Are Christians generous, but not always wise stewards?

In Episode 17 of The Don’t Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker interviews Chad Jackson, Executive Director of the Jackson Family Foundation, about the difference between giving from good intentions and intentionally stewarding the resources God has entrusted to us.

Tim and Chad discuss the troubling imbalance in Christian giving, including the reality that less than 0.5% of worldwide Christian giving reaches unevangelized and unreached people. They explore why Christians should look beyond emotional reactions and personal connections when choosing where to give, and why wise stewardship requires prayer, discernment, research, and action.

Chad explains the Jackson Family Foundation’s focus on hope, homes, and health, along with its commitment to prayer, presence, and partnership. He shares how the foundation seeks to support gospel-centered ministries serving vulnerable people in hard-to-reach places, often through indigenous leaders and holistic ministry that addresses both physical and spiritual needs.

Together, Tim and Chad ask what it really means to love God with our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and how Christian donors, kingdom advisors, and wealth managers can pursue investments that produce lasting fruit.

ABOUT ROI MINISTRY
ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served - while still sharing the Gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.

Free resources:
• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/
• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ 

Know you're making a difference.

The Jesus Film Project has translated a 2-hour film of the life of Jesus - Gospel of Luke, with the words Jesus speaks on screen being the literal words of God - into 2,301 languages. It is freely given to ~1,800 ministry partners and shown in remote, low-literacy communities where 2–3 billion people still live who have never heard of Jesus. Every showing is tied to church planting. 

Tim talks with Josh Newell about how a 45-year-old ministry founded by Paul Eshleman under Bill Bright's leadership grew from a handful of languages to 2,301 - and how an animated version of the same film is now being built to reach a generation whose median age is 30. Plus the "test us on that" answer to large gifts, the partnership math that has Jesus Film bear the development cost while field partners carry the distribution, and the on-mic announcement that Jesus Film Project will appear on ROI Ministry's all-time Top 10 list.

The Jesus Film Project: https://www.jesusfilm.org/

ABOUT ROI MINISTRY
ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served - while still sharing the Gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.

Free resources:
• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/
• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

Know you're making a difference.

For 13 cents, SERV International feeds one person a real meal — and shares the Gospel with every hand it passes through. To date, SERV has shipped 117 million meals across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, DR Congo, and South Sudan. Their Kenya-based plant can manufacture 1 million meals a day; last year they shipped 13 million. The gap is the opportunity.

In this Partner Highlight, Tim sits down with Steve Kasha, Founder & CEO of SERV International — a Canton, Georgia-based ministry 25 years in the making. Steve's calling story started in a hammock in the Venezuelan jungle, day 4 with no food and no water, when he heard, audibly, the voice that would set the trajectory of his life. Today, SERV runs an orphanage in northwest Kenya, manufactures its own fortified meal blend in-country to bypass the 2–3 month shipping lag, ships a million meals into DRC during the Ebola crisis while every other relief org pulls out, and packages 1,000+ food boxes a month locally in Georgia. Steve's thesis is simple: every bag is an opportunity to pass the gGospel from one hand to the next. ROI Ministry's independent vetting confirmed SERV's 13-cents-per-meal claim — third-party validation, not internal marketing. SERV can absorb a $20M–$50M gift today without sacrificing quality; a second warehouse already sits empty in faith. 

SERV International — https://servone.org

ABOUT ROI MINISTRY
ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.

Free resources:
• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/
• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

Know you're making a difference.

For 35 years, YWAM San Diego-Baja's Homes of Hope has built nearly 10,000 homes across 34 countries — sponsored by volunteer teams at $12,000 per home including furniture package, and staffed entirely by self-funded missionaries so every donated dollar stretches into the field. Even at minimum wage, labor and materials given since 1990 total more than $120 million of value to the poor.

In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with Sean Lambert — Executive Director and President of YWAM San Diego-Baja — and his daughter Andrea East about how an untargeted 1990 offering, a 3-year-old's question, and a woman named Maria living in an abandoned bus became one of the most replicated home-building models on earth. They cover the "five benefits" compounding inside every home — economic, education, health, hope, and spiritual — the "Tanya" story (12-year-old to master's-in-nursing in one generation), the volunteer-leverage math that sends 100% of donations to the field, the Cornelius framework for why anyone can build, and Andrea's Hebrew word "Mishpat" — justice as restoration of God's intentions. Plus: why one Indiana company brought 7,000 employees over 9 years, why 81% of groups come back, and why Sean closed with the Southwest Airlines pilot who told the National Prayer Breakfast: "When you have a destination, you have hope, and hope changes everything."

