1:16– A little about Servant Foundation
1:51– How did you get into this line of work? and how long have you been doing this?
2:24– My Background
4:58– How did you get into law
7:50– Can you give us an example of a time when your faith was challenged in those early years of your career?
11:03– A word of advice
12:40– What happened after you left the big law firm?
15:32– What has been a highest high and a lowest low time in this part of your career?
18:31– How did the between you and Hobby Lobby Founder & CEO David Green come to be?
19:33– What was the process behind the writing of your and David’s book ‘giving it all away and getting it all back again’?
23:19– What is iDonate?
24:35– As you look back over your career, what would you change if given the chance?
27:05– What advice do you have for those passing down money and to those receiving the money that’s being passed down
30:28– The 423 Question
32:15– My Favorite verse
William High is Chief Executive Officer of The Signatry – A Global Christian Foundation. Prior to starting the Foundation in 2000, Bill was a partner with Blackwell Sanders LLP, a national and international law firm. In addition to his CEO responsibilities, Bill helped found two technology companies– iDonate.com, the only integrated online donation platform serving the non-profit community, and FamilyArc.com, an online personal and private family legacy platform.
With The Signatry, he’s been part of overseeing their efforts from startup to receiving now nearly $3 billion in contributions. In particular, he works with families, individual givers, ministries and financial advisors. As a particular point of emphasis, he works with business owners who are selling their business and owners transitioning their business to the next generation. In addition, Bill is a published author and sought-after conference speaker. He was recently named one of America’s Top 25 Philanthropy Speakers for 2017 as ranked by Philanthropy Media.
His recent books include a book co-authored with David Green, CEO and Founder of Hobby Lobby, called “Giving It All Away…And Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously” (Zondervan 2017), and a book coauthored with Steve and Jackie Green, “This Dangerous Book: How the Bible has Shaped our World and Why it Still Matters Today” (Zondervan 2017). Bill has been married to his wife Brooke for more than 30 years. They have four children, two sons-in-law, and two grandchildren.
Full Transcript:
Ray: Well, hello, everyone. This is Ray Hilbert, your host here at the Bottom Line Faith program. And I am so excited to welcome my guest and your new friend today, Bill High. Bill is the CEO of Servant Foundation out of Kansas City, Missouri. Bill, welcome to Bottom Line Faith.
Bill: Really glad to be here, Ray.
Ray: Well, you know, you and I got a chance to know each other for the first time officially on the phone just a few weeks ago. And I have to tell you, I was really looking forward to this conversation. And we’re going to learn all about what God has you up to and in the marketplace and in your work and career. But just take just a quick moment and tell us a little bit about Servant Foundation, we’ll dive into it in detail in just a moment, but give us the 30,000-foot look.
Bill: Well, Servant Foundation is a donor advised fund organization. So, I mentioned to you that we previously been affiliated with the National Christian Foundation for a long time, but we’ve had unique opportunity to serve givers around the country. So, I tell people were like a big charitable bank, you can come in, open up account, put money in, take a tax deduction and use it to support the charities that you want. So, we work all across the country with givers, business owners, ministries and financial advisors.
Ray: That’s really exciting. I can’t wait to learn more. How long have you done this? And how did you get into this line of work? It is very unique.
Bill: I practiced law for about 12 years and in the course of practicing law, we actually were working with a group of people in inner city and we were raising a question, which is how could we have more impact in the community. But how can we also see more money going out to different ministries, particularly in the urban core. So that’s how we began and then that caused us to go get started with this foundation work almost 18 years ago now.
Ray: Yeah, so help our audience to get to know you personally. Where did you grow up? Did you grow up in a Christian home? How did you come into relationship with Christ? Just give us a snapshot view.
Bill: Yeah, I like to tell people sometimes that I was one of those kids who grew up on the other side of the tracks, but at the problem was that both side of the tracks look the same. My dad was the oldest of eight, grew up in a three room log cabin in the hills of the Missouri Ozarks. So, they are very poor, pretty backwards. He joined the service and went over to Japan met my mom there, brought her back and together they had six kids, I was fifth out of six, we were very poor, had no idea that there was church or anything like it and then ultimately, there was a family down the street who brought us a children’s Bible story book. I still have that book, something you can buy at Walmart today and I started reading that Bible story book. And so, for the first time I read all these stories of Noah, Joshua and David and Goliath, Paul, etc. And that’s really how God drew me to himself was through the stories of the Bible.
