Sean Benesh's Blog

There’s been a lot happening in life and behind the scenes at Intrepid. So much so that, at times, I don’t always post articles, send email newsletters, or post on soci...

Unfortunately, I view myself as pretty naive. Maybe it was the small-town Iowa upbringing in me. When I graduated from...

Ministry, like any other job or career, is subject to the same market fluctuations and economic opportunities that imp...

From the very beginning, Intrepid has been tied to economic development, particularly in struggling communities, whether urban or rural. While my background is definitely in urban studies, I am continually stupefied by the growing economic disparity and decline across rural America. I notice it mostly out here in the West. Much of it is related to job loss. But there’s more …

While much of the ministry world continues to talk at length about processes at hand, such as urbanization, often, we don’...

Since stepping out of paid full-time ministry, my ministry has exponentially exploded. It wasn’t until I was no longer on staff at a church, a denomination, or a ministry that, for me, real ministry started. Why? Most often, those in full-time occupational ministry spend significantly little time with those disinterred in the church, God, etc. What’s at least one solution to remedy this?

Start a business or non-profit.

Notice I said, “What’s at least one solution to remedy this?” Why? Because this...

Recently, I was talking with a university student. He was sharing how he turned down academic opportunities at a prestigious university so he could instead “pursue ministry.” Since the decision was already made and he was currently enrolled at a different school to get a degree in … wait for it … ministry, I didn’t want to squelch his zeal. Besides, who am I? However, we did talk about the difference between vocation and occupation and why it is easy to confuse those terms, especially in the min...

Over the past several months, when traveling, I’ve stumbled into coffee shops and coffee roasters that are actually part of a church. I never set out to find a coffee shop connected to a church, but when I do, my mind is filled with endless questions. Here’s the first question that comes to mind …

How is this coffee shop or roastery funding or supporting the church? On average, a typical coffee shop brings in $873 a day. That is $26,190 a month and $314,280 a year. Obviously, that’s gross income ...

In two of the undergrad courses I am teaching this semester, we’re focusing not only on startups but, in particular, how social enterprises are uniquely positioned to meet various needs … at a profit. In particular, I shared it was precisely because of my involvement in ministry, church planting specifically, that propelled and compelled me in this direction. Why?

After a few years in a role as a regional church planting strategist, I realized that according to our metrics, we could be quite succ...

I regularly meet with pastors, church planters, and missionaries wrestling with whether to start a business. For most, it seems that the tensions revolve around calling. They went “all-in” on ministry as a career and had no “backup plan.” That is already setting up an internal conflict. Why? Because all of a sudden, the thought of launching a startup or working “outside of ministry” is a direct assault on their calling. Now what?

Added to the tension is our tendency to read our story back into Sc...

Shifting from a non-profit mindset to a business mindset can be challenging in terms of thinking about funding. We’re accustomed to focusing on donations or grants in the non-profit and ministry space. That’s how ministries and social objectives are funded. But what about using business to fund not just ministry but social objectives as well?

I was reminded of this in my Startups and Social Media class that I teach each fall. In class today, we watched a short documentary about TOMS shoes. While ...