The Gift of Consequences

2011-11-15T15:05:00.003-07:00

“He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.” 1 Samuel 3:19, NIV

If we went around the table at Bud’s Warehouse discussing how this verse from the Old Testament makes us thankful, there would be no shortage of conversation. In my experience, individuals rebuilding lives from prison have a heightened awareness of God’s love and care for each of them. So, one by one, stories would be shared of how people were thankful for an ability to trust God and how he brought good into their lives.

But if we backed up and looked at the preceding chapters 2 and 3 in 1st Samuel, the discussion would become more difficult.

These great words of faith and trust were spoken by the priest Eli after the young boy Samuel received a rather dramatic call from the Lord and a troubling message from God:

“See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them. Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.”

Samuel hesitated to tell Eli, but after he said everything to him, Eli answered, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”

Whoa. Suddenly those words take on a whole new dimension. Eli is speaking words of faith in the face of a terrible judgment from God on overlooking the sins his two sons committed as priests. Eli already knew that since his sons’ Hophni and Phinehas were terribly dishonoring God by mistreating the offerings and sacrifices, God was going to end Eli’s family line as priests. Hophni and Phineas were going to die on the same day and God was going to raise up a new priest which he was doing by calling Samuel.

Anyone can ascent to God’s right to do what’s good in his eyes when it results in good things in our life. It’s much harder to give our blessing to God for consequences related to our failures even though they can still be instruments of good in our life.

Over the years, I’ve observed this truth as one of the biggest barriers to success for ex-offenders rebuilding lives from prison. Legal consequences from crime are seen as evils instead of instruments of good from God enabling a better future.

We are blessed with the best legal system in the world. Yet, like any system, it is still fraught with imperfections. Its failings sometimes have way of overshadowing the good it accomplishes in the view of individuals facing legal consequences. Over and over again, I have the remind people in our program that if they had not committed the crime, they would not be undergoing the punishment, no matter how “broken” the punishment might be. Instead, they need to trust that God’s grace—his unmerited favor—is playing out in this experience of punishment. And together with Eli, we can trust in God’s goodness for our lives no matter how hard the consequences play out in our life.

And I’ve seen repeatedly, when one moves from being a victim to a recipient of God’s grace, he is on the way to a new life of freedom.

Isn’t that what the gospel is all about?

Opportunity Knocks: Rebuilding Lives Through Recycling

2011-11-10T14:51:00.003-07:00

God smiles when we take throw away stuff and use it to employ individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.

Since 1995, Belay Enterprises has started four faith ventures to employ individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness or prison. We are in the process of incubating several new projects towards our goal of creating 750 jobs a year by 2016.

Over the last 16 years, we have been most successful achieving our goals in the business ventures that include a recycling component. There is a definite sweet spot of results when we use society’s throw away items to create opportunity for those in our community deemed unemployable.

If your organization is considering opportunities for a transitional employment social enterprise, take a look at ideas around the concept of recycling.

Created for Community

2011-11-02T10:44:00.003-06:00

As human beings we are fundamentally designed for each other.

Even the most introverted personality is still at some level stamped with the image of God. And community is the most essential expression of God in His Trinitarian form. We need community because we are created for community.

So many of our society’s problems arise from the fact that we have lost sight of our essential need for other people. We have become so curved inward on the self that we have forgotten others and our interrelationship with them.

I am convinced that one key to healing the ills of the urban city (or, indeed, the world) is building community. Any charitable or governmental activity aimed at alleviating the problems of poverty without including community at its core is destined for inefficiency and ineffectiveness.

At Bud’s Warehouse and the various businesses of Belay Enterprises, we start every morning intentionally striving for community by meeting together. One morning we do a bible study, another we provide a job training activity, and on Wednesdays we go around the room sharing individual successes and challenges .

Some may call these meetings team building, but it’s much deeper than that. We work hard to create safe environments where each person feels free to share what is going on in their life, both the good and the challenging.

For people rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison, each of these challenges arise from essential aloneness. When we strive for community, we build the environment for healing and wholeness. Because, in the end, community heals… community with God and with each other.

2011 Hope Award for Effective Compassion Winner Runs Two Faithventure Businesses

2011-10-18T13:29:00.006-06:00

World Magazine recently named Victory Trade School of Springfield, Missouri, its 2011 Hope Award for Effective Compassion.

Victory Trade School runs an innovative Christ-centered culinary arts training program for individuals starting over from addiction, homelessness and prison. Students in the program are required to complete a year long discipleship program called Prep as a prerequisite before entering the hospitality training program. Participants then start the culinary program where they receive intensive training which results in seven certificates recognized by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.

Student receive paid on-the-job training in the organization's two faithventure businesses: the Cook's Kettle Restaurant and Branch Bistro and Catering.

Check out this video to learn more about Victory Trade School:

Victory Trade School; Springfield, MO from james Allen Walker on Vimeo.

Via Rudy Carrasco of Urban Onramps.

The Who is as Important as the What (Joseph Vijayam)

2011-10-13T15:28:00.004-06:00

The following is our first guest post on Faithventure Forum by Joseph Vijayam of Olive Technology.

In the business world we can be laser-focused on activity or results. We work as hard as possible to measure every part of our work and increase efficiencies everywhere possible. But with all the focus on output, we sometimes forget that the “who” in our business makes the “what” possible.

This is even more important in a Kingdom Business or Faith Venture as this blog refers to them. In fact, I would say it is imperative to understand the “who” when you are involved in a business as mission effort. Why is that?

Well, simply put, a Faith Venture is all about motives. You could have two businesses side by side in one city block doing the same type of activity but one is a Faith Venture and the other is a normal business. The activities might look somewhat similar but the reason for doing them and the Kingdom results will be very different.

Because of this, it is critical that the people, partners and vendors you involve in your venture understand your motivations and are committed to seeing the larger picture come together. As this blog pointed out in its post called “Business and Ministry: Not Business or Ministry”, you can’t separate the business and ministry aspects. They are all part of one big picture. But if those involved in your effort don’t see it that way and integrate ministry and business in all they do, you will find that the “who” makes the “what” an impossible task.

Are you bringing the right people around you to accomplish your Faith Venture?

Joseph Vijayam is the Managing Director and Founder of Olive Technology (www.olivetech.com). Prior to founding Olive, he served as the Chief Executive of Matrix Computer Consultancy, India. He earned a B.S. with highest honors in Computer Science from Biola University, CA, USA, and an MBA in Information Systems from Georgia State University, GA, USA. Joseph is an advocate for Business as Mission and communicates regularly about the subject on his blog (www.ministryplatforms.com) and twitter (www.twitter.com/josephvijayam).

Belay Denver Jail Kitchen Initiative Update

2011-10-12T15:13:00.004-06:00

Last week, a group of us from Belay Enterprises attended a meeting with the Denver Jail leadership to discuss organizational issues regarding our potential commercial kitchen training business with a national prison industries consultant. We all came away from the meeting very excited.

The consultant, with 30 years of experience in prison industries, commented that this was one of the most innovative and exciting partnerships he has ever seen. He thought that this will be a ground-breaking model for the rest of the country. He agreed that our theory of starting the faith-based employment relationship while behind bars and then transitioning it outside will have a big impact on lowering recidivism rates.

With that said, one of the challenges of the project is accommodating federal prison law with regards to prison employment. To successfully do that--which the consultant thinks is not going to be a problem-- we have to satisfy the following:

Need legislative authority
Pay wages not less than prevailing for the particular position
Written assurance that we are not displacing workers which is not going to be a problem because we're starting a new business
Pay Workman's Comp
Consult with organized labor
Adhere to National Environmental Protection Act
Consult with Business Leaders

The first step in all of this is organizing a Public Safety Committee Subcommittee. This committee will include a cross section of community leaders from government, business and the community. The purpose of the group is to ensure that the above 7 steps are successfully implemented allowing us to operate our employee training business within the jail.

I made it clear that including faith as part of our program was key to Belay's willingness to operate the business in the jail. The leadership completely understands and is committed to accommodating our faith-based purposes.

I'm really excited about all of this and look forward to seeing how this all develops. This could get us far down the path of our goal of 750 faith-based jobs in 5 years.

A Hierarchy of Challenges: Alcoholism, Homelessness and Prison

2011-10-06T11:26:00.007-06:00

It is much harder to work with an individual rebuilding a life from addiction and homelessness than someone trying to reenter the workforce as an ex-offender.

That's been my experience over the last 13 years employing and job training individuals seeking a new start from homelessness, addiction and prison in our various faith venture businesses at Belay Enterprises.

Conventional wisdom tells employers to stay away from ex-offenders because they can not be trusted because of past mistakes, they are unmotivated, and they can be very difficult to work with on a daily basis. But I have found that to be completely untrue. People entering the workforce after prison tend to be highly motivated with a deep desire to succeed in order to rebuild relationships with their families and to restore their life. They just need someone to give them a chance and an environment that allows them to thrive on the job.

The most challenging client we work with in our various transitional employment businesses is the person trying to rebuild from debilitating alcoholism. This type of substance abuse is so difficult to overcome because alcohol is such a part of the fabric of our society increasing the chances of relapses and the ever-present specter of denial.

A close second to alcoholism is the difficulty of working with someone exiting a life on the streets. Homelessness creates so many emotional and practical difficulties that take time and patience to overcome.

And then there is the common occurrence of the person who is rebuilding life from all three.

But whether it's addiction, homelessness or prison, all of these challenges need followers of Christ to catch a faith venture vision of creating nurturing employment opportunities for individuals society declares unfit for second chances.

It is so beautiful to watch God's grace restore broken lives through the power of Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

Social Enterprise to the Rescue?

2011-10-04T13:40:00.012-06:00

Over the last few weeks, I've learned of several non-profit organizations where donations have been significantly down for the last few months. It seems that uncertainty in the economy is starting to negatively impact giving from individuals and foundations.

The reason that this has come to my attention is that these same non-profits are attempting a pro-active approach to their financial health by exploring social enterprise to supplement their sources of income.

While I am always exciting to learn about faith-based organizations exploring social enterprise as a revenue source, I must counsel that organizations approach earned income ventures with realistic assumptions.

A social enterprise will not save your organization's finances.

At least not in the short run.

Any new business venture will require significant start-up money and will take many months (years) to generate profits. Belay started Bud's Warehouse in 1994 with a large amount of start-up funding. . It still took several years before the organization began generating profits to reinvest into its mission of starting new ventures

I think there is great energy in approaching new ventures primarily as vehicles for transitional employment. A faith venture starts with the goal of employing disadvantaged communities in a well run business, understanding that it will take many months before they will realize income out of profits.

I'm a big believer that if you aim for both business and mission, you increase your odds of accomplishing both. If your goal is primarily money to fund an existing mission, you will find it extremely difficult and miss an opportunity to increase your organization's overall mission output.

Business and Ministry: Not Business or Ministry

2011-09-29T20:01:00.001-06:00

It’s deeply embedded into our evangelical worldview that business and ministry are like oil and water…they don’t mix.

I know because even though I am a big proponent of business as mission and have spent the last 12 years running a faith venture organization, I still find myself, at times, subconsciously dividing the two and thinking that business is business and ministry is ministry.

Last week, I participated in a business leader forum and heard another Christ-follower lamenting about how his business goals seem less spiritual than the mission goals he aspires to in his business. Yet, in his view, the business goals are more important to the survival of his business than any other activity.

For followers of Christ, the reality is that the imaginary dividing wall that we sometimes try to erect between life and faith has been torn down. Business activities can reflect God’s will if they are done with great faith.

I have always been drawn to business entrepreneurialism because I like starting things. Indeed, one of the best characteristics of business is its creative nature. Businesses are about creating opportunity by meeting needs through goods and services. So at the very heart of business is the creative spark with which God has imbued humans.

I think God smiles when we create because He is the author of creation. And as image bearers of God, we are most human when we create and it becomes an act of worship toward the God that created us.

We diminish God’s purposes when we dismiss the worthiness of business as not spiritual enough. If God called us to create though business then we are bringing him the most glory when we use those gifts to our greatest abilities. And, if in the process of creating or growing a business, we strive to live day to day as an example of the gospel in action then we have mastered what it means to do business as ministry.

Today, our culture collectively has a heightened hypocrisy meter that goes off when our actions conflict with our professions of faith. Never underestimate the power of simply living out our faith in action over the long haul instead of attempting to live only by our words.

Grace Through Consequences

2011-09-20T15:57:00.002-06:00

Starting the Employment Relationship Behind Bars to Reduce Recidivism

2011-09-16T13:13:00.014-06:00

A job can change a life...especially in the case of ex-offenders re-entering society from jail.

The leading factor as to whether a former inmate will return to prison is their ability to obtain a job. That is why my organization Belay Enterprises partners with the church to create faith-based businesses that employ individuals rebuilding lives.

A few years ago, we began asking what would happen if we started the relationship with ex-offenders before they were ex-offenders? I became intrigued with this idea when reading about how the Prison Entrepreneurship Project in Texas saw developing the relationship with individuals while they were still in jail as key to the lower recidivism rates they achieved.

