Can Christians be rich?

The UK has a rich heritage of Christian philanthropy. The Church pioneered some of the earliest hospitals and schools, and when the industrial revolution took hold, Christian entrepreneurs such as George Cadbury, Joseph Rowntree and Edward Guinness used the wealth created by their businesses to bring about social reform. Faith-based charities from The Children’s Society to Trussell Trust continue to be at the forefront of tackling social need – and are often funded by donors with deep Christian convictions.

Money can do an awful lot of good. Yet Christian entrepreneurs often report a lack of support from fellow believers. Perhaps some of our reticence around money comes from passages such as Luke 18, in which Jesus says that it is “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (v24-25).

Money is a terrible master but a great servant

Gary Spicer has no problem with wealth creation or wealthy Christians, he says – which is handy, as he knows (and has pastored) a lot of them. The problem is when we pursue being wealthy as a goal, rather than pursuing our God-given calling. 

This issue – of purpose and priorities – is one that affects all of us, says Spicer. And it isn’t just about money. Encouraging and releasing Christians to use their creativity and entrepreneurial talents – whether to start a charity, a congregation or a multi-million-pound business – is something that’s not often done well inside the Church. 

Shell Perris, who runs a ministry reaching kids and families, agrees. She’s definitely not expecting to get rich from her work, but the lack of encouragement to pursue her dreams – and teaching on how to do it well – often resulted in her feeling lonely, discouraged and ill-equipped to do all God had called her to do.

Both Shell and Gary are passionate about making sure others do not feel the same way. In their work with The Lions, they aim to support, encourage and release Christian entrepreneurs to pursue their God-given dreams, impacting people and places with gospel goodness in the process. I met them to talk about faith and finance, why Brits are so squeamish about discussing money and what true prosperity looks like. 

Emma Fowle (EF): We have an impressive history of Christian entrepreneurship in the UK. If more Christians owned and ran businesses, how could it impact society?

Gary Spicer (GS): Hopefully, people would matter more than profits. I’m not saying a business shouldn’t make profits, but good leadership encourages and fosters conversations before confrontation and puts people first. We need another Cadbury family. We need social entrepreneurs who will say yes, not just to business, but to transforming people’s lives. 

If God’s got our heart, he can trust our pocket

Foodbank use is through the roof in the UK. We’ve been through years of austerity and inflation. We live in such a lonely society – there’s a lot of isolation and breakdown in people’s lives. We’re not in a particularly great place right now. We should come with an answer – with the message of Christ at the centre, but not just saying Jesus is the answer. We need to show how he’s the answer, by helping practically and giving people an opportunity for a better life. 

There’s no such thing as a ‘Christian business’. There are Christian businessmen and women. They carry the culture and the spirit for change; the business is just a vehicle. If God has called you to set up an amazingly successful business, and you earn loads of money from it, you can reinvest that money into things that God tells you to invest into.

EF: Can running a business lead people to Christ? 

Shell Perris (SP): Even if your business has nothing to do with the gospel, there is still a way that God’s kingdom can be impacted – whether it’s giving money away or being so successful that you’ve got loads of cash to invest in something that is gospel-centred. 

GS: I think we’ve preached enough, if I’m honest. If only three per cent of people are going to church in Great Britain, that’s not a lot to shout about. We’re not really succeeding. I think people need to see the message in our lives, how we overcome difficulties. We can expand his kingdom in so many different ways. Sometimes we’ve been too narrow in the Church. People have felt trapped rather than released. I’d love to see people in church being released to do the things that God’s put within them.

EF: Do we talk enough about what happens Monday to Friday in our churches? 

GS: Let’s just be honest, we do it terribly! We’ve failed miserably. The Church has an incredible amount of people in the pews with dreams and ideas, but no one affirming or confirming it’s an idea from God. 

We’re living in a day of great opportunity. People may not want to hear about religion, but they do want to hear about a God who loves them, so we can carry that message into everything we do. 

Starting a business involves risk. There’s a cost, and people are frightened of taking that step. If we had more of an attitude of: I need to discover my purpose and go and do it – that’s going to change the world. Not necessarily the world as a whole, but my world – it could be a community, a town or a social situation. 

