Calling All Church Planters and Pastors ... Time to Start a Business

I’m sure if I saw the title of this article 17 years ago when I first began journeying into church planting I quickly would’ve kept scrolling down my social media feed. I might’ve even unfollowed or unliked this Intrepid thingy. I was too busy trying and hoping to raise funds to land me in my new city financially secure and ready to woo people towards my new church. One year later I was such a good fundraiser I was working part-time outside of church planting and then for a while full-time outside of planting. Sure enough the numbers game caught up with me and I wasn’t prepared. But that’s what youthful naïveté does.

At what point did I not only warm up to this idea of bivocationalism but also intentional bivocationalism? Not only that, but at what point did I latch onto this notion of starting a business or non-profit to sustain me in ministry? Whereas once I saw bivocational ministry as a nuisance and an obstacle, today I see it in terms of opportunity, freedom, and actually a greater ministry opportunity than I ever had “in the church.” Now it seems as though I’m picking fights …

I’m not here to pit one against the other. Nor am I here to berate you to consider one over the other. Instead my hope is for you to pause and consider. As Intrepid continues to grow I keep hearing from more and more pastors and church planters looking to start businesses and non-profits. These leaders come from very traditional churches to brand new “pre-launch” church plants and everything in between. It seems as though the word is out … not our word by any stretch or means, but the word about launching a business startup in ministry continues to catch on.

To that end we’re calling call church planters and pastors … join us. Jump into the deep end of the pool with us. Join an Intrepid cohort. We’d love to journey with you as you explore, consider, and wrestle through what kind of business or non-profit your community needs and one you’re uniquely wired to tackle.