Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
In this bracing keynote from the 2026 Napa Institute Summer Conference, Fr. John Burns, founder of Friends of the Bridegroom, makes a bold claim: discipleship and entrepreneurship formally intersect.
Drawing on two moments of American creative imagination — the accidental discovery of the New World and the founding of the nation 250 years ago — Fr. Burns argues that the intrepid, inventive spirit written into our national DNA belongs just as fully to the Catholic disciple. Returning to the word's roots (entre + preneur, "one who takes between"), he defines the entrepreneur simply: one who stands between a problem and its solutions, and acts.
Then he names the problem honestly. Externally, a world that does not know God. Internally — and he argues this is the greater difficulty — a Church that has the answers but is not always structured to deliver them: bureaucratic, operationally expensive, marked by a culture of suspicion, and weakened by decades of vocational loss. Setting the encouraging Easter 2026 conversion numbers against the longer CARA data, he calls a bottom and issues an invitation: recover the creative imagination, trade siloed vocational states for mutual solicitude, and unleash the charisms of the laity.
A hopeful, clear-eyed summons to entrepreneurial discipleship — and a reminder that the Summer Conference itself is a snapshot of how the Church is meant to look.
About the Napa Institute: The Napa Institute is a lay apostolate whose mission is to empower Catholic leaders to renew the Church and transform the culture. Our conferences, pilgrimages, and events gather clergy, religious, and lay leaders for high-end experiences rooted in liturgy, community, and faith formation.
🔗 Learn more about the Napa Institute: napa-institute.org
🗓️ Attend an upcoming event: napa-institute.org/events
✅ Subscribe for more talks from our 2026 Summer Conference
💲 Support our mission: secure.givelively.org/donate/napa-institute
#NapaInstitute #Catholic #America250 #ChurchRenewal #Discipleship
In this bracing keynote from the 2026 Napa Institute Summer Conference, Fr. John Burns, founder of Friends of the Bridegroom, makes a bold claim: discipleship and entrepreneurship formally intersect.
Drawing on two moments of American creative imagination — the accidental discovery of the New World and the founding of the nation 250 years ago — Fr. Burns argues that the intrepid, inventive spirit written into our national DNA belongs just as fully to the Catholic disciple. Returning to the word's roots (entre + preneur, "one who takes between"), he defines the entrepreneur simply: one who stands between a problem and its solutions, and acts.
Then he names the problem honestly. Externally, a world that does not know God. Internally — and he argues this is the greater difficulty — a Church that has the answers but is not always structured to deliver them: bureaucratic, operationally expensive, marked by a culture of suspicion, and weakened by decades of vocational loss. Setting the encouraging Easter 2026 conversion numbers against the longer CARA data, he calls a bottom and issues an invitation: recover the creative imagination, trade siloed vocational states for mutual solicitude, and unleash the charisms of the laity.
A hopeful, clear-eyed summons to entrepreneurial discipleship — and a reminder that the Summer Conference itself is a snapshot of how the Church is meant to look.
About the Napa Institute: The Napa Institute is a lay apostolate whose mission is to empower Catholic leaders to renew the Church and transform the culture. Our conferences, pilgrimages, and events gather clergy, religious, and lay leaders for high-end experiences rooted in liturgy, community, and faith formation.
🔗 Learn more about the Napa Institute: napa-institute.org
🗓️ Attend an upcoming event: napa-institute.org/events
✅ Subscribe for more talks from our 2026 Summer Conference
💲 Support our mission: secure.givelively.org/donate/napa-institute
#NapaInstitute #Catholic #America250 #ChurchRenewal #Discipleship
