Philosophy of Money - Investing in God for the Long Term

Investment Policies
In one of the Bible's many parables of the absentee owner, the owner gives money to each of his servants. One hides it, one invests it in moderate return investments, one goes for a little more high risk. (Matthew 25:14-30) The parable was clear when the owner returned, the servant who hid the money away in fear was chastised. The funds entrusted to First Church as trusts are prudently invested to earn a reasonable rate of return in whatever the current marketplace may be.

The body through which First Church manages long-term investments is the Endowment. This is a separate organization with its own Board of Trustees who are appointed by the First Church Administrative Board. Trustees make a contribution to the general fund each year from the money generated by their investments. First Church was blessed recently by a gift that nearly doubles the size of the amount of money in the Endowment fund. For many years, we have benefited from the legacy left by Mr. Cravens. A final distribution by that legacy was the largest gift given to First Church in my memory, in the neighborhood of $2 million. Mr. Cravens was an example of an individual who used his talent for making money for the benefit of God's work during his own life and beyond.

While this is a very generous gift, and First Church will be blessed by it in the future, because distributions from the Endowment are proceeds from investments, we will not see this benefit for several years. It will be our extravagant generosity following the example of Mr. Cravens that will enable First Church to carry out its work this year.