From Gotham Institute are these two PDFs, which purport to say:
“What does the gospel say about renewing culture through starting new ventures?”
“2012 Ei Forum: Re-Imagine Power”:
“Ei Forum: Creation and Creativity”:
Serving Leaders (Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation) gave a glowing report of Calvin Chin’s visit:
“The Great Purpose of Entrepreneurship with Calvin Chin”
reprinted below in full unedited for educational purposes. Bold and red type are ours for emphasis:
Serving Leaders was pleased to welcome Calvin Chin, Director of the Entrepreneurship Initiative at the Center for Faith & Work, Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City to Pittsburgh on May 16th at our Breakfast on the Great Purpose of Entrepreneurship. As we prepared for Calvin’s visit, we asked him to consider some questions about the work of Redeemer and its Center for Faith & Work. Here are a few thoughtful insights from Calvin:
How does a Center for Faith & Work help to realize the Redeemer Vision?
Redeemer was founded on a vision of “The Gospel Changes Everything!” It changes individuals, communities, and the world so that we have different values, intentions, and results.
Redeemer has done this by teaching us to live out the gospel in real and tangible ways—Jeremiah 29:7—so that our lives that are fully integrated, spiritually and practically.
In New York City, the identity people take from their work is much more pronounced than the rest of the country. Tim Keller tackled that first by preaching from the pulpit about the importance of cultural renewal and that work we do in the marketplace is part of cultural renewal and we must recognize that work is good but because of the fall is broken and distorted. The traditional thinking of the Christian is that work (toil and labor) is just something to do while we wait for Christ to come back or until we die and go to heaven. But this is unbiblical thinking—work is what most of us do for a large part of our waking hours and it is a vital part of renewing culture.
Also, we know that work is extremely important but it cannot be the thing we rest our worth and hope on; it is very easy to make work an idol. So even before the Center for Faith & Work was created in 2002, there were ad-hoc programs early on to help people see how God cares about their work and how their work is part of worship. The Bible supports the importance of work but as a mandate God gave us rather than the foundation we rest our hope in.
The CFW’s tag line is to Equip, Connect, and Mobilize.
- Equip – theologically and practically,
- Connect – people in the marketplace who feel isolated or ineffective and need touch points with other believers to remind them of their mission
- Mobilize – by being equipped and having community inside and outside of the church community, they can be the best possible worker, boss, manager or partner as they go about influencing in their role.
Why would a church make a decision to invest in entrepreneurs?
After CFW started showing some real traction in starting great conversations about why we work so hard and what is work’s purpose in our lives and the biblical narrative of redemption, we realized something profound and deeply rooted in the Gospel. While the gospel can transform people into excellent employees and senior corporate leaders, institutions are harder to change because, as Mike Novak shared, they are living organisms with fallen people running the show and carrying out legacy practices. An intentionally integrated Christian is limited in the change they can affect even if they rise to become CEO and are in positions of significant influence.
We believe that Entrepreneurs by nature are missional! Entrepreneurs can create and run new ventures and from day one they can infuse the gospel in to its mission and practice. From the vision, to the products and services, to the organizational culture and values and to the way they engage themselves. Biblically, entrepreneurs embody the creative spirit of God. Entrepreneurs want to solve problems, meet unmet needs, or do things better or in a new way, they are all about rearranging the particulars into something new that creates value and opportunity. They are true missionaries in the marketplace trying to make Jesus Christ real and tangible to their neighbors.
What sets gospel centered entrepreneurship apart?
Gospel centered entrepreneurship is about the end result and the motivation – why we are doing it and where does it lead? Similarly, with your job and career – why are you doing it matters as much as how you are doing it. If the gospel is the center and foundation of every little thing you do then you will be will energized, emboldened, and supported—regardless of the outcome.
Gospel centered entrepreneurship also points toward the redemptive love of Christ in that being involved in an entrepreneurial venture is a spiritual and physical sacrifice. The big uncertainty in entrepreneurship is always –will it fail or succeed. Someone who has the gospel as the center of their life and their venture will be able to deal with the journey and outcome in a much more loving and joyful way. Meaning, they can let go and take comfort in how God’s spirit used them to glorify Him and the other way around.
To listen to the entire interview of Calvin, conducted by Darrin Grove on May 16
th click here to get the podcast.
For more information about The Ei and the Center for Faith and Work and Redeemer go
www.faithandwork.org
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had an excellent article about all this:
APRIL 8, 2013, 6:00 AM EST
A little bit of faith in Tech New York
Are New York City religions contributing to the city’s booming start-up scene? Can Manhattan’s Silicon Alley rival Silicon Valley for faith-inspired enterprise?
