By Sheila Dolinger<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Bert Williams was growing up in the small town of Manila, Arkansas, he would make his way after school to a corner drugstore. Greeted by the aroma of vanilla, aftershave, and something faintly medicinal, he and his friends would burst through the door and head for one of the booths near the malt shop counter that looked out on Main Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was here \u2013 where folks consulted with the white-coated pharmacist about their ailments and a true sense of community flourished \u2013 that God gave Bert a heart for genuine relationships, trusted mentors, patient care, and a biblical foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bert\u2019s dad was a farmer, and that\u2019s what Bert wanted to be, right there in his hometown. \u201cMy dad told me that was just fine,\u201d Bert says. \u201cBut with the risk of farming, he said I needed to go to college and get a license to do something! Naturally, I chose pharmacy.\u201d Little did Bert know the wisdom of his father\u2019s urging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An unexpected role in the church<\/strong> As Bert pursued his pharmacy degree, he discovered that he appreciated the clinical practice and its impact on patient care. He quickly moved up the ladder of success and across several states. He went from being a pharmacist to serving as vice president of a growing, Texas-based, hospital-pharmacy management company. Like he had with Bert\u2019s small-town roots, God used that culturally healthy company and broad experience as a reminder of the importance of genuine relationships and community. It was here he also met his wife, Debbie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, Bert retired with 32 years as a corporate leader under his belt, and he and Debbie settled into the Phoenix area, where they had spent much of his later career. That is when conversations with his pastors led to an unexpected new role \u2013 caring for the members of his church who had been blessed with financial means. \u201cOur church leadership recognized the unique challenges of members with wealth and business success.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Bert was humbled and honored to do it. For the last five years, he\u2019s been busier than he ever dreamed. \u201cI\u2019m loving every minute of it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Connecting the church to generosity<\/strong> Several months into his new role, Bert heard about the National Christian Foundation (NCF) through video testimonials from Generous Giving. \u201cOver and over again, the givers in these videos would mention NCF with such adulation, and I thought, who are these people?\u201d says Bert. \u201cSo, I went to the NCF website, and then I called the closest NCF office to make sure I understood what I was reading.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bert made a surprising discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat I learned from NCF was that I could have been giving much more to the kingdom over the last 10 to 15 years than I had,\u201d Bert says. \u201cBecause much of my wealth came from compensated company stock, I would sell shares, convert them to account cash, and give.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon, Bert realized that giving the stock through NCF to a Giving Fund (donor-advised fund) before the shares were sold would potentially provide much greater tax advantages and could result in increased giving through the same number of shares. \u201cFrom then on, I was a proponent of the idea that friends don\u2019t let friends give cash.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom then on, I was a proponent of the idea that friends don\u2019t let friends give cash.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n He quickly discovered that this strategy also worked for real estate and business interests \u2026 and basically anything that is an appreciated asset subject to capital gains tax. \u201cSo, I thought this could likely apply to a lot of the people that I serve,\u201d he adds. And it has. \u201cMy local NCF team in Phoenix provides a safe space for our givers to have these creative and strategic giving conversations from a biblical perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming full circle<\/strong> \u201cWhen these relationships grow from transactional, tax-related conversations to seeing the impact of giving and feeling the joy, I believe many givers begin to see themselves changed from the inside. Desires change, and they want to share with their friends and family. Generosity within a church becomes contagious, and members live with a deeper sense of community. Generations are impacted, and family legacies are born.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If there\u2019s one thing these relationships have taught him, it\u2019s that generosity is powerful medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Sheila Dolinger When Bert Williams was growing up in the small town of Manila, Arkansas, he would make his way after school to a corner drugstore. Greeted by the aroma of vanilla, aftershave, and something faintly medicinal, he and his friends would burst through the door and head for one of the booths near […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":661,"parent":0,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-653","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/southwest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/southwest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/southwest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/southwest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/southwest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/southwest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/southwest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/653\/revisions\/710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/southwest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncfgiving.com\/southwest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Tragedy struck after his first year of pharmacy school. \u201cMy dad developed terminal lung cancer,\u201d Bert says, \u201cand our family made the decision to sell the farm, land, and equipment to provide for my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur church leadership recognized the unique challenges of members with wealth and business success,\u201d Bert says. \u201cThey wanted a pastor who could develop genuine relationships and care for their needs, someone who was a peer that understood those challenges. And they wanted a person that was biblically sound and had a passion for what God says about money, business, tithing, generosity, and influence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, he simply invited his church\u2019s key givers or members with financial means to connect over coffee or lunch. He\u2019d share his story, get to know them, and inform them of his availability as a resource. Sometimes he offered insight on biblical generosity and business, or merely acted as a sounding board for their stewardship and generosity journey. \u201cMy intentions are to be available, provide value, be encouraging, and hopefully develop a genuine relationship,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While these conversations often start by talking about tax-savvy giving, they\u2019re really about so much more. Bert\u2019s goal is to be a spiritual resource for givers at his church to help them explore what God says about money, business, tithing, generosity, generational planning, and legacy. \u201cWe create these relationships not for the purpose of developing donations, but to encourage givers along their journey,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n