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 Ben McLain

I need to make a confession, of sorts. Two years ago, I submitted a paper (“King Jesus and the United Nations”) encouraging the Christian Economic Forum community to embrace the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals[1] and vigorously pursue their achievement. I made the case that the Bible speaks clearly to each of the issues addressed by the 17 SDGs and that Christians today have a unique opportunity to lead the way in demonstrating excellence and innovation by promoting true flourishing in our world through the achievement of the SDGs. Even more, we may simultaneously accomplish the completion of the Great Commission as we pursue the SDGs through a biblical lens. This vision deeply inspired me and drove me to identify a means by which I could practically engage in this work. I knew the path would be challenging, but I now believe I overlooked many of the complications and nuances involved with actually implementing a biblical SDG framework in a real-world investment portfolio. It has been a bit of a bumpy journey to date. I still believe the SDGs are a worthwhile framework, but there are significant flaws, and it will require meaningful collaboration among faith-driven investors to ensure the SDGs are actually useful and beneficial to the Christian investing community. 

Late last year, I eagerly joined the team at Impact Foundation. Our unique organizational structure as a steward of hundreds of Donor Advised Funds (we call them “Impact Accounts”) has afforded us the privilege and responsibility of managing a portfolio of companies that currently numbers about 250. My primary role is to shepherd these companies as they seek to maximize their Kingdom impact by supporting their wide-ranging needs and helping them navigate the numerous challenges presented by daily operations and organizational growth. I have also embarked on an ambitious endeavor to actually implement a biblical framework for the SDGs across Impact Foundation’s portfolio of companies. My goals for this project are a) To determine the real-world value of adopting the SDGs at both a company and a portfolio level and b) To develop content that articulates a biblical, Christ-centered philosophy of the SDGs as a counter to the secular-humanist underpinnings many organizations enact upon them. Seems simple enough, right? 

You may be wondering why I believe this is a worthwhile undertaking. I have three primary motivations. First, the SDGs have garnered widespread adoption in the global investing community and essentially provide a standard taxonomy for the social and environmental outcomes that are the heartbeat of “impact investing.” The manner in which the SDGs have established collaboration and a common framework throughout the global investing community is rather extraordinary. I believe we would be demonstrating our ignorance of the broader impact investing space if we do not incorporate the SDGs into our communications as we encounter external parties in the marketplace. For example, instead of saying we are focused on “poverty alleviation,” we can report that we are targeting “SDG 1,” and most everyone in the global investing community will recognize our intentions. This benefit alleviates some of the challenges we have faced when we say that many of our portfolio companies are focused on “redemptive methodology” (blank stares usually ensue…). Plus, there are fancy icons for each SDG that we can post on our website and in our reports. 

A second benefit is that there is an increasingly robust and maturing catalogue of targets, indicators, metrics, and reports associated with the SDGs. One of the biggest frustrations with “impact investing” is determining and then communicating the actual impact achieved! The past few years have seen significant progress in this area, and the SDGs have helped forge collaboration and have advanced the standardization of data collection and reporting methods. There is still much room for growth, but by adopting the SDGs, an organization gains access to a curated and rapidly improving library of knowledge and tools that enables it to more effectively assess the impact it is making and to communicate that news (both the good and the bad) with its stakeholders. This is one of the areas that I am most excited about implementing at Impact Foundation. I believe having more visibility into the work of our portfolio companies “on the ground” will reveal dramatic stories of God’s activity in our world and will also enable our donor/investors to experience the joy of generosity more deeply. 

A third motivation to implement the SDGs in our portfolio is that I believe it will afford us with numerous opportunities to engage with the broader investing community. Even in the world of COVID, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of seminars, conferences, learning communities, and other groups that are devoted to pressing deeper into the SDGs and exploring how to advance their achievement. I have personally been invited to participate in over a dozen groups that are examining various aspects of the SDGs, such as metrics, outcomes, global awareness, etc. Building on what I advocated in my previous paper, I truly believe these groups provide Christians with an awesome opportunity to demonstrate excellence and innovation as we seek to achieve the SDGs. In my experience, when you truly press into the motivations on why these people are so passionate about causes such as improving the environment or ending poverty, their cores are quite hollow because it is based on a secular/humanistic worldview. The message of a loving and self-giving Creator/Redeemer Who actually demands and deserves our worship is a revolutionary concept to many and leads to some riveting conversations. How could I pass up that opportunity? 

