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

Register Via Links Below

Non-ProfitFor- Profit

Hosted By

TrueWorks licenses the “Redemptive Lab” from Praxis Labs, the thought leader in applying the Christian faith to our work environment. Through mentoring, peer community, and spiritual discipleship, the professional service leader will be challenged to new levels of integration of faith and life.  Our content is anchored in the Praxis Redemptive Frame: dimensions of strategy (what we build), operations (how we build), and leadership (why you build).

Before we dive into the specifics of the Professional Services Edition, 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 and non-profits that are 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 TrueWorks community, supported by this Praxis designed program, can and will create a line of sight to just such a way of leading and building—which we call redemptive entrepreneurship and redemptive leadership.

We’ve invited you into this community because we believe you and your venture or organization 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 leaders (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 or leaders, 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 or non-profit 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 TrueWorks and Praxis Teams

Program Overview

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

TrueWorks believes that the Christian story offers a unique and compelling perspective for the professional service business.  TrueWorks has used this platform to inspire the leaders and founders of early-stage for-profit and non-profit ventures.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

3/21

FRIDAY

Arrivals and check-in.

5:00 PM

Welcome Dinner & Founder Instructions

6:00 PM

Personal Story Sharing

7:30 PM

Night Cap

9:30 PM

3/22

Saturday

Breakfast & Worship.

7:30 AM

The Redemptive Frame

8:30 AM

Break

10:30 AM

Leader Presentations

11:00 AM

Mentor Team Arrives

12:15 AM

Lunch

12:30 PM

Panel Discussion with Mentor team - “Imagination, Change, Leadership, and Patience”

1:30 PM

Break

3:00 PM

Table discussion groups - “Your paradigm of Leadership – Rule of Life is Rule of work.”

3:30 PM

Break - Reflection Time for Participants

5:00 PM

Dinner and Story Telling - “What did I learn today?”

7:00 PM

Mentor Team Arrives

9:00 PM

3/23

Sunday

Breakfast & Worship.

7:30 AM

The Leader – Personal Formation & Rule of Life

8:30 AM

Break

10:00 AM

The Practice of Leadership – The Lab Experience - “Loving the Neighbor we know and loving the neighbor we do not know and will never meet.”

10:30 PM

Lunch

12:30 PM

Reflection & Synthesis

2:00 PM

Close

3:30 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?

Zach Goodrick

zach@trueworkshouston.org