Ray: How old were you at the time?
Bill: I was about 10 years old.
Ray: You’re about 10. And so, then as you kind of come up in through your high school years, and so forth, was your faith then a big part of your life, or how did it really go beyond just the stories but to being that internal walk with the Lord?
Bill: Well, God was very gracious to so again, what was happening in our family, very dysfunctional, you know, my dad was not only had a been in the service, but he was a blue collar guy, and he ended up dealing with alcoholism and a couple years after I came to know Christ, he passed away of lung cancer. So, we were just thrown into this world where life was really tough. We didn’t know where the next dollar was coming from. We were dirt poor, being raised like this. But the Bible says that God’s always a father to the fatherless, and a defender of the widow and so he fulfilled that role. Because after my father passed away, my oldest brother went away to college and got involved with the navigator ministry, came to know Christ. And so, he came back to our home and started showing me how to read the Bible. So even by age 12 and 13, I was starting to have a pretty good foundation in the Bible. And so, I was kind of really hanging in there on the discipleship side of it. So even through high school, I started attending collegiate conferences with the navigators. So, by the time I was in college, I was like, ready to go
Ray: Take us back to that, that season in your life. You know, you’re in high school, and you’re looking forward and now it’s time to make that decision to go to college was law and practicing law, your mind and in your heart at that time, or how did you get vocationally then into the legal world.
Bill: Yeah, I mean, law was not on the horizon. I was 17 when I intended to one of these navigator conferences. And, and one of the things that came out of that is, I felt like God was saying, tend the flock of God. That’s your charge, the first Peter five verses, and I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t have anybody really to guide me. And so I looked actually at going to seminary and then I looked at going into missions, and there just wasn’t the nudge there. So, I did the next logical thing, which is I went to college. Now again, maybe that wasn’t so logical, given that were dirt poor, but God opened up the door, we were able to afford it financially, just because I got grants, government grants. And so I went on to college was involved with a navigator ministry there and again, thought I might go into the navigator ministry, some kind of ministry from there. I had a good friend who said, “Hey, why don’t you go to law school?” and I was able to graduate and I taught school just for a little bit. But ultimately, God opened up the doors by giving me a full ride to go to law school. So, it was like he was saying, “Here’s the door walk through it.” so I did.
Ray: All right. Fantastic. And so what did you see in those first few years, you know, coming out of college, where did you see life taking you?
Bill: Well, when I came out of college, of course, I graduated in three and a half years and so I graduate in December. And then I actually just went and I was able to find a teaching job. So, I taught for one semester. And while I was while I was teaching, I had a ton of fun. I was going to come back and coach sports, but that’s when I got the full ride offer to go to law school. So, I actually went straight into law school, three years of law school. And it wasn’t until I was coming out of law school that I ended up in a big law firm. So, there’s like 80 lawyers there in Kansas City at that by the time I left, it was 330 lawyers.
Ray: So at this point in your life and vocation, were you then now walking with the Lord? And you saw did you see some integration of your faith into your career?
Bill: Oh, yeah. When I first started practicing, I was still very much an outspoken Christian. And so, and because it was a big law firm, you guys got to remember, it was very much the kind of stuff you’d see on TV was the nice wood paneling, the cherry wood paneling, corner offices, the whole bit, but when I went into the law firm, I just decided that I would make a statement. And so, one of the very first things that I did is I walked in, and I always had a Bible on the corner of my desk, so that people would know where I stood. I didn’t try to pound people over the head, but I wanted them to know that I was a person of faith.
Ray: Right. Give us an example of those early years. Can you take us back to a time when maybe your faith was challenged in that environment or how was it that you really did try to intentionally live out your faith?
Bill: The law, the practice of law is very difficult. And you’ve heard the phrase that the law is a jealous mistress. And it is, and it was, so part of the challenge simply was just a number of hours. Because, yeah, as a big law firm, you were billing your time. So, you always had 24 hours available to bill. And so I was always wrestling with how much time I spent, and I started a young family, we had little babies and so that was a line that I had to draw that probably the biggest thing that happened in the law firm is that the further I went, of course, the more responsibility that you had, but there was one particular case where one of the partners came to me, and they said, “Hey, we want you to handle this case.” Well, it was actually defending the lawyer or defending a doctor who did abortions and I was getting close to partnership. And I just said, “Look, I’m not gonna do that.” And it wasn’t too much longer after that, that I also then got engaged defending another case, big client and at the time, it seemed prestigious, but to be frank, the client was a liar. He perjured himself. And I just told these guys, I said, I’m not going to represent this guy. I don’t believe in him and I don’t like the way he does business. And I got criticized for that. It actually set me back on the partnership track, it wasn’t well received. And part of their response was, well, you just need to defend your clients zealously whether you believe in them or not. And so, I didn’t.
