A Mother's Love & Her Son's Heart For Serving Jesus Christ

Flora Dalton, a retired nurse, established with the Kentucky Baptist Foundation the Flora Elizabeth Dalton & Joel Dean Wilson Memorial Fund as a tribute to her late son, who died of cancer July 2005 at age 64. This endowment will serve as a perpetual legacy to Flora’s love for Christ and His mission in this world, to her love for her son and his “heart for serving Jesus Christ.”

According to Flora, who died in February 2009, Joel’s life of service could be summed up with these three Christian service words: student, servant, and steward. Growing up in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio Joel walked to church alone because his parents had to work to provide for the family. In response to God’s call at age 15, Joel began his preparation for ministry while still in high school. Later he graduated from Bob Jones University and Arlington Baptist Seminary. He was ordained to the gospel ministry by Grace Baptist Church in 1971.

Throughout his adult life, Joel utilized with a passion the gifts with which God had endowed him in a variety of full-time and bi-vocational ministries, including music, pastoral, Christian education, coaching and church planting. He was involved in starting new churches and Christian schools in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina. His life of service extended beyond churches into the communities where he lived. For 19 years, through Louisville, Kentucky’s Metro Housing Authority’s Iroquois Homes, he sought to improve the living conditions, provide a safe environment, secure job training, start a GED program and continuing education classes and sports leagues for low income residents. He served as a Legislative District Chairman for the Republican Party and a past president of the Optimist Club.

What motivated Joel to a life of self sacrifice in the cause of the gospel were not the many accolades he received but the heavenly treasures he laid up as a firm foundation for the coming age so he could take hold of the life that is truly life.

The KBF is honored to be the fiduciary in perpetuating the Christian legacies of this mother and son through these important ministries: Oneida Baptist Institute (Kentucky), Clear Creek Baptist Bible College (Kentucky), St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital (Tennessee) and Camp Kudzu (Georgia).

Barry Allen first met Flora Dalton of Kennesaw, Georgia by telephone. Her nephew, Jim Cordell, who had retired as the KBC Church Music Department Director, referred her to the KBF to assist in the establishment of an endowment fund to honor the legacy of her son, Joel. Five months later her daughter-in-law, Mary Wilson, a member of Louisville’s Shawnee Baptist Church, brought her to the KBF office for a visit.

During the five months between the phone call and the visit, Laurie Valentine, KBF trust counsel, and President Barry Allen worked with Flora and her financial and estate planning adviser to establish the endowment fund. She was fulfilling a stewardship plan she and Joel had intended to fulfill together before he died. In addition to the gift of appreciated stock, which she used to establish the fund, she made periodic additional gifts during her lifetime and she designated the endowment as the beneficiary of a portion of her estate at her death. She also gave the proceeds from the sale of the car, which would have been her son’s had he lived until his planned retirement date. In the note she sent which accompanied the check, she stated, “I thank God that He has enabled me to do all the things I have done.”

What a joy it is to see how God used this wonderful Christian businesswoman, mother, grandmother and mother-in-law in service to Him.

Chain Reaction

By: Barry G. Allen-President & CEO 

How fortunate we Kentucky Baptists are to be engaged in connecting women, men, girls and boys to Jesus Christ 24/7 in local communities, throughout the state, the United States and around the world through our larger family of Great Commission service ministries. Our Baptist family includes our churches, associations, mission boards, educational institutions, children’s ministries, youth camps, stewardship services, news journals, human need ministries, collegiate ministries, healing ministries and missions support services. Cooperation is still Kentucky Baptists’ way to advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ at home and beyond.

At different times throughout the year, we give special focus prayerfully and financially to specific aspects of our cooperative missionary, educational and benevolent ministries. Our methodology includes a “week of prayer” and the “collection of a special offering” over and above our on-going giving. We have weeks of prayer and offerings for international missions, North American missions, state missions, associational missions and other selective ministries.

It’s time now to focus on state missions and the collection of the Eliza Broadus Offering. The suggested dates for the “week of prayer and offering” are September 11 – 18. This year’s theme for our focus is “chain reaction,” based upon John 4, Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, and especially John 4:39a, which records her testimony that resulted in “a chain reaction” among her fellow Samaritans.

