Abundance Economy
Image by Kai Pilger
With the help of faith friends from our gathering of Faith Driven Investors, we’ve begun drafting a set of Unifying Principles. Our hope is that we can begin to come together under these thoughts and ideas to work toward a more full vision of what it means to let our faith drive our investments.
If you have thoughts, questions, concerns, things you’d change or add, please let us know! We’re relying on you, our community, to make this resource the best it can be.
The simple truth is that where we create abundance, we decrease competition and increase cooperation. When we view resources as abundant as opposed to scarce, we create an environment where we can work together to do the most good.
Believers in Christ were created to work together to follow through on the work God has given them. Faith Driven Investors always looks at others as opportunities to help and serve—they view their lifelong endeavor as a communal one. The Faith Driven Investor knows that God does his work through the entire body of Christ, of which they are only a small part.
For this reason, proprietary work is not a priority. We seek collaboration instead of competition, with an abundance mentality as opposed to one of scarcity. Faith Driven Investors operate with the mindset that other believers can only help, and they attempt to do their work to the best of their ability and in fellowship with one another. But how?
While traditional micro and macroeconomic theory teaches us that we operate in an economy of scarcity based on limited resources, we worship a God that took five loaves and two fish and fed five thousand people. God’s economy is one of abundance. Therefore, one person’s economic gain or financial return doesn’t come at the expense of another.
An abundance mentality allows us to be open handed as we look to share investors and deal flow. Further, while many that subscribe to an economy of scarcity might believe that the addition of a bottom line to financial return will come at the expense of the other, we believe that great financial returns are possible not at the expense of Biblical values, but because of them
Using Scripture as Our Guide
Psalm 36:8 They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights.
Jeremiah 29:7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.
Luke 9 16-17 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Acts 2:44-45 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
Ecclesiastes 4:9 Two are better than one; because they have a good return for their labor.
Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
1 Corinthians 12:5-6 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.