Create sustainable jobs in economically developing communities by providing the capital for expansion and startup projects for locally owned and managed for-profit businesses.
our beliefs that inspire legup
We believe and want to put into practice what we read in our Bibles in Galatians 6: 9-10; Romans 12:10-13; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Acts 20:33-35; 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12; Ephesians 4:28; 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12.
A For-profit business must produce a good or service that is voluntarily wanted by others. It necessarily connects to all of the population in practical ways, meeting them where they are, looking for ways to meet needs. Meeting those needs results in a sustainable source of income from which giving becomes possible. This breaks cycles of dependency that plague many.
We believe that Business IS Mission and that Christians can and should obey the great commission of Matthew 28:18-20 through their businesses.
Owning a business should not be looked down upon in the Christian community when compared to other kinds of Christian ministry work. All work should be celebrated as dignified rather than classified, creating divisions within a church body.
Managing a business with Christian principles gives daily practical experience of what a Christian looks like to anyone engaging the business (employees, suppliers, customers, professional service providers). So the command to be salt and light is accomplished. Working alongside the employees particularly produces relational opportunities where our saving faith is practiced and remaining sin often exposed giving real gospel opportunities compared to the other kinds of opportunities our churches often manufacture as we seek to carry out the great commission. Both efforts should be encouraged and sought out.
We believe that the nature of human labor or work is honorable and dignified from the beginning of mankind when God placed Adam in the garden to tend it.
We believe that God has created all humans in His image. So we view each person that we meet as a person created in His image and of equal value to ourselves regardless of anything else.
Some see classes of people. We see a person. The spirit of LegUp is to see one person at a time; fully engage that persons situation and all of their needs from physical to spiritual; and then provide the resources that will empower them to serve our Lord Jesus in their native context, engaging with them as an equal valued soul created in the same image of God, hoping that they in turn become the agents of sustainable change for good as they live out their faith where we find them.
Running a business that produces goods will spawn productive activity with neighboring businesses. Job creation and business expansion for the LegUp recipient yields residual community benefits.
A Christian owned business should be a place where dignity, love and community come together with excellence as the final product.
who are we?
We are Christians who have a wide range of business experiences (including founders and executive level responsibilities) and wish to give of our resources of time, talent, and treasure to others in the 3rd and 4th quarters of our life.
