Sharing the gospel through business: MinistryPreneurs
Emma Ogren, Assistant Editor
Photo courtesy of Bob Shallow
Bob Shallow, Associate Dean of Operations for the College of Business and Entrepreneurship at North Greenville University, has started an organization to help Christian entrepreneurs.
The organization was founded in mid-February of 2026.
Shallows is the founder and president of MinistryPreneurs. Their goal, as laid out by their website, states, “Our mission is to help churches equip entrepreneurs to steward their business as a ministry.”
The creation of this organization comes out of the fact that Shallows is pursuing a PhD in organization and management with an emphasis on entrepreneurship at Liberty University. After completing the class portion and moving on to the dissertation, he realized that many Christian entrepreneurs have a desire to run their business like a ministry. However, many of them are not properly equipped to do so.
MinistryPreneurs will work with churches and give them resources and hold workshops to help anyone in their congregation who might want to start a business and share the gospel through that business. The goal is to then create small groups of entrepreneurs who can work together and with the church.
Shallow understands the declining rate of people going to church on a regular basis but thinks it’s important for everyone to hear the gospel. By equipping entrepreneurs to share the gospel within their business, the hope is that people will be more receptive to the good news of Jesus.
“There are a significant number of Christian entrepreneurs throughout the country. But so few of them are actually being taught how to use their business as a ministry,” Shallow said. “If you look at the platform they have, most business owners probably touch over 5,000 people each year where your average church is only touching a few hundred every year.”
Before working at NGU, Shallow worked with C12, “The world’s largest peer-learning community for Christian CEOs, business owners, and executives,” according to their website. Shallow noticed a gap with how many people wanted to start businesses and how many churches were able to help them achieve that.
“Churches are supposed to be equipping their congregants in order to do life outside of the church,” Shallow said. “So, we felt like that’s really an area that is needed.”
Currently, MinistryPreneurs is going through the process of becoming a 501(c)(3). This is the classification for a nonprofit in the state of South Carolina. In order to officially gain the title, there must be a board. At this time, Shallow is the treasurer on the board and the president of the nonprofit.
In the early stages of building this organization, the president’s role is mainly about putting the program together and what it will look like for churches to be involved.
“Once we actually start working with the church is when we’ll fill out what it looks like, so that we can then replicate that and do it in other churches,” Shallow stated.
