Bible Based Entrepreneurship and Leadership Training Programs Are Key Drivers in the Fight against Poverty and In Promoting Development in Poor Christian Societies

Brian Kazungu, 10/02/2021

In her 2015 blog post titled ‘What Does the Bible Say about Poverty and Hunger’, American historian, Karah Hawkinson says “Like most comfortable middle-class Americans, I squirm when faced with the reality of a poor and starving world. I’ll admit that I sometimes play dumb and ignore my responsibilities to my fellow man”.

She goes on to add that “We have made ignoring what the Bible teaches about poverty into an art form. We pick and choose, brushing aside the directives and attacking the poor with verses that condemn laziness and drunkenness.

If we can pass the blame for poverty, our guilt is appeased and we can go back to enjoying our favorite TV show”.

From Karah’s writing, it becomes clear that there are still some people across the world who are concerned about poverty and they are always trying to find ways on how best to help in solving the problem.

She goes on to quote the Bible on the need to be cognizant of the situation that befalls the underprivileged.

Therefore, as a way of complementing Karah’s efforts in creating a consciousness on poverty and its ugly impact, it is also important to highlight that it is possible to encourage and promote entrepreneurship and good leadership based on the Bible towards economic empowerment.

This is because it is disturbing to note that, globally, most Christians, both leaders and their congregants are not spared by poverty and yet the Bible is a source of tried and tested invaluable wisdom on life transforming entrepreneurship, management and leadership principles.

An article by the research institute Gallup titled Religiosity Highest In World’s Poorest Nations https://bit.ly/3bztSgq shows that there is a correlation between being very religious and being very poor.

Such a correlation can be attributed to the lack of relevant entrepreneurship and leadership training among the religious folk even though deep within their religion is found treasures of economically empowering information as is the case with Christianity.

For example, the Bible covers a broad range of principles and examples which demonstrates how to make the best of decisions on entrepreneurship, management and leadership towards personal, corporate and community development but such information rarely gets to its target audience in a proper manner.

A research paper, Herv. teol. stud. vol.70 n.1 Pretoria Jan. 2014 titled The Effect of Religion on Poverty by Jaco Beyers from University of Pretoria’s Department of Science of Religion and Missiology helps to show how religion can be incorporated in the fight against poverty.

Professor Beyers states that: “Religion can influence the response to poverty by having an ethical impact when principles benefiting all in society are applied within economic systems. Religion can also influence the response to poverty by fostering an attitude of willingness to practise generosity.

Religion can educate communities in order for human dignity of all in society to be restored. Thirdly, religion can be part of the system actively encouraging and participating in alleviating poverty.”

Based on this reasoning, it is therefore expedient for thought leaders in the Christian religious circles to look at how the Bible expressly or implicitly helps in designing effective entrepreneurial, administrative and leadership mechanisms for the efficient running of institutions across the board.

Once that is done, they must then extract Bible-centric entrepreneurial, administrative and leadership literature and convert into a curriculum for church leaders and congregants so that they can impart and apply this knowledge to society at large towards development of economies

The main objective of such a curriculum will be to positively transform people’s lives all over the world through effective scripture inspired PRACTICAL entrepreneurship and leadership solutions that promote personal, corporate and community development.

Such a training program will then act as a catalyst to empower Christians to be active participants in economic development, job creation and poverty eradication through mind-set transformation, commercial participation and strategic partnerships rather than to be mere onlookers and powerless recipients of charitable donations especially from non-believers.

It will enable the Christian community to ethically, effectively and efficiently meet its social and economic needs in a manner that will inspire the aspirations and enhance the wellbeing of people across the world.

According to the United Nations, Ending Poverty in all its forms is the first of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In the same context, the World Bank https://bit.ly/351qMyY” estimates that by 2030 up to two-thirds of the global extreme poor may be living in fragile and conflict-affected economies, making it evident that without intensified action, the global poverty goals will not be met.

The narratives above are a clear testimony of the fact that poverty is a serious global challenge that needs to be collectively addressed especially through entrepreneurship initiated and managed by those with an ethical and caring generational mind-set.

Employment creation and poverty eradication now also calls for active participation by religious movements to economically empower their followers especially in line with their own core belief system in order to collectively tackle global challenges.

As such, Christianity, being one of the world’s biggest religion with at least two (2) billion people can be a considerable driver of poverty eradication when those who subscribe to it receive Bible aligned leadership and economic empowerment training.

This is because church leaders and their congregants can play a significant role in promoting socio-economic development when they themselves are active participants in entrepreneurship promotion and leadership training activities in their communities.

1Thessalonians 4vs.11-12 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you: 12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

For example, there is readily available literature on the same subject, i.e. The Practical Executive https://amzn.to/2VvcrYv and The Practical Entrepreneur https://amzn.to/3bvEwVe from which institutions of higher learning can tap from as a starting point in such a pursuit.

The above mentioned books cover the traditional aspects of leadership and entrepreneurship with case studies and references from the Bible in a way that makes sure that the world’s biggest religion can also participate in spurring economic development and in helping to eradicate poverty.

Listed below are a number of advantages associated with the development of such a curriculum.

Benefits Of This Training Program To Students

1. Church leader will gain information that helps them in giving scripture supported advice (counsel) to their congregants who are in business or those holding leadership positions.

• Increased knowledge on the practical application of Bible based entrepreneurship and leadership insights by existing and prospective Christian entrepreneurs.

• Increased confidence and enhanced ideas on how to spread the gospel in the marketplace and to people of influence

• Inspiration and motivation on the church folk towards starting and managing their own Bible based life transforming business initiatives and nonprofit operations.

• Some of the graduates from such courses can become a conference speakers on entrepreneurship, leadership and community development events.

• Life Coaches will gain knowledge on how to be effective personal development coaches especially to people in the Christian community.

Benefits of This Training Program to the Community

1) Employment creation through the initiation, formalization and professionalization of Christian informal traders and SMEs.

2) Promotion of peace and development through running enterprises and various institutions through scripture based or Bibles inspired principles.

3) Spread of the gospel through the marketplace since scriptures will be the basis for institutions and enterprises.

4) Prevalence of ethics and morality since bread winners who are shapers and dictators of the moral fabric will expressly or impliedly be influenced by Christian values.

5) Reduction in crime, corruption and immorality since there will be better and more effective ways of wealth creation that are inspired by the Bible.

6) Confirmation and re-affirmation of the church’s dignity and integrity since it will be regarded as an authoritative source of developmental and entrepreneurial ideas.

7) Reduction in the dangers associated with illicit international trade since the church will add on to the already established trade monitoring and evaluation mechanisms through verification and authentication of members and their activities.

8) Increase in variety, competition and productivity through the increase of active participants in economic issues will reduce prices and improve the livelihoods of the general populace hence resulting in health and morale boosting.

9) Promotion of self-awareness, confidence boosting, respect and tolerance among the populace through inspiration, motivation, education and economic empowerment which is Bible based.

10) Easy support or financing of church activities and the effective as well as efficient spread of the gospel through financial contributions by inspired and economically empowered Christians.