I'm excited that Belay may be able to test this idea in the future with a possible partnership with the Denver Jail to create a food packing and culinary training business in the jail's new commercial kitchen.

Two friends of Belay, Walt Hawley and Brad Behan, have put together an exciting plan to initially manufacture a proprietary commercial thickening agent which could launch a number of jobs for individuals still in jail. The potential business as ministry would allow us to develop relationships with inmates before they re-enter society, continue the relationship after they are released and help them find employment in the real world.

As this project develops, we hope to also operate a commercial kitchen outside the jail where ex-offenders could continue their training after serving their sentences. All together, we believe this will significantly reduce recidivism and help ex-offenders achieve self-sufficiency benefiting their families and society as a whole.

But there are still a lot of pieces that need to come together to make this a reality. And we would really value your prayers.

So stay tuned. We will continue to provide updates as this exciting project develops.

Party Girl: Dresses for Guatemala

2011-09-12T09:32:00.007-06:00

I always enjoy hearing about the start-up of a new faithventure.

And I am particularly excited to hear of a new business in Guatemala being started by a former Denver resident, Frank Tillapaugh, whose leadership 20 years ago set the seeds for Mile High Ministries which incubated my organization, Belay Enterprises, 17 years ago.

Maya Mesoamerica Mission is opening Party Girl, a fancy dress retail business to provide opportunities for women at risk of human trafficking or modern day slavery. The business will partner with churches, civic groups, businesses, and individuals from North America to receive donations of bridesmaid, wedding, quinceanera, communion, flower girl or other fancydresses for resale in Guatemala. Besides employing disadvantaged women, the business will also generate revenues to be reinvested in the community as part of a micro-business project.

In Denver, Mile High Ministries and Joshua Station is collecting dresses this month for delivery to Guatemala. If you have some extra dresses, consider bringing them down to Joshua Station at 2330 W. Mulberry Place (I-25 & 8th Avenue) in Denver the week of September 20-26, 2011.

To learn more about Party Girl, visit here.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

2011-09-12T09:20:00.000-06:00

"There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say "It is yet more difficult than you thought." This is the muse of form. It may be then that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction, to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings."

— Wendell Berry in Poetry and Marriage

Listen and Learn

2011-09-09T10:25:00.007-06:00

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28, NIV)

I think one of the first lessons I learned when starting to lead Bud's Warehouse over 12 years ago was the importance of listening.

People rebuilding lives from homelessness, addiction and prison have much to teach if they are given a chance to share.

Too often, the teacher is prone to drown out the lesson with words because we are mesmerized with our own thoughts. (Note: I am speaking to myself here.)

How better to ask questions, shut up, and listen to the Holy Spirit teach all of us through others.

In today's Bible study, I was reminded of that reality.

The room's uncomfortable silence on the topic of dealing with change in your life was broken by the simple question: "When was one time in your life when you dealt with significant change?"

In return, we learned that change builds faith muscles, shows God as the unchanging one, gives God an opportunity to transform bad into good, and helps us to call out to God in our times of need.

What a fantastic way to start the day at Bud's Warehouse with these reminders from God.

Faithventure Freshbox Partners with Faith Mission Shelter to Employ the Formerly Homeless

2011-09-06T13:33:00.008-06:00

For individuals rebuilding lives from homelessness, a job is a key part of achieving self-sufficiency.

Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio recognizes that reality with its innovative faithventure, Freshbox Catering, which provides employment and training for the Faith Mission Ohio shelter.

Over the last few years, the organization has become the social enterprise standard for a cutting-edge catering brand with a high-quality training program.

Fresh Box serves Columbus area businesses with delicious and healthy sandwiches and salads for lunch-time events. But it's more than just a catering business. As Fresh Box's web site explains:

We provide a unique work environment that embeds employment readiness, advanced job skills, financial literacy, and professionalism right into our operations.

Our tiered employment model allows Freshbox team members to demonstrate their motivation and initiative while being supported and challenged along the way. We hold our employees to extraordinary standards because we believe they’re extraordinary people.

Countless community members, industry experts, and dedicated volunteers helped create the framework for this social-purpose business, committing to providing both great food and a great deal of impact in the community.

Read more here.

For more information, visit www.freshboxcatering.com or call them at 614-859-9416.

Waiting for a Resurrection

2011-09-01T10:16:00.002-06:00

“He goes to church but he’s not a Christian,” someone recently shared with me.

“Why do you say that?” I asked, curious to hear this person’s perspective.

The answer included that this individual was only doing it for his children. He was cheating on his wife and he was a big drinker.

Afterwards, I regretted my failure to caution him when making such a judgment. After close to 13 years working with people rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison, I’ve learned that God can be present in the messiest life situations. Indeed, God is often most present in those very circumstances.

Jesus warns us about making decisions related to who is in and who is out, leaving that call instead for God. We too easily become little Pharisee’s convinced of our own right-standing with God and angry that Jesus would choose to dine with “the tax collectors and sinners.” (Matthew 9:11, NIV)

And when it comes down to it, all of us have junk in our live--actions and choices that have hurt others. It’s been a part of being human ever since our earliest relatives decided that they knew how to run their lives better than God.

We live in a world where it is easy to see the reality of sin’s stain on life. But without sin, there would be no point for Jesus’ death and resurrection. In the end, we all only stand before God clothed in our faith in Jesus’ perfect life and His redeeming sacrifice.

I think a better perspective is watching for and calling attention to God’s presence in people’s lives. It’s not so much whether we can identify fruit in a person’s life but the direction that one’s life is headed. Is someone moving in the direction of Jesus or are the retreating in the opposite way? I’ve known people who call Jesus their Savior who have been living lives fleeing in the other direction. And I’ve seen men and women whose lives have put them on the far margins of society, who every day are moving closer and closer to the embracing love of Christ.

How better for us to walk alongside all people in love wherever they are, treating them with respect and dignity, sharing Christ love, and waiting for his resurrection to be birthed in their lives. For in the end, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13, NIV)

An Infinite God’s Love Makes Broken Lives Whole

2011-08-24T15:46:00.004-06:00

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4: 9-10, NIV)

Sitting around the table at a Bible study for people rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness, and prison is a lot of brokenness. But, if we’re honest, in any gathering of people around a table there is much brokenness.

The nature of being human is one of falling short of the ideal that we all instinctively understand. The secret to life is realizing we are each broken by sin and discovering the healing power of God’s love.

I am convinced the only way to break through the reality of bad decisions and hurtful situations that result from our single–minded focus on the self is to hear God's clarion call that each of us is loved, forgiven and approved.

The same God who gave us life and existence absorbs the ugliness of bad human actions through Jesus’ death on the cross and his return to life three days later.

As the creator of time, God is outside of time, yet chooses to enter into it to restore human life from its brokenness. God knows everything about our lives yet still chooses to declare that each of us is loved and forgiven through the historical event of Jesus.

This is how broken lives become whole.

A Competitive Advantage to Hiring Ex-Offenders

2011-07-29T15:22:00.004-06:00

Over the last 13 years, I've seen how ex-offenders provide a unique and untapped talent base for business. This short segment on PBS's News Hour shows how WeRecycle in Westchester County has been able to partner with the Bard Prison Initiative to identify and hire excellent ex-offender employees.

And when businesses hire ex-offenders, not only do they get a high-quality employee but they also help to save society money by reducing recidivism.

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

Purple Door Coffee: A New Belay Enterprises Faith Venture to Employ Homeless Youth

2011-07-21T15:44:00.001-06:00

I am excited to announce that the Belay Enterprises Board of Directors approved the addition of Purple Door Coffee to our portfolio of incubating faith venture businesses. Spearheaded by Madison Chandler in partnership with local homeless ministry Dry Bones, this new venture will raise start-up funding to create a local coffee shop to employ homeless young adults leaving the street life.

I've written before about Seattle's Street Beans Espresso. It's our hope that Purple Door will mirror that organization's successful approach working with homeless youth in the Northwest.

And continuing the coffee theme, the Belay Board also approved continuing exploring a partnership with Chicago areas faith venture I Have A Bean Coffee to open a Denver area micro-roastery to employ ex-offenders.

If you're interested in helping us develop these two entities or just want to learn more, please feel free to contact us at 303-296-3990.

Belay Enterprises Update: A Summer of Exploring New Opportunities for Employing Individuals Rebuilding Lives

2011-07-19T12:33:00.000-06:00

There has been a lot going on around Belay Enterprises this summer. The most exciting happening is the successful launch of New Beginnings Custom Woodworks, our custom cabinet employment and job training program for ex-offenders. I'm pleased to report that everything is up and running with sales far beyond our initial projections. Our director Dave Schuett is doing an awesome job. We're hoping to expand training opportunities for ex-offenders very soon as we secure additional warehouse space for the project. Indeed, our biggest challenge around Belay right now revolves around limited warehouse square footage.

Besides the cabinet project, we are continuing to develop some interesting Ascent Faith Venture Fund projects which could really help us towards our 5 year goal of 750 jobs a year as they are implemented:

We plan to present an initial culinary program business plan to the Denver Jail in August. The Sheriff's Department is super enthusiastic about the potential of this project. The big challenge is figuring out the product line we will build our business around and determining its sustainability.
Madison Chandler is finalizing her business plan for a coffee shop to employ homeless youth leaving the streets in the Dry Bones program and has started raising money.
We are finishing a business plan for a coffee roasting business for ex-offenders in partnership with I Have a Bean Coffee in the Chicago area.
In addition, we are exploring partnering to create a for-profit shed building and job training business to employ ex-offenders, assisting an individual developing a metal sign business that could employ homeless youth, working with another organization to produce structural framing for exporting, and assisting an expanding medical coding business to develop a program to hire ex-offenders from Belay.

So, as you can see, everyone at Belay has been very busy.

But one thing I am reminded of is that we can not do all of these projects on our own. It's not physically possible for Belay to run all of these businesses. We need to continue building a program that assists entrepreneurs to do what they do best while accomplishing our mission statement of creating businesses that employ individuals rebuilding lives. We must partner Christian business people with the above opportunities to provide technical assistance to maximize the natural momentum of the individual entrepreneur pursuing their business goals.

And we must continue to seek out God's wisdom and guidance because "unless the Lord build the house, its builders labor in vain." Psalm 127:1 NIV.

I look forward to an exciting end of the summer as we continue to work on these projects.

Belay Enterprises in Urban Faith

2011-07-08T15:04:00.000-06:00

Rodolpho Carrasco has written an article Ministries of Social Entrepreneurship on urban faith ventures that highlights Belay Enterprises, Homeboy Industries and Central Detroit Christian at Urban Faith:

America’s economic woes have made grassroots urban ministers open to new ways of doing things. Fundraising has always been a challenge, and now more so. Common conversation topics in urban ministry circles include cutting positions, scaling back programs, and working more efficiently.

One topic stands out. The idea of starting a business to fund an urban ministry is not just hallway conversation or Facebook chat fodder. People really want to know. Even people who are critics of Big Business or Capitalism are hungry to make private enterprise work for their cause.
If you are thinking about launching a business to supplement your ministry’s bottom line, it’s important to understand both the concept of social entrepreneurship and the management capacity of the typical grassroots urban minister.

Read the whole article here.

Rachel's Story

2011-06-22T16:04:00.000-06:00

Andy Magel just finished a video on Rachel, one of our recent graduates at Bud's Warehouse. It's guaranteed to make your day better.

Rachel's Story from Andy Magel on Vimeo.

Bud’s Warehouse and Belay Enterprises has been providing employment and career development training for individuals seeking employment while rebuilding lives from homelessness, poverty, addiction or prison for over 16 years.

We are in the 11th month of an exciting relationship with local transitional housing provider Providence Network. As part of an innovative grant funded by Mile High United Way, individuals get a supportive transitional home program as well as employment and job training through a comprehensive partnership.

I'm excited to share Rachel's story as one of our recent graduates of this innovative program.

And, as always, we are seeking out new opportunities to create businesses that employ individuals rebuilding lives like Rachel.

Thistle Farms Creates Bath Products and Opportunity for Women Rebuilding Lives

2011-06-09T15:31:00.003-06:00

Thistle Farms in Nashville, Tennessee, is a faith venture run by the Magdalene Community that produces a popular line of natural bath and body products sold at over 140 stores throughout the country.

This exemplary social enterprise employs and trains 32 Magdalene residents rebuilding lives from addiction, domestic violence, or prostitution in a 11,000 square foot production facility.

Other faith ventures can learn much from this organization's philosophy, passion, and 24 Spiritual Principles. It also offers one of the country's best faith-based career and life-skill training programs.

The organization was recently profiled on NPR's Talk of the Nation found here.

The Fine Line of For-profit/ Non-profit Competition for Social Enterprise

2011-06-09T09:43:00.013-06:00

A recent segment on CPR's Colorado Matters highlights Colorado Correction Industries, the organization that runs several enterprises that employ offenders in the state prison system. The various ventures include farm-raised fish, forest fire fighting, office furniture assembly, and buffalo milk.

