ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast

How does a Christian wealth manager move from career to calling - and then scale what a mentor built?In Episode 19 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker interviews Jeff Thomas, founder and CEO of Arkos Global, about the mentorship and three questions that have shaped a firm directing over $500 million to Christian ministries since 2017.Jeff shares how Ron Blue shaped his entire career - from writing him a literal letter in the early 2000s, to three years of discipleship over coffee at the Atlanta airport hotel before Kingdom Advisor coaching events, to hearing God say audibly in their last session together: "I want you to scale what this guy started." That moment sent Jeff on a sixteen-year discernment path that ultimately led him to leave Morgan Stanley and launch Arkos Global in 2017.Tim also shares his own personal Ron Blue moment - walking into Kingdom Advisors' headquarters off the freeway with a white paper on ministry vetting, getting confirmation from Ron Blue himself, Hugh McClellan of Generous Giving, and David Wills of National Christian Foundation (NCF) that the idea was worth pursuing. That meeting became the catalyst for ROI Ministry itself.The conversation closes with three questions Ron taught Jeff that Arkos still uses with every client in transition today: How much is enough for you? How much is enough for your kids? And what do you do with the rest? This is the third episode in a new Don't Bury It series on Christian wealth management, generosity, stewardship, and kingdom impact.ABOUT ROI MINISTRYROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served - while still sharing the Gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.Free resources:• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ Know you're making a difference.

How does a Christian wealth manager move a family from generous giving to wise, intentional stewardship? In Episode 18 of The Don't Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker interviews Brian Cochran, CFP, CKA, and majority shareholder of John Moore Associates, about the role of the kingdom advisor at the moment a gift gets made.Brian shares how John Moore Associates grew from $300M to $1.1B in assets under management while tracking more than $50M in cumulative client charitable giving since 2012. He explains the firm's "10 + 1" framework — 10% of income plus 1% of assets — and why the 1% unlocks a category of giving most believers have never considered. He walks through the "deeper with fewer" discipline that has replaced small-gift-sprawl in many of his client portfolios, and he describes a real case where a new client family with a $10M net worth was coached from $50K/year giving into a $1.5M first-year gift and $200K–$400K annually thereafter.Tim and Brian also discuss:Why generosity and stewardship are different callingsWhy American assets have grown 300% over 25 years and what that means for kingdom givingHow appreciated stock and other non-cash gifts can be more tax-advantageous than cashWhy asset-based giving through donor-advised funds like those at National Christian Foundation (NCF) is changing the math for Christian familiesWhat Tim calls EROI — eternal return on investment — and why the risk/reward calculation changes when eternity is the horizonThe widow's mite, and when God-honoring giving doesn't have to be strategicBrian is co-author with John Moore of In Succession and The Almighty and the Dollar. He is a CFP and a Certified Kingdom Advisor (CKA), and a member of Kingdom Advisors.This is the second episode in a new Don't Bury It series on Christian wealth management, generosity, stewardship, and Kingdom impact.ABOUT ROI MINISTRYROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served - while still sharing the Gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.Free resources:• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ Know you're making a difference.

Are Christians generous, but not always wise stewards?In Episode 17 of The Don’t Bury It Podcast, Tim Barker interviews Chad Jackson, Executive Director of the Jackson Family Foundation, about the difference between giving from good intentions and intentionally stewarding the resources God has entrusted to us.Tim and Chad discuss the troubling imbalance in Christian giving, including the reality that less than 0.5% of worldwide Christian giving reaches unevangelized and unreached people. They explore why Christians should look beyond emotional reactions and personal connections when choosing where to give, and why wise stewardship requires prayer, discernment, research, and action.Chad explains the Jackson Family Foundation’s focus on hope, homes, and health, along with its commitment to prayer, presence, and partnership. He shares how the foundation seeks to support gospel-centered ministries serving vulnerable people in hard-to-reach places, often through indigenous leaders and holistic ministry that addresses both physical and spiritual needs.Together, Tim and Chad ask what it really means to love God with our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and how Christian donors, kingdom advisors, and wealth managers can pursue investments that produce lasting fruit.ABOUT ROI MINISTRYROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served - while still sharing the Gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.Free resources:• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ Know you're making a difference.

