By David Lyons
Meet some people in the Scottish Entrepreneurs Community by watching a video at this link.
Do you ever find yourself longing for kindred spirits who are wrestling with the same problems that you face in your work? In Scotland, an inspiring group of entrepreneurs has shown how to make that happen.
Called the Scottish Entrepreneurs Community, this group of business professionals, with help from Navigator leaders in the UK and Bratislava, have teamed up to encourage one another in business, spiritual growth, and engagement with nonbelievers.
“We are helping each other live an integrated life,” said my friend Phil Boydell, who in September will become the U.K. country leader. “By integrated, I mean no longer separating work, friendship, evangelism, and spiritual growth into different areas. We are helping each other in all of these areas.”
For the past 18 months or so, the group of entrepreneurs has been meeting regularly (and virtually) to discuss business and personal challenges, to pray, and to encourage one another through the Scriptures. They also have ongoing personal and business support from staff the Agathé Center, a Navigator nonprofit in Bratislava, Slovakia that serves our global missional enterprise efforts. (You can watch a video about the Agathé Center at the same link shown below.)
“The benefits for everyone have been amazing,” Phil told me. “We are overcoming isolation, which is common among busy, stressed entrepreneurs. We are also seeing the emergence of an ecosystem of missional enterprises that can help each business flourish as they partner with each other. And we are seeing the formation of a lasting community who all share a longing to see their businesses used by God to raise up spiritual generations of new believers.”
As with those working in other post-Christian European cultures, Navigators in the U.K. face numerous barriers to advancing the Gospel among nonbelievers. They are finding new pathways for the Gospel to flow into mainstream society. Businesses provide natural opportunities for relating with colleagues, suppliers, customers and even neighborhoods.
They key is to help Christian entrepreneurs gain a vision for how businesses can play a central role in God’s eternal purposes, and to provide practical help in how to bring that vision into reality. The Agathé Center in Bratislava, which is an offshoot of the Navigator Global Enterprise Network (GEN), has played a significant role in helping the Scottish entrepreneurs in these areas.
“They are thinking about how their businesses can be more missional,” said Ralph Gatti, who helps lead the Agathé Center. “We have helped by giving them some formal thinking on this topic, and we encourage them in their effort to form a community. This gave them a clearer vision, some practical help, and a sense of belonging—a safe space to share with each other, and to know they are participating together in something bigger. This is what whole-life discipleship looks like.”
Helene Pfeil, who also leads the Agathé Center, believes the Scottish Entrepreneurs Community could be a model for other Navigator missional enterprise efforts around the world. Having a local support network of business leaders who share faith in Christ can help them survive emotionally and grow spiritually. They can even offer each other peer-to-peer business consulting.
This holistic approach, says Carolina Herrera, a Navigator from Mexico who helps lead the Agathé Center, unifies personal life and faith with business and family and friendship.
“All of it comes together,” Carolina says. “The business entrepreneurs are better able to use their God-given talents in ways that directly influence the lives of people and their communities.”
It is rare for anyone to have a significant impact in life or ministry alone. By serving together among the lost—including through entrepreneurship and business—we can be more fruitful.
What steps can you take to imitate the Scottish Entrepreneurs Community in your part of the world?
David Lyons is an international vice president of The Navigators.