YWAM San Diego-Baja / Homes of Hope: https://ywamsandiegobaja.org/

ABOUT ROI MINISTRY
ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.

Free resources:
• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/
• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

Know you're making a difference.

For $3.64, MedSend provides one person medical care — through a healthcare worker who shares the gospel with every patient they see. One worker, supported over 4–5 years at $15,000–$25,000 per year, reaches an estimated 100,000 patients over their career. In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with Rick Allen, MedSend's CEO of 18 years, about how a software executive became a missionary, why the global south is the new frontline for unreached people groups, and what happens when saving a life becomes the bridge to sharing Jesus. Plus: the "Launch" model that eliminates dependency, the 12-CEO summit Rick convened with the largest U.S. sending organizations, and the book "Surrendered Heart."

MedSend: https://medsend.org/

ABOUT ROI MINISTRY ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.

Free resources:
• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/
• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ 

Know you're making a difference.

For about 80 cents a child, The Mailbox Club walks a kid through a complete course of Bible lessons. Last year: 17.3 million children enrolled, nearly 12 million completed the course, and 8 million made a decision for Christ — across 100+ countries, 200,000 churches, and 750,000 volunteer mentors.

In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with John Mark Eager, CEO of The Mailbox Club, about how a 1965 mail-based Bible lesson ministry in Valdosta, Georgia became a globally decentralized, church-driven discipleship engine serving the 4–14 age group in the hardest-to-reach places on earth. They cover the Samaritan's Purse distribution pivot that dropped costs and 10×'d graduation rates, the 10/40 Window math, why discipleship-first flips the math (80%+ of kids discipled come to faith anyway), and Franklin Graham's counsel when John Mark laid out a growth plan: "Don't limit God."

The Mailbox Club: https://mailboxclub.org/

ABOUT ROI MINISTRY
ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.

Free resources:
• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/
• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ 

Know you're making a difference.

220 people came to know Jesus in a single week — through clean water, in a Nairobi slum, at a cost of $1.34 per person per year. In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with Cory Akin of The Bucket Ministry about how a CFO became a missionary, why meeting a physical need opens the door for gospel conversations, and what 14 years of filter design has taught them about sustainable impact. 15 countries. 220 salvations in a week. One cracked cup on the Amazon that started it all.

The Bucket Ministry: https://thebucketministry.org/

ABOUT ROI MINISTRY
ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.

Free resources:
• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/
• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ 

Know you're making a difference.

$0.95.

That's the third-party-validated cost — confirmed by Calvin Edwards & Company — of one person praying to receive Jesus through Here's Life Africa. One of the ministries Tim's team has kept on the ROI Ministry Top 10 since the first annual list.

Here's Life Africa has been at this for 29 years. It started in Tanzania, a country of 30 million that was 47% Christian. Today, that same country is 70 million people and 62% Christian — 40 million professing believers, up from 14 million when the ministry began. The ministry now works across East Africa in Tanzania, Malawi, and Uganda, with 47 teams deployed to million-person geographies.

In this Partner Highlight episode of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Andy Blakeslee, leader of Here's Life Africa, to walk through:

• The Amazon jungle origin: Andy grew up in the same place in Ecuador where Jim Elliott, Nate Saint, and three other missionaries were martyred in 1956 — and accepted Christ at age 5 in that jungle
• The Toña story: the Helio Courier plane that flew Andy and his family was named after the first Waorani Indian to receive Christ — and then was martyred for going back to his own tribe with the gospel
• The 14-year detour: EDS, Accenture, and "I'll never be a missionary" — until God's call was unmistakable
• The $0.95-per-decision number: third-party-validated by Calvin Edwards, and how it compares to the 30,000× upside in kingdom impact when resources reach the world's poorest, lost people
• The LAMP method (Listen, Ask, Consider the Message, Pray) — a four-letter, four-week discovery Bible study that turns 3,000 raised hands a day into small groups meeting weekly for 7-10 years
• How $42 starts a small-group Bible study that meets weekly for up to 10 years — about 40 cents per person per year for a decade of discipleship
• How $2,250 per month (or $27,000 per year) sponsors an entire team and produces roughly 50 evangelistic crusades a year
• The 0.33% problem: only one-third of one percent of all Christian giving reaches the world's poorest, lost people — and why that number has not budged in two decades
• Why the Great Commission shows up 5x in the New Testament and the Greatest Commandment only 3x — and what that means for how you allocate your giving portfolio
• How to give to Here's Life Africa anonymously through the ROI Ministry Top 10 (no fees, no skim, 100% reaches the ministry)

