Seed Articles

Welcome to the Articles section of our library!

Here you’ll find a range of Blogs, Articles and PDF’s that are readily available to be read online or downloaded.

There is a variety of topics that you can filter via the “Select Category” function on the right.

Got an amazing article you think should be included in our library? Well we want to now about it, drop us an email via info@seed.org.au

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FEATURE ARTICLE

A note from Naomi

Earlier this year I had the privilege of getting to know some of our Seed community by connecting with some of our alumni. I was really after some information and feedback that could help us move forward with our programs and learn from past iterations of our entrepreneurial pathway. But I was not expecting to be so impacted by their stories of God’s faithfulness and their testimonies of where they’ve seen God at work.  In conversation with one participant I was powerfully reminded of the...

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ALL ARTICLES

The Story Challenge

The Story Challenge

This post is part of the 'Re-Imagining Discipleship' Series: Insights and reflections from Seed's 2023 Summit.“Story provides the deepest structural framework in which human life is to be understood. There is no more fundamental way in which human beings interpret...

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The Good News Challenge

The Good News Challenge

This post is part of the 'Re-Imagining Discipleship' Series: Insights and reflections from Seed's 2023 Summit.“I know I am who I am because somebody loved me. Somebody cared for me. Somebody attended to me…. I cannot conceive of whatever witness I have been able to...

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A minute with Ant

Walking alongside another human being in some kind of endeavour is an incredible privilege. It is even a great honour when you are invited to participate in the hope and dreams of a person you respect and who hopes to achieve change for humanity is some small or large...

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Reflecting with JB

When Seed was launched back in 2015, we wanted to invest in the formation of Jesus followers to help them make a real difference in the world – to move beyond belief. And we were confident that if we could help people design and create tangible expressions of the way...

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A note from Naomi

Earlier this year I had the privilege of getting to know some of our Seed community by connecting with some of our alumni. I was really after some information and feedback that could help us move forward with our programs and learn from past iterations of our...

read more

The Purpose of Life is a Life of Purpose.

Purpose and meaning are playing an increasingly important role in the contemporary workforce. In particular, the younger generations entering the workforce are looking for ‘meaning makers’, people who can help them contextualise their work in the context of a bigger story and life purpose.

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Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days. At its core the concept of Design Thinking is Customer-centric. It’s about understanding what your customer wants first before providing them with a solution.

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Start with Why

Some of you might have read Simon Sinek’s best-selling book ‘Start with Why’- or at least seen the Ted talk. The rediscovery of ‘why’ surprises me because I’m one of those people who are always thinking about why.

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Faith and Business Practice Amongst Christian Entrepreneurs in Developing and Emerging Markets by Eric A.S. Wood and Peter S. Heslam

This article examines the impact of faith on the business approach of Christian entrepreneurs in developing and emerging market settings. Special attention is given to the distinctive context for business in these environments (including high levels of poverty and corruption); the entrepreneurs’ responses, and how faith influences these responses.

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Characteristics of the Christian Entrepreneur: An Exploratory Study.

Governments globally are encouraging entrepreneurship and creating platforms for new entrepreneurial business opportunities. The study of entrepreneurship has been approached from many perspectives and grounded in various theories. Historically, research to understand why individuals become entrepreneurs has centred on secular considerations, leaving many unanswered questions.

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Pathway Builders Part Two

Where should those pathways lead? Our hope is that the pathways ultimately make it possible for Christians to be agents for redemptive change in society.
Redemptive change is our term for a particular approach to social change that grows out of our engagement with the Christian story. It is an approach to change that results in our growth and formation as followers of Jesus, while also making a positive impact on society and bearing witness to Jesus.

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Pathway Builders Part One

Over the last 6 months, a deeper clarity has emerged around the purpose of Seed. After a couple of years working through the detail of ‘how’ we do what we set out to do, we’ve had the pleasure of returning to reconsider in fresh ways ‘why’ Seed exists.
That ‘why’ – Seed’s purpose – is to create pathways for effective and faithful engagement by Christians in society. We might not talk about that in our public messages all the time, but that lies at the core of Seed’s existence.

