What is the involvement of Christians in social entrepreneurship? Why does it matter? Should Christians be involved and be taking a leadership role? Does involvement in social entrepreneurship detract from more important priorities such as evangelization? Can the pursuit of social entrepreneurship be a valid and worthwhile avenue for the exercise of a Christian’s entrepreneurial talent and God-inspired creativity?

Let’s start at the very beginning. Christians may indeed have been the original social entrepreneurs—long before the term was coined. The concept has only recently been labeled by the mainstream, but this doesn’t mean, of course, that it had not been occurring for the past centuries. An interesting reference point is a book written by Edmund H Oliver in 1930 titled The Social Achievements of the Christian Church. Although obviously dated it provides an excellent summary of how Christians throughout history have pursued innovative solutions to social problems—in other words, they acted as social entrepreneurs. Oliver discusses the achievements of the Christian church during the Pagan Empire (to AD 313): care of fatherless and widows; poor relief; care for prisoners and captives; burial of the dead; provision for unemployed; hospitality towards strangers. Churches are organizations in waiting ready to make a difference. A more recent book which touches on the contributions of Christian to driving innovative social change is For the Glory of God by Rodney Stark. One of the topics covered is the contribution of Christians to the abolition of slavery.

Interestingly, in mainstream literature on social entrepreneurship there are scant references to the role of Christians. For example, David Bornstein, cited earlier, notes that, “St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order would qualify as a social entrepreneur, having built multiple organizations that advanced pattern changes in his field. Another example is Alex Nicholls who describes the dynamics of social entrepreneurship within religious institutions. Nicholls notes the church-based social entrepreneurship aims at both reviving faith communities and mobilizing faith-based resources towards wider social problems. He explains that Rick Warren “has been an outstanding example of how innovation has reinvented faith communities not only multiplying worshippers exponentially but also mobilizing substantial resources for good works within and without the community itself.” Nichols also noted that in the UK the association between the Fair Trade movement and church groups has long been important in generating social and financial capital.

Despite the prominent role of Christians being at the forefront of innovative social changes historically and through to the present day, the role of Christian social entrepreneurs has been marginalized in our modern secular world. One need only examine literature in the field. This approach is exemplified at the Skoll Forum discussed above. I have attended the Skoll Forum a couple of times and was impressed with the high level discussion and initiatives. At the same time, I was also saddened to realize that Christians are not only absent from this forum, but effectively not welcome. The only reference to any faith component was to dredge up a convenient whipping boy. In the context of a planned parenting initiative to assist women in the a third world country, the approach to birth control by the Catholic Church was mocked as hopelessly misguided thinking. More generally, Christian organizations are discredited for their approach to addressing social needs which is clouded by questionable motives. Evangelization is viewed as hopelessly anachronistic and culturally insensitive. By contrast, most social enterprises would reflect an approach that is humanistic, relativistic and focused on addressing human needs.

In short, social entrepreneurship is a field in which Christians have played and should continue to play a lead role. Christians need to be concerned with addressing both spiritual and physical needs. Christians can and should be a force for good within society. Christians should harness their entrepreneurial creativity for the greater good. God is at work in the world and Christians can work to redeem the culture through addressing social problems.