Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Cryder.
Hi Christian, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve had three very different careers.
1. I spent 14 years in software (during the first internet boom (Montana, Seattle, Bay Area).
2. Then I went to seminary (Philadelph) and fell in love with cultural diversity… When I finished, I moved back to Montana where I spent seven years planting a church for people who had given up on church (Missoula). Along the way, I started a nonprofit and started brewing beer, and then ended up partnering with Big Sky Brewing to create All Souls Ale (church partnering with brewery to help fund a nonprofit)
3. Then I moved to Austin late in 2013 to try and start a brewery -and- plant another church, both at the same time (you don’t have to be crazy but it helps). I’ve been here for almost eight years. Lazarus launched on Christmas Eve 2016. And I lead a collective of small house churches called All Souls.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Ha! Nothing worth doing is ever easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it.
Huge challenges learning how to start a brick and mortar business from scratch (how to write a business plan, how to form legal entities, how to find investors and raise money, how to find a property, how to get open, how to be profitable, how to navigate the city (permitting), how to survive covid.
Similar on the church front – how to form a vibrant spiritual community where people don’t have to share your convictions in order to be your friends, but where we are inviting folks to join us in following the biblical Jesus and figuring out to actually do that in a way that doesn’t just look like typical American Christianity (which is often more American than Christian). How to do that in a house setting with no budget, no staff, no advertising. And how to survive covid.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m in the business of starting things that bring people together (in ways that people can appreciate even if they don’t share any of our convictions). With Lazarus, we do that thru coffee, beer, and tacos. With All Souls, it’s about creating space for people to spiritually explore how classic historical Christianity answers life’s big questions (and what it would look like to actually live out of those answers). In both things, I am really in the people business.
I also love art, beauty, writing music, and business!
How do you think about happiness?
Coffee. Beer. Tacos. People. Jesus. My wife… Kids… And fly fishing. Not necessarily in that order.
I also love learning how to create things (especially from nothing).
Contact Info:
- Website: Lazarusbrewing.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/lazarusbrewing
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lazarusbrewing/