Unfortunately, I have discovered that implementing the SDGs is not so simple, and there are significant obstacles to overcome. For example, many of the SDGs are poorly defined, and they overlap with one another. Remember how I said we could replace the term “poverty alleviation” with “SDG 1”? To be truthful, the cause of “poverty alleviation” could legitimately be mapped to SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and arguably 2 or 3 additional SDGs. Would Impact Foundation’s stakeholders be better served if we adopt a custom set of well-defined “causes” instead of adopting the SDGs? Are we reporting with integrity if we claim to be addressing multiple SDGs, when perhaps only one SDG is truly being addressed? How can we actually know where to draw the line between individual SDGs such as “No Poverty” and “Zero Hunger”? At this time, I am not sure of the answers to these questions, and I am hoping to conduct a pilot in the near future to gain clarity on a path forward. 

A second challenge involved with implementing the SDGs across our portfolio is that while much progress has been made on developing tools and measurement standards to assess progress on the SDGs, there remains a long way to go in effectively tracking outcomes and determining what “good” is truly being done in the world. For example, Chinese President Xi 

Jinping made international headlines earlier this year by declaring “victory over extreme poverty in China.”[2] Xi claimed that nearly 100 million Chinese citizens had been delivered from extreme poverty since he assumed power in 2012. Certainly, this news seems wonderful at face-value and would seem to have little downside. However, when examined more closely, the price of such “deliverance” may be quite steep. For example, reports of forced relocation of rural Chinese peasants to urban areas and the involuntary requisitions of Chinese farmers’ lands are widespread.[3] Also, hugely harmful effects on air quality and drinking water safety have been linked to the country’s increasing industrialization.[4] Are such personal freedom and environmental trade-offs simply the “price of admission” for lifting people out of poverty, or are there better, more redemptive ways to accomplish this goal? Are the SDGs the right framework to make this determination? 

Another difficulty in implementing the UN SDGs across Impact Foundation’s portfolio is that there is increasing hostility towards biblical ethics and overtly faith-based organizations among many of the world’s leading governing bodies, including some facets of the United Nations.[5] For many of our donor/investors, the United Nations and other “global” organizations are viewed with suspicion and seen as a serious threat to our religious liberty. Why, then, would we want to embrace their espoused framework and seek to further its advancement? This is certainly a valid concern, and my sympathy with it has grown over the past year. While I do see a legitimate cause for worry over the punitive actions being taken towards faith-based organizations (some of which are being labeled as “hate groups”), I still believe that Christians will refute these detractors most effectively and make our case as “societal benefactors” by demonstrating our faith as working through love and emerging as leaders in the achievement of the SDGs for the glory of God and the good of humanity. 

A final challenge involved with implementing the SDGs across our portfolio is that many (perhaps most) of our donor/investors remain unfamiliar with the SDGs, and significant education is needed to equip them to adequately engage with this framework. Whereas the majority of the global investor community has quickly adopted the SDGs, Christians—for all the reasons I have outlined above and more—have been slower to hop on the bus. This reality presents an interesting conundrum: Some Christian investors are absolutely against the SDGs and have developed a robust rationale on why the UN is evil, while other Christian investors barely give a thought to the UN and have never heard of the SDGs. Given all of the controversy and complexity surrounding the United Nations and the SDGs, is it worth expending all of the resources necessary to educate our donor/investors and articulate our view on the SDGs and how we are implementing them across our portfolio? That is precisely the cost/benefit analysis I am hoping to conduct over the coming months as I engage with our Impact Foundation team, our portfolio companies, and our community of donor/investors. 

Now that I have provided you with some background on my dilemma, I humbly request your assistance as I seek to move forward. Collaboration is one of CEF’s hallmarks, and I would deeply appreciate your feedback and engagement with determining the merits of implementing the SDGs across an investment portfolio. I don’t think I am the only person wrestling with these topics, and I welcome anyone seeking a partner in this journey. Here are some questions I would like to explore more deeply: 

• What additional benefits or drawbacks beyond what I have listed in this paper can you identify with utilizing the SDGs in your portfolio? 

• Who is further along on this journey? What learnings have been experienced? 

• Who would be willing to engage in an on-going collaboration on this topic? 