I was particularly interested in the radio host's line of questions pertaining to perceptions in the community that the prison projects were hurting existing businesses. This is a complaint that on occasion surfaces whenever community organization start operating businesses. Numerous examples exist of nonprofit ventures receiving such criticism from for-profit competitors, especially college bookstores and hospitals.

To lessen such criticism, social enterprise leaders need to focus, focus, focus on their mission. They must actively sell what benefit they provide to the community as a whole and carefully work to avoid the perception of unfair advantage by not taking unfair advantage.

A faith venture employing individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness or prison needs to carefully maintain focus on its mission to employ and job train individuals with very challenging life situations. Such employees are often too costly for other for-profit companies to hire. The challenges an organization faces by employing such individuals adds a significant labor premium to the cost of doing business. The organization must continually market the importance of its mission while explaining that any tax benefit that the nonprofit organization receives is offset by the higher costs of staying true to its mission.

At all times the organization must resist the urge to lower costs by straying from its mission less it does start unfairly competing against for-profit businesses. And sometimes, community organizations benefit society more when they choose to start a for-profit venture instead of a non-profit entity because the cost-benefits of accomplishing their social mission are not as clear in a particular competitive market. In such situations, the organization might run up against the IRS's commerciality doctrine.

In the end, competition is competition whether it comes from a for-profit entity or a non-profit entity. If a social enterprise comes into the community with a better product-- in the instance of the Colorado Matter's interview, a fish product that is bigger, cheaper and higher quality-- consumers benefit when other competitors must improve to successfully compete. If the social enterprise is able to thrive in the market, society as whole benefits by better use of resources while reducing costs related to some social good. In the case of CCI, employed prisoners are less likely to re-offend when they leave prison saving Colorado significant costs related to future incarceration.

An Unexpected Guest Emphasizes the Importance of Faithventures for People Rebuilding Lives

2011-06-07T15:48:00.001-06:00

If you are in charge of reducing the rate of ex-offenders returning to prison, what are the four top factors leading to a decline in recidivism?

With that very question, I start many of my presentations about Belay Enterprises. I like it because it helps groups to focus on a main reason for our incubation of faith venture businesses. And it gives a chance to interact with the group while wrestling with the issues around recidivism.

About a month ago, I started my presentation to 50 business people at the Partners Worldwide/Belay breakfast with that very question. I was prepared for the standard give and take but then someone unexpected raised their hand. It turned out that a homeless man had found his way into the gathering and was enjoying breakfast and the talk.

He raised his hand and answered my question: “Employment, type of offense, counseling, and education.” The crowd missed the fact that this man had hit a home run.

Each of his points were true and in perfect order of importance from first to last. He then explained his points in a meandering tale of his experience. Everyone in the crowd got a front-row seat to a personal perspective on recidivism from someone who had lived it out in his life.

The experience took my breath away. It was if God was emphasizing the importance of what we are doing.

Real people with real issues of brokenness need Christ-following business people to catch a vision of how they can help individuals rebuilding lives.

And sometimes that message comes in a surprising way.

California Association of Nonprofits Needs to Advocate for Social Enterprise Corporate Structures

2011-05-31T12:11:00.000-06:00

I find it frustrating when business and non-profit leaders cling to the misconception that the American economy is a zero-sum game. For each winner in the economy there must be a corresponding loser according to this line of thinking. Unfortunately, this view misses that a growing economy with expanding efficiencies arising from new innovations allows for a growing pie of opportunity. One reason I've been such a fan of social enterprise over the last 12 years is because this sector disproves each day the idea of a zero-sum economy with its innovative activities.

But then interest group politics trots out the tired argument of the zero-sum pie once again. This time, the California Association of Nonprofits worries about legislative efforts to create new hybrid corporate structures that combine what social enterprise has always been about: social good with profitable enterprise. The nonprofit and for-profit sectors are already blending and a new corporate form would help government catch up and benefit from the social enterprise innovations.

The California Association Nonprofits fears that a new corporate structure might cause a decline in donations to nonprofits as individuals reroute their resources to these new entities. But this overlooks the fact that a new blended corporate form will grow the economic pie increasing social good beyond what the nonprofit sector can offer alone.

In my experience, social enterprise inspires a new segment of investors not engaged in traditional nonprofits. Because of their new-found involvement in social good, they are likely to also start donating to nonprofits. And those investors that are already donating to nonprofits do not stop supporting the nonprofit because of their new involvement in social enterprise.

It would be far better for the California Association of Nonprofits to recognize the shared benefits of innovation and become an advocate for new social enterprise corporate structures.

Caution must not be an excuse for inaction.

New Ideas for the Economy: Christ-Followers Broadening the Purpose of Business

2011-05-26T16:06:00.002-06:00

Traditional economic theory argues that the chief aim of business is to maximize value for its investors. A capitalist economy achieves the best use of its resources when businesses increase their economic value. In the era of Wal Mart and the outsourcing of jobs it’s easy to see this idea at work in our economy. But I believe there is a quiet revolution occurring in the background that is challenging how we think of economic value and providing tremendous ministry opportunities for innovative followers-of-Christ.

On the one hand, non-profit organizations are discovering the value of earned-income ventures to support mission. Instead of relying totally on financial donations, these non-profits are entering the world of income earning businesses discovering that in many ways these ventures increase the effectiveness of their mission activity. Some non-profits are exploring purchasing franchises and others are developing new ways to access capital through their own investment securities. At a time when many non-profits were curtailing activities during the recession, many of these organizations were able to continue to expand mission. Social Entrepreneurship is probably the biggest development in non-profit funding in decades.

At the same time, some for-profit businesses are discovering that social values have a positive impact on profits. Companies like Stonyfield Farms understand that promoting environmentally and socially conscious products provides economic value. Consumers are willing to pay a premium to purchase organic yogurt produced by small family farmers without the use of growth hormones. The lowest cost doesn’t always drive consumer behavior.

Finally, capital markets are discovering that social values can produce economic rates of returns on investments. Churches and philanthropic foundations are beginning to grow uncomfortable with investments that support values that run counter to their own. Other funds like CalPers are discovering that promoting corporate values through their investment philosophy provides investment return benefits while positively impacting the business community at large by forcing change.

What is occurring is a blending of the economic sectors around the idea that value is more than just economic. Jed Emerson, in an exciting report called the Blended Value Map, argues that value includes indivisible economic, social, and environmental components. I like his argument because I have always felt that real positive change for disadvantaged communities will come not from non-profit initiatives but only when for-profit businesses blend mission with their inherent superior ability to develop community capital. Though my economic background makes me sometimes uncomfortable with the idea of value being more than the profitable use of resources, it’s hard to overlook the evidence that social values have a positive impact on economic value.

And I believe that followers of Christ should be at the forefront of this movement. But in many ways Christians have ceded the development of this philosophy to secular organizations. It is time for us to reassert our moral leadership in the economic arena by starting innovative businesses that initiate economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities while sharing our values. Creating businesses with moral voices should be a natural process for spirit-led business leaders following Jesus.

Colorado Needs to Emphasize Tracking Recidivism Rates as Argued in Pew Charitable Trust Report

2011-05-25T12:13:00.000-06:00

The Pew Charitable Trust released an interesting report on prison recidivism in the United States. State of Recidivism: The Revolving Door of America's Prisons explores how more than 4 of 10 ex-offenders return to prison in 3 years even though states have dramatically increased the budget for prisons.

For some reason, Colorado was one of 9 states that didn't provide recidivism rates for the study. This is disappointing because I believe, as the report argues, that defining and measuring recidivism success is extremely important for measuring prison performance and saving tax dollars.

200 years ago when prisons were started in the United States rehabilitation was the primary aim. In recent years, it has changed from rehabilitation to "command and control" where "setting up inmates for success when they leave has not been part of the job description." (State of Recidivism, page 27) Tracking recidivism rates is the first step towards government performance that recognizes the importance of safely decreasing the expense of costly returns to prison.

The report emphasizes that if states decrease prison return rates by just 10 percent, they could save $635 million dollars each year. In the past, I've argued how much employment contributes to ex-offender success and state budget savings. Pew's study offers a few more big picture aims that impact recidivism rates such as preparing for inmate release at the time of admission, optimizing supervision resources, imposing swift and certain sanctions, and creating incentives for inmates to succeed.

I especially agree with the last point. One of my biggest frustrations over the years is the system's over-reliance on negative-reinforcement instead of offering rewards for successful outcomes. I've written before how disappointing it is to see ex-offenders return to prison because they are unable to find a job instead of being provided incentives and support in finding a job.

All in all, the report is a great resource for individuals interested in ex-offender issues. Read it in full here.

Seattle’s Street Bean Espresso Employs Young People Leaving Homelessness

2011-05-19T15:49:00.002-06:00

Homelessness and joblessness are synonymous.

It is very difficult for a homeless person to find employment without an address, phone number, email address, and identification.

But employment becomes even more challenging for young people living on the streets, which sadly is becoming a bigger problem throughout the United States. Creating employment opportunities for homeless youth is a challenge ripe for the attention of Christ-following business people. There is a big need for urban faith ventures to employ young people seeking to leave the streets.

In Seattle, Washington, New Horizons Ministries runs Street Bean Espresso, a coffee shop that provides employment and job training for young adults working to exit the street life.

As the Street Bean's web site explains on its story page:

One of the keys to getting off the street is steady employment. We had always dreamed of opening a business that would provide supportive employment for the young adults we serve—a place with the grace to work with them as they work on themselves. They need more than just a job. They need a community to replace their community on the street, and a place to discover a new identity apart from the street.

Street Bean Espresso is located at 2702 Third Ave in Seattle. The store was recently voted the number one coffee shop on Yelp. They are open 6 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday. For more information, call 206-708-6803 or visit their website.

Hiring the "Best" Person in a Faithventure

2011-05-05T13:07:00.000-06:00

Evidence of Grace- Can we see some indication, no matter how slight, that God is working in the potential program participant’s life? This doesn’t mean that the individual needs to be a follower of Christ—in fact, we like it when they aren’t--, but that you can see that God is pursuing this person. To keep my senses finely tuned in this area, I return often to the gospels for stories of Jesus’ love for the outcast and forgotten.
A Turning- Does the person show some evidence that they have turned away from their old lifestyle choices and now want to move forward in a new direction? Even if it is very tentative, it is still so necessary for an individual to want a different life. Without it, the person will not succeed in our program.
Brokeness- Be wary of the individual who presents himself as having it all together. Every person in a faith venture organization, especially the leadership, needs to have an understanding that their life is inherently broken. Sometimes you have to pry during the interview process, but everyone needs to be comfortable presenting themselves as not having it all together. Because people who have it all together are not in a place to rely on God, the necessary ingredient for healing and wholeness.
Partnerships- Is the candidate enrolled in another program such as a faith based transitional living program? As I discussed here, the potential for rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison go up with the involvement of more than one program and/or a faith community.
Listening to God- And finally and most importantly, what is God saying? I’ve had times when against my judgment and the prior four points, I sensed very clearly that God wanted us to hire a particular individual. The whole process needs to be bathed in prayer with ears attentive to God for each hiring decision.

Out of Prison and Out of Employment Options

2011-05-03T14:17:00.000-06:00

I’ve shared before about how some of our biggest “failures” have become some of our biggest successes at Bud’s Warehouse over the years. And often, these disappointments involve one of our program participants being sent back to prison.

Last week, two former program employees returned to Bud’s after two years away in prison. Both were valued members of our team who ran into difficulties escaping the past while attempting to satisfy the requirements of the parole system. And both were finding it impossible to find the employment they needed in order to avoid being sent back to prison.

I laughed with them about how they had picked a great two years to take a vacation because of the recession. But then I shared their discouragement about the catch 22 of needing to find a job to stay out of prison when few employers want to hire ex-offenders in this economy.

This reality points to the continuing Faithventure Forum argument about the need for Christ-following business people to use their skills to create employment opportunities for ex-offenders. Finding a job is the number one factor that prevents ex-offenders from returning to prison.

And this experience also shows that the prison system still doesn’t understand how to hold ex-offenders accountable to finding jobs in an environment where almost all low-skilled workers are finding it difficult to find work. The state needs to come up with a new accountability matrix that evaluates effort towards finding a job, provides a network of employers willing to hire, and partners with non-profit service providers who offer transitional employment opportunities. A new comprehensive approach will actually save Colorado the $40,000 a year it costs to incarcerate an individual by preventing returns to prison.

As for our two friends back from prison, we are sad that we don’t have any program openings right now. But we’re praying that someone in our network will be able to provide an opportunity until we do.

Explore International and Domestic Business as Mission at Denver Area Breakfast on May 6, 2011

2011-04-26T13:08:00.000-06:00

Traditionally business as mission has been limited to cross-cultural expressions in third-world settings. The impact and effectiveness of Christ-following business people using their business talents in two-third world settings is an innovative approach being implemented increasingly by mission groups. Organizations like Partners Worldwide are gaining momentum by linking domestic Christian business people in mentoring relationships with developing businesses in disadvantaged countries. The future is very bright for this approach.

