Faithventure Forum

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...

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 .

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 cle...

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 t...

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 m...

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 pa...

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 fam...