In Shalom Capitalism, the poor don't stay poor for long. Ownership is distributed. Profit serves the community. And every business becomes a vehicle for human flourishing.
When you hear the word capitalism, some of you think of inequality, injustice, war, and poverty. Others think of opportunity, meritocracy, security, and entrepreneurship. It's precisely because we have so many different perceptions and experiences of capitalism that we need to develop a robust theology of capitalism.
At the core of capitalism, there's a business. It builds a product or service, assembles a network of suppliers and employees, finds customers who pay money, and if it's a good business, there's money left over — profit — that goes back to the shareholders who invested capital. That's why it's called capitalism.
Is this system intrinsically good or evil? We've certainly seen it used for evil:
Business owners squeeze suppliers and employees, refuse living wages, and approach something like slavery — all to increase profits for shareholders.
The product itself is destructive, or the production process contaminates and harms. These businesses keep rolling year after year because they remain profitable for shareholders.
Shareholders don't buy stock because they care about the business — they care about the stock price. Short-term thinking destroys long-term value, and businesses make bad decisions to maximize profit now while hurting the world later.
If capitalism causes so much harm, why not condemn it entirely? Because the question isn't whether capitalism is good or evil — the question is whether it's a weapon or a tool.
Conscious capitalists believe capitalism is a tool — but it matters how you use it.
In traditional capitalism, the purpose of business is to maximize shareholder value. Conscious capitalism says no — a business thrives inside a community. Money flows to employees, suppliers, government, schools, roads. When you set stakeholder value as your purpose, you make fundamentally different decisions.
Short-term thinking destroys long-term value. If you squeeze employees or contaminate the river, people stop wanting to work with you and your costs go up. Retention is cheaper than rehiring. The world self-balances — and that self-correction is painful. Conscious capitalists proactively self-correct so reality doesn't have to do it for them.
The writers of the Old Testament understood that long-term food security depended on giving the land rest every seven years. They commanded debt forgiveness every seven years because too many poor people leads to social revolution. And Jubilee every fifty years — because multi-generational poverty destroys nations. — From "A Theology of Capitalism," Assembly Mennonite Church, 2024
Never has it been more true: every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain made low — because it's embedded into reality.
You cannot thrive in a broken context. Two-thirds of Guatemalan children drop out before finishing high school, so businesses can't hire people with the skills they need. If you want to grow your business, you have to invest in lifting the invisible barriers that prevent the vulnerable from thriving.
"If somebody's poor among you, don't be tightfisted. Don't say 'it's just business.' Don't say 'that's the way the world works.' Be generous. Open-handed. Help them lift the invisible barriers that prevent them from thriving." — Deuteronomy 15:7-8, paraphrased
Imagine you are a poor family in Guatemala. You have no money and nothing to eat today. You pray: God, please provide for me. Someone knocks on your door and gives you...
You can eat for a day
You can eat for weeks
You can eat for months
You can eat for years
In theory, how God provides shouldn't matter. We should be equally grateful. But in practice — the less vulnerable we become, the less grateful we become, and the less generous we become. This has had a tremendous side effect: we tend to demonize wealth and idealize poverty.
But the poor are not happy if they do not have well-being. If they do not have enough. If they are vulnerable. We have a biblical mandate not just to give charity — but to build wealth. Yet we feel guilty about building wealth and don't feel guilty about giving charity.
Shalom is not just peace. It is wholeness, justice, and flourishing — for the entire community.
Peace with God, with yourself, and with others. Living justly.
Being healthy. Having enough. Being enough. God provides through others, and through me.
When harmony and well-being surround you — completeness. This is Shalom.
The way of Shalom is a way in which those who are wealthy understand that they're not wealthy because they're smart or brilliant — but because someone was generous towards them. And because they understand that, they give back. Not charity — wealth. The capacity to build wealth. — Benjamin Sywulka, "A Theology of Capitalism"
In Shalom capitalism, the poor don't stay poor for long. In the kingdom of this world, the poor stay poor generation after generation.
The solution to the broken capitalist system isn't less capitalism — it's more capitalists. It's converting stakeholders into shareholders. It's distributing ownership into communities, nonprofits, and organizations that lift the invisible barriers preventing the vulnerable from growing.
Ownership accretes continuously to everyone who builds the company — in proportion to their contribution. No share is permanently fixed.
A fixed margin above cost. No price gouging, no extraction. Customers know exactly what they're paying for.
Profit is pre-allocated by purpose: a portion always flows to empowering the vulnerable, a portion to contributors, a portion to future growth.
Decision-making tied to contribution, not capital invested. Multi-stakeholder, heterarchical, accountable.
Ownership carries moral responsibility. Abusive conduct results in ownership withdrawal. Dignity is non-negotiable.
Twenty-five years ago, a group of leaders came together and built the Guatemalan Rural Development Bank from cooperatives, nonprofits, women's groups, and indigenous groups. They put rules guaranteeing proportional ownership would always remain. Today, 15,000 people earn their living from the dividends of that bank. Nonprofits fund their entire operating budgets from it. — Benjamin Sywulka, on Banrural as a model
Jesus understood that Shalom thrives at the intersection between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. The way of Shalom is like a seed of hope that can only flourish if it's planted in the soil of a broken world.
Inspiration ripples positive change through a broken system more effectively than isolation, separation, integration, or domination.
We need more Shalom entrepreneurs who will build businesses that expand ownership into communities — into nonprofits, into organizations lifting the invisible barriers, into universities, seminaries, cooperatives.
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the oppressed, to heal the heartbroken, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release the prisoners — to be the one who makes Jubilee come true." — Isaiah 61:1-2 / Luke 4:18-19
Each company in the Shalom Capital portfolio operates under its own constitution, built on the five commitments of the Shalom Company model.
Jubly is a contributor-owned communications and collaboration platform — email, calendar, voice, video conferencing, and file management. Built as a Shalom Company from day one, Jubly's constitution guarantees that ownership accrues to every contributor, a portion of every dollar of margin flows to empowering the vulnerable, and pricing remains transparent and formulaic.
Jubly serves teams, churches, nonprofits, and small businesses who want their tools to reflect their values — where the platform they use every day is itself a vehicle for shalom.
Visit jubly.net →More companies coming soon. If you're building a business and want to adopt the Shalom Company model, reach out.
Shalom Capital helps entrepreneurs build businesses where ownership is distributed, profit serves the community, and the vulnerable don't stay poor for long.
Get in touch