Article originally posted here by Eventide

by Shaun Morgan

From its inception in 1602 with the creation of the Dutch East India Company, the democratization of investing has profoundly impacted our world.

Ordinary people, responsible for leveraging the powerful force of investing, can change the world for the better. But investing for the common good will only succeed if those ordinary people recognize and accept the responsibility.

Read more about the ways in which investing has been used to shape businesses to effect positive change in the world and the types of questions we should be asking to recapture the original purpose of investing.

by Shane Enete

Oblivious to Risk

I once had a student who came into my office. He eagerly declared, “I want to invest in stocks!” I asked him why. He said, “my roommates are all making so much money. I want in. They bought AMC at $10 and it is now $50!”

One important marker that separates a beginning investor from a more mature investor is their understanding of risk. Beginner investors, who have often been regaled by tales of easy money, rarely consider risk properly.

But, what does it mean to properly consider risk?

But, what does it mean to properly consider risk?

Calculating Risk

The traditional way to consider risk is to simply calculate it. When calculating risk, most investors use a statistical measure of dispersion around a historical average, such as standard deviation, volatility, beta, or downside deviation.

For example, if I had a stock that has historically returned 10% per year, with a 20% standard deviation, then 95% of the time, the stock is predicted to create a return that is between -30% and +50% (i.e., 2 standard deviations +/- the average return). The higher the standard deviation, the more potential that the investment deviate far from its average return.

Once the preferred measure of risk is calculated, then an investor is considered “grown up” if they then seek to maximize their risk-adjusted returns. A common way to measure risk-adjusted returns is to use the Sharpe ratio, which, essentially, takes the expected return of an investment and divides it by a measure of risk. The higher the Sharpe ratio, the more return you are getting given the same amount of risk.

There is more to Risk

So, is that it? Is considering risk properly simply a matter of calculating risk-adjusted returns?

In business school, and the industry, I have never been satisfied to stop at risk-adjusted returns. I have always felt like there is something more that needs to be considered. What if risk is not just a matter of the head, but also of the heart? Put another way, what if risk actually has the potential to form us as people?

If this is true, to properly consider risk, we would not to both calculate it (i.e. “head”) and consider how it may form us (i.e., “heart”).

To properly consider risk, we would not to both calculate it (i.e. “head”) and consider how it may form us (i.e., “heart).

When I was 15, I bought my first stock. It was 1995 and just about every stock went up during this time period. I bought the stock, and instantly made money, and it felt really, really good. This really good feeling is dopamine. The more extreme the markets got, the more chances there were for big hits of dopamine.

I began to like risk since it meant the chance for big wins. The more I engaged, the more my personality began to gradually shift. Before investing, I was a normal “risk avoiding” individual. After all of the fun of investing, I was forming into a “risk seeking” individual. My brain loved the dopamine and I knew that seeking out risk was the way to get more of it.

Numerous studies have shown how the brain changes when receiving regular doses of dopamine. In one study entitled, “Dopamine Agonist Increases Risk Taking but Blunts Reward-Related Brain Activity,” scientists discovered that the actual brain was altered when participants were given regular doses of dopamine versus a control group (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002479). See picture below of the altered dopamine brain.

The more risk, the more opportunities there are for intense doses of dopamine. This then has potential to form us into risk-seeking individuals. Another name for “risk-seeking individual” is gambler. Gambling addiction has been described by some psychologists as the hardest addiction to overcome. From the beginning of civilization, gambling has devasted families in its wake.

The riskier markets get, the more opportunities there are for intense doses of dopamine.

There is a scene in Rat Race that epitomizes how risk has the potential to rewire you from a fruitful, risk averse individual into a more destructive, risk-seeking individual. The movie is centered around the idea of taking a handful of random strangers, placing a million dollars in a duffle bag a few hundred miles away, and then betting on which stranger will get to the money first. As the strangers engage in a “rat race,” the most interesting scene to me is when the rich gamblers begin to gamble on all sorts of other random things, from climbing curtains, to how hotel staff would respond to certain questions. For the rich gamblers, the thrill of the race was not enough dopamine for them – they needed more, and more, and more. Having a risk-seeking brain means you are constantly seeking out dopamine and it is a spiral that leads towards more and more addictive behavior.

This Rat Race scene is being replayed in today’s culture.

