by FDI Team

In a time with so much uncertainty, we are grateful for the consistency that comes from being part of a community rooted in the unchanging truth and power of the gospel. We are especially thankful for the way our grounding in Christ enables us to pivot without diminishing the power of the message. 

After much prayer, we have made the decision to move the Faith Driven event entirely online.

It’s often easy, perhaps natural, to view pivots as inconvenient. But in the way that only God can, what appeared at first to be a setback is turning into a beautiful blessing. Where our plans can be good, His are better. 

There is a story in Scripture that is often overlooked—sandwiched between the martyrdom of Stephen and the conversion of Saul—but is a perfect representation of the blessing that can be found in pivots. It’s found in Acts 8 and describes how Phillip, a Greek Jewish Christian, was divinely re-routed for incredible purposes. He was headed for Gaza when he encountered a man connected to one of the most powerful rulers in Africa, who consequently believed and was baptized. Immediately following this interaction, “the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away…Philip appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea”(Acts 8:39-40). 

Philip set out from Jerusalem planning to reach Gaza—49 miles southwest of the city—but after one specific encounter, was rerouted ultimately to Caesarea—75 miles northwest of Jerusalem—where he faithfully served and shared the gospel, earning the moniker “Philip the evangelist” (Acts 21:8). His plan wasn’t wrong or broken; God’s was simply bigger. 

We feel the same way: we had a good plan, sought the Lord’s guidance, and are now humbly and faithfully following Him in the new place He’s lead us to. 

Our team has been excitedly dreaming about the opportunities afforded by an online event. While we’re upset to not see everyone in person for what we hoped would be a family reunion of sorts, we are excited for the live stream. Not only have we added several new speakers—including Lecrae, JD Greear, Anthony Tan, Derrick Morgan, and Jewel Burks—but now you can watch from anywhere in the world, making the wisdom, encouragement, and even fellowship of our Faith Driven family accessible to a wider audience. 

We are hoping that by making the event available globally, we will be able to reach out to those who would have difficulty joining us in person either for financial or time constrictions. 

In the spirit of further opening the event to those who couldn’t attend in person, we’re offering a “bring a friend” pass to everyone who registered for the in-person event. Additional scholarships, especially for students, are available. If you are needing a scholarship, contact Team@FaithDrivenEntrepreneur.org and we will work with you! 

We cannot wait to share this event with all of you and to see how God will be glorified through the virtual coming together of His people.

If you’ve followed along with the Faith Driven Investor conversation, then there’s no doubt you’ve heard about the work of Pete Kelly and Apartment Life. As one of the leaders in the faith-driven real estate investing space, we’ve been eager to share their work with you.

But we also had a chance to talk with another Apartment Life founder, Stan Dobbs, about the work he’s doing today. Stan is now passionately pursuing work with the Lionheart’s Children’s Academy, where they are attempting to reach kids with the gospel before the age of thirteen. This, as Stan calls it, is the gospel shot clock…

Learn more about Lionheart Children’s Academy here.

by Robert Kim

It’s difficult to write authoritatively on financial stewardship when I often fall into the temptation of viewing money as the source of security, especially when I think about the future of those whom I care deeply about. Despite my own shortcomings, or maybe because of them, God continues to teach me about stewardship. There are three elements of stewardship that stay close to my heart through personal experience.

Stewarding Your Vision

I’ve found stewardship to be an expression of our reaction to God’s sacrificial love. One of the most meaningful gifts I’ve received is a set of experiences that provided a sense of purpose and direction. Those experience include: a) getting to know an orphan in Mongolia who didn’t have the means to pursue college despite her excellent academic track record, b) visiting a former gang leader, who was also my friend’s uncle, at a prison in Mexico and seeing the softness of the former gang leader’s heart toward my friend, c) witnessing a path of a 12-year old Native American boy into a gang life, following his older brother’s footstep as a Native American community in Sisseton couldn’t break out of the cyclical poverty, d) visiting brothels in Thailand and witnessing the economic decisions that prostitutes had to make to care for their children, and e) witnessing the passion of an Afghanistan refugee in Greece who has risked everything to minister Western European nations. 

