iRetire4Him Show 79: Moving Forward, Part 2

Intro: [00:00:00] While retirement is generally seen as a time of relaxation and self-focus, God calls us to love, serve, and help others for a lifetime. He has been preparing us for this retirement season, literally our entire lives. In retirement, countless Christians enter a state of spiritual dormancy not knowing how they are called to have an impact for God's kingdom.

The Retirement Reformation seeks to encourage and empower the 50 million Christians approaching or in retirement to embrace the calling God has been preparing in them. When the world says it's time to stop, you can begin to have your greatest impact. Welcome to iRetire4Him, the mouthpiece of the Retirement Reformation, where our goal is to journey from retirement to reformation so you can say, iRetire4Him!

Jim: Reaching out to the 50 million Christ followers in America who are [00:01:00] approaching or already into retirement - You've tuned into iRetire4Him, the Voice and Resource of The Retirement Reformation. I'm your host, Jim Brangenberg, and I'm joined with the founder of The Retirement Reformation, Bruce Bruinsma.

Please check us out online Retirement Reformation.org, Retirement Reformation.org, and of course on Facebook, just look up Retirement Reformation . The Retirement Reformation is founded on the main principle that your retirement years are the most significant years of your life. You take all the wisdom you've gleaned over the years and all the skills you've accumulated along with your retirement income, and you find yourself in a fully funded ministry model.

Your retirement years are full of freedom and adventure. And Bruce Bruinsma has written many books to help guide you through the process of taking advantage of your retirement years. Bruce wrote a series of books called The Future Funded Ministry series . Book number one is entitled Finding Freedom. We covered that in podcasts 11 through 14. Book number three is entitled Charting Your Course, which which we [00:02:00] covered in podcasts 2 through 10. Book number four is entitled A Fruitful Retirement, which we covered in iRetire4Him podcasts 59 through 62.

Notice anything ? Yeah. Book number two. Today we continue our three part series on book number two in the series entitled, Moving Forward - putting your future funded ministry plan into action. Bruce Bruinsma is here to help us, guide us on our course. Bruce, welcome back to iRetire4Him.

Bruce: Jim, it's always good to be here and in this second of a three-part series that we're doing on moving forward is really good. Even though we're doing it, we're doing it out of sequence of the content, it's always valuable.

And while I think I'd like to have people read the books, you know, 1, 2, 3, and 4, this one is particularly impactful and, and I've had such tremendous response to it from people saying, you know, that Moving Forward really got me off the couch.

Jim: Yeah. Maybe in a future series we'll do all four in a row. Just 1, 2, 3, 4, boom. That'd be a good idea.

All right, so we're talking about [00:03:00] book two of your four part series, A four book series entitled The Future Funded Ministry. Why did you write this whole series of books, Bruce?

Bruce: I wrote the series because as we, you know, in my own personal life of 30 years plus that I've spent in the financial services industry, helping people with retirement and learning about all of the issues that are there in addition to money and beginning the Retirement Reformation movement, what I realized was that, that there needed to be a really carefully laid out, in a series of easy to read and understandable books so that someone could go, okay, I need to be digging into this. And that by reading each one of the books in the series, in fact, they would be taken to a point where they'd be ready to really engage the next stage of their, the next stage or stages of their life.

So it is to bring [00:04:00] clarity and encourage information and I think God's wisdom to the issues that surround retirement and starting it with that idea of a future funded ministry rather than a retirement plan.

Jim: All right, so in the middle of the Moving Forward book, you have a section for people who are much younger than retirement years focused on the future funded ministry planning. Are you saying we need to be preparing for our future funded ministry years, even in our twenties?

Bruce: As early as your heart and mind will open itself to the idea that in fact there will be a time when the paycheck will stop, yet ministry must continue. And, and the earlier that we begin to enter into that savings mode, the less amount we have to put in and the more it will be.

