The Kingdom Investor

16 - Don't Just Write a Check | David Burton (Part Two)

October 07, 2022 Daniel White Episode 16
The Kingdom Investor
16 - Don't Just Write a Check | David Burton (Part Two)
Show Notes Transcript

Giving isn’t only about money; it is only a part of a much bigger picture and purpose. If we want to create a deeper and lasting impact on the people that we’re helping, then we need to put not just our money but more importantly, our effort and action into the cause. Giving goes beyond writing a check because, beneath the motivation, genuine help comes from involving oneself in the mission and actually doing what needs to be done. 

In our concluding episode with David Burton, we focus our attention on strengthening commitment to the mission through exposure and action. He maintains that for money to make a sustainable impact not only to the receiver but more so for the giver, it must bring with it continuous involvement of the giver to the cause and to the people that you help and also, constant engagement with mission workers. Listen now and learn why just writing a check to a charity often doesn’t offer the same commitment, joy, and fulfillment that involvement and action give to the giver. 

Key Points From This Episode: 

  • David shares a story to emphasize the importance of exposure to strengthen commitment to missions.
  • David’s advice on how to combat consumerism that prevails in our society today. 
  • Why writing a check or donating money to a charitable organization should be combined with action and actual immersion in the mission field.
  • What does taking action and being exposed to mission programs and media do to your soul and well-being?
  • How do David and his family use their time, talents, and treasure to promote God's kingdom?
  • What's something that many people in the nonprofit world should be aware of when asking for support?
  • The framework and criteria that David uses when deciding where or who to give support
  • David answers our lightning round questions.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Click to Find out more about our upcoming event: "Crafting Your Kingdom Investing Thesis" 

Amachi Program

Gospel Patrons John Rinehart

National Christian Foundation

Journey of Generosity (JoG)

The Finishing Fund

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn

Money, Possessions, and Eternity by Randy Alcorn

Burton Property

About David Burton

David is the owner of Burton Properties LLC for 28 years along with being a partner in several other LLCs in the Kentucky area. Born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia, he received his degree from Virginia Tech. David is a business owner and a real estate investor with a heart for ministry, with one foot in the ministry world and the other in the business world. Aside from Burton Properties, he owns restaurants and a few other business ventures. 

David is married to Mary Beth for 38 years and together they have three children and four grandchildren.

EPISODE 16

[INTRODUCTION]

ANNOUNCER: Imagine taking your generosity to the next level, impacting more lives, and leaving a godly legacy for generations to come. Get ideas and strategies to do just that when you listen to these personal stories from high-level Kingdom champions.

The Kingdom Investor Podcast showcases business leaders who have moved from success to significance, sharing how they use worldly wealth for Kingdom impact. Discover how they grew in generosity, impacted more lives, and built godly legacies. You'll find motivation, inspiration, and practical steps to grow as a Kingdom Investor.

Daniel White (DW):  Welcome to The Kingdom Investor Podcast. This is your host, Daniel White. And today we're interviewing Dave Burton for part two. If you haven't listened to part one, make sure you go back and listen first. 

If you're ready to take your investing to the next level, by aligning your investing strategy with your faith, values and passions, join us for our next online workshop as we guide you through the process of discovering your God-given passions, and crafting your kingdom investing thesis. Space is limited. So sign up today at kingdomthesis.eventbrite.com. I hope to see you there. 

Without further ado, let's jump right into the show.

[INTERVIEW]

David Burton (DB): One other quick story and I'll move on, but an example of exposure. Years ago at our church, it was a very mission-based church, we were doing a missions conference. And so a friend of mine, who is a doctor, he showed up. He doesn't go to our church. I was a little surprised and I asked him, you know, what are you doing here? Typically something like that is where only the most committed people come down. And he shared with me and said, oh, he said, you know, I have to look for opportunities to hear about what's going on in missions. Because if I don't, my heart will go cold to it. And I was like, wow, you had to seek it out because you know, that without constant exposure your heart will grow cold to it. And so that was, that was really good. That was, again, you know, whatever you expose your heart to regularly is probably what you're gonna be most excited about.

