Article originally posted here by Paparelli

by Charlie Paparelli

The following was said to me by an entrepreneur about an angel investor. This statement says a lot about this entrepreneur’s expectations.

I do believe he is correct.

Angel investors enjoy “the ride.” The experience and the excitement of being part of commercializing a new idea. But over time, “the ride” changes.

In the very early stages, this ride is focused on figuring out who buys the product and why they buy it. The entrepreneur always thinks the answer to these two questions is intuitive. But it doesn’t take long to discover the answer to these questions comes slowly. 

This journey of product-market fit, as it is called, should be part of the angel investor playbook. The more competent the angel in this discipline, the more successful the investment. The more competent and patient the entrepreneur in this discipline, the more successful the entrepreneur. 

This is the art of the start.

The trick to getting to product-market fit is to do it as cost-efficiently as possible. If the entrepreneur loads up on overhead thinking he already has the answer to these two questions and doesn’t, then he will burn investor money. 

And this is where the friction begins between the entrepreneur and the angel. When the money is leaving the building faster than investors expect revenue to grow, tensions rise.

So who is responsible for these rising tensions?

I believe it is the entrepreneur. 

It is up to the entrepreneur to set expectations properly for the revenue pace of the business. During the product-market fit stage of the business, this is almost impossible to do. Experienced investors and experienced entrepreneurs know this is the case. And this is why valuations are so low for a seed investor. No one really knows how long it will take to figure this out.

Customers buying the product is the early evidence of the end of product-market fit. (I say this because the product-market fit process never ends. It just enters new stages the deeper the market penetration.)

Now valuations are based on revenue projections.

These early revenue projections are difficult. If they are too low and easily attainable, then the valuation of the next seed round will likewise be lower. If they are high, then the valuation is high and so are the investor expectations. 

Most entrepreneurs choose higher revenue projections to justify higher valuations and less personal dilution. When this happens, entrepreneurs need to realize they better get close. The first miss might be as high as 30% off projections. But after this first investor grace period, the gap between the entrepreneur projections and actual revenue must begin to narrow quickly. 

Consistently missed projections make for high drama.

This is drama between the entrepreneur and investors. And this makes sense. Based on what the entrepreneur told investors about future performance, a valuation was agreed to for the investment. Then the expectation set was missed. This leads to doubt in the investor’s mind.

Doubt in the entrepreneur. 

Doubt in the team. 

Doubt in the valuation.

And in the midst of all this doubt created by another missed revenue projection, more money must be raised to keep the company going. Because of increasing revenue, the entrepreneur believes the valuation should also increase. The investor, on the other hand, believes the valuation should stay the same because the revenue projections were missed. 

Angel investors are along for the ride in the early stages of a business. But then, as time marches on, it becomes more and more about the money.

An entrepreneur’s competence is eventually measured by how well he meets his revenue projections. The initial revenue projection is the first few buyers. Then the first $250k. Then $500k. Then $1mm.

And you know what, it never ends. The entrepreneur that hits these revenue milestones as projected is a hero. There is great investor confidence in this entrepreneur. He tells investors what he is going to do and does it. Wonderful. 

But the challenges don’t end there. 

Once the entrepreneur achieves the $1mm annual recurring revenue threshold, he then becomes a real CEO. As the CEO of the investor funded business, he must continue to make revenue, and now profit projections, that he and the team must achieve. Miss them and doubt will set in. 

This cycle continues even in public companies, especially in public companies. Miss the revenue and profit projections and the company valuation will take an immediate hit. And the CEO’s leadership begins to be questioned.

Yes, we angel investors are along for the ride. But the ride changes as the company’s valuation increases. The stakes get higher and so do the investor expectations.

This article was originally published here.

— by Bill Wichterman and Dana Wichterman

Not many people like to budget or keep track of their expenses. But we do. That makes us a bit . . . unusual. Still, we’d like to make the case for the increased joy that comes from following a budget.

First, giving is much more fun when you’ve already decided how much you’ll give away that year. Donating to charities becomes a question of where to give rather than how much to give. There’s no pain in thinking about how much money you’re forgoing, because you’ve already given it away in your heart. If X percent of your money (and we believe 10% should be the floor, but not the ceiling, for Christians) is automatically designated to be given away, then deciding where to give is almost like getting free tickets at a carnival.