Easy gains during the last 10+ years have led to a generation of risk-seeking investors who usually begin with stocks, then move to more risky crypto investments, and then, finally end up in the completely untamed NFT/metaverse markets where a picture of a snail pooping a rainbow is valued at a million dollars.

Easy gains during the last 10+ years have led to a generation of risk-seeking investors.

This is not the only way that the experience of risk has the potential to form you as an individual.

When my wife bought a town house in 2007, as a single gal, she mainly did it because everyone said you need to do it. Real estate was supposed to be a “sure thing.” Within months, her property was severely under-water. The experience changed her to become very fearful of any type of risk. This re-wiring of the brain to over-assess risk is a much deeper level than just financial education. For many people, the experience of the real estate and stock market drops in 2008 were enough to keep them out of these markets when it was actually the best possible time to engage them.

So, in order to properly consider risk, we must:

1. Determine an appropriate way to calculate the risk of any investment we are considering.

2. Consider how we will experience that risk and whether the experience of the risk will change us as people.

For any investment, if the risk cannot be calculated (I’m looking at you crypto and NFTs) – it is likely a very bad idea. I know that if I were to invest in things where I would not be able to calculate the risk, all of my deep-formed convictions about investing would be broken. This would change me into a person I do not want to be.

Whenever my students ask me about investing in Bitcoin, I like to ask them, “will it change you?” Assuming the best-case scenario, and you make lots of money without understanding the risk, will you change as a person?

If you ask anyone whether they will become a worse person for winning the lottery, every single person will deny that they will change. But studies have shown that, for most people, winning the lottery fundamentally changes them into a less satisfied, more addictive people.

Risk forms us.

Whenever my students ask me about investing in Bitcoin, I like to ask them, “will it change you?”

A few tips to avoid having risk form us the wrong way:

• Fear risk – demand to know the risk of something before you invest. If you don’t know why something goes up, or down, then you are likely engaged in risk-seeking, gambling behavior.

• Once you buy something, consider owning it for 10-20 years, and only check its price once-a-month or, perhaps twice a year. This will lead to less intense signals to your brain and reinforce a long-term perspective. In other words, it’s boring, and boring is good for the heart and mind.

There are thousands and thousands of boring investors who simply bought and held a diversified portfolio of stocks, and became financially healthy. There are also thousands and thousands of people who sought out quick riches and are bankrupt both financially and emotionally. In fact, this road to destruction is so well-worn that the Bible has clear warnings about it:

“Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” 1 Timothy 6:9

Avoid financial short-cuts – chasing after get-rich-quick schemes is often just veiled greed.

 “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15

In the end, I recommend that you be like my Nana, who bought a boring portfolio of high-quality stocks, and then forgot about them until her retirement. This boring way gave her what she needed, when she needed it, without putting her heart at risk.

by Andre Mann

Over the past decade, one of the topics that has consumed the American news cycle and political debate is what to do about immigration. Do we build a higher wall? Do we give amnesty to undocumented workers? Do we increase the number of temporary work visas? Do we reduce the number of refugees? Do we close all borders to keep out COVID?

Regardless of which side of each of these questions you are on, almost everyone agrees that the current system is broken. Thousands of unaccompanied minors stream across the border each month, placing themselves at the mercy of strangers along the way. Eleven million people without legal documentation live and work in the shadows of our society. Businesses in the tech space and farmers across America are unable to grow at the pace their customers would like or pick the fruit for domestic and foreign consumption because they cannot find sufficient workers, even in the economic downturn during the pandemic. Immigration judges delay seeing asylum cases for years because the number of judges is too low. All of this is unsustainable. The system can no longer ignore the fact that things are not working. The human and economic cost of doing nothing far outweighs the need to find a solution that protects our communities and reflects the values of our society.

In this paper, I will propose that there is both an economic and a spiritual reason to be pro-immigrant. Although I will not advocate for specific pieces of legislation, nor will I advocate for the solutions of one political party or another, I will highlight the work of the Evangelical Immigration Table and offer the solution of restitution-based immigration reform that is based on clear biblical principles, a respect for the rule of law, and a belief that the continued economic vibrancy of the country depends on a just immigration system with high walls and wide gates.