The Jesus Film Project has translated a 2-hour film of the life of Jesus - Gospel of Luke, with the words Jesus speaks on screen being the literal words of God - into 2,301 languages. It is freely given to ~1,800 ministry partners and shown in remote, low-literacy communities where 2–3 billion people still live who have never heard of Jesus. Every showing is tied to church planting. Tim talks with Josh Newell about how a 45-year-old ministry founded by Paul Eshleman under Bill Bright's leadership grew from a handful of languages to 2,301 - and how an animated version of the same film is now being built to reach a generation whose median age is 30. Plus the "test us on that" answer to large gifts, the partnership math that has Jesus Film bear the development cost while field partners carry the distribution, and the on-mic announcement that Jesus Film Project will appear on ROI Ministry's all-time Top 10 list.The Jesus Film Project: https://www.jesusfilm.org/ABOUT ROI MINISTRYROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served - while still sharing the Gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.Free resources:• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/Know you're making a difference.

For 13 cents, SERV International feeds one person a real meal — and shares the Gospel with every hand it passes through. To date, SERV has shipped 117 million meals across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, DR Congo, and South Sudan. Their Kenya-based plant can manufacture 1 million meals a day; last year they shipped 13 million. The gap is the opportunity.In this Partner Highlight, Tim sits down with Steve Kasha, Founder & CEO of SERV International — a Canton, Georgia-based ministry 25 years in the making. Steve's calling story started in a hammock in the Venezuelan jungle, day 4 with no food and no water, when he heard, audibly, the voice that would set the trajectory of his life. Today, SERV runs an orphanage in northwest Kenya, manufactures its own fortified meal blend in-country to bypass the 2–3 month shipping lag, ships a million meals into DRC during the Ebola crisis while every other relief org pulls out, and packages 1,000+ food boxes a month locally in Georgia. Steve's thesis is simple: every bag is an opportunity to pass the gGospel from one hand to the next. ROI Ministry's independent vetting confirmed SERV's 13-cents-per-meal claim — third-party validation, not internal marketing. SERV can absorb a $20M–$50M gift today without sacrificing quality; a second warehouse already sits empty in faith. SERV International — https://servone.orgABOUT ROI MINISTRYROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.Free resources:• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/Know you're making a difference.

For 35 years, YWAM San Diego-Baja's Homes of Hope has built nearly 10,000 homes across 34 countries — sponsored by volunteer teams at $12,000 per home including furniture package, and staffed entirely by self-funded missionaries so every donated dollar stretches into the field. Even at minimum wage, labor and materials given since 1990 total more than $120 million of value to the poor.In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with Sean Lambert — Executive Director and President of YWAM San Diego-Baja — and his daughter Andrea East about how an untargeted 1990 offering, a 3-year-old's question, and a woman named Maria living in an abandoned bus became one of the most replicated home-building models on earth. They cover the "five benefits" compounding inside every home — economic, education, health, hope, and spiritual — the "Tanya" story (12-year-old to master's-in-nursing in one generation), the volunteer-leverage math that sends 100% of donations to the field, the Cornelius framework for why anyone can build, and Andrea's Hebrew word "Mishpat" — justice as restoration of God's intentions. Plus: why one Indiana company brought 7,000 employees over 9 years, why 81% of groups come back, and why Sean closed with the Southwest Airlines pilot who told the National Prayer Breakfast: "When you have a destination, you have hope, and hope changes everything."YWAM San Diego-Baja / Homes of Hope: https://ywamsandiegobaja.org/ABOUT ROI MINISTRYROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.Free resources:• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/Know you're making a difference.

For $3.64, MedSend provides one person medical care — through a healthcare worker who shares the gospel with every patient they see. One worker, supported over 4–5 years at $15,000–$25,000 per year, reaches an estimated 100,000 patients over their career. In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with Rick Allen, MedSend's CEO of 18 years, about how a software executive became a missionary, why the global south is the new frontline for unreached people groups, and what happens when saving a life becomes the bridge to sharing Jesus. Plus: the "Launch" model that eliminates dependency, the 12-CEO summit Rick convened with the largest U.S. sending organizations, and the book "Surrendered Heart."MedSend: https://medsend.org/ABOUT ROI MINISTRY ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.Free resources: • Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/ • BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ Know you're making a difference.

