The Seductive Lies of Kingdom Investing
Image by Michael Podger
By Mike Sharrow
In 2001 a 79-year-old man starting a financial services business asked me if I’d join him as an associate in starting a new business. I’ll never forget his response when I asked what in the world a 79-year-old was doing starting a business, “Mike, retirement is deadly. It’ll kill you! We’re made to work. I’ve retired from companies a few times but want to start a business doing what I’m good at with people I like. Will you come help me?” I dove into the world of defined pension plans, wealth management, investment portfolios and apprenticing with this WW2 veteran and bastion of practical business wisdom. He lived in Lake Forest, Illinois and also exposed me to an echelon of affluence, giving, spending, investing, and thinking I had not known before as a young guy just transitioning from teen years on Medicaid, housing assistance and limited financial resources.
In 2008 I exited an 8 year run with a F50 company to join the staff of my local church. A local philanthropist was intrigued by my career move and reached out to get to know each other better. That resulted in me joining him on his giving endeavors, going around the world to various project sites where he had been quietly and generously investing in helping people for decades. He introduced me to the idea of clandestine giving, where you don’t let your generosity corrupt your relationships or identity in a community as well as humbled me with rethinking Christian “charity” by making me read great books like Toxic Charity, When Helping Hurts, African Friends & Money Matters and more. He mentored me in ways I didn’t fully appreciate the gravity of until after he had died.
In 2011 I exited both a business I had created and my local church staff to become a “Chair” with C12. Within a year I was facilitating groups and serving a couple dozen CEOs and business owners around this idea of building great businesses for a greater purpose. I walked with leaders from across the spectrum - from struggling to make payroll, those ones giving millions away. In the years that followed I came to know, intersect, enter into relationship with some of the most fascinating, generous and creative people and regularly said “I’m wildly wealthy in relationships!”
In 2016, as then CEO for the C12 Group, I was seeing too many business owners in C12 struggling with selling to parties who feigned appreciation for their culture or taking on capital partners who post-transaction shut down any Gospel-expressing elements. I set out on a quest to solve that dilemma. Originally, in my clear marketing brilliance (my marketing team is shaking their head) we forged a “Consortium of Like-Minded Capital Partners,” which then evolved into a more formal and better branded 3Ten Coalition. In the process of developing that I toured the country meeting with Private Equity, Venture Capital, Incubator, Investment Banker, and Private Investor firms who shared our concern for the Gospel in the marketplace.
Along this journey, I’ve become increasingly aware of some seductive lies I believe are absolutely toxic for entrepreneurs and investors alike. They are seductive because they sound so good and they flirt with being Biblical but they can be a hallucinogen to the zealous. In our wealth creation, investment and distribution let us be mindful of these traps:
(1) God needs the money (I’m pretty sure He’s loaded!)
(2) I’m “bringing money into the Kingdom” (what is not already His?)
(3) God loves the way I leverage people and businesses to extract money for His work “out there”
(4) My generous plan to “give” God 10-20% of wealth from that liquidity event really motivates Him to sprinkle blessings on my venture
(5) I’m part of God’s Kingdom Bank, so I’m pretty essential, important...the Kingdom Enterprise might really get tripped up if I don’t keep it cash-flowed
These are seductive. They can lure us to justify “for God” neglect of our souls, of our family, of people, of the ministry of the present, of the Gospel, of God. Even for Kingdom Investors, Faith-Driven Investors we must heed the warning of Jesus, “What does it prosper a [investor] if he gains the whole world but loses his soul in the pursuit?”
Personal dashboards of Gospel vitality are essential. Gospel-driven calculus for what makes a good investment, return and venture narrative must be rigorously worked out to protect us from these common drifts.
A mentor of mine rocked my world when at a seminar at a fancy dining club one day he said, “You know...whatever your price, the Devil will pay it. For many Christians the greatest way to get you off courses is not a direct assault of discouragement or evil pursuits - it’s burying you with success. The kind of success that warrants just a little more, postponing obedience just a little longer because of all the “good” you’ll do with it.If success is what it takes to get you to suppress the call of life in Christ - the Devil is happy to pay it. Stand guard!”