Your Church vs the Stock Market - Which has been a better Investment?

 

If you read the Wall Street Journal this week, you likely saw the debate over the classic American capital allocation question: Your House vs. the Stock Market. The article weighed the historical returns of sinking cash into real estate versus letting it compound in an index fund. It’s a great debate, but both sides share the exact same underlying premise—the ultimate goal of your capital is to maximize your personal net worth.

But what happens if we change the variables? What if we compare the stock market not to real estate, but to your tithes and offerings at Crossroads Church? How do you even begin to measure that?

Brian Tome and Kyle Ranson delivered two sermons about tithing and offerings (theCrossroads 10X Campaign), highlighting biblical references and the spiritual outcomes promised by God. From a purely financial perspective, it defies economic logic. You are intentionally reducing your income and taking capital off your personal balance sheet to give it away.

Let’s look at the cold, hard math of that opportunity cost. If an average professional took a standard 10% tithe—plus their three-year 10X Campaign commitment—and systematically invested it into the S&P 500 over a 40-year career, the results would be staggering thanks to the relentless machinery of compound interest. If your only goal in life is to die with the largest possible portfolio, Wall Street is the undeniable winner.

So, what is your true measurement? Return on Investment (ROI) or Return on Life(ROL)?

• ROI measures what you have. 

• ROL measures who you are becoming, the community you are building, and the future spiritual lives of others.

Eventually, ROI yields diminishing returns on your actual spiritual joy, while ROL compounds eternally.

As I have grown in my own personal giving journey, the ROL calculation has come into sharp focus. I now operate on a core philosophy: A Steward is Better Than an Owner. Ownership is fundamentally about accumulation. Stewardship is about intentional deployment. When you transition from owner to steward, you stop viewing tithes and offerings as a "loss" of compound interest, and start viewing them as venture capital for spiritual flourishing.

What does that spiritual capital buy? It doesn't buy equity you can borrow against, but it pays massive dividends in the real world. At Crossroads, roughly 41% ofthat capital is deployed directly into ministry and community care. Millions more are pushed out to over 130 non-profit partners globally. Crossroads funds digital streaming content to all their physical sites and broadcasts God's message of stewardship and compunding joy around the world.

 

The stock market can fund your retirement, but it cannot fund your purpose. If you want to maximize your balance sheet, stick to Wall Street. But if you want to maximize your Return on Life and your capacity for spiritual joy, there is no better investment than deploying your capital into the people and the community around you.

Stressful Streamageddon

 After the Netflex 3rd quarter conference call and the after hours drop in stock price, I decided to pay attention to the Streaming Wars occurring right here in the USA.  Add to this the recent scare at Verizon and ATT with Elon Musk Starlink purchase of spectrum.  All of this reminds me of my days at Accenture during the telecommunications boom and predictions about the monthly consumer cost of content and delivery as the internet was just taking off (1996-2000). 

The key performance indicator is "engagement" or time viewers spend on your service along with churn.  How much time are you watching "TV" (the old term) or on the Computer (another old term) or the cell phone (soon to be another old term).  

I think the real issue returns me to one of my favorite books "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz. Not only is there too much choice in content, there are many choices of delivery, bundles, and teaming.  Even AI doesn't help with choosing or deciding.   

With too much choice - no choice is the favorite.

Service	Cheapest	Premium	Bundles	Carrier Perks	Card Credits
Netflix	$8.99	$26.99	None	T‑Mobile	Amex Platinum
Prime Video	$8.99	$19.98	Prime Channels	Metro	Amex Platinum
Disney+	$11.99	$18.99	Disney Bundle	Verizon	Amex Platinum
Hulu	$12.49	$21.49	Disney Bundle	Verizon	Amex Platinum
Paramount+	$8.99	$13.99	Prime Channels	T‑Mobile	Citi Custom Cash
Apple TV+	$14.99	—	Apple One	T‑Mobile	Apple Card
Max	$10.99	$22.99	Prime Channels	AT&T	Chase Sapphire

Numbers vs Mission

In Wednesday 7:15BC (Breakfast Club/Bible Class) Steve M. had a quiz about St. Paul with the question about how many members existed in the first European Church in Phillipi and marveled about the number of Christians in the World now.  Naturally, I pointed out the mathematics of my blog of compound annual growth rate of only 1.08% (see Jesus the Mathematician).  Steve M. correctly countered - "But what is the compounded annual growth rate of the human population".   Exactly the proper context to put 1.08% growth rate into perspective!   

