Bible Reading Plan on the Lone Entrepreneur and the Need for Community
The Lone Entrepreneur
Many business owners would say that community is important, but few make it a priority. At Faith Driven Entrepreneur, we encourage all entrepreneurs to move past anxiety and baggage related to deepening relationships with other professionals and mentors. The devotionals inside were written by a handful of business owners who believe community matters. We hope the reading plan encourages you to find your community or sign up for a Foundation Group.
Day 1: Community Gives Perspective on God’s Promises
At the age of 21, Jena Nardella co-founded Blood:Water alongside the band, Jars of Clay. Under her leadership, the organization raised more than $20 million to provide grants to grassroots organizations addressing HIV/AIDS and water in sub-Saharan Africa. Now that she’s out of the organization, she looks back on all she’s done – and wishes she had done.
But reflecting on Hebrews gives her perspective on the grand lineage of faithful followers of God. Not everyone received their reward in this lifetime. Instead, we can be encouraged that we are not alone and that we actually exist within a communal faith that spans time and place and generation.
Bible reading from Hebrews.
Day 2: Being in Community Means Caring for Community
As a church, we’re called to love others as God has loved us. We need to extend God’s hospitality and that same grace to the immigrant, to the sojourner, to the refugee, to the foreigner who is among us, not just for our economic good, even though that's substantially going to be the case, but certainly for the holistic view of the gospel.
Bible reading from Exodus.
Day 3: We Need People to Share Our Lives With
Entrepreneurs don’t always have people to share their highs and lows with. Sometimes a successful executive will share how successful their business was last year, but their friends will only hear them bragging about the number of zeros in their bank account even if this wasn’t the intention at all.
Being in community means putting aside ego as both speaker and listener. Be happy for others’ successes. Be humble always. But at the end of the day, we need to pursue community despite its difficulty. In fact, Jesus says we need “one another” almost 60 times in the Gospels.
Bible reading from Romans.
Day 4: Lead Your Community With A Solid Mission
A community doesn’t mean a random collection of individuals who happen to work in the same building. True community means a group of people aligned around a common vision. Jeff and Ally own and manage over 3,500 Camp Gladiator locations with 1,000 trainers and over 100,000 customers. This year, they decided to make “Shine Bright” their company’s yearly theme. They wanted to encourage their employees to be positive influences in a dark world.
Consider how God may be asking you to lead in your community.
Bible reading from Matthew.