Second, saying no to emotional appeals for a charity that lies outside your planned giving is less heart-wrenching. Once you have given your planned amount, it’s easier not to feel guilty about not giving. Your budget has been set, and you can feel more peace about saying no. But if you don’t have an agreed upon amount to give away, then you may find yourself wrestling with every appeal.

And it’s not true that we should always give more. It’s possible to give away more money than the Lord wants – and I know people who have done just that and later regret it. All of our money belongs to God, not just that which we give away. The Lord has given us responsibilities to pay our bills, save for the future, care for our families, etc. It may well be ungodly to give to charity that which should go elsewhere. A careful, prayerful plan well-executed is pleasing to God.

Is it possible that the Lord might call us to change our plans and give more than we budgeted? Sure, He does that sometimes. But most of the time, a thoughtful plan bathed in prayer is how the Lord leads.

If you live within a budget for your lifestyle and your tithe, what about spontaneous generosity that falls in the gray area not typically thought of as charitable giving? If you’re too planned, wouldn’t that preclude on-the-spot generosity? Nope – not if you plan for that, too. We budget a specific percentage of our gross income (above our other planned giving) for spontaneous non-tax deductible giving. That way, we can pay for a friend’s meal or anything else that wouldn’t usually be considered “charity” and where there isn’t a true need, but is still an expression of generosity. Here again, giving becomes more fun when it’s part of a responsible plan.

And we also build in flexibility with our regular planned tithe, with a portion set aside for the inevitable appeals that we can’t predict but want to respond to (short-term mission trips, etc.). If it doesn’t get used during the year, it gets added to one of our regular charities as an add-on. Hence, we budget in flexibility in our planned and unplanned giving.

It’s true that budgeting still means saying no to spending outside the budget, and that’s never easy. But that’s what stewardship is all about – saying no to some things so we can say yes to other things.

Budgeting also extends to peace in other areas of our lives. For instance, budgeting for “unexpected” auto expenses just makes good sense, and it can help to reduce stress when our car breaks down – it’s in the budget! It also will inject reality into our budgeting and make us realize how little discretionary income we really have.

There’s another cost of budgeting: keeping track of your expenses. Budgets lie. An accurate record of expenses doesn’t. It’s easy to draft a hopelessly unrealistic budget, as we did the first year of our marriage. We kept thinking we could live on less than we could. But a budget based on last year’s actual expenses, adjusted for the cost of living, is far more likely to be a real budget. And it helps us confront those uncomfortable truths, like knowing how much you really spent at Starbucks. And once we know the truth, we can better make needed adjustments. Not keeping track of expenses may be a way of shielding us from what we’d rather not know.

It’s a hassle to keep track of expenses, but there are so many useful tools to help make tracking expenses easier. We use Quicken, but many software programs will help to assign categories to expenses we download from our bank or credit card account. Spending a couple hours per month keeping track of expenses is worth the freedom of living in reality.

For the ambitious, categorizing your giving (church, evangelism, discipleship, poverty, cultural renewal, etc.) can help you decide how much to give to specific areas. We tend to give more financially to areas that receive less of our time (since giving of our time is another form of stewardship). There’s no magic formula, but examining your giving is another metric to help you lean into the joy of intentional living.

Wise stewardship of our money is integral to following Jesus. Jesus repeatedly warned his followers about the dangers of misusing money. Following a budget can help us experience more joy in serving him by what we give, spend, and save. It’s not easy, but the effort pays dividends in decreased stress and increased joy.

This article was originally published here by Oakton Foundation

by Reuben Coulter

This week in Glasgow, Scotland the rain has been falling in a deluge of Biblical proportion but the mood has been festive. Tens of thousands of people from around the world and over 100 world leaders and heads of state have gathered for COP26, the international climate summit. 

Many Christians are at the forefront of the movement challenging governments to urgently address the climate crisis. You might be surprised to know that the most recent report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is dedicated to an evangelical Christian scientist, Sir John Houghton. He wrote that ‘the root problem of climate change is sin. Looking after the Earth is a God-given responsibility.’ 

‘the root problem of climate change is sin. Looking after the Earth is a God-given responsibility.’ 