Bill: Then what happened, I got kicked out of the partnership track. So, I was a couple years later before they actually reconsidered me for a partnership and I did make it but that was actually one of the lessons that God wanted to teach me is, I’ll be honest, I mean, for a while, I thought becoming a partner in law firm was a big deal. And it was, I was going to make a lot of money as a partner, but God used that to teach me that I really wasn’t an owner of this business, I had to be able to let it go. And so, by the time I got offered the partnership, both my wife and I said, wonder if we should take this, it’s just not that important. So, we were able to let it go. And it was great freedom and being able to do that. Now, again, I did make partner and I think we got to use that as a witness to the other lawyers in the firm. But it was a good time in our lives.
Ray: Well, Bill one of the things that’s really, really critical here at Bottom Line Faith is success for this program is if one person is listening, if one person is encouraged, if one person is challenged in and steps up to the next level in their faith with this conversation, it’s a success. And so there may be a professional right now, it might be an attorney might be some other professional might be a business owner, who right now is that that crux of that place in their journey, that they have a real big decision to make that’s testing their faith. You’ve been there, you’ve already told us about that. What words of advice or encouragement would you give to them right now?
Bill: The big advice is that God is the divine storyteller. He’s writing a divine story, and you can trust Him, man, he’s writing that story for you. And the nice thing about the way God works is he doesn’t always give you the headlights down the freeway or the interstate. He gives you just enough headlight to go forward and you can trust him that if you take that next step, that something good is going to happen, because he’s out there for your good and he wants us to take risk for him. He wants us to take the kind of risk that says, “Lord, I just see enough, but I’m going to go ahead and take that next step.” So even when I left the law firm, it was a big decision because I did become a partner and I just had my best year ever I had one of the most prestigious clients and the firm that was the number two client in terms of billings out. It was a crazy time for me to leave. It didn’t make any sense. I had four kids, my youngest was three, we didn’t really need to be thinking about college. I was going to take a giant pay cut. It didn’t make sense. But when my wife and I got together, and we prayed about it, we both came and said, “What else would we do? There are only so many moments where that burning bush shows up, usually just one. And when it does, you probably better respond.”
Ray: That is a really powerful story. And so then what happened? What, what transpired next on the work side? And I because I want to bring us up to speed and really get into the passion of what you’re doing now. But what happened next?
Bill: Well, at the time that we made the decision to leave the law firm is when we were going to first start the servant foundation. And this was June 1 of 2000. So almost 18 years ago, it was crazy story. I mean, we walked away and we weren’t incorporated, we didn’t have bylaws. We didn’t have taxes, exempt status, we didn’t have a budget, there were so many things that we didn’t have. We just had me and a cell phone and a car and a vision. We thought that God wanted to do something big in our community and that he wanted to unleash generosity to impact the world. So, the vision is what drove us. And so, from the day one, I had to go do some of those basic things to get a business started, a nonprofit started. So that’s what I did. Miraculously, we got tax exempt status in 45 days. Which hardly ever happens. And then I went to build marketing material. By October, we’re starting to market in the first couple months, we had millions of dollars walk in the door of people that were starting to say, “We get this idea, we get this big idea.” Now, here we are 18 years later and we’ve seen something close to $3 billion that has been contributed into the foundation, and then another 2 billion that’s gone back out into the community.
Ray: That is phenomenal. And you really now have a national and even international footprint. And we’re going to hear more about that in just a moment. What I would be curious as if you could help our audience understand, let’s say that you’re sitting across the table like you and I are sitting having a conversation right now, but you’re sitting across the table from a Christ follower who has a business or as a professional, and they’ve got financial resources, what’s the first part of that conversation like? Where maybe they’ve never had that kind of conversation about kingdom investment, and those sorts of things. Just give us a high level overview of how do you engage in that kind of conversation with that kind of person?