So, in the final analysis, are the UN SDGs redeemable? Given their shortcomings and questionable origins—and their knack for creating controversy and division in the Christian community—can they be used for good? Are the SDGs actually helpful in assessing the impact an individual organization and an investment portfolio is making on the world? I now realize that these questions do not have quick or easy answers and require meaningful and sustained collaboration for them to be resolved. I welcome the opportunity in the coming months and years to engage as a community of Christian investors to evaluate the value of the SDGs and explore the possibility of effectively implementing these goals across an investment portfolio. Presently, I remain optimistic that the benefits of engaging with the SDGs outweigh the risks, but I hold this conviction loosely and am willing to change my mind on the matter. For now, my love/hate relationship with the SDGs continues… 

[1] https://sdgs.un.org/goals 

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56194622 

[3] https://www.hrw.org/news/2004/03/25/china-forced-evictions-spur-protests# 

[4] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20964129.2020.1779010 

[5] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/10/government-restrictions-on-religion around-the-world-reached-new-record-in-2018/

— by Paul Zondagh

I believe that Christian business is called to attend to the welfare of the community within which it operates. This requires that we consider our immediate environment, and then, in the context of what we have in our hands as a business, ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in wisdom so that we can act with Godly impact. This paper briefly describes an issue in our community and details one of the programs we’ve been running in response. 

There is a Calling on Christian Business

The Jewish nation spent much of history in exile. During those difficult times, the clear calling on them was to intentionally work towards the welfare of the land in which they were. “Build houses and make yourselves at home. Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country…Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare. Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you” (Jeremiah 29:5, ‬7 The Message translation). ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

As Christians in business, we also operate in a foreign and hostile ecosystem. Even in so-called “Christian countries,” the business setting is typically characterised by at least some of the following “every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarrelling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip” (Romans 1:29 New Living Translation).  Being God’s people in this foreign environment, I believe we share the calling that Jeremiah penned, i.e. to include in our focus the welfare of the community in which we operate. 

The Socioeconomic Realities to Which We Reacted

Our business operates in South Africa, where the environment is characterised by the following:

• A failing education system: In 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report ranking the education systems of 76 countries from around the world. South Africa performed dismally. Of the 76 countries studied, the OECD ranked us the 75th worst education system.  Of every 100 pupils that start school, only 50 make it to Grade 12. Of those, 40 will pass, of whom only 12 will be eligible to study at a university. Those who do not acquire some form of post-secondary education are at a distinct economic disadvantage and not only struggle to find full-time employment, but also have one of the highest probabilities of being unemployed for sustained periods of time, if not permanently.

• High levels of unemployment: Of adults who are economically active, 38.5% are unemployed, a figure that is among the highest in the world. The numbers for young people (aged 15 to 34) are even worse. Between 2008 and 2019, the population of young people increased by 2.2 million, but the number of young people who were employed fell by 500,000. Thus, while the population of young people increased by about 560 per day, the number of employed young people fell by more than 100 per day.

• Particularly high youth unemployment: Out of a population of 20 million young people between the ages of 15 and 34, 7.9 million are neither working nor in any form of education or training. In the fourth quarter of 2018, 3.9 million young people reported having looked for work but being unable to find it. The dysfunctionality of the education system is clearly part of the problem. Large numbers of work-seekers come from households in which no one holds a full-time, formal sector job. As a result, they often lack some of the requisite workplace skills and aptitudes that might be acquired organically in a household in which more people work. They also often have little knowledge about what kinds of jobs are available, for which jobs their skills and aptitudes are best suited, or how to maximize their chances of finding one.

• High levels of inequality: With a consumption per capita Gini coefficient of 0.63 in 2015, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world.

Salient Overview of Our Program

We refer to the program as our “intern program”. However, the terminology is admittedly inaccurate insofar as the candidates are not “interns” into our industry (we are an actuarial consultancy). Rather, they are interns into the formal economy (into whichever specific area that best matches the individual). 

The intake is typically from students who finish school, coming from a severely disadvantaged socioeconomic background. Each intern typically spends between one and three years in the program, during which their exposure is as follows:

• The work week is made up of both formal work experience, as well as soft skills training. Each is placed with one of the NGOs with whom we have strong ties, where they get work exposure for four days a week. The fifth day is reserved for soft skill training, when all the interns get together and receive structured soft skill training in a group setting.

• From a training perspective, each intern is assessed to identify an appropriate area of training. A suitable training program is then selected, taking holistic cognisance of the individual’s circumstances (e.g. training that involves evening classes are often ruled out because of logistical and safety challenges).

From a financial perspective our spend on the program roughly averages twice the minimum wage over time. This is made up of a monthly stipend, in line with the minimum wage, with the balance going to direct training and support costs. 

