Brandon Napoli proposes a model called Sacred Spaces that brings together churches, entrepreneurs, and neighboring workers. The model converts underutilized church space into a coworking/incubator space that provides spiritual formation and business services. This creates a unique environment for collaboration and serendipity among pastoral staff, discipled entrepreneurs, and remote workers. The benefits include low costs, childcare, mentoring networks, and fulfilling the church's mission to make disciples. The goal is to help entrepreneurs and churches become more fruitful by addressing societal needs and moving communities toward "the way things are supposed to be."

1. Background
● My name is Brandon Napoli. For my entire life I have attended church. It is where I find
my rest and hope.
● For my entire career I have focused on empowering entrepreneurs. From directing a top
microlending institution in the US to testifying in front of Congress.
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● And I am here today at the intersection of both passions as Entrepreneur in Residence at
Crossroads- Palo Alto Church of the Nazarene.
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● Crossroads Church is geographically located in the hub of innovation as well as rooted in
“The American Holiness Movement” - a faith tradition created from a “heart strangely
warmed” towards social action.
● As I settled into my role, I began to read the perspectives of Christians in social
movements in faith and work. I began to see a need for social action in the marketplace.
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● As I thought about those in the marketplace, I knew as a church we are called to love our
neighbors. At Crossroads many of our neighbors in the marketplace are entrepreneurs.
● And I began to read some startling trends with entrepreneurship and the church.
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The Question
● In the US between 4,000 to 7,000 churches permanently close their doors every year. -
Steve McSwain. There has been a decline of 44 percent in new business start ups,
through all industries, between 1978 and 2012. - Inc Magazine
● It begged the questions: What would our community look like without churches?
Without entrepreneurs? Could a faith and work ministry be fruitful for both?
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Examples
● As I looked around, I started to see some examples that illustrate a starting point for this
conversation.
● Hack Temple
○ The beautiful aesthetics of the temple provide inspiration.
● Church and State
○ The social focus, aesthetics and reduction in costs make it
entrepreneurially friendly.
○ But both have no spirit of the church. No vision of the kingdom.
● Ocean Accelerator

2. ○ OCEAN is an independent business accelerator that is uniquely faith
backed, focused on building into the founder. Their mission is to increase
God’s presence in the marketplace by building into entrepreneurs. They
accelerate entrepreneurs with knowledge, relationships, coaching and seed
funding. OCEAN enhances a concurrent spiritual journey that guides
founders to explore how faith integrates with starting a business.
● Although these examples are steps in the right direction, I believe they fall short
of providing a way to scale or capture much of potential of the local church.
○ Slide 9
● “What important truth do very few people agree with you on? The best
entrepreneurs know this: every great business is built around a secret that’s hidden
from the outside. A great business is a conspiracy to change the world.” – Peter
Thiel, Zero to One
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The Idea
● I believe there is a significantly overlooked opportunity to create a model for the future of
entrepreneurship and the church.
○ “ What if the untapped business resources in the church globally were released for
missional impact? What if more Christian business people were world-leaders at
tackling global evils through business?” - Business As Mission Website
● That innovation is a form of faithfulness.
○ “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God.” - Romans 12:2
● And entrepreneurship captures the spirit of discipleship.
○ Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as
faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. - 1st Peter 4:10
● I see an opportunity for a faith and work ministry in the majority of churches with a heart
to guide and support believers in the marketplace. To encourage them to better live out
the hope and truth of the gospel in their vocational calling.
○ Slide 11
Reframe
● Churches are closing as they fail to respond to the needs and nature of changing
communities.
● Entrepreneurship is also decreasing due to rising risks of starting a company and
increased benefits of working elsewhere.
● Both trends and characteristics have led churches and entrepreneurs, two seemingly
mutually exclusive pillars of society, to become symbiotic.d