– Sir John Houghton

Why should we care about climate

According to a 2020 report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the global mean surface temperature last year is now 1.2°C warmer than the pre-industrial baseline (1850-1900); while the most recent decade, between 2011 and 2021, was the warmest on record. And this is beginning to have devastating consequences for tens of millions of people around the world – especially those in the poorest countries.

Worldwide, the number, frequency and duration of natural disasters has tripled over the past and there is strong evidence that it is linked to climate change. Oxfam estimates that more than 20 million people are being forced from their homes by climate change each year. In 2021 an unprecedented heat wave occurred in the northwest of the US. The heatwave brought temperatures close to 50 °C to many areas that generally do not experience such heat like Portland, Seattle, killing 500 people. The heat wave was made 150 times more likely by climate change. Meanwhile the western states experience the most severe drought in the last 500 years.

Sub-Saharan Africa is being hit the hardest. Hundreds of millions of people depend on rainfall to grow their food. Maize crop yield could decline by 24% as early as 2030 under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, according to a new NASA study. If trends continue they will experience increased drought and famine. Temperatures in some parts of Africa, which are already intolerably hot, are predicted to rise by five degrees or more and will become unlivable. All this will lead to social upheaval and mass migration as people flee to more hospitable places.

The focus of the COP26 Summit is on what action needs to be taken by governments and business to prevent increased climate change. “Limiting warming to 1.5° C is possible within the laws of chemistry and physics, but doing so will require unprecedented changes,” said Jim Skea, co chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s foremost authority for assessing the science of climate change

Increasingly investors are proactively addressing the risk of carbon producing assets in their portfolio. A group of over 450 leading investors, including BlackRock, Bank of America and HSBC, have formed the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). At COP26 they announced commitments of over $130 trillion of private finance to transform the economy for net zero by 2050. Europe’s largest pension fund, ABP, announced this week that it would be selling its €15-billion of fossil-fuel stocks. Meanwhile, 72 faith-based institutions, announced the largest-ever joint disinvestment from fossil fuels by religious organisations, and represents more than $4.2 billion in financial assets.

But also ‘There are many opportunities associated with the transition to a low carbon economy.’ Karen Shackleton, founder of Pensions for Purpose and a recent speaker at the Faith Driven Investor conference says; ‘Some of those will be obvious: renewable energy, vertical farming, and sustainable fabrics, for example. I have never been of the view that investing in environmentally supportive companies automatically means giving up returns.’

‘Some of those will be obvious: renewable energy, vertical farming, and sustainable fabrics, for example. I have never been of the view that investing in environmentally supportive companies automatically means giving up returns.’

What are the investment implications and how should faith driven investors respond?

Christian investors have both a moral and financial imperative to ensure that their investment strategy incorporates climate change. From a moral perspective, we want to ensure that we are good stewards of creation and that all mankind are able to live flourishing lives. “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” Genesis 1:28 (NLT) From a financial perspective, climate change represents a considerable risk to our investments as well as an opportunity. 

1. Understand the science and theology

Some Christian’s remain skeptical of climate change. In America, only 28% of white evangelicals believe that humans contribute towards it. Take the time to engage with what Scripture has to say about creation care. The Evangelical Christian Climate Initiative statement, which was affirmed by hundreds of evangelical Christian leaders including Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, is a good place to start. Also listen to this challenging FDI podcast by Tim Mcready, CIO at Brightlight.

2. Mitigate its impact on your portfolio

Review your portfolio. Which assets might be adversely affected – whether agriculture affected by changing weather, fossil fuel impacted by regulation or infrastructure at increased risk of floods or fire. How will customers (God’s people) be adversely affected? How might you mitigate these risks? Can you influence this or do you need to divest?

3. Proactively identify new innovations & opportunities

Over the next 30 years the global economy will shift to become carbon neutral. Increasingly, governments are adopting regulation on some industries, while creating incentives to invest in this transition. Are there new industries (renewable energy, regenerative agriculture) or technologies (batteries, electric vehicles, AI) that you should be investing in? 

17th November – Investor call on Climate Investing

Join us on 17th November (12pm EST, 4pm GMT) for a call about Climate Investing. It will feature Innovest which advises fund managers on impact, Fortis Green Renewables, an African fund manager focused on solar, and Epishine, a Swedish battery technology company. Add to your calendar here. 