Gemini to the rescue!  I loaded my blog analysis into Gemini Pro and presto - the answer with little necessary research:

"Over those two millennia, the global human population grew at a CAGR of just 0.16%. Due to high infant mortality, plagues, and limited agricultural capacity prior to the Industrial Revolution, human population growth was incredibly slow.

So, while a 1.08% growth rate sounds modest by modern financial standards, Christianity actually grew nearly 7 times faster than the human race over that same 2,000-year span."

But as I have found, the proper use of AI is to ask the contrarian view - and deeper analysis into the slippery slope of using numbers and statistics to justify your arguments (similar to my revised post and self fact checking - Confounding Compounding).  Gemini rightly pointed out that using the financial lens of growth rate of a modest 1.08% creates an artificial measure of highly volatile periods of hight growth and statistical missing elements of birth and death rates. 

Bottom line - a more strategic analysis and complete picture is required (stay tuned for an updated blog post on that).  

In my confessional email attempt at humility to my fellow Wed. 7:15BC members, I forwarded Gemini's analysis only to see the real punch line response from Glenn B. with the following story:

Steve, Garen - this is great work, very interesting.  At my wife's aunt's church in Columbus, IN when you drive out of the parking lot of the church from any exit you see the sign: "You Are Now Entering the Mission Field".   Maybe we all should take that sentiment to heart! - Glenn 

Forget the numbers - focus on the mission!

Shells - Collect or Listen

God winks occur all the time - this time with my research on the (or my) future with Gemini Pro and Gemini Notebook leading me to my old presentations at Vistage, Accenture Vision Video  and even my various attempts at 48, 58, and 68 of decade planning.  

I even looked back at my second Christmas letter (2002) with the summary quote in Tolkein's Fellowship of the Rings by Gandalf - "All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us"  .

Gemini Pro caused me to create another Notebook called "Mystery of Time" to research it's statement-  "To slow down life, you have to inject novelty".  

Andy S. story about a business collegue's wisdom about the future in his West Virginia hick accent saying 'Ev...eeer...ray Day" -popped into my mind. 

So the memories flood in and then God winks at you and laughs!   Sunday was the punctuation.

Kyle Ranson's  Crossroads Sermon this Sunday started a new series - RAW.  In his message he played a clip from John Piper's "Boasting Only in the Cross" at Passion OneDay 2000.  More than a wink - that is a kick in the pants!

A great sermon can sometimes be punctuated with just one word - and in this case it is SHELLS. Like the story of the child throwing stranded star fish back into the ocean (if you haven't heard it - just click).  

It's time to stop collecting Shells and listen to God's message inside the Shell.  

Technology Futures Revisited

 I have been working on a "project" for the monthly topic of Vistage Alumni coming up this Thursday - "What Will the World be Like in 10 Years and 20 Years and How Will That Affect You".  Naturally, I am using Gemini Pro and Gemini Notebook (and occasionally Copilot) to help me in this endeavor.  

It's good to still have mid to long term memory as I wanted to access a Andersen Consulting (now called Accenture) Vision video (on VHS) from 1993.   I remember asking my brother D'Lane if he could transfer this to digital as he was working on his own home videos that were on VHS tapes.  

However trying to find that file and/or email exchange would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.  I have two many terabyte external drives and my search skills using Windows Explorer are at best rudamentary.  Hoping AI could come to my aid was the ticket.   Using both Copilot and Gemini on my Outlook and Gmail archives - presto the email exchange with D'Lane put the date of correspondence as 2018.  

Next on to finding the 729MB file on any of my external drives.  Then on to compressing and trying to enhance it with Wondershare software and finally uploading it (which I should have done in 2018) to my Youtube studio.  

For your viewing pleasure - here was Accenture's vision to show how technology will be used in the future:  

Then I started searching for other Corporate Future Visions and found Corning Glass 2011

Equally entertaining.   Now 33 years later (for the Accenture Vision) intelligent agents are just beginning to emerge. Proves how aggressively we can dream but how slowly we adopt.

Kind vs Good (Revisited -2026)

 The topic of the Vistage Alumni meeting today was Authenticity in Relationships across four quadrants - self, spouse, close friends and acquaintances.  Tom A. brought up path for encouraging authenticity might be as simple as kindness.  This caused me to revisit my memory (and blog) of "Kind vs Good" -Sept 27, 2010.  