For about 80 cents a child, The Mailbox Club walks a kid through a complete course of Bible lessons. Last year: 17.3 million children enrolled, nearly 12 million completed the course, and 8 million made a decision for Christ — across 100+ countries, 200,000 churches, and 750,000 volunteer mentors.In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with John Mark Eager, CEO of The Mailbox Club, about how a 1965 mail-based Bible lesson ministry in Valdosta, Georgia became a globally decentralized, church-driven discipleship engine serving the 4–14 age group in the hardest-to-reach places on earth. They cover the Samaritan's Purse distribution pivot that dropped costs and 10×'d graduation rates, the 10/40 Window math, why discipleship-first flips the math (80%+ of kids discipled come to faith anyway), and Franklin Graham's counsel when John Mark laid out a growth plan: "Don't limit God."The Mailbox Club: https://mailboxclub.org/ABOUT ROI MINISTRYROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.Free resources:• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ Know you're making a difference.

220 people came to know Jesus in a single week — through clean water, in a Nairobi slum, at a cost of $1.34 per person per year. In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with Cory Akin of The Bucket Ministry about how a CFO became a missionary, why meeting a physical need opens the door for gospel conversations, and what 14 years of filter design has taught them about sustainable impact. 15 countries. 220 salvations in a week. One cracked cup on the Amazon that started it all.The Bucket Ministry: https://thebucketministry.org/ABOUT ROI MINISTRYROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries.Free resources:• Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/• BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ Know you're making a difference.

$0.95.That's the third-party-validated cost — confirmed by Calvin Edwards & Company — of one person praying to receive Jesus through Here's Life Africa. One of the ministries Tim's team has kept on the ROI Ministry Top 10 since the first annual list.Here's Life Africa has been at this for 29 years. It started in Tanzania, a country of 30 million that was 47% Christian. Today, that same country is 70 million people and 62% Christian — 40 million professing believers, up from 14 million when the ministry began. The ministry now works across East Africa in Tanzania, Malawi, and Uganda, with 47 teams deployed to million-person geographies.In this Partner Highlight episode of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Andy Blakeslee, leader of Here's Life Africa, to walk through:The Amazon jungle origin: Andy grew up in the same place in Ecuador where Jim Elliott, Nate Saint, and three other missionaries were martyred in 1956 — and accepted Christ at age 5 in that jungleThe Toña story: the Helio Courier plane that flew Andy and his family was named after the first Waorani Indian to receive Christ — and then was martyred for going back to his own tribe with the gospelThe 14-year detour: EDS, Accenture, and "I'll never be a missionary" — until God's call was unmistakableThe $0.95-per-decision number: third-party-validated by Calvin Edwards, and how it compares to the 30,000× upside in kingdom impact when resources reach the world's poorest, lost peopleThe LAMP method (Listen, Ask, Consider the Message, Pray) — a four-letter, four-week discovery Bible study that turns 3,000 raised hands a day into small groups meeting weekly for 7-10 yearsHow $42 starts a small-group Bible study that meets weekly for up to 10 years — about 40 cents per person per year for a decade of discipleshipHow $2,250 per month (or $27,000 per year) sponsors an entire team and produces roughly 50 evangelistic crusades a yearThe 0.33% problem: only one-third of one percent of all Christian giving reaches the world's poorest, lost people — and why that number has not budged in two decadesWhy the Great Commission shows up 5x in the New Testament and the Greatest Commandment only 3x — and what that means for how you allocate your giving portfolioHow to give to Here's Life Africa anonymously through the ROI Ministry Top 10 (no fees, no skim, 100% reaches the ministry)About ROI MinistryROI Ministry is a free resource that reviews 100+ ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Tim calls it EROI: the eternal return on investment.Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.Free resources:https://roiministry.org/https://hereslifeafrica.org/BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/Subscribe and know you're making a difference.