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Doing Business God’s Way by Dennis Peacocke

This book was the result of years of study, conversations, and seminars which I taught on the general content in the 1980s. What  has always seemed clear to me is that “spiritual truth” that does not result in measurable change in the here-and-now is either not yet clearly understood or irrelevant. For sure, economics and business are about here-and-now reality, and the issue therefore is to connect these endeavors and ground them to their spiritual foundations in the God who created them.

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Faith-Based Entrepreneurship by Linda Christiansen

This thesis is about the role of the (Lutheran) Christian faith in social purpose business ventures. These business ventures have been known as “business as mission” (BAM) businesses within the Christian community but, so far, only limited research on the impact of these businesses has taken place and that mostly within the Christian Community.

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Incubating Vision For Your Unique Context

or as long as we can remember, the ability to see has been understood as a divine gift. From the snake in the garden to the eye of Horus, from the “see-ers” of the Old Testament to the “light of the world” in the New, the opening of blind eyes has been amongst the most pressing themes of the human condition – and its hope.

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Identity, Story & Purpose

When God calls people into relationship with him, he offers them new life. Intrinsic to this new life is the offer and assurance of salvation, yet the transformation to new life is much more than salvation, much more than a mere transaction. What happens, primarily, is that God designates us with a new identity. God changes who we are.

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Entrepreneurship Within A Biblical Worldview by Brian Baugus, PhD

This paper has two goals: to demonstrate the divine aspects of entrepreneurship and to show that there is much more to entrepreneurialism than business activities.

Christians have a somewhat schizophrenic view of entrepreneurs. We see them as something of a necessary evil; we recognize their value to some extent but also view them with skepticism and distrust, especially those who become wealthy. They are frequently viewed in a certain accusatory way, as though their wealth has come at the expense of others. 

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Shaped: Design Thinking, Desire, and Knowledge in Business Innovation by Nathan Trulsen

But design thinking—prioritizing the emotional and imaginative side of being human—seeks to put creativity in the center seat of business strategy, owning up to the reality that desire and knowledge are more connected than largely acknowledged. As a Christian who seeks to give glory to God through my work, I am delighted that design thinking provides a more human approach to understanding innovation.

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Design Thinking: The Missing Link from Theology to Business Practice? by Michael Hodson

At a recent meeting of Christian business people the speaker took pains to deny there was anything distinctive that the Christian faith could contribute to the redesign of the financial system. This lack of faith in the power of the Christian faith is widespread and due in part I believe to the difficulty of linking theology to business practice.t a recent meeting of Christian business people the speaker took pains to deny there was anything

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The Challenge of Change

As part of our Accelerator program at Seed we consider the reality that in the current marketplace any organisation that wants to succeed must embed innovation and change into their structures and processes from a very early stage.

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Beyond Belief

Some of you would be old enough to remember the Blackstump Christian music and arts festival that used to light up the Sydney Christian scene. The time when it was most influential was right in my formative teenage years.

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Work and Meaning-Making

Work and Meaning-Making

If all work has value, the important thing is to be faithful to the work and the place that God has called us. We can be called by God to work in the church and work outside the church.

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Design Should Matter More To Christians

Design Should Matter More To Christians

As creative Christians, we need to be especially attentive to all facets of our work: design, form, content, function. Does our work bear witness to the goodness of Jesus, and particularly to the sacrifice and humility He embodied for us?

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Re:Imagine. Re:Build.

Re:Imagine. Re:Build.

We’re offering a new course called Re-Imagine especially designed for Christians who own or are leading small to medium enterprises through this season

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The Entrepreneur Call

The Entrepreneur Call

Entrepreneur is a word thrown around a lot these days and rightfully so when you consider that an entrepreneur is not simply someone who starts a business…

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What Genesis 1 Says About Work

What Genesis 1 Says About Work

Genesis is incomparably significant for the theology of work because it tells the story of God’s work of creation, the first work of all and the prototype for all work that follows

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Faith + Entrepreneurship

Faith + Entrepreneurship

The first time I inadvertently explored the intersection between entrepreneurship and faith was through the gold-standard of middle-school communication: the viral chain-emails promising good fortune or the absence of utter tragedy if you forwarded it along to 20 friends.

