Every day, FaithFi is making a profound difference in the lives of thousands of Christians.
We help them integrate their faith and financial decisions, all for the glory of God. Our resources, including Bible studies, devotionals, the faith and finance program, articles, videos on faithfi.com, and the FaithFi app are instrumental in this transformative journey. We are so grateful for your faithful love and support of this ministry, and we'd like to invite you to partner with us in this work. Has God provided financial answers for you through this ministry? If so, please consider becoming a monthly FaithFi partner by visiting faithfi.com and clicking give.
That's faithfi.com and click give. What words do Christians most want to hear? They could only be, well done, good and faithful servant. Come and share your master's happiness.
I am Rob West. Those words, of course, are from Matthew 25, 23. They relate the master's pleasure with a faithful steward. Chad Clark joins us today to talk about biblical financial stewardship. Then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.
That's 800-525-7000. This is faith and finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, it's always great to have Chad Clark with us on the program to share his perspective on things. Chad is, of course, the executive director here at FaithFi, and he's been studying what the Bible says about financial stewardship. Chad, great to have you back.
Hey, thanks for having me. We should probably start, Chad, by defining our topic so we're all on the same page. So how would you define biblical financial stewardship? Well, I think biblical financial stewardship is where Scripture both influences and informs our financial decisions. And so we look to the Bible's financial principles for guidance. And there are a lot of them, and you talk about these every single day on this program, Rob. But let's just talk about a few of them, such as God is the owner and we are managers, the importance of work that we should give cheerfully and sacrificially. We should avoid the usage of debt and be intentional when preparing for the future. It also encourages us to seek wise counsel, which we're so thankful that our callers call into this program every day to seek that type of counsel from you. And we're grateful for the work that you do to provide that to them. But I think biblical financial stewardship is more than simply following a set of principles.
Now, how so? Well, I think it's important for us to take a step back and look at these biblical financial principles in context of what all of Scripture points to. That's a good point, because when we step back, all of Scripture ultimately points to Jesus.
Exactly. All of Scripture points to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. So when we think about biblical stewardship, I think it should always point us back to Him and lead us into a deeper relationship with Him. And that's ultimately why Faithfy exists, to help Christians see God as their ultimate treasure, not their money and possessions. It's not just about following a set of principles, but a heart posture.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Yeah, that's well said. Now that's, of course, Chad, contrary to the world's message for managing money, right?
Yeah, it really is. The world wants us to treasure our money and possessions. It wants us to idolize them. But when God becomes a treasure of our heart, we realize money is simply a tool to be used for His purposes. And the Bible's financial principles help guide us to make good decisions that ultimately glorify Him. And that's exactly what our mission is here at Faithfy, to help Christians integrate faith and financial decisions for the glory of God. Yeah, anyone can follow biblical financial principles and be financially successful.
They are the embodiment of wisdom for managing money. But Christians can't be motivated by that alone. The ultimate goal, of course, is always to glorify God. And that's really the big idea for us here at Faithfy.
It is. And we'd love to get this message out to more people in 2024, because we believe it's a critical message that more people need to hear. We want to equip millions of people with the truth of God's Word and help them steward their finances in such a way as to build His kingdom. If you've benefited from the work of this ministry, I would like to invite you, we're entering the end of the year, and we really are looking for your financial help to help us bring this message to more people. We have a goal to raise $250,000 by the end of the year. And so if you've benefited from this program, if you enjoy listening to Rob, Rob, I'm just so grateful for your heart for this ministry, for the things that you've done.
You show up five days a week and answer people's questions. And so if you've benefited from listening to Rob, you've called into the program, you've accessed our app or our resources, wow, we'd just be so grateful if you'd prayerfully consider supporting this ministry, helping us reach our end of year fundraising goal. And we're just grateful that you engage with us and that you participate in the FaithFi community. Well, I couldn't agree more, Chad, and I'm grateful for you and your leadership. And the reason we do what we do is because of those testimonies of life change.
Just what you spoke about, it's people overcoming the challenges they have in their money lives, but it's so much bigger than that. It's really about developing a more intimate relationship with the Lord. Chad, I really appreciate you stopping by today and challenging our listeners here at the end of the year.