The entire design of the program is focussed to eventually deliver a graduate who is well-groomed and confident, and whose employability is a quantum above those peers who finished school with them. To date almost all graduates have moved directly from the program into formal, permanent employment. 

The Program Evolved from Very Humble Beginnings

The program started in 2006, with just one intern. This young lady grew up in an informal settlement area and was the oldest child of a domestic worker. She never knew her father, so also had all the challenges that go with fatherlessness. Without intervention, her aspirations would probably have been very low and her outlook bleak. At the time, we had neither the NGO partnerships nor the soft skill training, so for three years she came into our office every day. A large part of the first year was taken up just by the cultural adjustment, simply to be able to fit into a business environment. From there she grew in confidence, until she could perform basic office administration competently and professionally. After her time with us, she moved to a position as a kindergarten teacher at a local NGO, a career path that would have been beyond her aspirations just a few years earlier.

From there, the program gradually evolved over time. It is quite humbling to look back and see how it took us years to identify [what now seems like] obvious, initial shortcomings. No doubt there will be more!

• Numbers: We grew frustrated about the size of our impact if we only accommodate one intern at a time. So, we went from one to three to the point where we now have a number of interns equal to the number of full-time, professional employees in our firm. 

• Partnering with NGOs: As the numbers grew, our premises and our ability to keep the interns sensibly occupied came under pressure. This led us to partnering with selected NGOs. The interns are on our payroll, but they spend their time at the NGO, working as if they were employees of the NGO. 

• Soft skill training: In 2011 we realised that while we were formally attending to academic training, we were entirely reliant on gradual, informal assimilation of many of the softer skills required in the formal economy. A weekly time slot has since been dedicated for the group to get together, to focus on this in structured and facilitated manner.  

• Emotional coaching: Some of our interns come from a past with severe emotional trauma. To reach full potential in life, it is important to provide the individual with the “tools” they need to deal with his/her past. This became an added focus around 2013, with the soft skill trainer/facilitator effectively taking on the role of a corporate chaplain who also provides one-on-one emotional coaching where needed.

Concluding Remarks

We are grateful for the lives that have been touched and the futures that have been changed since we embarked on this journey. However, much like a single grain of salt or a single ray of light, our impact is miniscule in the bigger scheme of things. While it might be insignificant, it is one of the things we have in our hand and we’re using it to add to the welfare of the community around us. What do you have in your hand? 

—

Footnotes

1)  Roodt, M. South African Institute of Race Relations (2018) The South African EDUCATION CRISIS, Giving power back to parents

2)  Spaull, N. (2013), South Africa’s Education Crisis: The quality of education in South Africa 1994-2011

3)  Centre for Development and Enterprise (2020) Ten Million and Rising: What it would take to address South Africa’s jobs bloodbath

4)  Centre for Development and Enterprise (2019) Agenda 2019: Tackling youth unemployment

5)  World Bank (2018) Overcoming Poverty and Inequality in South Africa: An Assessment of Drivers, Constraints and Opportunities.

This is one of the 2020 CEF Whitepapers. For more information on the Christian Economic Forum, please visit their website here.

by Kenneth Boa and Russ Crosson

Note: This article contains excerpts from chapters of Leverage: Using Temporal Wealth for Eternal Gain (Kenneth Boa and Russ Crosson, Trinity House Publishers, 2022). It may only be reproduced with permission of the publisher. 

The book is available to purchase from Trinity House Publishers, Amazon and Christianbook.

It’s often said that our calendars and checkbooks (or our mobile banking records) reveal our true priorities. We may say we’re seeking God’s kingdom first, but do our daily rhythms—including how we spend our time and money—back up our claim? 

As we search Scripture, we find that we are accountable to our Creator for the things He has

entrusted to us. Everything we own really belongs to God, and He gives us the resources we have (whether we consider it to be little or much) to meet our needs (Philippians 4:19). He also wants us to use what He has given us to invest in that which will last, rather than using it for personal benefit alone. In our context, we’re talking about investments in the kingdom of heaven, also known as stewarding God’s gifts.  

The first-century apostles understood this stewardship mindset. They did not invest in things of this world, but rather in proclaiming the gospel. You and I enjoy great gain as a result of their focus on eternal things, and we are called to continue that purpose and leverage our own wealth for the benefit of others to the glory of God.