And so when's the best time to [00:05:00] start? Well, the direct answer to that question is if you haven't started, it's tomorrow or today is the best time to start. But when we talk about giving wisdom, for example in our - perhaps let's take that second stage that we talked about - second stage of life mentoring when we're talking with our grandchildren and helping them to, to understand that beginning to save now is the most effective way to be in ministry later.

Jim: Okay, but grandsons, you've got a couple of football star grandsons and I remember when I was 18, 19, 20, I wasn't necessarily the most absorbent sponge to wisdom. I don't know what you were like, but I'm guessing you were not an absorbent sponge of wisdom at 20 either. How have you tried to communicate this idea to your two football star grandsons?

Bruce: Well, I think his parents have done a, a really fantastic job of it and, and I won't take much credit for that, but it's interesting [00:06:00] between the two boys, for example, one of them is a saver. How do I know that? And what are the conversations that we've had?

Because he started when he was, I believe he was 10, and he set up an account and his dad helped him set up an account at a bank that he put his money into because when he was 16, he wanted to buy a car and he realized that if in fact he had saved enough money and his dad promised him, said, look, whatever amount of money you have, I will match it for you to get a car.

And his motivation, his why was so strong to get a car that he had more money than his dad was really comfortable with. But at any rate, so he got a really nice car. Now his brother on the other hand money is meant to be spent now and it is spent to help others. That's a good thing and to have a good time.

So the two boys, they're a couple years apart. One's really got that savings idea, that future funded ministry idea, [00:07:00] and the younger one doesn't have it yet. But our prayer is that he will, he will have it, but he's aware of it. He's seen what's happened with his brother. And so, you know, that's the reality of our learning about good stewardship. Cuz good stewardship is not only what we do now, but what we prepare for in the future.

Jim: I love that example. And it's, it's great cuz we all, every one of us has kids that are, they're very, very different. All right, so once we've reached 55 plus, is there anything we can do to influence our financial position and better prepare us for future funded ministry? Because sometimes , well, for many people listening to this podcast, this is a new idea.

Bruce: It is a new idea, although I think just about everyone has a, has an almost an innate feeling that I should be saving for the future. Now, how they deal with when they're gonna start doing that, that becomes the issue. But so many people that I [00:08:00] talk to, and they're 55 or even 60, and they haven't started.

The good news is it's not too late. It's not too late. You don't have to have a fully funded future ministry to be able to have an impact on that future time. Even if it's a half funded future fund account that's better than nothing.

I had someone the other day said, well, I know it's way too late for me, and we did the math, and in fact, they would be able to set aside money in the amount of $400 a month. I asked him, I said, does $400 a month make a difference to you? Now, if I took 400 away, would that, would that create pain ? Yes. If I added 400, would that bring some additional capacity? The answer was yes. Yeah. And so it's never too late to start, and your financial situation typically changes as you become an empty nester.

So that presents lots of opportunities in the next 10 or 15 years, and maybe you gotta [00:09:00] work a little bit longer, so be it. But you can be in ministry even while you're doing that work.

Jim: Absolutely. We encourage you, of course, to check out a great website - iWork4Him - that'll talk all about putting, making your workplace as a mission field as you prepare for your future fund ministry, which is what the Retirement Reformation is all about.

Hey Bruce, when we come back in at segment three, when we talk more about this moving forward book and we get into more of the conversation about our future funded ministry, I wanna celebrate the fact we're gonna hear from Hal Halbecker about his, what God's doing in his retirement and when we come back in segment three, we're gonna talk about money personalities.

As we heard about your grandsons, they've got a couple of great money personalities. I can't wait to hear more details about that. You're listening to iRetire4Him. We'll be right back.

Break: Recreating Retirement is an interactive small group study helping you to move from nothing to what's next. You can join us on Wednesdays at 6:00 PM East Coast time on Facebook Live.

Our goal for this study is to provide a group setting for interaction and new ideas [00:10:00] while leading you through a first step in your journey from retirement to reformation. Here's the big idea. During the next five years, 5,000 small groups will experience this journey of discovery in churches and faith-based organizations across the country. Is your church a place where Recreating Retirement needs to be planted?

