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Study Questions for

Entrepreneurs in the Faith Community

Profiles of Mennonites
in Business

Edited by Calvin Redekop and Benjamin W. Redekop

These Study Questions are also available for download as a Word document or in PDF Acrobat format.

See also Entrepreneurs in the Faith Community in the Herald Press online catalog.

 
  

Discussion Questions for Sunday Schools, Book Clubs, Pray Breakfasts, and other settings

See also release on Entrepreneurs in the Faith Community in the Herald Press online catalog.

Note that there are study questions for each chapter in the back of the book. In addition, these questions have stimulated discussion in an elective class held at Cal Redekop's church in Harrisonburg, Virginia:

  1. ) See the chapters on Alta Schrock and Frieda Kaufman. If they had been men, would they have had as much difficulty and misunderstanding? Would they have been labeled in various ways? Does the Mennonite church create two classes of members through gender discrimination? What should be done about this?
  2. ) Are Mennonite entrepreneurs naive when they are generous with church-giving at times when their own businesses could be jeopardized? See the chapters on Shenk, Kroeker, Redekop et al.
  3. ) Are Mennonites in general and congregations specifically disinterested in members in business? Are they quick to criticize businesspeople when things go wrong? If you answer yes, why might this be?
  4. ) What can the church and the congregation to do to be more involved in the life of entrepreneurs? An obverse question might be, What business or right does the church have to criticize what entrepreneurs do when all the church wants is entrepreneurs' money? Is this indeed what the church wants from entrepreneurs?
  5. ) How do we bridge the information gap between the congregation and entrepreneurs/business people? Many businesspeople suspect most members don't have a clue what the entrepreneurs and businesspeople are doing and facing and thus they have no way of relating to them. How do you react to this business perception? What factors in your setting might contribute to it?
  6. ) Does the church marginalize entrepreneurs and businesspeople and give credence to the academics and the theologians in the congregation? If you answer no, explain. If yes, how can this inequality be rectified?
  7. ) If entrepreneurs and businesspeople ran their businesses like the church runs its, we would never get anywhere, some businesspeople contend. Is there room for strong business leadership in the church?
  8. ) Why doesn't the church provide more education, preaching, and instruction on the role of economics and business in its life? Might this help the church generate the material support it needs to accomplish its work?
  9. ) An entrepreneur may do foolish things which generate a bad image for the community. How can the church help avoid these situations?

 

 

 

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