Excerpts:
“Katherine Leary Alsdorf, founder of Redeemer’s Faith and Work initiative, cut her teeth in tech as a CEO in Silicon Valley during the great crisis of the dotcom bust in 2001. She has a pretty good idea about the challenge of joining the inner toughness that it takes to be an entrepreneur with the values of doing good to society.” “Under former Silicon Valley executive Alsdorf’s leadership, Redeemer has promoted a vision for cultural renewal in the workplace. One practical way that they are pursuing this vision is through their Entrepreneurship Initiative (EI), a network of social entrepreneurs. The effort includes workshops, conferences, mentoring and relationship-building.” “At the center of EI is the belief that a business can reflect the truth and beauty of Christ by providing great services, products and honor to its customers.”
“EI Director Calvin Chin points to Restore NYC, a non-profit providing rehabilitation to women rescued from sex trafficking, Inheritance of Hope, a non-profit serving children with a terminally-ill parent, and Tegu, a toy manufacturer with overseas operations and American investors, as examples of the successful ventures EI has supported. “This is just a starter,” Chin said. “We’d want people to gush over the product, service or experience.””
Willowdale Chapel’s Shine Like Stars Vision:
“Constellation Learn & Launch Community” at:
is described as, quote:
“Constellation “LLC” (Launch & Learn Community) is an ad hoc gathering of everyone interested in the idea. It’s people who want to catch a vision for restoration in all areas of life and culture. It’s anyone who wants to dream about what could happen as we align and unleash our gospel-inspired passions and talents.”
“In the coming months we will be privileged to host some of the most innovative thinkers and entrepreneurs in the country. They’ll share their stories and experiences, while also interacting with our vision. The goal is to stir our imagination; fuel our passion; and create momentum toward the launch of a new organization in the fall of 2014. And even beyond this, our aim is to help you think about your gifts and calling.”
The line up of guest speakers being invited to Willowdale Chapel for “alignment” purposes is as follows:
ANDY CROUCH on “Culture Making”, December 15, 2013
Andy Crouch is one of the leading voices on Christian engagement with culture. He is the Executive Editor of Christianity Today.
Ken Silva of Apprising.org says of Crouch’s glorifying of heretic Rob Bell at:
“Please keep in mind here that Rob Bell happens to be the pastor that writer Andy Crouch chose to use as he opens his 2004 CT article on the
Emergent Church. Crouch tells us:
The Bells started questioning their assumptions about the Bible itself–discovering the Bible as a human product,” as Rob puts it, rather than the product of divine fiat. “The Bible is still in the center for us,” Rob says, “but it’s a different kind of center. We want to embrace mystery, rather than conquer it.”
“I grew up thinking that we’ve figured out the Bible,” Kristen says, “that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what most of it means. And yet I feel like life is big again–like life used to be black and white, and now it’s in color…”
The Bells, who flourished at evangelical institutions from Wheaton to Fuller Theological Seminary to Grand Rapids’s Calvary Church before starting Mars Hill,…[felt] that very world, as the Bells tell it, became constricting–in Kristen’s phrase, “black and white…”
And how did the Bells find their way out of the black-and-white world where they had been so successful and so dissatisfied? “Our lifeboat,” Kristen says, “was
A New Kind of Christian [by Brian McLaren].” (
Online source, emphasis mine).”
David Cloud of Way Of Life says this about Crouch at:
“Andy Crouch calls the emerging church “post-evangelicalism.”
He says: “The emerging movement is a protest against much of evangelicalism as currently practiced. It is post-evangelical in the way that neo-evangelicalism (in the 1950s) was post-fundamentalist. It would not be unfair to call it postmodern evangelicalism” (“The Emergent Mystique,” Christianity Today, Nov. 2004).”
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CATHERINE HOKE ROHR on “Social Sector”, January 26,2014
Catherine Hoke (Rohr) is founder and CEO of Defy Ventures, a non-profit that offers entrepreneurial training and mentorship to people with criminal backgrounds.
LISA SLAYTON on “Backbone Org”, February 23, 2014
Lisa Slayton is the president of the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation (PLF) and Serving Leaders guiding the mission to raise up Christ-centered leaders who work for the transformation of the city and culture.
KEVIN PALAU on “Collective Impact”, March 16, 2014
Kevin Palau is the President of the Luis Palau Association. Kevin was so savvy that he built a bridge, and lasting friendship, with the now former mayor of Portland, who is openly gay.
See our previous post about Luis Palau at:
where we headed the post with this:
“ECUMENICAL LUIS PALAU & SONS: MINISTRY MODELED AFTER BILLY GRAHAM’S DECISIONAL REGENERATION LEAVING OUT MAN’S DEPRAVITY & NEED FOR REPENTANCE~WORKS WITH CATHOLIC CHURCH~USES PSYCHOHERESY”
JOANNA TAFT on “Arts Sector”, April 27, 2014
Joanna Taft is the founder and Executive Director of the Harrison Center for the Arts in Indianapolis which is a leader in grassroots cultural development in the arts.