Through all of these experiences, I saw the depth of struggles many around the world face. But, I also sensed God’s deep love for them. After some research, I came to understand a deeper economic structure issues that excluded these people from accessing resources to pursue their dreams with dignity. I started asking questions, such as “What prevented the capital markets from assessing the orphan’s academic talent, and therefore her future earning potential, and finding an appropriate investment solution?” “Is it possible for local businesses in Native American tribe land to mentor young boys to help them see and pursue a path beyond joining a gang?” “With such stark economic divide between the wealthy and the poor in Thailand, could the business community care more for those underserved and help those suffering from endless cycle of sex trafficking?” “How can investors support the mission work of Middle-eastern refugees in Europe?”

These experiences gave me a strong sense of purpose. My reaction to these experiences was a broken heart and a prayer. I remember praying in winter of 2011, “God, I want to invest as much of your assets as possible for the benefit of these people you love”. The prayer led to cold-calling 500+ institutions and taking a 75% pay cut to create a role and invest in social entrepreneurs tackling these issues. Objectively speaking, taking a 75% pay cut is not the craziest thing one can imagine as a response. There are many others who take crazier risks to respond to God’s call. But, even in the small step I took to respond to God’s gift, I’ve seen God honor that and lead me one step at a time, further convicting my heart and confirming my calling. Then, I realized that stewardship begins with our passionate reaction to gifts God gives us—even if it’s a small step. We ought to passionately react, intellectually probe, and act toward our call. Money can only go as far as our vision takes us. Stewarding our vision is a starting point to financial stewardship.

Defining the Boundary of Comfort Zone to Start the Journey

But, the hard truth is that stewardship involves a form of surrendering. And, it’s hard to surrender. This leads to the second element of stewardship—we don’t need to be a saint to begin the life of stewardship. Even after encountering these powerful experiences, I prayed, “God, I’m willing to give you the next 5 years of my life to do whatever you want me to. I’m too afraid to give you my entire future, or even the next 10 years. 5 years seem reasonable since I’ll still be young enough to find a stable and comfortable job if this pursuit doesn’t work out”. 

It’s quite possible that God would’ve done more amazing things if I surrendered more. But, God was still willing to meet me where I was. While he continued to push me to enlarge my boundaries, he was willing to work with my risk appetite. The same element applies to financial stewardship. We can think through all of our financial needs and crystalize our risk appetite to develop a “Personal Financial Benchmark” for investment portfolios. Such a benchmark can answer what each year’s return objective is and therefore answers the question of “how much do I need?” By quantifying the personal benchmark for investment portfolios, we can fight the temptation of always wanting more. 

Stewardship as Surrender

Once you draw out your boundaries, you can be as creative as possible and discern what or how to sacrifice to live a life of a steward. For me and many families and institutions I manage the assets for, this particularly applies to redemptive investing. As investors, we often think about concessionary returns as a sacrifice. But there are other forms of sacrifice, all centered around the theme of proximity. Proximity is one of the most crucial elements of redemptive investing. 

To get close to communities we serve, we inspire to surrender our authority as investors and participate in the suffering of the vulnerable. Just to list a few examples, we can yield our decision making authority and invite the vulnerable into the investment decision process. We can share that authority with those who don’t have that luxury yet have a deeper understanding of the issues we as investors want to address. 

We also need to surrender our expertise. Most families don’t realize the value of the expertise their family businesses have developed throughout multiple generations. When those are shared with portfolio companies, you build a relational bridge. Large institutions like the National Christian Foundation also possess unique assets – scale and “last-mile” relationships in local regions – to carry the burden of those in suffering.

Lastly, we need to sacrifice our time to get to know the communities, visiting them, praying with them, and collaborating with them to find a solution. Time spent with them will deepen relationships, and relationships are a key element of redemptive investing. Otherwise, everything is a number on a spreadsheet. As we see each number without a face, we make decisions, at times unintentionally, with less regard for the well-being of those whom we want to serve. We deprioritize those we don’t see. As a steward, our job is to discern what to sacrifice. As we surrender, we partake in the joy of partnering with Christ who can do so much with what we surrender. Surrender leads to expansion of our comfort zone and a joyful stewardship journey.

