The 100Fold CFO
David Sims, JD PhD AIF®
Thesis.
The 100Fold CFO can help liberate Christian billionaires (and other wealthy Christians[1]) to believe and obey the call of Jesus in the 21st century to dispossession, liquidation, and donation of their wealth for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized on the underside of humanity, thereby losing their lives for the sake of Jesus and the gospel, inheriting eternal life, entering God’s reign in their lives both now and in the future, and hastening the end game that will inaugurate the new beginning about which Jesus spoke toward the end of his earthly ministry: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Mt 24:14).
The issue.
Depending on who you talk to, there’s an estimated amount of wealth, right now, in the hands of Christians living in the United States somewhere in the range of between $130 to $180 trillion.
Yes, $130T to $180T.
What can be done to get it moving at velocity, scale, and impact (VSI) such that the light of the gospel manifests from the good works done by God’s children in the world today and glorifies our Father who is in heaven?[2]
How the “100Fold CFO” idea came about.
It first came to my mind in a conversation with Daryl Heald, perhaps the greatest generosity catalyzer of our generation. He was sharing his 100Fold vision and experiential perspective regarding the trillions of Christian capital not moving at VSI (the first time I had heard that concept) for good in the world. Daryl was, and is, burdened to help God’s children experience the liberating joy of generosity and generous living. He’s one joyfully free cat if you ask me.
As we sat there talking at the departing flight drop-off spot, right up to the point he had to run through TSA pre-check, the “100Fold CFO” popped into my head.[3] We agreed that the conversation would continue.
The problem.
Wealth is stuck in the hands of Christians. It’s not moving at VSI for good as it should. It can be viewed as a wealth norovirus that has been described popularly as “affluenza”[4] and biblically as a kind of spiritual-moral disease that chokes out gospel freedom and good works.
Jesus put it this way to his 1st century audience and also to us affluent Christians in the 21st: “And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mk 4:18-19).
Christian billionaires and wealthy believers in general are faced with a problem. Wealth constipation. What’s needed is some good ole gospel ex-lax.
Forbes got it right for the most part back in October 2023:
Instagram. TikTok. The technology and business section of every newspaper. All of these outlets feed the American public a nonstop stream of the world’s wealthiest people, from their lifestyles to their latest obsessions. And while they might seem like they’re everywhere, America’s richest are few in number.
Well, the billionaires at least. As of 2023, there are a mere 735 billionaires in the U.S. The millionaires are more plentiful—almost 22 million. But being one of America’s wealthiest won’t solve your every problem. Even billionaires struggle, which is why it’s important to chart a path toward your own definition of wealth.[5]
I’m not sure how many of these American billionaires are believers. It’s hard to find solid estimates. But I know there are quite a few and that many of them are doing incredibly great things.[6]
For Christian billionaires, Forbes is both spot on and spot off.
Spot on: “being one of America’s wealthiest won’t solve your every problem.” Wealthy folks have problems that the surviving and struggling to survive don’t have, that much is true. It’s what’s known as “first world” problems of affluence. Navigating those waters and charting a path can be difficult and fraught with pain. The Charitable CFO can help wealthy Christians anticipate the storms and set a course to true freedom for the sake of Jesus and the gospel in the 21st century and beyond.
Spot off: Forbes missed it for Christians who take Scripture seriously when it advised, “chart a path toward your own definition of wealth.” Charting a path toward your own definition of wealth? That’s really is not an option for Christian billionaires and other wealthy Christians. At least it’s not an option if you believe the Scriptures, which define wealth quite clearly for God’s children.
You see, the Bible makes three things very clear:
- God owns everything: our time, talent, treasure, bodies and souls, our very breath, the world and all it contains.[7]
- We’re God’s stewards.[8]
- We’re called to develop and prepare the next generation of stewards for a life of faithful stewardship of what God owns.
Believers have a wealth-defining path already laid out for them in Scripture. Jesus makes it clear that to be his disciple three life habits must be evidenced and practiced: (1) deny yourself; (2) take up your cross; and (3) follow him (Mark 8:34). He makes it even clearer in the following verses that to be his disciple means to lose your life for his sake and for the sake of the gospel (Mark 8:35-38). Interestingly, the phrase “for My sake and for the gospel’s” is repeated in Mark 10:29 after the sad and disheartening exchange the rich man had with Jesus.
