The Steward Investor: Investing God’s Resources for Eternal Impact

by Donald Simmons

What if we could move deeper through the basic principles taught in most stewardship books, toward achieving the eternal and redemptive objectives of the True Owner? The Steward Investing God’s Resources for Eternal Impact is not just another stewardship book about competent money management or generosity. Instead, using scripture and real-world examples, it helps us discover our duty as God’s money managers and provokes us to invest differently. Challenging modern temporal financial planning constructs, like maximizing financial returns and minimizing risk for ourselves, it shows how we can optimize positive, enduring outcomes for all stakeholders, including employees, communities, and the planet, all while advancing the kingdom of God.

Simmons directs readers to adopt a wholistic view of investing that aligns with Great Commission and Great Commandment outcomes. You will be challenged and inspired to reevaluate your portfolio and to start your own journey toward investing for eternal impact as God’s steward investor. Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money. . . . Tell them to go after God . . . to be rich in helping others. . . . If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last. (1 Tim 6:17-19, MSG)

308 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 22, 2022

Reviews

[Sarah Steinmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would encourage every Christian to read this book!!

[Paul, · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simmons has applied the gospel to his profession in a way that I find admirable. He notes, correctly, that our investments are subject to the authority and ethics of Christ in exactly the same way that our donations to the church and ministry are. He has thought through the details of how to invest. I appreciate that this is not an "anti" book, telling people only what to avoid, but notes that the promotion of the good is a key component. Further, he promotes the idea that believers are free to, and encouraged to, take risks in the promotion of the kingdom of God. Not what I expected from a investment advisor, and very welcome!

Overall, I found this book helpful, if a bit hard to read. Simmons is a finance guy, not a writer. There is a lot of jargon, most of it terrible. Simmons loves the word "fiduciary". But it was still worth the read.

My main critique is that this book still divides the world into sacred and secular. Simmons has redeemed the investment, but he does not seem to have wrested work itself from the arms of the sacred / secular divide. Work for Simmons is sacred when it is done somewhere else for missions, and thus worthy of investing in.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

For Christians, it is important to understand what is in their portfolio and why. But it is equally important to remember that every financial resource that God entrusts to us, not just tithes and donations, should be used to serve Him and to accomplish His purposes. God’s mission in the world is to reconcile all that was broken during the Fall and to restore our personal relationship with Him, one person at a time. Christ died “that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:15).

The Bible also cautions about things that employers should not do. For example, exploit widows, orphans, and foreigners, or use unjust scales. The ancient world did not have the construct of our current economic system with shared ownership through stocks and stock markets to conduct trading of companies, but today, if you own stocks or mutual funds, you are, in fact, an owner of the business. The scriptures that are directed to business owners therefore apply to us as investors as well.

>For Wesley and Feeney, divesting of their material wealth and dying broke was consistent with their calling. For God’s oikonomos, the idea of dying broke should be normal because an oikonomos recognizes that they are already broke. I am not managing financial resources for my own benefit, but everything I possess is, in fact, owned by God. As I understand my role as God’s oikonomos more completely, I must make sure that I engage all resources in serving the Master and accomplishing His goals.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important book for Christians who have started investing. First, you have to figure out how to work and spend with enough excellence to have something to invest, of course. But then you need to start thinking deeply about what to do with your surplus--and he says (rightly) that just focusing on maximizing your financial return is not thinking biblically about how to use your money well. We need to have multiple "bottom lines" that we measure against.

I found the beginning part to be a little slow, but that's probably because I've already learned a lot about the perspective he shared (it wasn't new to me). If you're just starting to think about this, it's probably needed to do the step by step walk through the "why."

My favorite part was the second half of the book when he walked through the various options for investments that had positive impact, from using a self-directed IRA to setting up a DAF to even how to find and invest in businesses in impoverished areas (this is much more effective than just giving money to that same area).

[Jon Burd · Rating 5 out of 5]

What most impressed me about the book is that it challenges the prevailing perspective of investing and places it within a biblical framework.

We often think of donations as sacred and investments as secular, and there is no end to the number of strategies that believer's would like to force into a biblical context.

Don Simmon's approaches this differently. He first asks what scripture says, then forces our investing strategies to fit scripture.

Don also builds on the growing understanding in disaster relief for impact investing. If impact investing is so critical to improving economies, that is, not just free stuff but investment in profitable business, then how can we, stewards of God's resources, see the resources we have been entrusted with as redeemed to give AND to invest for the glory of God?

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book!

A topic very few are writing about. And the author is writing from personal experience, which I highly value. Some authors write from what they have read or heard, but knowing friends of the author, this is a recap of a framework the author has lived out.

Investing from a Christian perspective, and as an investment advisor, it opened my eyes towards investing to change the world like no one else has before. Really thankful for this recommendation from a friend.

[Nathan Lackey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really challenged my previous view of investing from a Kingdom perspective. I love Don's challenge to "expand beyond the charity is sacred and investment is secular mentality." If everything I own is really God's, why am I often using His resources for MY purposes? A lot to wrestle with financially and heart posture when it comes to stewardship in this book. I don't agree with everything in it, but worth a read still.

[Jonathan Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. Highly recommend to anyone learning about how to invest with impact.