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Now, let's dive into the podcast. Money can make us anxious, fearful, generous, or joyful, often all in the same week. I am Rob West, but scripture insists wealth can never give us security or control.
So, what can it do? Dr. Russell James III helps us rethink wealth from the ground up. What is it? What's it for?
And how joyful stewardship helps us take hold of life that is truly life. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000. This is Faith in Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial journey.
Well, today we're joined by Dr. Russell James III, who serves as the CH Foundation Chair of Personal Financial Planning and Charitable Giving at Texas Tech University. He's also the author of A Christian's Guide to Joyful Wealth Management. Dr. James, great to have you with us today.
Glad to be here. Thanks. You open your book by grounding the whole discussion in what Scripture says wealth actually is. The Apostle Paul reminds us there's one thing we absolutely cannot do with money.
So I'd love for you to share what that is and why does beginning there reshape the entire conversation. Yeah, so the book just walks through the same arguments that Paul makes in 1 Timothy 6, and he starts out by letting us know you can't take it with you when you go. You know, we don't get to keep it, we leave it behind eventually.
Now, that reality reframes money as temporary. What it means is that we are stewards, if not by faith, then just by biology. When you start there, it reshapes how you think about every financial decision. I mean, how would you react if the first question your financial advisor asked you was, so how would you prefer to lose your wealth?
Well, that sounds strange, but it is reality. We are going to lose it. The only question is how? Yeah, that is exactly right. And that really is a game-changing idea.
When we start there, it really changes everything about how we view and handle and ultimately steward what God has entrusted to us.
Now, you go on to say that even believers can end up chasing the wrong goal with their money. And so, in your mind, what is that goal and why does it seem so compelling to us?
Well, until we lose it at death, we've actually only got four wealth management options. These are described in Scripture. Those four options are binge, bury, toil, or enjoy.
Now, binging, of course, doesn't end well. We see that from Solomon's experiments or the prodigal son. Barry means we just stack it up and protect it, but just to die with it.
Now, toil is probably worse. That means we just keep hustling nonstop to stack up even more, just to die with that. This is the idea that we're toiling just to get rich. One problem with that plan, you never get there. You'll just redefine what it means to be rich.
That toiling to get rich is a bad goal. Burying it just to hide and protect it, just to die with it, that's not really the way to live life either. It has that promise of control, but that's not something wealth can deliver to you. It doesn't give you that kind of security. Right now, wealth holding is uncertain and subject to disappearing, but there is a guarantee that comes with wealth, and that is it's guaranteed to end.
When safety becomes the goal outside of God, it displaces our trust in God.
Well, let's dig a little bit deeper on that because one theme that really stands out in your book is fear. Fear in saving, could be fear in spending, even giving.
So from a biblical perspective, how does fear affect the way we handle money? Yeah, so we've been looking at the options of binging or burying or toiling to bury even more. Most Christian stewardship teaching focuses on not binging. That's sticking to a budget to watch out for credit card debt. And that's important and it's great.
But Jesus actually told more stories about the burying bad stewards. And notice in both the parable of the talents and the parable of the meanest, the explanation given by the bearing bad stewards for their actions it was the same. Because I was afraid. Fear often leads people towards self-protection outside of God. It narrows attention to worst-case scenarios and it can distort our view of God's provision.
Wow, this is so helpful. We're going to continue and unpack this just around the corner. And we'll not only talk a bit more about fear, but also what does it look like to handle God's wealth joyfully? And where does generosity fit into this conversation? We're talking today with Dr.
Russell James III: what money can't do and what it can. A lot more to come just around the corner on faith and finance. Stick around. Managing money isn't just a financial decision, it's a discipleship journey. And the FaithFi app is the only app built to guide both your money and your heart.
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Yeah. Scripture talks about taking hold of life that is truly life. What does it mean to handle God's money in a way that's generous and joyful? You know, wealth can never give us security or control, despite what the world may tell us. And today we're talking with Dr.
