COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Kirbyjon Caldwell and Walt Kallestad’s new book, Entrepreneurial Faith: Launching Bold Initiatives to Expand God’s Kingdom (WaterBrook Press, 2004) is a compelling blueprint to help churches and individuals move out of the sanctuary and into the community.

Hitting bookshelves everywhere this month, Entrepreneurial Faith explains how to create innovative partnerships that join the Church’s passion for ministry with the expertise of the business community to meet physical and spiritual needs.

Through biblical teaching and case studies from churches of various sizes and in a variety of locales, the authors show that the life of faith is an adventure of risk-taking in ministry. Entrepreneurial Faith challenges pastors, lay leaders and individual Christians to invest their skill and passion in practical expressions of ministry. The same principles provide a new avenue for community-minded professionals to partner with churches to bring needed services to the community. Here are some highlights:

An open letter to entrepreneurs of faith.

“We have been pastors for a combined 60 years, and we know from hard experience that ‘church as usual’ is guaranteed to fail. Status-quo ministry will never meet the diverse and growing needs of hurting people.”

The role of the Church has been so narrowly defined and lived out that too many churches have lost touch with the communities they are supposed to minister to. Most churches continue to devote their resources and their best thinking to organizational maintenance and to meeting the needs of the people they already have. They might collect money for foreign missions, but when it comes to local needs, most churches are blind to what is happening outside the church walls.

There is a curious vision problem, a short-sightedness that limits most ministry to the faith community. There is nothing wrong with believers ministering to one another, unless ministry stops there and goes no further. We are convinced that God wants to rip off our blinders and turn us loose in the world.

In some cases, the answer might be yourself. Perhaps you have grown too comfortable, and you’re reluctant to step out on faith. Or perhaps you’re dying to get started, but you’re hampered by a negative pastor or church board or other lay leaders who prefer the known to the unknown. Whatever your answer, think about it and what it means before reading our book.

“In contrast, the number of Americans who call themselves Christians increased a mere 5 percent during that same decade. In the same period, the number of Americans who no longer consider themselves religious in any way increased by 110 percent.”

“That soul might not have access to millions of dollars in capital or be so poor that the widow’s last two coins look like a fortune. This book is for those who look at the darkness in their communities and long to light them up. For those who see wounds and long to bring healing. For those who see spiritual death and want to replace it with eternal life. It is for laypersons, pastors, executives, working people, mother, fathers and concerned teenagers.

“In other words, the life of entrepreneurial faith is for you.” To purchase your copy of Entrepreneurial Faith for $19.99, visit your local bookstore.

	Kirbyjon Caldwell pastors the largest United Methodist church in America,Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston. Caldwell graduated from Carleton College and Perkins School of Theology and holds an MBA from Wharton. He has ministered to the nation through President George W. Bush’s inauguration and the nationally televised post-9/11 prayer service.
	Walt Kallestad is senior pastor of the Community Church of Joy in suburban Phoenix.A graduate of Concordia College and Luther Seminary, he received his doctorate at Fuller Seminary.A popular speaker, Kallestad is the author of numerous books, including Turn Your Church Inside Out.