Leverage and the Metaphor of a Lever

A lever is a simple machine that increases efficiency by amplifying a small force and turning it into a much larger one, opening up a realm of mechanical possibilities. As the Greek mathematician Archimedes famously said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”

While Archimedes’s scope focused solely on the material and the finite, Leverage: Using Temporal Wealth for Eternal Gain (Kenneth Boa and Russ Crosson, Trinity House Publishers, 2022) applies the principle of leverage to matters of infinite importance. 

Whether or not we realize it, we use the principle of leverage on a daily basis, not simply in physics but in the sense of turning limited resources into an advantage—often a selfish advantage that gives us gain at the expense of other people. Although the link between leverage and selfish gain is so well forged that the two may seem synonymous, in Leverage, we contend that Christians can leverage God’s earthly gifts not for personal benefit but for the advancement of His kingdom. 

Two Kinds of Wisdom – Two Perspectives on Wealth

The world clamors for our attention and encourages us to find our identity in what is temporal rather than in what is eternal. And the reality is, the more money we have, the easier it is to find our identity in it, even unconsciously. This is why Paul warned against making an idol of riches: 

For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6:7–10)

Earthly wisdom peddles a false sense of control and security, consistently encouraging us to accumulate for ourselves the seven Ps of idolatry: possessions, pleasure, prestige, popularity, promotion, power, and performance. When these temporal things pass away, they will not leave us with any eternal gain. To pursue them is folly. 

Following the wisdom of God, on the other hand, requires training and discipline. As we spend time in Scripture and come to know and love God more, the wisdom of the world will have less of a hold on us. Instead of seeking control by hoarding material wealth on earth, we can relinquish our attempt at autonomy and recognize that we are stewards of what God has given us.

Living with the end in mind is the key to stewarding God’s gifts well and leveraging them for His kingdom. 

Giving with a Warm Hand – Current vs. Deferred Giving

We can choose to give with a warm hand (while we’re still living) or a cold hand (after we’re gone from this earth)—sometimes known as current versus deferred giving. Current giving helps break the power of money in our lives and gives us much more control over where it goes. For example, we may make a provision in our will to give a generous amount of our assets to a Christian ministry that is biblically faithful today. But what if that organization undergoes “mission drift” after we die? Would our money have been better released during our lifetime—perhaps even helping to prevent that ministry from straying from its roots? We have to think not only in terms of financial capital but also in terms of spiritual capital. 

Many of us err on the side of hoarding (we might prefer to call it “investing for the future”) rather than giving generously in the present, but the Bible—from the Proverbs of the Old Testament to the parables and teachings of Jesus—would recommend otherwise. Reasons we fail to give now out of a genuinely generous and sacrificial heart include fear, limited liquid assets (which can make giving more complex to do), a deficient understanding of why God commands us to give, failure to have a giving plan, and not understanding the benefits of current giving. (In Leverage, we cover each of these reasons more thoroughly.) 

An Invitation to Follow Biblical Wisdom Regarding Wealth and Investing

Financial prosperity, while lauded by the world, lends itself to earthly-mindedness if we are not careful, particularly when we treat our wealth with a sense of entitlement rather than recognizing that God entrusted it to us. Because material wealth will not survive beyond this earthly life, biblical wisdom invites us to grasp our finiteness and spurs us to live with a pilgrim mindset, investing our resources in what is to come through our good works and generosity.

We live in a time of unprecedented prosperity, which easily tempts us toward self-indulgence or hoarding. We are also surrounded by poverty—the spiritual sort. The question is, will we take our cues from the culture or the Bible when it comes to how we approach and use our wealth? 

We pray you will follow the way of wisdom, embracing the biblical idea that a wise life is a generous life.

Perhaps the ideas of stewardship and investing in the kingdom are unfamiliar to you, and you’d like to learn more. Or you’re looking for opportunities to follow Jesus regarding your finances but need a place to start. Faith Driven Investor is the perfect place for you!

To get started, we recommend one of our Bible Reading Plans called “Biblical Basics for Investors.” In this plan, we explore what the Bible has to say about investing and money. You can access it for free through the YouVersion website or app.

Article originally posted here by Impact Foundation

by Impact Foundation

Imagine you just received a life-changing medical diagnosis. You stumble out of the doctor’s office thinking, “What do I do? How will I get through this?” Then imagine immediately finding yourself connected with someone who walked through the exact same journey. That’s just one kind of powerful connection the peer support platform Think Native facilitates daily.