A creative witness

As the rain falls, a harbinger of things to come, let’s not be like the skeptics of Noah’s time. Christian investors have an opportunity to provide creative witness to God in an increasingly hopeless world as we seek to be good stewards of the Earth and the capital we have been entrusted with. In the words of the prophet Amos “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.” Amos 5.24

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 Global Event.

by Russell Bjorkman

Covid has been a difficult time for people around the world, a time of trial and difficulty. We honor those who passed away and wonder what the world looks like next. Would it surprise you if I were to tell you that a lasting effect of Covid can be that a significant number of churches and charities around the world are wealthier, doing more work, and asking for less funding—to the tune of billions of dollars? Would you think I was crazy? Hopeful? Confused?

If you are at CEF and reading this paper, you are already aware of the massive changes happening in the workforce—flexible work/work from home, virtual meetings, less travel, and increased freelancing. You are also probably aware that Covid has dramatically sped up the adoption of these practices on a large scale. Former companies that would have been famous for “face time” requirements just 18 months ago—accounting, law, hard charging businesses—are moving to models that require as little as two days a week in the office, or even none. In many cases, excellent employees have literally moved from the city they were in during Covid. In a battle for highly skilled talent as the economy around the world starts to recover, employers don’t have the liberty to fire and move on to the next employee.

Let us focus on this one statistic that says a lot: Only 12% of knowledge workers want to return to full-time office work. 12%. The world, simply put, is different.

At the same time, charities are hurting. The American Cancer Society expects revenue from its main fundraising event to decrease 45% from a previous goal of $151 million. Two-thirds of churches in the US report giving declines (and one would expect the actual number to be much greater). 10% of UK charities are facing bankruptcy. Add to this the fact that global churches are possibly hurting even more, as many highly paid expatriates return home, many never to return. 42,000 New Zealand citizens returned home from abroad during Covid, for example. 200,000 expatriates left Oman during Covid.

What is the missing link that connects the title of this paper to these trends and these unfortunate facts? Simple: Real estate. Assets. Talents (in the original sense).

On the one hand, we have charities with significant assets (I am using charities generally to include churches, and this paper focuses on those holding significant assets). These assets are most often real estate of some sort—the land of the charity itself and its office/building, but it could also be an undeveloped parcel or even a large piece of farmland. The leaders of this charity are doing this job to serve others, to demonstrate the gospel, and to show love. It is a constant battle and stressor to have to raise funds from donors that do not like funding “overhead/admin expenses,” which is almost a dirty word in this space. But they need this funding to survive, to pay their bills, and to fulfill their mission. They are doing good, literally, and there should be a way to ensure that they are sufficiently funded, freeing them to focus on their mission.

We have a second factor which is that the world has changed. Many employees are working from home—thus, office needs are down significantly. Meetings are often held over Zoom, not in the conference room that the management debated on the color of for two months. Retreat centers, and to an extent large worship halls, are so passe, so 2019.

And now the third factor: For many charities, donations are down, but need is up. The economy may again show a divided recovery, where one section thrives while another struggles. A lack of human connection means a lack of attending church—and a lack of charitable functions and hearing stories from personal connections that often drive the core giving for a charity. There is, at the very least, incredible uncertainty in the air, even for those relatively unscathed. While many charities flail, the financial and real estate markets are on a record tear. Real estate prices seem to be going through the roof, and no one is certain whether there is an end in sight in the near-to-medium term.

The solution that I propose is simple: Charities and churches around the world should look at the assets (the biblical “talents”) that they do have and utilize this incredibly unique time to structure their assets (most often real estate) in a manner that supports and emboldens the mission of the charity.

The American Bible Society sold their New York office for $300 million in 2015. Of course, not every charity is sitting on that kind of an asset base. But many charities have property obtained 100 years ago, or even 40 years ago, when the local property markets looked dramatically different than today. Cities have exhaled, moving people to the suburbs, and inhaled again, driving city pricing to record highs. Real estate developments globally have increased in value, regardless of the location, and formerly developing countries have significant growth and development with corresponding price increases.

If one was to lead your charity in an asset assessment, the process in general looks like:

1. Assess your assets

2. Define your mission and the ways you can implement it

3. Examine options for your assets that further your mission

4. Implement plan

5. See your impact go up and the stress of the management team go down

A common misconception is that the only option is to sell a piece of property, but that is far from the truth. At Lighthouse, we use our Mission/Impact assessment framework to walk a charity work through not only the asset assessment itself but also which option actually enhances its mission. It is not just about freeing up capital, it is about securing your future, in a way that furthers your goals at the same time.

