when they are no longer here, these individuals are, in essence, laying up treasures for future Kingdom use.


Time and again, I’m blessed to watch how well-thought-out legacy planning allows donors to give more to ministries and to their families, especially for those who had previously assumed they’d done all the planning they could or those who decided they didn’t have a large enough estate to warrant professional planning. Te surprising motivation for their decision to analyze, “How can I give more?” is often someone else’s Godly example.


When a family member or friend walks through the legacy planning process with positive results, their story encourages others. But talk of money, and especially of giving money, leads many Christians to fear they are pursuing Mammon instead of God. “Am I looking at the golden pavement instead of the Lord? What’s next? Te $25,000 golden dessert?” they worry.


One of the individuals was John Rockefeller, Sr. Tis oil magnate became the richest man of his time, and indeed has a good claim to perhaps being the richest self-made man who ever lived. He was influenced by his mother, a deeply devout Baptist, and was himself an adherent of the northern Baptist church. Rockefeller had a clear conscience about how he won his fortune, saying, “God gave me the money.” Believing that, he felt a profound obligation to put the money to good use. He was the single most generous donor to the northern Baptist conventions, and he underwrote the work of missionaries and relief workers at home and abroad.


God used Rockefeller to leave us an example to


follow, a rich heritage of generosity that extends beyond his lifetime.


Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that we should beware of practicing righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. He said, if we do this and receive the praise of man, then we’ve received our praise and will have no reward from our Father who is in heaven (Matthew 6: 1-2). Tis warning, while important and relevant, can instill fear in those who strictly “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret” (Matthew 6: 3-4).


In his book, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, the late Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote:


Laying up treasures deals with more than money. Our Lord is concerned here not so much about our possessions as with our attitude towards our possessions. It is not what a man may have, but what he thinks of his wealth, what his attitude is towards it. It is a question of one’s whole attitude towards life in this world. People who get their main, or even total satisfaction in this life from things that belong to this world only. Tis is not just about a rich person but also a poor person. No matter how small it is, it is everything to you, that is your treasure, that is the thing for which you are living. Love of money, love of honor, the love of position, love of status, the love of one’s work in an illegitimate sense, whatever it may be, anything that stops with this life and this world.


As I was reading through Te Almanac of American Philanthropy by Karl Zinsmeister, I was inspired by the lives of many individuals who transformed society through their charitable giving.


Rockefeller benefited seminaries and higher education for African Americans, and he was devoted to medical research. He helped to create, through his funding, the University of Chicago and over the rest of his life gave it a total of $35 million (equivalent to appx. $872 million today). In the later part of his life, he donated 73,000 shares of Standard Oil (worth $50 million then or appx. $1.2 billion today) to establish


what has become known as the Rockefeller Foundation. It became the largest foundation of its kind with the mission “to promote the wellbeing of mankind throughout the world.” John Rockefeller gave away approximately $540 million (appx. $13.5 billion today) before his death in 1937 at the age of 97.


Tis one individual, like countless others, gave of the riches they were blessed with to help and serve others. John Rockefeller, Sr. gave from his heart and convictions. God used him to leave us an example to follow, a rich heritage of generosity that extends beyond his lifetime.


Interestingly, most of Rockefeller’s giving was public, but not his giving to the University of Chicago. Tis was his personal choice, based on motivations known in his own heart. However, in many cases, by having the right attitude towards his money (open- handed generosity) and being willing to make a statement about the causes he supported (God-honoring education and missions work), we know who John Rockefeller, Sr. truly was. We can be inspired by his legacy and challenged to give more.


Te table at the fancy restaurant in New York may be the table of Mammon, but a table for ten friends in your house where you share your story of generosity, of why and how you give, doesn’t have to be. While I encourage you to maintain your own personal convictions, consider adding the power of your name, not just the power of your dollar to support the causes you value. Your giving story can inspire others; sharing your legacy motivation and implementation can awaken others to the possibility of their own giving future.


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