One of our main missions at The Church Lab is training and supporting innovative ministry initiatives. This year we will complete our first seminary cohort for spiritual entrepreneurship at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The cohort is entitled SpirEnt (short for Spiritual Entrepreneurship) and we invited six spiritual entrepreneurs at varying levels of their career to speak to the students about their experiences and to answer any questions they may have.
As a thank you, we want to share with you a bit about these entrepreneurs and the meaningful work they do!
Stephen Norberg is a social entrepreneur who has started 6 businesses (including Ants Gourmet, Inc. which makes sauces, spreads and seasoning out of ants!) and 2 nonprofits. He hosts an anti-bullying podcast called Fight Monsters in which he hosts conversations on adversity, trauma, emotional health and spirituality.
Amina McIntyre is a Theology and Practice Fellow at Vanderbilt University and a playwright. She serves as the assistant director of the Sun-Walking Fellowship, an organization which cultivates creative approaches to reimagining youth ministry. She considers herself a womanist artist minister, who writes plays that examine the human condition of longing and seeking. Her plays are meant to be agents of healing as they address the complexities of race, gender, religion and socioeconomics.
Jillian Mason Shannon is the owner of Neotopia, a bookstore in San Antonio that sells books and holds classes and events in the realm of theology, philosophy and culture. The space is meant to be a sanctuary for seekers and skeptics to help participants deconstruct our preconditioned notions about God and reconstruct to promote human flourishing.
Ryan Cagle is a trained spiritual director and graduate of the Center for Action and Contemplation’s Living School. He hosts a podcast and spiritual direction experiment called Roll for Spirituality which discusses the intersection of tabletop role-playing games and spirituality.
Ben Johnston-Krase is an organizing pastor of Farm Church in Durham, NC. The congregation meets on a farm and addresses food security by honoring people with locally grown food. Farm church asks the question: How can we love and honor people with good food?
Alicia Llewellyn is a co-founder of Quite Uncommon, a technology firm that organizes, builds, tests and launches innovative ideas. She is also a strategist at NASA. Her background is in education, communication and theology. She wrote a book we recommend entitled “What Comes Next?: Shaping the Future in an Ever-Changing World - A Guide for Christian Leaders.”