[Continued discussion of Vision Forum Ministries' program titled The 200 Year Plan: A Practicum on Multi-Generational Faithfulness.]

Start talking about a 200-year plan, and you may find yourself faced with some major opposition! Here’s the story of my first opposition. Read the rest of this entry »

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[Continued discussion of Vision Forum Ministries' program titled The 200 Year Plan: A Practicum on Multi-Generational Faithfulness.]

Sadly, the Vision Forum CD set I purchased provides a sanitized (indeed, in my opinion, overly-sanitized–to the point of being useless) PDF view of the spreadsheet Mr. Botkin showed his audience as he discussed how he built his family’s 200-year plan. (The spreadsheet displayed in the CD shows no headings, no titles, no data at all. It consists, solely, of a grid with a few of the rows and columns colored in. Period. That’s it!)

After persistent attempts to get the company to provide me an example of what Mr. Botkin’s original audience saw, a member of their customer service department wrote back, “The slides originally contained personal information which has since been removed at the request of the speaker. I apologize for any inconvenience that you have experienced and I am sorry that I am currently unable to help you further in this area.”

To their credit, they offered me a refund for the entire CD because this one set of PDFs wasn’t up to par with what I would have hoped for. But I wanted the information more than a refund! So I attempted to contact Mr. Botkin directly in order to acquire a readable example of the spreadsheet and at least an exemplary sample of the data he had developed for his family’s 200-year plan. I was thrilled when he graciously provided what I asked for. I am only now beginning to work through the implications of what he showed me.

Rather than burdening you here with a full rundown of what Botkin sent me; indeed, considering how little I think I really understand the plan, I am numbering this post as #1 in a series. I have no idea how many more posts will come nor how quickly. But let me at least begin working through with you where I am going with our family’s 200-year plan.

Botkin says he first acquired his own “long view” sense of time when he was a young man and Read the rest of this entry »

I got a copy of A Revolution in Generosity last week when I attended the Generosity Forum at Denver Seminary. Wesley K. Willmer, editor of the book, is also author of the first chapter, “Creating a Revolution in Generosity.” I was taken by what he had to say about a fundamental shift in perspective concerning charity that has taken place in the American culture at large but also–and much more–in the Christian church over the last 170 years or so. The shift, from stewardship to philanthropy, has devastated both donors and charitable organizations. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a common phrase among charities–at least among Christian charities–that donors should consider giving of their Time, their Talents, and their Treasure (i.e., time, skills, and money). The alliteration certainly makes the concept easy to remember. But does the phrase even make sense?

Last week, while I was at the Generosity Forum meeting, Gary Hoag challenged the concept. He said the phrase not only implies something that is impossible, it also encourages a wicked attitude on the part of those who “buy” its meaning. Specifically, he said, we can’t speak of owning (possessing, holding, having) time in the same way that we own (possess, hold, or have) talents and treasure. Time is not an asset in the same way that talents and treasure are.

He had two reasons for objecting.

First, Read the rest of this entry »

How rich are you? You might find the answer enlightening.

Go to GlobalRichList.com and find out exactly where you rate among all the people in the world! Pretty shocking, actually. . . . Read the rest of this entry »

Almost 3 years ago, one of my very first posts (Oh! It was my first post!) was a book by Alan Gotthardt called The Eternity Portfolio.

Yesterday morning, I attended a meeting at which Gary Hoag, the vice president for “Advancement” (i.e., fundraising) for Denver Seminary, spoke. Among other things, he presented what he calls The Stewardship Portfolio, a small portion of Gotthardt’s larger presentation.

In essence, says Hoag, (and, again, this is really a minor modification of what Gotthardt says): according to Scripture, we can divide our giving into nine categories within a 3 x 3 matrix divided, across the top, by type of ministry, and, down the side, by where the ministry occurs. Read the rest of this entry »

Chapter 6 of Beating the Midas Curse by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb is prefaced by a quote from V.S. Pritchett:

“In our family, as far as we are concerned, we were born, and what happened before that is myth.”

And then the authors comment,

For most of us, the quote above rings true. We know a lot about our parents. A little about our grandparents, and next to nothing about our great-grandparents. Even if you have done some genealogical research on your family tree, for the most part, it is just that: names and dates on the branches of the tree. . . .

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m astonished at the wonderful resources available today to people who are interested in legacy planning. Somehow I stumbled into Beating the Midas Curse by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb–probably the most compelling, easiest to read, and most comprehensive summary of the kind of process you will probably want to go through in order to create your legacy plan. The authors call their process the “Heritage Process.” It’s beautiful.