Joel Belz - Lessons not learned

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, February 23rd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Parents have a long list of things to teach their children while they’re young. But WORLD founder Joel Belz is going to talk about one important lesson parents too often neglect.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: The good news here at WORLD is that the year 2021 ended with the highest level of gift support from our readers and listeners that we’ve ever had.

The bad news is that I’m not sure that level of support is sustainable in the long term. Not because of anything we’ve done or will do. But because the next generation might not have the same capacity to give as their parents and grandparents.

Today’s children have been born into what is almost certainly the wealthiest generation in the history of the world. And eventually, they will be inheriting much of that wealth. The manner in which they steward those resources will radically affect the well-being of thousands of Christian ministries.

The challenge comes back to me: What am I doing to see that my children and grandchildren are exposed to the Biblical principles of stewardship? Here are several facets I think are pertinent.

First, we need to teach them that all wealth is God’s wealth. Those who call themselves billionaires, as much as the homeless man going through garbage cans in the alley, have what they have only on loan from their Creator. That realization changes everything.

Second, there’s no limit to the amount of wealth just waiting to be developed. But on the other hand, there’s no pie in the sky waiting to be distributed fairly.

Third, the tithe has always been, and will continue to be, a teaching tool used by God to coach His children as they adventure into creatively exciting wealth-building assignments. “Just see,” God says in Malachi 3, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven—and pour you out a blessing so big that you will not have room to receive it.”

Fourth, our children need to know that apart from God’s intervention, they will not live in as wealthy a nation and culture as we have. They will have to exercise more discipline than we did. We need to be gently relentless in passing that assignment on to them.

Fifth, paying interest on a loan of almost any type is simply a not-so-clever dodge for paying a significantly higher price for some goods or services than you first agreed to. Realistically, agreeing to an interest charge is to say that you were too impatient to wait until you could afford to pay cash for what you were buying.

And finally, our children will only be able to manage these concepts if they are also versed in at least a rudimentary form of bookkeeping and accounting.

My sense is our nation’s parents have effectively ignored this important teaching assignment. So, too, have Christian parents. If not ignored, then at best deferred as if unimportant.

Our local churches—not to mention our missions organizations, our Christian educational institutions, our relief agencies, and many others—could all be in financial jeopardy because our present generation didn’t bother to educate the givers of tomorrow on these very important matters.

I’m Joel Belz.

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