The Bible saliently points out that every believer is already wealthy and rich beyond anything that can be imagined. They are so wealthy and rich it’s “unfathomable” according to Paul (Ephesians 3:8; see also Ephesians 1:3 and Colossians 2:10). The Greek word translated “unfathomable” is anexichniastos, which means beyond finding out, unsearchable, cannot be tracked out. It’s the idea that the blessings possessed now by those who believe in Jesus and the gospel of his bodily death, burial, and bodily life after bodily death are blessings of wealth and riches in Christ too deep to be measured. The finite simply cannot comprehend the infinite.
The problem is that Christians in the United States (and elsewhere, I suppose) don’t believe this, both functionally and practically. They just don’t really believe that they already are unfathomably rich and wealthy. They certainly don’t feel it. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s true. As God’s children, all of us are rich beyond comprehension.
Why don’t we believe and feel it?
It’s got to be because, relatively speaking, we’re not. At least compared to the 735 billionaires and 22 millionaires Forbes tells us are swimming around in their surplus wealth right before our very eyes on every screen we see, don’t you think?
Boomers and GenXers, Yers, Zers, and Alphas all live in a culture of wealth, luxury, and excess that was pretty much unimaginable to previous generations of Americans, except for the uber-minority privileged Super Rich born into it. Now, however, if you’re born in America, you might think it’s your right to be Super Rich or you might be duped into dreaming and believing that it’s the key to happiness.
That’s a problem, no doubt.
But it’s not necessarily the problem the Charitable CFO addresses.
The problem wealthy Christians have is the problem of affluence. It’s the problem of being truly free to follow the call of Jesus to lose their lives for his sake and the sake of the gospel, which means, I contend on the authority of Scripture, a life of faithful obedience to love God supremely and neighbor as self, which go hand in glove.
What does that mean in the 21st century?
How do wealthy Christians possessing $130T to $180T in wealth chart the right path to true freedom in Christ for the good of others and glory of God?
100Fold in the Bible.
The Greek word translated “hundredfold” is hekaton. It appears seven times in Scripture.[9]
Think about it: hekaton is a great word. $130T – $180T is a heck a ton of wealth!
And a hekaton (100Fold) of wealth confronts 100Folders with both opportunities and problems.
Just ask the “man” with “great possessions” who came to Jesus in the Gospel of Mark seeking an answer to a vital, burning question: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mk 10:17, 22).
The man had a great opportunity to “inherit eternal life” by pursuing true freedom in following Jesus and building wealth that will last forever. Jesus made it plain to him, answering honestly and bluntly.
How could he do it? By believing and obeying the call to discipleship Jesus made to him that was to be demonstrated in dispossession, liquidation, and donation to the poor. The call to discipleship for this man was to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Jesus in this very particular manner (Mk 8:34, 10:21). In exchange, he would “inherit eternal life…have treasure in heaven…[and] enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:17, 21, 23).
But, dishearteningly and sorrowfully (Mk 10:22), this man of great possessions and wealth found himself quite unfree to inherit, unfree to experience what he sought from Jesus and what Jesus was offering, both now and in the future: a 100Fold inheritance.
How so?
First, Jesus shocks his disciples after looking around and says: “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:23, emphasis added).
Second, Jesus put it straight to his “amazed” and “exceedingly astonished” disciples who had “left everything and followed” him, who understandably asked with incredulity, “Then who can be saved?” (Mk 10:24,26):
“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first” (Mk 10:29-31).
No doubt in this exchange when the disciples heard “for my sake and for the gospel” they also heard echoes of what Jesus said earlier in his ministry about the cost of discipleship: “If anyone would follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever…loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:34-36).
What does it look like for Christian billionaires (and other wealthy Christians) to lose their lives for the sake of Jesus and the gospel in the 21st century along the road the rich man in the Gospels was called to walk? The 100Fold CFO provides a practical biblical-theological means of walking into a path of future stewarded good works (1 Pet 4:10; Eph 2:10; 1 Tim 6:6-19).
The 100Fold dilemma and 100Fold CFO solution.
The rich 1st century man in the Gospels was not free to follow Jesus because his “great possessions” possessed him.
He suffered from a condition known as dyshekatontaplasiona, also known by its abbreviated form, dyshekatonitis.[10] It can be fatal if not transformed for the sake of Jesus and the gospel.
