Every Seventh-day Adventist Christian parent seeks to pass on their faith in God to their children. Forbes Magazine supports this parental focus with facts from a survey.
“When asked ‘What’s most important to pass on to the next generation?’ the No. 1 answer, offered by 74% of respondents, was: ‘Values and life lessons’” (Forbes Magazine, May 31, 2013).
“The answer ‘financial assets or real estate’ came in last. In between were ‘instructions and wishes to be fulfilled’ and ‘personal possessions of emotional value’” (Ibid.).
“[When] Chris Heilmann, chief fiduciary executive of U.S. Trust, [was asked] about passing down values as a key part of your legacy, he said: ‘I’ve been in this business for 41 years working with families, and from my experience, if wealthy people are faced with a choice of being able to hand down their money or their values, but not both, they’d want to hand down their values’” (Ibid.).
Values and life lessons are what we are seeking to communicate as Christians when we say we want to leave a legacy of faith to our children and grandchildren. The Forbes Magazine survey and experienced fiduciaries agree these building blocks of character are the most important legacy we can leave to our families.
I need to say directly that I believe Ellen G. White was a messenger for God, and she illuminates for our time the principles contained in the Bible. I do not know whether you have had the same experience as I had when reading what Ellen White has to say about planned giving, but I have found some of her statements are very hard to understand in the context of contemporary planned giving and I’m left wondering how to correctly communicate these statements. An example is the following statement:
The Traditional Way— “Let it ever be kept in mind that the present selfish system of disposing of property is not God’s plan, but man’s device. Christians should be reformers” (Counsels on Stewardship, p. 328.
So, if our country’s traditional way of “disposing of property” is not the way a Seventh-day Adventist Christian should do it, what is the preferred, or better, way?
A Better Way— “The Lord would have His followers dispense their means [possessions] while they can do it themselves. Some may inquire, ‘Must we actually dispossess ourselves of everything which we call our own?’ We may not be required to do this now; but we must be willing to do so for Christ’s sake. We must acknowledge that our possessions are absolutely His, by using of them freely whenever means is needed to advance His cause” (Counsels on Stewardship, p. 324).
The Green Family
I must admit I struggled with these statements while seeking to understand what God was trying to communicate to us through Ellen White until I read a book written by David Green, the CEO and founder of the Hobby Lobby stores. The first part of the book’s title caught my attention: Giving It All Away. The second part also intrigued me: . . . and Getting It all Back Again. The title was explained by the subhead: The Way of Living Generously.
Hobby Lobby is a national arts and craft chain of retail stores located in the United States. David and his wife, Barbara, started the business in 1970 with a $600 loan. Today there are more than 800 stores in 47 states, with more than 32,000 employees. The store chain’s estimated net worth is $7.1 billion, and it is now one of the largest privately-owned arts and crafts retailers in the country.
The Green family are committed Christians and seek to honor God in everything they do in their personal lives and in their business. This dedication to God took them to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014 with a case that would have required them to compromise their family’s biblically based principles. The family chose to risk losing their business rather than compromise their Christian beliefs. Providentially, the court—for the first time—recognized a for-profit corporation’s claim of religious belief.
The family has been successful, as they have followed the instructions of Scripture: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous” (Prov. 13:22, NKJV).[*] David and Barbara Green received their faith from their parents and now have been successful in passing on their faith and their values to their children, who in turn also passed their faith and values on to the next generation. David Green calls these various generations G-1, G-2, and G-3; and now the G-4 generation is being born. The passing of faith and values is primarily what Solomon is referring to in Proverbs.
In their early lives the Greens created a typical estate plan prepared by an attorney following the standard wisdom of legal traditions. David Green states he did not feel comfortable with the way this plan would have worked. He and Barbara (G-1) made this a matter of prayer, seeking to find God’s wisdom for how they should create a plan that would give all the glory and honor to God. So as their children (G-2) grew older and started to take over key positions in the business, they called a family meeting (including G-1, G-2, and G-3) to discuss their estate plan. After this meeting the family jointly and unanimously decided to do exactly what the book title says and give all of the business away to a charitable trust, which would legally own all the assets.
All the members of the Green family may work for the business if they are willing to work hard and contribute to the success of the business. Even David Green, who was the owner of the business, now just gets a salary. The family members control the charitable trust, but if sometime in the future selling the business seems to be the right thing to do, the family will get nothing; instead, all the proceeds will go to support the mission of a list of charitable ministries.
So, you could say they have given it all away . . . and have gotten it all back again by living a generous life. Hobby Lobby gives away 50 percent of its profits annually to a list of Christian charities. This was a decision also supported by David and Barbara’s children (G-2), who challenged their parents to try to out-give God.
After reading this book I can better understand the wisdom God was seeking to communicate through His messenger Ellen White when she wrote that Seventh-day Adventists should be reformers in their estate plans in our generation. We should seek to pass on our Christian faith, values and life lessons, all of which are of much greater value than our mere possessions. How we give it all away will significantly impact whether we pass on what truly matters.
God will guide you if you diligently seek His wisdom for your family’s plans for the future.
Dennis Carlson, CSPG
[*] Texts credited to NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.