The Role of a Christian Financial Counselor with Dr. Art Rainer

Many people are using the FaithFi app to help provide the wisdom, community, and money management to stay on track, financially speaking. To date, over 37,000 members are using its digital envelope system, participating in our community forums, and engaging in virtual workshops. And one of the most convenient features is the ability to keep all your accounts in one place for an easy-at-a-glance view. You can choose from one of three options, depending on your management style, and it's available on desktop or mobile.

Go to faithfi.com and click app to get started. The title is important for managing his money wisely. Dr. Art Rayner joins us today to talk about it. And 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 journey. Well, it's always great to have our friend Art Rayner back with us. Art is a frequent contributor at FaithFi and director of the Institute for Christian Financial Health, where they have something really special underway. It's the Certified Christian Financial Counselor Program, or CERT CFC for short. Art, great to have you back with us.

Rob, thanks for having me. Art, give our folks an idea of what a Certified Christian Financial Counselor does for folks who need help getting their finances in order. There are many people out there who feel like their finances are just out of control. They struggle to make and keep a budget. They want to get out of debt and know what it feels like to pay for a car with cash. They are tired of living paycheck to paycheck, and they want to feel the freedom to give more generously and have more margin in their finances. So what does a Certified Christian Financial Counselor do? Well, using the Bible as a guide, Certified Christian Financial Counselors help and educate individuals and couples in these core areas of personal finances, so budgeting, getting out of debt, avoiding paycheck to paycheck living, saving for future expenses, and living more generously.

And I suspect many of our listeners right now are saying, that's me, I could use more of that. Let's talk about the training, Art. I know the training is rigorous. Give us a sense of what these counselors go through.

You are correct. Certified Christian Financial Counselors go through a rigorous program that covers various subjects like biblical stewardship, budget management, debt elimination, saving for future expenses, and preventing paycheck to paycheck living. After going through the program, they must pass a two-hour, 100-question examination to receive their designation. Yeah.

Really important to get great training, and I know there's a good bit of oversight in that as well. Perhaps there's some confusion, though, Art, about the difference between a financial counselor and a financial advisor. Explain the difference in your view.

Yeah, that's a great question. If you're looking for someone to help you with your investments, retirement planning, risk management, or tax planning, you are looking for a financial advisor. So Certified Christian Financial Counselors do not provide specific investment or tax advice. While this explanation is not perfect, you could say that financial advisors help people with their long-range planning, while Certified Christian Financial Counselors help people with the here-and-now issues that they are facing.

Yeah, that's a great distinction there. Now, what about those in our listening audience today, Art, who are thinking, I might like to help others in this area. I have a passion for financial stewardship.

What would you say to them? Rob, the need for Certified Christian Financial Counselors is great. We need an army of men and women who want to help others discover and pursue God's design for money. The Certified Christian Financial Counselor is for you. If you're passionate about what the Bible says about money, you love helping people take that next step in their personal finances, or you want to start your own financial counseling practice or serve in your church. Of course, a lot of Certified Christian Financial Counselors actually do both of those.

Yeah, that's exactly right. And then if someone reaches out and connects with a CERT CFC, what might they expect? Well, first, if you need help, just realize that you are not alone. Many, if not most, Americans could benefit from meeting with a Certified Christian Financial Counselor. When you do connect with one, you will find someone who will listen to your story and financial challenges with empathy. Certified Christian Financial Counselors have a passion for helping others. They will provide you with a biblical perspective on your challenges and teach you how to move forward in your finances practically. Most of the time, the counselors operate on a one-hour session basis, but this can vary depending on the Certified Christian Financial Counselor. Yeah, and I love that you said it's going to be biblical, there's lots of encouragement, but it's also practical, so you're going to come away with real action steps, right? That's absolutely correct.

Yeah. How can folks get more information? Well, whether you are looking for a Certified Christian Financial Counselor or you desire to become one, you can find more information at ChristianFinancialHealth.com. That's ChristianFinancialHealth.com.

We love the CERT CFC. It's the right thing for so many of you looking to get on God's page with regard to how you manage His money. Art, thanks for your time today.

