Modern generosity from business to the breakfast table

IN THIS EMAIL

• AI without the temptation to optimize
• An Acts 1:8 generosity
• A double taxation risk
• Loving your neighbor into economic success

AI Without the Temptation to Optimize 

More and more, AI agents can do our mundane little things for us. 

For leaders of businesses looking to grow more efficiently, that’s appealing. The New York Times recently interviewed several small business owners about how they’ve integrated AI agents into their work. Generally, they all expressed something like: 

“It frees Bell and his two staff members ... to perform other, hopefully more critical, work, like meeting with clients to suss out their needs.” 

The owners also shared various concerns: the unpredictability of AI agents, the crowding-out of jobs (including their own), the dependence on a few big AI companies, the cybersecurity risks. 

Still, they consider efficiency gains worth it.

I encountered this article shortly after reading summaries of Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical on AI, “The Magnificence of Humanity.” This summary is very helpful. 

The encyclical explores all the same risks, but lands on “a deeper danger: that human beings may begin to see themselves and others as projects to be optimized rather than as persons called to relationship and communion.” (Emphasis mine.) The “magnificence of humanity” is that we thrive through our limitations—trying to escape them is a threat. 

I think this caution resonates. I think it identifies a tension that’s even stronger for Christian business leaders.

In theory, it’s easy to separate “business efficiency” from “personal optimization,” but in everyday work life, it’s much harder. For the lawyer in the quote above, AI creates more time to spend with his clients—a win-win! But for the property manager deciding whether to let his assistant go because AI could do her job better, is that a question of business efficiency or human optimization? 

I don’t think there’s a right answer. The marketplace pursues efficiency by nature (you might say that’s “the magnificence of the market”)—balancing optimization and humanity is not a new challenge. AI is just the latest version. 

While small business owners juggle the risks and opportunities presented by the AI agents newly in charge of their Quickbooks accounts, Christian business leaders must consider an additional question: how to use AI to expand our humanity, not optimize it away. 

Pope Leo XIV offered a few questions that you can translate for your own company's use of AI: 

• “Does it help me remain faithful to the truth?” 

• “Does it help educate me and allow me to educate others?” 

• “Does it help me cultivate genuine closeness in relationships and cherish places and times where physical presence remains crucial?” 

• “Does it help me participate in the promotion of justice and peace?” 

Jessie McBirney, editor, The Bottom Line & Beyond

An Acts 1:8 Generosity

The start of summer brings various “sendings out”: shooing little ones outside to play, busing students to camps, launching graduates into their careers, commissioning brothers and sisters for mission trips.  

During this season, Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8 echo through our homes and churches: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  

This passage is a direct call to minister and spread the gospel near to home, at a distance, and around the world. It also provides a model for charitable giving. 

What if you modeled your giving after these same concentric circles of ministry? 

Your “Jerusalem,” or your local community, may be the easiest place to start seeing and meeting needs — supporting your church, neighbors, schools, food pantries, crisis centers, and families experiencing hardship. Helping in these areas makes Jesus’s love easy to see through relational, hands-on giving.

Your “Judea and Samaria” may translate to church planting, community development, disaster relief, and ministry partnerships that touch communities not directly within your reach or visible to you. Compassionate support for those a step or two removed from your immediate circle means you can help to scale solutions that are greater than one individual or church alone can accomplish.  

Witnessing to the “ends of the earth” most likely includes support for the missionaries and organizations already commissioned to carry the gospel worldwide. With prayerful consideration, you might sponsor leadership development for a pastor halfway around the world or contribute to the years-long, tireless efforts of Bible translation teams.  

As we enter this season of “sending out,” consider generosity as a part of your witness: Does your giving move outward, starting with neighbors and ultimately impacting nations?

Something to Watch: A Double Taxation Risk

CNBC recently reported a possible, unexpected “double taxation” consequence of last year’s tax laws for some families who use trusts. 

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act introduced a cap on deductions (35 cents on the dollar, even for filers reaching the 37% tax bracket). A recent congressional interpretation suggested this cap applies to trusts and to their beneficiaries. 

CNBC described the possible problem with an example: 

“Consider a trust that distributes all $370,000 of its net income to a widow ... Applying the deduction limit to trusts means that the trust can only deduct $350,000 from its distributable net income and $20,000 would be subject to taxes, even though the widow is taxed on the entire $370,000.”

Hopefully we’ll get more clarity from Congress and/or the Treasury later this year. Still, you may want to check in with your financial advisor to understand how this could affect your family and how you can prepare. 

Loving Your Neighbor Into Economic Success

Image credit: The City Juicery

“We were called to love our neighbor as ourselves. And a great entrepreneur gets close enough to their neighbor and understands their pain point so they can solve it.” 

That’s how Will Acuff described his motivation to launch Kingdom Founders, a business course designed for local churches to empower the entrepreneurs in their underserved communities. 

Christianity Today highlights how Kingdom Founders is solving a few different problems: 

First, programs to help low-income communities often start and stop with meeting immediate needs. Crisis support is vital, but so are “opportunities to launch.” The Church can be the one to help local entrepreneurs launch, generating economic growth and resilience in the process. Business startups are famously volatile, but research suggests that professional mentorship raises the likelihood of success from 23% to 70%.  

Second, local churches sometimes struggle to involve high-earning business professionals in daily and weekly church life. Offering business courses also creates volunteer opportunities for these business leaders. 

This article explores more of Kingdom Founders’ challenges and successes so far. It’s an inspiring read. 

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