Faithventure Forum

Over the years, I've seen that in the area of start-ups there are three types of people: Those who start things, those who want to do it but fear it, and those for whom starting isn't ever seen as a possibility.  America was founded by people who were willing to take the risk of getting into a boat and creating a new future. Today, we have become a culture largely afraid to risk. We tend to fall into the last 2 categories of people; we either fail to start because of fear, collapsing into a state of paralysis by analysis, or we don't realize starting is something we can all do.  In my experience, risk is not an either/or decision. It's something we all need to face daily in our lives whether starting up a business, interacting with others, or working for someone else. Today's world reward people who are willing to be creative in all areas of their lives and who are not afraid to act. Paradoxically, our culture is permeated by fear at...

You don't have to have it all figured out before you start. Just prayerfully sense God's call and start.  The path will become clearer as you move forward in faith. Don't allow yourself to become trapped in our culture's too common paralysis of analysis.  Simply write down your dream and two easy steps you can do towards that goal today.    And then prayerfully do it.  The results will open up new possibilities of action... two steps to accomplish the next day.  Repeat.  And over the course of time, the future will become focused and you will know what to do.  Because you will have already done it or been re-routed onto a new path.     And sometimes you will discover it can't be done. No worries. You don't have to have it all figured out before you start. Just prayerfully sense God's call and start.

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 t...

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 ...

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 m...

The proverbial cup is either half-full or half-empty. Like individuals, faith venture organizations need to choose which way they will see it. An important secret to success for business as mission projects is to decide to see the cup as over-flowing. In Matthew 14: 13-21, Jesus’ disciples see a dramatic mismatch between the hungry crowd of 5000 before them and the five loaves of bread and two fish in their possession. Experience tells them that they don’t have enough food for everyone. In their eyes, the cup is definitely half-full. But Jesus sees otherwise. In the reality of God’s kingdom, five loaves and two fish miraculously become sufficient to meet the needs of 5000 people. The cup over-flows. In today’s world, deficit based planning looks at what an organization lacks as it decides how to approach the future. Asset-based planning examines what an organization already has. A faith venture trusts God to use those assets with others still unseen to build the future. At Bud’s Wareho...

Our annual budget planning cycle and October board meeting has kept me from my regular schedule of blogging this week. In the midst of planning for Belay’s future in a rather unprecedented economic situation, I have a couple of observations: In Denver, we are experiencing a business anxiety recession in the midst of a relatively strong economy. Everyone seems panicked about the future. All day long I am dealing with individuals and business people fearful about the future. A friend of mine made an observation that we are scaring ourselves into a recession. We’re in danger of becoming like deer frozen in the headlights of an oncoming car. Collectively as a culture, we need to rediscover our inner drive to overcome problems and tough times. These were strengths of Americans in bygone eras. I sensed we were in trouble a few years ago when pundits were declaring the end of the business cycle. The reality is that economies have built into them the seeds of their own creative destruction. ...

“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NIV I've heard it said that entrepreneurs by nature have a greater tolerance for risk than other individuals. Certainly, starting an enterprise takes confidence when the odds say that greater than 50 percent of ventures will fail in five years. Even so, I believe that entrepreneurs do not have more tolerance for risk but actually have less. Entrepreneurship is all about managing risk...identifying opportunities and then developing a business that minimizes the risk of failure. So a successful entrepreneur may appear to be hyper-vigilant to all the possible dangers to his or her business and strategic about developing corresponding answers. For a follower of Christ, there is a danger that this attitude may lose sight of one of Jesu...