Think Native is a Community Engagement Platform that smart-matches trained peer supporters, mentors and champions to those looking for care, resources and support in their journey. The platform helps hospitals, patient care programs, nonprofits, churches, educational establishments and other great organizations facilitate meaningful relationships and measure personal growth and transformation among the people they affect.

Lance Villio, Think Native Founder and CEO, created the platform after his years in the nonprofit sector fostered a desire to leverage technology to catalyze human flourishing. Prior to Think Native, Villio served as the president of I Am Second and the executive director of Q Ideas. We asked him to share the Think Native story with us.

“How do you know that you are winning?”

“One of my mentors, Peb Jackson, raised this question early in my career and it used to haunt me as a nonprofit guy. I knew I wasn’t using the same metrics that were the standard practice for profit-making businesses — things like ROI, sales growth and KPI’s. Ultimately, it was this penetrating question that set me on a mission to create a SaaS platform that we call Think Native.

I soon learned that before I could answer the question of ‘winning,’ we would have to determine how we were going to keep score — in other words, how were we going to measure our success?

In the nonprofit space, we’re often making possible a fascinating and truly significant intangible known as life transformation. So how can we possibly measure people experiencing this kind of growth and development?

While exploring this critical issue, I was introduced to Jack Nicholson, a doctoral-level mentor, coach and consultant. He’s a life-long learner who has been researching the principles and processes of human development for nearly 40 years now! Jack explained:

‘Human transformation can only happen as a result of a relationship of trust, and I’ve got the research in Interpersonal Neurobiology to prove it.’

It was right about that time that I asked Jack to join me as a co-founder of Think Native.

Why did we create the Think Native technology platform, you might ask? The background for our company name is found in the Book of Acts. It was my wife Hannah who shared with me this interesting fact:

‘Did you know when the Holy Spirit came to earth to commune with people, the Spirit never made them learn some new ‘god-language?’ The Spirit spoke to everyone in their native tongue.’

Do you see where I’m going with this? Statistically, there are more mobile phones in the world than people, and social research shows the average American spends up to 9 hours a day on their technology platforms and devices. Technology is not foreign to them.

It is their native language.

At Think Native, we leverage the common language of technology to develop relationships of trust in a way that is measurable and scalable.

There are any number of terms for these groups—from peer support, to mentoring initiatives, discipleship communities or even sponsorship programs. For these organizations to succeed, each of them must develop relationships of trust.  Each relationship of trust will typically have an individual with some level of experience. Think Native calls that person a Champion. A person seeking guidance or support we call a Community Member. The way we measure success is not by the total number of mentees, members or disciples. We count our success when we develop relationships where the Community Members grow and then eventually become Champions themselves. This organic multiplication of relationships is the key to any great movement.  

A good example is our client, Susan G. Komen (Oklahoma). The Champion, a survivor of breast cancer, is smart-matched and connected with a newly diagnosed patient, who is a Community Member. Once the survivor’s treatment has been successfully completed, the Community Member develops into a Champion to guide and support another recently diagnosed person, and so the relationship of trust is now replicated.  

This Champion / Community Member relationship exists in organizations, associations, and businesses throughout various industries and it makes up our primary and secondary target markets. Think Native is diligent about helping great organizations accomplish their mission through leveraging the power of human-driven design. We help them scale and keep score, so decision-makers know when they are making a significant impact. 

That’s how we know we’re winning.

[ Photo by Ramón Salinero on Unsplash ]

by Matt Elsberry

When taking a stroll along a sidewalk outside a significant number of Pentecostal churches, you might try saying the word “shalom” to a departing congregant. As often as not, they’re likely to respond back without missing a beat: “Nothing missing, nothing broken.”

And there it is. 

In a perfectly brisk, four-word reflexive response lies the intent of the God of the universe. That shalom would reign and that reign would mean perfect completeness: nothing missing, and perfect wholeness: nothing broken.

At LivFul we interact with a number of stakeholder groups. On any given day you might find our team members working with investors, government officials, academicians, NGO and non-profit workers, global and public health officials, suppliers and customers. I’d like to share a bit of our thinking when it comes to how we invite employees and our investors to enjoy and bring shalom. 

We Are Not Building a Christian Company

It’s harder to get more biblically sounding than our company’s name. 

LivFul. 

Live Full…or…Live Abundantly. 

As you may have guessed, it’s really just a paraphrased version of the second half of John 10:10. “He has come that we might have life and have it to the full”. It’s in our DNA. It’s the whole rationale for why we exist as a company. 