$50.That's what it costs — sustainably, for life — to take one person off the water crisis and put the gospel in their hands. One of the ministries Tim's team has kept on the ROI Ministry Top 10 since the first annual list.Since 2008, Neverthirst has provided over 1.6 million people in the 10/40 window with sustainable clean water and the gospel — posted 17 consecutive years of growth, scaled from $2.5M to $10.9M annual budget, and now serves from some of the hardest places on earth. With local pastors at the tip of the spear.In this Partner Highlight episode of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Matt Letourneau, Executive Director of Neverthirst, to walk through:The Psalm 67 origin story — three Birmingham businessmen, a guest sermon on "May God be gracious to us and bless us," and a mud-hut "hospital" in Sudan that started a 501(c)(3)The 17-month client-pipeline collapse that pushed Matt out of a six-figure consulting book and into ministryThe cost-per-soul math: $50 sustainably takes one person off the water crisis — gospel included — for a 20–30 year life on the water pointThe village-pay-in model: every family contributes money or labor to a repair fund held in escrow by 8 women in the village, so a corrupt chief can't get to itThe 10/40-window pastor whose two sons (ages 7 and 5) were killed in the very village he was trying to reach — and who went back years later, drilled a well with Neverthirst, and led the village to ChristWhy "water without the gospel" misses the point — and what "eternal impact per dollar" actually measuresThe story of Neverthirst's growth from $2.5M to $10.9M — and what unlocked it (compelling vision, clear reporting, GPS coordinates on every project)How to give to Neverthirst anonymously through the ROI Ministry Top 10 (no fees, no skim, 100% reaches the ministry)About ROI MinistryROI Ministry is a free resource that reviews 100+ ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Tim calls it EROI: the eternal return on investment.Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.Free resources: https://roiministry.org/ https://neverthirst.org/ BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/Don't bury what you heard and know you're making a difference.

3 cents.That's the cost of a single gospel presentation at Explore God (formerly Global Media Outreach) — one of the ministries Tim's team has kept on the ROI Ministry Top 10 for nearly a decade.Since 2004, Explore God has shared the gospel more than 3 billion times. In 13 languages. Across the poorest and least-reached places on earth. On the smartphones of people in Thailand coffee fields, in Pakistani cities, in Indian villages where it's illegal to share the gospel in person.In this Partner Highlight episode of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Jamie Radtke, President of Explore God, to walk through:The 2004 founding vision — a former Apple engineer's bet that the internet could accomplish the Great CommissionThe cost-per-soul math: 3¢ per gospel presentation, 46¢ per indicated decision, $3.45 per new discipleship connectionWhy 85% of Explore God's outreach happens in developing countriesThe 2026 rebrand from Global Media Outreach to Explore God — and why the name change is a discipleship betHow the gospel reaches closed countries where in-person evangelism is illegal or impossibleThe regional-hub strategy putting online missionaries in Kenya, India, Lebanon, Russia, and BrazilHow to give to Explore God anonymously through the National Christian Foundation portal on roiministry.orgAbout ROI MinistryROI Ministry is a free resource that reviews 100+ ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Tim calls it EROI: the eternal return on investment.Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.Free resources: https://roiministry.org/https://exploregod.com/BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ Subscribe and know you're making a difference.

$2.90 a week. That's what it costs to keep a girl from being sold.In the first episode of the new Partner Highlight series on ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Michele Rickett — Founder and CEO of She Is Safe, a survivor of childhood abuse who has spent the last 24 years building one of the most effective gospel-centered anti-trafficking ministries in the world.In one of the most honest conversations about money and ministry you will hear this year, Michele walks through how She Is Safe keeps girls in high-risk communities safe for less than the cost of a venti latte a week — and how that work has cut trafficking in pilot villages by 85%. She shares the story of one woman sold at age 4 for a case of beer, the husband who later said "we don't allow that here anymore," and the men who ended up donating land, baking bricks, and building the school themselves. She also opens up about her own past, the forgiveness that set her free, and the moment she looked over a fence in Africa and saw a girl being sold — and heard God say: "What are you going to do for these children of mine?"This is the first Partner Highlight — sit-downs with the leaders of the ministries on the ROI Ministry Top 10. If you have ever wondered what a vetted, gospel-centered, auditable, impact-per-dollar ministry actually looks like in practice — this is it.She Is Safe served 100,502 women and girls in their last audited year. They are ready to scale from 11 countries to 14 — but not without partners.To give directly: https://sheissafe.org/To support the work through ROI Ministry's National Christian Foundation platform (no fees, no skim): https://roiministry.org/Know you're making a difference.

