Article originally hosted and shared with permission by The Christian Economic Forum, a global network of leaders who join together to collaborate and introduce strategic ideas for the spread of God’s economic principles and the goodness of Jesus Christ. This article was from a collection of White Papers compiled for attendees of the CEF’s Global Event.
by Anonymous
We don’t have a resource issue in the Body of Christ—we have a heart issue. Although there are estimates that Christians hold $20–100 Trillion in wealth, starting with $20 Trillion seems to be an excellent place to start.
What would happen if $20 Trillion held by Christians was unleashed in our cities as an expression of God’s grace? What would happen if marketplace leaders saw their businesses as their ministry and came together to pool their capital to invest in for-profit “impact investments” and scalable end-use ministries in their cities?
Since reading The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn in 2000, I have been asking these questions of myself and others, not as an intellectual exercise or for debate but to explore and practice living out biblical investing, generosity, and wealth creation as an entrepreneur. One of my early mentors, Walt Henrichsen, would often express it by saying, “We all take risks in the direction of our hope. When you take risks in a particular direction, you identify where you have placed your hope.” Perhaps this is obvious to others, but eternal accountability and rewards were a powerful insight that radically changed how I thought of risk along with income and wealth creation.
Having spent half my life living and working in China/Asia and half in the US, I have seen brothers and sisters in Christ taking bold risks in the direction of their hope in Christ in for-profit businesses and non-profits. However, I also noticed that these were almost always operating in isolation with practically no connectivity to others in their city, diminishing potential impact. Where I have seen collaboration, it has often been through those linked with CEF. Many of you reading this have already made significant progress in many of the most pressing challenges of our lifetime.
In 2017, after my family and I returned to the US, I sensed from the Lord some questions: “What if we could unlock $1 Billion in capital in the city of Columbus (and 10, 20, or 100 other cities) that would be invested in for-profit impact investments and strategic scalable ministries dealing with the biggest problems in our city? Would we be willing to take the risk and see if God could provide a 10-20-50 or 100x return in this life and the next?”
Over the last five years, we discovered 6 phases for initial steps to unlocking this capital in our city. These phases are not exhaustive or prescriptive and will undoubtedly change by this time next year. However, we are attempting to establish principles that can be easily communicated and given away to other cities. Many within the CEF community have already been practicing similar types of approaches and hope there can be a common language and encouragement to do this at scale.
Phase 1: Dealing with the Knowledge Issue of God’s Kingdom Economy
Over the last ten years, we have been blessed to see incredible works to bring together resources, stories, and research that provide more than enough content to give a clear biblical picture of God’s economic system. The content makes it clear that we are stewards, not owners. Here are some excellent resources to reframe how Christians should be thinking and living as it relates to stewardship and God’s economy: Faith Driven Investor and FDE, Crown Ministries, CEF, Tim Keller’s sermons and books, Kingdom Economics (Brett Johnson), Practicing the King’s Economy (Fikkert, Holt, and Rhodes), and Money, Possessions & Eternity (Randy Alcorn).
To compliment this, we need more of the incredible practical stories of Christians who have discovered these principles and put them to work in their businesses and personal lives. These stories can encourage and give models that others can use to live out their stewardship.
Phase 2: Necessity of Opportunities to Communicate Kingdom Economic Principles to Broad Audiences
Marketplace leaders need to create opportunities for broad-based discussions/meetings/talks on generosity and impact investing and leverage our capital as Christians for the good of our cities. These can be larger audiences in the hundreds to smaller 40–50 person events. However, the focus should be broader to identify those who resonate with the message and are ready to go deeper in both the knowledge and practice of the principles.
We have found that marketplace leaders are drawn by the idea of using their talents and accumulated resources to impact their community for Christ. They are attracted by the ideas of impact investing and working with others to leverage resources to impact their city for Christ.
In Columbus, we have used a combination of approaches for broader gatherings. In some cases, we utilize those in our city to give testimony on their journey and the practice of these principles. We also bring in national thought leaders to expand our thinking and application.
This broader sowing approach leads to marketplace leaders selecting a more intentional phase of learning and practicing.