But business as mission can also have a domestic expression when Christian business people advance ways to share the gospel in their own organizations or develop faith ventures with the specific aim of employing the disadvantaged. My organization, Belay Enterprises, has been partnering with the church in the Denver area for almost 17 years to incubate businesses that create opportunity for individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness or prison.

On Friday, May 6th, 2011, interested Denver area business people can learn about both approaches at a Business as Ministry breakfast hosted by Partners Worldwide and Belay Enterprises. The event starts at 7am at Confluence Ministries located at 1400 Quitman Street in Denver.

This is an excellent opportunity for Christ-following business people to learn how others are helping to alleviate poverty in the world and in the Denver metro area.

RSVP today by visiting the event web site!

And please feel free to share with other business friends who might be interested in learning more about business as mission.

The Gift of Brokenness

2011-04-14T10:46:00.002-06:00

You've been given a gift.

Carefully, I sometimes say that to someone sharing that they are struggling with addiction.

Spent time in prison? You've received a gift. Dealing with a broken relationship? Facing an illness? Gift.

On the face of it, these things are awful. God never wants us to experience the pain of addiction, prison, broken relationships, and illness.

But we live in a broken world. A world where our single-minded pursuit of self-- a what's in it for me world-- has tragic consequences for all of us.

When we come face to face with our own brokenness, we experience our need for God and the forgiveness that comes through Jesus.

Today, it's possible to miss our fundamental brokenness and need for someone to save us. We are the wealthiest nation in the world...and if you earn more than $10 a day you are richer than 80% of the world. We can bury our inherent need for God under the trappings of our success, pleasures, food, relationships, homes and pursuits. And many of us do that very thing.

But when those things result in pain and suffering because of our selfishness or the broken world, we receive a gift.

Because no longer can we exist in the myth of our own self- sufficiency. We find we need God and it provides an opening for him to work.

God promises that "in all things (he) works for the good of those who love him." (Romans 8:28, NIV) Addiction is a gift because it shows that without God's power the addict will be unable to overcome his or her addiction. Broken relationships point to the need for the one relationship that will never break. Prison shows us that actions have consequences or that sometimes life is incredibly unfair, but that God forgives, sustains and will restore us to life. Illness ushers us into the realization that we are not in control of the days of our lives but we can trust the One who is in control and who is capable of healing.

Brokenness is the gift that allows us to experience the infinite love of God.

IRS Focuses on Unrelated Business Income Taxes in Social Enterprise Audits

2011-04-12T10:57:00.002-06:00

Two years ago, I read in the Wall Street Journal that the IRS was planning to audit more charities operating business ventures. “Hmm,” I thought to myself, “wouldn’t that be a lot of fun.”

A few weeks later, I received a letter from the IRS and the good times started rolling with our own nonprofit audit. I wasn’t worried because we pride ourselves in operating with the highest ethics and transparency. Sure enough, we passed with no deficiencies a few months later.

But the audit raised a couple of interesting issues for social enterprises and faith ventures. The IRS was most interested in collecting the Unrelated Business Income Tax which is required if the nonprofit is operating a business that is “not substantially related to furthering the exempt purpose of the organization.” Over and over, they asked us to show that our businesses served our social mission verses just being an unrelated income source.

My favorite moment was when the agent asked one of our project directors to prove that he hired ex-offenders.

“Well, first of all, I am one,” he replied, “And see that building next door, that is a community correction facility. We hire staff from there.” Issue resolved.

But the point I want to emphasize is that organizations need to satisfy the UBIT requirements or else they could be subject to some sizable penalties. And thrift stores operators need not panic. UBIT provides an automatic exemption for businesses that sell substantially all donated merchandise.

Secondly, don’t handle an audit without outside help from an accountant or attorney. Non-profit organizations are foolish to handle the rigors of an audit by themselves. Competent professional help goes a long way in settling issues without needing to be expensive. Many legal and accounting firms will be glad to donate services or provide discounts to worthy organizations.

Finally, the IRS seems to be getting aggressive with the commerciality doctrine with regard to new social enterprise businesses. If an activity is considered too “commercial” or similar to other existing for-profit businesses in the community, it is not eligible for tax exemption. This could be a huge deal killer for new organizations with a social enterprise approach hoping for nonprofit status.

But groups need to remember that social enterprises don’t always need to be non-profits to operate effectively. Some projects are successfully organized as for-profits.

And in my experience, if your mission is tightly congruent with your business, you can satisfy the commerciality doctrine. For instance, if you operate businesses that only hire ex-offenders in line with your mission statement, you should satisfy the test.

Even so, legislative reform is needed in this area as argued here by the Nonprofit Law Prof Blog.

Denver Business as Ministry Breakfast on Friday, May 6, 2011

2011-04-07T12:26:00.000-06:00

I am pleased to announce that Partners Worldwide and my organization, Belay Enterprises, will be hosting a Business as Ministry breakfast at 7 am on May 6, 2011, at Confluence Ministries, located at 1400 Quitman Street in Denver.

If you are a business person desiring to make a difference with your calling, this is an excellent opportunity to learn about how Christ-following business people are helping to alleviate poverty in the world and in the Denver metro area.

Partners Worldwide is an international business as ministry organization that encourages, equips and connects business and professional people in global partnerships that grow enterprises and create sustainable jobs, transforming the lives of all involved.

Belay Enterprises is a Denver area organization that partners with the local church to create businesses like Bud's Warehouse that employ individuals rebuilding lives from prison, addiction and homelessness.

Please RSVP by commenting here, emailing us, or calling us at 303-296-3990. Watch the below video to learn more about Partners Worldwide.

Ideas for Impact Challenge Semi-finalists Announced

2011-04-06T10:59:00.000-06:00

Earlier this year, some friends of mine in New York City with a desire to create a social enterprise that employs ex-offenders hosted an idea contest that received over 125 entries. On Monday, they announced their five semi-finalists:

Jurrien Swarts – Farm fresh food prepared into microwavable meals for locovores and people living in “food deserts”

Heather Burkman – Digitizing small business records and storing hard copies off-site

Nickalas Goettling – Seal coating asphalt roads and parking lots

Kendra Pierre-Louis – Restoring brownfields through phytoremediation

Michael Cozzolino – Manufacturing decorative architectural wood wall panels

On June 1, 2011, Spring Into Action will announce the finalist, a task I do not envy in light of the five excellent finalist ideas. At first glance, all seem to fill innovative and sustainable market niches while providing rich opportunities for employing individuals rebuilding lives.

I am especially intrigued by the architectural wood wall panels idea because a few years back an architect suggested to us that a huge domestic market exists for pre-made exterior architectural features. The brownfields remediation business is also interesting because I believe there is a natural synergy that arises in social enterprises that combine job training of disadvantaged populations with recycling.

But in the end, these are all excellent ideas for organizations considering starting social enterprises to employ individuals with significant barriers to employability.

Ed and the Bike Tires

2011-03-30T15:44:00.001-06:00

Sometimes when you receive a gift, you can’t help but change your life in response.

I met Ed at a homeless shelter 12 years ago on the same day 9News aired its story on Bud’s Warehouse. It was a cold February day and I accepted the shelter’s invitation for a tour and a soup luncheon.

Ed enthusiastically introduced himself to me after he found out that Bud’s Warehouse might have a job opening. I quickly hired him because of his endearing personality and his promise that no one would do a better job.

And he’s been associated with Bud’s Warehouse ever since.

If there’s one thing you need to know about Ed, it is passion for his bicycle. People all over Denver recognize Ed as a he passes by on his blue three-wheeler complete with a bugle horn and metal baskets.

A few Christmases ago, Ed was upset because his bike had three flat tires. He couldn’t find tubes to fix them. And not being able to use his bike was terrible.

We gathered later that week for an office gift exchange. Ed was presented with a festively wrapped box from another employee. His eyes lit up after he opened the gift and discovered three bike tubes.

But then a look of concern crossed his face. I knew exactly what he was thinking and I quickly spoke up.

“Ed, if they don’t work, we can return them and get the right size,” I told him.

He paused, examined the tubes, then looked at me and said, “Or I could get a new bike.”

Ed understood that the only proper response to such an unexpected gift…the way to honor one of the few presents he was going to get that Christmas season was to find a new bike to fit the tubes.

And he provided a beautiful picture of grace.

It’s not hard to see how our world suffers because of sin. We are all fundamentally addicted to ourselves. That is the root cause of so many problems in our families and in our communities.

But before we could clean ourselves up, while we were still trapped in our selfish condition, Christ died for us. Three days later he rose from the grave transforming a bunch of fearful followers into outspoken witnesses of him who were willing to die themselves because of what they had seen. And most of them did die as a result but they trusted Jesus’ promises that they, too, would have eternal life.

Jesus’ death and resurrection from the grave is the most important gift ever given to each of us. And like in Ed’s case, the only response is to allow this unmerited gift to change our lives, because nothing can ever be the same again.

If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah! Romans 5:10-11, The Message

Speaking Dog

2011-03-22T15:35:00.000-06:00

The brake lights on the cars in front of me blinked in a chorus of red. I found myself stuck in a mysterious traffic jam on my way to a lunch meeting. There didn’t seem to be an immediate cause but cars up ahead were swerving in seemingly random directions to avoid something as they made it to the front of the line.

When it was my turn, I discovered a small but mighty junkyard dog wandering aimlessly and unconcerned down the street. He looked like he was taking a stroll in the park and was oblivious to the danger that surrounded him. Fortunately, Coloradans love their dogs as much as they love their mountains so he was probably safe wandering down North Broadway Avenue. I dodged the dog and made it to my meeting.

An hour later, I had forgotten the meandering canine and found myself southbound on the same street. Once again, traffic jammed and there was the dog headed in the opposite direction. Apparently, he was also returning from a lunch appointment. But this time, a woman had parked her car and was following him through the traffic trying to draw him to safety. Hot engines and rubber tires did not scare him but his would be rescuer visibly terrified him. The dog became even more erratic in his chosen path and was putting himself in greater danger.

The woman stopped and looked visibly upset. She realized she wasn’t helping. I couldn’t help but think that if only she could have spoken dog, if only she could have become something less threatening to that human-scared dog she might have been able to help.

The next morning at Bud’s Warehouse, I found myself sharing the story of the wayward dog as we looked at one of my favorite chapters, Philippians 2, in our morning bible study. Paul talks about how Jesus, who shared the very nature of God, decided to temporarily forgo his rightful powers. He “made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phil 2: 7-8, NIV)

Perhaps, we are all like that junkyard dog. The creator of the universe had to lovingly become one of us in order to overcome our natural fear when faced with the awesomeness of God.

And then—this takes my breath away—Jesus shared in the most frightening of all human experiences: the painfulness and aloneness of dying. He humbly faced this in order to conquer death.

Three days later he turned a ragged bunch of scared Jewish followers into fearless representatives of him because they had witnessed his death and return to life. Nothing could be the same for them because Jesus was no longer dead. Indeed, early Christian historians reported that many of the disciples followed Jesus to similar deaths because they had witnessed something truly extraordinary. No one would have chosen such a path that ends in early death unless Jesus’ resurrection was true. They, like all of us, needed God to speak our language…to become one of us and give us a living-example of God’s love for humanity.

That is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday.

We all just needed someone to speak dog to us.

Faithventure Business as Mission Practitioners

2011-03-16T17:47:00.005-06:00

Updated: February 4, 2012

A faithventure is a Christ-centered business or social enterprise created to employ individuals or communities rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness, or prison.

Below you will find a list of innovative redemptive employment organizations from around the world.

If you know of another deserving program, let us know by commenting below or by sending us message. You can also contact us via Twitter at @jamesreiner.