We are in a unique time. Through COVID-19, the economic divide became more visible. At the same time, we’ve seen more entrepreneurs and investors demanding more out of their talent and capital to serve those in need in the last two decades than we did before. As investors, centering our investment portfolios around our values is not a theoretical exercise any more. I have a good friend who leads a foundation in Louisville, KY. As a steward, he and his team decided to put the mission of creating an inclusive community at the center of their portfolio. They are investing in businesses that hire victims of trafficking, build affordable housing to prevent homelessness, make loans to SMEs in emerging markets to create jobs, and develop renewable energy as climate risks disproportionately hurt the vulnerable. One particular quality I appreciate about my friend more than any other qualities is his freedom from love of money. Because his identity is not rooted in money, he seemingly has exercised more creativity than most asset owners I’ve known to pursue the mission. I pray I can be as courageous as him. I pray that I can use capital as a form of influence to carry the burdens of those who need hope. I imagine a community of courageous, risk-embracing, soul-loving investors who, through their commitments and actions, show the love this world has not yet seen. 

by Troy Austin

Stewardship in the Outside Lane

I have been on my own stewardship journey for the last 20 years or so. I have come to believe stewardship encompasses the entirety of the Christian life. However, it usually starts with money.

Our nature, our nurture (or lack thereof), our career choices, our geography, our denominations shape our choices as to which scripture we are drawn to and how we interpret this scripture as it relates to stewardship. I have seen these varying choices and interpretations lead to two distinctly different edges of a spectrum when it comes to the types of travelers I have met along my stewardship journey.

In order to explain these two edges of the spectrum, imagine that this stewardship journey is an ascending road cut into the edge of a mountain.

The Inside Lane

What I would call the Closed-Handed Traveler values control and predictability, so they hug the inside lane closest to the uphill slope. They feel that their ability to discern and control is their gift and they are called to manage God’s resources this way. They are collecting resources along the way and while they distribute some along the way, they hope to arrive at the top of the mountain with a sizable bounty they have grown for the Lord. They are very careful not to lose any of these resources and they seek to maximize every opportunity they can.

I have met many of these shrewd business men and women who are very generous once they have squeezed every possible basis point from their business and investment pockets into their giving pocket. They often look like any other business person in their daily interactions. But once they are working with the money in their giving pocket, their tone and their demeanor changes. While the Closed-Handed Traveler is very safe and prudent, their load seems to get heavier with age and they often miss out on the beauty and the fun God intended for us to have while managing His resources.

The Outside Lane

What I would call the Open-Handed Traveler values relationships above control and predictability. These travelers have come to believe that stewardship is really about a heart posture and a hand posture (open hearts and open hands). They travel on the same challenging road, but on the outside closest to the downhill slope. They clearly have a greater risk of falling, but they also have a better view, more fun and the journey requires more faith.

As they collect resources along the way, they are more quick to allow them to pass through to others when they see a need, or when the Holy Spirit prompts them to do so. Though they are carrying resources up the hill along the journey, they are not burdened by them. When they are blessed with new resources, they are excited because they know the Holy Spirit will likely have a place for these resources in the near future. Their current collection of resources will never make it to the top. That is not the intent.

I meet fewer of these types of travelers, but when I meet them, they stand out. They look different from other business people in their daily interactions. Their open-handed attitude permeates all areas of their lives. I see more joy in their lives and I am drawn to them.

The temptation to stay on the inside lane is real. It’s safe and secure, and frankly, you can look good doing it. But we can too easily lean into the inside of the mountain rather than faith in the one who built it. Instead, the outside lane is scarier and more dangerous, and even at times less logical to those who are watching. 

But isn’t this the type of radical living we saw from the owner of these resources we steward? When he spoke with Samaritans, when he touched and healed lepers, and when he allowed himself to be killed by the very creatures he had created. He was doing things that no one would have ever done. His open hands (and the scars they contain) are meant not only to show us who Jesus is, but to show us how to live. But why are we to live this way?

The scripture that most quickly comes to mind when I think of stewardship in the outside lane is 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Those who live like this seem to find the LIFE that is TRULY LIFE. They might look imprudent, but I believe their view of prudence simply altered by the lens of the Gospel. Joy and peace are constant companions and they give off a fragrance of Christ. They are not uptight about every cent they are going to save or investment they are going to maximize “for God”. They are using these resources to love people “with God” and trusting that if they miss a nickel or a dime or more while being radically generous, God will still say, “well done, my good and faithful servant.”

I don’t always get this right. When I feel myself drifting back to my old controlling self, it is usually due to fear. My natural response to fear is control, so I tighten my grip when things get tight, but that is not what scripture teaches.