Thanks for having me. That's Art Raynor, Director of the Institute for Christian Financial Health. Learn more at ChristianFinancialHealth.com.

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You've seen the evidence of His provision and faithfulness. You'd like to encourage others. Maybe you've applied some of the advice we've given here on the program. You'd like to share how that's worked out. Any and all of that is in play at 800-525-7000. Again, you can call right now with lines open 800-525-7000. Let's go to North Carolina. Morgan, thanks for your patience. Go ahead.

Hi, so thank you for taking my call. Me and my husband actually just recently have been talking about what we're going to do for our health care. We need something that covers pre-existing conditions. And I was wondering, do you guys have any recommendations on what we could go through or like what I could look into for it?

Yeah, very good. I would check with Christian Health Care Ministries on that. They offer a couple of options for sharing medical bills related to pre-existing conditions. One would be what's called scheduled sharing, where essentially you can still receive sharing assistance and sharing is just their term for how they cover the costs of medical expenses. You still receive that for pre-existing conditions on a tiered schedule. So it's up to $15,000 in the first year, $25,000 the second year, $50,000 by the third. And then after three years, the condition is no longer considered pre-existing.

So that would be the main one. The other one is what's called CHM Give, which is where through the charitable giving of members, they're actually able to share through member donations. But you do need to have them understand what it is because there's a difference between an active condition and a maintained condition. Active meetings, there's ongoing signs, symptoms and treatment. Maintained means it's been stable for 90 days without new treatment or testing and medical expenses for these conditions really could be eligible for sharing. So they're going to need to understand exactly what it is, but there are options.

So I would certainly check there chministries.org. Do you all have access to, for traditional healthcare, an employer-sponsored plan? We do, but it's a little bit higher than we are willing to pay for just the two of us right now because once we have our family, we know that's going to go up even higher. Yeah, got it.

No, I get that. And the cost of healthcare has just kind of been through the roof as of late, and that's challenging with everything else, more expensive now as well. You know, I think whether you're out on the marketplace, I mean, you could look at the ACA marketplace plans. So insurance companies are prohibited from denying coverage, and so you could check that. You'd have to do that through the open enrollment period, which we're about to be in from November 1st to mid-January. And then you just go to healthcare.gov or your state's marketplace, and you could look for eligible plans and their costs. If the employer-sponsored health insurance is too expensive, then that is not an option.

So I think then the third option would be looking at chministries.org and understanding whether you could use that program, which certainly would be more cost-effective, but whether or not you all could get the coverage that you need. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, you're very welcome. Thanks for your call today. 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Again, that's 800-525-7000.

We'd love to hear from you today. You know, as we think about our opportunity to manage God's money, there's a couple of big ideas that I think are really essential to understand when it comes to money management. And one of those is just this big idea of contentment that just kind of leaps off the page when we look at the Council of Scripture related to money.

But what does that mean, really? And I think at the end of the day, contentment isn't found in acquiring more, which, by the way, is what the world will tell us. You can find satisfaction and security and enjoyment by just acquiring more stuff. Now, don't get me wrong, having some nice things that you enjoy and take care of is fine, but it's not going to ultimately satisfy our longing for abundance and fulfillment and security. Ultimately, contentment is found not in acquiring more, but in the person and the work of Jesus, finding our identity in Him, and then understanding that now, once our identity is in Him, we don't find our identity in money or the things of this world. Money now becomes a tool to accomplish God's purposes. Contentment.

Think about what it truly is and perhaps pray and meditate on that throughout the day today, especially if you're feeling anxious about your financial life. All right, let's head back to the phones. 800-525-7000.

Let's head to Mississippi and welcome Cody. How can I help you? Yes, sir. How are you doing? Doing great. Wonderful.

Let's show you all the time. Yeah, I just had a question about goldbacks. I've been recently invested in them and I see more states are joining on.