Advance Memphis Staffing: Tennessee staffing agency creating jobs for the the neighborhood surrounding the Cleaborn/Foote public housing developments.
Advance Memphis Outsourcing: assembly and piecework services for Memphis area companies.
Ashbury Images: San Francisco area printed and embroidered apparel company that employs and job trains at risk youth.
Baby Bud's: a Denver maternity, baby and toddler products thrift store that employs disadvantaged single mothers.
Belay Enterprises: a Denver faith-based nonprofit organization that creates businesses to employ and job train individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.
Belly Acres Designs
Boaz and Ruth: a Richmond, Virginia organization that operates Firehouse Café and Catering, Sunny Days Clothing Thrift, Parable Furniture Restoration, Harvest Thrift Furniture, Mountain Movers, and Boaz and Ruth Estate Sales Services to employ and train ex-offenders transitioning back into the community
Branch Bistro and Catering: A Springfield, Missouri, restaurant that provides on-the-job training for participants in the Victory Trade School.
Bud's Warehouse: a Denver area home improvement outlet that hires individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness, and prison.
Cafe Reconcile
Cafe Sonshine in Detroit: a family-friendly restaurant that provides healthy food and employs and job trains 7 teens and young adults annually.
Cook's Kettle Restaurant: A Springfield, Missouri, restaurant that provides on-the-job training for participants in the Victory Trade School.
Dirt'N'Nails Farms: A new farming start-up in the Denver metro area that has the vision of transitional housing and employment in a farm setting
Faulu Kenya
FCS Ministries
Freedom Cleaning Services: a Denver area commercial cleaning service that provides single mothers and other disadvantaged women job training and life skills.
Fresh Box Catering: Delicious and healthy sandwiches and salads for lunch-time events to employ individuals from the Faith Mission Ohio shelter.
Good Neighbor Garage: Provides cars to disadvantaged families in order to increase employment success and support families in achieving self-sufficiency.
Good Soil Industries: A Southern California temporary employment and landscaping company that empowers economically disadvantaged and homeless individuals through work and discipleship.
Homeboy Industries: assists at-risk and formerly gang-involved youth to become positive and contributing members of society through job placement, training and education.
I Have a Bean Coffee: a Chicago area business that combines business and ministry by hiring ex-offenders to micro-roast its premium organic I Have a Bean coffee brand.
Lakefront Roofing and Siding Supply
Mariners Resources
Masterworks of Minneapolis: operates three redemptive employment businesses for individuals with significant barriers to employment: an assembly, manufacturing and packaging business, an auto maintenance enterprise, and a construction company.
Mennonite Economic Development Associates
Metal Movers
Metro Merge: Faith-based business incubator for disadvantaged South Atlanta neighborhood.
New Beginnings Custom Woodworks: A Denver area custom cabinet manufacturer that employs and job-trains ex-offenders.
New Door Ventures: San Francisco area non-profit that runs two faith ventures, Pedal Revolution and Ashbury Images, for at-risk youth.
Party Girl: A fancy dress retail business to provide opportunities for women in Guatemala at risk of human trafficking or modern day slavery.
Peaches and Greens Detroit: A fresh vegetable and fruit retailer in one of Detroit's most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Pedal Revolution: A San Francisco full-service bike sales and repair shop employing at risk youth.
Prison Entrepreneurship Program: Provides inmates in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice with entrepreneurial training from Ivy League MBA students.
Purple Door Coffee: A Denver area start-up coffee shop to employ yound adults leaving homelessness.
Riverview Self Storage
SariBari.com
St. Vincent de Paul Matress Recycling
Street Bean Espresso: A Seattle coffee shop that employs and job trains homeless youth.
Ten Thousand Villages
Thistle Farms: A Nashville, Tennessee, faith venture run by the Magdalene Community that produces a popular line of natural bath and body products
The Tomorrow Project Assembly Services: Catholic Charities project that employs San Diego area women leaving homelessness.
Triple Thread Apparel: A Vanderbilt area social enterprise that employs ex-offenders in a t-shirt screen printing business.

Boaz and Ruth: Rebuilding Lives while Rebuilding a Community

2011-03-11T14:57:00.001-07:00

In Highlands Park, one of Richmond, Virginia’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods, Boaz and Ruth, Inc. has been operating six faith venture businesses to employ and train ex-offenders transitioning back into the community while helping to economically rebuild the neighborhood.

This exciting organization operates Firehouse Café and Catering, Sunny Days Clothing Thrift, Parable Furniture Restoration, Harvest Thrift Furniture, Mountain Movers, and Boaz and Ruth Estate Sales Services.

Central to the organizations approach is its trademarked RestoreCorps philosophy. From their website:

When someone is released from prison, a decent job, a safe home and healthy relationships are hard to come by. Add to these challenges of re-entry the fact that individuals often return to communities weighed down by the very problems and issues that help spawn crime and it is easy to understand the vicious cycle of recidivism. It is difficult to sustain long-term individual change without changing the community as well. That's what makes RestoreCorpsTM so unique.

Planted in the center of Highland Park, one of Richmond, Virginia's most troubled areas, the mission of Boaz Ruth's RestoreCorps is to rebuild lives and communities through relationships, training, transitional jobs, and economic revitalization.
Three key strategies of RestoreCorps:
• Boaz & Ruth rebuilds lives of formerly incarcerated men and women through a transitional jobs and training program.
• Boaz &Ruth empowers the physically blighted commercial corridor of Highland Park by restoring buildings, incubating and operating businesses, and providing jobs.
• Boaz & Ruth connects Highland Park and our program participants to the wider Richmond community through activities that bridge racial, economic, and geographic barriers

For more information about Boaz and Ruth, email them at info@boazandruth.com or call them at (804) 329-4900.

Resolving Conflict with Respect and Love

2011-03-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

Last year, the guys on our Bud’s Warehouse truck ran into a difficult situation. While picking up items from a residential donor, an on-site contractor decided that he was going to keep some of the cabinets for himself. And when he found out he couldn’t, he decided to pick a fight with our driver.

Not a smart move. And the kind of decision that gives me heart failure when I hear about it later. You see, our driver is an ex-boxer… a good one. And over the years, he freely admits that he has struggled with his temper. This situation was ripe for a disaster.

But then God showed up. Don remembered our anger management and customer service training back at the warehouse. He took a deep breath and listened to the man. And when it became clear the problem wasn’t going to be solved, he called his manager and left the scene.

Don shared that story this morning during a special customer service training session by a volunteer from Morgan Stanley. We talked about how the three most important factors of customer service are listening, repeating back the problem, and treating the other person as you would want to be treated yourself.

And sometimes people just need a hug. If you have worked at Bud’s Warehouse any length of time, you quickly realize that people show up carrying baggage. And we’re not talking about shopping bags from other stores. Sometimes it’s a fight with a family member and other times it might be a close-encounter on the highway, but whatever the case, they come primed with a bad attitude and a desire to share it with others.

One of our other employees, Kelly, told about a customer that wanted to pick a fight last week. She complained, griped, and argued all the way to the back of the warehouse. Kelly walked up to her and attempted the first two steps of our process to no avail.

And then he jumped to the last part and announced that he thought someone needed a hug. She looked shocked and took a step back. She thought for a minute, paused, and then hugged Kelly. She walked out of Bud’s Warehouse that morning with a big smile. And our staff had another story about how conflict can be resolved with respect and love.

The Need for Social Enterprise Start-up Venture Funds

2011-03-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

I learned today of nobul, a new social enterprise that seeks to take a private equity approach to scaling businesses for community impact. The web site is new and promises more information soon. But I suspect they are going to be a social enterprise shining star with their soon to be announced leadership.

It's interesting how many people are starting or operating similar type of portfolios. The idea is one that we have played with ourselves at Belay over the last 16 years. But one thing I’ve noticed is that everyone wants to scale existing ventures. Very few portfolios are interested in assisting social enterprise start-ups where my passion lies.

Many see too much risk in that approach because of the high rate of start-up failure. Traditional venture capital uses stock options to overcome the risk of funding start-ups. One big success funds the nine other failures.

But in social enterprise, that windfall model often doesn’t exist because of the non-profit structure of the start-ups or the lower levels of profits due to the social mission. I hope others will continue to experiment with ways to encourage and fund scalable domestic business as mission start-ups. Do you know of an organization with an innovative approach?

As for me, I like keeping my hands dirty in the day to day activities of operating faith venture employment training businesses. Our organization also is developing a faithventure fund to resource start-ups with a vision for employing individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness or prison.

Goal Shifting Encourages Creativity

2011-03-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

One way to inspire creativity in an organization is to declare a new goal.

Late last year, we decided to move Belay’s aim from incubating a specific number of businesses in 5 years to creating 750 jobs for individuals rebuilding lives in 5 years. We wanted to drill down to the fundamental value our organization provides the Denver community.

On the face of it, the old goal and the new goal accomplish the same ends. But the new focus has resulted in an interesting new idea as it has captured the imagination of key stakeholders.

Over the last two weeks, I have had a former board member, Scott Pope, and two individuals from Partners Worldwide independently suggest the same idea. They urged us to encourage Christian business owners to create two or more positions in their existing businesses for ex-offenders. Scott Pope is so excited about the idea that he has volunteered to develop the strategic plan for such an effort.

I’m enthusiastic about this approach. It is a way to push the expertise we have developed in employing ex-offenders out into the business community at large where there is a better ability to create actual jobs. And it also shifts paradigms by encouraging Christ-following business owners to better integrate their faith with their day to day work.

If you’re interested in learning more or adding your thoughts, please contact me or add your comments below.

Blessings on the Side of the Road

2011-02-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who sometimes stops to help motorists stranded on the side of the road. He carries enough tools in his car to handle basic roadside mechanical issues. And if he can’t solve the problem, he assists them in finding help. Somewhere in his time with the stranded motorists, he always mentions, “If you had known me ten years ago, I would have never helped you.”

That statement always draws an inquisitive question, “What do you mean you would have never helped me?” My friend then shares how a decade ago he was addicted to drugs and alcohol. He was only interested in his own selfish pleasure and goals. “I wouldn’t have even noticed you stuck on the side of the road. But then I met Jesus and things could never be the same.”

He tells how God cared for him when his own life was broken down on the side of the road. And now he wants to share that love with others.

I thought of my friend’s roadside activities as we explored the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:16-26. This particular morning we were going around the table during our weekly “hood check” sharing the ups and down in each of our lives. Only this time we were telling about times during the last week when we were aware of living out the fruits of the Spirit…times when we acted out of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And then we shared times when we didn’t.

For some, this might seem to be a hard practice, but for our group at Bud’s, everyone was quick to share stories. Most were about times when they acted loving…when they sacrificially served someone without expecting anything in return. And others were about how they had not acted loving and instead pursued selfish goals. We prayed to God celebrating the times when fruit showed up in our lives and prayed for forgiveness when it didn’t.

And we listened for God.

I remembered my friend and his roadside blessings.

The Sweet Smell of Ex-Offender Success

2011-02-22T14:22:00.002-07:00

The North Lawndale Employment Network provides an innovative answer to the problem of ex-offender employment with its Sweet Beginnings urban honey business in the Chicago area.

This social enterprise hires formerly incarcerated individuals to harvest honey and manufacture a line of honey infused skin care products. Program employees train in the areas of landscaping, beekeeping and food processing and then transition into jobs in the community.

The program has been able to achieve a 4% recidivism rate, far below the national average of 65% and the Illinois average of 55%.

Learn more about this program by viewing the the ABC7 Chicago segment below.

Or visit the web site at www.sweetbeginningsllc.com to purchase raw honey and skin care products.

Unifying Divided Lives Through Urban Business as Mission

2011-02-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

It’s probably one of the toughest tasks in Christian spiritual development to unify all the parts of our life towards following Christ.

Over the years, I’ve met many Christian business people who struggle with the feeling that their Sunday life has very little overlap with their Monday life. Or they have the nagging sense that being a Christian in the workplace means more than just sharing your faith.

Yesterday, I heard about a businessman who’s been searching for a way to unify his work life and his faith walk. He’s been asking for friends to pray for the ability to expand his sprinkler business by two positions this spring. He has a desire to hire two individuals rebuilding lives, train them in sprinkler repair, and actively mentor them in life.

At Belay Enterprises, we have a goal of incubating businesses to create 750 jobs in five years for people rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness, or prison in the Denver area.

But this goal would be much too low, if Christ-following business owners start realizing the impact they can make by hiring and investing in an ex-offender.

It’s a very tangible way to unify one’s faith with one’s business talents. And it can make a big impact for our community by reducing the rates of people returning to prison.

Homeboy Industries Introduces New Supermarket Product Line

2011-02-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

Faith venture Homeboy Industries has started manufacturing a line of chips and salsa which has become the fastest selling snack item at Ralphs Delis in Southern California at profiled in an article in the Los Angeles Times.

The organization is hoping that this new product line will help it to continue to grow back from its near financial disaster during the recession.

It's fantastic to see how several faith ventures are thinking creatively in the area of nitche food products to leverage their social mission appeal to develop new revenue streams.

The Sweet Spot of Recycling

2011-02-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

God smiles when we take throw away stuff and use it to employ individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.

Since 1995, Belay Enterprises has started four faith ventures to employ individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness or prison. We are in the process of incubating several new projects towards our goal of creating 750 jobs a year by 2016.

Over the last 16 years, we have been most successful achieving our goals in the business ventures that include a recycling component. There is a definite sweet spot of results when we use society’s throw away items to create opportunity for those in our community deemed unemployable.

If you’re considering starting a business as mission to employ individuals coming out of prison, it’s well worth your time to explore recycling as a business opportunity.

Vanderbilt Students Open Triple Thread Apparel to Employ Ex-Offenders

2011-02-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

While volunteering at Dismas House, a Nashville transitional program for ex-offenders, Kyle McCollom, a senior at Vanderbilt University, noticed the importance of employment to the successful transition of ex-offenders.

He also discovered how difficult it was for ex-offenders to find jobs.

So Kyle McCollum led a group of students from Vanderbilt in partnership with Dismas House to open Triple Thread Apparel, a faith venture that employs ex-offenders in a t-shirt screen printing business.

