Guarding the Gift: How Estate Planning Extends Your Ministry Beyond This Life
In this reflection, Pastor Mike Girlinghouse, Interim Chaplain at LCM Canterbury in Flagstaff, shares how estate planning serves as an act of faithful stewardship, allowing us to bless ministries and loved ones even after we’re gone. Inspired by 2 Timothy 1:12-14, we are reminded of the importance of entrusting our lives and resources to God’s care.
Read Pastor Girlinghouse’s devotion about the impact of planned giving and how to secure your legacy through trusts and wills. Interested in setting up an estate plan? Contact the Office of the Bishop at gcsynod.org/contact.
“But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard the deposit I have entrusted to him … Guard the good deposit entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”
Several years ago, my wife and I established a trust with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Foundation. When we die, the trust will distribute our assets to the beneficiaries named in the trust. When I taught college courses on death and dying, I always did one class and sometimes two on the importance of having an estate plan, including wills and trusts, by bringing in someone who is an expert in establishing and managing those financial instruments. If you don't have an estate plan, you should!
Timothy inherited the faith from his mother and grandmother, and is encouraged not only to guard this inheritance, but share it in his own teaching and ministry. Encouraged to, like Paul, deposit his very life in the eternal trust established by Christ and the Gospel which Timothy received. Wise investing pays off in the long run. Estate planning can help us bless ministries and other beneficiaries who are important to us -- even after we are gone. Even more, depositing our lives in God's hands and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ pays endless dividends that last now and forever.
Peace,
Pastor Mike Girlinghouse
Interim Chaplain
LCM Canterbury, Flagstaff