About ROI Ministry

ROI Ministry is a free resource that reviews 100+ ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Tim calls it EROI: the eternal return on investment.

Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.

Free resources:
https://roiministry.org/
https://hereslifeafrica.org/
BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

Subscribe and know you're making a difference.

$50.

That's what it costs — sustainably, for life — to take one person off the water crisis and put the gospel in their hands. One of the ministries Tim's team has kept on the ROI Ministry Top 10 since the first annual list.

Since 2008, Neverthirst has provided over 1.6 million people in the 10/40 window with sustainable clean water and the gospel — posted 17 consecutive years of growth, scaled from $2.5M to $10.9M annual budget, and now serves from some of the hardest places on earth. With local pastors at the tip of the spear.

In this Partner Highlight episode of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Matt Letourneau, Executive Director of Neverthirst, to walk through:

• The Psalm 67 origin story — three Birmingham businessmen, a guest sermon on "May God be gracious to us and bless us," and a mud-hut "hospital" in Sudan that started a 501(c)(3)
• The 17-month client-pipeline collapse that pushed Matt out of a six-figure consulting book and into ministry
• The cost-per-soul math: $50 sustainably takes one person off the water crisis — gospel included — for a 20–30 year life on the water point
• The village-pay-in model: every family contributes money or labor to a repair fund held in escrow by 8 women in the village, so a corrupt chief can't get to it
• The 10/40-window pastor whose two sons (ages 7 and 5) were killed in the very village he was trying to reach — and who went back years later, drilled a well with Neverthirst, and led the village to Christ
• Why "water without the gospel" misses the point — and what "eternal impact per dollar" actually measures
• The story of Neverthirst's growth from $2.5M to $10.9M — and what unlocked it (compelling vision, clear reporting, GPS coordinates on every project)
• How to give to Neverthirst anonymously through the ROI Ministry Top 10 (no fees, no skim, 100% reaches the ministry)

About ROI Ministry

ROI Ministry is a free resource that reviews 100+ ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Tim calls it EROI: the eternal return on investment.

Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.

Free resources:
https://roiministry.org/
https://neverthirst.org/
BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

Don't bury what you heard and know you're making a difference.

3 cents.

That's the cost of a single gospel presentation at Explore God (formerly Global Media Outreach) — one of the ministries Tim's team has kept on the ROI Ministry Top 10 for nearly a decade.

Since 2004, Explore God has shared the gospel more than 3 billion times. In 13 languages. Across the poorest and least-reached places on earth. On the smartphones of people in Thailand coffee fields, in Pakistani cities, in Indian villages where it's illegal to share the gospel in person.

In this Partner Highlight episode of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Jamie Radtke, President of Explore God, to walk through:

• The 2004 founding vision — a former Apple engineer's bet that the internet could accomplish the Great Commission
• The cost-per-soul math: 3¢ per gospel presentation, 46¢ per indicated decision, $3.45 per new discipleship connection
• Why 85% of Explore God's outreach happens in developing countries
• The 2026 rebrand from Global Media Outreach to Explore God — and why the name change is a discipleship bet
• How the gospel reaches closed countries where in-person evangelism is illegal or impossible
• The regional-hub strategy putting online missionaries in Kenya, India, Lebanon, Russia, and Brazil
• How to give to Explore God anonymously through the National Christian Foundation portal on roiministry.org

About ROI Ministry

ROI Ministry is a free resource that reviews 100+ ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Tim calls it EROI: the eternal return on investment.

Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.

Free resources:
https://roiministry.org/
https://exploregod.com/
BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ 

Subscribe and know you're making a difference.