A Demographic and Economic Reckoning

The United States is facing a demographic reckoning. The birth rate has continued to decline, and the fertility rate has reached 1.6 children per woman, down from 2.1 children in 2008. This rate is below population replacement level, meaning the US population will decline if current trends persist. After remaining largely stable over the previous 20 years, in 2005, the old-age dependency ratio (the percent of people who are retired compared to the productive working age population) began to rise from 18% in 2005 to 25% in 2015.

This trend will continue to rise over the coming decades reaching 40% of the working age population by 2050. Why does this matter?

Tax revenue to cover annual expenses for Social Security entered into a deficit in 2016, meaning that at current trends, the Social Security Trust Fund will be depleted sometime between 2030 and 2040. (Scenarios II and III, below) We face the following three options: 1) Taxes will go up for people in the workforce, 2) Benefits will go down for retirees, or 3) We must increase the number of people in the workforce. The trends are dramatic enough that we will likely require action on all three fronts (Scenario I). But the bottom line is, our economy requires additional workers so that they can pay Social Security and income taxes in order to maintain the current productive, retirement infrastructure into the next generation.

Ali Noorani and Danilo Zak make a powerful economic and demographic argument for increased immigration in their February 2021 paper with the National Immigration Forum, titled Room to Grow: Setting Immigration Levels in a Changing America. They show that even a relatively modest increase in total legal immigration to 4.3 immigrants per 1000 people (in line with the historic average from 1820-2000; an increase of 340,000 people per year vs. current trends) would make a significantly positive impact to the demographic and economic future of the country.

In parallel, from a religious standpoint, immigrants bring fresh vibrancy to the church in the United States. At a time when church affiliation is declining precipitously (only 56% of millennials consider themselves Christian, down from over 70% just a few years ago), over 68% of immigrants call themselves Christian. Latinos are the largest immigrant group in the United States, and one fourth of them consider themselves Evangelical/Protestant. In New York City, there are over 150 African immigrant congregations, and 44% of all Asian Americans are Christian. The face of Christianity in America is changing, and one of the major reasons denomination after denomination continues to see new churches planted is thanks to immigrant communities. If it weren’t for these first and second-generation American Christians, one has to wonder what the future of the evangelical church would be in the United States.

Principles that Should Guide our Immigration Policies

So, what should the church attitude toward immigrants be? The Evangelical Immigration Table has outlined six principles that should guide our thinking on the topic.

1. Upholding the God-Given Dignity of Every Person. God made each person in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27). He further, in over 73 passages, instructed Israel to treat the foreigners in their midst with the same measure of justice as its own people. There is a recognition that foreigners are usually oppressed, but Israel should remember that they were once foreigners in Egypt. As such, Israel should treat refugees the same as the poor, widows, and orphans—with mercy and charity. Jesus acted quite counter-culturally when he related with foreigners in a way that upholds the dignity of the person, not only with the Samaritan woman (John 4) but also in numerous other examples (the centurion, the Canaanite woman, the Gerasene man).
   The national myth we tell ourselves about what makes our country exceptional includes an understanding that many of the earliest settlers came fleeing persecution and that America was the land that offered the poorest, most desperate people an opportunity no other place on earth could offer. The wealthiest country that history has ever seen, with over 328MM people, was born out of the hard work of immigrants, who came together to build a society that welcomed others. Even as we recognize that tremendous injustices occurred along the way, with slavery and the expulsion of Native Americans from their lands, we can also recognize that our country would not be what it is if it had not welcomed immigrants the way it did. A large part of that welcoming was built on this understanding that, no matter where you are from, God has given each person inherent dignity, even if at certain points in time, we have failed to fully extend those privileges to everyone.

2. Respect for the Rule of Law. God placed governing authorities to protect the members of the society and to be instruments of justice for everyone. Romans 13:1 states, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” A society that does not respect the rule of law becomes a land of lawless anarchy. Those who break the law must in some way pay restitution to society, whether through fines or jail time, depending on the severity of the infraction and any mitigating or aggravating factors such as motivation. Crossing the border without documentation is a misdemeanor, and while overstaying a visa is not a federal crime, it does break administrative rules. Restitution should match the level of offense committed.

