Everybody seems interested in innovation and entrepreneurship these days. Start-ups are generating new jobs, creating wealth and providing solutions to longstanding problems. People are also aware that old-line social institutions need innovative approaches that provide renewal, re-establish trust and cultivate sustainability. What do faith communities have to do with innovation and entrepreneurship? Faith communities have their own need for innovation, demonstrated in a growing interest in starting new churches, developing "fresh expressions" for gatherings of community and discussions about how to cultivate a renewed sense of mission. But do faith communities have anything unique to contribute to conversations about innovation and entrepreneurship, especially in "social entrepreneurship"? At first glance, the answer seems to be "no." Burgeoning literature on social entrepreneurship barely mentions the church or other faith-based institutions -- and when it does they're often described as part of the broken institutional landscape. Roger Martin and Sally Osberg describe social entrepreneurship in their new book, "Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works." They distinguish social entrepreneurship from social advocacy and social service, observing that social entrepreneurship takes direct action and seeks to transform existing systems. Martin and Osberg note that faith communities are good at social advocacy and social service but assume they have little role in social entrepreneurship. This hasn't always been so. The late Greg Dees, often described as the father of social entrepreneurship as an academic discipline, observed that for much of American history, faith communities -- especially Christians -- led the way in social innovation in education, health care, food security, housing, mental health and hospice. Yet recently much of the most innovative and entrepreneurial work in these sectors has been done apart from faith communities, whether through secular non-governmental organizations (e.g., Teach for America, Knowledge is Power Program schools) or for-profit businesses (e.g., hospitals and hospices). Indeed, it is now often assumed that faith and faith communities either are irrelevant to social innovation and entrepreneurship or are a significant obstacle. What happened? We believe too many people in faith communities, and faith-based organizations themselves, turned inward. They became preoccupied with managing what already existed rather than focusing on innovative renewal of their organizations and entrepreneurial approaches to starting new ones. Shortly before his death in 2013, Dees expressed concern that unless faith communities became integral again to social entrepreneurship, the movement itself might run out of steam.