Bill: Conversations are really pretty easy. We almost always start much like you did, which is, we just asked him to tell us their story. Because once they tell us their story, you start to learn about where they came from, and what it costs to got to get there, and then what their values are. And from that, you can take the next set of questions. But in the heart of man, there is a common denominator and the common denominator is that everybody wants to be part of something that will last, because the Bible says that God has put eternity into the heart of man. And so, it’s uncovering what that is, of how they can do something permanent and part of that idea of permanence is the person with the greatest legacy in all of history is Jesus. And what did Jesus do? Is he gave it all away.
Ray: Absolutely. And so, you’ve now been at this roughly two decades, fair? And so, what’s been like the highest high in all of that two decade career on this side of what you’re doing, and then take us to a time that was like really discouraging.
Bill: Well, the biggest thing that has been the most powerful thing to me is the context of working with families and work with a family legacy and so here, one of the things that we do with David Green is we host CEOs from around the country and we get a talk about those big ideas: family, legacy, and generosity. And we’ve seen tremendous stories of people who have changed their giving, change their legacy, make decisions to be more committed to the family, those kind of things. Just from a pure numbers basis, we host these little co-roundtables, half a billion dollars that’s been redirected to the kingdom just from people here in the story of the Green family.
Ray: Wow. And so maybe this is going back to the early days, you know, cuz I know what it’s like, as a start up, right? You know, okay, I gotta get my business cards printed and everything you just walked through. Maybe your low point was in those early days, or maybe not, but share with us a time, not details or names, but maybe even a conversation where you were really discouraged. And maybe did you ever question that this is what God had? Or may just take us through a low point in your journey.
Bill: I don’t think I’ve ever questioned that this was what I was called to. Because I think ultimately, this is proved to be taking care of the flock of God, I’m tending the flock of God. But I think the hardest part of this journey is the recognition that people do have their own stories, and they have baggage with those stories and there are things that I just can’t change. So, I’ve been working with families sometimes and sometimes you see real brokenness, you see a real hurt, whether it’s been caused by divorce, or children that go wayward, the whole bit. I can’t change that. And I just have to trust God that He will work in their lives.
Ray: And so many times. People think money is the answer, right? That money is going to solve a lot of our problems, something tells me it also presents some challenges and issues. Would you comment on what that may mean?
Bill: Wealth tends to magnify communication problems, and usually the hardest place to be in many cases are people have great wealth because the financial advisor world tends to make the the choice for families that say, transfer financial wealth first. And usually financial wealth needs to be transferred last. It’s actually all the other values, the social wealth, the intellectual wealth, the emotional wealth, the spiritual wealth, if you get those done first, then people can handle financial wealth. But usually they’re we’re all focused on the financial side.
Ray: We get it backwards, don’t we? You said something a moment ago, that really is a great, I believe segue, you mentioned working with the Green family at Hobby Lobby. And in fact, you’re a co-author of a fairly new book that has been released called Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again. So, you co-authored this book with David Green, the CEO and founder of Hobby Lobby, how did that relationship between you and David Green come into being?
Bill: Actually, it started with Mark Greene, his oldest son, Mark was speaking at a devotional for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and in Kansas City, and I came up to him met him, and we exchanged cards. And a couple months later, he called me said, I think you might be able to help us. And so, we actually came in and help the family set up an initial Donor Advised fund, and that just like led to one thing after another. But ultimately, one of the big things and that’s why this book came about is we began working with family on some of these family legacy discussions. So, help them develop a mission vision values statement that is now part of their trust documents. We’ve helped them do things like set up Donor Advised funds for the grandkids, but some of the practical things that when you start thinking about family legacy.
Ray: What was it like? Have you written a book before?
Bill: We’ve actually done a few books. Yeah, but with David, that was a fun one that took place over a couple, three years.
Ray: Kind of tell us a little bit about that process. Whose idea was it to write the book and kind of how did that get framed up? And what were you hoping to accomplish with the writing of it?
Bill: The book actually came out of doing these CEO roundtables with David. So as we hosted some of these CEO roundtables we had different CEOs who would come in and say, “You need to write a book, you need to write this story down.” So, we didn’t come up with the idea was actually a request. So, as a result of that, after you heard that enough, we said to David, we probably ought to write a book and they was like, okay, but only if you write it, because I’m not going to write it. And so we did some interviews and work through the process. And I will say, one thing that we had to set aside for a little bit is a little thing called the Supreme Court case came up. And so we put it aside for a little bit while that was still pending. But actually, the Supreme Court case actually dictated some of the larger need for the book because people just weren’t being reported all the facts about what was actually going on with Hobby Lobby.