Yeah, thanks for having me. Folks, if you'd like to be a part of our end of year campaign, the way to do that is at faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. When you make your best gift between now and December 31st, just click the give button at faithfi.com. And we are so grateful for so many of you that have already supported us but looking for many more. All right, your calls are next. The number 800-525-7000.
We'll be right back. your copy with your gift of any amount at faithfi.com. Start the new year by aligning God's purposes with your finances. That's faithfi.com. Simply go to faithfi.com and click app to get started. You're listening to Faith and Finance where we talk about how we handle God's resources.
How are you using God's resources? We're talking about it and the lines are open to take your calls and questions. 800-525-7000.
That's 800-525-7000. To James in Kansas, go ahead. Yes, sir. I got some shares from Home Depot and I just don't know what to do with them. Well, in terms of whether to just continue to hold them or whether to sell them, is that just what you're trying to decide here? Yes, sir. It would be best to go talk to a financial advisor, ain't it?
It would. I mean, here's just kind of the general rule I'll give you. I can't weigh in on whether, you know, to buy or sell a particular holding but what I can say is a couple of rules of thumb. Number one is we want to make sure you're properly diversified. I mean, you're taking, if these holdings, if these shares of Home Depot are more than, let's say, 15% of your total investable assets, then you're adding a pretty significant amount of risk to your portfolio.
Generally, the rule of thumb is you wouldn't want to, for a company you either were working for or currently working for and, you know, you're really excited about them. Despite that, you really don't want to ever have more than 15% and that's really on the very high end because you've just got so much riding on one company's performance, their particular sector in industry, their performance, you know, and there's just not the diversification that we would like for you to have. So I think that's probably the bigger idea is, am I too highly concentrated? And then yes, to your point, James, what is the overall financial plan and what's the investment strategy that's aligned with your values, your goals, ultimately how much income you need from these investments, what percent of your income you're relying on versus the amount you have invested, all of that will shape how conservative you are in this investment strategy and then ultimately who's going to deploy that? Are you going to do that yourself or hire somebody to do it for you? So I guess I would say, number one, if you're more highly concentrated than 15% in one company, absolutely, I would look at diversifying.
And then two, I do think you need an overall financial plan from an advisor. Does that make sense? Okay. Yeah. Most of my stuff is from pensions from the military. Okay. Very good. Most of my money.
Yeah. So you've got that obviously guaranteed income that you can rely on, but with your other assets, namely these investments, we want to make sure that you've got a good strategy. You're not taking unnecessary risk and that it can grow for you to offset inflation, but where you can protect it at the same time.
And part of that is the selection of the investments and how risky they are and what kind of income they generate, but also that you're properly diversified. If you don't have an advisor, James, you can head to our website at faithfi.com, faithfi.com, and just click find a CKA and you could search for a few certified kingdom advisors in Kansas to interview. Thanks for being on the program, sir. May the Lord bless you and thank you for your service to our country.
Westfield, Indiana, WGNR. Hi, Marie. Go ahead. Hi, Rob. Thanks so much for taking my call.
Yes, ma'am. So my, my question is that, um, my husband's 401k with his former employer was through Vanguard. And when he left that company to a new one, we just took that, um, and just rolled it like didn't kept it in Vanguard, didn't move it or anything, you know, save on fees, et cetera, et cetera. And it's been a long time, 20 years or so, and it's always performed pretty well and so forth. Um, but I recently, um, learned that, um, Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street, those are the big ones, um, that, you know, hold the most capital and that they're using that capital, um, to promote the globalist agenda, which I've been trying to educate myself on and have been learning a lot and it's not good and I vehemently oppose it.
Yeah, very good. Well, the good news here, Marie, is that you have more opportunity than ever to align your values with your investments. And I think that comes down to really three big ideas when it comes to what we call faith-based investing. Uh, number one is alignment and that alignment has to do with either negative or positive screens. So a negative screen would be you're excluding companies that are misaligned with your values. So you're screening them out. They're no longer a part of the universe of investments that would be considered as a potential investment for your capital because they've been eliminated because either their primary business activities in violation of your values, you know, think a company that makes, you know, uh, produces alcohol or, you know, any, we can use any number of things. Um, so that would be a negative screen. And then there's positive screens where they actually intentionally include companies in the universe of possible investments because their business activities are promoting human flourishing or maybe even seeking a kingdom impact.