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Walk The Talk

Walk The Talk

Walk the Talk. Is one those clichés that I find confronting true, mostly because of the absence of its reality in my life.

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Failing Forward

Failing Forward

Some people refuse to use the word failure. Instead, they substitute words like slip-up, setback, glitch, mistake—or at least frame the failure in a positive light.   

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Work Is Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be

Work Is Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be

The Bible explains that because of the rebellion of humanity against God’s good intention for our lives, shalom is not the way it is anymore. Instead of work consistently being done for the flourishing of all, work is often just a means to other ends, sinful ends.

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Incubating Vision For Your Unique Context

Incubating Vision For Your Unique Context

But you, as an individual can incubate a vision of our unique context, that perhaps might be a sign that the Spirit of the Creator God has not abandoned that context, but is intent on filling it afresh with His image – even with you.

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Design Thinking

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days. At its core the concept of Design Thinking is Customer-centric.

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God Was The First Entrepreneur

God Was The First Entrepreneur

Disruption. This idea that things could be done better and you have a solution as to how that could happen or at the very least you’re willing to go on the journey of finding out if there is a solution to be found.

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A Conversation: Jess Smith – Common Grace

A Conversation: Jess Smith – Common Grace

Movements are about broad culture change, about identity and community transformation. When you have a ‘big’ vision, you will often dream of seeing not just your small project or product succeed but it multiply and snowball to transform whole communities and societies.

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God’s Entrepreneurs

God’s Entrepreneurs

An initial study, utilising the Baylor Religion Survey, discovered that entrepreneurs tend to pray more frequently, are more likely to attend a place of worship that encourages business activity, and are more likely to see God as engaged and personal.

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Top Tips For Social Entrepreneurs

Top Tips For Social Entrepreneurs

Spiritual formation: you need deep roots to bear lots of fruit. If you have deep roots you won’t be blown about by other people’s opinions. Stay true to the only one whose opinion matters: God.

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Revolutionising the Fashion Industry

Revolutionising the Fashion Industry

Davyn de Bruyn had it all: a wonderful job, speeding up the career ladder, living in Mosman, girls keen for his company… but on the 10th of January in 2012 he found himself asking ‘Is this all life has to offer?’

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The Challenge of Change

The Challenge of Change

What about the church? We’re not exactly known as a bastion of innovation and disruption. Australian Professor of theology and sociology Charles Ringma pointed out about 40 years ago (before the innovation revolution was on the radar) that the church hasn’t innovated in centuries.

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Stop managing your life and start living it

Stop managing your life and start living it

It was two days after the images of Aylan (the three year old Syrian refugee boy who drowned at sea last week) were released, that I finally found the space to engage with the reality of his death. His death was a moment that captured the reality of the pain and...

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Responding to pressing social issues

Responding to pressing social issues

We founded Seed in response to three problems. In this blog series we're outlining the problems and a taste of how Seed plans to respond to them. Problem 2: The world is not as God intends it to be. We see and experience brokenness, injustice, oppression. Christians...

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Discover God-given purpose

Discover God-given purpose

We founded Seed in response to three problems. In this blog series we're outlining the problems and a taste of how Seed plans to respond to them. Problem number 1: Many Christians are frustrated that their faith feels disengaged from the world and disconnected from...

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Start With Why

Start With Why

Some of you might have read Simon Sinek’s best-selling book ‘Start with Why’- or at least seen the Ted talk. The rediscovery of ‘why’ surprises me because I’m one of those people who are always thinking about why. I’m always asking questions. If I can’t understand the purpose behind what I’m doing then you won’t have me on board for very long. Starting with why comes naturally for me.

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