Christianity and the mission to spread God’s word and love go beyond the predefined platforms of a church, a non-profit, or a classroom. The mission can reach all spheres of society. Aiming to champion Christian entrepreneurs who extend the mission to their ventures, Tyndale’s Centre for Redemptive Entrepreneurship (CRE) launched Canada’s first Redemptive Business Lab in Paris, Ontario.
The lab took place from April 2 to April 4 and had an attendance of ten early-stage business founders and eight mentors. The lab focused on helping the founders learn how business venture building can be redemptive and be a part of God’s mission. Over the three-day period, each founder had four one-on-one sessions with mentors. They gained advice and insight from the mentors, who are both seasoned business leaders and devoted followers of Jesus. With this unique mentoring structure, there was an additional benefit of built-in discipleship during the lab.
“My main takeaway from this event was being so blessed by the chemistry of like-minded people coming together, specifically entrepreneurs who are passionate about living out their faith,” said Hannah Lau, founder of Astera Asia. “And I believe that when those people come together, there’s going to be amazing things that God can do with us and for us.”
With the success of this first lab, there are plans for another lab later this year—an opportunity to support founders in their redemptive entrepreneurship journey. However, there is still a call for more to join and build this community of like-minded entrepreneurs.
“One of the overall goals is to build an ecosystem,” said Philip Yan, director of CRE. “Because for this movement, it cannot just be founders. It cannot be just one group of people. There needs to be an ecosystem that includes founders, funders, mentors, and educators. We want to invite people to journey together in this movement.”
As community is the catalyst for all movements, the Redemptive Business Lab has been designed to facilitate connections in an engaging environment, empowering the movement of redemptive entrepreneurship with the goal that each venture will have a positive, restorative impact on the world.
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