DW:  Yeah. And going back to what you were saying about, you know, watching those marketing and ads and commercials and things like that, it's, you know, they'll, the consumer society will sell us as much as we will buy. And, you know, there's always more, there's always another dollar, there's always, you know, you hear these quotes about people that have been wildly successful. And, you know, they're like, okay, well, how much more do you need? One more dollar. Just a little bit more, and I'll be fine.

DB:  Right. Absolutely. And so I might make a couple of suggestions that I follow. One, and this whole guarding your heart is, one, just get out in the field. That may be the mission field itself. It may be good to get your spouse and just hit the mission field for a couple of weeks and get out where things are happening. Maybe it's a place where you've been supporting already, kind of get your hands dirty. Get up close and personal so you can see what's going on. So that could be a literal trip. And I would take your spouse to do that. There's no reason getting out there and getting fired up about something and leaving your spouse behind. So, it could be a mission trip. They could be, if you can't do that, and some people can, it could simply be getting buddies with a missionary or an international worker, someone who's out there doing it and getting. It's easy to just write a check or punch a grant button, but to actually get to be good friends with them. So you really know what's going on and or enter their world. 

DB: That'd be another way. If you can't go then get close to someone who is there. And then locally, I would say just find something. It's simply serving in a soup kitchen or addiction recovery center or maybe doing the accounting for them or getting your firm to work with them and take care of their accounting. You start somewhere you'll figure it out. For me, one of the things that I was involved in for a number of years was the Amachi Program through the Lexington Leadership Foundation. It's kind of based on Big Brothers Big Sisters, but you're mentoring young men who are high risk, often with a parent or both parents are incarcerated and the risk of tough futures is very strong. So I was involved with that for 13 years and had a couple of different mentees that I worked with. And that was an intentional decision that I made once the kids were kind of in high school or into college where I realized I've got a little more time that I can invest with somebody else and so I saw, went out and found it and jumped in and contributed there, you know, and even though I looked at that, as you know, I'm going to help out some young kid, you know, realistically, it was very good for my soul. 

DB: It took me places where I'm not normally going to be, on streets I'm not normally going to be hanging out there and into their world. And so it was, it was good for me as well, it developed my heart of compassion and sympathy and just understanding where they're coming from. And I think we all need to find places like that. Everybody, but particularly if, if you're more used to just stroking checks for things, you need to find some places you can dig in and get kind of get your hands dirty. It'll be good for you. 

DB: And then of course, I'd also say under this whole topic for your heart is just again, what are you watching? What are you seeing? A couple of things that I'm, that I look at pretty regularly right now. This podcast will probably be one of them. Now that I went back and started looking at through episodes, they're very good that people, in fact, one of the books I just finished by John Rinehart was Gospel Patrons, and it was very inspiring book. And he was on here recently. The National Christian Foundation has theirs, you know, they have a lot of good things going on. But their Saturday Seven articles always very good. Anything with Generous Giving, it's I know, it's been highlighted here before. We've been on JoGs, we've led JoGs (Journey of Generosity), I find that it's been very pleasing about helping my peers think through these things. It's kinda, it's kind of the gospel and the spiritual life and my entering through the door of finance. And so those have been things just practically that I've been involved in there have been helpful.

 DW:  So looking at time, talents, and treasure, is there anything else that you want to say about those different categories and how we can really think about investing those in God's kingdom?

 DB:  I can tell you our story a little bit. We give to a variety of people and organizations monthly, we give some special gift annually, that's probably pretty common for most folks. Pretty much anytime we get asked, we like to give something, a gift, a note, a gift of encouragement, even if we're not going to be a significant giver. About ten years ago, some funds were available, we decided to each year tried to give significantly to maybe one organization. And we have done that and really enjoy that for the last ten years where we will take a bulk gift and select a sometimes it's been the same ministry two years in a row, but sometimes we've done that with a couple of campus ministries. We've done that with the Finishing Fund, Doug Cobb over in Louisville, and his team has done an excellent job of reaching out to unreached people groups, and we've had a lot of pleasure being involved with that.

