A partnership between the Church Mission Society and Greenbelt, the competition has been devised to encourage Christians to 'imagine innovative and creative ways to communicate the gospel while developing a financially sustainable model of funding'.

Entries close on 18 July, and the finalists will pitch to a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style event at Greenbelt Festival in August, aiming to win a place on CMS's annual Missional Entrepreneurship week in November.
 

Liane Kensett

The prize of attending the CMS Missional Entrepreneurship week is worth £400. It also forms a module on CMS's Pioneer Mission Leadership Training course.

Jonny Baker, the course leader and director of mission education at CMS, said, 'Through our work with pioneers, we are convinced there are lots of Christians who have wonderfully creative ideas to engage afresh in mission. CMS wants to give them the tools to enable this to happen and help them develop funding models that are both realistic and sustainable.'

Last year Liane Kensett attended the Missional Entrepreneurship week, having heard about it at Greenbelt. She has since set up ‘Orts’, an old fashioned word meaning left over scraps. The idea was born out of a six week placement with Lighthouse in Hull, working alongside and supporting women in the sex industry.

Liane said, 'The blending of the two things has stuck with me and developed. The week on the course helped move these thoughts into a potential business plan. Upcycling left over scraps into beautiful items we can sell, with the emphasis being the process and helping all involved to discover the beautiful value that they have.'

John Wheatley, a youth worker with Streetspace based on an estate in Weston-super-Mare, came to Pickwell with an idea for a bicycle repair business.