Question from a reader:

Randy, I really appreciate your biblical wisdom on stewarding God's money and possessions that He has entrusted to us as followers as Christ. I work for a Christian biblically responsible investing firm where we practice many of the principles that you teach as we walk alongside clients. I have a deep desire to help people steward God's money.

My specific question for you has to do with Christian non-profits, churches, and foundations, and whether or not they should invest in long-term investments, such as equities or fixed income funds? I know in Money, Possessions, and Eternity, you warn about the long-term nature of endowments/foundations, and how sometimes those organizations can keep producing income even after they have abandoned biblical truth. However, do you think there is a time and a place for appropriate non-profit/church investing? If so, when does it cross the line into hoarding up resources that should be spent for Kingdom impact now?

I want to help Christians—including Christian organizations—steward their money well, but I just don’t know if organizational/institutional investing in the stock and bond markets is biblical. Could you help provide some guidance here? 

Answer from Randy Alcorn:

Honestly, I have reservations about Christian ministries holding onto money donated to them while investing it in things designed to produce income.

People normally give to ministries with the intention that the money would be used to help people, educate people, or do whatever the ministry does, and in a reasonably short period of time.

I feel pretty strongly about honoring donor intentions and assumptions when they give to a ministry. Except in the case of annuities, where donors designate specific funds for investment by the organization, it seems reasonable to assume that there wouldn’t be a long delay between when those monies are given and when they are spent to feed the poor, get clean water to the needy, etc. Even if a clean water project takes a year or more, the money designated to it should go to it soon to fund the front end of the work, even if others give along the way to fund the back end. Though it may be years before a Bible translation project is fully funded, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with somebody’s gift idling before making use of it.

I would ask the question: what would a donor think if they knew we were putting their gift into an interest generating account over the next few years instead of spending it on the purpose it was given for? We don’t know when Christ will return, but we do know He will return at some time. The idea that money given years ago by donors continues to sit unused when Christ returns, and is therefore immediately worthless, does not seem right to me.

As for generating interest (even at a good interest rate, which is hard to find), my belief is that the real, lasting interest is generated when we give, and that money is to be poured as soon as possible into kingdom purposes which themselves generate eternal interest in terms of treasures in Heaven.

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