A Way Out of No Way: An Approach to Christian Innovation

By Stephen Lewis and Kimberly R. Daniel

Christian innovation is a topic that has emerged for congregations, community leaders, and aspiring faith-rooted entrepreneurs. But what does it really mean to innovate as a Christian? Why does it even matter?

In this book, learn a six-step approach to Christian innovation grounded in the life and ministry of Jesus, and African diasporic people's ingenious experiences: what the authors' communities call making a way out of no way. Journey with Stephen Lewis and Kimberly R. Daniel to encounter stories from diverse experiences, reflect theologically and explore ideas and practices for Christian innovation to create a more just world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667824437

Stephen Lewis

Stephen J. Lewis never sailed the darkened seas as a child. He was never handed a suit of plate armor by his parents, or taught esoteric magic by his preacher. These deplorable shortfalls of his upbringing led him to a single conclusion: apart from back alley dentistry, the world is precious short on adventure. So he quit his job and began filling in the blanks. DEAD MEN TELL NO LIES is his first novel and, with occasional breaks for ghost pepper infused Thai food, he resides in the captain's quarters working on its sequel.

Book preview

Introduction: A Way Out of No Way

What we think about Christian innovation matters. Why? Because our perspectives inform how we approach the topic and its purpose in our lives. When we encounter diverse experiences and approaches to Christian innovation, we broaden our own imagination and understanding about what’s at stake when we practice it.

In this book, we—Stephen and Kimberly—offer a perspective and approach to Christian innovation grounded in the life and ministry of Jesus, and African diasporic people’s ingenious experiences: what we call making a way out of no way.

Navi Radjou spent years studying frugal innovation, a concept called jugaad in his native land of India. Jugaad is a colloquial Hindi word that roughly translates as an innovative fix; an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness.¹ Frugal innovation is not about making do; it is about making things better. Examples of frugal innovation can be found throughout the world: Radjou cites bicycle-charging cell phones in Kenya; a system that converts humid air into fresh drinking water in Peru; and a clay refrigerator in India that uses no electricity. These innovations created more possibilities for human flourishing by fostering home-grown access to such benefits as timely communication, better health care, and cleaner energy.

In America, people of African descent and others living on the underside of imperial progress— economic opportunities that benefit an elite minority—are well-acquainted with frugal innovation. African Americans commonly call it making a way out of no way. Examples from African American history include the creation of Black-led fraternities, schools, banks, grocery stores, religious institutions, and the Black press. All of these things emerged from a necessity to achieve communal goals and provide access to collective resources, despite systemic racism ² and reflects the maxim Necessity is the mother of invention.

Our invitation to you is to explore our approach and the inspiring stories of diverse Christian innovators you will encounter like:

•Kimberly R. Daniel . The co-founder of an Atlanta based start up accelerator committed to helping aspiring, underrepresented entrepreneurs develop businesses for good.

•Shelley Best. A Connecticut pastor-turned-entrepreneur, who launches a learning platform at the beginning of the pandemic to help soulpreneurs discern their own emerging ventures, even amid the lockdown.

•Elizabeth Coffee. A Rio Grande Valley networker who experiments with ways to raise awareness among investors who are otherwise unaware of under-resourced people and entrepreneurs working on immigration, food insecurity, and other social injustices.

•Hogan Bassey. A Nigerian born social entrepreneur, who develops an unconventional, international life science business helping vulnerable populations impacted by malaria.

•Kit Evans-Ford. An innovative professor and spiritual director, who creates a bath and beauty product business employed by women survivors of domestic violence and abuse.

Diverse innovators like these are disrupting age-old practices of innovation across the country. Working at the intersection of ministry and entrepreneurship, Christian innovation for them starts with identifying the needs of those Jesus called the least among us—those who are economically disenfranchised, socially vulnerable, minimally resourced, and chronically undervalued by white normative ways of being in the world.

What do other diverse Christians think about Christian innovation? How have they been innovating in their communities? We wanted to know. So in 2017, as leaders at the Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE), we began hosting small gatherings of entrepreneurs, pastors, and community leaders who were designing and imagining new ways to help their communities flourish.

We listened, and we listened again. We invited people of faith to share stories from their lived experience of innovating within the tight constraints of their contexts. These constraints include literal walls and invisible borders like unnamed norms about who gets invited, who gets financed, who gets celebrated, and whose innovations get ignored. However, within constraints, creativity blossomed and we lingered in those sweet spots where diverse perspectives, creativity, and necessity meet.

By hosting a five-city listening tour, bringing together more than 200 innovators working at the fertile intersections of church, community, and business from Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Antonio, and New York City, we were able to find people in Chicago imagining a new underground railroad that would move resources from the wealthy to the non-wealthy. We met people in Los Angeles who were navigating an entire denomination to repurpose its buildings as affordable housing and co-working space for immigrant neighbors. In Atlanta, where we launched a start-up accelerator for early-stage entrepreneurs, we learned from women and people of color designing businesses to serve the communities that they care about most.

When the global pandemic hit in 2020, it disproportionately affected already underserved communities. As a result, we became even more laser-focused on Christian innovation taking place at the intersection of economic, social, and political inequity.

This apocalyptic moment uncovered persistent issues of racial injustice in 2020 and further made clear what we had been witnessing: the entrepreneurial community is complicit in social and systemic inequity by re-investing in things and people that do not reflect the greatest need.

As we reflected on all we had learned, we remembered that Christian innovation is as ancient as the church itself. As an alternative to the Roman Empire, the early church served those who didn’t have adequate access to life’s basic necessities of food, health care, and safe housing. In its DNA is the call to care for the least among us by reaching out in tangible ways to love neighbors, the larger community, and the world.

In many ways, the church is Christianity’s first social enterprise born and founded by those whom Jesus called the least among us. Long before the advent of faith-based organizations such as the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, and food banks, the church’s historic role included helping underserved people who were trying to eke out a living in the shadows of economic progress. Black faith communities across America stand in this long tradition, pooling together their resources for mutual aid societies and other social benefit organizations to help those in need.

What to Expect

In this resource, we share what we learned from listening and prototyping, paired with our imagination about what could be. We voice the wisdom gained from speaking to dozens of thinkers and doers who are working to create a more just world, where real solutions emerge to tackle stubborn problems. Challenges such as food insecurity, vast inequity in education, unequal access to fair-wage employment, lack of affordable housing, and environmentally unsafe neighborhoods are being addressed.

Faith can inform the removal of existing barriers to wealth and flourishing. This small book is a blueprint for entering that work. It is a guide for designing Christian innovation that continues a long tradition of making a way out of no way.

You will:

•Discover ideas to equip and inspire your Christian innovation in order to help others live out their faith in ways that co-create a more hopeful future.

•Find stories of Christian innovation as it is arises, from the ground up.

•Explore meanings of Christian innovation that center Jesus’ call to care for the least among us.

•Begin to experiment in your context through exercises and practices that help you identify your next most faithful step to take to explore Christian innovation.

•Uncover ways to become part of an emerging network of leaders who are launching new enterprises and creative ministries because they feel called to right wrongs, make crooked places straight, and make the world anew.

Elements

As we walk through each of these steps, you will encounter four elements: a principle of Christian innovation, a story, a theological reflection, and an interactive exercise to try in your context.

Each step will highlight one of six principles that emphasizes what