Aligning Your Giving with God's Heart with David Wills

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Hi, I'm Rob West. It's great that you have a heart for giving. The next step is to make sure your giving really counts, and that's by aligning it with God's heart. David Wills is here today to help us do that, and then we'll take 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 great to have David Wills with us again. David's a good friend. He's president emeritus of the National Christian Foundation, and he has a ton of experience helping individuals and families decide where to give for maximum kingdom impact. David, great to have you back with us.

It's a privilege to join you, Rob. David, you have a great article in our new quarterly publication, Faithful Steward. It's titled, Aligning Your Giving with God's Heart. God really cares about where we give, and I know you've thought deeply about this topic. Set the stage for us here.

You bet. You know, God asks us to be generous on every occasion, so it brings him glory and it brings us joy when we join him in his work in any way, and especially when we're being generous. And we kind of think through this with three questions that we all ask on our journeys of generosity. Why should I be generous?

How do I do that? And where should I give? Kind of like from the heart to the head to the hands of generosity. And so we're kind of talking right now about the where question, and he has not left us wondering or wondering what we're to be about. But the norm for us is to think about giving to what we're passionate about, but that's kind of the wrong question. We really should flip that and ask, what is it that God cares about? And then we can align our giving with his passions, and we'll experience far more joy if we handle it that way. Well, I'm excited to unpack this, David, because this really drives toward far more intentional giving. You know, we're going to focus on the where, but if we back up to the what for a second, you know, a lot of folks might give spontaneously, or maybe they'll set a giving goal, or maybe they do percentage giving or maybe even get crazy and do an incremental percentage giving where they increase it every year. But, you know, this involves some intentionality to say, you know, and I think about, you know, how I do my investing, and I probably have an investment policy statement, I might have an advisor, but my giving I don't give anywhere near that level of consideration and intentionality.

Isn't that right? Yeah, we asked the question, you know, most of us have some kind of a financial plan, at the very least a budget, when it comes to our personal finances, and so the question we ought to ask ourselves, do I have a giving strategy? Because it's actually very exciting to process through a giving strategy, and that's kind of what we're going to walk through here. Excellent.

Well, let's tee this up before our first break, and then we'll unpack it. So what we're driving toward is the where of our giving, and what you're going to help us understand through the Council of Scripture is there are very clearly some things on the heart of God that we can understand and then build a plan for our giving around that. Isn't that right?

That's right. I think that we'll be able to talk about what I kind of call, it's a three by three framework that involves, he gives us insight into the geography of the where, and also the causes that he cares most about. So you're going to kind of imagine in your mind a three by three grid, and you'll be able to plot your giving on that grid, and we can talk through that.

All right, we've got about a minute before our break here. Why don't you give us the first three across the top? We're imagining this three by three, and we're thinking about the where of our giving. Yeah, so let's start with the geography, and a passage of Scripture we're all familiar with, Acts 1-8. He tells us we're to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth. So let's call that local, national, and international places where we can give.

So that's the first side of the three by three. And this geographic framework really helps us shape an approach to giving that helps us to think beyond our immediate surroundings. Now, what's right in front of us, the people on our path, our local church, I mean that's key, but what about being intentional to add to that other places built around this passage in Acts 1-8?

As we build out this three by three across the top, we now have the geography. We'll continue to unpack it around the people and the causes that are on the heart of God as we build down that left side. With us today is David Wills. He's President Emeritus at the National Christian Foundation, a great partner of ours. You'll find out more at ncfgiving.com. How to align your giving with God's heart just around the corner.

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I'm Rob West. With me today, my good friend David Wills. David is president emeritus at the National Christian Foundation. We're talking about giving that aligns with the heart of God. What if you took a more intentional strategy and brought that to bear in your giving, both geographically as well as to where you're giving, the people and the causes that are on the heart of God. And before the break, David Wills helped us with a framework, a three by three, if you will, that you can use to lay on top of your own giving strategy. And David, what they may realize is that there's some gaps in their giving strategy.

