We would like to hear from you

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

This Fall, we are inviting Houston founders of early-stage businesses to deepen their imagination and accelerate their practice of redemptive entrepreneurship.

Hosted By

Through mentoring, peer community, and spiritual discipleship, this 2-day lab event is designed for a founder’s growth as a leader and the growth of their venture. Our event content will be anchored in the Praxis Redemptive Frame: dimensions of strategy (what you build), operations (how you build), and leadership (why you build).

Lab Overview

Welcome! We’re excited to get to know you and your venture and to walk with you wherever your feet are today. Through mentoring, peer community, and spiritual discipleship, we aim to strengthen and encourage the growth of both the organization and you, the founder.

Before we dive into the specifics of the Redemptive Business Lab, it’s important to understand where you fit within the Praxis story.

Below you will find helpful information about the Lab experience and how best to prepare to ensure you get the most out of our time together.

We strongly believe that there is a way of starting and growing ventures that is largely under-practiced, undefined, and full of promise. In our conversations, most Christian founders and funders have a hunch that they are called to a more comprehensively faithful and sustainable approach to their work of venture building and impact creation. But the aims and practices of such an approach are unclear—mostly because they just haven’t seen it practiced. We believe the Praxis community can and will create a line of sight to just such a way of leading and building—which we call redemptive entrepreneurship.

We’ve invited you into this community because we believe you and your venture show considerable redemptive promise, and that you’ve demonstrated an openness and eagerness to operate more fully through a redemptive lens.

When we call something redemptive, it means someone is giving or sacrificing to restore something or someone to its proper place. Redemptive founders (read: YOU) are those who, being deeply spiritually formed, generously surrender their personal and organizational power for the sake of others. A redemptive enterprise “spends itself” on behalf of the world more than on its own behalf. Organized to “bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isaiah 61),  the redemptive enterprise seeks to embody these truths to its customers, workforce, and partners. The founders, and ideally many of the funders, are led by the Spirit to create sustainable value while leaving opportunity for others (gleaning), and to operate regularly with grace and forgiveness.

Our time together will be built upon deepening your imagination and accelerating your practice of redemptive entrepreneurship in the dimensions of strategy (what you build), operations (how you build), and leadership (why you build). No truly redemptive venture can ignore any of these, as they all must work together for redemptive purposes.

We encourage you to take 15 minutes to read through the 2022 Praxis Community Letter for greater context and for clarity of the vision we have for you as you enter this community. All of your Praxis experiences are built on this foundation.

— The Praxis Team

Program Overview

The Redemptive Lab experience is designed toward your specific needs and opportunities while also providing as many meaningful intersections with your peers, mentors and program team members within our limited time together.

The gathering will be fast-paced and fully-scheduled. You will leave with fresh ideas, practical templates/tools, new relationships and critical feedback from your peers, mentors and program team. We will give you time at the end to synthesize and create action items upon your return home.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

10/27

Friday

Founder Arrivals

11:00 AM

Lunch & Program Opening

11:30 AM

Story Sharing

12:30 PM

Break

2:00 PM

Mentor Arrivals

3:00 PM

Program

3:30 PM

Mentor Introductions

3:40 PM

The Redemptive Frame

4:15 PM

Dinner

5:45 PM

Venture Presentations

7:00 PM

Close

8:15 PM

Nightcap

8:30 PM

10/28

Saturday

Breakfast

8:00 AM

Strategy Interview & Discussion

9:00 AM

Operations Interview & Discussion

10:00 AM

Lunch

11:00 AM

One-on-ones

11:45 AM

Mentor Departures

1:30 PM

Leadership Session

2:15 PM

Reflection & Synthesis

3:30 PM

Close

5:30 PM

Expectations

PRESENCE: We have so much to cover in our days together, and we want to make sure you get the most out of your time in the program.

It will be important for you to go ahead and block the dates in a way that allows your team and family to know that you will be unavailable while you are away. Programming is scheduled from early morning until the evening, and it will be frustrating to you and to those depending on you if you think you can run up to your room to tackle emails in between sessions. You will have just enough time to make a quick morning or evening phone call home each day, but that’s about it!

We host a tech-free environment during the program so that you can be fully present with each other and the content. We will provide workbooks for each gathering and you can certainly bring your own notebook/journal of choice. We consider it a gift to retreat from our devices as we engage in deeper thought, conversation and fellowship with one another - we hope you will, too!

Participation

The quality of the cohort and mentor experience is largely dependent on the level of participation from each of the founders.

With your cohort, we will have a few intentional times of group sharing and reflection, and have found that this format is key to building your shared experience together. We know that there are varied comfort levels here, but we encourage you to be an active contributor in both sharing and active listening.

With the mentors, you will be in small group sessions and one-on-ones, and they will look to you to drive the questions and discussions.

During informal times and meals, take the initiative to walk with or sit next to a mentor you’d like to get to know better. They will welcome it!

CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE

01

Honest optimism > Glossy Pitch.

The old adage applies strongly to our mentors who may have the ability to give: “ask for money and you’ll get advice, ask for advice and you may get money.” Our mentors expect to help with your biggest challenges, not get pitched, and they understand not everything is working perfectly.

02

Consider your cohort.

There’s an intentionally humble way amongst our community and you don’t want to stand out for the wrong reasons. If you’re long winded, be concise to create space for others. If you’re typically first to speak, make sure to listen. If you’re ‘in the majority’ in some way, create space for the voice of others.

03

Value diversity.

Don’t assume everyone’s theology, socioeconomic, social or other background is exactly the same - in fact, assume that it’s not! Our central hallway is belief in and pursuit of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and beyond that, we are hopeful to widely represent the body of Christ and learn from each other in humility.

04

Act virtuously.

We believe our community’s collective witness is best understood by our way of life, not merely the work we do. We hope that our events and program are a clear representation of a group of people that embody the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love and the cardinal virtues of wisdom, moderation, courage, and justice. This applies to everything as lofty as the courage to have an abundance mentality with donors and connections to hyper-practical decisions such as moderation of alcohol consumption at a Praxis event.

What if We Could Reenchant the World?

Rachel Quan

events@trueworkshouston.org