In Good Faith is a new blog from MMA designed to share some of the joys and trials, challenges and opportunities of the “holy”, complex task we call stewardship investing. MMA has been involved in faith-based, socially responsible investing for more than 60 years. The conviction to connect our faith and values with our investment decisions has come naturally–an outgrowth of the Anabaptist commitment to applying faith to all of life–but has changed greatly over time.

Over the years this effort has been characterized by a spirit of commitment and the enduring pursuit of the question “How can we be better stewards of the resources God has entrusted to us?” Long before MMA officially became a “Stewardship Solutions” company, our investing perspective was centered on concept of providing the financial returns necessary to support the families and institutions dependent on us while doing so in a way that upholds the vision of hope, respect, peace and opportunity God has given us. This has not been a journey in pursuit of perfection, but a never-ending quest for a new horizon of faithfulness. MMA’s stewardship investing road has lead through issues of screening, shareholder advocacy, proxy voting, and community investing. It has called us to involvement in best-of-sector evaluations of corporate practice, participation in the development of new SRI products, and efforts to re-understand what “fiduciary duty” means within a faith-based context. This has always been an imperfect process–filled with frustrating compromises and unexpected hurdles–and remains so today.

In 2007, MMA remains committed to living out our stewardship investing philosophy in our many, diverse products and services. MMA’s mission is to “help God’s people manage God’s resources in ways that honor God.” It is a bold undertaking with many facets and opportunities for disappointment. Our constituency holds diverse perspectives, both within and beyond the Anabaptist faith community. Their financial and product needs are equally complex. It has therefore been the process–not the position–that has been of utmost importance in our efforts. A desire to be “faithful” over the need to be inescapably “right.” Our stewardship investing core values are then designed to help us shape the proper questions rather than specify every answer.

So we invite you to join us, in good faith, on this journey of stewardship investing. May our interaction enrich our understanding of faithful stewardship in the modern social and investing environment which we have been given.

Mark Regier, Stewardship Investing Services Manager
Chris Meyer, Stewardship Investing Research Specialist

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 8:22 am and is filed under MMA, Mark, Chris. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.