In part 2 of their defining and measuring series, Impact Foundation sets out to define some of the terms we often use in the conversation around Faith Driven Investing. We believe this article will be particularly helpful in clarifying what a Kingdom-focused company looks like. Keep your eye out for part 3 coming soon!

by Impact Foundation

PART 2 IN OUR “DEFINING AND MEASURING SERIES”

“I own a company and I’m a Christian. Does that mean you can invest in my company?” – We get a version of this question at least once a week at Impact Foundation. Consequently, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to say deploy capital for social and spiritual impact alongside financial gain. 

It is easy to understand Kingdom impact in a company that provides specifically religious or spiritual products for consumers, like the Abide Prayer App. Or one of the dozens of film and TV producers who create content with redemptive and biblical themes (some of whom make movies people actually watch and who truly create a return for investors–really!).

But is that it? 

Increasingly, Christians have come to hope, and perhaps even expect, there is more to the idea of Kingdom impact through business. The faith at work conversation has made much progress in the past decade to remind us of the theological importance of our day-to-day work. Through the efforts of countless authors, parachurch ministries, and pastors, we understand that our work provides an opportunity for living the gospel and witnessing to our neighbors. In addition, a few great authors have exhorted us to see that our work–whether as accountants, pilots, artists, homemakers, gardeners, or lawyers–has unique and intrinsic value as a means of worshipping our Creator and of partnering with Him in His work of renewing all things.

To extend this idea, the leaders of a company can create positive social impact through leadership that intentionally incorporates their Christian faith into meaningful relationships with employees, vendors, and customers. For example, a new company called Exothermix sells innovative portable heating to consumer product companies. Exothermix has adopted a company covenant to align senior leadership and investors around a few core tenets. While there is nothing particularly spiritual about a self-contained heating unit that can warm prepackaged soup in a few minutes, the covenant is part of a sincere attempt to incorporate biblical values into the company culture. No one is required to profess faith in Jesus to work for the company, but senior leadership works to create a winsome witness to the gospel for employees and customers.

This is not to say that Christian leadership, on its own, is all that is needed for a company to be placed in the Kingdom Impact Investing category. Scripture is clear that personal faith will result in changed behavior, which Paul calls “the fruit of the Spirit.” Certainly a corporate entity cannot have faith or be baptized as a “Christian.” Still, a CEO or group of senior leaders shaping that company with their personal faith can be expected to display evidence from the company that is indicative of spiritual health. As a corollary to the idea that “faith without works is dead,” we can look to the fruit of the company to determine whether this second type of spiritual impact is at work. This saves us the difficult, and strangely invasive, task of trying to assess the spiritual health of a leader to see if their company can be considered worthy of a Kingdom Impact Investment.

What have we missed? What makes a company worthy of investment if we’re seeking social and spiritual transformation along with financial return?

Events are key to building community. See how Apartment Life employs onsite cares teams to help create amazing events. And if you’re wondering how that impacts the bottom line, don’t forget that amazing events lead to renewals!

I was 17 when my dad died. It was sudden and deeply disorienting. Those days and weeks immediately afterward were a dense fog of grief and cleanup. He died without a will or estate plan (mainly because he had nothing to plan).

As the youngest of 5 kids and the only one still living at home without an adult job, I received the largest “inheritance”. After paying all the bills, my dad’s “estate” consisted of $3,000, a small plastic trash can full of change, and a few mementos. I got the entire checking account and the trashcan of change, which I used to feed the laundry machines in my freshman year of college.

A few weeks after his death, his friend came over to deliver my dad’s 7-year sobriety coin. My dad had been an active participant in an AA at his church and the coin was to celebrate his latest milestone. Even as a kid, I knew this coin was worth more than any amount of money I could have inherited. It represents so much more than I can easily capture in a short blog – from pain and lasting damage of his addiction to the good things that came with sobriety. Best of all, his journey to freedom brought him close to His savior. My dad was the first person I remember telling me me about the reality of Jesus. In some way, his 7-year coin tells part of my own faith story.

I think of these experiences often as I talk to families walking through generational wealth transfers. I’ve seen parents with the perfect estate plan, by lawyer’s standards, whose children refuse to speak to each other when the estate is finally settled. I’ve watched the aftermath of a large inheritance destroy a friend. Once a happy mom with a good marriage, the money allowed her a lifestyle of extravagance, parties, and chemical addiction.

I could go on and on with stories, but you get the point.

I really don’t have an answer. Just a plea, of sorts, to parents planning their estates and figuring out what to leave to children. Don’t let lawyers dictate the process; a lawyer’s primary role is to avoid probate and estate taxes. But a lawyer they cannot shepherd the hearts of your children and grandchildren. Please, please, get biblical counsel on the matter. Read “Splitting Heirs” by Ron Blue or “Money, Possessions, and Eternity” by Randy Alcorn.

When my own life is reduced to memories and the stuff I’ve left behind (hopefully several decades from now), what is it that I want my kids to walk away with? More than anything else, I pray they have a deep, abiding faith in Christ and a set of memories that serve them well in their own journeys.

Missouri businessman and founder of Learfield Communications, Clyde Lear, teamed up with NCF to maximize the impact of his business sale and send more to ministry, instead of taxes.

Read more about Clyde’s powerful story.

NCF has an innovative solution that allows you to donate a non-voting interest in your business right before the sale, receive a substantial tax deduction, reduce or eliminate capital gains taxes on the gifted interest, and convert those tax dollars into more giving for your favorite ministries.