A recent clip featuring financial expert Dave Ramsey caught my attention. In it, he tells a story about a man worth around $200 million who only invests in farmland because “that’s what he knows.” Ramsey uses this story to support one of his core investing principles: “Put money in stuff you understand and you’re comfortable with, and if that’s all you ever do, you’re going to be fine.”
At first, this advice sounded responsible, but something about it didn’t sit right with me. I kept mulling it over, wondering, “Is this the right mindset for Christian investors?” While Ramsey’s message wasn’t framed as theological advice, his financial advice is so ubiquitous in Christian communities and churches that it’s important to evaluate it in light of biblical teaching.
A new book by another Christian financial expert offers a different perspective for Christians to have about investing. In The Good Investor: How Your Work Can Confront Injustice, Love Your Neighbor, and Bring Healing to the World, Robin C. John challenges the idea that investing is only about increasing wealth. John, the cofounder and CEO of Eventide Asset Management, believes investing can be a faithful response to God’s call to work:
Even at its best, we often imagine individual investing as only concerned with a narrow sphere: our individual need to manage security for our family and our future. But what if investing holds a far more potent capacity: the potential for creative, generative good?
John’s book makes a compelling case that the act of investing is included in the theology of work—a way to participate in the redemptive story from Genesis to Revelation—and that how we invest our money matters just as much as how we spend what we make from it.
In today’s article, I’ll take a closer look at how John ties the theology of investing and work together; my next article will examine how he explores the spirituality of investing itself.
Investing as a Form of Work
Robin John’s journey to this theology of investing came through a hard-fought journey to understand the theology of work. Born in rural India, he moved with his family to Boston at age eight. After earning a business degree from Tufts University, he had early success in the corporate world. But at twenty-six, he found himself unemployed and discouraged, living in his parents’ basement and wondering what his life was meant to be about (see “quarter-life crisis”).
In that season, John began praying for a clear call from God—specifically, a call into ministry. He believed that the only truly meaningful work was in the church or on the mission field. That belief is common in some Christian circles, but it does not reflect the whole story of scripture. John writes, “I was entrenched in a false idea, rampant in some areas of Christian culture… that overt Christian activities such as being a pastor or missionary provided the only real opportunities for truly meaningful spiritual work.”
This part of John’s story reminded me of IFWE’s founder, Hugh Whelchel. He also questioned whether his career in business had any lasting spiritual value, about which he once wrote:
The idea that my vocational work mattered to God never crossed my mind… I believed that as a Christian, I should work in an ethical manner and take every opportunity to share my faith. Beyond that, I saw no connection between my faith and my work.
Both men came to understand that all work reflects the character of the God who made us to work. John began to see God not only as Creator, but as the Original Architect, the Cosmic Engineer, the Great Farmer, and the True Worker-Artist, all vocational descriptions that echo the kinds of work humans are called to do in God’s image.
This theological insight began to shape how he understood investing itself. He realized that investing was not just financial activity. It was work. It involved discernment, intentionality, and creative energy. It required effort to research, align convictions, and take meaningful action.
John draws on several biblical themes to support this vision. He echoes the four-chapter gospel: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. In this narrative, God creates the world and invites humanity to cultivate it. The story begins in a garden (Genesis) and ends in a city (Revelation), a picture that highlights human contribution in building a society that flourishes under God’s reign.
Investing, for John, is part of that work of cultivation. Investors are not simply trying to manage risk or grow their personal wealth. They are, knowingly or not, helping to shape the world.
From Financial Gain to Faithful Stewardship
Eventually, John returned to the business world with a renewed sense of purpose. He started an investment club with his brother and a friend. That project eventually became Eventide Asset Management, an investment firm committed to aligning capital with values that serve the common good.
Starting Eventide was not easy. John shares stories of using credit cards and taking odd jobs just to stay afloat. Yet he believed in the work. He believed it mattered to God: “All these concerted efforts seemed absolutely worth the risk because Eventide was something I believed in,” he writes. “This work mattered.”
Even as he faced resistance, he held to the conviction that investing could be meaningful, not only in outcome, but in the process itself. He began to speak about “the work of investing.”
What is that work? John explains that investing makes someone an owner. That ownership is not symbolic. It carries ethical weight. Investors become partners in the endeavors of the businesses they support. Their capital enables the company’s activity, and they share in the outcomes, both financial and social: “As owners, we become ethically responsible for what the business does. We become partners who are making their endeavors possible.”
This is a profound statement. It shows that investing is not passive. It is participatory. It is active. And in that way, it becomes real work.
John’s view stands out because it expands the definition of work to include roles often seen as peripheral to Christian calling. Like Henri Nouwen’s reflections on the spiritual meaning of fundraising, John believes that investing can also be a way of engaging in God’s mission—of agreeing with a vision for the world and helping bring it about. (We’ll examine this connection with Nouwen’s work more in the next article.)
This is why he insists that investing is more than a financial transaction. It is an act of stewardship, a means of loving our neighbor, and a response to God’s call to be faithful with what we’ve been given.
So What?
So, how should Christians approach investing? Dave Ramsey encourages believers to understand their investments and to be generous. These are good principles. However, Robin John offers a broader and deeper framework. He invites readers to think about investing as a form of work, a way of participating in God’s ongoing restoration of the world.
