ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast

Is philanthropy moving generosity away from ministries that share Jesus and into charities that don't?

In Episode 26 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker goes solo to kick off a new series on Biblically Responsible Giving (BRG). Most givers in the U.S. are still Christians, yet only about one of every four charitable dollars goes to ministries that share Jesus. Tim explains why followers of Jesus need to distinguish ministry from charity.

Tim traces a 40-year drop in giving to religious organizations, from about 58% to less than 25%. He shows how Christian wealth managers can meet a real need, since 87% of affluent clients want help with giving and only 6% of advisors provide it. Then he introduces the 7 principles of BRG and walks through the first two.

The conversation also covers:
* Why "I'm philanthropic" means something different than it did 40 years ago
* The order of high impact giving: Jesus first, then your local church, trusted ministries, and proven high impact opportunities
* Why Jesus calls us to be fruit inspectors, not judges of motives
* Output vs. outcome: the Jesus Film Project's 10 cents per Gospel view and $5.30 per indicated decision for Christ
* Building your own eternity portfolio

Tim's challenge: the goal isn't perfection, it's moving one more step in the right direction each day. Use your affluence or your influence, and share this episode with everyone you love and care about today. Don't put it off till later, because what we do with what God has entrusted to us today can make a difference for us and for others for all of eternity.

Learn more about ROI Ministry: https://roiministry.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.

Is philanthropy fleecing Christianity?

In Episode 25 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker goes solo to expose a troubling reality: more money has meant less Jesus. He makes the case that Biblically Responsible Giving (BRG) for Christ followers is the answer, at a time when as many as 60,000 people die each day without ever hearing the name of Jesus.

Tim shows how little of the nearly $2 trillion held by the largest U.S. foundations goes to sharing Jesus, even though most were started by committed evangelical Christian families. He follows the money through the nonprofit sector, where Christian ministries receive only about 4%, and through 25 years of giving that tripled in the U.S. while giving to the unreached stayed under one-half of 1%. Then he asks whether the money sitting in your donor advised fund is serving God this day.

The conversation also covers:
* Why clients want the generosity conversation, and why many advisors aren't having it
* Why good intentions don't guarantee eternal results
* How local church giving has barely moved once adjusted for inflation
* What DAF Day revealed about generosity versus good stewardship
* The 7 principles of Biblically Responsible Giving

Tim's challenge: "Start investing in what God cares about," and "your heart will follow your treasure every time." Put these resources to work furthering God's kingdom while we still have time, "before we pass away, before the next market crash or before Jesus returns."

The six articles Tim mentions are linked in the YouTube description.

Learn more about ROI Ministry: https://roiministry.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.

If everything we have belongs to God, what does faithful stewardship actually look like?

In Episode 24 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker looks back on seven conversations with Christian business and financial leaders (Chad Jackson, Brian Cochran, Jeff Thomas, Bill High, David Mimms, Robert Netzly, and Brian Holtz), and on what they teach together about stewardship.

Generosity isn't the finish line; faithfulness is. If it's important, track it. Don't transfer the wealth and lose the mission. And if God owns it all, we aren't owners deciding how much to give Him. We are stewards deciding how to manage what is already His.

The conversation also covers:
* EROI, the eternal return on investment
* Brian Cochran's 10 + 1 approach
* Ron Blue's three questions for families
* Biblically Responsible Investing vs. Biblically Responsible Giving
* The 7 principles of Biblically Responsible Giving

Tim closes with a challenge for all of us. At the end of our lives, the question won't be how much we accumulated or even how much we gave away. It will be closer to this: What did we do with what God entrusted to us? Did we multiply it, advance His kingdom with it, or did we bury it?

Learn more about ROI Ministry: https://roiministry.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.

If everything belongs to God, how does He want you to use what He's entrusted to you?

In Episode 23 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker interviews Brian Holtz, CEO of Compass Financial Ministry, about why biblical stewardship reaches further than generosity, and how to make every financial decision with Kingdom outcomes in mind.

Tim shares how biblical financial principles helped his family climb out of more than a million dollars in debt. Brian, who now leads Compass after founder Howard Dayton, explains the ministry's vision, why the love of money sits at the root of so many of the world's problems, and how freedom starts with knowing Christ more intimately.

The conversation also covers:
* Why biblical stewardship is broader than generosity
* Heart, head, and hands: the greatest commandment applied to money
* The emotional debt so many of us carry
* Why giving more than doubled while the share reaching the unreached stayed under half a percent
* Analysis paralysis and the money waiting in donor-advised funds
* Why surrender is the real strategy

Brian closes with a simple challenge. The big strategy isn't complicated: recognize God's ownership and surrender to it. Examine the passions He's put on your heart and the opportunities in front of you, then ask Him, "What would you have me do with what you've entrusted?"