I don't know. I'm sure you're familiar with them, but they're like dollar-size-shaped gold and what your thoughts are on those and it's a good idea to invest right now. Yeah, I mean, it's a relatively new form of currency. I mean, they make these with kind of thin layers of gold and embedded in these polymer notes. And, you know, the idea is to serve as a physical spendable currency backed by the intrinsic value of gold. So the pro is obviously, you know, that the intrinsic value. So it contains a specific amount of physical gold. So unlike fiat currency, the note itself is backed by a tangible asset. And that's, of course, appealing to a lot of folks. It's a hedge against inflation and currency devaluation.

It's very portable. So, you know, these are lightweight, durable, you know, easy to carry, perhaps better in some cases than larger forms of physical gold. And then it, you know, this polymer backing protects the gold layer.

So it kind of ensures longevity and resistance to wear. They're also very divisible. So they come in different denominations, each with a specific amount of gold content. You know, I mentioned that it's an inflation hedge. I mentioned that it's, you know, it's not tied to any government or central bank.

So it's decentralized, it's private. So it's an alternative currency option. And then they just have some, you know, an intrinsic appeal because they have designed images.

And so they're visually appealing to collectors. I mean, the downside would be, though, that, you know, they're limited in their acceptance. So, you know, local businesses are not, you know, widely going to accept these as legal tender.

Some will, but it's not widely accepted. You may pay a premium over the spot price of gold. And that's really when you're just buying gold. It's all about how close to the spot price can you buy it?

Because that premium is, you know, what you're paying on top of it. That is the profit for the person selling it. Obviously, anytime we're talking gold, there's volatility in the price of gold. They're not terribly liquid like other forms of owning gold, specifically like ETFs. And then you've got the storage and the handling and so forth. So I would say at the end of the day, I wouldn't go crazy with these.

You know, my typical approach is no more than 10 percent of your investable assets in gold just because it tends to be more volatile and the long term performance is not as good as a properly diversified stock and bond portfolio. But I would say it's a fairly innovative and tangible way to have gold in small denominations if that's what you're solving for. You know, it can be a very effective way to do that. Does that make sense? It sure certainly does. And I think that that's about where my goal was, was about 10 percent. And it's fun to collect them because, you know, I see the 2019 version going three times their value and their strike price, you know, and it's just like, why?

And it's because they're collectible. So I thought it was kind of a double fun time for me. Absolutely. Well, I appreciate your your call, sir, and all the best to you call any time. We've got some lines open. We're taking your calls and questions on anything financial. Whatever is going on in your financial life will help you think about it in light of biblical wisdom and make a practical decision to move forward. The number 800-525-7000 will be back with much more just around the corner.

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Living, giving, owing or growing God's money? Call right now. 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. Hey, here's some encouragement from our new 21 day devotion called Look at the Sparrows. It's a study or excuse me, a devotional on financial fear and anxiety.

And I love day 10. It just simply says do not be anxious. Let me read you Matthew 625. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink. Nor about your body, what you will put on.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? You know, anxiety is a universal human condition. The fear that things won't go well.

We watch the elections and our bank accounts and our investment portfolios. And we can do that with great anxiety if we're not careful. You know, if we knew the outcomes beforehand, we wouldn't be anxious. But in an effort to control our circumstances, we worry about uncertain outcomes as if we're putting an emotional down payment on something that may never happen.

Listen to what the late Billy Graham once said. He said, some people spend so much time worrying about what might happen that they never enjoy what is happening now. Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Think about that.

Let me say it again. Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. You see, Jesus' command in Matthew 6 25 to refrain from anxiety goes beyond urging people just to remain calm. Rather, it reveals the very foundation of our security. It requires that our security not lie in our wealth or our planning, but in our abiding relationship with him. It reassures us that God is completely in control of all circumstances.

But to overcome anxiety, here's what has to happen. We have to grow in faith. To have faith, we have to not try harder, but surrender more. You see, whether it's the big decisions of life or those daily needs, all of it can be placed in God's hands. And if that seems scary or even impossible, it may stem from the fact that we can't trust someone we don't know.