DW:  Yeah, I'm excited about having him on the show soon. 

DB:  Okay, great. So, that's been something we've kind of put our shoulder behind. Also something kind of fun a few years ago. I'd wanted to do this and finally it came about that. I've been involved in Habitat, a few different builds leading a team from our church at one point, but about five years ago, we decided to fund a house one summer as a family, along with a few businesses I'm involved in. And we just took the whole thing on and all my kids, adult kids now, we had them come alongside and they each took a day of work and they were there for the beginning. And kind of the wives were doing this and meeting the family. And they do a great job of setting that all up and make it very easy. I've got some construction background. So this was on training wheels, so it was pretty, pretty easy from that standpoint. But it was great as a family to say we're going to build someone else a house this summer. And they were all able to get involved in various ways. And that was a real pleasure to do that. We will probably do that again in the future. So that was a family gift of our time and treasure.

DW:  Yeah, that's really creative and very hands-on like we're talking about it's very satisfying because you can see at the end of the day, you know what you've been able to accomplish and what you've been able to help people to create.

DB:  That's on the finance side. On the talent, just a couple more things that where we find ourselves involved with because that's all three of those are important. I have kind of a unique background in that I spent many years raising support, our personal support for our ministry, and had plenty of experiences with that. Now for the last 15, 20 years people have been coming to me asking for some more. I've got plenty of experience there too. So I find myself helping coach others who are raising funds, helping them think through best approaches, terminology, things like that, and, and really know, before they even speak what they're getting ready to say oftentimes about their experience, and able to speak into that. And I agree, yes, that is what's going to happen. Here's what else is going to happen and kind of help work them through that. 

DB: So that's, that's been a way I've been able to use my talent, if you will, because of that background. I found oftentimes that I'm working with people in ministries, they are uncomfortable asking for larger gifts. Something I've discovered the last 5, 10 years, we had someone in one ministry I'm involved with who wanted to give $100,000. Well, the budget was only a little over twice that so that we had, and that was not going to be a gift that would actually, it was wonderful, but it would be it would also disrupt everything. We ended up coming up with a fund that they could give to, and put that money in to do some long-term things. But with that, what happened is, was we developed this fund of how work could go and how it could funnel into the ministry. We began asking other people in in the past year asking for fairly small gifts. Now you're asking for kind of a legacy type yet, because we're not like calling it something that's going to last for a while. But we end up raising $800,000 for that the ministry, for a fund that has a steel-producing results. It's been a great, great fund. 

DB: But you know, people aren't used to, there's people out there and I talk to people in the real estate world, they say there's a lot of money floating around out there. And it's like, yes, there is. There's amazing amount of money floating around out there. But people need to be asked to do bigger things, and they will step up to the plate when they're asked. And that's something sometimes people in the nonprofit world aren't aware of. They're sheepish to ask for $1,000 when these people could give $100,000 if you ask them for the right thing. They would step up and give. So I've been kind of coaching some nonprofit people on that. I was very proud of when the campus ministry is building a new building down here at UK. Raised about $12 million dollars. And early on talking with him about you've got something here people are gonna give to and you need to be aggressive and go out there and ask them. Ask them and they've had some people step up in big ways. 

DB: On that same note, there's some things I find myself as a giver to the underdog. I've done this partly comes because I've been around so much through the years. I look at some people and think, you know, you've got a great cause. You've got a great constituency who will give to that. I may not give to that as much. I end up giving more to people who have, for whatever reason, perhaps they come from a more poor background, and not just economically but resource-wise, in general. They don't have the context I did. So those are the people I love to get behind and help get them there. Because they are starting. They're starting at home plate, they're not starting on second base, and they just need more help. So that's, that's something else that we do.