3. Ensuring Fairness to Taxpayers. American workers and corporations pay taxes to cover the costs of government services both at the local level and at the national level. In exchange, our communities derive all kinds of benefits from governmental expenditure including streets and highways, national defense, public education (including state-funded university systems), crime prevention, social security, unemployment insurance, etc. Because of the way taxes are collected from each person’s paycheck, immigrants, whether legal or undocumented, also pay their share of taxes, but undocumented workers and their families do not receive many of the benefits citizens and legal immigrants do.
   It is a common misconception that undocumented workers do not pay taxes.   Statistically, about half are having taxes deducted from their paychecks, and many others are using their Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) to pay and file their taxes.   On the net – taking into account federal, state and local taxes – immigrants (including those who are undocumented) contribute more in taxes than they receive in benefits. The National Immigration Forum’s study on Immigrants as Contributors, Immigrant Tax Contribution and Spending Power indicates that if our country were to expel undocumented immigrants, it would cause a tremendous negative economic shock to our economy that would hurt the rest of the country across the board.

4. Protecting the Unity of the Family. Immigration policies should preserve the God-given institution of marriage. Since families are the basic building block of our society, we should preserve the unity of the family. This is compassionate, and it brings stability to communities. Because of this, family reunification should continue to be an important part of immigration policy.

5. Guarantee Secure National Borders. The first and foremost responsibility of the national government is to provide security to its citizens. An unguarded border not only allows for hostile countries to attack the country but also opens the country up to threats from criminal, non-state actors. Although our country has made great strides in securing the border, much remains to be done. Specifically, over half of undocumented workers in the US arrive by air with short-term visas that are allowed to expire. Currently, there is no system in place to track if/when any visitor to the US leaves the country since we are one of the few countries on earth that does not register departures. This lack of border enforcement, both at the actual border and through airports, is used by smuggling gangs to move people and drugs into the US and guns and illegally generated cash out of the US. This has fueled the regional instability in Mexico and Central America, creating a humanitarian disaster that fuels a mass migration northward as people seek safety for their families and opportunities to thrive without fear of kidnapping and extortion at the hands of the criminal gangs.

   Further, because our asylum system is so underfunded, we create a perverse incentive for massive amounts of people to attempt to cross the border illegally. Since it can take years to be seen by an immigration judge, and many applicants are able to live in the US while they wait for their days in court, we create a magnet even for those with marginal asylum claims to use this system to illegally cross the border and then apply for asylum. Even if their asylum claim is eventually denied, they have been able to live and work in the US for many years. Unfortunately, by then, many have established roots in the country, have US-born children or spouses, have established careers, etc. We, then, find ourselves in a situation where it would be unjust to rip families apart and would be damaging to our economy to deport long-established workers.

   A better system would allow for a strong border (including airports), documentation of departures, quick enforcement of immigration laws when someone overstays his/her visa, and an efficient and well-funded asylum process staffed with the right amounts of judges and support staff to adjudicate those cases with legitimate asylum claims in line with current laws and international treaties, while promptly deporting those who do not meet the criteria for asylum.

6. Establishing a Path Toward Legal Status. Currently, there are approximately 11 million people living in the US without legal documentation. Some of them, such as asylum seekers and individuals with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), are legally allowed to be here until their situations are resolved. Dreamers are young people who were brought here illegally as children (and hence, as minors, had no legal competence to decide to break the law or not regarding their legal status—many didn’t find out they weren’t American until they turned 18 and couldn’t go to college). For most of them, the United States is the only home they have ever known. Others, who came as adults, have long-ago established deep roots in the community. Sixty-six percent of undocumented immigrants have been in the US for over 10 years. They have paid their taxes; many have married and had children. Some have started businesses that employ many others.

The idea of a mass deportation of 11 million people is unfathomable. Firstly, a police state would need to be established to check documents of all Americans. (To avoid racial profiling, anyone could be asked for documentation at any time.) Large scale raids at workplaces, farms, and processing plants would create chaos for businesses. Criminal gangs would prosper since undocumented workers would come to depend on their powerful infrastructure to keep their families from being caught up in immigration raids. Massive concentration camps would be required to hold the hundreds of thousands of people scheduled for deportation, and thousands of judges would be needed to sift through cases, as wrongly detained Americans press their cases to not be deported.  According to the conservative advocacy group, American Action Forum, it would cost $400-600 billion and take two decades, shrinking US GDP by 6% over that period of time, versus not deporting the undocumented workers. For perspective, the US economy shrank by 3.5% in 2020 due to COVID, the largest decline in 74 years. Mass deportation is not only disruptive for the millions of families who have undocumented members (who, by the way, are overwhelmingly Christian), but it would also be devastating economically for the country as a whole.

