Social Entrepreneurship: Case Studies

Theological students and business students that I meet increasingly seem to have something in common – both are concerned with issues related to the marketplace. They are starting to wonder if they can fulfill their missional calling IN the marketplace and not IN SPITE of the marketplace. They realize that there is tremendous potential for both good and evil related to engagement in the marketplace. Ultimately, there are heeding John Wesley’s advice, in his sermon on “The Use of Money,”

In the hands of his children, it [money] is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, raiment for the naked: It gives to the traveller and the stranger where to lay his head. By it we may supply the place of an husband to the widow, and of a father to the fatherless. We may be a defence for the oppressed, a means of health to the sick, of ease to them that are in pain; it may be as eyes to the blind, as feet to the lame; yea, a lifter up from the gates of death!

Reflecting on the missional significance of business and money in the marketplace, Wesley concluded in the same sermon, “It is therefore of the highest concern that all who fear God know how to employ this valuable talent; that they be instructed how it may answer these glorious ends, and in the highest degree.”

The authors in this collection are heeding Wesley’s admonition to “employ their valuable talents” through entrepreneurship that both create profit (otherwise, they cease to exist) and create a social change that reflects the kingdom of God. They provide practical examples to help flesh out examples of kingdom minded entrepreneurs.