Some Christians may think that the words “faith” and “wealth creation” are incompatible, but Matt Bird isn’t one of them. Last year the social entrepreneur called on Britain’s churches to start businesses and to encourage their parishioners to do the same. Now Bird, founder and chief executive of Nayba, the Christian charity, wants them to go a step further.
“A food parcel can sustain a person and their family for a few days, but a small business can sustain it indefinitely,” he said. “The Church often over-spiritualises and underplays practical answers to community needs. I believe that the ability to start a business is a God-given gift and that we should encourage the Church to do this as a way of serving the community.”
He wrote his column in The Times in January 2021 — headlined “It’s time for faith-driven entrepreneurs to emerge” — expecting to be “shot down in flames” for suggesting that the Church should get involved in profit-making. Instead, he has been inundated with inquiries from churches nationwide eager to help people to become entrepreneurs. He rapidly formulated his ideas into a book and a month later published The Spirit of Enterprise: Helping entrepreneurs transform neighbourhoods on Amazon.
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"Enterprise has a biblical footing based on the idea that wealth can foster wellbeing if it is used in the right way." On the "Spirit of Enterprise" course in churches https://t.co/eyYQBRTGHw
— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) November 8, 2021