3. ● In fact, my presence here is due to a church that closed, and its proceeds used to subsidize
housing to allow for entrepreneurs to reimagine the church.
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Model Shalom
● I am here to highlight how we are creating a faith and work model to inspire new levels
of fruitfulness in entrepreneurship and the church.
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○ This model converts a church under utilized during the week into a co-working/
incubator space for pastoral staff, discipled entrepreneurs, and neighboring
workers.
○ A selection process for an incubator discipleship program would comprise a
cohort of 12 christ-centered founders. A building process would specify a start
and end date, community, start up curriculum, and possible investment.
○ Vision: Sacred Spaces is a faith -based incubator that provides spiritual formation
and business services for entrepreneurs to co-create the innovation needed for
shalom.
○ Mission: Spiritual formation through discipling a community of entrepreneurs.
● To unpack this it is helpful to define shalom.
■ Slide 15
○ What is shalom?
■ “The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice,
fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. In
English we call it peace, but it means far more than just peace of mind or
ceasefire between enemies. In the Bible shalom means universal
flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural
needs are satisfied and natural gifts are fruitfully employed…Shalom, in
other words, is the way things are supposed to be.” - Cornelius Plantinga,
Jr., author of Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be.
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● The Benefit
○ To the entrepreneur, the coworking of pastoral staff, discipled entrepreneurs and
neighboring workers (self-employed, remote, etc.) would create a unique cross
pollination effect resulting in accelerated serendipity.
■ Many churches have been around long enough to be debt free. This
results in low overhead and the ability to charge only nominal,
programmatic fees.
■ These spaces are ubiquitous, providing close proximity to home,
restaurants, and other spaces of interest.

4. ■ They provide plenty of parking.
■ They are also designed to be awe inspiring to induce transformation and
imagination of the heart and mind.
■ Entrepreneurs face a tremendous amount of pressure. Although technical
advisory is common in entrepreneurial environments, personal care is
strangely absent. Churches, experienced in chaplaincy, would provide this
much needed care.
■ Additionally, many of these churches are already set up to provide child
care. Entrepreneurs would be able to take breaks and share time through
the day with their child. Not having to decide between being a focused
entrepreneur or a present parent would help bring work/life integration.
■ Churches are the nucleus of faith networks which can be leveraged to
provide mentorship and business services.
○ Churches would benefit:
■ From having self-starting, problem solving entrepreneurs to influence their
capacity to scale ministerial impact with best business practices.
■ A potential new revenue stream to help sustain their presence.
■ Fulfilling the Great Commision by making disciples out of entrepreneurs.
Many of these entrepreneurs will integrate the values of the faith into the
way they manage their company, effectively becoming a new wave of
church planters.
○ And the community of neighboring workers would benefit:
■ From the access to office space close to home.
■ The witnessing of a faith in work model.
■ And the impact of products and services with a social focus.
● Slide 18
● The Ideal Church
○ Pastors that believe in a faith and work ministry. Inspiration
■ Moving from, “Praise God” to “God has a heart for justice” to “God wants
us to do something about the marketplace’s needs.”
○ A church willing to provide the tools and forums that help entrepreneurs identify
gifts, passions and dimensions of vocational power. Discovery.
○ A church guiding these entrepreneurs in developing mature character for handling
their power as co-creators in the renewal of all things. Formation.
○ And a church equipping entrepreneurs with mentors and financially investing in
their efforts. Commision.
■ Slide 19
● The Ideal Entrepreneur

5. ○ And we are looking for entrepreneurs who are focused on moving society towards
“the way it is suppose to be.”
○ And as Dave Evans states, “They move from initiation to invitation; from
permission to presence; from, how do I get this thing to work, to what is God
already doing?”
● Walk in the way expectedly
● Listen for the longing
● Cultivate the sacred imagination
● Lean into the leading
■ Slide 20
Rising to the Challenge Ahead:
● So what if we went from, what would our communities look like with without churches
or entrepreneurs? To, what would our community become if churches and entrepreneurs
helped each other become fruitful?