I’m praying every pastor and mission leader of every Kentucky Baptist church will contact the Kentucky WMU office now to request the planning guide for use by their churches. Call today toll free 866.489.3534. State missions has taken on a new international dynamic as the whole world has come to Kentucky. As a result, we must adjust accordingly our thinking, planning, praying, going and giving.

Like the Samaritan woman, many Kentuckians are waiting to receive the living water only Jesus can provide. Let’s start a chain reaction where we live by encountering those who are without Christ and telling them where to find the Living Water.

Advancing the Kingdom Through Legacy Giving

By: Laurie Valentine- COO & Trust Counsel

Your church, association and the Kentucky Baptist Convention and its agencies and institutions have a wide variety of important ministries that need financial support. Some may need funding to launch them into reality while others could use the support to continue or expand an existing program or ministry. The methods by which you may support these important causes through legacy giving (giving out of your assets, rather than your income) are also wide-ranging.

An outright gift of cash, appreciated securities or real estate is probably the most common, and simplest, way to make gifts during your lifetime.

Other methods of lifetime giving, such as charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts, allow you to set up a future benefit to one or more Baptist causes while retaining an annual income for your lifetime or a term of years.

There are also a variety of methods you can arrange now to benefit the causes of your choice at your death. The most common is a bequest in your Will or Living Trust. Another possibility is to name a Baptist cause as the beneficiary of some portion of your retirement plan survivor benefit, IRA or a life insurance policy no longer needed for family security.

You can designate your gift be used for a specific program or ministry of the benefiting organization or you can allow the organization to choose how to use your gift. You may also want to limit the organization to using only the earnings off what you give (this type of arrangement is called an “endowment fund”).

Gifts may be made directly to the benefiting organization or may be given to a third party, such as the Kentucky Baptist Foundation, to manage for the designated beneficiary cause or causes.

Whether you wish to make gifts during your lifetime or at death, there are a variety of ways to by which you can advance the Kingdom by including a legacy gift in your estate plan.

Parents Influence

By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO

Did you read the article in the July 22-24 edition of “USA Weekend” titled “you don’t have to be rich?” What testimonies billionaire couple Bill and Melinda Gates gave in an interview about how every American can give regardless of one’ financial station in life.

As you most likely know, Bill Gates dedicated his life to revolutionizing technology and became the richest man in the world. Then, he decided to give half his fortune away to improve education and combat poverty and disease. Now, the Microsoft co-founder and his wife have a new mission in life, namely, to encourage others, rich and otherwise, to pitch in, too.

Melinda testified “the more you get engaged and the more you learn about giving back, the more you want to do.” She advised we “take some small step to give something of yourself and see where it leads you.”

What really grabbed me was their testimony about why they do what they do. When asked what motivated them to help on such an astonishing scale, both Bill and Melinda had the same reply: “their parents.” Bill stated “I think the easiest way to develop strong beliefs is when you see your parents not only espousing those beliefs but acting on them…Both of us grew up in families big on giving back.” Melinda said “her family also emphasized service to others…That’s why some find it hard to believe this came so naturally to us to give back…but when you grow up in families like that, of course we’re going to…that’s where we come from.”

I, too, had Christian parents who began teaching me at an early age, and holding me accountable, about the importance and the role of Christian financial stewardship in my relationship to Christ and to other human beings. Most everything I know and practice in the Christian discipline of financial stewardship can be traced to my parents’ example. The Bible was their source, and God’s Holy Spirit was their strength and guide.

Oh, God, give us Christian parents who model biblical stewardship for their children!

Mary Pat Price: A Kingdom-Minded Steward

Mary Pat Price was known to Baptists around the world as a kingdom-minded steward. She demonstrated in a variety of ways with her time, talents and treasures her love for Christ and His mission in this world, and her love for family.

She was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, three miles outside Shelbyville “not in a hospital.” Upon graduation from Bagdad High School, she attended Bethel Junior College and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1943. Her ministry assignments were as Youth Director at the First Baptist Church Clarksville, Tennessee, and then at First Baptist Church Frankfort, Kentucky.

While attending the 1957 state WMU convention at Jonathan Creek Baptist Assembly, she met J. Brandon Price, a young lawyer who was in attendance on youth night. Actually, a mutual friend prearranged their meeting. They married soon thereafter. She and the late Judge Price had two sons, J. B. and Kent. J. B. is a computer analyst, and Kent is an attorney. She has two grandchildren.