Example 1: A church in a high rent city, with a lack of affordable housing and decreasing church attendance, may build affordable housing directly behind the church, providing for potential new church members as well as significant repetitive income streams while also providing affordable housing in the community. This model is being rolled out at a large scale in Canada.

Example 2: A church in the heart of Silicon Valley with skyrocketing land values, residents who are disconnected from each other (ironically), and dramatically falling church attendance chose to sell their property and use the proceeds to purchase several houses. These houses, in turn, house multi-year, committed professionals, who as program interns live for free in return for significant leadership at a local church. The interns serve local churches of the same denomination, increasing the skills available at a dramatically reduced price. This decision has increased the strength of the churches that were left in that denomination, rather than each church continuing to limp along. This model has been done in San Francisco.

There are at least eight other options for how to utilize real estate assets, with combinations amongst the options. The concepts are simple at their core, but running the assessment and managing the process well (maximizing the talents) requires a trusted advisor, as most charity CEOs did not get into their role because they wanted to do real estate assessment.

Many charity leaders are or will struggle to raise funds, even though they are doing excellent work. Even if they are not in difficult financial straits, their need for real estate will have just undergone a seismic shift. Those factors, combined with a blazing hot real estate market, make now the time to look at your talents and see how they can be maximized in order to maximize your impact.

At Lighthouse, we specialize in working with charity leaders who know that they want to move from untapped potential and uncertainty to the better way of sustainable income and increased reach. We are excited about helping leaders of global charities secure their financial futures and maximize their mission. We have transactional experience in over 25 different countries and marry strategic, legal, and real estate insights; we would love to provide a free assessment to any charity leader who reaches out.

This is one of the 2020 CEF Whitepapers. For more information on the Christian Economic Forum, please visit their website here.

by Thomas Kern

Today’s Development

Humans have measured global as well as national development in past centuries mainly by using measurements like GDP, revenue, and earnings, and the only way of positive development was reaching “growth”. If the only quantitative KPI used is that of growth, mankind has reached – in our view today – a positive development year by year and generation by generation.

However the Covid-19 crisis as well as climate change show us the risks of the global “growing society”. On the one hand we are more vulnerable, and on the other hand more and more people realize that we are destroying the earth we are living on. In addition, individuals are facing more and more stress diseases from a faster, more complex and information-overloaded environment.

The world seems to be ready for more qualitative measures to overcome the pure / poor growth factors. We observe a swing of emphasis in politics, as well as in economics and business, away from strictly numbers and quantitative factors to more or less qualitative factors like “saving the climate,” sustainability, and diversity to name only the most important few. While I am not evaluating those more qualitative factors individually, I will try to have a look from a Kingdom view on growth KPIs.  

To give context, I am presenting three samples from both a global and a personal perspective:

The coronavirus is producing a hysteric reaction in all global countries due to missing knowledge about sources, the (complex) structure of the virus, the development including death risk, as well as the absence of a vaccine. As long as we do not have scientific solutions and as long as they are not in place, we put millions of people in quarantine / isolation to avoid a further spread of the virus. Is this behavior overdone or do we have other options?

My personal perspective is from a situation where my stress led to critical back pains, not being able to stand or lie down, and rushing to the hospital fearing a heart attack. I was lucky to receive a negative diagnosis. However, when I asked the doctor the source of my pain, he told me, “The pain is coming from your backbone and the spinal column; however, I personally can’t explain it in details as I still do not know enough about this area and its functionality.” I went to my osteopath (in Germany a physiotherapist with additional education of root cause analysis within the human body) and she helped me, explaining, “Your autonomic nervous system has produced the pain and when relieved, you will get rid of your pain.” Knowing interactions in the body, she sometimes treats one area of my body to eliminate pain in another.

Third and finally, since 200 years natural science is only discussed based on materialism excluding any reference to God or the supernatural. (1) Darwin’s scientific theory of evolution argues that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. He presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. (2) Any kind of criticism is totally ignored, e.g., the one Darwin himself posed: “…no intermediate forms between closely related species are found, although the theory implies such forms must have existed.” (3)

However, many scientists acknowledge: “Is there something more than science?” Is there a way to convince them and the world that we must change measurements to qualitative ones derived from God’s principles?

