By The Finish Line Team
5
4242 ratings
The podcast currently has 108 episodes available.
Christopher Beth, founder of The Bucket Ministry, spent most of his life as a business consultant and thought he would retire from that line of work. But a radical encounter with God deep in the Amazon turned his life upside down and from that experience, The Bucket Ministry was born. The Bucket Ministry widely disperses water filters and the gospel all around the world using an advanced digital mapping platform to guide their work.
The mission of The Bucket Ministry is to share God’s love through the gift of safe, clean, drinking water. While The Bucket Ministry started out in the Brazilian Amazon, it is now actively evangelizing and providing water filters all over the globe. Christopher has an incredible story as well as lots of great advice on effective ministry and data tracking. You won’t want to miss what he had to share!
Major topics include:
Acts 4:13 | God Uses Common Men
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebookand LinkedIn.
Aimee Minnich is co-founder of the Impact Foundation, a donor-advised fund platform that enables givers to invest in world-changing companies with social, environmental, and spiritual impact. Aimee began her career in law followed by years of experience in the donor-advised fund space with the National Christian Foundation before eventually launching the Impact Foundation to enable streamlined impact investing with charitable dollars.
Aimee has been a central pillar in the impact investing space as it has rapidly grown over the last decade. She has a solid foundation in the full scope of what is available today as well as where impact investing is headed in the next 10 years. You won’t want to miss this one.
Major topics include:
John 13:3-16 | Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet
Isaiah 30:21 | Step-By-Step Obedience
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
1 Corinthians 3:6 | Doing Your Part
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebookand LinkedIn.
JD Bauman is the Director of Effective Altruism for Christians (EACH) and founder of Christians for Impact. Born to missionary parents, JD was rooted in a Christian upbringing that emphasized the importance of generosity to see real change throughout the world for the Kingdom of God.
JD provides insightful perspectives on the principles of effective giving and the practical implications for believers who seek to harness their resources for maximum impact, emphasizing data-driven decision-making and how the ITN (Importance, Tractability, Neglectedness) framework can help individuals prioritize their charitable efforts, guiding them to tackle the most pressing issues in society effectively.
Major topics include:
Matthew 6:28-30 | God Will Take Care of You
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Matthew 25:14-30 | Parable of the Talents
Matthew 13:23 | Bearing Fruit
As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
John 10:10 | Abundant Life
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebookand LinkedIn.
Dana and Bill Wichterman have a long history of generosity. From the onset of their marriage, Dana and Bill have practiced financial stewardship, always living below their means. Even in a one bedroom apartment with no vehicle to drive, they budgeted a specific amount they could use for spontaneous generosity, and trained their children in Spirit-led giving.
Their collective backgrounds in missions, politics, and poverty alleviation have given them a passion for impact investing, allowing God to use their money to see real change in the world. Recently the Wichtermans reached their net worth finish line, recognizing that they need nothing else for themselves. Yet the joy of giving drives them to continue in their careers simply to have more to fuel God’s Kingdom. Dana is a senior advisor to the Impact Foundation, and she and Bill had some amazing insights to share about giving, stewardship, investing, and the importance of Christian community in the generosity space.
Major topics include:
Matthew 25:14-30 | Parable of the Talents
2 Corinthians 9:7 | A Cheerful Giver
Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebookand LinkedIn.
Bill High was brought up in a low-income family in rural Missouri and came to know Jesus at a young age. His generosity journey began as a teenager, faithfully tithing on everything he earned. Bill started the first half of his career in law before leaving to launch what would later become The Signatry, a donor-advised fund platform that connects “donors with doers” tackling some of the world’s biggest problems.
Through his work with The Signatry, Bill developed a passion for seeing individual families united by a clear and driving mission and vision that reflects God’s particular calling for them. In recent years, Bill has focused much of his efforts on consulting for and guiding families stewarding wealth through some of these considerations, and he had many practical considerations to share.
Major topics include:
Proverbs 24:3-4 | Wisdom Builds a House
By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
Genesis 15:5 | Like the Stars in Heaven
And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Matthew 6:3 | Humility in Giving
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
Psalm 78:5-7 | Generational Faith
He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebookand LinkedIn.
Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC, and a New York Times best-selling author. Mark grew up in the Midwest in a home that fostered faith and faithfulness in giving. His generosity journey started at a young age with some significant acts of faith, and some of those decisions have rippled through the rest of his life in ministry. National Community Church is overflowing with stories of generosity and radical steps of faith that have enabled them to support a wide array of other ministries and churches.
