backstage with an entrepreneur

Stronger conference creates opportunities to see behind the scenes. Hearing the challenges, opportunities and faith of this entrepreneur will inspire you.

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At the Stronger Conference earlier on this year I had the privilege of interviewing communicators, content creators, leaders, filmmakers, but also entrepreneurs, and one particular session was with Emmanuel Akinfenwa. Emmanuel is the senior pastor at City worship London, alongside his wife, and he is the co-host of ‘The Real talk, Real walk’ podcast, and is also a fashion designer.

Listen in on some of the conversation that we had together. I’ve added subheadings to Emmanuel’s responses so that you can quickly navigate to the sections that seem relevant to you. Enjoy!

Q. Emmanuel, It sounds like you juggle a number of plates, but I would love to hear about some of your background and some of the more recent history in your business development.

Faith:

‘In terms of the faith, I grew up as a pastor's kid. So I was literally from birth, you know, just immersed in church, church lifestyle, playing the drums very early on, and just very passionate about God’

Social Justice

‘And from early on, I also realised that I was very passionate about people. I actually didn’t want to be in ministry, I was actually running away from church ministry at large, I just thought maybe, if God was to call me in any way, shape, or form, it would probably be outside the four walls helping people, especially those that are that are facing great levels of oppression, maybe those suffering from abuse, or those that have been hurt by life.

And so, as I grew older, I realised this was something that God actually was calling me to, and so over the last few years, I've really been stepping out into this in a way that ministers to people. One of the ways is through mentoring, for example. I started a mentoring group in 2009, and essentially, this was about encouraging, specifically young men in inner city areas to think about life from a different perspective. It sounds very cliche, but at the time, I had a lot of young men that were coming from very different backgrounds, a diverse range of experiences that needed a diverse range of help and support.’

Podcasting

‘Further down the line I started podcasting and I reached out to a friend of mine, and I said, ‘You know what? I feel as Christians we can offer a bit more than the cliché stuff. Let's try a podcast that addresses real life issues for Christians. But if an unbeliever were to listen to it, they would be able to at least take something from it too.’

So we started the ‘Real talk, real walk’ podcast. By the grace of God, we were able to do our first live short show just before the lockdown, and it was sold out show by the grace of God. But we were able to literally talk about topics that might seem taboo, but really help engage the church with culture, and kind of break down the walls and the negative stereotypes and stuff like that.’

Starting a business

‘And just to round it up, at the beginning of 2021, I started a fashion brand called ‘Owrder’ And it was something that I had been marinating on for years. Fashion is something that's very big for me, and I think that when you look at the spectrum of culture, fashion is actually one of the pivotal areas that makes up culture.

And I think it's something that church and Christians at times have been very polarised about. You know, questions like ‘What does modesty look like?’, ‘Can you know you wear jeans and shirts?’, ‘Can you do X, Y, Z?’, and all of that kind of stuff.

And I just thought, you know what, this is something I've been passionate about. And it's something I'm going to go into wholeheartedly, because I feel like there's an avenue for the world at large to be able to see the creativity of God through our expression.

So for me, it's more street and urban wear, and by the grace of God, we're coming to a year in March, but we've been able to do something that's successful, and sustainable as well. So the journey is ongoing, but it was a big step of faith because it was, you know, it was a year into the pandemic, times were hard, I didn't really know where the money was going to come from. You have to reach out to suppliers, you have to get samples, you have to go to the printers, all of that kind of stuff. But God was able to supply what I needed to get started, and the ball started from there.’

Q. What would you say to someone who is just at the beginning stages of launching an idea or a business?

Walking by faith not by sight

‘As a believer, ultimately the steps that we take, and the decisions we make should be led by God and the Holy Spirit. And so, one of the one of the scriptures that has kept me and guided is in 2 Corinthians when it talks about how we walk by faith and not by sight.

And the pandemic, if anything, has caused kind of like two sides, too much, people that will kind of be immersed in the negative storylines. And there's a group of people that go, ‘yes this is an unknown, but there potentially is something in this that would yield great reward.’

The rug was pulled from under his feet

‘For me, I think that walking by faith and not by sight has been the biggest thing for me. Not looking at my circumstances, because I didn't have the capital. In fact, one of my businesses, a business consultancy, literally lost my client work. And that was where a lot of my income was coming in from.