Kingdom Measurements

How can we provide growth in the dimension of God’s kingdom and bring growth (back) into our society, releasing many of the “spasms” in society, science, and personal life?

We believe that God created not only the earth, but also all individual species we discover today: “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open Firmament of heaven … let the earth bring forth the living creatures after its kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after its kind: and it was so.” (Genesis 1:20, 24)

God will spiritually enrich our lives: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love, …and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that ye might be filled with the fullness of God!” (Ephesians 3:17, 19) and “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly.” (John 10:10b)

In Jesus, God provides healing for the body as well: “But that you may know that the Son of man hath authority upon earth to forgive sins I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that on which he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.” (Luke 5:24-25)

God-inspired Solution

Refocusing to our spiritual dimension: Science => Individual => Society

SCIENCE: From an honest “We don’t know!” back to science including the idea of a Creator!

We must provide examples of miracles asking not only scientists but also teachers, politicians as well as any individual to reconsider the existence of supernatural effects that we can’t explain with our medical, physical, and logical science yet. We must leave perceived (4) security and allow mankind to reconsider other solutions outside today’s spectrum of logical science based on materialism alone.

INDIVIDUAL: From facts to emotion, on to spiritual, and back to God!

This includes another way to deal with our personality (being body, spirit and soul). God has created us in a way we can’t entirely understand neither now nor in foreseeable future. Many physicians are already realizing that we know less than we believe we know and are changing our approach to diseases. They are looking more for the origin of a pain and healing the entire body instead relying only on pharma studies treating the symptom of the pain. We must get to a next level of understanding the human being as body, soul, and spirit and treat each individual accordingly. In the future, wealth gain must become a measure of well-being as a balanced human in body, spirit and soul.

SOCIETY: From GDP growth and wealth to KPIs measuring mental health of societies!

How can a society measure mental health in God’s view? All governments around the globe in wealthy countries are fighting for lower healthcare costs. None of them have started an initiative to re-focus and re-measure health as mental health and enforce a clear objective that individuals must be treated in a way to solve the original pain (whether a physical, mental or spiritual pain) instead of treat symptoms. In old Asian societies, people were only obligated to pay the doctor as long as they were healthy…we would do well to entertain this idea!

Conclusion

Three questions to consider on the way to a solution:

Question 1: Which country and leadership might be willing to change measurements of wealth?

Question 2: What are proper tools to help people with mental healing?

Question 3: Where are scientific leaders helping us to challenge the current ideology of science (materialism)?

Could it be that we do have already many pieces of the puzzle that we can’t understand individually, however if we take them together it provides a new picture of the world – a new way to live together in God’s kingdom?

—

(1) “Can scientific explanation ever make reference to God or the supernatural? The present consensus is no; indeed, a naturalistic stance is usually taken to be a distinguishing feature of modern science. Some would go further still, maintaining that the success of scientific explanation actually provides compelling evidence that there are no supernatural entities, and that true science, from the very beginning, was opposed to religious thinking.”
Harrison, P: Science Without God? (Ian Ramsey Centre Studies in Science and Religion)
(2)  Charles Darwin: “On the Origin of Species”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species 
(3)  Charles Darwin: “On the Origin of Species”, Chapter VI. – ibid. 
(4)  Perceived: as we only believed to have secured scientific knowledge we never actually had as mankind

by Jonathan Reckford

I often ask my team, “What will success look like?” If you are focused on achieving goals and the bottom line, metrics are critical markers of progress. At Habitat for Humanity, one way we can measure our impact is through the millions of people we have served. Calculating the number of families who have built or improved their homes with our help is critical as we seek to further our mission. Our vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live calls us to scale our work, but we must also acknowledge the tension between scale and deep transformation.

Our work in communities around the world gives us the insight and credibility to affect markets and impact exponentially more people. We must never forget, however, that each of the numbers reflected in our metrics represents one of God’s children. The danger would be to undervalue the less scalable but incarnational work that happens in community. When the spirit of shalom permeates all that we do, victories come in the form of transformative moments.