I believe Christian billionaires (and other wealthy Christians) in the 21st century are presented with an unprecedented opportunity to joyfully and wholeheartedly say Yes to Jesus, unlike the rich man who said No and walked away disheartened and sorrowful from the person and work of Jesus to which he was called.
The 100Fold CFO opens the present and future to this possibility. I explain its three components below: BEM, SODAF, FOHOS. But before doing that, I need to tell you how I got onto it all.
The 100Fold idea.
I first heard the “100Fold” idea from Daryl Heald, a generosity guru living on Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I’m blessed to know Daryl and consider him a dear friend and brother in Christ.
I also came to learn about VSI in the generosity space from Daryl. He’s a visionary who only works on VSI projects that have high probabilities of successfully moving the needle of expanding God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven by doing those good works that God has prepared beforehand for those created in Christ Jesus to walk into the future and do for God’s glory “in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever” (Ephesians 2:10).
The proof of success is in the pudding of generosity projects that Daryl has led or catalyzed in his five decades of life. Case in point: Generous Giving and Generosity Path movements begun in 2000 (https://generousgiving.org/team-and-board/daryl-j-heald, https://www.generositypath.org/about).
Another case in point: one of Daryl’s other current VSI kingdom-expanding projects is LeaderCare (https://leadercare.us), which Daryl’s 100Fold project is funding (https://www.100foldgiving.org/about-us). Daryl and our mutual friend Kay Hiramine invited me to participate in it a couple of years ago. I have the privilege of serving in the financial flourishing component of this VSI project
This is another example of Daryl’s heart for God and heart for God’s people, which are inseparable according to Scripture (1 John 4:21). Daryl loves Jesus and the gospel and believes what God says in the Bible about stewardship and responsibility, acting on it with the full assurance of faith that God is at work in him to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2:13).
The 100Fold CFO’s history.
It was August 2022 on the way to the Bill and Hilary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas.
We had been meeting for the first time the day before. And then on the ride to the airport the next day, we had a long discussion on generosity among the uber-wealthy that has continued episodically since. We sat outside the airport talking until Daryl realized he had to run to catch his flight. I was squeezing a good deal of generosity juice out of him up to the last minute, as I had been the past couple of days.
Meeting Daryl and getting my brain around what he’d been cooking up since 2000 with Generous Giving was life-giving and coherency-creating. It helped coalesce practically what I have been wrestling with since 2000 academically and professionally. Meeting Daryl came about from Kay’s introduction. This is just one example of thousands of why Kay is known as the uber-Netweaver, the Holy Smoker who spins up more “holy mischief” (as Kay likes to put it) than any human being I know.
As it is with Kay, it seemed then and seems now like Daryl is another brother and friend in Christ I’ve known for many years. As I reflected on what this generosity guru began in 2000 and has journeyed into e/Evangelical[11] affluence in the U.S. and around the world since then, it began to strike me that I had begun a different but parallel journey into that same space and in the same year at the University of Durham in England.[12]
This essay, in one sense, is about the ongoing journey of these parallel paths and how, at least in my mind, they converged on that ride to the airport in August 2022 and have been intersecting ever since.
Christian affluence is stuck.
It was stuck then. It’s stuck now. It’s not moving at velocity, scale, and impact (VSI), as Daryl likes to put it.
At least not yet.
That’s what Daryl’s 100Fold vision and project is all about. Leveraging Christian wealth at VSI. That’s what Daryl was cooking up in his mind in 2022 (and probably way before). He is bringing it to the table of Christian affluence in 2024.
“There’s so much wealth out there,” he told me at lunch in Chattanooga a few months back. So true ($130T – $180T).
Yes, trillions. And it is stuck. It’s not moving at VSI. If Daryl has his way, and if his 100Fold lead steward, Ben Peays, has anything to do about it, things just might change over the next decade or two. Who knows, Daryl and Ben might be God’s enema boys to get the affluenza norovirus infecting American e/Evangelical Christians flushed out.
I don’t know about you, but as a 21st century Jesus-and-the-gospel follower (Mk 8:31-35, 10:29) I wouldn’t want to be caught dead with trillions of dollars stuck in my pocket. Not in light of texts like Luke 12:13-21 and 16:19-31 or Matthew 25:31-46. Biblical texts like these comfort the afflicted and, at least should, afflict the comfortable. Assuming we’re awake to God’s heart and mind for the poor and afflicted at our doorsteps and on our screens in the world today (many if not most of whom are our brothers and sisters in Christ), these words of Jesus serve as affluence buzz kills that can awaken us affluent e/Evangelicals in the U.S. out of our mind-numbing affluenza. Or at least they can, if we allow them to. That’s a pretty big IF.