It's well worth the time to watch an excellent profile of program by ESPNU. McCollom persuasively makes the case for the creation of businesses to employ ex-offenders transitioning back into society.

ESPNU SEC Weekly featuring Triple Thread from Triple Thread on Vimeo.

Future Faithventure Fund: Partnering to Create Denver Area Ex-Offender Jobs

2011-02-01T17:04:00.001-07:00

Successful ex-offenders are employed ex-offenders.

The top indicator of a future free from incarceration for an ex-offender transitioning back into society is employment. But most employers will not hire ex-offenders.

This reality forms the foundation for the Belay Enterprise mission of partnering with the church to create businesses that employ and job train individuals rebuilding lives from prison. Over the past 16 years, Belay has incubated four projects that have hired hundreds of individuals. Last year alone, our businesses employed 75 people rebuilding lives.

At different points over the years, we have set various goals of incubating x number of businesses in the future. But we realize more and more that this is not enough. If we are going to positively impact recidivism rates in Colorado through employment, we have to think bigger than ourselves.

Over the next 5 years, Belay Enterprises is aiming to create 750 employment and job training positions a year. By focusing on the total number of annual jobs created instead of the incubation of individual businesses, we hope to move from an internally-focused program into an organization that inspires Christ-following businesspeople to create opportunity for ex-offenders. There are many talented entrepreneurs sitting on the sidelines of our churches that if engaged towards these goals could make a much bigger impact on ex-offender employment than Belay by itself.

Tomorrow, Belay is hosting a Faithventure forum for a group of 12 business and ministry leaders in the community with a desire to create opportunities for ex-offenders. This is one of the first steps in the development of a faith venture fund over the next few years.

We plan to connect Denver area Christian entrepreneurs that desire to start businesses for ex-offenders with start-up funding as well as technical assistance. By recruiting experienced business leaders to work alongside Belay to identify, launch and provide mentor support of promising new ventures, we will be able to make progress towards the goal of 750 annual jobs for individuals rebuilding lives in 5 years.

The Three Page Business as Mission Start-up Plan

2011-01-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make. I don’t like formal business plans. In certain entrepreneurial academic circles, this is heresy. But over the years, I’ve seen the development of business plans as a major impediment to actually starting businesses. The people who are most entrepreneurial by nature are the most likely to freeze up when faced with the daunting task of formulating a business plan. And most of the successful entrepreneurs I know never had a business plan on paper when they started. They merely had an idea in their head and a personality wired for action.

It’s my belief that too much start-up planning saps the potential energy from someone with an entrepreneurial nature. This is especially true for individuals starting faith ventures to employ individuals rebuilding lives from homelessness, addiction or prison. Faith venture initiators are even more likely to bog down with the added dimension of the double bottom line where they are seeking both business profits as well as missional goals.

I understand that in order to raise money, it’s a requirement to have a formal business plan. But that’s for someone else to write later with a more developmental skill set. At the start, it’s more important for the person with the business idea to act, to start taking small steps towards executing what needs to be done to make the business cash flow. And in the process, it will become clear whether the idea is going to work. (An excellent book that argues this point is Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky which I plan to review soon)

First, limit your initial written start-up plan to answering the following questions in no more than one page:

• In three sentences, define the product or service your business will offer on the day it opens.

• What faithventure goals will your business serve?

• What are your start-up expenses?

• How will you get revenue right away?

• How will you market your product or service today?

• Who is your competition?

• What scenarios could cause your business to fail?

And now for the big question which you should answer in a monthly profit and loss pro forma spreadsheet in no more than two pages: How will this business cash flow over the next two years in a reasonable range of best and worst case scenarios?
The answer to that question is the most important one in the whole plan. Many potential investors immediately seek it out after learning what product or service the business will provide.

Together, these basic questions are the foundational issues for any faith venture. They provide the framework for all future questions as you test the viability of the business by executing the action steps that derive from these questions. Over time, you may develop the more detailed business plan as you move forward with the business. But in the end, this three page framework provides all you need to prove the viability of your idea.

Now, get to work and change the world.

The 25K Ideas for Impact Challenge

2011-01-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

If you are an idea person and you are passionate about creating opportunity for ex-offenders, you could win $25,000.

Some friends of mine with a passion for employing individuals rebuilding lives from prison in the New York City area are hosting a unique contest with the potential to impact thousands of ex-offenders in the future. And you don't need to write a business plan. All you have to do is fill out an online idea submission form describing your idea, the problem it solves, the customers, and the competition.

But you need to hurry. The deadline is February 15, 2010.

More details are available at www.ideasforimpact.com.

Belay Enterprises: Incubating Business as Mission for Individuals Rebuilding Lives

2011-01-13T20:42:00.001-07:00

Belay Enterprises was started by Mile High Ministries in 1994 by a group of businessmen and urban pastors with a heart towards business as ministry. The faith venture organized itself around the mission of partnering with the local church to create businesses that employ and job train individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, prison and homelessness.

Out of this vision, Belay launched in 1995 its first faith venture Bud’s Warehouse, a home-improvement thrift store selling recycled building materials to support a career and life-skills training program. During the past 16 years, Bud’s Warehouse has been a favorite destination for bargain hunters, receiving frequent media coverage for both its products and its mission. Because of the tremendous community support, Belay Enterprises has been able to incubate several additional Faith Venture projects.

In 2002, Belay expanded on the thrift store concept by opening Baby Bud’s, a maternity, baby and toddler products thrift store that employs disadvantaged single mothers. A few years later, Belay started Freedom Cleaning Services, a commercial cleaning company that also employs single mothers. Baby Bud’s and Freedom Cleaning Services were spun off into their own non-profit organization in 2009.

These projects were followed in late 2003 by the incubation of the Good Neighbor Garage, a job training and car placement program, which has since also incorporated into its own independent organization.

As Belay Enterprises enters its 17th year, it plans to continue using its resources to start new faith ventures. After these programs become self-sustaining, the organization will spin them off into their own entities and then refocus resources on future start-ups.Over the next 5 years, Belay Enterprises is aiming to create 750 employment and job training positions a year.

In 2011, Belay plans to open a cabinet manufacturing and training business for ex-offenders out of its Bud’s Warehouse project. Additionally, the organization is exploring opening a second Bud’s Warehouse location, starting a new mattress recycling business, and incubating a bakery employment and training program.

Finally, Belay wants to develop a Faith Venture Fund over the next few years.The organization plans to recruit experienced business leaders to work alongside Belay to identify, launch and provide mentor support of promising new ventures.

Belay believes in the positive power of faith ventures on behalf of disadvantaged communities. It partners with talented Christ-following entrepreneurs looking for opportunities to use their gifts and talents on behalf of individuals rebuilding lives.

For more information, please contact Belay Enterprises at 303-296-3990 or visit its website at www.belay.org.

Jason's Story

2011-01-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

Bud’s Warehouse has been providing employment and career development training for individuals seeking employment while rebuilding lives from homelessness, poverty, addiction or prison for over 16 years.

We are in the sixth month of an exciting relationship with local transitional housing provider Providence Network. As part of an innovative grant funded by Mile High United Way, individuals get a supportive transitional home program as well as employment and job training through a comprehensive partnership.

I'm excited to share Jason's story as one of the first graduates of this innovative program.

Bud's Warehouse - Jason from Andy Magel on Vimeo.

Snow Boosts Denver Area Faith Venture Metal Movers

2010-12-02T13:24:00.001-07:00

Snow storms and 9News seem to play a recurring role in building faith venture businesses in the Denver area.

11 year ago, a major snow storm and a 9News live remote played a key role in boosting the profile of Bud’s Warehouse, a business as mission that hires individuals rebuilding lives from homelessness, addiction and prison. This past November, the pattern repeated itself when 9News used the season’s first snow storm to profile Metal Mover’s snow tire business.

But people probably don’t realize that Metal Movers is one of the area’s most exciting for-profit faith ventures, committed to employing ex-offenders and other individuals rebuilding lives while serving the community.

Metal Mover’s has grown rapidly in 6 years largely because of the passion and tremendous personal story of founder George Medley. It started a short time ago with George and his wife pulling cars with a tow rope. Very quickly it has blossomed into multi-million dollar firm employing over 35 employees as a metal recycler, car dealer, used car part retailer, tow truck operator, and used tire retailer.

The company’s success provides more evidence that God loves to bless firms that operate in the sweet spot of working to rebuild lives through recycling materials. It also shows that there's nothing like the influence of a man who has experienced God's love.

Churches and other organizations in the Denver area that want to learn more about business as mission need to meet George Medley and discover his passion for sharing God’s love.

Cherry Hills at Work Presentation

2010-11-23T16:57:00.000-07:00

If you are in the Denver Area on December 15, 2010, plan on joining us at the monthly meeting of Cherry Hills at Work where I am speaking on Belay Enterprises, Bud's Warehouse and urban business as mission.

Every month, the group meets on the third Wednesday from 7:00 am to 8:30 am to learn about business as mission opportunities throughout the world as well as to network with other kingdom minded business people.

For individuals interested in integrating their business life with their faith, this is one of the best groups in the Denver area.

For more information, call Larry Howe at 303-881-0700.

I hope to see you there.

Overcoming EADD

2010-11-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest challenges to success as a faith venture entrepreneur is finding the right balance between focusing on your core business while enabling an environment the encourages creative freedom in search of the next venture opportunity.

By nature, entrepreneurs are super creative people that are prone to problems with focus. I have met very few successful entrepreneurs who didn't fit the criteria of attention deficit disorder. A fast mind that is prone to skip around allows for creativity. But it needs to be controlled and disciplined. And the first step is realizing that Entrepreneurial ADD is real and best handled by focused business planning.

Dr. Jeff Cornwall explores tips from Scott Belsky as preventive solutions for EADD in his blog post "An Antidote for Entrepreneurial ADD:"

Belsky's approach offers three key steps (more than that would overwhelm anyone with EADD):

   1. Hire killjoys. One of our partners played this role for us. He tended to worry about the downside. At first we thought he was, well, a real killjoy. But over time we realized that his caution balanced our enthusiasm in a very important way. Hiring people who can and will say "No" to some of your ideas can also work.
   2. Work with bias toward action. Focus on getting things ready for market and then focus even harder on building customers. No matter how tempting that next idea might be, leave it alone until your current business is nicely cash flowing.
   3. Change your vocabulary. Celebrate implementation and business milestones, not creative free-for-alls. Over time it will alter your culture to one of action and not just ideas.

Read Cornwall's complete post here.

And the Entrepreneur article on Belsky's ideas is here.

Felony Entrepreneurship

2010-11-05T17:11:00.001-06:00

American society finds it difficult to give felony offenders a second chance in the area of employment after they are released from jail. Business insurance requirements and owner liability concerns make it difficult for businesses to hire individuals with felonies. Yet, the post-incarceration success of offenders is directly related to their ability to secure employment.

At Belay Enterprises, we’ve had success placing non-violent felony offenders into real jobs in the community after they’ve completed 6 months to one year in one of our employment training businesses. Private businesses are willing to hire offenders after they’ve proven themselves with an employment history and the successful completion of a program. But for offenders with a violent felony offense, future employment opportunities are almost completely nonexistent. This is the case even though, in our experience, there are significant degrees of variance in the seriousness of violent offenses. For instance, running into a police car while driving under the influence of drugs becomes a violent felony offense even though it is unlike a felony assault with a deadly weapon. So for a certain number of felons with violent and non-violent offenses securing employment becomes impossible even though it has many positive benefits for society.

I believe that one possible answer to this dilemma is through entrepreneurial opportunity. Many of the felony offenders that I have met over the years are very entrepreneurial in nature. They have just created businesses, like drug operations, that were against the law. By channeling their business talents into healthy, law-abiding operations they can create enterprises that allow them to support their families while building resources for their communities. They just need support from other Christian entrepreneurs helping them think through a business plan and the other basics of start-up enterprises. With the right mentoring support, I believe that felony offenders can create successful operations in the areas of landscaping, recycling, HVAC, janitorial and home improvement among many others.

In past years, Belay Enterprises has worked to help individuals in disadvantaged communities create their own enterprises. Recently, we have focused more on incubating our own employment training businesses. I am hoping over the next few months to build a network of Christ-following entrepreneurs that want to use their gifts and time to mentor individuals from disadvantaged communities in the creation of business enterprises. By investing in others, they will help build ventures with the power to impact society for the kingdom. This is true business as ministry. Stay tuned for more information on how you can get involved.

Seeking Glory: A Biblical View of Ambition

2010-10-29T17:22:00.000-06:00

As a child, I remember spending many a late afternoon playing by myself on my family’s basketball hoop. The clock was always ticking down the last seconds of the championship game with my team behind by one point. The ball was in my hand and I had the opportunity to take the last shot. This scene repeated itself whether I was dreaming about baseball, tennis, or being the President of the United States. There is something in all boys, or at least in me, that craves situations where one has the chance to make a difference. At a base level, we are all glory seekers.

