“In the beginning God” so famously starts the creation narrative in the Bible. Within it, God repeatedly demonstrates a self-evident pattern that is so hardwired in His creation that it might be overlooked. “And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.”[1] Trees yield fruit to feed His creation, including us, and the fruit so produced each contain seed which can grow more trees. All life on Earth receives energy from the rays of the sun which are produced everyday anew by the burning of fuel within the sun which produces the light needed to grow the plants and the welcome heat which keeps us warm. And God declares this “good.” This cycle provides not only for us, but also for every living thing on Earth. God’s plan to both provide for us and to protect us consumes much of the remaining text in the scriptures.

       Giving is introduced quietly and unobtrusively immediately after the creation narrative, early in Genesis chapter 4. In the narrative of Cain and Abel we can almost pass over the obvious: that both boys are actively and seemingly spontaneously in the act of proportionately giving back to God. Who told them to do this we wonder, as the recorded event precedes God’s first instruction to give by many, many centuries. Perhaps there is something in the heart of man that instinctively wants to give back to God in some way from His provision for us? Much ink through the rest of scripture is devoted to the subject of giving back to God and stewarding His abundant provision for us in a way that is pleasing to Him.

        Flashing forward to contemporary America, we live in a country that actively promotes giving generously to charity, specifically through our tax code and through our culture, generally. Tens of thousands of charities exist in America, and the greatest number of those are religious in nature, predominantly churches. Every year in America, the highest percentage of charitable giving goes to faith-based organizations. However, we can’t help but notice that for many Christian ministries, the idea of making a charitable gift to provide an ongoing source of provision for the future needs of the ministry (called endowment giving) often takes a back seat when compared to the effort given to promote the current needs of the charity/ministry. There are legitimate reasons for this, in particular because many Christian givers are responding to direct, immediate needs.

Yet some givers – in particular those making larger gifts – also like the idea of giving for the long-term good. With very large gifts, in particular estate gifts, they may be concerned their gift may be spent hastily or might not be used according to the purposes they intend.

So we return to the question before us: “Is an endowment biblical?” Christian ministries that want to start or promote an endowment wrestle with this question. Virtually all Christians are familiar with the Bible’s teaching on giving back to God just as He regularly provides for us, commonly understood as tithing from income. Yet many ministries find themselves in uncharted territory as they begin to think and pray about starting a long-term fund in order to sustain their work into the far future.

The term “financial endowment” does not appear in the Bible. Like many other modern concepts, (evolution or pollution for example), we must search the scriptures and apply principles that are consistent, unambiguous and relevant to the topic to begin to feel like we are standing on solid biblical ground. The following incomplete list is humbly offered in this light for what they each teach about the nature of an endowment:

• In Genesis, God declares, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the Earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you.”[2] Later to Noah and his family, “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.”[3] From these examples we learn that God provided food for people, a renewable resource in its season. This endowment of life is a perpetual provision for the needs of humanity.
• Later in Genesis, Joseph, inspired by God, tells Pharaoh to “exact a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of abundance. Then let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and store up the grain for food in the cities under Pharaoh’s authority, and let them guard it. And let the food become as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which will occur in the land of Egypt.”[4] This principal of laying up a portion from the good years to provide for the years of famine saved not only the Egyptians, but also all the Hebrews.  Later, God made a provision for His people and their future from the wealth of Egypt as they departed.[5] This provision of money and property was necessary for them to have as they wandered and eventually settled in their new land.
• In Leviticus we learn the principal of the Sabbath Year in farming and the Year of Jubilee. God promised “then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years. When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.”[6] This extra provision of God’s was to provide for the future needs of the people (see also Exodus 16:5).
• King David’s desired to build a temple to God in Jerusalem, but realized he was going to die first. In 1 Chronicles we learn how “David prepared large quantities of iron to make the nails for the doors of the gates and for the clamps, and more bronze than could be weighed; and timbers of cedar logs beyond number”[7] and how he with great pains “prepared for the house of the Lord 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond weight, for they are in great quantity; also timber and stone I have prepared.”[8] David provided in one generation for the spiritual work of the next generation. What was God’s opinion of David’s desire to endow the building of the Temple? In 1 Chronicles we read of the establishment of God’s Covenant with David. God sends word to David the very night he first plans to build, promising to establish David’s throne forever. David is overcome by God’s promise and blessing and recognizes how God “has promised this good thing to Thy servant. And now it hath pleased Thee to bless the house of Thy servant, that it may continue forever before Thee.”[9] Clearly God was pleased.
• In Matthew we read about how the wise men presented “gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.”[10] These gifts were undoubtedly used by the Holy Family as a provision for food, shelter and clothing as they fled to Egypt as refugees for several years.