Think about it. Would you want to be caught dead with trillions in your pocket when you breathe your last breath? With anything in your pocket, for that matter?
Hope you don’t. This is one reason both personally and professionally I practice BEM.
Please allow me to make my case for the 100Fold CFO to show you how we can do just that. Die with nothing in our pockets. Die with everything we have leveraged for those “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Why? Because we are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works….”
The 100Fold CFO idea is birthed.
Daryl shared a couple of stories with me on the way to the airport that morning, each arising out of a Journey of Generosity (JoG) he had led. As always happens when you lead a JoG, those attending with uber-wealth inevitably want to talk, to seek counsel. They want to know what they should do. Their hearts have been stirred. They seem to sense that something is amiss. It seems like a deep vital interest, a hunger and thirst has begun to be stirred up within them.
It’s almost like they’re having an internal dialogue, simultaneously asking and saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? All these good deeds I’ve done, all the commands of God I’ve kept. What do I still lack?”
In one of the JoGs, a couple who attended sought a private audience with Daryl. Something was stirring in them. They wanted counsel at the start of their 7th decade, not sure how to go about the task of generosity in their remaining time on earth. They didn’t know where to start.
Following his notoriously frustrating post-JoG Socratic method, rejecting the temptation of being didactic and providing answers, Daryl asked open-ended questions.
“What’s your secret sauce in business?” Without a thought, the husband clicked off a list of a dozen or so steps he took to build a business that free cash flows $500 million a year. They were multi-billionaires.
Daryl asked me, “What do you think they give each year?”
“Are they believers? Generous?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, $50M a year.”
Not even close. It whittled all the way down to $3M a year. Say what? I thought you said they were generous.
A real modern-day Socrates, Daryl asks me another question: “Why do you think their giving is so low?”
“Uh, I don’t know, Daryl. Tell me.”
Instead of telling me, he went on with his story.
He told me they asked him: “What do you think it will take to create a plan of generous dispossession and donation at the same velocity, scale, and impact that your business has?”
Crickets.
They had no idea what to do or where to start. Their children were already uber-wealthy from the surplus family value and their successes in businesses and careers with no real interest in helping mom and dad figure out how to spend the rest of their lives giving their wealth way, much less to the poor.
They were stuck. What to do? To what end is all this wealth?
I said to Daryl, “What needs to be created is something like a ‘Charitable Family Office’ – a CFO paradigm and methodology. For those less evangelically inclined it could be called the ‘Philanthropic Family Office’ or PFO.
He smiled and gave me a look that said, “Yep, I’m way ahead of you.” We talked some more and then he bolted out of Ginny to catch his flight.
Over the next several months and years, I’ve come to learn that 100Fold was the vision Daryl had back then and is now beginning to instantiate. It’s coming to life. And I’m just now getting caught up to write about the 100Fold CFO.
What is the 100Fold CFO?
Put simply, it’s a legal, financial, tax-efficient means of dispossession, liquidation, and donation of wealth that can set 21st Christian billionaires (and wealthy Christians) free to give to the poor and follow Jesus in the way of the cross.
The 100Fold CFO can set uber-wealthy Christians free to complete in the 21st century what began in the 1st with the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus and his consequent reception of the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and pouring out of God’s empowering presence in the world upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost. An empowering presence in the world today whether true Jesus-and-the-gospel centered orthodoxy and orthopraxy is found.
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing (Acts 2:32-33)
The three components of the 100Fold CFO.
The three components I have developed apply to all Christians, and it is the work my team and I have the privilege of doing with our Christian clients.
We view ourselves as “servants of Christ” who is at worth in them and as “stewards of the mysteries of God” in partnership with them as they walk into the good works prepared beforehand for them to do (1 Cor 4:1, Eph 2:10, 1 Pet 4:10). And we take Paul seriously when he says, “In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy” (1 Cor 4:2).