Isn't that right? David Wills I think that we all have gaps in our giving strategy. We often revisit this framework. And you mentioned earlier that the immediate surroundings are what get our attention most quickly. And so having a framework like this really kind of forces us to think kind of beyond where we're currently giving. In the Christian world, we know that the giving, for example, to those that have never heard of the name of Jesus is actually shockingly low. Because those people are a long, long way from where we are.

And so having a framework like this, that's an example of how it can cause you to think, oh, wow, we're not doing much in that area. Chris Yes, that's exactly right. Well, our hope is that you would come out of today's broadcast and perhaps revisit your own giving strategy. Now, we've laid out this grid. David shared with us the geography, which goes along the top side of this three by three. David, recap that for us before we move to the places that we give to from Acts 1. David Yeah, so Acts 1 gives us a great framework of the geography of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. So we'll call that local, national or international.

You can use whatever words that you want, but it's like a concentric circle away from you. Chris Yeah, very good. Now, let's come down the left side of the three by three and help us think about based on Scripture and what we see is on the heart of God, the who of our giving. David Yeah, so let me mention them quickly, then I'll give a little color commentary. So there are three of them, the Great Commission, the Greatest Commandment and the Great Compassion. So let's talk about the Great Commission.

Everybody is familiar with the Great Commission. It's in Acts 28, and it says, go and make disciples of all nations. And so this one actually, the verse itself that's one of the many references actually includes both the geography and the cause itself right there in the verse. So that's the first one, the Great Commission. The next one, the Greatest Commandment. You just back up a couple of chapters to Matthew 22.

We're all familiar with this. The Greatest Commandment, Jesus has asked, what is the Greatest Commandment? And he says, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. So that's the second category, if you will. And then the third is the Great Compassion. And the Great Compassion comes from the next verse, which he says is the second greatest commandment, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself. So those are kind of the three categories that go down one side, and then the others are the geography that go on the other side.

So help us then think about maybe some specific giving opportunities that fall under each of those. Well, I'd like to turn the tables on you here, Rob. Now wait a minute. My name is on the show. I asked the questions here, Davin. Okay, well, I'm sorry, I'm just not going to play along. You knew when you asked me to come on that going off script was very likely.

That's exactly true. Okay, so I'm going to mention some examples from Scripture of where God calls us to give, and you tell me where you would put them on your framework with regards to the Great Commission, the Greatest Commandment, and the Great Compassion. I'll start easy for you, Rob. The Scriptures are replete with our call to support the poor and the vulnerable, widows, orphans, refugees.

Which one of those frameworks do you slot that one? It's a great question. I would put that in the Great Compassion. Well, one for one, Rob.

Good for you. Now wait, I thought there was no wrong answers on this quiz, but okay, fine. That's true. There are no wrong answers. You're right.

So here's the next one, and they're going to get progressively more difficult, so just be forewarned. So another place that Scripture tells us is that we are instructed to support those who teach and preach to us. Like our pastors, maybe the elders, the church that we attend is an example of that. Not just that, though, there's others.

Where do you slot that one? So I would put that in the Great Commission, because as a part of their work, they're to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Okay, I'll give you that one. And the good news is, is just because I would put it somewhere else doesn't make it right or wrong. So I slot that one in our personal, in the Greatest Commandment, because they're helping me to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Okay, I can see that.

Okay, but now let's go to the next one. How about we're called to support evangelists, church planters, those that are doing Scripture translation, those that are doing media for oral learners, for example. Lots and lots of options, but those kind of all fit somewhere.

Where would you put those? And that would clearly be the Great Commission. Exactly. I'm going to give you one more.

And this one's interesting. You have to think about this one. So the Scriptures are very clear that with regards to our generosity, we're to care for our own families.

And if we don't, there's some really tough 1 Timothy 5.8 that really tells us that we financially should be supporting our own family. Where do you put that? See, I would put that in the Great Compassion because I'm to love my neighbor as myself. Exactly. I'm going to score you 100 percent.

