An inaugural group of Biblical Entrepreneurship (BE) trainees and eight BE teachers were trained in Johannesburg from January 30 to February 4 paving the way for the rollout of the programme throughout South Africa.
BE classes will now run frequently in Johannesburg and will be launched around April in Durban and Cape Town and hopefully in other major cities by the end of the year, says Crossover Transformation Group founder Partick Kuwana who has launched locally the BE programme developed by Nehemiah Project Ministries (www.nehemiahproject.org) and endorsed by US-based Christian University, Regent University Centre of Entrepreneurship (www.regententrepreneur.com).
Kuwana says his vision is for the programme to promote a biblical worldview in the areas of business and the economy, through stimulating entrepreneurial job creation and helping existing businesses to rebuild their foundations on biblical principles.
The first BE class was trained by Patrice Tsague (Chief Servant Officer of Nehemiah Project International Ministries) and Ben Franklin (A certified BE teacher and owner of a US Wealth Management firm). Forty one people completed the BE1 (Principles of Biblical Entrepreneurship) and 36 did the BE2 (Practices of Biblical Entrepreneurship) modules and will move on to do the BE3 (Planning a Kingdom Business) module in July and then participate in a business plan competition before their graduation in November.
As part of the launch 8 local teachers have been certified as BE1 and BE2 teachers and will form the nucleus of the team to roll out the programme nationally and certify other teachers across the country.
Partnership with churches and ministries
The plan going forward is to partner and license churches and ministries to adopt the BE programme and offer it directly through their organisations as both an equipping and discipleship tool. Many churches have top business people as members and the BE programme is a great tool to offer business relevant discipleship material to this audience and also to provide practical tools that will enable the Body of Christ to become more influential in the business and economic affairs of our country, says Kuwana.
“We believe that as more Christian business owners and corporate executives understand biblical business and economic principles we will see great levels of transformational activity take place. We are also using the principles from the BE programme to help companies re-build their strategies, vision, mission, core values, etc. on biblical foundations so that we truly see Kingdom companies start to emerge as prominent players in commerce and industry,” he says.
In addition to the BE Programme, he says his company is offering the ‘On Purpose Inc’ programme which is targeted at the corporate market. It takes all the foundational elements of BE and packages them into a 3 day workshop targeted at existing businesses/corporates in such a way that even non-Christians can participate and not feel religiously threatened. This programme is an effective way for biblical truth to be infused into companies in a non threatening way, he says.
More information about participating in a BE class or becoming a BE license training partner can be obtained by contacting Kuwana at patrick@crossovertransformation.co.za or by visiting the Crossover Transformation website.