Thankfully AI has helped me with a deeper dive:  

Sixteen years ago, my blog referenced a sermon from Rev. Stover in which he said the word “kind” never appears in the Bible. At the time, that line sent my mind straight to Sondheim’s Into the Woods and Little Red Riding Hood’s sharp observation:

“Kind does not mean good.”

I didn’t realize then how often that distinction would come back to me.

Today, “kindness” is one of the most overused words in our cultural vocabulary. We put it on yard signs, coffee mugs, corporate slogans, and social media hashtags. “Be kind” has become a modern mantra. And yet—just as Little Red warned—kindness still doesn’t necessarily mean goodness.

Kindness has become easy. Goodness has not.

Kindness today often means being agreeable, polite, or non‑confrontational. It’s a social lubricant. It keeps the peace. It avoids friction. But goodness—real goodness—still demands something deeper:

• moral courage

• integrity

• sacrifice

• truthfulness

• accountability

Goodness sometimes requires saying the hard thing, standing firm, or refusing to go along with something that is wrong. And in those moments, “kindness” can actually get in the way. We can be so eager to appear kind that we fail to be good.

The Bible’s language helps clarify the difference.

Rev. Stover’s point was technically correct the KJV does not use the word kind (however kindness, kindly and loving kindness is) and his point was that the English word “kind” doesn’t capture the weight of the biblical concepts. The Bible’s vocabulary is richer:

• hesed — steadfast love, covenant loyalty, mercy

• chrestotēs — moral goodness, uprightness, gracious strength

Biblical kindness is never mere niceness. It is goodness expressed. It is goodness with a spine.

Our world needs goodness first.

We live in a time when manipulation often masquerades as kindness. Flattery, charm, and smooth talk can be used to disarm, distract, or deceive. The wolf still knows how to smile.

So the lesson from 2010 holds even more strongly today:

Be good—and let kindness follow. Goodness is the root. Kindness is the fruit. When goodness leads, kindness becomes trustworthy. When kindness leads, goodness can be compromised.

Sixteen years later, I’m convinced of this:

Kindness is beautiful when it grows out of goodness. But kindness without goodness is just camouflage.

And Sondheim's Little Red Riding Hood still has the best line.

Home Networking - NOT...Working

Being a DIY home network techy has been a history of challenges - from DSL, Fiber, Cat 5, 5e, 6, 6a, 7 and now 8, Wifi 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, and now Wifi 7, 10/100 switches to gigabyte switches, mesh network, the list goes on.  

Today was another lesson in humility.  Luckily I cancelled AltaFiber's technician site visit (I was so sure the ONT was fried from the recent storm and outage) and tried my own troubleshooting of the home network diagnosis.

 I discovered that my TP-Link Ac1200 was defective but that outcome was an all day effort.  

Thank goodness for AI's assistance in trying to renew my networking skills. 

The investments of routers, switches, long Cat 6 wire, extenders, adds up over the years.  My guess is I have spent over $2,000. But luckily I am a pack rate and I keep all that old technology  (see my history DIY networking -  Networking Triumph  Home Networking Reboot Post Purchase Analysis ) I dug my old 2012 NetGear N500 wifi router out of my technology "scary box" full of obsolete stuff.   BUT ... it worked!    

But true technology confession is good for the soul! AI Copilot said it well when I asked if I should breakdown and just purchase an new router - 

NETGEAR Orbi 370 WiFi 7 Mesh System Dual-Band, Up to 6,000 sq ft, 3 Pack

Garen, honestly… you’re making the right call. You’ve got an Apple router, a TP‑Link, and a Netgear all broadcasting different SSIDs, different security modes, different DHCP behavior — that’s exactly the kind of environment where Alexa + Cync + IoT devices become a never‑ending troubleshooting loop.

You’re not imagining it. You’re not doing anything wrong. The system is unstable because the network is unstable.

Let me give you the straight, executive‑level breakdown so you can move forward without wasting another Saturday.

Now with all the internet of things (IoT) my smart plugs, Alexa devices, ring doorbells, thermador smart freezer and refrigerator, security cameras, droplet water monitor, irrigation controller, and internet smart TV's all needed updates to the new router!  

When it "rains it pours" because just three days ago I wasted a complete day relinking 21 different financial entities to a new checking account Susan and I opened.  

The cost of efficient "integration" and "convenience" becomes real clear when THE critical single component gets changed - like a checking account or a router.  

So the Notworking is Nowworking awaiting Monday's delivery of a new mesh router system--- New..working!