Russell James to really understand how we can joyfully manage God's money. Dr. James serves as the CH Foundation Chair of Personal Financial Planning and Charitable Giving at Texas Tech University. And Dr. James, before the break, we were talking about fear and the role that fear can play in how we manage money.
And that fear often pushes us to hoard rather than enjoy or share.
So, why do you think scripture takes such a strong stance against simply piling up wealth?
Well, part of it is it's about where we're putting our trust. Wealth holding is temporary, it disappears during life and definitely at the end of life. Oftentimes, that hoarding can replace trust in God with the promise of control. But there are problems with it. Number one, it can't deliver that kind of control because it's uncertain and subject to disappearing.
And the other is, it's just no way to live. The purpose of God's rich provision is for enjoyment. And we can't have enjoyment if we're just hoarding it. I love that. And you know, often we struggle with what is a proper view of enjoying what God has provided.
But clearly Scripture teaches that God richly provides for our enjoyment. A statement that can even feel unsettling.
So how do we understand enjoyment through the lens of God's Word?
So, we begin with recognizing that God richly blesses us.
Now, often in different ways with different people, but enjoyment is God's intention. That's actually a purpose clause there, but it's something we must choose.
Now, when you think enjoyment, that's actually not indulgence. Binging does not lead to an enjoyable life. Enjoyment is when we take the rich provision and we put it to work. We use it to accomplish real, intrinsically good outcomes. We use it to become rich in beautifully good works.
We use it to become a joyful sharer with our fellowship community.
Now, that's not just me speculating. Those are actually the phrases from 1 Timothy 6.18. It becomes distorted when it's separated from its intended purpose. That's when we follow the path of using it to binge or using it to just bury in the ground rather than aligning it with generosity. Yeah, that's a powerful idea.
And you go so far as to say that enjoyment can actually be a faithful response to God.
So, how does enjoyment function then as a moral or a spiritual category?
Well, we begin by enjoyment, acknowledging God as the giver. You see, if we recognize God is our ongoing rich provider, we're not going to have a scarcity mindset where we're in fear all the time and we have to just keep hoarding more. We're going to be freed to actually enjoy because of our trust in our richly providing God. That's what frees people to make an impact through their generous sharing. Mm.
Yeah. Now you make a distinction between private wealth And public good works.
So I'd love for you to unpack that a bit. Why does the Bible care about generosity that shows up in real and visible ways? But we see examples of this kind of giving in Scripture, in part because visible good works encourages the whole community. Scripture calls believers to be rich in good works. That shared generosity encourages others to share.
It builds trust and witness, pointing the giver to God.
Now some listeners may actually feel a tension here, and I'm drawing from Jesus in Matthew six, where he says not to let our left hand know what our right hand is doing when we give.
So how do we reconcile that idea with visible generosity? Big conflict here, but it's only a conflict in the English translations. Actually, it's not a conflict in the original Greek text. What people miss is that there are two different kinds of gifts in the New Testament, and they often have different, often opposite rules.
Now, you mentioned Jesus' reference. Those, he gives the rules for Elia Masune, what we might call almsgiving or giving down. And that type of giving must be hidden. But starting with the book of Acts, there's actually a new type of giving in addition by a different word. This is koinonia sharing.
The koinonia is the fellowship community. Fellowship community sharing is not giving down, it's sharing a cross. It's a gift of equality, and it's actually supposed to be open and public. When Paul urges the Corinthians to give, he says, therefore, openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love and our reason for boasting about you. And after he had boasted to them about the giving of the Macedonians, inspired by his boasting about their own pledge to give.
Of course, ministry donors have always been named and recognized individually, whether it's Mary, Joanna, Susanna, Barnabas, or even Phoebe.
So different rules for different gifts. And just like the Old Testament, we don't mix and match the different rules for the different gifts. That is so helpful. I want to pivot and talk a bit about legacy and preparing the next steward. Often when we talk about legacy, Dr.
James. We mean passing money on to heirs.
However, you argue that scripture casts a broader vision for inheritance. Unpack what that looks like.
