Rivers in the Desert

— by Reuben Coulter & Matt Allen

Rivers in the Desert: Global Capacity Builders Summit, Egypt 2022

In March 2022, Egypt hosted the largest gathering of organizations supporting faith-driven entrepreneurs ever. Close to fifty participants representing seventeen different nations came together to develop relationships, share best practice, and begin to cast a shared, global vision. 

This summit, convened by Sinapis in partnership with Faith Driven Entrepreneur and Angello, drew a wide variety of different capacity builders (or entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs)) from across the world, as well as other ecosystem partners including researchers, consultants, regional and global connectors and strategists, and investors. Time was divided between strategic discussions and vision-casting, practical workshops on topics such as how to map out your national ecosystem, and downtime to build relationships with one another and spend time alone with God.

Key Messages and Takeaways

A central takeaway of the summit was that God is at work around the world, making ways in the wilderness and streams in the desert through entrepreneurship. God’s Holy Spirit was felt powerfully by many attendees during times of worship, fellowship and discussion, and the fruits of love, joy, peace, and a unity in spirit were evident throughout the week. 

Moreover, the opportunity to catch a glimpse of how God is at work through His people around the world was inspiring. For example, a representative from Pakistan told the story of the Christian business conference they hosted last year. Despite only expecting a small handful of attendees, they were inundated with hundreds of Christian entrepreneurs throughout the day who had been longing for this kind of initiative but not knowing how to make it happen. This resulted in a host of new initiatives and partnerships and around 2000 individuals connected in through the emergence of tens of new WhatsApp groups. Out of obscurity a national movement had begun.

The second takeaway was simply that the power of meeting together in person cannot be replicated through any number of virtual meetings. The fruit of this time spent in developing relationships in person was evidenced not only by the joy experienced together in the moment, but by the interactions and collaboration that has continued spontaneously in the weeks since.

When it comes to key learnings, a central message that emerged during the summit was that a series of pivots, or a ‘great leveling out’, is occurring in the global entrepreneurial ecosystem. It includes a shift from West to East (and North to South), from aid to investment, and from traditional ministry to business and entrepreneurship. Relatedly, many leaders of ESOs caught the vision for building national and global entrepreneurial ecosystems for the first time, seeing the need to think beyond executing their own programs well and beginning to think strategically and to dream nationally or globally.

Next Steps

This summit gave everyone present a glimpse of what is happening, what could be, and how we can get there. Turning this collaboration of programs into a global movement and achieving the vision set out during the summit now requires turning passion, strategy, and good intentions into effective, practical collaboration. 

One step is already settled: this summit will occur again next year. We look forward to joining this gathering again in 2023 and are excited to see what God does to bring life and flourishing across the world in and through these new relationships in the months ahead.

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