What is a Steward Investor?
A steward investor is a person who acknowledges that God owns it all and seeks to invest in a way that accords with God’s purposes.
By definition, a steward is a manager of someone else’s resources. It derives from the Greek word oikonomos, who was the manager in an ancient Greek household. A steward knew he didn’t own anything but had an obligation to manage the resources and affairs of the owner as the owner himself would.
All of our resources—financial and otherwise—have been given to us by God, the true owner. God tasks us as his stewards with managing those resources according to His values, goals, and precepts communicated in scripture.
While many of us value “good stewardship” of our finances, making sure we live on a budget, save, and give generously, most of us have not considered how to steward our investments.
We have a calling and responsibility to invest money so that God’s purposes are achieved, because the investments we select are an equally important component of stewardship. Donations are not sacred, and investments are not secular, although many behave as though this is the case. We pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, but do we invest to achieve that goal? What does a portfolio that seeks to advance God’s kingdom look like? Are we investing just to increase our personal net worth?
How Can We Achieve Eternal Impact?
Jesus clearly instructs that the greatest form of obedience to God is to follow the Great Commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt. 22:37 and 28:19-20, respectively).
Full love of God will lead steward investors to willingly deploy capital from where it is piled up to where it is in short supply. Releasing capital for investment into missional businesses can have both temporal and eternal benefits. When we invest with an eye toward bringing spiritual, social, economic and environmental change, we build God’s kingdom on earth through many avenues, including rectifying injustice, caring for the poor, and making disciples.
Business as Mission is a proven method of using business to align with God’s Great Commission and Great Commandment objectives. Serving brothers and sisters in emerging markets and places of spiritual darkness by partnering with them in their business enterprises is an act of obedience.