So, the idea here is: we leave a legacy of values and an example that endures over time, that shapes the future generations. Those good works that we accomplish are going to outlast the uncertainty of wealth, which can disappear with market shifts or bad investments. Paul calls this storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, where a financial inheritance may not last very long and oftentimes doesn't. Mm. Yeah.
And so when we read that passage about uh giving uh an inheritance to our children's children, that was bigger than just financial resources, wasn't it? Indeed. And in fact, that passage talks about a direct transfer to the grandchildren, which during that time was actually legally impossible. You couldn't leave an inheritance directly, a financial inheritance directly to grandchildren.
So it's actually talking about leaving a direct inheritance of faithfulness and the example that they can follow, that they can take from us immediately. Wow, that is so good. All right, I want to finish with uh the Apostle Paul when he speaks of taking hold of that which is truly life. How does joyful wealth management help us to do that in ways anxious wealth management never can?
Well, that life which is truly life, we know it has a long-term meaning, but it starts right now. When we take this approach, you can replace fear with trust. It can really help to restore gratitude, giving wealth meaning beyond just a spreadsheet or some numbers. It allows people to experience the abundant life that Jesus described because we are trusting in God's rich provision. We can actually see it in the science and research.
Generosity brings joy. Wow. And so that's one of the big ideas that should just leap off the page. We serve an incredibly generous God and our natural response as an overflow of that gratitude should be to be a generous people ourselves, right? Absolutely.
I love it.
Well, folks, God richly provides not to make us anxious stewards of temporary wealth, but grateful participants in His generous kingdom. Dr. James, thank you for reminding us of that today and for being on the program. It's been my pleasure. That's Dr.
Russell James III, the CH Foundation Chair of Personal Financial Planning and Charitable Giving at Texas Tech University. He's the author of A Christian's Guide to Joyful Wealth Management and the accompanying study guide as well. You can download both for free at encouragegenerosity.com. That's encouragegenerosity.com. We'll be right back.
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That's goodinvestor.com. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. We've got some lines open today. We're taking your calls and questions. The number 800-525-7000.
It's 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Let's go out to Texas. Keith, go ahead. Yes, sir.
Thank you for taking my call. I'm running a small business in Texas, and I'm looking for a Christian value-based company that offers POS systems. Do you know of any? Ah, yeah, good question. You know, I do not know of one specifically that is Christian-based or Christian friendly.
I will tell you that I'm familiar with a number of ministries that use authorize.net. Uh for processing. And I've never heard of any being shut down for their faith or anything like that, which is not necessarily the case with some of the other big players out there.
So that might be one to look at. Obviously, the biggest player in this space in terms of POS systems would be Square. I'm not sure whether they're Christian friendly or not. But I think in the meantime, if you're looking for credit card processing, I can tell you I'm at least familiar with several ministries, large ones, that use Authorize.net. Authorized dialogue.
I'll look into that. Thank you very much. All right. Appreciate your call, Keith. Lord bless you.
Let's head to Virginia. Hi, Carol. How can I help you? Yes, I have a question. I've been in the stock market for years, and I'm 81 years old.
My question is, would it be safe for me to take some of my money out of stock market and invest in a new annuities? Yeah. So at 81, obviously, you know, your goal is preservation of capital. And I think, you know, you're right to say, how do I make sure I'm not taking unnecessary risk? And so I think, you know, reducing stock market exposure can be done a couple of ways.
One way is just usually through an advisor, a financial advisor who's an investment manager, by getting more conservative in your investment allocation.
So decreasing your stock exposure, maybe not entirely, because, you know, even at 81, we might need this money to last still a couple of decades, depending on your health and if the Lord tarries. And because of that, I think, you know, even at 81, we may want 20 or 30% exposure to stocks to provide a little growth component to offset inflation. But we can take 70 or 80% and move it toward lower risk, safer alternatives, what we generally refer to as. Fixed income.
So that could be treasury bills from the U.S. government. It could be certificates of deposit, CDs. We could use high-yield savings accounts. We can use money market.