Mass amnesty has the advantage of regularizing the legal status for millions of people living in the shadows. They would be able to apply for driver’s licenses, get car and home insurance, apply for mortgages, and save for retirement. This benefits all of us, since they would no longer fear drawing attention to themselves when they report crime, would actually have insurance if they get into a car accident, and would not burden hospitals with unpaid bills since they would have access to health insurance.

On the other hand, an amnesty like this would ignore that laws were broken and would violate the biblical principle of respect for the rule of law. It may create an incentive for further waves of undocumented workers to continue crossing the border, in the hope that they too will benefit from periodic amnesties. Criminal gangs would be strengthened as increasing numbers of immigrants would rely on their human smuggling operations in order to position themselves for future amnesties. Amnesty would be unjust to the millions of refugees worldwide who are fleeing persecution yet who have to wait in line until they are able to resettle in a safe place. Amnesty may solve the issue immediately at hand of figuring out how to deal with 11 million people currently without documentation, but it actually creates a bigger future problem as the US draws even more people outside the legal migratory system.

Restitution-Based Immigration Reform

The solution is Restitution-Based Immigration Reform. God delights in redemption. But in a legal system, redemption first requires admission of guilt and restitution. In the case of the undocumented, restitution by those seeking to remain permanently in the U.S. could, among other appropriate requirements, show that they have not committed any serious crimes, require that they pay a significant fine as a penalty for having overstayed their visa or crossed into the U.S. unlawfully, and demonstrate that they have paid all their taxes. This, combined with a system that increases the number of legal visas available so that families can be reunified legally and so that the US economy can have access to a growing, productive workforce, allows the US government to take control over immigration from the criminal gangs that control significant parts of the process now.

We need to pass a series of laws to reform completely our immigration system. We should start with Dreamers—74% of Americans support legal status for immigrants brought to the US illegally as children. Then, increasing protections at the border and other ports of entry, requiring all employers to e-verify immigration status, and funding the needed infrastructure for processing asylum seekers can all easily pass on a bipartisan basis.  Subsequently, Congress can tackle Temporary Protected Status, simplifying and reforming the process for farmworkers, skilled workers, and children separated from their families through bipartisan negotiations, to build a just and fair immigration system.

This revised immigration system will result in swift, efficient, and just adjudication of asylum claims, strong border protections, and visa solutions to meet the farm, tech, and skilled worker needs of the US economy. Coupled with a generous refugee policy that brings in a significant number of the most vulnerable people fleeing conflict and persecution, the US can set itself up for economic growth into the next generation. A high wall with a wide gate is the best path forward for the vibrancy of our country both from an economic standpoint as well as from a Kingdom mindset.

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.

Article originally posted here by Bill High

by Rachel McDonough

[Have you ever thought about whether your 401(k) or your investment portfolio aligns with your values? And should it? Perhaps you’ve suspected that if you invested in true alignment with your values that you’d achieve a lesser return? Here’s a great post from my friend Rachel McDonough that will perhaps raise some new thinking for you—on investing to match your values. – Bill]

When Frank came into my office, he had already heard of Faith-Based or Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) but he was pretty sure it wasn’t a good idea. As a retired sales executive with a high net worth and a deeply held faith, he included generous charitable giving in his financial plan. However, in his mind, choosing an investment strategy was a business decision.

When asked about his potential interest in aligning his investments with his values for positive impact and financial return, he said, “The way I see it, giving is giving. And investing is investing. I’m not sure I feel comfortable blurring the lines there.”

What Frank did not yet know was that, of the investment options at our disposal, several of the better performing strategies were indeed those that considered non-financial criteria related to ethics, responsibility, sustainability, and other values.

Frank is not alone in assuming there will be less upside potential in investments that apply a values filter. After all, such strategies often involve slightly higher fees than their conventional invest-anywhere counterparts.

“What will it cost me (in the form of a lower rate of return and/or higher fees) to align my investments with my values?” is the number one concern or question I hear when sitting down with a prospective investor who is learning about this concept for the first time.

Many investors assume that if they eliminate companies and industries that do harm (like pornography, gambling, tobacco, etc.) and intentionally seek companies that are creating valuable, positive goods and services that promote human flourishing, there simply won’t be many financially attractive investments left!