From these passages and others, we learn the principle that God provides for specific purposes or needs that will arise in the future. Often His provision for those future needs is to meet them from a “bumper crop” today, taking from current abundance and setting it aside for His specific purpose. In other words, endowment.

• Later in Matthew, Jesus instructs us “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.”[11] The laying up of treasures in heaven includes making provision from today’s abundance to meet a spiritual need God has spoken about in the next generation, provided we do not neglect the needs of those around us today.
• Jesus also teaches in the Parable of the Talents, that we will give an account to the master upon his return. If we have a gain to show on what He entrusted to us, He will say “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”[12] In other words, it pleases Him that we invest and reap growth from what He entrusts to us today. This includes our stewardship and our giving.
• As a final point, we read in Acts 15 about the outcome from the Council in Jerusalem. Resulting from a crisis within the early church as Gentiles began to come to faith in Jesus, the dispute centered around what should be required of these new Christian Gentiles regarding obeying the Law of Moses. The leaders met together, debated, sought God, and came to resolution:
• “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church…” (Acts 15:22)
• “…it seemed good to us, having become of one mind…” (Acts 15:25)
• “…for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (Acts 15:28)

Here we see the principle of church and ministry leadership (elders) reacting to changing circumstances around them and making prayerful and well-thought-through decisions regarding the Lord’s work in a changing world. If done by qualified leadership in a humble attitude of serving others, Christians are to accept the outcome. For example, argumentative Paul does not question the council’s decision, nor do the legalistic Jewish Christians. This process and the outcome it produces is accomplished under the authority Jesus Christ gave the church.[13]

Before we transition away from the scriptures, one well-known passage should be examined, Jesus’ warning about collecting wealth in bigger and bigger barns:

“And [Jesus] told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”[14]

This parable speaks specifically to the individual desiring to add to their own personal property/wealth. Jesus paints the picture of a hoarder. A contribution to an endowment is the very definition of relinquishing funds from personal ownership, and freely giving them away to a benefiting organization.  Once a person completes a gift to charity, it is not their property anymore. More to the point, their money is not in their barn. The barndoors have been opened and wealth is flowing at a sustainable rate.

From the above, we may distill several key questions ministries should ask themselves regarding a biblical basis for an endowment:

1. Does the ministry itself or the need to be endowed have a biblical mandate?
2. Will an individual steward of God’s resources – a person - be taking a God-pleasing step of stewardship by participating in giving to an endowment?   
3. Will the establishment of an endowment harm or compliment the faith-giving of the stewards who regularly support this ministry’s annual budget now?
4. Can proper safeguards be established so that God’s property will not be “Storehoused” (i.e. hoarded)? Instead, will this endowment be an abundantly flowing source of meeting real and ongoing future spiritual or physical needs?
5. Do the leaders of the church or ministry, after prayer and seeking God, believe in unity that they are doing the right thing in establishing this endowment for near and far-future spiritual work?

God entrusts wealth to individuals, and they will each answer to Him about how they handled their wealth at some point in the future. Giving during life to meet the needs of many human issues discussed in the Bible is clearly important. Many Americans experience from time to time a “bumper crop” and desire to provide for God’s work in the future from their abundance. Scripture gives many examples where this kind of provision is legitimate, and even further, pleasing to God. As a result, ministries who identify an endowable need would be wise to offer this stewardship opportunity to their supporters.

* This article written by In His Steps Foundation Executive Director Emeritus, Rob Cathcart.

[1] Genesis 1:12

[2] Genesis 1:29

[3] Genesis 9:3

[4] Genesis 41:34-36

[5] Exodus 12:35-36

[6] Leviticus 25:21-22

[7] 1 Chronicles 22:3-4

[8] 1 Chronicles 22:14

[9]  1 Chronicles 17:26-27

[10] Matthew 2:11

[11] Matthew 6:19-20

[12] Matthew 5:21

[13] Matthew 16:18-19

[14] Luke 12:16-21