Is Your Bank Unbiblical? With Aaron Caid

Have you heard about the change happening across the U.S.? If someone told you ten years ago that your bank was pushing abortion and other ungodly practices, would you have believed them? From Rob West, probably not, but today that's what many of the nation's leading banks are up to.

I'll talk with Aaron Cade about that in an amazing survey on this topic. 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. Okay, so Aaron Cade is our go-to guy for what's happening in the banking industry.

He's chief marketing officer at Christian Community Credit Union and underwriter of this program. And Aaron, great to have you back with us. Hi, Rob. It's a pleasure to be with you and your listeners today.

Well, we're delighted to have you. And I know you watched this slide into Gomorrah that banks have undergone the past few years. Did it shock you to see how fast it happened? Yeah, in today's connected world, a headline can change an entire realm of behavior.

So you never really know how fast something could happen. But I do believe that right now we are starting to see what could be the next big exodus for Christians in the marketplace today. And that is Christians choosing to bank with their values.

Yeah, we're seeing it happen across the board and why not banking as well. I know this survey that we're going to talk about today made you folks at CCCU curious about something. And that is, how do people feel about putting their money in banks that don't align with their Christian worldview? So you decided to find out, right? Yeah, we've been hearing from new members who've joined the credit union just how fed up they are with their secular bank and how delighted they were to find Christian Community Credit Union.

So we decided to go out and find out, is this more than just anecdotal? So we surveyed over 1,300 professed Christians across the country, and the results we saw were enlightening and actionable. Over 30 percent had considered switching their bank in the last 12 months, and Christian values were one of the top three reasons why they wanted to do that. Over 60 percent care deeply about managing their finances biblically. They want to honor God with their finances, not just the rest of their life. And over 50 percent said it's now important, more than ever, that their bank reflects, aligns, and supports their Christian values. Why do you think it's so important for believers to consider their banking partner and how that partner aligns with their faith? Well, you know, your question causes me to recall a verse from 1 Corinthians 4 to 2. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. As our research shows, there's a strong desire among Christians to honor God with their finances.

But I think there's a gap in understanding what that really means at a practical level, such as where you bank. Unfortunately, many times stewardship can be limited to an understanding of tithing and charity, but it goes beyond that. You know, really the key to this verse is the ending, that they be found faithful. Stewardship is taking responsibility for furthering the ways, purposes, and plans of God. You know, all the money and resources we have are God's anyway. He's entrusted it with us to steward wisely and advance his kingdom. And I think this is why Christians are feeling it's important to bank with their faith and values.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think we're hearing from more and more listeners who want to do just that. Anything else jump out from the survey about why folks were switching their banking partner? You know, unsurprisingly, we also found some of the same reasons that the overall population will cite, including dissatisfaction with rates and fees and poor customer service. But these were a statistical tie with the conflict with their personal beliefs. That means that alignment with Christian faith and values carries the same weight among Christians as bread and butter rates and fees. They see the politically motivated decisions that their banks are making that are at odds with their Christian beliefs. They see mismanagement, even times unethical management at the big banks and the impact it has on average Americans. So this is just showing that a faith alignment is just as important to getting a good return on money.

You know, what if you could get both? You know, with Christian community credit, you mean you can. Well, let's go there as we wrap up today. What would you say to someone who doesn't understand this is even possible to align their banking solution with their values?

Well, first of all, you're not alone. We learned in our survey that there's a great deal of excitement about the idea of a Christian financial institution, but very few people even knew that was an option. And I can say that Christian Community Credit Union is there for you. We've been serving Christ followers for over 65 years. We are unapologetically Christian. And when you entrust your money with us, you help us provide affordable financing to build churches and help ministries grow.

Wow, that's powerful. Well, that's why we're delighted you're partners with us here. And Aaron, we appreciate you stopping by to share more with us today. Thank you.

It's been a pleasure to be with you and your audience today. Folks, if you want to learn more about the Christian Community Credit Union, go to joinchristiancommunity.com. Again, joinchristiancommunity.com. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and you're listening to Faith and Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. 1.5% cash back.

Visit joinchristiancommunity.com. Membership eligibility required. Each account is insured up to $250,000.

This institution is not federally insured. Welcome back to Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. It's time to take your calls and questions today on anything financial. The number to call is 800-525-7000. We've got some lines open here today. We'd love to hear from you. Again, 800-525-7000 with whatever is on your mind today, financially speaking. Also today, we'll tackle a couple of your emails.