BRI Investments Can Hold Their Own

To address the performance impact of so-called “exclusionary screening” (taking out the bad stuff) on performance, I think the 2019 study from the Biblically Responsible Investing Institute does a great job of presenting data in an unbiased manner (which is difficult to find in a world where nearly every academic study is tied to the agenda of the publisher). It also uses a rather rigorous interpretation of Christian values, meaning more companies would have been removed from this sample than many other faith-based investment companies would remove with their less restrictive approaches. So, this may give us a worst-case scenario of sorts, where we are excluding a larger number of potentially profitable companies, purely for ethical reasons.

In the study, which examined performance from 1/1/2000 to 12/31/2019, a 20-year time period, both the “BRI Screened Portfolio” and the S&P 500 benchmark have an identical 6.19% annualized return. While there were shorter time periods where one or the other outperformed, by the end of the sample 20-year period, they were literally neck and neck.

Note: This study does not account for the potential positive impact on performance that could arise from trying to identify positive impact companies, which we might logically conclude should be more inclined to experience greater success in business by way of customer loyalty, positive reviews, referrals, etc.

Ethical Investing Is Sound Strategy

As a Certified Financial Planner™ professional and a Certified Kingdom Advisor™, I have a duty to act in a fiduciary capacity with my clients and to put their interests ahead of my own. And, while I cannot make specific investment recommendations for readers, in my professional opinion, I believe this style of investing has merit as a savvy investment strategy. I’ve seen real clients successfully navigate both the accumulation and the distribution phases of wealth management using this approach.

I get it. These are real dollars and real needs, such as being able to afford healthcare in retirement. None of us want to lose money or run out of money before we die. I’ve accumulated hundreds of hours of professional education and I invest a lot of time and energy in doing analysis of various funds, talking with fund managers, and monitoring risk and returns. But the reality is that there is no way of guaranteeing that we have chosen the investment strategy that will be the top performer. In fact, the strategies that performed best last year probably won’t be the best next year since they tend to go in and out of favor. That’s why using our faith values as a foundation for investing is so refreshing and appealing.

Confidence & Contentment

When we put biblical wisdom into action by choosing an investment approach that aligns with God’s heart, with companies that benefit humanity, we find an approach that we can believe in and understand. This is indeed savvy because it makes it so much easier for us to stay the course in turbulent times. The strong urge to sell investments when the portfolio is down is one of the top reasons why most retail investors underperform.

In addition to the business savvy that comes from staying the course, we can experience greater contentment, joy, and a sense of wholeness. When we are not willing to profit from someone else’s addiction (like gambling) or oppression (like human trafficking), we are demonstrating that we trust God to be our Provider.

Listen to our latest Podcast Episode featuring Rachel McDonough here!

by Jake Thomsen

Philippians 4

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

One idea that I’m thinking about these days is just this concept of anxiety. We’re with some entrepreneurs and they’re doing fundraisers and they’re sleepless nights and just more times. And I was reading Philippians about two weeks ago now and it really struck me. Of course, I got  to Philippians four, which is like the go-to for anxiety of “Hey, be anxious about nothing, but in everything, through prayer and supplication lift it up to the Lord. And the peace that surpasses understanding will come to you.”

And in one sense I think that’s such an encouragement and the other sense it can be kind of discouraging or even anxiety-inducing, because like us, especially now, we were going through a fundraise. Are you feeling that lack of anxiety? And if not, it’s kind of like you think you got something going wrong.

But what really jumped out at me, this is the point I’m getting to is reading Philippians all in one sitting. I got Chapter two where Paul essentially has this riff, where he has his missionary friend and Aphroditus, who got really sick. The Philippians didn’t know he was sick. They thought he might die. And so part of the letter, Paul wants to let them know, hey, he is OK, I’m going to send him to you. And it kind of talks about we’re all very anxious about this. Aphroditus is anxious. I’m anxious about it. And the only way I’m going to solve it is by sending him to you so that my anxiety can be reduced somewhat.

And it seems as though it would be saying we do experience anxiety because of the brokenness of the world. And sometimes Paul at least was looking at the circumstance. And even when he was trying to address the circumstance, I didn’t quite get him told to that peace that surpasses understanding. And yet he gets to Chapter four and says, this is what we strive for.