Join us online to experience the study. We'll prepare to lead a small group at your church of ministry. Email us at contactus@retirementreformation.org or go to our website: RetirementReformation.org . That's Retirement Reformation.org.

Jim: Hey, welcome back to iRetire4Him. Bruce, during every second segment of every podcast, you always bring on a special guest who's got a story to share. Who do you have for us today?

Bruce: Well, I have someone who's very special today. You know, there's times in your life when you have the opportunity to meet someone and you go, you know, I think they could have been my brother.

And because God has led us in paths that have brought out similar [00:11:00] understandings and Hal Halbecker is, is certainly one of those people. Matter of fact, every time I read one of his books, I go, oh my goodness, I could have written that. And so Hal, give us just an executive summary of how God has led you to where you are, including coming to Dallas Seminary in 1973.

Hal Halbecker: Well, Bruce, first of all, it's great to be with you. Thanks. I love being with you and hearing your voice and what God is doing in your life and reading everything you have on Retirement Reformation. It's awesome. You know, if I could summarize it in 60 seconds, it would go like this.

I grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Trusted Christ as a six year old kid. Went to Taylor University. Through a missionary experience in Haiti in 1972, I came to Dallas Seminary. I came to study the scriptures, thinking I would go into some kind of public policy work. While I was in seminary, Howard Hendricks challenged me to consider [00:12:00] ministry for life and even equally important, I met my wife at Dallas Seminary.

We married, started our family, and believe it or not, I've never left . I served with W.A. Criswell and First Baptist Church staff for six years, served for 15 years with the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, pastored a church as a senior pastor for almost 22 years, and then launched Finishing Well Ministries, having always been influenced by older people.

And I just felt God drawing my heart to encourage older people and help us all to finish well. Second Timothy 4:7-8. So that's my story, Bruce. And God is alive and worked in my life. And the best thing we can talk about as we age is God's work in our lives and encourage others to do the same even in our aging years. So that's me.

Bruce: Indeed. Well, it is you for sure. And Finishing Well , the, the materials that you've put together out of the experience and the leading of the Holy [00:13:00] Spirit as he has guided you. Just outstanding material. And so as we partner together to influence the 40 million Christ followers who unfortunately are on the sideline.

And as you and I would both have our hearts quickened to help change their thinking, just talk about that a little bit and how you see the, the issues of seniors and what in fact is the opportunity.

Hal Halbecker: Well, as I see seniors, as we both see them, you know, I think we've, I think of Paul. Romans 12:2 , be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

So I think, how do we think about life after our work? You know, God calls us into a particular area of ministry and work with our hands. Like Moses prayed at the end of Psalm 90: confirm the work of our hands. Well, what do you think of the work of your hands? Well, most people think about it as what they did.

A preacher, I pastored a church for 20 years or whatever. Well, if you look at the [00:14:00] lifespan of all your years, God has a work to do through every one of our years, and retirement kind of communicates the idea that we're finished. You know, I like to talk about, you know, an athlete retires his jersey to the rafters and he doesn't play on the court or the field.

You know, you retire planes to some airfield out in Arizona, in the desert, and they're not flown anymore. But the idea of retirement in one sense is not biblical. You know, that's our cultural sense. You're finished. No. It's your time to play. Well, no, it's not. . You know, I talk about retirement from the Levitical priesthood.

You, you know, there were, the priest had to retire at age 50. A lot of people say, well, retirement's not in the Bible. Well, it is in a sense, but they didn't retire to do nothing. What they retired from the act of work of their lives to do was to go out and pastor all over Israel and train up next generations [00:15:00] to be followers of God in every sense of the word.

So that's our mission today. I think every older person has a mission to succeeding generations to help them and to be an example. If I could quote two verses, Psalm 71: 17, and 18, oh God, you have taught me from my youth and I still at my age declare your wondrous deeds. Even when I am old and gray. Oh God, don't forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation and your power to all who are to come.

