August 5, 2026

Private equity refers to private investment companies who pool money from investors in order to buy companies and businesses. By streamlining certain parts of those companies, and reducing duplicate positions, the businesses can be more profitable and the private equity firm makes the profit.

Case in point, funeral homes. I have watched private equity buy many of the funeral homes in our area, as they have been doing around the country. Funeral homes are often generational, but if the 3rd generation does not want to continue in that line of work, then a private equity firm will buy the business, streamline its products, manage the managers and set new pricing policies. There are still some funeral homes that are locally owned, but many are now owned by private equity. Another case in point, heating and cooling companies. You might be surprised to find out how many of our “locally owned” HVAC companies are owned by the same private equity companies.

The benefit of private equity is that it can infuse some cash into a company and upgrade its systems and services so that overhead costs are reduced and efficiency is increased. The downside is the potential loss of personal customer care, and pricing flexibility as ownership is more distant and corporate policies take on more governance.

What if there was an organization that helped infuse cash and counsel but did not take over ownership? What if this organization just helped the local establishments but did not take “get a profit” from it. That sounds rather unrealistic, right? Does anyone do this sort of thing without expecting to get a return? Well, actually we do.

Cornerstone belongs to an association of churches in order to help churches and missionaries with gifts of money to help them accomplish good and godly goals. This Association of Churches for Missions and Evangelism (ACME) pools funds from these churches and gives it in the form of grants to churches and missionaries for specific projects and ministries. It is sort of like private equity for the gospel.

I was part of the initial conversations to get this association going and there are now 100 churches that belong. This past year ACME gave $800,000 to carefully vetted ministries that we believe are important to faithful gospel work. In the next few weeks, we are going to be setting up a display so you can rejoice and pray for these ministries that we have been able to invest in all over the world. We support ACME through our strategic fund. But this group does more than fund ministries. We intentionally look at how we can partner together and serve one another in our regions. This private equity group for the gospel is not about taking in, but giving away. That’s where the fun is!

Grace and peace,

Bob

Sunday’s Text: Luke 21:20-28