For almost 15 years, I have had the great honor to work alongside former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who is one of Habitat for Humanity’s greatest champions. Following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in 2017, he wrote:

When the water rises, so do our better angels. I’ve seen it again and again. We all have. Pick a past disaster, and I’ll tell you at least a dozen stories that stand as living testaments to our collective compassion, generosity and unity.

His words inspired me to write a compilation of stories that demonstrate how it’s possible to build friendships instead of creating division. How it’s possible to communicate when you don’t speak the same language. How it’s possible to change the lives of others.

The following three stories from my book, Our Better Angels, are powerful examples of unlikely people coming together to build one another up and create community. They are indeed paradigms for those who are blessed to be the peacemakers.

One of the best places I know to begin is in Vietnam.

During his service in the Vietnam War in 1967 and 1968, Vic Romback and his crew flew C-130s delivering ammunition, food, water and mail to American troops. The crew was also tasked with transporting the bodies of the war dead. For a 20-year-old from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the experience was life-defining. 

Forty years later, Vic came back to Vietnam with a team of Habitat volunteers to help build houses with people in need of decent shelter. He was quickly hooked and would return many more times as he realized he was building not just houses but also deep connections with the Vietnamese people and other veterans.

His fifth Vietnam Habitat trip was his first to the northern part of the country. It was in Thai Binh, near Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam and the former capital of North Vietnam during the war. As one of the house leaders, Vic stood up on the first night of the trip, introduced himself and told the group they were in for a great experience. He was lost in giddy anticipation of the days to come until one of the translators suggested that the group not advertise that they were war veterans.

Vic was stunned.

On his previous building trips in the southern part of the country, he had been so moved by the healing that took place and the relationships that were built when veterans from both sides worked together. It hadn’t occurred to him that this trip might be different. He had hoped the other veterans would find the same sense of healing he’d always felt. Suddenly, he was worried the trip would reopen old wounds instead.

His roommate, Jim Lempke, was also concerned. The last time Jim had been on Vietnamese soil was at the end of his tour with the U.S. Army in late 1970. He had left the country with a heavy heart that he had carried with him ever since. He’d had to summon a lot of courage to return and face the people he’d once fought against.

But he felt like he was supposed to go back to Vietnam for a purpose, and he wasn’t ready to give up on that idea. He was going to represent his country and interact with anyone who would make eye contact with him. He and the other veterans had come to make peace, and nothing was going to stop him from spreading that message.

The first morning on the work site, notions of reconciliation were almost lost during the grueling work in the hundred-degree heat. The volunteers cut and straightened rebar; hand-mixed concrete; and hauled bricks, sand, gravel, mortar and water while the skilled Vietnamese workers mostly kept to themselves.

A few days into the build, everyone began to settle into a rhythm, and bonds began to form. Through a translator, Jim began a conversation with the homeowner, her sister and her sister-in-law who lived next door. They talked about the excitement of the new home, and Jim told the women he was honored to be there. He explained that he loved the land, the culture and the people of their country. Each told of their war experiences — he as a soldier, and they as individuals who had lost family members in the war.

Afterward, in tears, one of the women said, “The past is gone, and we cannot look back with regrets. We must look forward with joy.”

That was difficult, though, as she had recently lost her younger brother. Jim said he was sorry, and almost without thinking he said, “Maybe I could be your brother now?”

She nodded and replied through the translator that he should now consider her Chi, the Vietnamese word for older sister. Then she reached out and took Jim’s hands in hers, and with words and tears, they communicated wishes for one another for a good life for their remaining years.

That conversation was a turning point for everyone. Over the course of the week, by working together toward a shared goal, the volunteers earned the respect of the local workers. 

One night toward the end of the trip, the veterans assembled in a circle for a time of sharing. One of the translators, who was also a war veteran, asked some questions that the Vietnamese Habitat staff had put together. Two of the questions were “Why did you come here?” and “How do you feel about our country and the people?”

Jim told his story, and then another veteran volunteer said, “For 50 years I haven’t been able to forgive myself for all the killing I did while I was here in Vietnam. Now, after meeting these nice people, I’ve started to forgive myself. By the time I get home, maybe the process will be completed.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Even the three translators were weeping. One of them explained that until that moment they had not realized how much the American veterans had carried with them all of those years.