Later, when I grew in my Christian faith, I developed an uneasy relationship with ambition. Jesus’ teachings often seem to go against our tendency to be ambitious. Yet, our glory seeking desires many times are the fuel for accomplishing kingdom-minded activities. It’s easy to see that most leaders of the evangelical world have ambitious personalities.

If you’re like me and have wrestled with the fine line between humble service and glory seeking, Dave Harvey has written Rescuing Ambition, an excellent book that I highly recommend. In it, he makes the argument that ambition is something hard-wired into humanity by God. We do God a disservice when we let the guise of humility hijack God-given dreams and desires. But we need to be wary of the human tendency to curve ambition in on the self instead of towards God and others.

Harvey has written a one-of-a-kind book that creatively explores a topic that has been sorely unexamined by evangelical thinkers. It’s my hope that this book will lay the foundation for a rich understanding of ambition which will benefit the next generation of evangelical leaders.

Electronic Recyclers International Benefits People, Profits and the Planet

2010-10-19T15:04:00.000-06:00

Electronic Recyclers International, Inc. is an innovative triple bottom line faith venture enterprise that actively seeks to employ ex-offenders and former gang members while benefiting the environment:

John Shegerian, CEO of Electronics Recyclers International, was one of the co-founders of faith venture Homeboy Industries back in 1993. In a recent BNET post, Why I Hire Former Convicts and Gang Members, he details how that experience was a foundational moment in his life and impacts his current venture. He is now a vocal advocate for hiring ex-offenders:

I think our hiring practices make our company stronger because they show that our management is sensitive to the human condition. We’re all one accident or one tragedy away from being in a tight spot. Business can be a battle, but when a company shows its DNA this way, it makes for a very tight-knit group and helps us work together.

There’s not a community in America that isn’t suffering from drug, gang, and recidivism problems. People coming out of those situations without structure are going to go back to what they know, whether that’s a gang or dealing marijuana or smoking crack. If every business owner hired just one person from the margins, it could make a world of difference within the community. Helping people get that second chance is our great opportunity and our great challenge.

Read the rest here.

Bud's Warehouse Partnership with Providence Network Highlighted in "Road to Providence" Video

2010-10-14T15:40:00.001-06:00

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 part of an innovative grant funded by Mile High United Way, individuals get a supportive transitional home program as well as employment and job training through a comprehensive partnership.

This innovative partnership is highlighted in a recent video produced by Providence Network for presentation at their annual luncheon. It's a great video but be sure to have your tissues at hand.

Road to Providence from Andy Magel on Vimeo.

If you work with either a transitional housing or job training organizations, I encourage you to partner in the interest of better serving disadvantaged populations.

And if you are a Christ-following entrepreneur, you can use your business skills to create supportive faith venture businesses to employ individuals often left behind in our society.

Call for Faithventures

2010-10-13T16:30:00.000-06:00

Do you know a faithventure that should be profiled on this web site?

We are looking for Christ-centered businesses or social enterprises specifically created to employ individuals or communities rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness, or prison.

For the last two years, the Faithventure Forum has profiled innovative redemptive employment organizations from around the country. And we welcome your help. If you know of a deserving program, let us know by commenting below or by sending us message. You can also contact us via Twitter at @jamesreiner.

We will also be glad to publish guest posts from others highlighting worthy business as missions with specific redemptive employment goals.

So in advance, thanks for your help. And stay tuned as we continue to explore organizations from around the world doing important but often unheralded work on behalf of individuals left behind by society.

Faith Venture North: Masterworks of Minneapolis

2010-10-07T13:00:00.002-06:00

Innovative faith venture Masterworks of Minneapolis operates three redemptive employment businesses for individuals with significant barriers to employment: an assembly, manufacturing and packaging business, an auto maintenance enterprise, and a construction company.

Masterworks also provides an intriguing and unique organization history as a non-profit that has over time transitioned into both a for-profit and non-profit entity as detailed on their web site:

Masterworks was founded in 1991 with a vision to hire those who for varied reasons have significant barriers to employment. These barriers include homelessness, felony records, addictions and chronic unemployment, often in combination. Our founder, Tim Glader, is a businessman and entrepreneur whose commitment to Jesus Christ brought about this compassionate and strategic venture. Through the years, God has brought hundreds of inner-city residents through our doors.

For its first 15 years, Masterworks was primarily a self-sustaining ministry, deriving 95% of its operating funds from business profits. In January 2006, Masterworks divided its ministries into two entities. One branch became a for-profit venture with locations in Little Canada, Minnesota, and Vermillion, South Dakota. All profits from this branch are donated to our on-going non-profit entity.

The non-profit branch, Masterworks of Minneapolis, continues to build on its history of offering full-time employment to program participants, deriving a significant portion of our operating income by doing real work in the marketplace.

Masterworks of Minnesota is located in the Elliot Park neighborhood at 1121 Seventh Street South. For more information, visit their web site or call 612-338-3468.

Faith Venture Wisdom from Brother Lawrence

2010-10-06T15:46:00.000-06:00

I am a plotter and a planner. I love to develop strategies...to organize the future here in the present. I find that many entrepreneurs share this same skill set. A natural affinity towards strategy helps to overcome the uncertainty and risk natural to starting something new. But in the world of faith ventures, businesses started to create opportunity for individuals and communities rebuilding lives, strategy must be balanced by faith.

Today, that reminder came in the words of a 17th Century monk, Brother Lawrence:

“Because of this same trust in God’s care, when Brother Lawrence had some outside business to attend to, he never worried about it beforehand. Rather, he found God would give him a picture as clear as a mirror image of exactly what to do at precisely the right moment. He had acted in this way for quite some time, without being concerned about something ahead of time. Before he had experienced God’s swift help in his affairs, he had attempted to plan every detail, doing the job in his own strength. Now, though, acting with childlike simplicity in God’s sight, he did everything for the love of God, thanking him for his guidance. Everything he did passed calmly, in a way that held him close to the loving presence of God.” (The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence, p. 20)

It’s a fine line between responsible strategizing and unnecessary worry. And if you are following God’s call to start a faith venture business to create opportunity for disadvantaged individuals or communities, you will run into circumstances where you need to rely solely on faith. Brother Lawrence is right to remind us that God will show the way at just the right moment.

I promise you that over time in a faith venture, you will experience “God’s swift help.” That will give you confidence to trust God’s strength and to do everything for His love.

Detroit Area Peaches and Greens Offers Fresh Produce to Disadvantaged Neighborhood

2010-10-01T10:00:00.000-06:00

Urban neighborhoods in major U.S. cities are often difficult places to find fresh vegetables and fruit. Central Detroit CDC provides an innovative answer to this problem with its Peaches and Greens faithventure business as mission. As detailed on their web site:

If you live in Detroit, you know that we are some of the most under-served produce consumers in the nation. Large chain grocers do not have store locations within the city boundaries, which is tragic for a city with a population of over 830,000 residents. Because of the intentional or unintentional food desert, Detroiters have to travel outside the city to get fresh produce and meats. The low-income central Detroit residents the produce market will serve have limited resources to travel to the surrounding suburban areas to shop. As a result, their options are limited to shopping at neighborhood markets that sell outdated foods and very limited fresh fruits and vegetables.

The produce market, Peaches and Greens, which opened in the fall of 2008, provides community residents the opportunity to have a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance.

Peaches and Greens is located at 8838 Third Avenue (at Hazelwood) in Detroit. They are open 10am to 6pm Tuesday through Friday and 10am to 5pm on Saturday. Call 313-870-9210 for more information.

Detroit Urban Faithventure Cafe Sonshine Provides Jobs and Training for Teens and Young Adults

2010-09-30T13:28:00.001-06:00

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 since 2008. Both of these businesses worked to provide excellent customer service and good quality food in a clean environment.

In February 2010, we temporarily closed the restaurants in order to evaluate and redevelop our business plan for this commercial venture, and in April 2010, we reopened as Cafe Sonshine. This family-friendly casual dining experience provides good quality and diabetic healthy options that will provide a healthy home-cooked option for residents in our community and beyond. Please join us to enjoy a great meal at an inexpensive price. while supporting a great ministry.

If you live in the Detroit area, this sound like a great organization to support by dining out. They are open from 12pm to 8pm,Tuesday through Sunday at 8902 Second, on the corner of Hazelwood, just one block off Woodward. For more information, call 313-873-9330.

This organization would be a great resource for other groups considering opening a faithventure restaurant.

Regent Center for Entrepreneurship Starting Faithventure

2010-09-23T13:04:00.001-06:00

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 responsible men of God who find healing and are mentored and discipled in a Kingdom business; they will be trained to ultimately operate Nelson's Catering locations much like the Chick-Fil-A model.

Read the Whole Article

A Faith Venture Reality: Hiring People with Potential

2010-09-22T12:26:00.000-06:00

Evidence of Grace- Can we see some indication, no matter how slight, that God is working in the potential program participant’s life? This doesn’t mean that the individual needs to be a follower of Christ—in fact, we like it when they aren’t--, but that you can see that God is pursuing this person. To keep my senses finely tuned in this area, I return often to the gospels for stories of Jesus’ love for the outcast and forgotten.
A Turning- Does the person show some evidence that they have turned away from their old lifestyle choices and now want to move forward in a new direction? Even if it is very tentative, it is still so necessary for an individual to want a different life. Without it, the person will not succeed in our program.
Brokeness- Be wary of the individual who presents himself as having it all together. Every person in a faith venture organization, especially the leadership, needs to have an understanding that their life is inherently broken. Sometimes you have to pry during the interview process, but everyone needs to be comfortable presenting themselves as not having it all together. Because people who have it all together are not in a place to rely on God, the necessary ingredient for healing and wholeness.
Partnerships- Is the candidate enrolled in another program such as a faith based transitional living program? As I discussed here, the potential for rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison go up with the involvement of more than one program and/or a faith community.
Listening to God- And finally and most importantly, what is God saying? I’ve had times when against my judgment and the prior four points, I sensed very clearly that God wanted us to hire a particular individual. The whole process needs to be bathed in prayer with ears attentive to God for each hiring decision.

Homeboy Industries Update

2010-09-17T12:28:00.000-06:00

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.

The Power of Synergy in Rebuilding Lives

2010-09-16T12:11:00.001-06:00

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 part of an innovative grant funded by Mile High United Way, individuals get a supportive transitional home program as well as employment and job training through a comprehensive partnership.

Each organization has its own unique strengths. But by working together, the synergy creates a whole new level of service to attack the unique challenges faced by individuals rebuilding lives.

It is like the quiet pools of water created by large rocks in the mountain stream. Individuals still need to cross the treacherous, fast –flowing water, but an integrated program of housing, life and job skill training, and employment creates eddies that provide safe resting stops on the way across the river.

I encourage other organizations to look for ways to partner in the interest of better serving disadvantaged populations. And, as always, I urge Christ-following entrepreneurs to seek ways to use their business skills to create supportive faith venture businesses to employ individuals often left behind in our society.

Good Neighbor Garage on CBS4 Denver

2010-08-19T16:24:00.000-06:00

For individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, prison or poverty, two of the most important ingredients to future career success in the Denver metro area are qualifying for a driver’s license and purchasing a car for transportation. This reality provides the reason behind the creation of the Good Neighbor Garage in 2004.

In communities like Denver where public transportation does not adequately serve outlying areas that provide high-quality entry-level job opportunities in construction, a car means the difference between a well-paying job or a lower-quality day labor position. Traveling by bus or light rail just doesn’t accommodate an industry where job locations frequently change and start-times are often very early. And for individuals with children, their attempts to juggle child-care, schooling, and traveling to a job site without a vehicle becomes nearly impossible.

Marc Veldhuizen, in partnership with Belay Enterprises, started The Good Neighbor Garage as an innovative faith venture that receives donated cars from the public. These vehicles are screened for quality. Those that will provide dependable transportation for at least a year are repaired and placed for a small fee with qualifying individuals needing a car in order to get to work. Other cars that do not fit program needs are auctioned or sold to the public to support car placement program expenses.

As part of Belay Enterprises’ mission of incubating faith ventures into independent ventures, the Good Neighbor Garage was spun off into its own nonprofit organization two years ago.

Check out the great story about Good Neighbor Garage on CBS4 Denver:

Bud's Warehouse: The Best Reality and Home Improvement Show Ever

2010-08-11T16:10:00.001-06:00

We're about to celebrate the 15th Anniversary this fall of Bud's Warehouse. This faith venture business as mission recylces building materials formerly headed to the landfill and creates job and life skill opportunity for individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.

I've always said that we are Denver's best kept secret for creative individuals looking to design innovative home improvement projects. In many ways, we've been taking throw away items and turning them into treasures. With people rebuilding lives and the interesting items that we sell, I've always thought we would be one of the best reality and HGTV home improvement shows TV would ever see. This summer, Fox 31 thought the same and included us on its Digincolorado show.

I'm hoping this is the beginning of something big!

Enjoy!

Business as Mission: Not an Either Or Strategy

2010-07-01T12:04:00.000-06:00

It’s deeply embedded into our evangelical worldview that business and mission are like oil and water…they don’t mix.