Mark highlights the importance of celebrating generosity and pushing the envelope to increase levels of giving, both personally and as a church community. He shares personal stories of the impact of small acts of generosity, encourages flipping blessings for others, and emphasizes living with holy anticipation. Mark discusses managing blessings wisely and finding joy and purpose through generosity. Major topics include:
Psalm 50:10 | God Owns It All
For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
Jeremiah 29 | Bless the City
7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Matthew 10:16 | Pure and Wise
Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
2 Corinthians 9:16 | The Cheerful Giver
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebookand LinkedIn.
Jim Rasmussen was raised as a pastor’s kid in a Lutheran church in Georgia, and his faith solidified in college as he involved himself in ministries that affected transformational change in many lives. After graduating with an accounting degree, Jim was led to a job with Chick-fil-A, first in accounting and later advising franchise owners on how to run their businesses more efficiently.
Today, Jim is a financial advisor and the co-founder of Pandowealth, an advising firm that provides personal finance guidance to franchise owners and other Chick-fil-A staff to empower them to more purposeful living and giving. Jim is a passionate teacher with powerful insights on financial stewardship, Kingdom-building generosity, and trusting God with big steps of faith.
Major topics include:
Luke 12:16-21 | The Bigger Barns Parable
20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
1 Peter 4:10 | Stewarding God’s Gifts
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebookand LinkedIn.
In this special 100th episode, the shoe is on the other foot as Kealan and Cody are interviewed by Todd Harper, co-founder of Generous Giving, and David Wills, President Emeritus of the National Christian Foundation (NCF). Together, Kealan and Cody share about their family and faith backgrounds, how they got started on their journeys of generosity, and some of the amazing things they’ve learned along the way.
The interviews conducted over the last 99 episodes have been life-changing for the Hobelmann brothers in many ways by providing opportunities for “spiritual templating,” implementing what they’ve learned from others into their own generosity strategies, and by facilitating connection between like-minded Believers.
Major topics include:
Cody: It kinda felt like I was walking up a staircase that I could not see the end of. It just continued up into the clouds. But when I set a financial finish line, suddenly I could see the top of the staircase, and I realized I was most of the way up it in terms of the course of my career.
Kealan: I appreciate so much more now the true breadth and diversity of expressions of generosity.
Cody: We realized that God’s up to something that we didn’t even notice. We had no idea. It really humbled me and helped me to understand that even though it’s a lot to ask of our guests and our wives to carve out this time once a week, once every other week, and do the editing and all that kind of stuff. It is such an honor to be able to do this and we hope to be able to do this for a very long time.
Kealan: At this point, I don’t ever say for myself or for anybody else, “this is how generosity has to be expressed,” or “this way is how God intends it.” There is too much range of expression that God gives us for anybody to say “it has to be this way.”
Cody: I’ve learned that giving is a lot of fun and it’s a relational thing. As a financial planner and as someone who was not giving or living generously, it seemed like a transactional thing. But I’m starting to understand that it’s far more complex than that and far mor joy-creating for everyone involved.
Cody: I’m learning that generosity and giving are not the same thing. Giving is an expression of generosity, but when done in community as a relational thing, there’s nothing better and it’s become my favorite use of money.
Kealan: I just want constant stories and relationships to help me grow as a Believer and not just in generosity. We’ve grown in prayer and community and so many other areas that are all interrelated to generosity.
1 Corinthians 12:6 | God Empowered Action
And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
Proverbs 11:24 MSG | Generosity and Abundance
The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.
Proverbs 30: 8b | Our Daily Bread
give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,
If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebookand LinkedIn.
Jimmy Seibert is the founder and pastor of Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas. Jimmy didn’t grow up in a Christian home, but his decision to follow Jesus in a radical way over a summer during his college years started him on a path of extreme generosity as an outflow of his relationship with God. Jimmy’s passion for generosity has poured over into the church that he leads, which now has a thriving culture of generosity. His principles of living simply, working diligently, giving generously, and living for eternity have paved the way for a lifestyle of spontaneous and strategic generosity.
He has many miraculous stories of Spirit-led giving as well as practical advice for givers of all kinds. He shares how surrendering to Jesus and embracing obedience and generosity transformed his life, even in the face of financial challenges, and opened the door for living out the Great Commission.
