As Faith Driven Entrepreneurs, we build our businesses, our lives, and our identities with these two commandments as our foundation. That being said, this doesn’t mean that we have to pass out tracts in the office or engrave Bible verses or ichthus fish symbols on all our products. But it does mean that our heart posture is aligned with who God says we are and what he wants from us and for us, and our daily decisions flow from that reality.
It also means that it should be impossible for someone to spend any meaningful time with us and not know that our Christian faith is what guides and drives us. It’s our faith that demands we do everything we do—heart, soul, mind, and strength—with love for God and love for others at the forefront.
One of our early investments at Sovereign’s Capital was in a founder who had started a great young company, but after some shifts in the market, he found himself in a position where he had to lay off a lot of employees. There are lots of ways to fire people—books have been written on the subject. In fact, this entrepreneur started there, and the advice he found was to make the firing quick and clean. Just get it over with.
He walked into work the next day prepared to do just that, but as he prayed during his commute, God gave him a different idea. Instead of getting the layoff over as quickly as possible, he stood up in front of the entire company and admitted all of the mistakes he’d made that had led them to this position. He pointed out each of the errors, refusing to cast blame on those who didn’t deserve it. And he explained how a layoff, as painful as it would be, was the only thing that would ensure the future of the organization.
That day the entire company set aside time to help those who were laid off move out of their offices, find leads for new jobs, and pray with them before they left. The company’s leadership helped them update and share their résumés as well as wrote reviews for each employee on LinkedIn. It was difficult and messy, but it was how this entrepreneur’s faith showed up that day.
This is what it looks like when your identity is in Christ: it means that every product, every aspect of the job, every relationship with partners, employees, suppliers, and customers works toward bringing about God’s redemptive story.
You can choose that path.
Because the truth is that Jesus has already died for your sins. He has already defeated death and given you a chance to live eternally with him. The work is done.
Yet we’re still here. So, we have to ask ourselves, How am I going to live in the extra time that God has given me? Am I going to build up stores for myself while also trying to build myself up? Or am I going to realize that it’s not about me at all?
We can strive and clench and grab and gain and control all day long. But there’s no freedom in that form of ownership. The only way to experience life as an entrepreneur in the way God designed it is to place our entire identity in him and to view ourselves as stewards of whatever he has put in our hands.
Taken from Faith Driven Entrepreneur by Henry Kaestner, J. D. Greear, and Chip Ingram. Copyright © 2021. Used by permission of Rose Publishing. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
“I’m excited about Faith Driven Entrepreneur. Anyone who is following the example of their creator God can find echoes of their work in this book.” —Lecrae
Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. But it doesn’t need to be. God has a purpose and a plan for all those entrepreneurial dreams and creative gifts he gave you.
The work you do today—the company you’ve built, the employees you work with, the customers you serve, the shareholders you report to, all of it—serves as an active part of what God wants to accomplish on earth.
You are not alone in this journey. Join other faith-driven entrepreneurs as, together, we
- identify the values, habits, and traits that empower us to successfully build businesses, serve our communities, and faithfully pursue a loving relationship with God;
- read stories that exemplify how those values, habits, and traits unfold in everyday life; and
- discover the potential God wants to unleash through our work.
Each book purchase includes access to the eight-session Faith Driven Entrepreneur video series, a discussion guide to encourage conversation among peers, and an invitation to join a Faith Driven Entrepreneur Group to meet other like-minded entrepreneurs.
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