Into the Lions’ lair

The Lions were created a number of years ago by Gary Spicer and a travelling companion out of what Gary calls a minister’s frustration to release an entrepreneurial spirit in the Church in the UK. Gary kept asking himself, “How can we connect with that for the kingdom?” The conception came at Geneva Airport of all places, as a springboard to launch and pioneer the idea of a type of Dragons’ Den with the three Cs, Community, Church, Commerce at its heart to create a social impact and to release all the dreamers.

Initially accepting between 60 and 90 applicants, the candidates are whittled down to 15, for a six-weekend experience with people who have been ‘successful’ in their chosen fields, the “good, the bad, and the ugly” as Gary puts it, in the Belfry Hotel in the Midlands. There, they discuss things like the concept of their pitch, case studies of things that have gone wrong and those that have gone right, business plans, team dynamics, legal aspects of what they are doing a...