That is our mission as we age with every day of our lives. The Holy Spirit leads us in creative ways to do that to our experiences and passions.

Bruce: You know, my prayer is that this message will not only be transmitted to those 40 million Christ followers who are sitting on the bench, but that the Holy Spirit will quicken them.

Can you just kind of think with me for a minute what would [00:16:00] happen if, in fact, everyone that heard joined with us, the message spread, it became viral, and 10 million Christians got off the couch and were representing Jesus in the unique way that God had prepared them. Man, talk about that for just a minute.

Hal Halbecker: Well, the first thing that comes to mind to mind, Bruce, is as we watch the generations following us, lose their grip on what the scriptures teach in so many areas. If every older grandparent were pouring their lives into the next generation, sharing their experiences of what God did through them and using the scriptures as their reference point, you wanna say, how would that affect the generations following us?

I mean, you can imagine unleashing 40 million older grandparents. We're older parents of [00:17:00]adult kids and grandkids and great grandkids, you know, would have a significant impact. I, I can't measure, you know, actually what it would be, but the church would be stronger. Our resistance to the work of Satan and our culture would be stronger.

I mean, all kinds of things I think would be changed. Maybe elections would even be changed. I don't know. But you, you know, at least people would feel more confident in who they are as Christians and as believers and in the work God wants them to be and do in their lives if they were influenced and prayed for, and cared for and loved by an older generation.

Bruce: And I, I think just to add to that, is that all the things that our culture says that is dragging us down, we have the opportunity to reverse that. And through the love of doing what it is that he's called us to do, and the preparation that we have, every aspect of our society could be [00:18:00] changed. So if we're part of that group that's concerned about what the future's gonna be like, here is an opportunity to make a difference and to be called into ministry for a lifetime really is, I just wanna thank you for the ministry of your lifetime and what there still is that we have to do.

Hal Halbecker: Amen, Bruce, let's keep working on it together.

Bruce: Jim, you got any questions or anything for you?

Jim: I have one question, Hal, as you have been working with Christ followers to just understand how to finish well. When you first present this, I mean, the average retiree thinks that they just retired to just, you know, well, they go to Florida, Arizona, or Texas to retire, to die.

You know, they go there to die. When you open up the doors to them and say, you know what? Retirement is a place of excitement and ministry possibilities. When you open up the doors and shift their paradigm, what do you see change inside of people?

Hal Halbecker: Well, well, the first thing I literally I see is a smile coming across people's[00:19:00]faces . And they look at me and they say, why hasn't anybody ever told me these things that are in the scriptures? And they feel like they have a new lease on life. You know, Frank Telepo used to be a pastor in Denver, Colorado, and he wrote a book back in the eighties called Unleashing the Church. And I think of that when I see their faces change. Makes all the difference in the world.

And you feel like the church has a new leash. They have a new leash on life . And you imagine, Bruce, if every church did that, if every pastor, every lead pastor, every senior pastor had a heart for the aging people in their congregation. It's like Howard Hendricks said, what would be different if that would happen?

So it's just an amazing gift, Jim. That's what runs through my mind when I teach, when I share, when I encourage people. I'm doing it in a senior living facility in Dallas right now. Makes all the difference.

Jim: Hmm. Where do people find out more about Finishing Well Ministries?

Hal Halbecker: Well, you could go to finishingwellministries.org. There's a website there, there are videos, [00:20:00] there are resources there. And hopefully they would encourage you to keep catching a vision. Like Moses said in Psalm 90, so teach me to number my days. Then I may present to you a heart of wisdom. Those are, that's what Finishing Well Ministries is all about, and I hope it teams right up with Retirement Reformation and together we keep growing the kingdom. Right, Bruce, Jim?

Bruce: Praise the Lord. Absolutely.

Jim: Absolutely. Bruce, again, what a great guest. Hal Halbecker, thank you so much for being an iRetire4Him. We'll be right back.

Break: Our work on this earth doesn't end when the paycheck stops. God calls us to be faithful for a lifetime. Whether you're looking forward to retirement or you're already there, our all small group study Recreating Retirement will help you understand, engage, and activate what God has for you in this fourth quarter of life.