And when the pandemic came, the massive client I was working with, pulled the contracts because they were like, ‘we can't keep paying you, because we don't know what's going to look like for the foreseeable future.’

So it was kind of like, ‘okay, the rug has been pulled, Lord, what happens next?’ And He said ‘I've given you the idea, I'm gonna make a way for you.’

God will make a way

‘So for someone who is considering starting something, it doesn't always happen in a way that we expect it. And that's why we have to utilise faith because faith doesn't go right, I've got all my ducks in a row, it goes, ‘right, God has a plan and a vision.’

And for him to bring it to fruition, things aren't necessarily going to make sense. And that's why you have to rely on him.

So what I challenge you to do is to step out, to step out of your comfort zone. The Bible talks about the Lord directing our steps. And so one thing I always preach to people is, you're going to need to move for the Lord to direct your steps.’

Q. Emmanuel I would love it if you could tell us a little bit about #Owrder, this business that you set up in the last year. Some background to it, and how's it been going?

Naming the company

‘So Owrder is a is a fashion brand, ultimately, and it’s about carrying a message of God's creativity and light through street wear. I said to God, ‘if I'm going to be able to do this thing, I want to be able to shine your creative light through what I am doing. I don't want to have to force the Christian narrative I want you to creatively express it.’, and God gave me a name for the company.

The name ‘Owrder’, o.w.r.d are the first three letters of a Hebrew word and the Hebrew word In the transliteration is ‘lights’. In Genesis one, it talks about how the world was dark, it was void, but the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep. And the first thing God says is ‘Let there be lights’.

Maybe for the past four years, I've never looked at Genesis 1 the same again. My personal understanding and conviction about Genesis 1 is that God wants to be found where there is darkness. And I said to God, if I'm going to do this thing, I want the light of God to be revealed through this.

So the word ‘order’ altogether is a mix of two words that a Hebrew word or ‘O.w.r’ and then ‘d.r’, which is from the English word order and essentially what it means is where there is a light, there is order, when God shines his light, it brings order. And what you see in the writing on the packaging, the phrases on the text, or the graphics, ultimately are to show you that there is a hidden message that you are coming to, and it's all about bringing order to your space.

And so when people wear the clothing, unbelievers are buying this and they're like, Yeah, I was drawn to the message. The first design was a light bulb with a world globe, and it's like, Okay, what does that mean? And it's like bringing light to the world. And no one thinks, oh, yeah, Jesus says, ‘I'm the light of the world.’ No one was thinking about Matthew 5, ‘you're the light of the world, the salt of the Earth’, no one thinks that, it's just like, yeah, it just looks like a cool thing.’

Q. In those early days before you launched order, there would have been lots of planning and preparation. Talk us through that. Did you have some people that you gathered around you to talk it through? What did it look like?

Preparation and research

‘This was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Because what I want to get out of the brand and the lane that I'm going down in terms of luxury streetwear. There are not many Christians in this space.

So having to do the research, having to study, having to work out what type of material, what type of cuts, what type of fits, what type of designs, what was the logo that I'm going to do on my first batch or my first season? Like, what, sort of things do I need to do at the backend for example, Where am I going to keep the stock.

And so really, and truly, I was like, okay, you know, what, I may not know people in this space, but I do know, people that have done fashion in the past, I do know, people who are like designers, graphic designers, that kind of stuff, started to pick their brains.’

Peer support

‘And there was a great friend of mine, actually another Christian fashion designer who had kind of started maybe like six to eight months before me. And we had a, like, a long series of calls, where he was just kind of doing a step by step things with him. So looking at backend stuff, looking at front end stuff, maybe how you want to market it, you're going to need to do a photo shoot, all of that kind of stuff.’

God’s faithfulness

‘And I cannot lie, it was very daunting, because like, in the meantime, a lot of it is going to have to be that 99.9% is going to be done by me. Then add Brexit in the mix. My supplier is not from the UK, my supplier for my first launch was from Portugal. So Brexit affected the shipping costs, but you know, by the grace of God, we are where we are. But yeah, it took about nine to 10 months to kind of bring everything together. That includes from concepts to having conversations to some plans, and actually getting more or less the finished products and then start preparing for the photoshoot. And then the release.’

If you want to watch the whole session, I would highly recommend it. You can find it here. Let us know if anything stands out to you about the conversation?