0.33%. 30,000×.Two numbers. One question: what kind of steward are you going to be?In 2001, the Gordon Conwell Center for the Study of Global Christianity published the number. In 2025, they updated it. In 24 years, total Christian giving nearly tripled — and the percentage that reaches the world's unevangelized barely moved. That's the 0.33% problem.The 30,000× is the upside. When a dollar flows to a faithful, fruit-bearing ministry serving the poorest and least reached, the same dollar can produce 3,000 to 30,000 times the eternal impact of where the average gift goes today.In the season-one recap of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker walks the entire series in a single pass: the global giving crisis (Episode 1), the words of Jesus on the poor and the lost (Episode 2), the framework for wise generosity (Episode 3), the free due diligence tool (Episode 4), and the kingdom-advisor litmus test (Episode 5). Then he lands the question that holds the whole season together: are you inspecting the fruit of where your dollars go?In this episode, you'll hear:The 2025 update: $677 billion in Christian giving, 0.33% to the unevangelized, 0.1% to unreached peoplesThe 30,000× upside: the maximum EROI measured across 100+ ministries reviewedWhy "follow your heart" is the worst stewardship advice in the Bible (Jeremiah 17:9)The 1 Timothy 6:17–19 framework: God first, family, local church, strategic kingdom investmentsThe fruit-inspector test: how to evaluate any ministry in 60 secondsThe kingdom-advisor litmus test: 100× the world's best charities while sharing JesusWhy ROI Ministry never touches a dollar — and the donor-advised funds that make it possibleTim Barker is the founder of ROI Ministry, a free resource that reviews over 100 ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Every one of Tim's dollars from every copy of his book, BOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You, goes straight to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.Subscribe to ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast and know you're making a difference.Resources mentioned in this episode:The top-10 ministry list and 90+ reviewed ministries: roiministry.orgBOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

100×.That's how much ROI Ministry's top 10 ministries outperform the world's best charities in cost per person served — meals, clean water, shelter, medical care, housing, and protection from sex trafficking — while still sharing Jesus and making disciples.So why do most Christian wealth advisors still point their clients elsewhere?In Episode 5 of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker names the litmus test of a true kingdom advisor — and tells the story of the Christian wealth-management book that cited the parable of the talents to defend an "all in the family" legacy approach, then blocked him when he pointed out the verses on the poor the book had skipped.This is the episode for the financial advisor, the wealth manager, the kingdom-advisor candidate, and the donor who wants to know the difference between wise kingdom advising and the bigger-barn version.In this episode, you'll hear:The 100× litmus test: how to tell a real kingdom advisor from a Christian brand on a wealth-management brochureThe parable of the talents as Jesus actually used it — and the book that used it wrongRon Blue's vision: "Help Christians steward money biblically, live generously, and direct resources towards eternal purposes"Hugh McCulloch, Ron Blue, and David Wills — the three who said yes when no one else wouldWhy "retirement" is not in the New Testament — and what that means for kingdom investingThe donor-advised-fund trap: bigger barns, smaller grants, wealth managers earning fees on money that should be deployedThe parable of the rich fool: Luke 12:20 — "This very night, your life will be demanded of you."The ECFA / Ministry Watch / Candid / Charity Navigator due diligence stack — and why all four still aren't enoughTim Barker is the founder of ROI Ministry, a free resource that reviews over 100 ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Every one of Tim's dollars from every copy of his book, BOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You, goes straight to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.Subscribe to ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast and know you're making a difference.Resources mentioned in this episode:The top-10 ministry list and 90+ reviewed ministries: roiministry.orgBOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

What does $10 do when you give it through the right ministry?$10. Two people see a doctor and discover Jesus. Three people learn the skills they need to prevent human trafficking. Seven people get clean water for a year in Jesus' name. Twenty people make indicated decisions for Christ. Seventy-six hand mills in Africa.Most Christians give and hope. This episode shows you how to give and know.In Episode 4 of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker walks you live through the free, no-ads, no-commission resource his team built over the last decade: a top-10 list of the most impactful ministries in the world, vetted by a third-party auditor, gift-receipted by the National Christian Foundation, and updated every year. He shows you what $10 does. He shows you how to nominate a ministry. He shows you why free due diligence is the missing piece the research keeps pointing to.In this episode, you'll hear:The $10 calculator: what every dollar produces through 10 of the most impactful ministries in the worldThe Jesus Film Project: $5.30 per indicated decision for Christ — the lowest cost per soul in the datasetThe Calvin Edwards third-party vetting process: the same due diligence wealthy givers use before writing six-, seven-, or eight-figure checksHow the National Christian Foundation's donor-advised funds let ROI Ministry never touch a single dollarThe Lausanne Covenant 1974 standard every vetted ministry must subscribe toHow to nominate a ministry for the top 10 listTim Barker is the founder of ROI Ministry, a free resource that reviews over 100 ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Every one of Tim's dollars from every copy of his book, BOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You, goes straight to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.Subscribe to ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast and know you're making a difference.Resources mentioned in this episode:The top-10 ministry list and 90+ reviewed ministries: roiministry.orgBOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

