There are people in your congregation right now who are quietly frustrated. They see opportunities the church is missing. They have ideas for reaching the community that have never been heard. They are wired to spot problems and build solutions, and in their work lives, they do exactly that with great effect. But inside the church, that same wiring often gets them labeled as difficult, impatient, or not quite on board. So they go quiet, or they go elsewhere, and the church loses one of the greatest gifts God placed inside it.
These people are Kingdom entrepreneurs, and almost every congregation has them. They are the men and women who instinctively notice an unmet need and immediately start imagining how to meet it. They build teams. They take initiative. They are not satisfied with the way things have always been done if the way things have always been done is no longer working. In a business, these instincts create new ventures. In a church that knows how to release them, these same instincts create new mission.
The problem is that most churches are not built to receive them. Congregational life often rewards stability, predictability, and the careful preservation of the existing order. The entrepreneur, by nature, disrupts all three. They ask why a long-running program still exists. They challenge assumptions no one else questions. They lose patience with bureaucracy that produces meetings instead of fruit. To a leadership culture optimized for maintenance, this looks like a threat. So the church manages them, contains them, or quietly pushes them to the margins, and a God-given catalyst for mission gets wasted.
Scripture tells a very different story about how God uses these people. Nehemiah was an entrepreneur. He saw a broken city, organized an audacious rebuilding project against fierce opposition, and got it done in 52 days. Lydia was an entrepreneur, a dealer in purple cloth who leveraged her business and her home to support the early church. Paul was an entrepreneur, planting churches across the empire, adapting his strategy to every new city, and refusing to be confined by how things had been done before. God has always used creative, driven, opportunity-spotting people to advance His mission. The instinct your church keeps trying to suppress is one God repeatedly chose to use.
Releasing Kingdom entrepreneurs does not mean handing them the keys and hoping for the best. Their gifts need to be shaped by Scripture and submitted to the mission, or that same drive can build the wrong things or wound people in its hurry. This is where a church plays an irreplaceable role. A healthy congregation does not just tolerate its entrepreneurs. It disciples them. It forms their ambition into Kingdom ambition, their creativity into Gospel creativity, their drive into a servant’s drive. Entrepreneurial gifting without spiritual formation is dangerous. Entrepreneurial gifting shaped by the Spirit is a force for the Kingdom.
So the call to church leaders is threefold. Identify these people. Look around your congregation for the ones who see what others miss and itch to act on it, and stop treating their restlessness as a discipline problem. Mentor them. Invest in their spiritual formation so their gifts are anchored in Christ and aimed at His mission. Then release them. Do not bury them in slots designed to keep existing programs running. Invite them to imagine new ways of reaching the community, developing leaders, and extending the church’s witness and give them real freedom to try.
Imagine what your church could become if the entrepreneurs in your pews were released instead of restrained. The very people you have struggled to fit into the existing structure might be the ones God sent to help you build a new one. Their frustration is often a sign of unspent calling. Channeled rightly, it becomes the engine of mission.
Every church needs these people, especially now in a moment that demands fresh thinking and bold initiative. The question is not whether God has placed Kingdom entrepreneurs in your congregation. He has. The question is: Will your church will recognize them, form them, and let them loose for the sake of the Kingdom? Or will it keep labeling them difficult while the mission they could have advanced goes unmet?
Recognizing, forming, and releasing the entrepreneurs in your pews is exactly the work the Momentum Network was built for. We are a church revitalization network that helps leaders recognize, resource, and release new leaders through coaching, training, and tools.
Dr. Tracee J. Swank guides Kingdom-minded leaders, churches, and entrepreneurs to clarify their purpose, reimagine mission, and multiply hope—so they can lead entrepreneurial movements that transform communities and advance the Great Commission.