DW:  Yeah, and they often don't get in front of you from different barriers from as far as network or geography or, you know, just lack of funding, or even market and different things.

DB:  Exactly and then other people are resource-rich. They have plenty of contacts and this campus ministry was probably one of those once but they needed a little impetus to get out there and get to them. But a lot of people love the university and a lot of people love the Lord. And that's going to be a pretty good combination. I've also enjoyed as far as time and talent. Like I mentioned early during the Journey of Generosities, leading peers and that I find a little more confidence that I can talk to people about, here's what we're doing, and come alongside them and encourage them. I think maybe this goes back to so many, even wealthy Christians go to churches, and they feel pretty good about what they give. They're not challenged to do a lot more. And to come alongside and say no, this really is all God's. And not that I don't have to be reminded after you're thrown into that myself but to kind of put that out there and then let them see what that does. And that's what things like Journey of Generosity that it's good at that or some of these other books we've been talking about do the same thing.

DW:  Yeah, and I think we as givers have to be challenged to give more and to really give sacrificially, because we don't grow in our trust and our reliance on the Lord if we don't allocate his resources to his purposes. And so, you know, I was talking about this in a meeting this morning, but we were talking about how our money really, rules are hard. And we find security and we find power and control in money. And the kind of the antidote is to give and be generous and to dethrone money in our lives. And I was reading this passage earlier this morning. In Proverbs, it talks about this and it says in Proverbs 18 verse 11, it says, "a rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall, in his imagination." And so,  it talks about in his imagination, you know, but it's so true. Like, we think that, you know, if we put enough away for retirement, and we, you know, make enough money and can provide for ourselves and our families, then we're okay, you know. We're going to eventually get to a place where we think everything's going to be taken care of, but we miss out on living a life of faith and dependency on God.

DB:  I couldn't agree more. Most of my peers are in that very situation. And suddenly, for me, and I think for most, they are depending on their money more than they realize. And, you got to check that regularly. I feel like I should be in remedial education officer, maybe I am. I have to come back and look at those verses and go, yes, that is true. How am I depending on, those money will buy you out of a lot of problems, there's no doubt about that. But it won't save your life. There are too many ultra-wealthy people in our town who passed away early in life from disease, illness, and their money did not save them. So, money doesn't do great things with the big issues of life, like health and death, and fixing your kids, things that are probably at the heart most important to us. But money does bring a lot of conveniences. There's no doubt about that. But you need to recognize that. Say that's okay, that does do that. But it does not do this. And it's imaginary or the way that verse read. You think in your head? You ain't got it. You don't have security. Sure, not on the big things.

DW: Yeah. So we've been talking about giving a lot and you have a lot of experience in giving to different ministries and things like that. Is there a particular framework that you use when deciding where to give and who to give with because, you know, it can be so overwhelming getting asked by so many different people, and you want to help everyone  but of course you can't. And so, you know, what kind of criteria or thought process have you put behind that?

DB:  Well, I'm not sure we've done as much as we could. We naturally give towards things that our background would lend towards. So any kind of campus ministry or high school ministry, that is, that's almost a given. Not real big on brick-and-mortar type projects. We'll do something but our background, literally the fact that our ministry never had a building, we just, we were homeless, and we would depend on university facilities, things like that, or people's homes and never invest that way. I don't know if that got into my blood early. And again, that's probably one of those things for that matter, that the average person often will give towards, as like, well let them give, that's great. I'll give some but I'm not gonna probably give a large amount towards that. And that's my wife has pretty much the same philosophy. And I say that we don't need brick and mortar but we need buildings and I'm not saying we don't so if push came to shove, I would help with that. 

DB: And I've helped by providing office space in the past. Doing things like that and properties alone so there's different ways to meet that need. Integrating is something I'm still exploring to tell you the truth. There's times where we've, we're housing someone right now for free, who aged out of foster care. And so there are opportunities like that though I hear stories of even more developed and more purposeful ways to do that, and we probably need to just investigate further at that. But just in summary, though, that we do. We have some criteria that's almost unwritten, that kind of clicks through our head. And we do like when they ask, we try to give to everything, at least something to encourage them, because anything that we're encouraged by we may not feel like this is directly in line to where we're going. 