Learn more about Compass Financial Ministry: https://compassfinancialministry.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.

What happens when the president of your local pro-life pregnancy center discovers he owns three stocks of companies manufacturing abortion drugs?

In Episode 22 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker interviews Robert Netzly, founder and CEO of Inspire Investing and CEO of Inspire Advisors, about how a personal conviction moment grew into a $5.5 billion+ biblically responsible investing movement.

Robert shares how he stumbled across biblically responsible investing while looking for a Bible study to teach at his church on finance; how he discovered he owned three stocks of companies manufacturing abortion drugs while serving as president of his local pro-life pregnancy center; how he left Wells Fargo Private Client Services with less than two months of savings in the bank; how he started over with just a laptop doing "some sort of biblical something investing."

The conversation also covers:

• How what started as a local hometown advisor practice grew into hundreds of Christian advisors hearing from a friend of a friend about what they were doing
• How Robert realized this was not his movement but a movement of God's Spirit
• The 2015 launch of Inspire Investing LLC and the 2017 listing of their first two ETFs on the New York Stock Exchange
• The 2018 closing bell ringing at the NYSE where Christian financial ministry leaders representing more than $100 billion in assets gathered, including Kingdom Advisors (Atlanta), Thrivent, and National Christian Foundation (NCF)
• The spontaneous worship moment at the NYSE when Amazing Grace broke out across the trading floor
• Walking around the corner from the NYSE to find a church hosting a gay pride festival
• How Christians in America own $22.4 trillion of stock, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs — 49.7% of all investment assets in the United States
• How Microsoft recently opened up faith-based options in their corporate giving matching program after Inspire's shareholder engagement efforts
• The free Inspire Impact Score tool at inspireinsight.com where anyone can type a ticker symbol and see what's actually inside any investment
• Give50 — Inspire's commitment of 50% of net profits from management fees to Christian ministries

Robert closes with a challenge: don't be afraid. Learn what you actually own. Consider how you can be more generous with aligned ministries like those on ROI Ministry's Top Ten list.

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.

In Episode 21 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker interviews David Mimms - co-founder of ROI Ministry and chairman of Mimms Enterprises - about how David heckled Tim from the back row at an Equip training - and two decades later they had launched an organization that has reviewed over one hundred ministries each year.

David shares how his grandfather founded Mimms Enterprises in 1936 after being recruited from South Carolina by Governor Talmadge himself; how his father joined after serving in the Air Force; how David grew up doing construction from knee-high through Georgia Tech ('76); how he met Nora while building a power plant in Ottumwa, Iowa when she was eighteen; how he rededicated his life to Christ at age 23 ("a warm light came through the window… I got this"); how he returned to Atlanta to join Mimms Enterprises.

Tim shares how he bombed so badly speaking in front of a thousand people in Indonesia that "most of them were sleeping"; how he ran into David again at what wasn't even a Christian conference ("I don't think there's any coincidences"); how he showed up at David's office with World Christian Trends covered in yellow sticky tabs ("I've gotta come over"); how David named it on the spot ("Well let's just call it ROI Ministry"); how they launched with a board that voted Tim down on needing a 501(c)(3).

The conversation also covers:

• Their early vetting trips meeting Morgan Jackson (Faith Comes By Hearing), Steve Calliper, Kathryn Barnhart
• Getting thrown into a Jesus Film Harvest Partners board meeting in Kansas before they engaged Calvin Edwards as their independent vetter
• Hugh McClellan handing them The Proclaimer saying "this ministry needs to be on your top ten list"
• The November 1–3, 2013 Reynolds Plantation retreat at Ritz Carlton Lodge on Lake Oconee where half their Top Ten ministries sent one couple each
• Nora's Schindler's List moment challenging everyone about possessions vs. kingdom investment ("60,000 people die every day")
• The Sanibel beach houses ("the Sanibel 7") where they've hosted multiple retreats since then
• Talking Rock Retreat Center near Ellijay — nearly 200 acres that comfortably sleeps twelve couples

David closes with three challenges for listeners:

1. Walk your life out in faith and obedience.
2. Treat every meeting as if God has something to say through it.
3. Pick one or two mission organizations ROI Ministry has already vetted — no more than three — dip your toe in it.

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.

What if every Christian family is on a decline curve unless something interrupts it?

In Episode 20 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker interviews Bill High, founder of Legacy Stone Ministry and founder of The Signatry, about why generational decline is built into every family - and what the families who break that pattern actually do.

