There are likely millions of Christians in the position to start and operate small businesses worldwide but cannot simply due to a lack of seed capital. Both Christian individuals and organizations hoping to launch for-profit enterprises as a means of outreach through job creation and customer contact, and as a source of sustainable funding, need your help. Charity shrinks when economies fluctuate. Dependency rises and morale sinks where there are no jobs. Small businesses grow more quickly than big businesses and create far more jobs than any other enterprise group.
We need angel investors, both those with deep pockets and those willing to network with others by moving assets into Christian small-business venture funds. We need to work together as the Church worldwide in solidarity to fulfill the prophecy first given to Israel that the nations would look to them and see that they were a “wise and understanding people” and that God was surely in their midst (Deuteronomy 4:6-7).
Every day we are losing opportunities to demonstrate to the world as witnesses to the glory of God and the abundance of divine goodness when we neglect to prefer trading with Christian business owners over those who do not follow Christ, and we invest in the world’s system simply because we think the economic advantage is greater. Do not lay up your treasures in this world but in heaven. Be an agency for bringing the love of God to the poor and disenfranchised. Invest intentionally at the bottom of the economic pyramid. We do not have a spirit of fear but can trust God to guide our investments among small businesses and especially in support of the poor.
If Christians in North America would commit just ten percent of their equity holdings (like retirement investments) to such ventures, we would first be astonished at the amount of funds that could be invested in small, high potential endeavors, and second at the buzz it would create in the business world and media. If we doubled or tripled the success rate of Christian start ups by ensuring access to needed capital and came alongside them as mentors and coaches, even prestigious business publications like the Harvard Business Review and Wall Street journal would take notice. We, as the Church, have the collective economic power to be salt and light in dramatic fashion.
Please help me spread the word to the global Church. Business was instituted by God from the very beginning in the exchanges implied to occur between Adam and Eve, the first man and the first co-worker (`ezer). Economic exchanges, between any two people, are our opportunity to demonstrate holiness or demonstrate selfishness, faithfulness or fearfulness.
Can you imagine a more ideal time in human history, given global trade and communications technology, to light up the marketplace with the love of Christ? Please do not hold back from this. God is calling us, preparing us, then sending us out to where we work, produce, and shop to be his people for his glory.
To all those who agree with the sentiment here, do more than simply agree. Post, re-post, respond, invest, ask questions, push this agenda forward. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” – Edmund Burke. It is time to do more than simply nodding our assent. It is time to put our money where our mouth is. People are dying from being too poor to live and souls are lost because there is no vision and witness. Get involved. Make a difference. Be a living witness by sharing and investing the blessings God has given so freely to you.
Most of us live in plenitude and our sisters and brothers, both here at home and around the world, have need. It is time to step up!
And as a serial entrepreneur I can attest that those who help small businesses get off the ground by investing in them are not called angels by mistake or happenstance: they are heaven sent.
Be blessed . . . and be a blessing,
Dave
Thank You!
Eden's Bridge 