In fact, let's do one of those now. This comes from an anonymous listener writing into askrob at faithfi.com. This one says, we've had a timeshare for many years. We don't use it anymore, even though we pay $100 every month in fees.

How do we get out of this nightmare? Thank you. Well, the ideal way to get out of a timeshare is to sell it to someone. Before you attempt to do that, I'd get all the information you can about the process. The best source we know for that is the timeshare users group, otherwise known as TUG. You can find that on the web at TUG2.com.

You need to have a realistic idea of what it's worth, and that's almost certainly a lot less than you paid, if anything. You'll have to advertise. TUG does have an extensive online marketplace that's probably the most active site you'll find for buying and selling. You can of course try eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, newspaper classified ads. If you find a buyer, you would need to write up a contract that specifies what each party must do and what they receive in the transaction. I'd probably have an attorney do that. If you're unsuccessful in trying to sell it, you can simply ask the resort to take it back. It's called a timeshare deed back, and if the resort agrees, it's an inexpensive way to get rid of it. Most notably to get rid of that ongoing maintenance fee that you described.

You'll probably need to have paid the entire cost of the timeshare before you do that. There are companies that claim they can get you out. I'm not a fan of those. I haven't found any to be reliable, so I certainly wouldn't recommend any of them. But you could do your research. I'd read a lot of reviews before you get involved there. There's a lot of scams in that space. Unfortunately, there's just so many more buyers than sellers here, and that's what makes this really challenging. Let's use this as perhaps a cautionary tale for someone else who's considering a timeshare.

I've been doing this a long time. I don't ever hear from anybody saying, I have a timeshare and I love it. I'm sure you're out there. I hear from all of those. Many, many, many folks who are saying, I just want to get rid of this thing.

So perhaps go slow before you make any decisions about proceeding with the timeshare. All right, let's take your calls and questions. A few lines open today. 800-525-7000. We're going to dive in and begin in Chicago. Hi, Andrea. You'll be our first caller. Go ahead. Hi, how are you, sir?

I'm well, thank you. I have a question. How do I go about giving if I wanted to give? I remember many years ago when I took martial arts over 20 years ago. I still remember the stuff, but I know a martial artist always told me we don't ask for help because we're weak. We ask for help to stay strong.

And I use that because I went on the police force and I utilize that and I share that. But how do I go about if I wanted to give? Because I am a person that likes to give. It's not a lot, but I like to give.

Yeah. Well, I love that. I mean, you were created to be generous. And I was as well.

All of us were. Because we're created in the image of God and the Bible is very clear about that. And God is the ultimate giver.

For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son. And so we have an opportunity, I think, to reflect our nature being created in the image of God when we give. When we hold what God has entrusted to us, which, by the way, it all belongs to him.

So we're his stewards or managers. And when we give, we have an opportunity to take a portion and say, you know what, I'm not going to consume everything you've entrusted to me, Lord. I want to take a portion of it and put it back into circulation in your kingdom, in your economy. I would say that should start based on the pattern in Scripture with your local church. And if you're involved in a local fellowship, I would start there.

If you're not, I would encourage you to be. I think that's God's plan A for the body of Christ, to be involved in a local fellowship of some kind, to be encouraged and to serve and to spur one another on and to grow together. And I think you should give starting there. A good principle to apply there would be to give a tenth of your increase, whatever God entrusts to you.

But I wouldn't stop there. I'd use that as a beginning point and then give sacrificially wherever the Lord leads. I'd look for the intersection of your passions and the needs that exist in the world. You might ask yourself, what is something that really just burns in my heart for a need that exists in the world?

What's something I'm really passionate about? And do some research and find some places that are meeting that need, preferably in the name of Jesus with a great track record and just a lot of effective results in the work that they do, and then give generously there. So that's just some general thoughts, but were you asking something more specific, Andrea, or was that what you were looking for? No, no, that's fine.

That's a great idea. Normally I give regardless, but sometimes I like to find other ways of how I could give, you know, just to give. I mean, there's a lot of times that I'm in a store, so I'm not making a purchase and I see kids with their appearance, but I'll get permission to say, hey, do you mind if I purchase this for them? And they're like, no, I could not. I say, you know what, I want to. I say, but if you chose for me not to, that's fine, and I respect that. But they said it's okay.