I know because even though I am a big proponent of business as mission and have spent the last 11 years running a faith venture organization, I still find myself, at times, subconsciously dividing the two and thinking that business is business and ministry is ministry.

Last week, I participated in a business leader forum and heard another Christ-follower lamenting about how his business goals seem less spiritual than the mission goals he aspires to in his business. Yet, in his view, the business goals are more important to the survival of his business than any other activity.

For followers of Christ, the reality is that the imaginary dividing wall that we sometimes try to erect between life and faith has been torn down. Business activities can reflect God’s will if they are done with great faith.

I have always been drawn to business entrepreneurialism because I like starting things. Indeed, one of the best characteristics of business is its creative nature. Businesses are about creating opportunity by meeting needs through goods and services. So at the very heart of business is the creative spark with which God has imbued humans.

I think God smiles when we create because He is the author of creation. And as image bearers of God, we are most human when we create and it becomes an act of worship toward the God that created us.

We diminish God’s purposes when we dismiss the worthiness of business as not spiritual enough. If God called us to create though business then we are bringing him the most glory when we use those gifts to our greatest abilities. And, if in the process of creating or growing a business, we strive to live day to day as an example of the gospel in action then we have mastered what it means to do business as ministry.

Today, our culture collectively has a heightened hypocrisy meter that goes off when our actions conflict with our professions of faith. Never underestimate the power of simply living out our faith in action over the long haul instead of attempting to live only by our words.

Grace and Consequences

2010-06-17T14:13:00.000-06:00

The Wackiness of Combining Faith and Commercial Real Estate

2010-06-16T11:52:00.000-06:00

When a faith venture starts to look for commercial real estate, it's going to be messy.

At least that's been my experience over the last 11 years at Belay Enterprises. For some reason--and it has something to do with combining faith and real estate--I have all sorts of crazy stories about trying to secure space for our various projects.

There's the time we started moving into a new warehouse for Bud's Warehouse after completing a lease agreement only to discover that one of the neighboring tenants had a first right of refusal on the property.

And he wasn't a very nice person.

So we moved on and discovered an even better space which we still inhabit to this day.

Over the years at Bud's Warehouse, I have often joked that we have made a habit of preceding future loft developments. We have had to move from two prior warehouse locations because of the development of lofts. Bud’s moved from another location because of the development of a business complex. A few years back, our Baby Bud's project closed operations at the Colfax and Peoria location because of the Fitzsimmons neighborhood redevelopment.

Moving a business, especially one with 20,000 square feet of building materials, is not for the faint-of-heart and fraught with all sorts of retail risks. Will our customers follow us? Will the new location be visible enough? Will we be in a convenient location for our program participants?

Commercial Real Estate is a difficult but extremely important undertaking for any retail business. The location of a business is one of the top factors for retail success or failure. For thrift store faith ventures, commercial real estate becomes an even bigger challenge. One must balance the need for a visible location near your customer base with nonprofit budget constraints. So you find yourself wrestling with the inevitable tough question: Should we move into donated or significantly less expensive space in a lousy location or rent expensive space in a high-traffic area?

At Belay Enterprises, we've pursued both approaches with mixed results. We spent six years running Baby Bud's out of a donated space, slowly watching our customers disappear because of community redevelopment. Yet, we found it hard to give up free rent for a move to a better location...until we were forced out.

Once again, we are wrestling with those questions as we search for space for our budding cabinet manufacturing business. As we've seen at Bud's Warehouse over the years, renting the best retail location you can afford will often outweigh the less attractive donated site. When devising your business plan, build in enough of a budget for a visible location and it will have a positive impact on your mission.

But then be prepared for the wackiness as you start to negotiate.

Because it will come.

And boy do I have some new stories.

Friday Free Enterprise Videos

2010-06-11T16:01:00.000-06:00

U.S. Chamber of Commerce just held an "I am Free Enterprise" video contest for entrepreneurs. Watch these videos and be inspired.

I especially like how in the first video, Carlos Sanchez links his business with helping his disadvantaged neighborhood.

If you follow this blog, you know I am passionate about faith ventures: businesses that create opportunity for individuals or communities rebuilding lives. All three of these stories tell of how business opportunities grew out of individual experiences.

It's always been my hope to inspire others to seize opportunity in their day to day life to help people and neighborhoods through urban business as mission.

American Untouchables?

2010-06-09T14:25:00.000-06:00

My favorite blogger on ex-offender employment issues had an interesting post on felons as the new “untouchables class” last week.

Kathleen Murray wrote about an interview on NPR’s Tell Me More show with Michelle Alexander about her new book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” Murray shared:

What jumped out at me was her reference to caste. We here in America like to think of ourselves as living in the land of equal opportunity, I know. But this particular term is one that’s come up a lot in my discussions about the offenders and the criminal justice system, lately. An offender turned reentry advocate I talked to a while back put it even more bluntly:
“I think we as humans need an untouchable class. Before it was race that held people down, now it’s that you’re branded and ostracized because you’re an ex-offender.”

Are ex-offenders the new “Untouchables”? I would answer yes. But like Kathleen Murray, I would also add that it is a matter of balance.

Often discussions on this topic forget that the criminal justice system is about punishment for crime. There needs to be consequences for criminal behavior. But crime shouldn’t disqualify a person from ever again becoming a contributing member of society once they complete their punishment.

Research shows the top factor for reducing recidivism over 5 years is whether an ex-offender can find and keep employment. With the cost of incarcerating someone at an average of $20,000 a year, it’s in society’s interest to help former prisoners find work. To permanently bar felons from employment, whether because of active policies or insurance barriers, does create a permanent sub-class with additional costs related to future incarceration. The best way to reduce crime is to help ex-offenders find productive work.

One only has to watch Les Miserables to see how humanity has struggled with this issue for hundreds of years…the balance between grace and the law, crime and consequences.

It’s hard to miss that our current world has chosen to become unforgiving when a criminal act leads to a lifetime of consequences from never-ending punishment.

The Case of the Missing Truck

2010-06-03T18:21:00.002-06:00

The Bud’s Warehouse donation truck was missing in action.

Our donation coordinator, Lanny, had been calling the truck for several hours that day 9 years ago with no success in reaching our driver. At the same time, frustrated product donors were informing us that our truck was not arriving as promised.

We had a problem.

Lanny and I jumped in our cars and started driving around to see if we could find our truck. About an hour later, he found it abandoned in the middle of 225. We were barely able to start it and drove it straight to the mechanic.

I later found out that our driver stopped for lunch and made some bad personal choices. The truck then mysteriously broken down. The mechanics later told us they had never seen anything like this. Some silicon had clogged the fuel line and shut down the truck.

We had to let our truck driver go. It is always upsetting when one of our program participants, seeking to rebuild a life from prison, addiction or homelessness, has to be dropped from the program. Bud’s is a place of grace but the reality is that there are a limited number of slots in our program. And if someone repeatedly shows that they are unwilling to do their part in the rebuilding process, we have to open spots for others that need the chance and are eager for the opportunity.

Over the last 11 years, I’ve seen over and over that our biggest “failures” often become our greatest successes. When someone blows it in our program they come face to face with their responsibility in making bad choices. They discover that if they failed in a graceful program that actively seeks to help them succeed, maybe they do have a problem that needs to be addressed. And then they undertake that hard work of change.

Last month, our former driver graduated from college with a Bachelors degree and an exciting career ahead of him. As is often the pattern, his mistake at Bud’s caused him to face some very real problems in his life. Over the next 9 years, he recommitted to his faith and did the hard work of rebuilding his life. He didn’t finish the Bud’s program, but it was the point where he discovered he needed help.

I love how God’s in the business of bringing new life to that which is broken. And how God’s grace often flips our understanding of success and failure.

The Two Most Important Actions in a Faith Venture

2010-05-27T13:36:00.000-06:00

Love God and Love People.

Those two activities need to be the guiding philosophy of any faith venture business as mission that seeks to employ and train individuals rebuilding lives from addiction, homelessness and prison.

I was reminded of that during the last couple of weeks when I’ve been missing in action from the Faithventure Forum. We are in a season at Belay of intense strategizing as we finalize our plans for the summer and beyond. It’s been one decision after another. Unlike many organizations, we’re facing good decisions, but it has just seemed wise to unplug for a bit and really seek out God.

In the midst of it, I was reminded that I have a tendency to complicate things. I sometimes have trouble trusting my gut and instead spend hours and days wrapping my mind around all the dimensions of the decision. I list out the pros and cons and try to anticipate the potential outcomes related to each possible choice. It’s a good undertaking…up to a point. In the end, you still have to trust your gut about what you think you are hearing from God and move out in faith.

Sometimes I even complicate my faith. But then Jesus reminds that all the Law and the Prophets can be boiled down to two commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39, NIV)

Can you imagine the positive impact on our culture and world if people really tried to put this into action? What good would be unleashed if all aspects of our life reflected a true love for God and a genuine love for the others around us? How often do we forget or try to push God out of the day to day circumstances that we face. More often than not the first thoughts that enter our mind are focused on self verses the other people around us.

I believe that this teaching should guide any decision facing a faith venture. What action helps us to better love God and love people? If we are struggling with figuring out which way to go, it’s often because we’ve lost sight of that fundamental question. If we figure out the answer, we can then confidently step out in faith.

Bakke Graduate University Denver Business as Mission Event July 28, 2010

2010-05-20T18:18:00.000-06:00

I'm excited to be included as part of a panel discussion this summer hosted by Bakke Graduate University.

If you're interested in business as mission and a free barbecue, join us for an event open to the public on July 28, 2010, at Confluence Ministries (1400 Quitman Street, Denver) from 6pm to 9pm.

Dr. Mark Russell, co-founder of Russell Media and Professor of Record for the July 28-31 Denver area Bakke Mission-Focused Entrepreneurship Class will be presenting a short lecture on Entrepreneurship and Missio Dei. This will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by Eric Swanson featuring Mark Russell, Tom Beck of Synergos Solutions, and myself. I know I'm looking forward to learning more from Mark and Tom. I always enjoy spending time with Tom Beck and learning about World Venture's Business as Mission project as well as his experience as one of the founders of Blockbuster and Einstein's Bagels.

For more information and to register for the free event, visit here.

And did I mention the free barbecue?

When a Recession Breaks Your Heart: Homeboy Industries Lays Off 300 Employees

2010-05-14T16:26:00.000-06:00

I just learned today from my friend Rudy Carrasco that Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles had to lay off 300 of their employees yesterday. That was almost their whole staff. I am really sad over this.

Over the last 11 years at Belay Enterprises, I have tried to model the passion and innovation that Father Greg Boyle deploys on behalf of individuals rebuilding lives. When I occasionally speak around the country on faith ventures, I often share Homeboy as one of the innovators of this unique form of business as mission.

Three years ago, I had the opportunity to work with Father Greg while organizing a Faith and Enterprise Pre-Conference for the Social Enterprise Alliance in Long Beach. He absolutely enraptured 100 people with his stories of life change in the numerous business ventures started to assist ex-gang members trying to rebuild lives. I remember thinking he should have been the keynote speaker for the whole conference.

Even during this tough time, Father Greg is already teaching about some of the mistakes they made which Rudy explores in his blog post from the story in the Los Angeles Times. This is helpful for the rest of us faith venture practitioners.

I am praying that somehow Homeboy Industries pulls through this tough time.

And I am mindful that some of the biggest successes come out of events that at one time appear to be failures. God loves to take "broken things" and make them beautiful.

Sometimes God’s Goodness Whacks You in the Face

2010-05-04T13:08:00.000-06:00

When you work with ex-offenders trying to rebuild lives, sometimes your heart will be broken.

One thing seems to be constant for individuals trying to start over after prison. The past often stalks the future. For some, bad choices will be made, promises broken, and they will find themselves no longer in our program facing new legal consequences.

But as I've written in the past, even in those individual cases that might be labeled “failures”, God is still at work. And our organization’s "biggest failures” are often transformed into some of our biggest successes.

The reality is we live and work in a world where God often chooses to hide Himself. Sometimes God's activity in the lives of our program participants is hard to see. And other times, God's power whacks you in the face. It’s impossible to miss and all you can do is worship the Creator for his power, grace and goodness. Over and over, God chooses what our world calls “lost cases” so that His goodness is displayed most dramatically.

I shared earlier this year about one of our star graduates. After close to 20 years in prison for a string of grocery store robberies, he found it difficult to find a job when it came time to graduate our program. He finally left us a year ago for a great position at a distribution warehouse. Unfortunately, 6 months ago he was laid off because of the economy.

So it was back to the difficult task of finding work with a significant felony conviction in his past. But three weeks ago, he stopped by the warehouse excited about an interview at a local supermarket warehouse. We prayed together for God to bless this interview. We asked God to show His power by making it possible to get a job in the most unlikely of places because of the past.

God acted and we are now celebrating the third week of the perfect job. Grace always shows up as a second chance… and as an opportunity to display God’s goodness.