Phase 3: Initiating “Investing in the Eternal Kingdom Cells” of 10–25 people
We all realize most marketplace leaders do not need another meeting or Bible study to attend. However, to have an impact, we must create a compelling opportunity for leaders to come together to share Christ in the context of these Kingdom economic principles. We must move beyond concepts to the heart issues that prevent practical applications in our businesses and companies. Here are some basic principles we established:
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There needs to be trust built and absolute secrecy on what is discussed, so we are free to share.
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Only marketplace leaders are to be a part of a group, and we are not to use the group to solicit from one another.
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There is no lecture/sermon. Instead, content and principles are facilitated each week, and the expectation is that the Spirit is leading us and everyone contributes as the Lord leads them. Sharing our lives with one another is foundational to the trust created.
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Although the meetings are 1 hour, most members are organically integrated into each other’s lives weekly. In addition, many are on Boards and part of strategic end-use ministries in the city.
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The content always returns to God’s economy vs. the world’s system. We deep dive to understand and see how our decisions are influenced and encourage one another to remain operating by the Spirit in God’s system.
After 2+ years of being together, we felt compelled to take things to the next level of intentionality.
Phase 4: Holding “City Reaching Generosity Evenings” 2–3 Times per Year
Although many of us were doing impact investing projects together and supported various end-use ministries in our city, we sensed another level of intentionality we could pursue. In February of 2021, we did our first “Generosity Evening.” We committed to the following:
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Each person would pray in advance of the evening “how much” they sensed the Lord wanted them to give. The amount was to be over and above already committed giving.
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Each person was to pray in advance about one end-use ministry in the city that the Lord would want to be considered as part of the evening. The intent was that the ministry was dealing with one of the significant issues facing our city and was doing it well.
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Upon arrival, after a time of prayer, everyone confidentially wrote down the number the Lord had led them to give. Those were put in a bowl and tallied anonymously.
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Each person then gave a concise summary of the ministry the Lord had laid on their heart. No persuasion.
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After a few minutes, we returned to a time of prayer, asking the Lord to give us a unanimous leading of the Spirit on which ministry/ministries were to be selected. Again, no discussion, just prayer until the Lord confirmed three ministries to be funded.
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We then repeated the process of prayer and discernment until we also confirmed the amounts to be given to each. Spirit-led, not an extended open discussion. We joyfully concluded this process in about 90–120 minutes.
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We then enjoyed an incredible meal, sharing what the Lord revealed to us during this time and asking, “When can we do this again?”
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All monies were distributed to the various ministries through a confidential vehicle set up through NCF. Therefore, this group can practice Matthew 6 principles of giving with confidentiality. Also, we do not know the amount others have given to protect against comparison.
On the first evening, $300,000 was raised and distributed by seven people. The 2nd session, approximately a year later, had 14 participants with more than $1,200,000 raised for six ministries. The 2nd session saw such an incredible movement of the Holy Spirit, and the evening was filled with tears, laughter, and joy at how the Lord moved us together. It was a beautiful evening of worship and fellowship in the Spirit. We all recognized the $ amount was not important, but the responding to the movement of the Holy Spirit that evening was an act of obedience we experienced together.
We are now beginning to see the pathway to unlocking and unleashing $1B in capital for our city. We are seeing that by giving not only from income but also from wealth the Lord has entrusted to us via companies, real estate, and other vehicles, we can scale quickly to $1B. For example, if each Kingdom Cell has the capacity to unlock $10–50M in capital, then we would only need 50–100 Cells in a city to reach this first target.
Phase 5: Establishing “Stewardship Accountability Teams” of 3 People
Most Christians have never thought of putting themselves into an accountability relationship related to the stewardship of the resources entrusted to them. It is generally off-limits. As a subset of our Kingdom Cell weekly gatherings, we have established stewardship accountability teams where we mutually submit to one another on our stewardship of time, talent, treasure, and relationships. This cooperation involves an open-book approach to our resources and requests for feedback on where we are in the process. These teams intend to encourage going to the next level of living out the principles of the Kingdom economy.