But we have zero desire to label ourselves a Christian company. There will be no strategically placed fish symbols in our marketing, you won’t find Bible verses listed amongst the claims on our product labels, and you won’t find us seeking to exclusively recruit Christians

Companies are simply a collection of imperfect people (some Christian and some not), who are all mostly seeking to serve people with a product or service that attempts to make life better, fuller, more worth living.

At LivFul we believe a company can be a tool for bringing shalom to this very dark world, a world where things are missing and broken, and that it should actively work towards the setting right of things (one of the definitions of shalom is “the way things ought to be”). If we are successful in creating a culture that goes about “the setting right of things,” we will appeal to all people who have eternity set in their hearts.

A company is defined by its culture, and while that culture can be based on anything, it is at its highest level of winsomeness when it’s based on timeless truth. All are welcome to join us in this noble effort to be about the “setting right of things.”

A highly capable and accomplished friend, who is considering joining our company, told me: “You guys spend WAY more time on theology and culture than any company I have ever met!” This is a high compliment to us. We will only grow as far and straight and true as our cultural bedrock will allow. Or as Peter Drucker emphasized, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

Challenge to Internal Stakeholders (people paid by LivFul)

How do we create a company culture that resonates with the “better angels” of each person’s nature? For the believer this means connecting them to their identity in Scripture. Proverbs 25:2 states that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings (or men) to search it out and Romans 8:19 says that all of creation is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. For those from other faiths or belief systems, this is an invitation. Perhaps, though faint, each person’s lineage as a distant son of Adam and daughter of Eve might stir in them a sense of their Imago Dei; whispering of a soul-deep yearning for shalom, an inkling that things once were whole and set right and peace full, and that creation and their very souls are longing for it to be put right again. That they themselves would be revealed as caretakers and stewards of this great garden we call earth.

A friend of mine likes to say, “We invite people to live life the way it was meant to be lived.”

How does one go about inviting people close and far from God to a culture that is committed to shalom, or the way things ought to be?

If culture is a flowing river, any person invited to swim will naturally flow with the current. If that current happens to hint at universal truth, they might just find their true self as they acclimate to the rhythms of shalom.

Those of us that share the Judeo-Christian faith believe that God is the perfect shalom maker. Just because your life has a different script about the origin of the universe doesn’t mean that the “putting right of things” won’t resonate with your worldview. In fact, LivFul gains when you ascribe your personal value statements to the world the company is trying to create. 

When a mentor of mine was working as a senior leader for Apple, the company’s worldview didn’t always seem to line up with his. So, since he was a Christian, he assigned Bible verses to each of the company’s core values. He felt much more alignment and personal devotion to the company because of the congruence that was there; more than dissonance over occasional conflicts.

While indoctrination to a particular faith is not our aim, indoctrination into the LivFul way, or culture, is mandatory. Organizational development guru Verne Harnish admonishes companies to hire and promote people that are the best examples of an organization’s values and to quickly fire values-violators. Therefore at LivFul our chief task is to inspire imperfect people to follow a culture of shalom.

LivFul’s job is to humbly invite our stakeholders to become carriers and purveyors of shalom to the world…to wake up every day just itching to be about the setting right of things. That this one life would be a best attempt to live out God’s will on earth as it is in heaven…to be a force for restoration.

These are LivFul’s values and what they mean to us as we consider shalom:

Mission First – Shalom is insistent, restless until things are set right.

Authenticity – Shalom is light shining into our personal darkness, restless until festering evil is brought into the light, unsatisfied until each of our individual purposes become evident in how we interact with or bless the world.

Service – Setting things right around us – the outworkings of justice and righteousness. It’s more blessed to give than to receive. A generous person will prosper; those who refresh others will they themselves be refreshed.

Curiosity – The playful wondering of what secrets are concealed for us to search out in this world that would aid our efforts to set things right. If creation is waiting in eager expectation, then the wind is full and at our sails as we set off.

We invite imperfect people to pursue a mission bigger than themselves, by becoming their very best self, in order to serve others, by seeking out and liberating innovation for everyone. 

This must be pursued with humility so that our passion and conviction is never presented as arrogant superiority. We all have our part and we need others to fulfill their part.

The invitation is clear, when you see something missing or broken, you’re invited and empowered to mend it.