I mean, you might invest in a particular solar company that has intentionally said we will only use, uh, you know, supply chain that does not use any kind of slave labor, which is notorious in some parts of the world with regard to solar in terms of the manufacturing process. So that would be a positive screen where you'd screen companies in. And by the way, that adds additional value, uh, as they do that.
So that would be one aspect. The other is what we call corporate engagement, um, where you would actually take your ownership position as a percentage owner through the ownership of shares of a company, and you would both vote proxies. Uh, so you have the ability to weigh in on corporate resolutions and shareholder proposals through the proxy voting process and even, uh, not only ask questions during those shareholder meetings, which is open to anyone, whether or not they'll entertain your questions, another thing, but you should have that option. And then you can also, uh, you know, actually submit, uh, you know, proposals as a shareholder to be considered on the ballot. Um, you know, whether it comes to a shareholder meeting, well, that's all a part of corporate engagement, which, you know, it sounds like would be very much aligned with what you're looking to do as you want to make an impact.
You know, as we think about the various impacts we can make in our culture, I mean, yes, we can show up in the ballot box and vote, and that's critical. And we, you know, some will choose to boycott certain companies because of their practices away from their core business when they tend to get too political. But another often overlooked, uh, way that you can express your values is through shareholder engagement. And, uh, all too often Christians have been absent from the boardroom in that way. And what's exciting is that's coming back right in into the fold and we're seeing a lot more corporate engagement, which makes a real difference.
And we're already seeing that play out. I could give you a lot of examples of where that's happening. So where do you go from here? Well, if your current, uh, you know, investments are misaligned because they're not applying, you know, either the screens positively or negatively, and there's not any shareholder engagement going on aligned with your values, then what I would suggest you do is look to replace those investments with faith-based investing fund families. And you could find many of them on our website at faithfi.com. Just click on the show and you'll see the fun families like Eventide, Guidestone, Lightpoint Portfolios, One Ascent. Uh, you know, these are all Praxis faith-based investing fund families that will do both the corporate engagement as well as the positive and negative screens.
And then you could just choose one of the discount brokerages to house the money like a Fidelity or a Schwab. So that's what I would do next is begin to research these companies at faithfi.com and then just click on the show and you can start to learn more as you visit their websites. Stay on the line. We'll talk a bit more off the air.
We'll be right back. prospectus. This and other information is available at praxismutualfunds.com. Investments involve risk.
Principal loss is possible. Foresight Fund Services LLC. As the leading advocate for the Christian financial industry, Kingdom Advisors serves the public by promoting the integration of a biblical worldview across every aspect of the financial services industry. And we serve a growing network of thousands of Christian financial professionals equipping and empowering them to carry biblical financial wisdom to their clients, peers, and community. For more information, visit kingdomadvisors.com. That's kingdomadvisors.com. Well, it's great to have you with us today on faith and finance. I'm Rob West.
I've got a few lines open, 800-525-7000. Before the break, we were talking to Marie and Marie's joined by her husband. We were talking about, you know, they're just not comfortable with the investments that they have, the particular fund family. In their case, they're with Vanguard. They feel like they've moved away from their values as investors, as shareholders and, you know, toward something that's really not reflective of what they want to be invested in, largely in the ESG movement. And as I was sharing before the break, there's a great opportunity now to be more aligned with your values through faith-based investing.
It's really less about the custodian. I think you could use a Schwab or a Fidelity, but really more about either a specific advisor who has the ability to bring those types of investments through screening positive and negative and corporate engagement to the table, either in selecting individual stocks and bonds, or by investing in mutual funds, or by going directly to those fund families, many of which are listed on our website at faithfi.com. But give me your thoughts on that. So I have a financial advisor now, who I found through—I've been friends with him for years through a Bible study. So I'd be able to use that financial advisor who's on a platform and use him to go through those funds you mentioned on your website.