They usually say it's okay. So, you know, I love giving. That's my passion. Well, I believe that's a God-given gift. I mean, we all should be givers, but I think some of us just have the gift of giving from the Lord, and that's great.

I would lean into that. Perhaps one thing you may want to do, Andrea, is to start to pray and ask God to show you opportunities just in the normal course of your day where needs exist. And I think you'll be surprised at how he might open your eyes for you to see.

Perhaps you're already seeing many of them. It sounds like you are, but maybe there's additional needs, you know, where you can use that gift of giving to bless those around you. I'm delighted to hear that. Hopefully your testimony today, while I'm confident, it's spurred others on to even greater giving in their own lives. Thanks for being on the program. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. We've got some lines open today. We'd love to hear from you with your financial questions to beautiful Murphy, North Carolina. Beret, thank you for calling. Go ahead. Beret, are you with us?

All right, looks like we're having some challenges there, so we'll allow Beret to perhaps see if we can fix that line and get Beret back on here very shortly. Again, 800-525-7000 is the number to call. If you've got a question today, whether it's your lifestyle, your debt repayment, maybe it's the amount you're trying to save and put aside for the future and you're navigating this stock market. We've been talking a lot about a recession and yet the market keeps going up this year. How do you navigate that? Well, I think the key is to be a long-term investor, really always looking out five to ten years at a minimum, hopefully a lot longer than that.

That allows us to ride the ebbs and flows of the market as we move forward. We're going to be headed to a break here in just a moment. I think we've got Beret's line fixed, but I want to give you plenty of time to ask your question, Beret, plus all the lines filling up, so a lot of great questions coming up. We're going to do this. We're going to pause for a quick break. Let me take this opportunity as we head into this break to remind you, God is moving in incredible ways as we have the privilege of sharing his principles and wisdom about financial decision-making every day. If you'd like to be a part of this and help us shore up the listener donation portion of our budget for the year, if you'd like to make a gift to that end, we'd certainly be grateful. Just head to our website, faithfi.com and click Give. Much more to come just around the corner.

Stay with us. Eventide's approach to values-based investing is grounded in the belief that humankind was created in the image of God with intrinsic dignity, value and worth. Eventide calls this investing that makes the world rejoice. More information is available at eventideinvestments.com.

That's eventideinvestments.com. Are you struggling to fit your faith into your practice as a Christian financial advisor? The Certified Kingdom Advisor designation teaches you a step-by-step process to confidently deliver advice that aligns with Christian values. Discover the skills you need to help your clients make a kingdom impact. Get started today by enrolling in the CKA Educational Program at kingdomadvisors.com slash get certified. That's kingdomadvisors.com slash get certified. Welcome back to Faith and Finance. I'm Rob West. Quickly back to the phone so we can get to as many questions as we can today.

To Murphy Baray, how can we help you? I have a question about a whole life insurance policy. I have one for $100,000. There's no returns on the premium with a term and I am a homeowner so I need my life insurance and I have a daughter with special needs.

Sure. So you were using the whole life policy to ensure that there was a death benefit there that regardless of when the Lord called you home that there was something to provide for your daughter's needs, correct? Yeah, so we've got a couple of options here. I mean obviously in order to make this work for you, you've got to be able to continue to pay the premiums and if that's challenging we're going to have to do some work to try to right size that budget and I realize it's not easy to do so I don't pretend that it is depending on how much income you have versus what your expenses are.

Perhaps one of our certified Christian financial counselors could help you with that in terms of just bringing a fresh look at the budget. Clearly you need to be able to maintain this. Typically what I would recommend is you buy term insurance, pure insurance. You're not looking for any kind of return of premium or any cash value. You're just purely offsetting the risk that exists there. That during your working years if there was a loss of income it would create a hardship for loved ones or dependents and that term insurance for that term while you're working would offset that risk and just like your car insurance is there if you get in an accident you don't expect any return on it. You just want to offset the risk of the loss of your car in the same way you would be just paying the mortality expense, the pure insurance in a term policy so that if the Lord calls you home there's something there. Now in your case it needs to go beyond that because the question would be at that point would there be enough just by way of you continuing to save in whatever ways you're saving retirement accounts or whatever it is. Would there be enough in assets to fund your daughter's ongoing expenses based on her special needs. If not you may say I want to prioritize keeping this whole life policy because this really is going to fund a special needs trust and that money is then going to be used for her care for the rest of her life or some portion of it and that's really important to us. Well that makes sense and that's where maybe the one of the few exceptions where I think whole life insurance does make sense permanent insurance because it doesn't go away and you need to make sure that it doesn't so that it's there whether the Lord calls you home tomorrow or it's well into your retirement years.