This 5th phase can begin at any point, but I have listed it in this order as it was how it organically happened for us.
Phase 6: Launching a “5 Talents Collective” (or whatever you want to call it) in Your City
We desire to see deep spiritual integration and impact in our businesses and our communities. Such integration will require a group of leaders and their families willing to mutually and humbly submit to one another and set aside personal agendas, fears, and limits on God’s ability to produce the results He wants. It has to be about the process, not the $ amount deployed. It will require tremendous mutual trust and commitment up front never to break relationships over money. We all have seen too many situations of professing Christians cheating, suing each other, and breaking relationships over money, power, and who gets the credit. It is heartbreaking to us, and I can only imagine how heartbreaking it is to the Lord.
The following are some examples of what this might look like in a city:
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Kingdom Cells commit to “Generosity Evenings” 1–3 times per year to keep the practice of giving together consistently.
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Existing Kingdom Cells commit to disciple others to launch their Cells within their sphere of influence. Repeat this process with the hopes of 100 groups across a city.
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Commit to giving from wealth, not just income. This commitment can be the equity in your business, your own real estate, equities, and other assets you manage. How each person expresses this cannot be mandated, but it should be encouraged to think differently about leveraging what has been entrusted to us as 5 Talent people. NCF, Commonwealth, and the Impact Foundation are excellent resources to do this effectively.
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From the wealth and income you have committed to give, determine how much you would give as part of a city-wide collective that seeks to solve one or more of the big problems in your city. Collective giving can be far more powerful and scalable than individual giving. Unfortunately, what prevents such giving is usually fear, pride, and control.
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Commit to taking a portion of your portfolio for impact investing with others. There are a tremendous number of companies seeking investment from impact investors. Our capital has influence, and we must be shrewd in leveraging capital for Kingdom-focused investing. Suppose we can invest 1 dollar that returns 5 dollars, and the business is spiritually integrated. In that case, this is an incredibly clever way to increase our influence in our cities and generate more sustainable capital for end-use ministries and more impact investment opportunities.
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Practice principles of “gleaning” and “jubilee” in your business, should you have one. Adapting these principles includes how you pay, the type of healthcare, and even the willingness to give ownership of your business to those contributing to the company’s value creation. Modeling principles of abundance to those in your company is an expression of the Gospel. I have had the privilege of practicing this with my business in China/Asia and our COhatch business in the US.
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As your 5 Talent Collective takes shape by the Lord’s leadership, you can identify the worst zip code in the city. You can discern the most acutely felt spiritual need in the city and decide to allocate the collective resources (time, talent, treasure, and relationships) to take on this need in your city. Principles of collaboration and mutual submission bathed in prayer will be foundations for light to be brought to the darkest places of our cities.
We can now see a Spirit led path to $1B being activated in our city and $20 Trillion globally.
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50+ Kingdom Cell groups on average unlocking $20M each in aggregated capital to be deployed
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The $20M is a result of families giving from their wealth creation, not just income. If 20 families are in each Kingdom Cell, then it is $1M average per family that is unlocked.
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1000 families unlocking on average $1 million each to reach $1B in the city
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20,000,000 families unlocking on average $1 million each to reach $20 Trillion globally
Conclusion
We have been blessed in Columbus to be a part of the initial stages of what appears to be a global movement of the Holy Spirit to inspire like-minded marketplace leaders that want to take responsibility for their role in the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ has the resources to meet the needs of our cities. Jesus waits for His Body to love our neighbors and become the fullest expression of the Church that God has intended since eternity past.
Are we prepared to count the cost and take the risk?
Are we willing to risk temporal resources for eternal rewards?
Are we willing to put relationships before money?
Are we willing to leverage our resources together, trusting God for the results?
Imagine millions of Christians globally leveraging their resources to love their neighbor.
Imagine billions of dollars in every city deployed to serve one another as an expression of God’s grace that has been extended to us.
Imagine $20 Trillion globally unleashed to serve our cities, as the Body of Christ demonstrates in whom we really trust!
My hope and prayers are to see this in our lifetime!