My name is Matthew Millsap. I currently serve as Director of Library Services and Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO. Perhaps this might surprise you, given my profession, but one of my passions is investing, and more narrowly, teaching others about investing.
The purpose of The Investing Minister is to do just that, but with a specific audience in mind: ministers and those training for ministry in seminary. It’s my mission with this blog to help ministers and seminarians learn–as simply as possible–how to invest successfully.
As an undergraduate student, I majored in Economics and Finance, and my interest in this area never really abated once I graduated from my university and moved on to seminary training. But while in seminary, at both the Master’s and Ph.D. levels, I noticed something: I possessed a lot of knowledge about personal finance and investing that most of my peers did not seem to have.
I don’t mean this in any superior sense whatsoever–rather, I was concerned that so many I encountered in my seminary community appeared to show little or no serious thought about financial matters, other than what most of us typically experience while enrolled in seminary, which is living on a shoestring budget and trying to figure out how to make ends meet while pursuing a call to ministry.
Yet one of the key principles of investing success is to invest early and often, and I knew deep down that most of my fellow seminarians were not doing so, which troubled me.
At the same time, I didn’t feel there was much that I could do to help anyone learn to invest, as for whatever reason, money can be something of a taboo subject in a seminary context, unless you’re commiserating with your fellow seminarians about how much of a financial challenge being in seminary is (and it is!). So, for the most part, I stayed quiet about investing.
Flash forward to me becoming a theological librarian and professor. Beginning in 2018, I decided to ignore the stigma often attached to a Christian talking about investing that previously worried me, and started openly tweeting about investing, which then led to full-time ministers, bi-vocational ministers, seminary students, seminary staff, fellow faculty, and denominational colleagues contacting me about how to invest.
These conversations were most often private and primarily consisted of answering questions that many had regarding their own personal circumstances. In the course of doing this, I noticed two recurring themes:
- “Why didn’t anyone teach me this stuff before now?” – Over and over again, I heard the disappointment of these individuals feeling like this was something they should have been taught, but were not.
- “You should start a blog to teach others like us how to do this!” – Many of the individuals to whom I talked thought a blog would be a great way to communicate this helpful information to a wide audience.
Then in August 2020, I decided it was time to give it a go by branching out beyond the more immediate context of those who asked me for help personally. While still desiring to help in that capacity when requested, I agreed it was time to start a blog designed to educate those already in ministry and those who are training for ministry about investing.
So here we are. Are you currently in ministry? Currently training for ministry in seminary? Maybe you’re a college student who is not yet pursuing a graduate seminary education, but will be. Perhaps you’re none of the above, yet employed by a ministry organization. If you’re in any of these categories, this blog is for you.
Welcome to The Investing Minister! Start here, and happy reading!