10 Quotes for Current and Future Enterprising Christians

We just wrapped up the BILD Summit this past week. Summit is an annual gathering of Church Network leaders from around the globe for a time of training, fellowship, and continual networking.

This year there were over two million Churches represented at the conference. The last two years on the Saturday directly following we have continued our tri-annual National Cohort meeting.

It is a gathering of the leaders of several church networks nationally held for the purpose of encouraging one another and providing an exchange of ideas as we all attempt to integrate the New Testament way of doing Church and are all at different places in that process.

This time the topic was around the idea of Theology in Culture (which we talked about in a previous article here) and Enterprising Christians.

During this discussion I asked a personal question that I realized, while I was listening to the answers being given, was less personal than I originally thought. It became apparent that all of the networks in the room had dealt with my question at some level, be it personally, or working with others:

“When you are a leader in church ministry, work a 40+ hour work week, have a young family, are working on your masters in ministry, and have started a business with the intention of being able to be a fully fledged enterprising leader years down the road, how do you live life successfully now, without dropping the ball in some area of your life?”

I got the impression that, while most everyone did not know the specifics of my scenario, they knew the scenario itself very well. Through the ensuing conversation I heard some great pieces of advice and the thought occurred that this would be something that more than just the people in that room would benefit from.

With that said, here are the 10 quotes of advice I received during that conversation:

1. Go to bed a little earlier so that you can be awake a little earlier — Steve Lundy

2. “Be consistent” — Robert Marshall, Senior Leader at Los Angeles Community Church

3. “Put aside just two hours a week, even if it takes a decade to get the job done.” — Jeff Reed, President and CEO of BILD International

4. “Identify accountability partners and get out of your comfort zone.” — Robert Sausedo

5. “Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, don’t get too comfortable in either area, begin to push yourself to be more comfortable in the opposite areas, and don’t use your introvertedness or extrovertedness as an excuse to not get the work done.” — Robert Sausedo

6. “Schedule Quarterly or Bi-Annual planning weekends at each level, (leadership team, entrepreneurial team, with your spouse, etc.) so that you can narrow down long term planning and be more flexible in the short term.” — Cathy Barfield, Leading Woman at CityChurch Lawrence

7. “How do I get done all that I get done? Ruthless Prioritisation” — Nathan Haila, Product Manager at BILD Internatonal and Serial Entrepreneur.

8. “Understand that it will still be a while before you are out of the developmental stage, and being the ‘ultimate authority’ in any given field is not the goal, but to be a part of a team that can fill all those needs in the church and community.” — Justus Rowe, founder of the CityFarm Project and leader in The Journey of Catawba County

9. “Push the envelope in your life but be listening to your spouse when they say you need to pull back.” — Randy Beckett, CityChurch Cohort leader, leader at BILD International, Church Leader at City Church Ames-Des Moines

10. “Spouses have to be with you in the paradigm you are in. They have to be partners with you as you move forward, otherwise they will be anchors, holding you back.” — Hannah Morris, Leading Woman at The Journey of Catawba County

Bonus Quote:

“The Church itself has proven to be the best incubator throughout history.” — David Jones, Serial Church Planter

This is incredibly accurate.

The Church has created hospitals, schools, non-profits to feed and clothe and house and train the needy and poor, blue collar and white collar businesses and created opportunities to network on a level that would not have been available otherwise to collaborate and create successful partnerships.

While the Church has been underpowered as of late because the businesses and nonprofits that have come out of it in the past and taken the place of the Church it is still, and still should be if it isn’t, the hub for new business ventures, and recognized as such as we build Christ’s Church in this age.

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Originally published at The Borough.