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Are you looking for a thrill? It's not necessarily what the kids or the media would think is a thrill, but it's a lot deeper and last longer. Here's what you can do to get that real "kick" out of life: make your last will and testament a testimony to the fact that your will is to benefit the work of Jesus Christ in the world. Let people know by what you leave behind, and your instructions about how to use it, that you are a person of Christ.
How you do this is actually very simple. You name your local church endowment fund as the recipient of part or all of your estate. You can do this three ways: you can leave a percentage of your estate; you can leave specific property or a dollar amount; or you can leave everything that's left over after other obligations are fulfilled.
If you don't have a will, make one today. The state you are living in has a plan for your estate, but you might not want things done their way. Your own will is your legacy to the world as you leave it. So take the time and care enough to get that done now.
If you have a will already, call your attorney and ask how you can change your will to include your church's endowment fund. A simple codicil will likely do the trick.
When you give to local church endowment, your gift is never "used up." However, your gift works for you each and every year, because the church can use part of the increase of the gift. Your gift not only works for Christ's mission in the world, it keeps on working throughout the years: a testimony to the wonderful Christian person you are. Think about it. You can make a difference.
Looking for a nice feeling?
Are you looking for a nice, warm fuzzy feeling? One of the ways human beings get those kinds of feelings is by helping others, directly and indirectly. There's no feeling in the world like the one you get when you reach out to another fellow human being and help that person through a troubled time.
Do you know that you can use your estate plan to do that? "Don't have an estate plan," you say? Well, your estate is anything that you own in your own name alone. So even the "shirt on your back" can be your estate. The point here is that you own something, and you can't take it with you to heaven. So why not leave it where it can reach out to someone in Christ's name long after you're gone.
How do you do that? You leave something from your will or estate plan to your local church endowment fund. That way your gift never stops giving to others on your behalf. Your objective for Christ in the world will get done, quite literally, forever, or as long as the church exists doing Christ's work helping others.
It's a very simple thing when you think about it. A call to your attorney will do it. If you don't have an attorney, you likely have friends who can help you with that. Ask your pastor, too. The point is, make the decision today: reach out and help other people through your church's endowment fund. It will give you a nice, warm fuzzy feeling to know that you are making your last gift on earth really count for something. Think about it. You can make a difference.
Want to do something wonderful?
Would you like to accomplish something really wonderful? Your local church counts on your gift: every Sunday, every month, every year. They will miss you when you're gone, because of who you are and what you share in personality, time and financial resources. The great thing is, you can keep your gift coming to your church practically forever, if you're so minded. Did you know that?
You have an estate. It may be a little estate, a medium-sized estate, or a large estate. It doesn't matter. You have something you own in your own name alone, and that's your estate. And you get to decide just how you want it distributed when you leave this earth. No, you can't take it with you, unfortunately. But it can go to work for you and for Christ after you're gone. In fact, the legacy you leave behind might actually be more powerful in getting God's work done in the world than any one of your present gifts.
For example, Thelma has an estate that she anticipates will be modest, but she wants to do something really meaningful with it. She went to her attorney, who had already drawn up a revocable living trust for her, and asked that the final distribution of her trust include her church's endowment fund. It took the attorney's assistant just a few minutes to make the change and Thelma had a new draft of her trust in the mail in a few days.
You can do this too; or something like it. You can accomplish something really wonderful by helping your church help other people by doing Christ's work in the world. Use your last gift by making it count for Christ. Think about it. You can make a difference.
Looking for a tax deduction?
Are you looking for a good estate tax deduction in your estate planning? There's probably a lot of ways you can do this, but none more rewarding than a substantial estate gift to your local church endowment fund.
You can give cash, appreciated securities, real estate or personal property to your local church. Every dollar you give generally qualifies as a charitable deduction against your federal estate tax and your state inheritance tax. So long as you give it free and clear of any strings, it's out of your estate and into the hands of a charitable entity. If you need to, you can even make an appropriate designation for the use of your gift. Of course you'll want to check out the designation with your pastor or chair of the Board of Trustees just to make sure your designation and the church's needs coincide.
There is another reason to do this, besides the tax deduction, of course. And that's the ability of whatever you give to your church's endowment fund to work for Christ's mission in the world long after you're gone. So you get more "bang for the buck," as they say: you get that asset out of your estate as a charitable gift, get the gift deduction from estate tax, and you get your objective for Christ's work in the world done at the same time. What's more, you achieve a greater, long-term usefulness for your estate gift than you can do now with your present gifts. That gift will keep working for a long, long time and do many good things - over and over. Think about it. You can make a difference.
You can't take it with you!
You can't take it with you. But you can make it work for you! And for the work of Jesus Christ, too! Think about this: wouldn't you like to get the highest and best use out of whatever you happen to leave behind when you are no longer among us? Would you be interested in having those assets used to help people in need, or help people come to know Jesus Christ as you have?
If you're like a lot of people these days, you might not figure on leaving very much of an estate when you're gone. But whatever there is could be working for you doing Christ's work in the world. You can make this happen very simply with a will.
If you don't have a will yet, make one today. The state you are living in has a plan for your estate, but you might not want things done their way. Your own will is your legacy to the world as you leave it. So take the time and care enough to get that done now.
If you have a will already, call your attorney and ask how you can change your will to include your church's endowment fund. A simple codicil will likely do the trick.
The real point here is that you can ensure that God's work continues on by making a gift through your will to your local church's endowment fund. And you'll know that your gift will never be "used up;" it will keep on being used year after year, doing the work of the church, for Christ, in the world. Think about it. You can make a difference.
6. Do you care, really?
As a Christian, do you care how the legacy you leave behind speaks about you and your commitment to Christ? If you do, here is something to think about. You could make your last will and testament a testimony to the fact that your will is to benefit the work of Jesus Christ in the world. Let people know by what you leave behind, and your instructions about how to use it, that you are a person of Christ.
How you do this is actually very simple. You name your local church endowment fund as the recipient of part or all of your estate. You can do this three ways: you can leave a percentage of your estate; you can leave specific property or a dollar amount; or you can leave everything that's left over after other obligations are fulfilled.
If you don't have a will, make one today. The state you are living in has a plan for your estate, but you might not want things done their way. Your own will is your legacy to the world as you leave it. So take the time and care enough to get that done now.
If you have a will already, call your attorney and ask how you can change your will to include your church's endowment fund. A simple codicil will likely do the trick.
When you give to local church endowment, your gift is never "used up." However, your gift works for you each and every year, because the church can use part of the increase of the gift. Your gift not only works for Christ's mission in the world, it keeps on working throughout the years: a testimony to the wonderful Christian person you are. Think about it. You can make a difference.
