Do faith-driven investors risk screening out profits?

Leonard: Unless I do some really insane things between now and the end of the month, we'll have a very good [five-year] track record. As of the end of September, it put us in the top percentile of all large-cap growth managers. And we're using heavy screening.... So I haven't really run into that problem, fortunately. But I'm sure I will. I always tell my clients: "There's going to come a time when you're going to think I'm the stupidest person that ever walked the face of the earth." At that point in time, I suspect that the fact that we're doing this in a way that reflects their beliefs will hold them longer than they otherwise would have held.

Collins: We have had that time. [There] was a wonderful time in the late '90s and we did some awfully good stock-picking. And then as the market fell apart, 2001, etc., there were some difficult periods. We did ask ourselves: "Where's our intelligence?" It's a time where ... you want to stick to your discipline, your standards. And that ultimately has proved to be successful.

Do you ever invest in companies that don't completely live up to your standards?

Leonard: There are times when we say: "You know, this one's on the border line." Sometimes you monitor it for a while and see whether those particular things we're worried about get worse or get better. And if they get better, then we say: OK, we're going to accept this one.... We try, from a Christian perspective, to apply grace wherever we can. I make mistakes. I'm not perfect. Companies make mistakes. They're not perfect either. We're looking really at the board level and at the CEO-management level. Do they have a desire that's very obvious that would push in some of these areas that would be disconcerting to a Bible-based Christian belief system. Then we say: We don't want to be there. But if it's not evident, not that strong, we try to apply grace where we can.

Rusty, you also publish MinistryWatch.com, which investigates the financial dealings of Christian ministries.

Leonard: We have certain talents and we're trying to utilize those to increase the wealth of our clients. But if that's all we did for people ... we'd be leaving a blessing off the table. So we want to say: "Listen. You really want to be blessed? Learn how to give well as well as make well." So we're trying to do that through MinistryWatch.com, giving people the same tools we use on the investment side so they can make the most wise and effective use of their giving.

Do you ever find yourself slipping toward that love of money, which the Bible warns against?

Collins: Greed will not let you be a good investment manger. A good investment manager always needs to maintain a sense of discipline, or rationality, devotion to the client, devotion to the craft.... We've learned what has happened to mutual funds and investors just a few years ago. There was a real falling out and really healthy work done by the regulators. And I think we're all benefiting from that.

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