Chris Miller, President of Miller Management, is the host of this week’s episode. He is joined by his colleague, Neil Franks, President at the Missouri Baptist Foundation.
The first episode in this series was on investing and planned giving in churches, last week the discussion surrounded a healthy perspective on money in the church and if a Pastor should or shouldn’t look at individuals giving. Today’s message focuses on giving our money and assests in a way that aligns with God’s will. And in a way that is tax friendly.
Maybe we can do both, give to the church, and also avoid unnecessary taxes. In a very legal way of course.
Talking Money in the Church
Some of the other ways to give (beside cash) are IRA, Charitable Gift Annuities, donating assets, or stocks, etc. that can avoid the taxes and benefit the organization. We talked about some of that in the first episode in this series. Donor advised fund is a way to designate your funds to charitable giving, without giving right away. More like a charitable checking account.
Our guest has found that people are willing to hear about better ways to give to ministries. They aren’t offended when the church asks for money, instead they are appreciative of all the ways that they can accept giving. Ways they might not of thought about on their own, because they don’t keep up with all the new ways to donate. And they aren’t sure where to start.
The other thing people are wary of is who to trust. Especially for the older generation, they want to make sure they are getting good information. If someone is talking about their will and charitable opportunities, they don’t want to end up in some sort of scam.
Talking money can be scary, especially if it’s not something you are used to talking about. Or grew up talking about. But on the flip side, not having a plan can be just as scary.
More on the Missouri Baptist Foundation
The MBF does love working with baptists in Missouri, but they are not limited to working with just those folks. They can work with any non-profit orgnanization that is partnering to advance the gospel. They do have to adhere to state lines because of certifications, however.
Endowment Management is something they work with all the time. And Estate Planning and Gift Planning are other area they can help with. Most importantly, they can be a great resource of information, and if they can’t help you directly, can pass you along to someone who can. This area is important, can be confusion, and can be difficult if you don’t have someone whom you can trust. Those are three of the reasons to look into utilizing someone like the MBF.
A Note for Pastors
For Pastors, we know some of the reasons they don’t talk about money in the church any more than they do is because of those three areas mentioned above and especially because of the lack of education in the area of finance. Our encouragement for you today, if you feel in that boat, is to reach out to Miller Management, or the Missouri Baptist Foundation, or the Nazarene Foundation to get started.
Coming Up
Join us next week as our hosts talks to Laura Murphy about Personal Finances for Pastors.
Join the conversation, see behind the scenes, and learn more on our Instagram and X pages.
Special thanks to our guest, Neil Franks, and our masters of all things Podcasting, Chris and Lauren Miller, for this third episode in our Financial Planning series.