Encouraging Entrepreneurship as a Leader
Loriana Sekarski
Loriana Sekarski is the founder and president of BONSAI, a consulting company that transforms leaders (and businesses) into the best version of themselves. Outside of BONSAI, Loriana serves as an adjunct professor at Washington University's graduate student program. Additionally, she's fine-tuning her passion project, TakeFlight, a program that addresses domestic abuse within the Christian community.
When you say the word “entrepreneur,” many people immediately think of someone who started a business. That is, after all, the most common use of the word. Merriam-Webster defines it as “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.”
However, I see a broader definition of entrepreneurship as the general approach of empowering people to take action on their own. For leaders who are strategic and visionary, it’s easy to want to give people a plan or ask them to give you a plan before they start executing.
At times like this, however, encouraging people at the grassroots level to do organic outreach in their own way can be extremely powerful for several reasons:
- It gets them focused on something positive during a challenging time,
- It gives them a sense of control when most things seem out of control, and
- It gives them purpose, which is a known key for resiliency.
True organic outreach allows your members to actively participate in the Great Commission, in a way that is, I think, more like what Jesus had in mind. It becomes less about a church or a denomination getting results and focuses more on people reaching other people. It allows them to take an approach that works for their personality and how they were designed, so it is more likely to bear fruit for them and others.
This happened to me in March when I had an idea and simply acted on it. As the COVID-19 situation was unfolding, I asked God what to do. I was reading this scripture Haggai 2:4,
“Be strong…and work. For I am with you.”
There comes a time when God expects action. So, I got up and created a new email address specifically for prayer requests. Then I drafted a note to our neighbors, made copies, and left it on 100 doors as I completed a prayer walk through one-fourth of the subdivision. That was March 20, and I was planning to leave notes on the remaining houses in a few days.
I didn’t get a single prayer request by email from those first 100 notes. At that time, little was known about the virus and people were extremely afraid. By March 23, I became hesitant about leaving notes that might scare my neighbors. Late in the evening, I decided to post on the subdivision’s Facebook page about my concern for the anxiety I was seeing along with some scripture and a reminder that Jesus was still on the throne. This was a bold step for several reasons. First, I don’t use FB much at all. Second, I had never seen anything remotely religious posted in the subdivision’s Facebook group. And third, while I live in mid-Missouri, this town’s attitude toward the church is more reflective of coastal California.
I woke up the next morning to almost 40 messages sharing hope, requesting prayer, and commenting on what a difference the notes had made. I also received the first prayer request to the email address! I was in tears. Shocked and humbled.
God led me to decorate my front door and the clubhouse door with scripture notes that people could take and put in their homes. That Facebook post continued to receive comments, and six women from multiple churches (three of whom I did not know) reached out and asked to be part of a team to do some sort of outreach.
Since then, we have designed and launched a ministry called “His Hands and Feet” in our subdivision. Our focus is on encouraging others, praying for them, and helping to meet their needs. We are in the process of recruiting Care Group leaders who will each check in on about 15 homes a week to ensure people’s needs are met and that they are safe and encouraged.
God spoke through multiple people that this ministry isn’t just for right now—it is for the future too. We realized we needed to share how we did this so that others could do something similar if they were inspired to do so but unsure of where to start. It can work anywhere—from a subdivision of 500 homes like ours to an apartment building or even a single city block. You can find complete resources for how to start a similar group on this webpage. We are being agile in developing this ministry, pivoting as needed and updating the site as we learn.
In some ways, I think the power of this plan is to show that sometimes we need to just go for it. Be bold and faithful. Jesus was.
I realize there’s some irony in saying “Let them be entrepreneurial” and yet, I am giving people a process. That’s my wiring, and I realize some people won’t know where to start. The entrepreneur can take that and reshape it to fit their community. Others may be inspired to design something that looks completely different.
Ministry is even more powerful when it stems from the heart of an individual and not a church or ministry organization, which can feel more mission-oriented and sometimes create skepticism from the very people that the organization is trying to reach. When individuals take the initiative, people will see the desire of a believer’s heart to show God’s love to his or her neighbor through their actions.
Encourage your people to pray, listen, and get moving. This is a unique time none of us can afford to waste.
