Adam Miller asked himself a question eight years ago as he was wrestling with the spiritual aspect of his career. Actually, he Googled it. His search results led this former financial planner to NCF and to taking his giving journey global.
A kingdom connection
“Can I be a financial planner and not feel like I’m working for the devil?” That was the brutally honest question he asked. “I was feeling like I just helped people build bigger barns,” Adam says. “At the same time, I began reading through the Bible, highlighting everything in green that had to do with money or possessions, and just really felt like, man, I work for the devil, I think. And the more I read, the more I just felt convicted.”
Whether it was good analytics or divine intervention, Adam doesn’t know, but his online search led him to the right place. “Ron Blue’s face popped up on my computer screen along with an invitation to come to the Kingdom Advisors Conference,” Adam says.
But he had his doubts. “This is going to be horrible,” he thought. “It’s going to be people with a fish on their card selling the worst annuities to little old ladies. But I’m going to try it, Lord.”
Adam hopped on a plane and traveled from his home in Colorado Springs to the conference in Orlando. On his flight there, he was reading his Bible, and the message of 1 Timothy 6:17-19 caught his attention: “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or put their hope in wealth … and to be generous, willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:18).
“I felt like God stopped me on the plane and said, ‘Until I tell you otherwise, this is your job.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know how to do that.’”
He didn’t have to wait long for an answer. In the first session of the conference, the speaker read the exact same verse and said to the audience, “If you feel called to this, here’s what you do. You host a Journey of Generosity (JOG).”
From bigger barns to a bigger calling
So that’s exactly what Adam did. Never even having been to one himself, he went home and started hosting Journeys of Generosity (JOGs) – small group gatherings to explore living with biblical generosity in your marriage, business, ministry, and your whole life. “Instead of feeling like my job was a mess, I felt like I got to be a pastor in the workplace,” Adam says. “My wife and I hosted about 30 JOGs in our community, and we saw our favorite nonprofits go from struggling to stable to surplus, just because we invited our friends to a JOG and then they were generous.”
Following an even deeper calling, Adam eventually sold his financial planning business to pursue his current career with Young Life and their global generosity movement, hosting international JOGs in countries from Haiti to Hong Kong.
“It was hard and horrifying and good how God orchestrated this job,” he says. “But it’s important work to invite every culture into the biblical generosity conversation, because it’s part of the life to the full that God promises.”
Sustained by stock giving
Going from a business owner to a non-profit career meant a shift in income for Adam and his family. But he and his wife didn’t want to shift their commitment to giving, so they began to donate stock through their Giving Fund at NCF.
“I’m at a place where we have way less income right now,” Adam says. “But we have these stocks that have actually appreciated. So, it’s been fun giving the stocks away, and we’ve seen the Lord bless that.”
Adam believes stock giving is a smart strategy in every financial situation. “As a financial planner, I loved helping couples who had been giving cash donate appreciated stocks instead. We’d gift those stocks, save on the capital gains, get the deduction, and use the cash for greater giving or to reinvest in their portfolio.”
“We could also play with bunching their giving to take advantage of tax savings in high-income years so they can give more. I had so many clients ask me, related to this stock gifting conversation, ‘Why hasn’t anyone ever told us about this?’”
Why every culture belongs in the generosity conversation
One of the most enlightening moments in Adam’s personal giving journey happened at a JOG in Morocco. As part of the event, he played a video testimony of givers Alan and Catherine Barnhart, an American couple with a hugely successful global business. Scanning the diverse faces in the room, Adam became worried that the participants wouldn’t feel like they had much in common with the givers on the screen who were so different culturally.
But when the story finished, one of the Moroccan men exclaimed, “That was the best story yet. They need to make a movie of that story!” When Adam expressed his concerns, the man replied, “No, Adam, you’re not getting it. This is not a U.S. story or a Moroccan story. This is a kingdom story. This is kingdom culture.”
“That’s the kind of stuff I get to see every day,” Adam says. “So, I’m just addicted, and I’m praying that God will provide for the rest of it.”
If you’d like to find out if stock giving might be right for you, contact your NCF team.