This is the biblical fiduciary standard. It shows us what is ultimate to God and therefore should be ultimate to us. Put simply, what is ultimate to God and should be ultimate to us are the person and work of Christ Jesus and his gospel. This person and this factual reality of good news for the world are what God ultimately treasures. We know this is true because God, for the first and only time in human history, said this about Jesus: “This is my beloved Son, listen to him!” (Mark 9:7). In other words, the person and work of Christ (i.e., Jesus and the gospel) are supreme, are ultimate in God’s affections and will. Everything else is penultimate and must serve that which is ultimate to God.
In our practice of advising believing clients, we take the phrase “stewards of the mysteries of God” to mean stewards of the ministry and message of Jesus and the gospel for which our clients are called to lose their lives under their unique facts and circumstances (see Mark 8:31-38, 9:31, 10:29, 10:32-34; 1 Cor 15:1-4). It is a very fact-driven contingent method, process, and system. For wealthy Christians, the complexity and magnitude of issues seem to increase in proportion to the magnitude of wealth. This makes great sense given the story of the rich man in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And we see it worked out practically in what we do, the goal of which is to develop generous stewards who leave lasting legacies.
Component #1 – the telos: BEM. Begin with the End in Mind.
All too often we are so wrapped up in the present and where we want to get that we forget to think about the future. But both God and the Bible exhort us to think about the future. A lot.
Most financial and wealth advisors are trained to provide and habitually practice providing advice that begins with the present and works toward the future.
We flip that on its head and begin our planning process by helping our wealthy clients begin with the future and work back to the present. We help them imagine being at the point of breathing their last breaths. I tell them to think about that scene on the Titanic where the elderly couple is lying down in their cabin holding hands, preparing to die together. They had given up their seats on the lifeboat so that others could live their lives before them. They were at peace and ready to die together.
Strangely, this approach is liberating for our clients. Thinking about how they want to breathe their last breath, where they want to be when they do, with whom they want to be, and what they want to own when they enter into that long sleep awaiting bodily resurrection when Christ returns, seems to bring them a sense of peace and release.
Teleology, or teleological ethics, is the theory of morality that derives duty or moral obligation from what is good or desirable as an end to be achieved.[13]
From the historic orthodox Christian theological-ethical vantage point, the telos for Christians is this: glorify God through good works.
By “historic orthodox Christian theological-ethical vantage point,” I mean Christian orthodoxy (right belief/faith/trust) and Christian orthopraxy (right faithful practice). They cannot be separated.
You cannot say you love God and hate your neighbor.
You cannot say you love God and care nothing for the poor.
But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth (1 Jn 3:16-17).
If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself (Js 2:15-17).
In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Acts 20:35)
You just can’t.
This essay is a call to us 21st-century affluent believers to do what Paul says we should be doing habitually on every point of faith and practice: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” ( 2 Cor 13:5).
Throughout the centuries, this ultimate theological-ethical telos for Christians has been revealed in Scripture in multiple ways.
Here is a sampling from the New Testament:
Jesus
Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Mt 5:16).
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets (Mt 22:37-40).
Looking at him, Jesus showed love to him and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me’ (Mk 10:21).
And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.’
(Lk 4:17-19)
And He raised His eyes toward His disciples and began saying, ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God’ (Lk 6:20).
‘No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’ Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were ridiculing Him. And He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of people, but God knows your hearts; because that which is highly esteemed among people is detestable in the sight of God’ (Lk 16:13-16).
James
My brothers and sisters, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and is dressed in bright clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the bright clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters: did God not choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the good name by which you have been called? If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as violators. For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all….So speak, and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom….What use is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? In the same way, faith also, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself (Js 2:14-17).
John
We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. But whoever has worldly goods and sees his brother or sister in need, and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God remain in him? Little children, let’s not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
Paul
And now I entrust you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands served my own needs and the men who were with me. In everything I showed you that by working hard in this way you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:32-35).
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph 2:4-10).
But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs….As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life (1 Timothy 6:6-19).
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, eager for good deeds (Titus 2:11-14).
The process: SODAF
Simplify.
Organize.
Delegate.
Automate.
Fractionalize.
Billionaires by necessity must simplify, organize, delegate, and automate their processes for creating and managing wealth and the risks attendant thereto. They establish what is known as a “family office” with a staff of accountants, attorneys, asset managers, administrative assistants, etc. Typically, there is a gatekeeper adviser entrusted by billionaires with the primary responsibility of running the family office.