And so I don’t have a clear takeaway from all that. But that’s what I’m wrestling with, kind of looking at from different angles with God. And I think I’m landing just on the side of the “Already – Not yet” right. God has already accomplished the victory and it is not yet fully here. And so how do we live into that kingdom that is still coming? It’s still on its way, and yet we know what that faithful living is like. And maybe some layer of anxiety sometimes doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re doing something wrong, which is that we’re in this kind of following world in a tough spot and I don’t know where to go from there. But that’s what I’m thinking about.

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 2019 Global Event.

by Joel Morris

Introduction

Unashamedly, I straddle the business, grant-making, and ministry space. I came into running a charity (and inherited a failing seminary) from a background in aerospace and nuclear engineering. Sure, I was an obvious choice! I’m the Executive Director of Union Foundation, strategically working to serve church growth across Europe. We work through training, publishing, research, and church planting. Through various friendships and partnerships, we have come together to create a missional ecosystem where the church can sustainably grow and bear fruit. This is a ‘grand project’ developed over several years with likeminded businesspeople, donor networks, churches, seminaries, publishers, and networks—all working together to see God’s kingdom grow in Europe. We can only do this together because of the scale of the challenge.

Missional friendships

As we survey the history of the church, every unique movement of God was birthed through fellowship. History seems to highlight only single heroes of the faith, but rarely does anyone achieve anything for the kingdom of Christ alone. The German Reformer, Martin Luther, welcomed many friends around his table for mutual instruction, advice, planning, and humor. Among Luther’s friends were fellow reformers Philip Melancthon, Caspar Cruciger, Justus Jonas, Vitus Dietrich, John Bugenhagen, John Forster, and others. A merry band of brothers united around one vision and were mightily used by God.

In Geneva, John Calvin also gathered a company of men to train pastors to plant churches in France, Hungary, Scotland, and even Brazil. Calvin desired deep friendships—a band of brothers committed to the same vision, loving each other, and serving shoulder to shoulder for the growth of Christ’s church. Europe was profoundly impacted due to this deep mutual affection that existed in Geneva and eventually spread throughout the world.

During the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century in North America and the United Kingdom, a fellowship was formed among key leaders around preaching, church planting, mission, and publishing. In 1748, when gospel patron Lady Huntingdon visited Trefeca, Wales, she met Howel Harris, Daniel Rowland, Griffith Jones, and Howel Davis. She began funding the building of a seminary to train future gospel preachers. This group of friends commenced a preaching tour around the country, which eventually included William Williams and George Whitefield, who had crossed the Atlantic to the American colonies, joining Jonathan Edwards in a ministry partnership.

Such vivid examples have served as the impetus for our work, which fosters friendship around a mutual gospel vision. This vision is rooted in the common desire to see the church of Christ grow in Europe. We aim to see the church built up, purified, fruitful, growing, and pre-eminently glorifying to God. We hope to provide support and fellowship for all who stand for this vision through collaboration.

Genuine biblical fellowship doesn’t create solitary oak trees standing alone but fosters a forest of friends standing together for the gospel. Ecclesiastes 4:2 illustrates such togetherness in the image of a three-fold cord so tightly woven that it becomes virtually indestructible. This is our hope for our grand project—friendships and fellowship that are indestructible in mission and ministry because they are anchored in Christ.

Unity around the mission

When we think about multiplying churches across a whole region or continent, it helps to think in a big-picture, joined-up way: Not short-term, small, pragmatic, although it helps to be practical; but longer-term, sustainable, and generational growth. Our grand project began with a dying residential seminary in South Wales, UK—nothing grand in the capital city but something quite insalubrious and unremarkable in a field in South Wales. Can anything good come out of Nazareth?[1] As unlikely as something significant starting in South Wales, a friendship sprung up between what was known as the ‘Bryntirion’ College and SaRang Community Church in Seoul, South Korea. It came about through one of its members, businesswoman Sung Joo Kim, visiting Wales for a Christian conference, and when struck by the dire need, she wanted to do something to help Wales. The CEO of German fashion brand MCM was able to bring together a Korean mega church and a struggling Welsh seminary through a historical missionary connection long forgotten in Wales.