Join Retirement Reformation founder Bruce Bruinsma as you consider your past strengths, spiritual gifts, and your passion and how they all come together in the call God has for you in [00:21:00] these years. Connect with us on our online community group at Facebook.com/ Retirement Reformation. Wednesdays at 6:00 PM Eastern.

Or if you'd like to bring Recreating Retirement to your church, email us at contact us@retirementreformation.org. Are you ready to start your life-changing journey today?

Jim: Hey, welcome back to iRetire4Him. We're talking about Moving Forward, book two of the Future funded ministry series. And Bruce, we promised our listeners that after we got a chance to hear from Hal that we would get a chance to talk about the money personalities.

And you already kind of peeked into a little bit talking about your grandsons, but what are money personalities? And then of course we're gonna ask the question next, what does it have to do with our future fund ministry? Go ahead. What are money personalities?

Bruce: One of the things that we've learned and maybe just our audience remembers and may have been exposed to the five love languages in the different ways that we show love. What we've learned is that in [00:22:00] fact there are five different ways that are, that the way we think and deal with and about money is important to understand. And so there are five money personalities, you know, and you could have a primary and a secondary.

So they can work together. But, you know, just kind of think to yourself for a moment, who do you know that you just know that they would fit the category of being a spender? And who do you know that would be a security seeker and there's somebody else that you know they're just an entrepreneur, risk taker. And then you've got a saver. And then you've got a last one, which is generally of which we refer to as a flyer.

So let me just give you just a quick insights on each one of those, because they can be done in combination. So for example, my combination is as a [00:23:00] spender and saver. Now it's, that sounds really in conflict, doesn't it?

The way it plays out in my life is that I'm not afraid to spend, and I'm not afraid to be a risk taker, but I'm going to do the research first to make sure when I take that step, that I'm doing it as wisely as I can. That's where that saver piece starts to come into play. So it's in that combination.

My wife, Judy, is very much the the opposite in that she's a security seeker, but a security seeker and a spender. So she's not afraid to spend money and to support me in doing that, but she's always kind of concerned is it gonna work out okay? And so you see those in Judy and my understanding the conflicts and our own money personalities has helped our relationship.

You can see it with kids. I talked about my two grandsons. Well, one is in fact a, a [00:24:00] saver, and the other is more of a flyer. A flyer is someone who really doesn't, you know, I've got the money and here's the opportunity in front of me and I'm gonna do it. And they're not really giving a lot of thought to either the result or the impact or anything. It's, it's much more immediate.

And so these five areas, it really helps us to understand our relationships and to be able to understand how it is that when God puts an opportunity in front of us, the lens through which we're going to look at it, and those who are important in our lives are going to look at it.

Jim: So how does all of that play into our understanding of a future funded ministry?

Bruce: Well, for example, if you're a flyer, it's gonna be harder for you to save . They have sufficient money so that in fact it can fund that future ministry. So you have to be much more intentional. For a saver, it's not a problem at all.

Matter of fact, I had a set of [00:25:00] clients that I worked with for a long time and they'd saved, they were just wonderful savers. They were wise and they saved, they finally got to the retirement years and they couldn't figure out how to spend the money. They were so into saving that they couldn't spend it.

So I had to give 'em a budget of here's how much you're gonna spend every year, and, and then just have the conversation and here's how much you're gonna give every year. So that, in fact, the application of those resources that they had saved were appropriate. But it was interesting, that basic personality was so built into them that it was really hard for them to take those next steps of spending or investing or supporting ministries in that next stage of life.

Jim: Do you find that that's a common theme for retirees who have spent so much time being diligent in preparing for saving for the retirement, that when they get there, they have our hard time spending any?

Bruce: Yeah, I really do. I, I'm not [00:26:00] sure what percentage that would be, but it would be at least 30% of people have, that, have that issue or have that conflict between a husband and wife, not only on will we spend, but on what will we spend. And so, for example, within our faith-based communities where someone has a, you know, just has a really generous heart and the other person has a hard time letting go of anything, so the conflicts that come.