You would never give your bank credentials to a stranger because you don't know them and you can't trust them. And similarly, you can't trust God if you don't know him personally and intimately. So as you grow in your relationship with him through prayer and the reading of his word and fellowship with the body of Christ, you can begin to trust him to meet your needs for today and tomorrow. And that's our hope and prayer for you is that you would get to a place where you have complete trust in the Lord. One of the sections in these daily devotionals, and remember I'm in day 10 here, do not be anxious, is after you read the devotion and meditate on God's word, we ask you to pause and then to pray and then to ponder and even memorize the passage of scripture.

And for day 10, the pause exercise is to recite the famous serenity prayer. Listen to this, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did the sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen. You know, I hope that's an encouragement to you today in the midst of all of the swirling concern and fear and even anxiety that we would place our trust ultimately in our provider and sustainer Jesus, the one who paid the penalty for everything for us on our behalf on the cross and God who is ultimately provider and creator of everything. Listen folks, if you'd like to be encouraged, perhaps you find yourself having some fear and anxiety in your financial life, this may be just the resource for you. I think over the next three weeks if you would commit to working through it each day, it really may be a game changer as you think about this area of your life and surrender everything to the Lord who wants to take it from you.

His yoke is easy. And you can do that when you head to our website faithfi.com and a gift of $25 or more would allow us to send you a copy of Look at the Sparrows. So head there right now, faithfi.com, and just click Give. Let's finish up today with a call in Missouri. Janice has been holding patiently. And Janice, I know you have a home that you've inherited. You want to talk about what to do with. Go ahead.

Yes, thank you so much. It's just between my sister and I to divide the house with about $300,000 to $350,000. It was my mom passed almost a year ago in November, and I lost my job in July, so I wouldn't qualify for a loan, which would probably be near $150,000 or so, or maybe $175,000. However, I'm in between, have some unemployment, do have 401K that I possibly could convert to an IRA. And then I'll be hoping to get Social Security in February of next year if we can wait till then. So I just wanted your thoughts on that and if that's a good idea to go ahead and buy it versus go ahead and sell it.

And then I'm kind of stuck with something smaller, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah. What are your intentions? I mean, if money was no object, what do you and your sister want to do with this property? Well, we just, she wants to settle the estate. So one way or another, it's pretty much up to me.

I just know the clock is ticking. And as far as my heart, I'm still a little torn, but I'd like to stay because I think it'd be financially smart. Yeah. Okay. So she's not interested in moving into it, but you possibly are? I'm already living there.

I moved back home to help my mom. And then she and her husband have a house and they're fine. Got it. Got it. Okay. Yeah.

You know, so here's the thing. I mean, whenever we inherit an asset like this, we've got to decide what's the best use of this money as the steward. I think the challenge is it'd be one thing if you could go out and get a loan and qualify for that to buy out your sister's portion, assuming it's own free and clear. And so you just have to cover her 50%. But without having employment, that's going to be difficult.

And so I think because of that and because this estate isn't going to need to be settled and probably sooner than when you would get on Social Security, which may be the difference in you, you know, qualifying for this. It seems like you just going ahead and selling this, rolling that 401k over to an IRA, living off of the income from that 401k. And if you have, you know, two hundred thousand in there, you know, you should be able to pull about eight thousand a year from that. So about six hundred fifty a month. So if you can live on six hundred fifty a month, plus your Social Security, assuming you're not planning on continuing to work at least part time, then, you know, I think you could be in good shape there.

Maybe you go find something smaller to buy. It's a good housing market. So this would be a good time to sell. But I think just given the situation and given your sister's desire to kind of close the estate and move on, it just doesn't seem like there's a really logical path forward to you staying in the house. It'd be one thing if you owned it outright, but with it being shared, unless she's willing to wait on this thing, I'd probably just go ahead and sell it, pay her her half and then move on to what's next for you. I wouldn't pull that money out of the 401k.

That would create a huge taxable event. Janice, I appreciate your call today and thanks for your patience. God bless you. Hey, big thanks to my team today. Sandy Dickinson, Devin Patrick and Jim Henry and everybody here at Faith Buy. Lord bless you and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye bye. Faith and Finance is provided by Faith Buy and listeners like you.