A few years ago, during one of our four-week Livable Future Investing workshops, David Harlley quoted G.K. Chesterton reflecting on St. Francis.
The insight was so striking that it stayed with me for weeks.
It wasn’t simply clever. It reframed how I was thinking about economic life. It named something about joy, about reversal, about standing at the threshold between the world as it is and the world as it could be.
At the time, I knew David as a thoughtful participant — theologically grounded, generous in discussion, attentive to others. What I did not yet fully appreciate was the depth of integration between his intellectual convictions and his disciplined investment practice.
Over the past few years, I’ve come to understand that integration more clearly. And it has helped me name something important:
A prophetic economy leader is not merely someone with bold ideas. It is someone who unites conviction, character, and disciplined capital deployment.
The Culture That Reveals Character
One of the most commented-on aspects of our community — especially by those who are new — is the culture of empathy.
After our summit, people often remark on how intimate and generous the conversations feel. There is a willingness to listen, to reflect back gifts, to help one another see their vocation more clearly.
That culture does not happen accidentally. It exists because individuals pour themselves into it.
David has consistently been one of those people.
In workshop sessions, he had a remarkable habit: listening deeply, then reflecting back to others what he saw emerging in them. He helped people name their gifts. He strengthened confidence. He invited rigor without diminishing anyone’s dignity.
This is not a small thing.
If we are serious about transforming economic structures, we must first cultivate a different kind of relational soil.
Discipline Beyond Ideas
A couple of years ago, before Christmas, David told me he was traveling to Ghana to spend time with family. He also mentioned — almost in passing — that despite having small children, and visiting extended family and friends, he planned to carve out time during the trip to finish writing his manuscript.
I remember thinking how many times I had told myself I would wake early on vacation to write before family time — and how difficult that discipline can be.
In early January, he sent me a complete draft.
I was stunned — not only that he had finished it, but by its depth. The manuscript wrestled seriously with distributivism, Catholic social thought, ownership structures, and practical business decision-making. It engaged business leaders, students and investors with where they actually live — not merely at the level of abstraction.
It asked a question that is strangely rare in modern economics:
How are resources distributed?
And even more rarely in business:
Who owns, and who participates in governance?
He made employee ownership feel practical and possible, grounding it in real stories.
At that point, I realized something important.
The quality of our community is not accidental. It is shaped by people who unite theology, discipline, and practical competence.
When I Underestimated the Investor
More recently, I attended a pitch session in Indianapolis. An entrepreneur was sharing the story of a company building high quality, high road textile manufacturing in Ghana.
She described:
- Women-centered employment.
- Real attention to working conditions.
- Solar installation on the factory.
- Building durable supply chains in a growing regional hub.
It was compelling. It was grounded. It was disciplined.
And then a few months later realized: this was a company David and his team at ThirdWay had supported.
I had known David as a theological thinker and community builder. I had seen him teach on the “Missing Middle” of finance in Africa — that persistent structural gap where businesses are too large for microfinance but too small or unconventional for traditional private equity.
What I had underestimated was the depth and execution of the investing team itself.
They were not simply articulating a critique of the system.
They were underwriting businesses.
Strengthening governance.
Backing experienced entrepreneurs.
Building real companies.
That integration — theology and disciplined investment practice — is rare.
The Missing Middle and the Threshold
The “Missing Middle” in African finance is not merely a technical term. It describes a structural threshold.
These are enterprises that:
- Create durable employment.
- Strengthen local supply chains.
- Anchor regional economies.
- Often operate in contexts overlooked by conventional capital.
They are too complex for microfinance.
Too small or unconventional for large private equity.
Too early for public markets.
Standing at that threshold requires courage and rigor.
It requires investors willing to examine not only risk and return, but distribution, ownership, and long-term community resilience.
That posture — standing at the in-between — feels deeply consonant with Catholic Social Teaching. It echoes the call to accompany those at the margins, not as charity alone, but as co-creators of economic life.
What Makes a Prophetic Economy Leader?
Over time, I’ve come to see several qualities:
- Integration of conviction and competence
Ideas alone are not enough. Execution alone is not enough. The prophetic leader unites both. - Relational generosity
Transformation requires trust. Trust grows where empathy and discipline coexist. - Structural imagination
The willingness to ask: who owns? who benefits? how are resources distributed? - Endurance
The discipline to write the manuscript. To underwrite carefully. To persist where others see only complexity. - Threshold awareness
The ability to operate between systems — not rejecting markets outright, but reshaping how capital participates in them.
Prophetic does not mean reckless.
It does not mean naïve.
It does not mean romantic.
It means seeing clearly — and acting with disciplined hope.
Why This Matters for All of Us
Even if one never invests in African private markets, the underlying questions matter everywhere:
- How do we address structural gaps in capital markets?
- How do we expand ownership?
- How do we integrate governance and dignity into investment practice?
- How do we stretch beyond conventional defaults?
If we are serious about giving a soul to the economy, then our learning must stretch beyond comfort.
We need leaders who can stand at the thresholds — between the world as it is and the world as it could be — and patiently build.
David’s work has helped me see that more clearly.
And it has reminded me that the transformation of economic life will not be accomplished by critique alone.
It will require disciplined, relational, structurally imaginative capital.
That is what prophetic economy leadership looks like.
Disclosure: Francesco Collaborative is a nonprofit educational organization. Livable Future Impact, an affiliated entity, may represent certain investment funds referenced in this article, including Third Way Capital, and may receive compensation in connection with investments made by qualified investors. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy securities.