Here is another challenge from Dick Weidner, Director of Legacy Ventures, the third partner in Triventure.com. Triventure is the tripartite BAM launchpad consisting of COURSES (Third Path Initiative), COACHING (IBEC Ventures), and CAPITAL (Legacy Ventures).
Larry Sharp, Director of Training, IBEC Ventures
larry.sharp@ibecventures.com
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I don’t know whether you have ever thought about your walk of faith being a succession of steps, each yielding to God’s call and the direction of His Word and inviting Him into various areas of your life.
Obviously, the first invitation is to yield to the Gospel call and invite Christ into your heart and life. Hopefully, this is followed soon after by inviting the Holy Spirit to take control of your life. In Romans 12:2, Paul exhorts us to invite God to transform our minds and thoughts. When we marry, we invite God to be the third party in the marriage relationship. When we dedicate our children, we invite God into the awesome job of being a Godly parent. Many of us, when we buy our first house, invite God into our household as the true head of it. Hopefully, we invite God into our vocations, whatever they may be.
In my over fifty years of dealing with individuals and investments, many of my clients being Christ followers, I have yet to have even one express the concept that they have invited God into their investment portfolio. The investment process involves establishing goals, assessing risk, timelines, rates of return and assessment of future financial prospects as basics. To put it simplistically, it comes down to, “How do I employ what I have saved, and will save, to achieve what I hope for in the future?”
So, where does God fit into this process? It comes down to the basic concept of stewardship. He owns it all (our income and everything we own, including our 401(k)’s, 403(b)’s, IRA’s and all our investments, no matter how owned).
God’s heart is most clearly seen in the Gospel. He loves the lost and sacrificed His son on their behalf. How then can we do our part in fulfilling the Great Commission through our investments?
One simple way would be to direct a small portion of our retirement savings, 5% or less, to be invested in viable, missional businesses around the world — real businesses run by trained and equipped Christians seeking the four-fold bottom line of profits, societal blessing, preservation of God’s creation and the display of God’s love in the Gospel of Jesus Christ among the lost. Over 3 trillion dollars is held by Christians in retirement portfolios. Even 1% of the funds would provide 30 billion dollars for missional investment.
If God has spoken to your heart, and you want more information on how you can invite God into your investment portfolio in a practical way, please contact me.
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