Major Topics Include:
“When you deal with money and possessions, you deal with everything in your heart.”
“You asked me to show you that I’m real, and I have come.”
“The moving of God is just the normal outworking of a surrender to Jesus.”
“My commitment was that if anybody asks for anything, give it.”
“Until you feel, taste, and touch the power of the gospel in peoples’ lives, giving is too distant of an experience.”
“When we live obedient lives of sacrifice, whether that’s with our finances or going ourselves, it produces this incredible authority to see people find hope and help that they so desperately long for.”
“I don’t want to get identity out of what I do. I want to get identity from the Lord, and then I want to be fully obedient in whatever expression He’s given me and do that with all me heart.”
“I may not be as gifted as someone else, but I will do anything He says anytime, anywhere.”
“Learning to hear the voice of God is learning to trust the heart and person of God. It’s really about trust in the end.”
“From years of meditating on who the Holy Spirit is in my life, and God the Father and the centrality of the beauty of Jesus, I’ve learned to take risks with confidence.”
“The promptings of God are best learned through action.”
“You are already right with God through the blood of Jesus alone. You can’t earn anything in your standing with God by anything you do. You’re good with God by the grace of God.”
“We’re not looking to outdo our neighbor in our giving, we’re learning to build our relationship with God.”
“When we open up everything of our resources to God, intimacy with Him is His end goal, not provision.”
“It’s not a percentage, it’s a personal relationship with God.”
“If you preach a surrendered message and then you live it out, it creates a catalyst for others. If you give, they’ll give.”
“God will constantly challenge me when I have little to see if I’m still in the game.”
“Follow the money. If you give to something, get involved in what you give to.”
“You’ll only stay in a posture of generosity as long as it’s connected to people’s lives being transformed in a way that you can touch.”
Luke 6:35 | Give Freely
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Matthew 13:23 | Reaping a Harvest
As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Ephesians 2:10 | Created for Good Works
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
John 16:7, 12-13 | The Spirit of Truth
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebookand LinkedIn.
Paul Bolte was brought up with a firm foundation in faith and generosity. A seventh-generation Christian born to a farming family in Australia, he learned the value of a good work ethic and the principles of giving as a small child. As an adult, Paul served in various leadership positions in Australia, New Zealand, and the US, and is a lifelong student of servant leadership.
Today, Paul is the Executive Vice President of TrustBridge Global. TrustBridge connects donor advised funds in countries all around the world to allow people to make tax deductible gifts to ministries in other countries, even if they don’t have a 501c3 designation. TrustBridge acts as a powerful conduit for money to flow from Christians in countries with high concentrations of wealth to organizations working in other countries, impacting the Kingdom by getting financial resources to the “boots on the ground.”
Major Topics Include:
“I didn’t realize that, ‘how can I help,’ was the very first question in a concept called ‘servant leadership.’ And I became a student of leadership; for my entire life, I’ve been a student of leadership.”
“We’re trying to mobilize the resources in the hands of Christians.”
“Culturally, we are all very different. But we all have this one core value of our faith and what we’re called to do. We’re called to be generous with everything that we have and everything we are.”
“There are many countries that have no tax benefits, yet they are still generous.”
“When you send money directly to a charity overseas, the bang for your buck is significantly higher because they can stretch it further and it can get to more people.”
“If you want the best return on your investment, you can do that by giving directly to a charity overseas.”
“We look for a way to say ‘yes.’”
“Generosity to me is not just about money, it’s about time.”
“When you’re working in a Kingdom business and you know that God is behind what you’re doing and you watch it grow and give all glory to Him, it’s such a joy to watch it all happen.”
“Whatever gifts or skills God has given you, take them and use them to serve others.”
Romans 5:8 | God’s Love Demonstrated
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2:8-9 | The Gift of God
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
If you have a thought about something you heard, or a story to share, please reach out! You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also contact us directly from our contact page. If you want to engage with the Finish Line Community, check out our groups on Facebookand LinkedIn.
The podcast currently has 108 episodes available.
295 Listeners
15,152 Listeners
8,274 Listeners
6,734 Listeners
2,110 Listeners
2,261 Listeners
17,982 Listeners
10,484 Listeners
228 Listeners
33,141 Listeners
608 Listeners
1,888 Listeners
975 Listeners
1,488 Listeners
605 Listeners