Faith Driven Entrepreneur

In Part Two with David Morken, the team discusses more thoroughly about what it means to be mission ready both individually and corporately. David talks about the importance of obedience to God and avoiding the pitfalls of both willfulness and passivity and Henry leads the discussion into practical applications of how their company’s HR policies intentionally reflected kingdom values as they target the whole person for impact. This commitment led them to institute chaplaincy roles as a force multiplier to help them steward the whole person policies they wanted to instill. David shares further on a few other ways the company has and continues to innovate in the area of ensuring the whole team is mission ready. If you’re committed to growing healthy, impactful organizations that walk out the values of the kingdom, then this is the episode for you. If you are innovating in the areas of employee well being and engagement and are seeing the results directly impact your organization’s reach and bottom line, by all means share those wins with us at faithdrivenentrepreneur.org. Until next week!

In this edition of the FDE Podcast, we get a peek into the longtime friendship and partnership (let’s just call it what it is – a bromance) between David Morken and Henry Kaestner, co-Founders of Bandwidth and Republic Wireless. They share with us the divine origins of their relationship (Henry was a direct answer to David’s prayer) and how their relationship translated into a successful business where people are promoted as much as the product. They talk about the need to be able to work through conflict in healthy ways and the conscious effort needed to incorporate others into this dynamic mix to create high functioning, mission ready, people-centric organizations. And who doesn’t want that? Part One of this discussion focuses on the friendship and partnership rooted in Christ that launched the company while next week's episode gets into how together they created a culture that reproduced kingdom concepts and principles in the lives of their employees. You don’t want to miss any of this. We serve a Trinitarian God who does everything in community and Who tasks us to follow suit. We’d love to hear your stories about those important relationships in your life directly impacting your faith driven entrepreneur pursuits at faithdrivenentrepreneur.org. It will encourage us all!

This week’s podcast has us listening in on a talk Tim Keller gave to Sovereign’s Capital last September where he meticulously unpacks the hidden truth of identity formation, its habits and rituals, in both the Western and greater world. We are fed these belief systems from the moment we breathe and too often we are defined by the greater world without our consent. He steps us through examples of how our thinking is specifically impacted by these external forces that define us outside of the context of Christ. Tim shares with us the cultural problems of both traditional (your community defines you) and modern (you define you) identity formation and shows why the gospel is the only solution to living an authentic, impactful life. We thought this would be one of the best ways to start 2019 – to really spend some time evaluating who we think we are and how that measures with who God says we are. We apologize in advance for the cognitive dissonance this episode may bring. We bless you with the Spirit of God Who imparts all truth and invite you to share the things God is revealing to you via this episode. Feel free to drop us a line at Faith Driven Entreprenuer.

The team spends some time with the students and teachers from Entrepreneur Program and Valley Christian School (VCS) in San Jose, CA. Spearheaded by Hannah and Danny Kim, entrepreneurs in their own right, the program has launched high school students into the world of entrepreneurship in the midst of a community invested in seeing biblical values and principles impacting the world. Hannah gives us an overview of the program’s evolution while the team chats with two students about their specific projects, one launched and the other in beta for release around now. Then the team talks with Danny Kim, who heads up VCS’ Quest Institute, which we believe (because there is no one to contest us) has had more tests performed on the International Space Station than NASA. While Quest Institute was inaugurated at VCS it is meant to impact the world and Danny shares with the team some of the ways this is happening today. This week’s episode is packed but we didn’t want to leave anything out for you as we ARE talking about the next generation of faith-driven entrepreneurs. This will close us out for 2018 as we plan to spend time with our families and loved ones over the next few weeks. From all of us at Faith Driven Entrepreneur, we wish you the Merriest Christmas and the Happiest New Year! See you in 2019!

In this week’s podcast, the team answers a few of your questions around profit making and taking as well as consumerism. One Bay Area listener shares his struggles with being in what he believes is a money-driven industry. The team challenges us all to think about how we can redeem the industries we’re in by making figuring out the best way to serve it our number one goal. William believes that almost all industries are redeemable, Henry encourages us in the ways we can show love for the people in these industries for the purposes of transformation and Rusty reminds us of our true identity as a guide to ensure optimal motives while bringing in those returns. One of our listeners in Nairobi, Kenya asks the team for a biblical viewpoint on consumerism in response to the rise of the global middle class and the team takes us back again to a discussion of heart motive by realigning a few marketing and product design concepts back to the kingdom. And no good podcast on entrepreneurism would ever leave out a few quotes from “Wall Street”. As we do our mad dashes this Christmas season to show love for the people in our lives, let’s stop and take note of our heart motives in the doing and giving. Tell us who and what you want to partner with our Father God in redeeming this Christmas season by dropping a line at faithdrivenentreprenuer.com.

