Episode 355 - The Most Obvious Gap in the Church No One Talks About | Mark Vroegop

Dec 16, 2025

Mark Vroegop, President of The Gospel Coalition and seasoned pastor, discusses the disconnect between pastors and entrepreneurs, despite their potential synergies. He highlights how lament can serve as a powerful tool for processing failures in both ministry and business. Mark also explores the importance of church leaders visiting businesses to cultivate relationships and the necessity of honest peer support for emotional well-being. He shares insights on waiting on the Lord during uncertain times and warns against the dangers of impatience in leadership.

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INSIGHT

Church Faces Identity And Epistemic Shifts

We face identity-defining cultural questions about gender, marriage, and truth in the AI age.
The church must clarify core convictions while engaging new epistemic challenges.

INSIGHT

Reconnect Faith And Work Locally

The faith-and-work movement must return to the local church to be fully effective.
Entrepreneurs can extend church ministry informally through evangelism and care beyond programs.

ADVICE

Bring Business Skills Into Church Leadership

Pastors should learn business skills like organizational leadership and change management.
Entrepreneurs should offer their operational experience to help churches scale and govern well.

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Join host Justin Forman as he sits down with Mark Vroegop, President of The Gospel Coalition, for a timely conversation about the growing but often disconnected faith and work movement. Mark brings a rare dual perspective—thirty years of pastoral ministry combined with deep understanding of entrepreneurial leadership—to address why two of society's most driven groups struggle to connect.

This episode tackles the practical barriers keeping pastors and entrepreneurs apart, explores how lament and waiting can transform both business loss and leadership pressure, and offers concrete steps for churches ready to empower their entrepreneurial members beyond "parking vests and coffee." Mark vulnerably shares from his own journey through grief and gaps, providing a biblical framework for navigating the uncertainty that defines both pastoral and entrepreneurial life.

This episode of the Faith Driven Entrepreneur Podcast was filmed at the Main Street Summit, the perfect gathering for ambitious Christian entrepreneurs, executives, and business leaders seeking to deepen the integration of their faith and work.

Learn more and sign up to be notified for Main Street Summit 2026: www.mainstreetsummit.com

Key Topics:

Why pastors and entrepreneurs miss each other despite obvious synergies
The demanding reality of pastoral ministry most business leaders never see
How business leaders can provide invaluable insight churches desperately need
Lament as a language for processing business failure, betrayal, and loss
Waiting on the Lord: Learning to lead through gaps and uncertainty
Building strategic plans that include space for divine intervention
Practical pathways for pastors and entrepreneurs to bridge the divide

Notable Quotes:

"How can we help business leaders know how to be good churchmen, if you will? And from my seat as a person who's in pastoral ministry for thirty years, how can pastors do a better job of serving business leaders, especially entrepreneurs?" - Mark Vroegop

"Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust." - Mark Vroegop

"Waiting on the Lord is learning to live on what I know to be true about God when I don't know what's true about my life." - Mark Vroegop