Those are the kinds of things that offer stable returns without locking up your capital for years. Which is what happens with the annuity.
Now, one of the benefits of the annuity, which is why I wouldn't take that off the table, is you get that stability and you transfer the risk over to the insurance company. And so, if you could get a guaranteed rate of return that you were happy with from the insurance company, then you kind of eliminate that risk at that point. And the only question then would be: number one, how strong is the insurance company that you're going with? You want to make sure that it's highly rated, and there's a way to check that. And then, secondly, you'd want to make sure that you can still get access to your money.
Because you know, you are locking it up now. Often you could take out up to 10% a year, which gives you a little bit of flexibility. And many of them are paying pretty attractive rates better than you would get in a CD or savings account.
So, for instance, one of the annuity companies that's getting a lot of attention right now is an online insurance company.
So, they don't have brick and mortar operations, still very strong in terms of their rating. They have an excellent rating from AM Best, which is the rating service for annuity companies. It's called Gainbridge, and they're paying about 5.3% right now guaranteed. And you can decide anywhere between one and 10 years. And I believe you can get up to 10% of your money a year.
So, that would be an option. Maybe you take a portion of your money and put it there. And then, with the rest, you use the other things I mentioned, like treasuries or money market or CDs. And then, together, you know, using all these different tools, you can build out. Income generating portfolio.
But let me stop there, Carol. I've thrown a lot at you and just see what questions you have.
Well, I've heard I've heard good and bad about annuities. I have one that I do have a broker. I do have one that's with nationwide. And I've had it about two years, I suppose. but I don't draw any income from it.
And the one you wanted to suggest it was called Game Bridge. That's right. Yeah. And they're online only, so you'd have to be comfortable with that, but they're highly rated. And it's kind of like the online banks where you can get an FDIC insured savings account at your local brick and mortar, you know, big brand name, and you might get 0.1% interest.
And if you use an online bank, instead of getting 0.1%, you might get 4%, you know. And, you know, you still get the FDIC insurance. You just can't walk in the door. And they use that savings from the brick and no brick and mortar to pass along to the customers. And that's that's kind of the idea behind Gainbridge.
But I'm not selling that one. It doesn't matter to me which one you use. I was just using that as an example. You know, I appreciate your question about the annuities. I'm not a huge fan, but I do think in a situation like yours, as long as you're okay with lower liquidity, meaning your money's often locked up, and as long as you can get a rate of return you're happy with, I think those are the keys.
And maybe it's one piece of an overall portfolio. Thanks for calling. Let's go to Texas. Donna, how can we help you? Hi, I was calling.
I currently have two. Certificates of deposit. And I was wanting to know if I should. Dissolve them and open an IRA instead of the certificates of deposit. Yeah, do you have?
Um, I'm sorry to interrupt you, Donna. I'm short on time, but I want to get to the end of your question. Do you have what's called earned income? Not passive, but earned income? Are you working?
No, I'm retired.
Okay. Yeah, so unfortunately, you have to have earned income in order to make new contributions to an IRA. Is that what you were thinking? Yes, sir. So you would not be able to do that is make new contributions to an IRA.
You could roll a 401k into an IRA, but you would not be able to open an IRA and make a new contribution without earned income.
So like wages or tips or business income from a small business that you own, something like that, not Social Security or passive investment income.
So unfortunately, that's not an option, but you could begin making systematic contributions to just a taxable account with a high-quality mutual fund, like one of the faith-based investing funds.
So perhaps our friends at Soundmind Investing could be helpful to you if you're comfortable on the web. If not, our team can get you the information and the phone number. But hopefully that helps you, Don. Unfortunately, I don't think the IRA is going to be an option. May the Lord bless you.
Thanks for calling today. That's going to do it for us today, folks. Thanks to my team, Devin, Jim, Robert, couldn't do it without them. Hey, check us out online at Facebook. FaithFi.com.
While you're there, perhaps support the ministry by clicking Give. Thanks in advance for that. I hope you'll come back and join us again next time for another edition of Faith and Finance. Faith in Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you. Mm-hmm.