So understanding those and then turning to the Bible and being able to work through to come to an appropriate understanding of how they're going to deal with those two different personalities and those two real life issues.

Jim: So I happen to know that one of the things you have no hard, you don't have a hard time doing at all is working. You love to work, you love to invest, you love to, I mean, you love to be active. And I know that Judy loves to spend time with you and in the last year she's successfully gotten you out of the office a [00:27:00] lot more to enjoy life in your quote unquote retirement years. And you've done a little traveling.

How hard has that been for you to let go a little and play with that other part of your money personality in order to respect and love your wife to spend a little time, you know, exploring the world?

Bruce: You know, when we use the fruits of the spirit as a lens to look at the issues that are in front of us, and that was one.

And so as, as I prayed and struggled through that a little bit, I said, how do I really need to be thinking about this through God's eyes and the love that I have for Judy? And the answer that came for me was that I needed to be intentional. And so to be able to sit down with Judy and say, let's look at this next year.

What are the things that you would like to do or that we would like to do that have, that have been on our bucket list or that we, we haven't experienced? And let's put 'em on the schedule [00:28:00] and I will commit that I will adhere to that schedule. And once I made that decision, and we did that, then I remember coming up to the first one of those, and there were all kinds of reasons to cancel it and not do it.

And, you know, all kinds of things I had to do. And in my prayer life, the spirit moved me and said, Bruce, remember the commitment that you made? Not only to Judy, but that in fact, that's something that, that I want you to experience also. Mm. And so that's kind of part of the journey that we've been on. But intentionality is the, is the key.

Jim: We wanna invite all of you listeners to get a copy of the entire series of the Future Funded Ministry book series, and go out to our website on the resource page at RetirementReformation.org, Retirement Reformation.org, and get all four books. We're focusing this series on Moving Forward, book number two. Putting your future funded ministry into action.

Bruce, before we go though, I really wanna make sure you plug [00:29:00] the Recreating Retirement groups that you guys have started online and locally so that people can get involved. Tell 'em how they can find out more and get involved.

Bruce: Well, two things.

Number one, it's an opportunity to engage in a small community, perhaps of your friends or even strangers, but in community to be able to work through together, learn how has God prepared you for what's next, and then while you're doing this in a group, it'll be ended to, the result will be an individual understanding of what's next.

And we talked about earlier about the different stages. So what's next in the next stage? And so, Recreating Retirement, as groups spread around the country we have a virtual group that we're doing online. And so we look forward to that. Recreating Retirement, the opportunity to understand how God has uniquely prepared you for what's next.

Jim: Great conversation and Bruce's book Moving Forward is such an inspiration for getting us going on our Future Funded Ministry plan. Again, [00:30:00] make sure you get a copy on our website. I Retirement Reformation.org on our resource page. You've been listening to iRetire4Him the Voice and Resource of the Retirement Reformation with your host, Jim Brangenberg and of course Retirement Reformation's very own founder Bruce Bruinsma. We're Christ followers journeying from retirement to reformation so we can say iRetire4Him!

Outro: Thanks for listening to iRetire4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg and Retirement Reformation founder Bruce Bruinsma. iRetire4Him is the mouthpiece of the Retirement Reformation.

Most Christians tend to follow the world's pattern of rest and self pampering during retirement. However, in your retirement, you can be focused on God's unique call to serve and help others. This can be your best season of life if you take advantage of a life's worth of knowledge and experience and combine it with a greater freedom of time and money, and invest it all in the [00:31:00] generations both preceding and following you.

The Retirement Reformation is encouraging Christians to find and follow God's call in all seasons and aspects of life. Especially in retirement. Take time to sign the manifesto at Retirement Reformation.org and explore the wealth of resources available on our site. Join this movement of God and Journey from Retirement to Reformation so you can say iRetire4Him!

Go to Retirement Reformation.org.