I don't know if that's what you deserve, but that's what I'm going to give you. So that's kind of how it works. We could go on. You could sit down with your family and go through this same exercise.

And also, when you're thinking about that, you also want to think about the geography side as well. And so there you go. That's the framework. Well, and this is something you can teach to your kids as well. David, I know you work with a lot of families that want to be intentional in passing down this burden for giving to the next generation.

And this is something you can start very early with, right? Absolutely. Talk to us about those ministries that fit into each of these buckets. Can NCF help with us knowing how do I connect a burden for one of these categories to an actual ministry that I can feel good about doing the boots on the ground work?

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that I love just myself, my wife and I, we've been using NCF for, I mean, we're probably getting close to 30 years. And one of the things it does is it lets us know. We get live reports literally of all of our giving over the last 25, 30 years of where it's gone.

So there's kind of a taxonomy, a framework like this inside of the NCF world. So if you want to know how you're doing with regards to giving to evangelism, you can just pull it right up and you can see how you're doing. And so NCF really is very helpful on your journey of generosity. And that's kind of the one of the big helps with the how question.

How do I do my giving? Well, one of the ways we do that is we use the NCF platform and it helps us track all of this stuff that we're talking about. Excellent. Well, that's David Wills, president emeritus at NCF. And folks, if NCF is a new term for you, that's simply the National Christian Foundation, founded by the late Larry Burkett and Ron Blue and Terry Parker.

You can learn more at ncfgiving.com. By the way, the article we've been referencing today is found in our new quarterly publication, Faithful Steward. It's delivered to our FaithFi partners every quarter and you can learn more at faithfi.com.

Call now 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. As a faithful listener of the Faith and Finance program, you know that there is life changing financial wisdom in God's word to meet all your needs.

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This institution is not federally insured. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance for taking your calls and questions. 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. You can call right now. All right, let's head to the phones here. We'll go to Tennessee.

Hi, Jason. How can we help you? My question is, I have a daughter turning 16 years old today, and along with that milestone, I'd like to start helping her become more responsible for her money and so forth. So I'd like to find some – I know there are a lot of different sorts of debit cards out there that are more app-oriented than just a typical checking account. So I wondered if you had any recommendations or particular ones to avoid.

I know there's things like Cash App and things like that out there that seem to make me a little nervous. And if there was anything like that that was more faith-oriented, that would certainly be a plus. Yeah, very good. Well, I'm so thrilled to hear, Jason, that this is what you're doing and really taking this approach and trying to prepare her as a future adult for when she's on her own making these decisions. This is really key, and it's not just the financial literacy side, the dangers of debt and the value of hard work and the importance of a budget and living within your means, but also the biblical literacy side, understanding that God owns it all and that we're stewards and we're to give generously and that money can compete with our devotion and affection for God. So these are equally important.

In fact, I think the spiritual is even more important. So in terms of a faith-based approach, I mean, the FaithFi app would be great for her just in terms of the financial education there that's all from a biblical perspective. And she could set up her budget there and manage it and start becoming familiar with the envelope philosophy.

But in a modern smartphone expression of that, you'll find that at our website, faithfi.com. But if you're looking for an actual money management system where she could have a debit card and you could have parental controls, and she could actually use it to pay for things when she goes and spends her own money, then you would need to look at something else. There's not one that I'm aware of that goes all the way to the extent of buying and selling and allow her to have an account.

But there are some secular ones that generally come up over and over again as some of the most highly rated. You mentioned one, I believe, and that is Chime. But the other one that I would look at, which is specifically for kids, the interface is for it. There is a cost to it, but it's called Greenlight.

And you'll find it at greenlight.com. And they billed themselves as kind of the all-in-one money and safety app for families to teach kids how to manage money. And there's all kinds of parental controls. And it's got a really nice interface. And I think they claim to have more than six million parents and kids on this system. And you can even tie it to chores and that kind of thing.

