By Tyler Collins, January 12, 2024

Last week, we discussed how the Scriptures admonish us as believers to invest our time, talents, and treasures. Over the coming weeks, the focus will be on what it means to invest our treasures. We ended last week by asking, “How much should I keep?” When the subject matter of “giving” is broached in most Christian circles, the first thought is usually toward charitable donations. Although this is a very important avenue to consider, I think it often leads to Christians categorizing their finances. Speaking from personal experience, it is easy to only think about the 10% as “God’s money” but then look no different from the world in the other 90%. I think this particularly rings true with financial investments. 

The “steward investor” language has become a new terminology for me. A recently published book called The Steward Investor, by Donald E. Simmons, explores the idea that Christians are responsible to God for how they manage the resources He entrusts to them. The acronym JOY, which stands for Jesus, Others, and You, is often used in Christian circles. This describes how we, as disciples of Christ, should prioritize and engage the world; Jesus first, followed by Others, and finally You. 

However, we are taught by the financial experts of the world to prioritize our financial investments in an opposite way, giving ourselves the top priority. Donald Simmons has been a financial advisor for over 30 years. He observes that generally, Christians and non-Christians do not think differently about their investment portfolio. Most Christians claim that they want to earn more on investments so that they can give more.

Is this right thinking if our investments themselves are not aligned with the heart of God? How should we, as Christians, think differently about not only the 10% tithe but also our investments? This is where the concept of the steward investor comes in, which we will dive into deeper next week. Jesus did not just give us 10% of Himself, but 100%. Let’s model our king and entrust everything to Jesus!