Pastor Daniel Harrell, of Colonial Church in Edina, Minnesota, founded the Innové Project after unexpectedly acquiring a large sum of money from a piece of land that he had sold. He has always been extremely mission minded, and he viewed this blessing as an opportunity to involve his church in mission work while using the specific business talents of the people in his congregation.
The Project is an entrepreneurial competition that allowed the youth in the church the opportunity to come up with business ideas to help the city in specific tasks, as well as to meet the common goal of sharing the Gospel. In Harrell’s words, “I came at this with a conviction that there are things we can do as congregations, as bodies of Christ, that none of us can do individually as members of that body…we would engage possibilities and somehow discern and decide as a congregation what we would fund, what we would get behind, what we could impact together as part of our calling to do Kingdom work in the world.” Harrell felt that it was better to get his whole church involved in mission work instead of just giving the money to another organization.
The Project ended having over 150 people submit applications. It took them months to narrow down the finalists, but eventually they selected six “Protégés” to fund. These six finalists ended up creating both non-profit and for-profit business, including a school program that connects the church and the school and helps to feed children during the weekends, and a printing business that donates its profits to clean water profits.
I think that this is a great example of the Mission of the Church mixing with Entrepreneurship because it not only builds upon and encourages the talents of people within the congregation, but it also encourages everyone in the congregation to get involved with their calling as Christians, which is to be Ambassadors for Christ and to further His Kingdom on earth. It also shows that God can work through any kind of business, even start-up businesses founded by “church kids”. Finally, it shows how God is using His people to continue His work of constantly creating new things.
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