What does it Mean to be a Christian Entrepreneur?

For a starter reflection on What it Means to be a Christian Entrepreneur, see this post from Gary G. Hoag, who blogs at Generosity Monk and is President/CEO of Global Trust Partners. Hoag starts properly with the internal disciplines, matched by the disciplining behaviours, which help entrepreneurs 'stay on track' and manage anxiety, fear and doubt. Perhaps most important, however, is the observation about identity - humans naturally deal with their sense of purpose by wrapping themselves in an identity fitted to their stage of life. This is helpful in the short term - as adaptive behaviour - but it is essentially reactive, and will take the entrepreneur on the wild ride of the ups and downs of business life.

A Christian entrepreneur, on the other hand, bases their identity on the imago dei, the belief that they are imprinted with the image of God, and hold value as a child of the original Maker and Creator. Failure is not final and time is always enough, as God works all things (good and bad) to the good of those who love Him.  As my colleague Rikk Watts often declares, ideas are not made in the image of God, people are.  The 'how' to live life thus flows not out of abstract laws or principles of business, but out of the character of God, and that character which this experience of walking with Him forms in us. Business is a form of making and creating, and so best models itself against the Maker and the Creator.  

This takes a myriad of expressions. Some, like the Seed Incubator, seek to produce social business outcomes which address intractable problems. Others build businesses around the 'triple bottom line', a concept which has now left the theological space and been absorbed by social ventures in general. Yet others seek just to be the best bosses they can be, building sustainable communities of practice and formation. 

Resources:

If you would like to build your understanding on this, you could do worse than connect to a very fine lecture series by Paul Williams and Rikk Watts at Regent College some years ago.  The Marketplace Institute and the Reframe program were leaders for their time.