A curriculum for “Kidpreneur” has been developed and launched in the slums of Metro Manila. “We need to create new social movements in order to end poverty,” says Dr. Corrie Acorda-De Boer, cofounder of Mission Ministries Philippines (MMP). Among the poor, this mission has helped start more than one thousand early childhood preschools and programs, as well as holistic-oriented churches.…
The purpose of the Faith@Work Summit is to gather active participants and leaders in the faith at work movement from every industry sector to learn from each other and work together to extend Christ’s transforming presence in workplaces around the world. The 2018 Faith at Work Summit, held in Chicago at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare on October 11th-13th, is now open for registration! The early bird pricing for registration is now available at $179 per ticket, so be sure to purchase soon.
The economic machine that is America continues to move forward but too often leaves many behind. While the Dow roars towards unprecedented heights, the poor and powerless reach new lows. But there is a solution that is both obvious and obscure: business. Business has changed lives of the less fortunate in the here and now when leaders and shareholders look beyond their own pocket. The principles and the experiences of the Greyston Bakery social enterprise in Yonkers exemplify this power of business to change the lives of individuals, families and the neighborhood itself. Deuteronomy 10:18 tells us that God “administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.” The people of God are called to do the same.
Julius Walls (BS, Concordia) is the pastor of Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church in Yonkers NY and the President of Greater Centennial Community Development Corp, the non-profit arm of a 5000+ member church. Rev. Walls has worked in business, academia, and the church, serving, in addition to the previously mentioned positions, as Chief of Staff of Greater Centennial Church, CEO of Greyston Bakery, a $7 million social enterprise, as VP for a $23 million chocolate manufacturing company, as an adjunct professor at the business graduate schools at NYU and BGI and serves on several local and national non-profit and government boards. He is the co-author, with Kevin Lynch, of Mission, Inc. The Practitioner’s Guide to Social Enterprise.
Reflect/Respond
Can an unethical for-profit business yield a God-desired result?
Can a “Double Bottom Line” (financial and social) enterprise really work? Is it sustainable?
Resources
William Eggers, The Solution Revolution: How Business, Government, and Social Enterprises Are Teaming Up to Solve Society’s Toughest Problems (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013)
Marc J. Lane, Social Enterprise: Empowering Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs (ABA, 2012)
Social Enterprise Alliance https://socialenterprise.us/
Julius Walls, Jr., and Kevin Lynch, Mission Inc.: A Practitioner’s Guide to Social Enterprise (Berrett-Koehler, 2009)
Over the years, I’ve often received the question How did you do that? That is, how did you start Denver Institute for Faith & Work? The founding of DIFW was a one part grace (both God’s and others’), one part luck, and one part perseverance. The great thing about our story is that we didn’t need anybody famous to make it work.…
I am excited to introduce you to a book that, while not a faith and work book, has serious implications for the future of the faith and work movement, John Seel’s The New Copernicans: Millennials and the Survival of the Church. I realize that is a strong statement; please read on. John is a cultural renewal entrepreneur and social impact consultant. He…
It’s a late spring day in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I’m standing in front of the Ravoux high rise apartments, a public housing project. When a bright, multicolored bus pulls into the complex, the waiting crowd outside includes several residents. The Twin Cities Mobile Market has arrived. For the past two years, this grocery-store-on-wheels stops at Ravoux every Friday at noon, bringing…
Jubilee Professional is a half-day conference designed to help Christians of all vocations learn how to apply biblical truth to everyday, professional life. This event is produced by the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation. The theme for this year’s conference – the 9th annual – was Sabbath rest. The conference was hosted by emcees Jim Stout, vice president at Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation,…
Lee Vinsel is Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech and one of the conveners of The Maintainers, a global, interdisciplinary research network made up of those who are interested in “the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure, repair, and the myriad forms of labor and expertise that sustain our human-built world.” TGR: What led you to begin the…
Dear peers in the Faith & Work Movement, I often imagine what collective impact between our ministries and churches might look like. What would it look like for us to partner together to make a permanent, generational impact on American society? When it comes to work, in many ways, our society is hemorrhaging. The labor participation rate for men age 24-55 is…
The Green Room recently had a chance to sit down with Tom Nelson, president of Made to Flourish, pastor of Christ Community Church in Kansas City, and author of Work Matters. Here’s what he had to say about his new book releasing this fall, and about what’s going on with MTF. TGR: How is this book different from Work…
Read part I of this interview here and part II here. David Gill: Tell us about the “Gotham Fellows”. Katherine Leary Alsdorf: The Gotham Fellowship grew out of our pilots of classes and discussion groups as a way to provide discipleship and public theology training at the same time giving an opportunity for the gospel to deeply change how people…
The Green Room 