Challenge to Investor Stakeholders

I have long been a student of economics in the Bible. I worked with Crown Financial Ministries for nine years, and even when I left, it was to put into practice the rich foundational economic principles that had been baked into my DNA. 

There are two basic ways to use money to make money. You can deploy it to create something new, different or better, using it to fulfill the Genesis 2 mandate. Or you can use it to purchase something others cannot, and collect economic rent. I’ll leave the discussion of whether the collecting of economic rent is pleasing to God for another day. For now, I’ll make the case that the best and highest form of the deployment of capital (stewardship) is to use it to do what God does: create. Since we are made in His image, I see this as a logical conclusion. 

From the dawn of time until now, folks seeking to grow their wealth often did it by enjoining in a global game of monopoly where the winners collect rent. Land was aggregated and the more you had the more you could gain.

That’s why God’s proposed economic system is utterly captivating. Every 7th year, debts (another form of economic rent) were to be forgiven (Deuteronomy 15). Every 50th year was intended a massive reset – a redistribution of wealth that would make Bernie Sanders blush. 

God set the rules of the system to direct funds away from the mundane collecting of economic rents and legislated that excess land could never be amassed for longer than 49 years. This directed the smartest members of society to create wealth in ways other than collecting economic rent. They needed to create! It also served as a Kickstarter campaign for those who had lived for years without capital, perhaps dreaming of the start-up they would launch if only they could get funded.

In today’s society, overtime, hard work and diligence often get rewarded with wealth. And unfortunately, with the accumulation of wealth, often comes a desire to protect that wealth through the accumulating and collecting of economic rent, rather than putting it at risk to further steward God’s mandate of subduing the earth; of searching out what God has concealed; of seeking to be the solution for a groaning creation waiting for God’s sons and daughters to be revealed.

Solomon says that people curse the one who hoards grain, but bless the one who is willing to sell. 

How do we build a company that invites stewards of capital to “get off the bench” (of collecting economic rents) and join God on the playing field, using capital to search out what God has concealed, to be the creative image bearer of our Creator, to fulfill the eager expectation of creation, answering its groaning, by becoming one of the revealed sons and daughters of God.

How do we invite our investors, and others in our ecosystem, to be co-creators with us and other kingdom companies as we seek to co-create with God? How can we entice them to pray about and alongside their investment companies? How can we challenge them to fully embrace the mantle of steward, asking God (and not their financial advisor) what risk profile is right for their God-loaned, kingdom money that God’s asked them to temporarily steward? What’s missing or broken in the world that desperately needs their investment?

This paper’s purpose is not to claim we have it all figured out, but simply that we are striving for shalom. We strive to find and work with investors seeking to use their resources to bring shalom in the world. We strive to run the type of company where our employees can experience shalom in the workplace, as we invite them to bring shalom to the world through the way we do business. 

Shalom in the Workplace and in Your Investments

No Shalom:

1. A “purposeless career” – Working for a paycheck so you can do something meaningful later in life

2. A single purpose investment strategy, solely focused on increasing your portfolio

3. Dissonance between your work/investments and your charity/passion

4. Being asked to compromise your integrity at work, or investing in companies askance from your values

5. Leaving your full self home when you go to work. Leaving your stewardship responsibilities behind when you’re blindly following your financial advisor’s recommendations without prayer or viewing through a kingdom lens.

6. Having your company/investments work against you becoming who you are meant to be, so it can keep you as a cog in its machine

7. Working/investing in companies where their ways of serving the world are unclear or a potential net loss

8. When working: micromanaged – not trusted. When investing: your ability to hear from God and obey is divorced from the decision-making process since you are not an expert or told to leave these things to the professionals. 

9. Working/investing in companies disconnected from the searching out of the mystery of Romans 8/Proverbs 25:2. 

Shalom:

1. Feel good about what you are paid to do or where your money is invested

2. Your purpose and your company’s (or investment company’s) purpose have alignment

3. You bring your full self to the office or alongside your money as you invest

4. Getting paid (salary or ROI) to bring justice and righteousness to the world

5. Challenged to get better at your job or stewarding investments (and at living full life) every day

6. The company trusts you to carry important tasks. You carry the weight of prayer and stewardship with what and how you invest.

7. Adventure: What things has God concealed that man can search out? What insight/healing/truth/restoration can be discovered in creation when the sons and daughters of God are revealed? How are you scratching this itch with how you spend your time? With how you invest your money?

This is one of the 2020 CEF Whitepapers. For more information on the Christian Economic Forum, please visit their website here.