by Adam Gustine, LMDJ Director of Ministry Initiatives
Fleurish Industries is a social enterprise led by folks at Canal Street Church in New Orleans. Canal Street, along with their non-profit The Restoration Initiative, imagined a neighborhood where people experienced life as God intends; one where each person is celebrated and where the gifts and skills of the community were cultivated to unlock each person’s God given potential. Enter Fleurish Industries. Through a landscape company, and a newly launched screenprint shop, Fleurish is creating pathways for skill development, employment and lifelong vocation, specifically for youth and the formerly incarcerated.
Think of what good news it must be to know that the God of all creation cares about me enough to care that I not only have a job, but that I am developing the skills to contribute to the world in ways prepared in advance for me to do. In this way, the good news of Jesus is being demonstrated through an unassuming landscape company; the gospel of the Kingdom is being written into the lives of people by way of a simple screenprint shop.
What an incredible example of ways Covenanters are integrating a vision for individual and community transformation into their mission and sense of Kingdom purpose. This is just one of a growing trend within the ECC seeking to leverage the potential of business in the neighborhood to see meaningful, targeted, and sustainable impact in their communities for the gospel. This is why we created CovEnterprises.
At its heart, CovEnterprises is about wholeness and flourishing. More than just another program, our hope is that through CovEnterprises, churches and ministries throughout the Covenant will gain refreshed imagination for what is possible in communities experiencing the effects of poverty and injustice.
CovEnterprises exists to launch social enterprise ventures in vulnerable communities with an eye toward issues critical for human flourishing; skill development, job creation, economic transformation and a host of other ways in which God’s people might creatively cultivate the shalom of God in tangible ways in communities that need this kind of wholistic transformation. We believe that, over time, ECC churches will lead the way in seeing economic and community renewal in their neighborhoods and in the lives of their neighbors. In short, CovEnterprises is about cultivating God’s shalom through the launching of enterprises focused on making an impact in the places of greatest need. This is work we can do together. To learn more, email us at lmdj@covchurch.org.