Bill shares how he grew up in poverty in the Missouri Ozarks, lost his dad as a teenager, came to faith through a small church plant in a town of 100 people, stumbled into the donor-advised fund world through urban ministry, and ultimately founded The Signatry around a single idea: wouldn't it be great if we could write the last check that would go to the last missionary group reaching the last tribe.

Tim and Bill also discuss:

• Why "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" is repeated in every country around the world
• The Green family / Hobby Lobby case study: four generations at the table, 23 great-grandchildren, 50% of profits to the kingdom
• Why Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are really about how you govern a family
• The Deuteronomy 6 / Shema model of intentional faith transmission from age zero to five
• The three buckets of family thriving: relational health, structure and governance, training the next generation
• Why giving your kids a big check is one of the worst things you can do
• The sobering data point that 11 of the 12 most generous US families started strong as devout Christians but only one has a Christ focus today
• Why generosity is up 2.6x worldwide and 3x in the US over 25 years but giving to unreached people groups has not moved
• Why $158 billion a year goes to pets while unreached people groups remain largely unfunded
• How hyper-individualism is shrinking both the birth rate and the giving pie
• Why Bill believes we are living in one of the greatest times in history for both wealth accumulation and gospel multiplication

Bill is co-author with David Green of The Legacy Life and has worked with families across more than 25 years through Legacy Stone Ministry.

Learn more about Bill's work with families at Legacy Stone Ministry (https://legacystone.com) and grab a copy of The Legacy Life here: https://legacystone.com/legacylife. For consulting and advisory work, visit https://7thgenconsulting.com/. You can also find Bill at https://billhigh.com

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.

How does a Christian wealth manager move from career to calling - and then scale what a mentor built?

In Episode 19 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker interviews Jeff Thomas, founder and CEO of Arkos Global, about the mentorship and three questions that have shaped a firm directing over $500 million to Christian ministries since 2017.

Jeff shares how Ron Blue shaped his entire career - from writing him a literal letter in the early 2000s, to three years of discipleship over coffee at the Atlanta airport hotel before Kingdom Advisor coaching events, to hearing God say audibly in their last session together: "I want you to scale what this guy started." That moment sent Jeff on a sixteen-year discernment path that ultimately led him to leave Morgan Stanley and launch Arkos Global in 2017.

Tim also shares his own personal Ron Blue moment - walking into Kingdom Advisors' headquarters off the freeway with a white paper on ministry vetting, getting confirmation from Ron Blue himself, Hugh McClellan of Generous Giving, and David Wills of National Christian Foundation (NCF) that the idea was worth pursuing. That meeting became the catalyst for ROI Ministry itself.

The conversation closes with three questions Ron taught Jeff that Arkos still uses with every client in transition today: How much is enough for you? How much is enough for your kids? And what do you do with the rest? 

This is the third episode in a new Don't Bury It series on Christian wealth management, generosity, stewardship, and kingdom impact.

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.

How does a Christian wealth manager move a family from generous giving to wise, intentional stewardship? 

In Episode 18 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker interviews Brian Cochran, CFP, CKA, and majority shareholder of John Moore Associates, about the role of the kingdom advisor at the moment a gift gets made.

Brian shares how John Moore Associates grew from $300M to $1.1B in assets under management while tracking more than $50M in cumulative client charitable giving since 2012. He explains the firm's "10 + 1" framework — 10% of income plus 1% of assets — and why the 1% unlocks a category of giving most believers have never considered. He walks through the "deeper with fewer" discipline that has replaced small-gift-sprawl in many of his client portfolios, and he describes a real case where a new client family with a $10M net worth was coached from $50K/year giving into a $1.5M first-year gift and $200K–$400K annually thereafter.

Tim and Brian also discuss:

• Why generosity and stewardship are different callings
• Why American assets have grown 300% over 25 years and what that means for kingdom giving
• How appreciated stock and other non-cash gifts can be more tax-advantageous than cash
• Why asset-based giving through donor-advised funds like those at National Christian Foundation (NCF) is changing the math for Christian families
• What Tim calls EROI — eternal return on investment — and why the risk/reward calculation changes when eternity is the horizon
• The widow's mite, and when God-honoring giving doesn't have to be strategic

Brian is co-author with John Moore of In Succession and The Almighty and the Dollar. He is a CFP and a Certified Kingdom Advisor (CKA), and a member of Kingdom Advisors.

This is the second episode in a new Don't Bury It series on Christian wealth management, generosity, stewardship, and Kingdom impact.

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.

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.