23 Appendix 1

Appendix 1
Suggestions for group discussion
The Minister as Entrepreneur
Leading and growing the Church in an age of rapid change
Introduction: Why ‘entrepreneur’?
1 What are your feelings about the word ‘entrepreneur’? What sort of associations and
images does this word generate? Do you feel generally positive or negative towards the
word? What is it about the word that prompts particular feelings?
2 Do you feel that you are an entrepreneur or have entrepreneurial ability? If so, do you feel
you have been able to use these gifts in the service of the Church or the wider community? If
you have, what wider factors have enabled you to feel confident about using your
entrepreneurial gifts in this way? If not, why might this be?
3 Discuss your response to my statement in this chapter that ‘the language of
entrepreneurship offers the Church a useful lens through which to imagine the shape of
mission for our emerging culture’. What ‘shape’ might participating in God’s mission take in
our culture? Does it make sense that lay and ordained ministers with entrepreneurial ability
might have a particular contribution to make within this mission? What do you imagine this
contribution to look like?
1 Dragons’ Den? Towards a positive understanding of the entrepreneur
1 How do you respond to Robert Warren’s assertion that ‘entrepreneurs are not often team
players and can be driven rather than called’?
2 Jonny Baker suggests that for those of us who remember Margaret Thatcher, the notion of
entrepreneurship is ‘tainted with capitalist overtones’. He goes on to say, ‘it’s pretty clear that
it’s not being used in that way in the context of mission.’ Is his view reflected in your own
experience?
3 Do you think there is an alternative, perhaps less contentious, word than ‘entrepreneur’
that might serve a similar function in the context of Christian ministry and mission? What
might be gained by using this word rather than ‘entrepreneur’? What might be lost?
2 Definitions of the entrepreneur
1 Consider each element of Bolton and Thompson’s definition of the entrepreneur set out in
this chapter. Do you recognize aspects of this definition in each other? If so, which ones?
2 Consider your own ministerial context. What kind of ‘environmental’ factors might
encourage the emergence of more entrepreneurial ministers?
3 What specific things do you feel could be considered to encourage and facilitate an
entrepreneurial approach to ministry and mission in members of the congregation of which
you are a part?

3 An entrepreneurial God?
1 How do you feel about the possibility that reflection on the concept of entrepreneurship
might serve to deepen our appreciation of God’s character and nature?
2 Consider whether you agree with the inclusion of particular individuals in the lists of
entrepreneurial characters in the Bible and Christian history. Are there others that you would
add to these lists? Can you give reasons for their inclusion?
3 I have suggested that it is problematic to apply the concept of innovation to God and God’s
activity in the world. Discuss whether you share my reservations.
5 Feeling positive about entrepreneurs in Christian ministry
1 Roger felt that to bring the word ‘entrepreneur’ into the vocabulary of the Church would ‘do
us a lot of good’. What is your response to this claim? In what specific ways might bringing
the word into the Church’s vocabulary do a lot of good?
2 Matt explained that he felt the need to underemphasize the entrepreneurial aspect of his
nature when going through the discernment process for ordained ministry. Discuss your
responses to his claim, or reflect on the extent to which your own experiences have been
like Matt’s.
3 How do you respond to Susan’s view that if there is not something of the entrepreneur in
each ordained minister, he or she has ‘no business leading community’?
6 Church buildings can be a resource
1 What are your feelings about the church buildings with which you are directly involved? Do
you see potential in your church buildings, even if this potential is currently untapped?
2 How do you think your church buildings are perceived by members of the congregation
and members of the wider community?
3 How might a congregation be helped to consider the various ways in which their church
buildings can best serve the mission of God in a given context?
7 Teamwork and partnering with others
1 Discuss your own experiences of being part of teams or actively facilitating and supporting
a team in a church context.
2 How do you respond to Rupert’s suggestion of having a ‘recognized entrepreneur’ in each
context?
3 To what extent is working in partnership, both within and beyond the church community,
part of your experience of group members? You may like to share some of the lessons you
have learnt as a result of working in partnership with others.

8 What factors help entrepreneurship to happen?
1 Take a few moments to reflect on the list of 19 factors that respondents suggested might
aid the exercise of entrepreneurship. To which of these factors would you give greater
priority, and why (see pp. 101–2)?
2 I n his responses Matt talked about the importance of trust in entrepreneurial ventures. You
might like to discuss some of the ways in which you would endeavour to build and maintain
trust in your own contexts.
3 Rupert talked about the importance of a permission-giving culture in enabling
entrepreneurship. To what extent do you believe that the presence or absence of such a
culture affects the exercise of entrepreneurship at local church and community level?
9 What hinders entrepreneurship?
1 Consider the list of 22 factors that respondents felt might hinder the exercise of
entrepreneurship. Do you feel that some factors are more significant than others? If so,
which ones and why (see pp. 106–7)?
2 Matt claimed that the Church of England made low demands on people and that this was
accompanied by low levels of personal discipleship. He suggested that both were factors
that hindered entrepreneurship in the local church and community. Do you agree with Matt’s
point of view? If so, what do you think might be done to change this?
3 What might be done to take greater account of the experience, skills and competencies
that lay and ordained ministers bring to their church roles from previous (or continuing)
careers?
10 The impact of senior leadership on entrepreneurship in the local church
1 Dan talked about the need for church structures to be eased a little in order to make
necessary changes in the church. You may like to reflect on your own denomination. To what
extent would easing the structures enable entrepreneurship in local churches? Which
aspects of the current structure might need easing? What would be gained by this? What
might be lost?
2 Think about your own role within your church or denomination. In what specific ways might
you be able actively to encourage and enable an entrepreneurial approach to ministry within
your spheres of influence?
3 Take a few moments to reflect on those who hold leadership responsibilities in your
denomination, in particular those to whom you are in some sense accountable. In what
specific ways might you encourage those who occupy such roles to have a positive attitude
towards entrepreneurial ministers and the exercise of entrepreneurship?
Taken from The Minister as Entrepreneur by Michael Volland