1 John 4 says that perfect love drives out fear. The antidote to fear is not more control, but love. How are we to love? The only way I can figure is by giving something: time, talent, treasure. . . Our LIFE (Labor, Influence, Finances, Expertise).

Loving REQUIRES generosity. Is this stewardship? If stewardship is to manage as the owner would manage and the owner manages with love, then shouldn’t we manage with love as our primary motivation?

As I was finishing this article, I was sent this quote by Thomas Merton. Regardless of whether you agree with his theology, this quote seemed to perfectly encompass where I desire to be as a steward:

To live with the true consciousness of life centered in Another is to lose one’s self-important seriousness and thus to live life as “play” in union with a Cosmic Player. It is he alone who one takes seriously. But to take Him seriously is to find joy and spontaneity in everything, for everything is gift and grace. . . To live selflessly is to live in joy, realizing by experience that life itself is love and gift. To be a lover and a giver is to be a channel through which the Supreme Giver manifests His love in the world.

There will always be something out there for us to steward more effectively (our relationships, our energy, our decision making, etc), but my desire is for it not to be a burden, but worship. My hope is that everytime I see a decision as stewardship, I will see it as an opportunity to worship in thanksgiving to a gracious God, to find purpose in the most seemingly innocuous decisions of my everyday life. I hope this for you as well. Open-handed stewardship isn’t the best way to live. It’s the only way. 

by Bob Doll

The question of “how much is enough?” plagues many people in many ways. The American way is a never-ending accumulation mentality (sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously) as if the bumper sticker “He who dies with the most toys wins” is true. For many the “how much is enough?” question is just a little more than I have, creating a never-ending life of accumulation. Or, let me take care of myself and then out of the excess, I will be generous.

For the Christian, that is perhaps faulty thinking. After all, do we really believe it is all God’s in the first place? That is, has God given us all we have, or, am I simply a steward of all God has entrusted to me and therefore, I have no entitlement to the assets I manage for the Owner? Accordingly, the appropriate question may not be “how much should I give?” but instead, “how much should I keep?” And so, once we get off the treadmill of accumulation and realize its futility, we can begin to focus on the contentment and blessing that comes from God for living a life of generosity and recognizing that God, in fact, does own it all.

A few reminders:

• It is estimated that 15% of everything Jesus said as recorded in Scripture relates to money and possessions, more than His teachings on heaven and hell combined. Why? Because there is a fundamental connection between our spiritual lives and how we think about and handle money. God sees our faith and finance as inseparable. Do we really believe God owns it all?

• Jesus did not say “don’t store up treasures.” Instead, he said, “don’t store up treasures on earth, but do store up treasures in heaven.” Randy Alcorn stated it so well in his Treasure Principle: You can’t take it with you – but you can send it on ahead. “It” is God’s after all!

• Again using a Randy Alcorn principle, stewardship isn’t a subcategory of the Christian life. Stewardship is the Christian life. God has entrusted to us life, time, talent, money, possessions, family, friendships, etc. What are we doing with those things he has entrusted to us? Remember, it’s all God’s in the first place.

• Perhaps the greatest deterrent to our giving is the illusion that earth is our home. Do we consider our home here on earth or in heaven? Where we choose to store our treasures depends largely on where we believe our home resides (and whose it is in the first place!)

• Christians who did most for the present world were those who thought the most of the next world (e.g., William Wilberforce, Mother Theresa). Only the Word of God and the souls of people will last. Martin Luther said “I have held many things in my hands and I have lost them all. But whatever I have placed in God’s hands, I still possess.”

It doesn’t mean living this way is always easy. Our secular world attempts to drive us in other directions. My wife and I have purposed to give all we have away and as much as we can while we are still living. That has caused us to give away all our income and increasing amounts of our wealth. We have given a generous, but not an overwhelming, amount to our children. Our plan is that Uncle Sam gets nothing because it’s all God’s in the first place.

The Christian community should be filled with people who set a cap on their lifestyle, giving away everything above that amount. We need to draw a line and stop accumulating beyond that. Give away everything else. The models are few and far between, but those who live this way are truly God’s choicest servants and are most blessed often in this life, but certainly in the next. De-clutter your life. Trade up. Re-allocate your time, talent, and treasury to be consistent with God’s values, earning God’s commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

by Jeff Shafer

There are certain buzz words that get planted in the brain when you grow up in the Church whether we know it or not – this was true for the word stewardship for me. I’m not sure I knew what it meant but if asked, it would have been something along the ideas of Genesis 1:28, “God granting us authority to be fruitful and multiply while ruling over the earth and all that is in it.” As I grew older, the word stewardship was tied to handling money in general, but more specifically, it was connected to the practice of tithing. Then, somewhere along the way, I heard the question:  What does it mean to be a steward of our time, talent, and treasure?  Together, my wife and I felt called to really think about that question – we did not realize the journey it would take us on.