So Greenlight would be one to look at. The other is, and this is what I currently have my boys on, is just the Capital One money account. So this is specifically for kids from Capital One. And the nice thing is that they have their own debit card, they have their own account. But I can go in in my app and turn on and off the account. I can see all the transactions.

Even though it's in their name, I can automatically transfer money into the account and pull money out if I need to. So that would be another one. So I think Greenlight and then Capital One money, it's called money, that's the brand name for it.

And it's specifically for teens. I think those two would get you going in the right direction. All right? Right. Fantastic.

Thank you so much for that information. All right, Jason. Hey, happy birthday to your 16-year-old.

That's a really exciting milestone in her life. We appreciate you being on the program today. Let's go to Ohio. Hi, James. How can I help, sir? Hi, Rob. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. Yeah, I'm working and I'm married. We'll be at full retirement age towards the end of the year. And I just wonder if I should take my Social Security at basically 67 and, you know, save and invest and, you know, do things charitable, things like that, or just keep working and keeping my budget on track, but getting that higher income down the road from Social Security.

Yeah, yeah. It's a good question and it's one that a lot of people really wrestle with. And, you know, the reason that I think for people who are healthy, I mean, obviously the Lord knows whether we'll take our next breath, but just, you know, just kind of stepping back for a second. If you're relatively healthy and you don't need the money because you're continuing to work and probably finding a lot of enjoyment in that, the idea that you would continue to let that increase by 8% a year up until 70 is something that's pretty attractive. Because, you know, you could get a benefit, you know, that's, you know, somewhere between, you know, 25 and 32% higher. So if your full retirement age benefit, let's say it was $2,500 a month, I mean, you could be talking about a check $3,100 to $3,300 a month starting at age 70. Now, you would need to live into your mid-80s, you know, in order to be paid back for everything you gave up and then you'd have that higher, you know, payout for the rest of your life. You know, so I think, you know, you could end up with, if you lived in age 90, you could, delaying could result in an additional $100,000 or more in lifetime payments, you know, just by waiting and getting that higher check. And so that guaranteed increase is nice because we certainly don't have any guarantees in the market if you were to take it. Now, at the same time, what I would say is if you're saying, listen, I'd rather get that money into work, into God's economy right now and give it away and do some things that I really, you know, I'm passionate and burdened about.

And I don't want to have to wait and I don't know how long, you know, the Lord's going to tarry and I certainly don't know how long he's got for me here. I wouldn't argue with that one bet. I would say go for it.

But I think if we just purely look at the math equation, I think those are the reasons why a lot of people decide to wait to avoid unnecessary taxation while you're still earning a salary because a higher percentage of your Social Security could be taxable to increase your benefit and to increase your survivor benefit if you're married. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's great. I appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, James. Lord bless you, sir. We appreciate you calling today.

Well, that's going to do it for us today. I'm so thankful for your calls. What a privilege it is that you invite us into your stories each day as we guide you back to God's word and encourage you to apply the wisdom we find in Scripture to your financial decisions and choices. And let me invite you to become a FaithFi partner.

These are men and women who help us reach more people with this life-changing message of God's wisdom related to stewardship. FaithFi partners support us monthly at $35 a month or more or $400 a year, and we have the opportunity to make available some great FaithFi partner benefits, including exclusive quarterly ministry updates and early release copies of each of our FaithFi studies and devotionals mailed right to your door. If you'd like to become a FaithFi partner or give a gift of any amount, just head to our website, faithfi.com, and click Give. That's faithfi.com, and click Give. Well, folks, we hope you come back and join us next time. On behalf of my entire team here at FaithFi, including today's broadcast team, Taylor Stanrich, Amy Rios, and Chad Clark, I'm Rob West. Looking forward to having you back here next time as we apply God's wisdom to your financial decisions and choices here on Faith and Finance. Until then, may God bless you. Bye-bye. Faith and Finance is provided by FaithFi and listeners like you.