SP: I don’t think I’d realised how lonely I’d been until I got in a room with 15 other entrepreneurs and pioneers [at The Lions] who thought and dreamed a little bit like me. It was literally a breath of fresh air. When I’d gone to somebody in the Church and said: “I’ve got this idea!” and been really excited about it, they’d just burst my bubble straight away. It was great to be with people who said: “Oh, that’s great! Let’s think about how we can make that happen!” The Lions strapline is: “Releasing possibility” and that’s exactly what it did for me – it released a sense of: This could actually be possible.

EF: Do Christians avoid talking about entrepreneurship or business because we think it’s wrong to be rich and a Christian, and that if you aspire to that, you’re obviously wanting to be wealthy?

SP: I’m an entrepreneur and I’m not wealthy!

GS: In this country, we’re embarrassed by wealth. I was brought up in a family business started by my grandfather. They weren’t wealthy, but they were comfortable. But whenever my grandfather bought a new car, he’d hide it around the back of the shop for six months so the customers couldn’t see it. As a young kid, I asked him about it, and he said: “No, we don’t talk about that.” We’ve got to stop being embarrassed about money and just see it as a tool to help change people’s lives. 

Money is not the problem, it’s our attitude towards it. I know a lot of people who aren’t wealthy who are incredibly generous, and I know people who are wealthy and are not – but I also know wealthy people who are really generous. They just don’t brag about it. Do they also spend money on themselves? Yes, but we’ve got to ask: What drives us? When you get to a certain level of wealth, the question changes from: “God, what shall I give?” to “God, what do you allow me to keep?” 

Too many people in the British Church give loans to God, not gifts

The Bible says: “to whom much is given…much [is] required” (Luke 12:48, NKJV). That applies to wealth – but also to everything else we have, including our time and talents. My responsibility is to be a good steward of what I’ve been given. Someone once said that money is a terrible master but a great servant. However much I’ve got, I have to make sure it’s my servant, not my master.

EF: In other cultures, people are much more open about money. Would it help encourage a greater generosity if we talked about it more freely in the UK Church? 

SP: Money is one of those taboo subjects. We don’t like talking about how much our houses cost, our mortgage, whether we are in debt…there’s a real sense of judgement over it sometimes. You hear people say things like: “How are they affording that?”

When I was in a Christian band, we had to raise our own salaries, and it created such a negative thing in me about money – to the point where I was like: I can’t be seen wearing that coat or going to that place, because people will think I’m earning lots of money. It actually took years to overcome that. It can be a huge issue. If we just talked about it more in church and in our families, a lot of that would fall away. Let’s talk about money – what we’re tithing, what we’re earning, how we can be more generous. Let’s just be more open about it. 

GS: I think there’s a problem of extremes in the Church. There’s been a poverty spirit over the Church in Britain, but also some extremes of prosperity teaching. 

I do believe that God can prosper us financially, but first, we must prosper in our hearts – because if God’s got our heart, he can trust our pocket. Money can’t buy me peace, or health or heaven. There’s been wrong teaching on this. People have been manipulated into giving. The Bible talks about sowing and reaping, but there’s no transactional thing with God – otherwise it’s a loan. Too many people in the British Church give loans to God, not gifts. 

SP: Everything we have belongs to God, whether it’s little, loads or somewhere in-between. If we have that mentality, it helps us to be more generous. We make the mistake of thinking: That’s mine. I bought this. That’s mine, and this is mine. Even relationships – we need to live life with an open hand, holding the things that God entrusts to us firmly but allowing God to give and take away at any point.

GS: I learned very young that I own nothing freehold – but God does give me the privilege of having a leasehold. That applies to money, family, ministry – too many people think they own things freehold. It’s a big problem. I’ve never understood people who withhold their tithe but still go to the same church. My life is far more important than my pocket, so if I’m happy to plant my life in a church, but not my money, that’s making a statement: my money is more important than my life. 

Why don’t people give? Because they give to a personality, not the purposes of Jesus. We need to change our mindset on this. We need a spiritual breakthrough. If we get this right, it breaks open a whole new river of finance and blessing upon the Church in Great Britain – and then lots of things that are struggling can be funded.  

To hear the full conversation listen to Premier Christian Radio at 8pm on Saturday 1 February or download ‘The Profile’ podcast.