The thing that crystallized from my conversations with Daryl that day and is corroborated in the multi/fractional family office practice I manage for my clients as their gatekeeping fiduciary is that the very same processes, systems, disciplines, and practices applied in creating and managing wealth and risks must be applied to the CFO. This is how we will get Christian wealth moving at VSI.
One principle that has come to me in the process of pursuing fiduciary excellence over the years is fractionalization. This is a distinctive usually not found in the traditional family office. A commitment to fractionalizing ownership is a key step to enjoying the liberating power of generosity and to establishing the CFO. Cultivating and maintaining a mindset of fractionalization in the CFO running the CFO is crucial to accelerating VSI Generosity (VSIG).
What does it mean to fractionalize? Simply put, it is the intentional process of divesting private ownership into charitable ownership. It is revealed in Scriptures such as Mark 10:30 and Acts 2;44-45 and 4:32-45.[14]
The mindset of fractionalization in the CFO running the CFO is cultivated and transformed through deep immersion in Scripture and seeing the link between “good works” in the New Testament and helping the poor on the underside of humanity. It starts with asking and choosing to believe that it truly is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35) and that we can be content if we have food and clothing (1 Tim 6:8; Heb 13:5-6; Mt 19:19-34; Dt 10:12-22).
The commitment of the CFO running the CFO is to transfer wealth to a charitable framework established with the primary goal and purpose of generosity at VSI. Whatever “food and clothing” means for the CFO running the CFO can adequately be provided through a private operating foundation or other charitable structure. Freely chosen net worth and income goals or “financial finish lines” are steps to stewardship freedom.[15]
The system: FOHOS
FOHOS is short for the Family Office and Holdings Operating System. It incorporates BEM and SODAF. It is designed and staffed accordingly. Everything is oriented and focused on the future that is in God’s good hands with the consciousness that time is limited and the VSIG of wealth is the goal. The end game is to leverage wealth for good works helping the poor, oppressed, marginalized, weak, hopeless, etc., to end of making Jesus and the gospel known in the world today. Not just cash gifts and grant-making to feed and clothe the poor, but as importantly kingdom-expanding and kingdom-impacting investments that create opportunities for God’s children to participate in meaningful and life-sustaining work in businesses established and run by Christian owners and CEOs who view their business as ministries and missions.
Our first-century brothers and sisters in Christ were known for their good works helping the poor that magnified Jesus and preached the gospel. The first four centuries of Christian history provide ample evidence of this fact.[16]
The FOHOS can help solve what I call the wealthy Christian’s kingdom FOMO, the affluent Christian’s nagging sense, “what am I still lacking?”
CFOs running CFOs understand that preaching the gospel without meeting the needs of the poor on their doorsteps and screens leaves a gaping black hole in the gospel. It sucks light and light out of the gospel. They realize that preaching the gospel through meeting the needs of the poor on their doorsteps and screens collapses the black hole and manifests shining lights of good works in humanity that glorify their Father who is in heaven.
The fundamental operative principle of the CFO FOHOS is to apply all the expertise, energy, creativity, innovation, technology, investment, time, staffing, etc., to the CFO as was applied to the businesses, ventures, investments, etc., that created the wealth in the first place.
With $130T to $180T of wealth out there in the hands of American Christians, it’s going to take a lot of work and an army of servants and stewards to pull of the VSIG task before us.
Ora et labora, and steward on, my wealthy brothers and sisters with “great possessions”!
And let these words of Jesus cook in your noodle for a bit as you consider BEM and SODAF with your FOHOS: “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!…. Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:23-25).
And with the words of Jesus about the “kingdom of God” ringing in your ears go to Matthew 6:19-34 and meditate on two basic questions: “Am I looking at the birds and considering the lilies in my life? Am I free from the anxieties of affluence in my life?” I encourage you to Think Birds and Lilies.
[1] In relative terms, High Net Worth persons or couples (HNW) have between $1M and $10M of liquid or investable net worth. Very-High Net Worth persons or couples (VHNW) have between $10M and $30M of liquid or investable net worth. Ultra-High Net Worth persons or couples (UHNW) have over $3OM of liquid or investable assets. Opinions vary regarding billionaires, but obviously to be a billionaire you have at least a net worth of $1B (combined of both liquid such as cash and investments and illiquid assets such as real estate). Billionaires are described variously as “Super Rich” or “Uber Net Worth” (UNW) planetary inhabitants. In the United States, they are esteemed as integral members of the American upper class, the American elite. According to the last count by Forbes, “there are a mere 735 billionaires in the U.S. The millionaires are more plentiful—almost 22 million.” https://www.forbes.com/advisor/retirement/how-many-billionaires-and-millionaires-live-in-the-u-s/.