In January 2014, I woke up from back surgery and started a slow recovery.  I could not do a calve raise with my left leg and my foot felt like it was quasi asleep or that I was always wearing about 5 pairs of socks.  Bending over and lifting anything over a few pounds was out of the question.   My wife and kids had to be my hands and feet for basic things like getting milk out of the refrigerator or trimming some bushes in preparation for a new basketball hoop.  But doctor’s orders were to start walking and then get on a regular physical therapy plan.  Over the next 3 months, I began to regain quite a bit of strength as the nerves in my back repaired themselves. Turns out, that was all the easy stuff.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, there was a much bigger process that God was forcing upon me.  He was stripping me down to total dependence on him as he started to loosen my grip on several things.  I remember crying to my wife shortly after surgery, feeling like my whole manhood was being taken away from me.  Physical things I could normally do with ease, I could no longer do.  My sleep was massively off – every night became a struggle. The desire and passion for my job was completely gone despite being an executive at a leading alternative investment asset manager.  It would take hours every morning on my knees just to get the strength to go into work. The pinnacle came when I was taken to the emergency room a couple of weeks after surgery in a state of absolute terror.  I was coming in and out of reality caused by exhaustion, stress, and massive doses of steroids (steroid psychosis).  Even my mental capacity was taken from me for a short window of time.  And during that window, the overarching feeling, which was as real to me as me writing these words, was the absence of God.  Talk about sheer terror!  My wife’s perspective of that experience was both medical and spiritual.  When she looked in my eyes, she could see it was not me. She says it was as if evil was trying to take me down and wait for me to cry, “Uncle!”

I laid in a hospital bed for two days, and on the morning before I left, I can remember two overwhelming feelings: First, I knew I was not God. I was not in control.  And second, while I was totally locked in behind multiple doors in the hospital, I knew I was totally free. I realized I was being stripped of my sin of performance and control.  Now, seven years later, I fortunately have seen the grace in the unwinding of 40 years of unhealthy habits and sin, but like most bad habits and addictions, the struggle is never completely over. 

Eventually, God gave me, a performance and control junkie, the courage to start a business in impact investing.  CommonGood Capital was birthed out of our living room with the goal of helping wealth managers and their clients ask and implement strategies around that same question: What does it mean to be a good steward of your investment capital?  As I write this, it comes across like the process was decisive and smooth, but in actuality, it has taken one baby step in front of the other in faith risking significant capital, time, and my professional reputation. This story is still being written with both successes and challenges along the way.

As you think about stewardship for yourself, it first starts with a deep understanding – we are not in control and that God is the author of our time, talent, and treasure. Slow down and reread that last sentence. I don’t mean a cursory understanding, but rather a real and radical sense that every breath we take is because of Him.  When you get to that point, you then can start to work through the question.  Central to this question of stewardship is a fusion of our heart and head around the recognition of our need and the deep value of others. Taking these two ideas together, it’s more than just about yourself, but rather using your time, talent and treasure for the common good.   

Does this sound familiar?  Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.  But why don’t we do it?  Probably many reasons, but fear of risk and loss of control often keep us from moving forward and taking the next right step.  When you start from the position that everything you have is a gift from God and that we are called to use them accordingly, then it’s critical to redefine risk.

In the parable of the talents the first two men in the parable took action and risked their master’s capital.  In doing so, they were able to return more to him, each according to what they had been given and what they had done with the money.  The third man buried the talents because he was afraid of losing the master’s money.  While he was able to give the master back his original capital the master was very displeased.  He was displeased because the man misunderstood his role and the master’s expectations. The master wants us to be stewards of our time, talent, and treasure and to leave the outcomes to Him.   

This is a daily surrender for me in prayer and action – how can I be a good steward of the time, talent, and treasures God has given us? To a performance and control junkie like myself, this was not (and is still not) easy. But what I can say from experience is that the process, while scary, has been both exhilarating and freeing when leaning into, and fully grasping, these truths.