The team sits down with John Marsh of Marsh Collective, Opelika Alabama to discuss storytelling, what it’s like to run 10+ businesses (the collective part of Marsh Collective) and how to be the steward of 10 square city blocks for the glory of God and Kingdom while being totally unqualified to do so. John helps us understand the practicalities of living in the midst of kingdom tension: being both dead and alive, content but fruitfully multiplying, living here but not being from here. Rusty has John walk us through what systems need to be in place to redeem a life, a family and a city and Henry has him give us some insight on effective parenting while being an entrepreneur. William closes us out with a request for words of wisdom for entrepreneurs and John’s answer: think cities. John holds a very special place in the heart of FDE and the team is quite excited to have you hear a bit of his story and want you to be as inspired by what’s possible when we let God in to do what He does best: redeem and transform. How has this week’s episode inspired you to be a part of God’s plan to redeem some part of creation He’s asking you to steward? Where can your business better align with God’s redemptive purpose for it? Drop us a line at Faith Driven Entrepreneur and let us know.

The podcast discusses the importance of giving as an entrepreneur, including ways to creatively think about causes and involve others in the decision-making process. They also explore balancing work travel with personal time and the potential for excessive travel to become an idol. The hosts emphasize setting boundaries and using technology for better interaction, and invite listeners to share their generosity experiences.

correction: Chip Ingram is now CEO of Living on the Edge, an international discipleship ministry. In Part Two with Chip Ingram, CEO of Living on the Edge, we find Rusty asking Chip to give his take on a previous mailbag question from an entrepreneur who didn’t see the value of church anymore as what comes out of the pulpit isn’t relatable to his life. While Chip agreed that most pastors aren’t very conversant with the entrepreneur’s life, he flips it from a what do I get to what can I give mode of thinking. He encourages entrepreneurs to see church as God’s company while acknowledging the frustration of not seeing change or progress fast enough. Henry has Chip share on some practical ways of how Pastors can love on the entrepreneurs in their midst before William tackles the subject matter of entrepreneurs struggling with failure, sometimes even a series of failures. Chip tells us that God must first work in you deeply before He can use you significantly. Rusty closes this week’s episode asking Chip to give listeners perspective on how to use power righteously. Chip’s response: it’s about stewardship. We hope you receive encouragement as well as insight from Part Two of our time with Chip Ingram. We’d like to hear from you on how you are stewarding the power and influence God has given you and how you’re overcoming the temptation of self-reliance. Reach out to us in the comment section of Faith Driven Entrepreneur.

correction: Chip Ingram is now CEO of Living on the Edge, an international discipleship ministry In Part One with Chip Ingram, CEO of Living on the Edge, Henry has Chip walk through his experience pastoring many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. While Chip’s own entrepreneurial persuasions began at an early age selling Halloween candy in late November at a significant markup, he realized early on in his life as a pastor that he could teach and inspire far beyond his leadership capabilities. His start as a spiritual coach to entrepreneurs began as a simple exchange: his Santa Cruz church was growing at breakneck speed and he needed wisdom and skillsets to support that growth. He reached out to the entrepreneurs in his congregation and became friends with them, creating a safe and respectful place for these leaders to share what was really going on in their lives. The grass isn’t always greener, to say the least. Struggles with identity, purpose, and the tension between the world’s values vs. those of the kingdom plague these individuals as much as anyone else with one major exception: the extreme loneliness as a result of an inability to find authentic, no strings attached relationships when you command significant power, influence and resources. Henry encourages Chip to dig deeper on the loneliness challenge by asking for wisdom on how these individuals can overcome the temptation of being a recluse. Chip gives us a mandate to care about who we become more than anything else, as well as a construct on how to have the right view of both God and ourselves. We hope you enjoy Part One with Chip Ingram. We’d love to know how you’ve overcome “the great identity crisis” by changing your view of who you believe God to be. Please share with us at faithdrivenentrepreneur.com.

David Brickner, Executive Director of Jews for Jesus, spends time with the team in this week’s podcast. He gives perspective on the tragic events in Pittsburgh and shares a bit on how people of the faith can best share the gospel with Jewish neighbors through relationship building and honoring the common elements between Judaism and Christianity. Rusty leads the discussion into the “Behold Your God Israel” campaign where David shares the entrepreneurial strategies the organization employed to reach Jewish people in Israel over a span of 18 years. David addresses Jews for Jesus’ branding challenge with regard to how the Jewish population views Christianity and his organization and shares on how using customer segmentation principles helped the organization effectively reach Israelis for Christ. David ends this week making a case for the power of transformation – that changed lives give the best witness and taking the time to gather and retell those stories is probably how we’ll reach the next generation, regardless of their background and faith persuasion. He gives some results from his organization’s use of design thinking principles to help better understand and connect with Jewish millennials. This week’s episode really highlights the simple truth that non-profits are as entrepreneurial as for profits and that applying entrepreneurial principles can also be highly effective in spreading the gospel. Let us know how you’ve used entrepreneurial strategies in your non-profit and/or ministry at Faith Driven Entrepreneur.com. We’d love to hear how these tools have been utilized for Kingdom expansion.