DW: Right, yeah. So in summary for this episode, one of our last questions is, what is something that God is teaching you this season? Is there something that he's put on your heart or a word or scripture that you've been meditating on or processing through?

DB:  Nothing more than maybe, 1st Timothy 6. I have been reading back through that that honks fairly similar to the verse you read there about where people are really going to end up. And I'm paraphrasing, it says, "You're going to die and someone else is going to end up with everything you have" basically. And a reminder of that, there's a kind of verses for me, I just need trickling through my brain to remind myself that not for myself, for my family, and for other people I run into. That this, most of what we see here is going to burn, what things are going to last? Let's talk about those. And let's make sure we're investing proper time and that if left to myself, I'd be a mess. I think the Lord, it's the Lord's redeeming work continuing in me that it makes a difference down the stretch here. Yeah, I haven't yet, I mentioned about the gospel patrons that was inspiring book. I think a lot of us need to be in to make sure that we're giving significantly maybe to one or two areas. You get asked a variety of things. We're gonna hone in, that's what I mentioned about getting your hands dirty. Move to an area where you get your hands dirty, and just really lean in on that one because you're gonna make more effect than a shotgun approach.

DW: Right. Yeah, that's good. And I think there was one missional leader who talked about really focusing on one area and kind of compounding that impact through focusing on one area. So that's, that's really good. Dave, I really appreciate you coming on the show. This has been really good, really informative. I'm gonna have to listen back through to try to get all this information and this resource. Is there one or two resources that you would recommend for our listeners around really kind of shaping your heart or growing your heart in advancing God's kingdom? Whether that's a book or a podcast, or a different connection or anything?

DB: I don't know. I've not written any books, I have read a few books. If you don't have much time, I would say "The Treasure Principle" of Randy Alcorn would be the best pound-for-pound book that you can probably get ahold of to enlighten, to guide your heart. If you like to read about money, possessions...

DW:  Yeah, wealth, money, possessions. 

DB:  Wealth, money, possessions, something like that. It's about 10 times as thick. It's an exhaustive study of this, and that's also very good. I think I've read parts of it, I didn't read the whole thing. Those will be both by Randy Alcorn. Just be really good. As I mentioned, recently, I've been getting the Saturday Seven, which is from the National Christian Foundation. They just show up on Saturday mornings. I usually read through or listen to some of those articles. And, for me, it's good kind of drip principle, if you will, on a regular basis. I'm hearing from people, hearing their stories. You know, I don't get tired of hearing people's change life stories both as they come to the Lord or know or when they've surrendered an area particularly of finance to the Lord, it's inspiring to me to say, that's where I need to be and do the same thing.

DW:  Yeah, absolutely. All right, let's pray and we'll close out the show. 

DW: God, I thank you and praise you for this time and this opportunity to talk with Dave and really hear his heart and how you've shaped his heart and used him through obedience and just leading and guiding and directing his life. Lord, I thank you for all the life change and the impact that he has had. And I pray that you would continue that, that you would allow him to keep investing his time, talents and treasure in your kingdom, and that you would get all of the glory. Lord, I pray for our listeners that they would use these stories and these ideas and they take them and run and that you would bless their lives, that you would grow them in their generosity and help them to impact more people for your kingdom. In your name, we pray. 

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[OUTRO] 

ANNNOUNCER  25:35

What if you could take your generosity to the next level, impacting more lives in your community and around the world, creating a godly legacy for generations to come? 

Now you can. Your first step is crafting your kingdom investing thesis. Reserve your spot in our next online workshop where we guide you through the process of discovering your passions, create a strategic plan and connect you to opportunities that will help you fulfill your God-given calling as a kingdom investor. Register today by clicking the link in the show notes. 

Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe and we'll see you next time for another episode of The Kingdom Investor Podcast.

[END]