As a long-time resident of Paducah, Kentucky and a long-time member of First Baptist Church, Mary Pat’s service to Christ through her church and community is legendary. The Kentucky Baptist Foundation had the good fortune of having the benefit of her service for two terms on its Board of Directors.

On March 26th, 2010, God welcomed Mary Pat Home. While we will miss her, her lagacy will live forever.

Over the years, Mary Pat utilized all of the services of the Kentucky Baptist Foundation, including our private estate and charitable gift planning consultation service with trust counsel Laurie Valentine. She made regular and on-going cash contributions to endowment funds that provide perpetual support for ministries near and dear to her heart. She purchased life insurance policies on the lives of her two sons the death proceeds of which will fund two perpetual endowments in their names. Each endowment will provide support to five different ministries. And, finally, she and her sister, Jane Kent, each established a charitable remainder trust with the gift of their Shelby County family farmland. In addition to significant tax benefits Mary Pat received an income benefit during her lifetime. At her death the trust assets funded an endowment for her perpetual support of 8 more ministries.

Collectively, Mary Pat set in place a kingdom-minded stewardship plan that will perpetuate her Christian legacy and provide on-going financial support, until Jesus comes again, through 17 ministries from Paducah to the ends of the earth.

The Lord blessed us with the life of Mary Pat Price. May He add His blessings to the multitudes that will benefit from her faithful stewardship and may others emulate her example.

IRS Charitable Deduction Tips

By: Laurie Valentine- COO & Trust Counsel

To assure your charitable gifts are deductible, following these eight tips from the IRS:

1) Give to a qualified organization. IRS Publication 526, Charitable Contributions, tells you what constitutes a “qualified organization”. Contributions earmarked for a specific individual or to a political organization or candidate are not deductible.

2) Itemize your deductions on Schedule A of IRS Form 1040.

3) You may only deduct the amount by which your contribution exceeds the market value of any benefit you receive for making the gift such as merchandise, ball game tickets or other goods and services.

4) Stock and other non-cash property contributions are generally valued at fair market value. Fair market value is the price at which property would change hands between a willing buyer and willing seller, neither having to buy or sell and both having reasonable knowledge of all relevant facts.

5) Clothing and household items must be in good or better condition. Special rules apply to vehicle donations.

6) You must maintain a bank record, payroll deduction records or written communication from the organization containing its name, date of your gift and the amount for all contributions of cash, check or other monetary gifts.

7) If your contribution of cash or property is $250 or more, the organization’s gift acknowledgement must also state whether it provided any goods or services in exchange for your gift and the value of what you received. If your contribution is over $500 complete and attach IRS Form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions, to your return.

8) If the property you are giving is valued at more than $5,000 you must get a qualified appraisal and complete Section B of IRS Form 8283.

The information in this article is provided as general information and is not intended as legal or tax advice. For advice and assistance in specific cases, you should seek the advice of an attorney or other professional adviser.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO

I have discovered over the years most Christians have an honest ambivalence toward money. A proper attitude of money, wealth, possessions, things (call it what you like) is a universal struggle regardless of one’s financial station in life. Author Philip Yancey summed up his ambivalence this way: “I feel pulled in opposite directions over the money issue. I want to sell all I own, join a Christian commune, and live out my days in intentional poverty. At other times, I want to rid myself of guilt and enjoy the fruits of our nation’s prosperity. Mostly, I wish I did not have to think about money at all.”

In Psalm 49 the psalmist reflected upon the wealth of the world and provides the answer to the question of how we should regard wealth regardless of the level of it God has entrusted to us. Notice the psalmist addresses himself to “all peoples,” ordinary folks, blue bloods, rich and destitute alike. He reminds us wealth so often can be here today and gone tomorrow, thus, a slippery foothold. After making the point that death is inevitable and the wealth of the world is of temporal value, he states in verse 15 his conviction that what he cannot do for himself, what the world’s wealth cannot buy, God will do for him. Only God can provide us with security; therefore, our confidence is placed best in Him not wealth. What a testimony! Then in verse 16 he advises us about priorities: “Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases; for he will take nothing with him when he dies….” And then he states this chilling declaration in verse 20: “A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.”

Let us, like the psalmist, advocate the proper attitude toward wealth. It is not to be despised, and it cannot be ignored; and it is both foolish and dangerous to put one’s trust in it. Jesus reiterated this truth repeatedly and with greater clarity (Lk 12:13-21).