Each time I have visited Vietnam, I have been deeply moved to see the catharsis and healing as veterans from both sides of the war built homes together.

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” (Psalm 23:5)

I have never witnessed such a breaking down of barriers as on one of my first Habitat builds, which took place in India.

I was relatively new on the job when I traveled to Lonavala in 2006 to work alongside President and Mrs. Carter. Since 1984, the Carters have been champions and strong voices for affordable, decent housing for all, donating their time and leadership each year to build and improve homes through an annual project that bears their names. 

Arun was the manager at the hotel where I stayed. He was surprised to learn that volunteers from around the world had gathered to help his neighbors and that it was women who had saved for the down payments and would be purchasing their families’ homes. And he found it unbelievable that President and Mrs. Carter would actually be helping to build the houses.

After hearing some of us discussing the first day, he decided to come and build the next. He was so moved by the experience that he returned several times to continue building. He was surprised by three things he observed. He said:

• You could not hire contractors to work so hard, with such attention to detail. He insisted that you can’t buy that kind of conscientiousness. It has to come from the heart.

• The Habitat volunteers were willing to sweat and toil for something infinitely more lasting than merely the completion of a job. They labor to serve, to give deeply of themselves to touch the lives of their neighbors, whether half a world or half a block away.

• Such a degree of equality was evident on the build site with people of different genders and such different cultures, backgrounds, socioeconomic levels and religions working together on a first-name basis, in honest and respectful exchanges. 

I have heard President Carter say many times that Habitat for Humanity is the best way he knows to put his Christian faith into action. One of the things he appreciates most about Habitat is that it provides the opportunity for people of different faiths and income levels to come face to face and learn that they have so much more in common than they would have ever imagined. They share strong values, deep love for their family and their community, and they have no fear of hard work. It’s just that we have not all had the same advantages or opportunities in life.

I counted people of 21 different nationalities working on the duplex I was helping to build. Sadhiya Sheikh and her husband, Aziz, would live on one side, and the other unit would belong to Shalini Sathe and her husband, Subhash. Shalini was pregnant with her second child, and the thought that this baby would get to grow up in this beautiful house we were working on instead of in a shack built from mud and thatch or worse made us all very aware of what we were doing.

On the day their homes were dedicated, Aziz reached over and draped his arm over the shoulder of his new neighbor Subhash. He said, “We are from different faiths and different castes, but now we are brothers!”  

Not only did they develop a great friendship, but their image of Christians changed as well. Prior to the build, they did not have a very good impression of Jesus followers, but because of the volunteers who came to India to help them, their attitudes are different.

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! (Psalm 133:1)

Finally, the idea of shalom couldn’t have been more alive than on a build site in Durham, North Carolina.

At first, it appeared that the timing couldn’t have been worse. A build day had been scheduled on Sunday so that the congregation of Beth El Synagogue could participate. But the day before, a gunman had shot and killed 11 congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. 

The best response to such a tragedy, however, was to come together in the community and love one another. Hope Hartman, the social action committee chair at Beth El, wondered what the shooter would think about the work that was being completed and the dedication service that would take place that day. Here they were — a group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims working side by side to build a home with Muslim immigrants from Saudi Arabia and Sudan. But she didn’t dwell on what had happened the day before. She was focused on the strength and compassion of her community and others around the world.

In the four days following the attack, Muslims from many locations would raise over $200,000 for their Jewish brothers and sisters. 

In Durham, it seemed like it was a season of building — in every sense. At the time, the Beth El Synagogue was being rebuilt. The congregation was being housed and was holding services at a neighboring church, Trinity Avenue Presbyterian. The church was hosting them rent-free during the construction, which could take as long as two years. For Hope, this day felt like part of a beautiful circle that exemplified what was so great about their city and the love they felt for their neighbors. While the Jewish congregation was having its house of worship rebuilt with the help of the Presbyterians, they were able to help a Muslim family build their home.

Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

These stories and many more that I get to witness each day nurture my spirit. They fill me with hope and help me see how good the world can be. They remind me that we don’t have to buy into the rhetoric of hate that says in our increasingly polarized world, we can’t find common ground or even talk with people who don’t agree with us. Rather, the Great Commission entreats us to care about one another and to build a world of shalom.

This is one of the 2020 CEF Whitepapers. For more information on the Christian Economic Forum, please visit their website here.