Home

The Economic Wisdom Project is a collection of videos and publications for teachers, pastors and group leaders to help people integrate whole-life discipleship, fruitful work and economic wisdom into a cohesive understanding of Christian life and mission.

Check out our EWP Talks video library, our vision paper (available in English and Spanish), our twelve elements of economic wisdom, and our book, Economic Wisdom for Churches.

If our resources have been a blessing to you, please consider supporting us by becoming a member of Karam Fellowship; your support helps us continue to make these resources available to the world. The EWP was created by the Oikonomia Network.

EWP Talks

EWP Talks are short, accessible, engaging and rich presentations by leading theological educators, suitable for classroom and local church use. These videos help people develop a Christian vision for flourishing communities.

Each EWP Talk is about 15-20 minutes long, so they’re easy to use. But the conversations they’ll catalyze in your classroom, church or group will be much longer!

Check out our video library now, by topic or alphabetically, and consider assigning one of these short videos your students, or sharing a video with your group!

Topics include:

Twelve Elements

Our vision of economic wisdom is summarized in twelve “elements” that provide starting points for thoughtful, biblically informed understanding of contemporary opportunities and challenges.

For a handy guide, download this one-page summary of the twelve elements, taken from our EWP vision paper “A Christian Vision for Flourishing Communities.”

For a fuller discussion, download our EWP paper “Twelve Elements of Economic Wisdom,” which expresses how we see each of these elements bringing a life-giving biblical and theological witness into the contemporary economy.

For a really deep dive, download our 140 pages of published research notes on the biblical, theological and historical support for each element, generated while we were first composing the twelve elements.

Or just click below for more on each element:

Stewardship and Flourishing

We were given stewardship over the world so our work would make it flourish for his glory.

1. We have a stewardship responsibility to flourish in our own lives, to help our neighbors flourish as fellow stewards, and to pass on a flourishing economy to future generations. (PDF) (one-pager)

2. Economies flourish when people have integrity and trust each other. (PDF) (one-pager)

3. In general, people flourish when they take responsibility for their own economic success by doing work that serves others and makes the world better. (PDF) (one-pager)

Value Creation

Through economic exchange, we work together and create value for one another.

4. Real economic success is about how much value you create, not how much money you make. (PDF) (one-pager)

5. A productive economy comes from the value-creating work of free and virtuous people. (PDF) (one-pager)

6. Economies generally flourish when policies and practices reward value creation. (PDF) (one-pager)

Productivity and Opportunity

Economic systems should be grounded in human dignity and moral character.

7. Households, businesses, communities and nations should support themselves by producing more than they consume. (PDF) (one-pager)

8. A productive economy lifts people out of poverty and generally helps people flourish. (PDF) (one-pager)

9. The most effective way to turn around poverty, economic distress and injustice is by expanding opportunity for people to develop and deploy their God-given productive potential in communities of exchange, especially through entrepreneurship. (PDF) (one-pager)

Responsible Action

Economic systems should practice and encourage a hopeful realism.

10. Programs aimed at economic problems need a fully rounded understanding of how people flourish. (PDF) (one-pager)

11. Economic thinking must account for long-term effects and unintended consequences. (PDF) (one-pager)

12. In general, economies flourish when goodwill is universal and global, but control is local and personal knowledge guides decisions. (PDF) (one-pager)

Book

Economic Wisdom for Churches is a small volume that packs a big punch, with essays for local church leaders on critical issues facing their churches by Amy Sherman, Scott Rae, Tom Nelson, Charlie Self, Zachary Ritvalsky, James Thobaben, Jay Slocum, Jordan Ballor, Greg Forster and more. The essays are short and accessible enough to read through quickly, but offer the depth and insight to reframe the challenges churches are facing in their communities, overcome the paralysis of our polarized society, and bring the holy love of God out into our world.

The eBook is available for purchase from Amazon.

If you are interested in hard copies, please contact the Oikonomia Network.