Give a poor man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you’ll feed him for a fishing season.
But Lipscomb’s College of Business has created a new Missional Entrepreneurship program that takes this mantra to another level: Help a man start a fishing business and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.
“Basically we describe missional entrepreneurship as doing good, giving back and reconciling broken things,” director of missional entrepreneurship Rob Touchstone said. “So, you’re running a business with integrity while generating profits to give back and participating in God’s mission as you go.”
Because this particular type of a mission-oriented approach to business does not yet exist as a program at any other university, Lipscomb’s College of Business is pioneering the idea for the collegiate world.
“Right now, it’s offered as a 15-hour minor,” Touchstone said. “However, what we’re building is a center for business as mission and what that means is training students to think about how they can bring business and mission together.”
Touchstone is giving his Introduction to Entrepreneurship class and his Missional Entrepreneurship class a direct opportunity to participate in business as mission on the Caribbean island of Jamaica.
“As far as the Jamaica efforts go, this all started with me going and building a relationship with Jamaicans while I was a youth minister leading groups over there,” Touchstone said. “This is also a result of my Introduction to Entrepreneurship class and my Missional Entrepreneurship class coming together.”
Touchstone’s Introduction to Entrepreneurship students are focused on learning the basics of entrepreneurship with a missional twist: all of the profits generated by the class go to a missional effort.
“For example, last semester they generated $2,000 in profit for Danny Gokey’s Sophia’s Heart homeless ministry,” Touchstone said.
Touchstone’s Introduction to Entrepreneurship class decided to partner their profits with the work of his Missional Entrepreneurship class this semester. All of their profits will go towards what the Missional Entrepreneurship students are going to carry out, which is helping to start three businesses in Jamaica:
Borris Dixon’s Story:
Dixon is a member of the Church of Christ in Morant Bay, Jamaica that Lipscomb’s Mission Department has often partnered with. His passion is cooking and his dream is to start a restaurant; however, the reality of the poor economy and low minimum wage in Jamaica has prevented him from being able to carry out his dream on his own.
Chris Doyley’s Story:
Doyley is a 29-year-old man who was tragically paralyzed from the waist down when he was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle eight years ago. Since that time, he has spent his days in a Morant Bay infirmary. His situation has thus prevented him from pursuing his artistic talents in a full-time business capacity.
Marcia Thomas’s Story:
Thomas is a faithful member of the Morant Bay Church of Christ who has worked hard to support her family throughout her entire life with very little opportunity for income. Her son Marvin is now a chef and her dream is to start a cook shop in a building right outside her home. Touchstone’s classes intend to see her dream fulfilled.
“It’s just really neat to see how the Intro class is studying the nuts and bolts of business and the Missional Entrepreneurship class is looking more at the framework of everything,” Touchstone said. “So, each of the classes is kind of asking a different set of questions.”
On a weekend in October, Touchstone took three students from the Missional Entrepreneurship class and one student from the Introduction to Entrepreneurship class to Kingston, Jamaica to meet with government officials. Then they headed to Morant Bay, Jamaica to meet with the three people they are seeking to help start businesses with.
Originally, the October weekend trip had been set aside by Touchstone and the other group leaders as a survey in preparation for the upcoming spring break effort.
“This wasn’t even originally open to the students. We were just going to go over originally and lay the groundwork for this,” Touchstone said. “I wanted to go over and re-establish some of the connections and talk to Borris, Chris and Marcia and just reaffirm everything and then I was going to come back and report to class on what all we were going to get to go do in March. Then, kind of at the last minute, I opened it up to the class.”
Four students in total were able to make the quick trip, including corporate management and social entrepreneurship major Alexandria Arnette.
“When I got the e-mail from Mr. Rob about the opportunity to go on the trip, I thought about it for a couple of minutes and then just decided to go,” Arnette said. “He’d introduced all the Jamaicans in class, but it was so much more meaningful to go and meet them in person and see where they come from.”
DeShaun Clarke, Dylan Green and Alicia Calkins were the three other Lipscomb students able to attend the survey trip.
While in Kingston, the group was able to meet with both the head of the Jamaican Chamber of Commerce and head of agriculture to discuss the future business plans. In Morant Bay, they were able to meet with Doyley, Dixon and Thomas to hammer out details regarding the upcoming processes.
“It means the world! It’s such a great blessing,” Thomas said during a phone interview. “I can’t express the love I feel and the gladness that it’s given my heart.”
The group returned with fresh ambitions having accomplished their goals on this weekend survey. They also returned with nine of Doyley’s art pieces.
Clarke is the one student from the Introduction to Entrepreneurship class who was able to make the trip. The objective of his class is to raise the seed money to help the Missional Entrepreneurship class start the three Jamaican businesses.
“Where most of our revenue is coming from is through buying Chris’s artwork,” Clarke said. “So, I added him on
Facebook and explained what we were doing for class. I told him we were coming down to see him and asked how many paintings he could have made by then.”
Touchstone’s Introduction to Entrepreneurship class will be hosting a “Heroes of the Herd” event on Thursday, Nov. 19 at 6 p.m.
“The idea is to give people a chance to see the artwork that Chris made and see the jewelry we brought to sell instead of just hearing about it,” Clarke said. “This way, they can physically be in an environment where we can create this feel for them to help them grow a deeper appreciation for these efforts.”
The event will be held in Flatt Amphitheater and will feature music, fire spinning, food and a silent auction of Doyley’s Jamaican artwork.
“All the money that’s raised or collected at this event will become seed money to activate these businesses, so if someone from the community or a student came to this event and donated to it, they would be giving toward these businesses getting launched,” Touchstone said.
Touchstone estimates that it will take only around $12,000 to get all three businesses started in Morant Bay.
Touchstone said one of the goals behind the entire Missional Entrepreneurship program is that other universities will see the hands-on work that’s being done in Jamaica and respond with bold visions of their own.
“What’s fun for me is to see the students get to actually live all this out; it’s not just theory,” Touchstone said. “Because we could do case studies all day. I mean, this would be a great case study if you were to try to write one, but we get to actually go do it.”
Photos courtesy of Rob Touchstone and students who participated in the October trip to Jamaica