The Finish Line Podcast Doug Cobb, Founder of the Finishing Fund, on the Sprint to the Ultimate Finish Line (Ep. 35)
Doug Cobb is a seasoned entrepreneur and investor who is passionate about completing the ultimate command Christ left us with: making disciples of all nations. Using the skills from his private equity background, Doug founded the Finishing Fund, a sort of venture capital fund connecting those with resources to those on the final frontier of global missions.
In particular, the Finishing Fund finances projects with an extensive network of vetted ministry partners specifically to reach the final unengaged unreached people groups in the world. In 2017 when the Finishing Fund was founded, out of 12,000 people groups in the world with 500 or more people, there were 1450 unengaged people groups without a single Christian living among them. Today, that number is 149, and Doug believes that there can be workers engaging every one of those remaining groups by the end of 2022.
We had all sorts of questions for Doug, like how do you find ministries to work with? What barriers will there be to reaching the remaining groups? What exactly is the Great Commission? And how will we know when the work is complete? You won’t want to miss Doug’s interview for the answers to these questions and more.
QUOTES TO REMEMBER- “Right from the beginning, generosity was something that found its way into our lives.”
- “That was the most amazing experience of our giving lives.”
- “Ours could be the generation to see this work finished. I absolutely believe that it’s within our capability by God’s grace to finish this within our generation.”
- “The business you end up doing is almost never the one you thought you were going to do.”
- “Finding those things, those good works that he’s prepared in advance individually for each of us, to me just makes life such an incredible adventure.”
- “God is determined to see this work completed.”
- “If you compare the amount of time people spend managing their secular portfolios and the amount of time they spend managing their kingdom portfolios, for most people there is not even a comparison.”
- “There is hardly anything to be more excited about then the completion of the Great Commission.”
- “When you become convinced that we are living in the era of the finishing of the Great Commission, it just needs to change our view of money, possessions, and eternity.”
- The Finishing Fund
- Doug's book, And Then the End Will Come
- Money, Possessions, and Eternity (see our interview with author Randy Alcorn)
- The Treasure Principle (see our interview with author Randy Alcorn)
- Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
- Finishing the Task (see our interview with FTT Global Church Planting Strategist Dan Hitzhusen)
- FTT's Unengaged Unreached People Group List
- List of Unreached People Groups by Joshua Project (see our interview with Director, Dan Scribner)
- Map of Unengaged People Groups by The International Missions Board
- The Finish Line Community Facebook Group
- The Finish Line Community LinkedIn Group
Zechariah 4:6 | Not by Might
6 Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
Ephesians 2:8-10 | Created for Good Works
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
2 Peter 3:11-12 | Hastening the Coming of the Day of God
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
Matt 24:14 | And Then the End Will Come
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Luke 12:16-21 | Bigger Barns
16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
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