So if that's the case I think you need to do some planning perhaps have that special needs trust that would be available as the beneficiary of that death benefit and then look at whether or not you can save enough during your working years with term insurance to cover her needs or whether that will fall short and therefore you need to keep this whole life policy in force. Does that make sense? Yes sir. Thank you very much. God bless you. Thanks for calling today.

To Ohio. Hi Ruth. Thank you for calling. Go ahead.

Hi. Just wanted to say we've listened to you for years and you guys really saved us. We had $80,000 in credit card debts and we did the rolling downhill and paid it all off in our house and felt wonderful to be debt free. But the problem is is that we decided we didn't want to wait.

We took in a 17 year old foster child which costs about $4,000 for the tutoring so he can catch up academically. We had to buy a whole new wardrobe. We had nothing you know and a whole bunch of other stuff and the county keeps saying they'll pay us but it's been over four months. We haven't seen a cent and credit card bills are coming due and I'm owing on them and I'm going to have some interest and I'm starting to get nervous. Did I jump the gun? We didn't want to wait because you know how life always gets in the way.

The money is supposed to show up eventually and I mean this poor child, his mom OD'd, he had nothing and his education at 17 they say is a fifth grade level and we just didn't want to stop just because money was tight at that moment. So am I getting overly nervous or am I? Well you know it's hard for me to know exactly how this is going to play out. What I do know is that you reaching out and caring for this child who was in significant need is on the heart of God. And what you're doing is incredible work Ruth and you all felt the leading of the Lord to do something when you couldn't see a way and you did it and now you're going to have to trust God for the results and I think part of that might be you know you God is Larry Burkett used to say never late but seldom early.

So maybe this comes through at 1159 who knows and maybe it's an exercise in faith but what I know is you're doing amazing work and I'm delighted to hear that. How do you proceed from here? Well I think you just need to make the next wise decision that you can make. I mean you made the decision to step out in faith and meet the needs of this precious 17 year old.

That's great. Now you've got bills that are coming due so where do we go from here? Well you keep pursuing every available option to get these expenses covered. Because the government bureaucracy can slow that down. You're kind of in a waiting game. Let's pray that that comes through soon.

In the meantime what do you do? Well I think you could look at putting this on a credit counseling program with our friends at Christian Credit Counselors. You could get that down, the interest rates down and the great thing about a debt management program is if the money comes through you can always pay it off at any time. You're not locked into that scheduled payment.

You can accelerate it which is great. But at least that would get you on a track where if this does extend for a few more months at least you know you're not spending you know 16, 20, 22 percent in interest. And you can reach out to them at christiancreditcounselors.org and then while we're waiting let's just pray that God provides in whatever way he wants to. Whether that's a knock at the door from somebody in your church that you know God impressed upon their heart to help you guys. Or you know government assistance comes in.

Does that make sense? Yes definitely. I just wanted to hear a reassuring voice and maybe another person praying.

Absolutely. Well let's do that right now Ruth. Let's go before the Lord. Father we know that meeting the needs of the least of these is on your heart. Thank you for Ruth and her husband and their faith that they've exercised their desire to help those that are hurting and in need. And Lord I just pray that you'd honor that. You own the cattle on a thousand hills.

It's all yours. And Lord this didn't catch you by surprise. We just ask that you would provide for them perhaps even in an unexpected way and as a result you would grow their faith. And may this even be a testimony to that 17 year old that's now living in their home. Give them wisdom as they navigate these interesting times that are not going to always be easy.

And yet we know that they honor you when they're done with the right heart. And so I just pray that you would intervene and we're going to trust you for that provision in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you Ruth for calling God bless you. Hey we're almost out of time but I wanted to let you know that you don't ever have to miss a program. Just download our faith by app for your mobile device and take us with you anywhere. Thanks for joining us today. I look forward to talking with you again next time on Faith and Finance.