Providentially, Mrs. Kim met a student from Bryntirion, which was the last evangelical seminary left in Wales, and connected the college with her Senior Pastor in Korea. The Pastor felt a sense of spiritual debt to the church in Wales because of Welsh missionary Robert Jermain Thomas who had been martyred in Pyongyang in 1866.[2] A truly remarkable story, Thomas had briefly stood on North Korean soil before he was beheaded, killed along with the crew of the American merchant ship, the General Sherman. His executioner took the Bibles Thomas was handing out and papered the inside of his house with the scriptures. As his family and guests read the wallpaper, they were saved by the Word of God. This house became the first church building in Korea. The Korean protestant church can trace their 150-year church history back to a long forgotten Welsh missionary.

In 2011, SaRang Church committed a million dollars into restarting the ministry with the purpose of blessing Wales, the UK, and Europe. Then, the church also began to fund church planting projects of students through the seminary. The response to what the Lord was doing through the seminary was to reform the charity into a foundation that ran a seminary as well as to facilitate grant making to churches. Bryntirion became Union School of Theology which pioneered blended and decentralised training through local church learning communities, and many in turn have become church planting hubs. This has become the ‘Union model.’ There are currently 30 learning community partnerships with local churches and other training providers from Helsinki to Rome and Edinburgh to London. Union Mission became the grant making arm of the charity to connect graduates and partners with financial resources. We settled on the name ‘Union’ because it’s inclusive and stands for friendship and collaboration. It says: We’re going after this together in union.

In 2019, a donor collaboration called the European Great Commission Collaboration, set up by businessman Adam Walach, joined our initiative to fund church plants from Union as well as other church planting networks, such as M4 based in Estonia. The EGCC is made of donor networks from several European countries funding indigenous ministries across Europe. In partnership, together with SaRang Church in Seoul, they have been funding European projects together. Since 2015, Union Foundation has awarded grants totalling 1 million pounds to over 130 projects across Europe. Union has been serving donor partners as fiscal sponsor, carrying out due diligence on each project and reporting progress.

It’s wonderful to see the impact that collaboration has been having in countries like Greece, through our learning community in partnership with the Greek Bible College where leaders are being recruited, raised up with the local church, deployed, and financially supported to plant or rejuvenate churches. As an entrepreneur and engineer, it has been satisfying to see friends come together and work effectively toward a shared vision. God is moving and bringing churches, organisations, and people together for His great mission.

Then, we added the ability to publish our own books and digital resources to the missional ecosystem. Union was able to create its own publishing house in collaboration with Canadian publisher H&E Publishing. We want to give opportunities for future leaders to develop as authors and to write the books for their generations. Gnowbe[3] (USA) has enabled us to provide micro courses for learners online through their mobile first platform. Micro-Learning Courses (MLCs) are self-paced digital courses. The production of accessible, theological resources works to help people delight in God, grow in Christ, and engage with their callings—some of whom then go on to join our School of Theology or another seminary. Union Publishing helps fuel the School, and everything drives through to mission.

Union’s Research arm began in March 2021 as another important part of the model, as we develop pastor-theologians, thinkers, and writers who can help grow the church—fortifying the church’s mission through theological excellence and building long-term sustainable growth in church movements and networks. So, we set up Newton House based in Oxford, England, in partnership with scholars and institutions from around the world as well as Tyndale House, Cambridge.

This ‘grand project’ continues with friends and partners, planters and pastors, churches, foundations, business leaders, publishers, and students, working to see a God-inspired solution for Europe to be reignited for the gospel once again; to see a new generation of leaders raised up; and to see churches growing and multiplying. Walking where others have gone before, friends working collaboratively and strategically to advance God’s kingdom. We can look back to the past to see how God worked in the past and also to see what God is doing now. He has perfect strategic foresight; He has plans to prosper His church.[4] We need to be in step with Him as we plan ahead. Such movements of God involve all parts of His church, from gospel patrons to gifted preachers, pastor theologians, writers, scholars, and more to further the cause of the gospel. Instead of being tribal, partisan, or just about furthering an institution, if we are about actually serving the church and blessing the world, then together, we can see past our own agendas to national and international gospel transformation.

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[1] John 1:46

[2] Stella Price, Chosen for Choson (Emmaus Road Ministries: Essex, MA, USA), 91-96.

[3] https://www.gnowbe.com

[4] Jeremiah 29:10