Faithventure Forum

Over the last 18 years of my time at Belay ,  I've read a lot of books on leadership, social enterprise, and serving disadvantaged communities. My all time favorite one is Father Greg Boyle's Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion . If you're interested in experiencing the crazy world of leading a faith venture , his beautiful book is a must read. And now he has written a new book, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship , which I am excited to read. Tattoos on the Heart wonderfully captures the flavor of employing ex-gang members rebuilding lives at Los Angeles' Homeboy Industries . Instead of being a how to book or a history of Homeboy, Boyle organizes his stories around nine spiritual themes that arise out of his unique ministry. These include the importance of God, the damaging nature of dis-grace, the slow nature of God's work, the difficulty of defining success apart from God and the value of kinship. Indeed, these ...

My friend Chris Horst is becoming a prolific writer with the publication of his newest book, " Entrepreneurship for Human Flourishing ," co-authored with Peter Greer. This compact book provides an extremely powerful argument that business entrepreneurship enables human flourishing for the poor far better than charity. The book shares a mix of stories from entrepreneurs around the world making the case that business development creates opportunities for better lives. I must admit I am a bit biased because the book focuses a few pages on our newest Belay Enterprises ' project, Purple Door Coffee , lead by Madison Chandler and Mark Smesrud. It's fun to see their hard work and great results for homeless young adults get highlighted. Overall this book is perfect for individuals exploring entrepreneurship as a way to create opportunity for the disadvantaged. Get your own copy of the book here .

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 se...