You sure could. And I think the question is, I mean, there's many great financial advisors who are committed Christ followers who love the Lord and are providing a great service to their clients that still use traditional investments. And that's okay. I mean, I think it really comes down to what is the conviction of the client. I think this is a conviction matter. Romans 13, let each one be fully convinced. I wouldn't say, you know, by investing in one company over another, it's your sinning.
I mean, that's not my perspective on it. My perspective is each investor, each Christ follower, as a part of their stewardship responsibility has to, before the Lord, come to their own personal convictions, and this is a conscience matter. But if your conviction is that you want to deploy capital through the secondary market, investing in companies that are only aligned with your values in terms of their primary business activities and perhaps what they do with their corporate profits in terms of things that they might promote or support, you have the opportunity to do that today, whereas you didn't maybe five years ago in the same way. The question is, does that advisor offer that kind of investment strategy that is specifically faith-based? Many of them, even believing advisors, don't. So you would need to find an advisor that can, you know, select from the faith-based investing fund families, or if he or she is going to do it directly, that they have the ability through, you know, the software that's out there today to make those selections where they're able to screen out certain companies, screen in others, and they have that a part of their investing offering. So I think that's just a conversation you need to have with the advisor.
And if he can, great, then I think you're right where you need to be. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Well, you're welcome.
And I appreciate your call today. Perhaps you refer him to our website just to look at a few of these fund families. The really exciting thing is, and often folks who don't understand this space will say, yeah, I don't know if we want to do that because we're going to give up the returns in order to invest with our values. Well, if that were true, you may still want to do it. But the good news is the data, the research says you absolutely don't have to do that. I mean, these are world class award winning investments that in many cases are outperforming their peers, and they're employing a kingdom lens, if you will, in terms of the company selections, and the even the proxy voting and engagement.
So you can invest with your values, and you can get a great return. And I think ultimately, that's what a lot of Christians are coming to the conclusion on. But we appreciate your call. Thanks for being on the program today to both of you.
To Wooddale, Illinois, WMBI. Hi, Doris, go ahead. Hi, my question is this. My husband and I are working on our will and trust and have been told by a reputable source that we should only give to our children and grandchildren because that is biblical, but not to give to Christian charities, because we should be doing that during our lifetime. So what is your biblical advice about that? Yeah, boy, you know, I don't agree with that, in the sense that I love the idea of you giving during your lifetime, whether that's to Christian, certainly to God's plan A, the local church, and then beyond that to ministries that align with what we see in Scripture that's on the heart of God, the ministry of God's Word, preaching, teaching, and discipleship, the ministry of God's mercy, you know, maybe widows and orphans, the ministry of God's justice.
So I love that. But I think, you know, when it comes to that last stewardship decision we'll make, we need to be thinking about is the next steward chosen and prepared? And you are the one that is to choose that steward. And I think you can make the case that there's nothing wrong with giving an inheritance, but it doesn't mean you always should, because I think we always have to be asking the question when it comes to an inheritance is, you know, how much should we leave and to whom? You know, so for instance, ask the question, if we give X amount to X person, what's the worst thing that can happen? And how serious is that?
And how likely is that to occur? You know, you could take and drop a large sum of money in an adult child's life, where they're, you know, on a path of a lifestyle that's pointed away from the Lord, and it could accelerate that. I mean, it could be the last thing if they're spiritually and financially not mature enough to handle that.
Or it could, you know, cause other problems if it denies their opportunity to provide, which, you know, maybe for some would be really important to them. So I think in that case, giving it away to support God's work is really a key opportunity that you have. When we look at Scripture, I mean, whether it's, you know, the passage that's often cited, you know, we should leave an inheritance to our children's children. The context of that passage is really not financial. It's really more of a spiritual inheritance.
If you look at that particular verse that's often cited in its larger context in that particular passage of Scripture. So I don't see anything that says we should never give to Christian ministries at death and that we absolutely have to give a financial inheritance. I think that's a decision you need to make before the Lord and consider carefully as to what would be the implications of giving that to a child or an heir. And that may be a wonderful idea, but it may not be. And in that case, you may want to opt to give it all away, or you may want to split it. And at the end of the day, that's your call. Let me do this, Doris. I think the best book to help you think about wealth transfer biblically is the book by Ron Blue called Splitting Heirs. And I'd love to send you that as our gift. Would that be okay? Doris White