[2] Mathew 5:16; Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6.
[3] The “100Fold PFO” popped into my head at the same time: “100Fold Philanthropic Family Office.” The concept and practical outworking of the PFO are conceived differently in my mind, so I write about that in a separate essay titled, “The 100Fold PFO: Philanthropic Family Offices and the Philanthropic Family Officer.”
[4] See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluenza.
[5] “Here’s How Many Billionaires And Millionaires Live In The U.S.”
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/retirement/how-many-billionaires-and-millionaires-live-in-the-u-s/. See also https://www.statista.com/statistics/220093/number-of-billionaires-in-the-united-states/.
[6] Those in the know might be able to read through the most recent list put out by Forbes in its “World’s Billionaires List: the Richest in 2024” and let us know. See https://www.forbes.com/billionaires. You can also have some fun and check in periodically here https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#259bdce13d78 for “daily updated net worths of all 2,781 billionaires” tracked by Forbes.
[7] It’s quite logical according to the redemptive-historical arc of Scripture: God in Christ created everything and therefore owns everything. Things got mucked up by the Fall. God in Christ redeemed everything through the death and resurrection of his beloved son, Jesus. God in Christ will come again, “bringing heaven to earth” and “setting the world to rights” as N. T. Wright likes to say. See Colossians 1:13-19 for a succinct summary of all this, but there are many other places in Scripture where it can be found. Keep in mind God’s end game in the world today, as it has been since the death-resurrection-ascension of Jesus and outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen” (Eph 3:20-21). See that? God intends, and will, get glory for himself “in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Amen? Amen! The 100Fold CFO provides a navigation chart into these gloriously liberating waters.
[8] As one of my theological mentors, Dr. R. C. Sproul, put it in our Systematic Theology 1 class in the fall of 1989: “We are dependent, contingent, and derived creatures. Everything we are and will be, both now and in eternity, is entirely and sovereignly made possible by, and dependent upon, God in Christ. Whatsoever comes to pass is specifically ordained by God.”
[9] Genesis 26:12; Mark 4:8, 20, and 10:30; Matthew 13:8 and 23; Luke 8:8.
[10] See my essay titled “100Fold Fun: A Joyfully Serious Essay on Affluence and Liberty” in which I coin this neologism and try to illustrate the 100Fold and dys100Fold concepts from Scripture in a fictional story about a 100Folder’s transformation, https://www.davidsimsjdphd.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/SIMS-100Fold-Fun.pdf.
[11] This denotation is my way of delineating “evangelical” and “Evangelical” from each other. The former means Jesus-and-the gospel-centered orthodoxy and orthopraxis along biblical-redemptive-historical orthodox lines set out in texts such as Mark 8:31/9:31/10:23-14 (and parallels in Matthew and Luke); 1 Cor 15:1-4; James 2:14-17; 1 John 3:16-18, etc. It is distinctly different from “Evangelical” which signifies Western, social, cultural, economic, and political descriptors through various academic and media voices. For a fuller treatment of these delineations see my discussion in chapter 1 of The Child in American Evangelicalism and the Problem of Affluence: A Theological Anthropology of the Affluent American-Evangelical Child in Late Modernity (Sisters, OR: Pickwick/Wipf and Stock, 2009).
[12] See ibid.
[13] https://www.britannica.com/topic/teleological-ethics.
[14] Space does not allow me to go into the many other New Testament and Old Testament texts that support my spiritual-theological-moral thesis of biblical fractionalization. See my essay titled, “Liberating Affluence: Biblical Fractionalization in Scripture.”
[15] See, e.g., https://www.ncfgiving.com/stories/how-we-set-financial-finish-lines-and-you-can-too/ and https://www.ncfgiving.com/stories/enough-should-you-set-a-financial-finish-line.
[16] Helen Rhee’s excellent work in Loving the Poor, Saving the Rich: Wealth, Poverty, and Early Christian Formation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), provides ample evidence. See also Paul S. Chung, Church and Ethical Responsibility in the Midst of World Economy: Greed, Dominion, and Justice (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2013).