The parable of the talents ends in darkness.Not metaphorically. Literally. The third servant — the one who buried what he was given — is cast into outer darkness. There is weeping. There is gnashing of teeth.Jesus told this story to make a point about what we do with what God entrusts. Two servants got to work. They traded, they invested, they doubled what they were given. The master called them good and faithful. The third servant played it safe. He buried the talent. He called it prudence. The master called it wickedness — and laziness.This is not a story about getting rich. It is a story about getting to work.In Episode 3 of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker walks through the full parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and lands the framework the rest of the show builds on: faithful stewardship of money, time, opportunities, influence, and the actual dollars.In this episode, you'll hear:The full parable of the talents, end to endWhy Jesus used two gold carrots and one big stick — and what each one teachesThe $5 million per bag of gold: what the third servant actually buried"Faith uses what is given. Unbelief buries it." — and what that looks like in a stewardship auditThe 1 Timothy 6:17-19 framework: God first, family, local church, strategic kingdom investments$30/week average Christian giving — and why it isn't enough on its ownThe $6 billion lost annually to fraud and the $100 billion given with no measurable fruitTim Barker is the founder of ROI Ministry, a free resource that reviews over 100 ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Every one of Tim's dollars from every copy of his book, BOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You, goes straight to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.Subscribe to ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast and know you're making a difference.Resources mentioned in this episode:The top-10 ministry list and 90+ reviewed ministries: roiministry.orgBOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

Twice.That's how often Jesus talked about the poor compared to the Great Commission. We have built entire movements around the Great Commission. Most Christians have never heard the rest.In Episode 2 of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker walks through the research his team did on the words of Jesus — how often He spoke about the poor, the lost, generosity, money, and the kingdom — and what shows up when the data is laid out side by side. The episode reframes the modern Christian's mental list of Jesus' core teachings, exposes the verses we skipped, and lands on a single, hard question: if Jesus said it twice as often, why don't we teach it twice as often?In this episode, you'll hear:The verse-count research: how often Jesus actually mentioned the poor, the lost, generosity, and moneyWhy the Great Commission gets preached and the "least of these" doesn'tThe 3,000× to 30,000× result when giving is directed to the poorest and least reachedWhat "bear fruit that will last" actually means in stewardship termsWhy motivation matters — Jesus attached rewards, not guilt, to wise generosityThe parable of the talents, and what the third servant's "buried coin" actually representsThis is not a guilt trip. It is a re-ordering.Tim Barker is the founder of ROI Ministry, a free resource that reviews over 100 ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Every one of Tim's dollars from every copy of his book, BOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You, goes straight to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.Subscribe to ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast and know you're making a difference.Resources mentioned in this episode:The top-10 ministry list and 90+ reviewed ministries: roiministry.orgBOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

Most Christian giving doesn't produce a single soul saved.In the very first episode of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker opens the books on the largest untapped opportunity in the modern church. The Gordon Conwell Center for the Study of Global Christianity tracked where every Christian dollar actually goes. After 25 years and a near-tripling of total giving, the share reaching the world's unevangelized hasn't moved. Less than one-third of one percent. The rest stays close to home.This is not a guilt trip. It is a stewardship audit.In this episode, you'll hear:The 2001 vs. 2025 research — and why the percentage hasn't movedWhere 99.67% of every Christian dollar actually goesWhy the prosperity gospel skipped the verses that mattered mostThe 3,000× to 30,000× upside when giving is directed to the most faithful, most effective ministriesTim's own story: the dangerous prayer, the collapse, the research that changed everythingTim Barker is the founder of ROI Ministry, a free resource that reviews over 100 ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Every one of Tim's dollars from every copy of his book, BOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You, goes straight to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim.Subscribe to ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast and know you're making a difference.Resources mentioned in this episode:The top-10 ministry list and 90+ reviewed ministries: roiministry.orgBOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/