Ray: Yeah, and in fact, this book, Giving It All Away, and Getting It All Back Again, by David Green, and Bill High, I want to strongly recommend it. I read it in one day, I just, I started at four in the morning and had breakfast with my wife and kids. And then I, I went to my study, and I got it all in one day. It was that powerful, and took a lot of notes, and it’s just very practical. It just really walks through a lot of decisions the family has made. And you talked about the Hobby Lobby case with the Supreme Court. And in another edition of Bottom Line Faith, we actually do interview David Green, we’re going to hear more about that, and that that interview as well. But Bill, what do you hope that that book and the capturing of all that, what do you hope that’s going to accomplish?
Bill: One of the big things is really this idea of family legacy. We want people to think beyond one generation. That’s what we’re taught today. But the biblical idea is, that family should think multi generationally, if we can get a family to carry on it set of values for multiple generations, then we impact culture, we preserve culture, we advance culture. So, that’s one of the first big ideas ,but part of that idea of a powerful family legacy comes out of the notion that if you live generously, then you learn to give away your life and that’s part of that big idea.
Ray: That’s one of the things that I found so fascinating about the book was just in the book David refers to himself as old school. Very early on in the book he says okay, I’m just going to get it out of the way I’m old school. Are you old school as well? And if so why?
Bill: Well you know, the Bible says that you should stand by the ancient paths and ask for the good way and walk in it so in that sense, yes absolutely, and that ancient paths ideas that you’re standing there at the crossroads and saying which direction do I go now and ultimately the Bible saying choose the way of righteousness choose the way of peace so old school, yes.
Ray: And good biblical values there and Bill I meant to ask you this earlier but how can our listeners learn more about you and Servant Foundation? How can they find you?
Bill: I do have a personal website which is where they can go too which is bill high dot com. So, bill high dot com, they can get all my information there. They can get the books there and the reference over to the Servant Foundation as well.
Ray: That is, that is fantastic and believe it or not, we’ve got just a few moments left here, Bill. But you know, in checking out and your LinkedIn profile and reading about you and learning about you. You have had just an amazing journey here, you’ve launched some software platforms and some things like that and one that I’m particularly impressed with and know a little bit about is called IDonate, would you talk a little bit about that, and your role in that and what is IDonate?
Bill: IDonate is a software platform by which ministries can sign up, subscribe, and it’s the only integrated donation platform in the country. So, we live in the generosity space and so part of our goal was to be able to help people give virtually anything online. So, some of the stuffs easy, cash, credit card, electronic funds, transfer the whole bit, we also allow people to give publicly traded stock, cars, trucks, boats, this is where it gets really interesting gold and silver inventory, electronics, all that kind of stuff, with the idea being that God owns everything. And so if he owns everything, people should be able to give just about everything to advance the cause.
Ray: So, for example, if I’m a ministry leader, a church leader, or something like that, this would be a platform that I could take advantage of, is that correct?
Bill: You’d sign up and have a subscription, and then your Donate button would simply be this button where you’d actually be able to allow people more ways to give online.
Ray: That is fantastic. And so, in addition to the legal and attorney background, and you’ve got an entrepreneurial edge about you too, don’t you?
Bill: Absolutely.
Ray: I can tell, you got twinkle your eyes while you’re talking about these ideas. So, as you look back over the course of your career, and ministry, and everything that you’ve been involved with, what would you do differently if given a chance?
Bill: The big thing is, it’s really been over the last seven, eight years that we’ve really began working in this idea of family legacy and the purpose of family that it’s a multi-generational impact. And I would say, the early years of what we were doing, we are much more transactional focused, open a fund, give as a family, you know, if you’re selling a business, reduce your tax, all those kind of things. Those are all good things and it will definitely increase generosity. But it really gets sticky. When we come in, and we say, Ray, how can we help your family think multi generationally.
Ray: That is really an interesting thought to me. And one of the things you talk about you and David Green in the book, as you talk about the real low percentage of successful passing along a family business from first to second to third generation is, and as each generation passes, those odds are of success really, greatly diminished, right? Why is that? Why have you found? Because I think it’s somewhere in this space of communication and values and maintaining what’s really important.
Bill: People forget the stories. If you go look in the book of Judges and Joshua was one generation rises up and the next falls away and that’s absolutely true in the context of family business. One of the basic failures, the statistics are out there, the research is out there. It’s a communication and trust issue. It’s never the legal issues. It’s never the succession issues. It’s really how well have we done at preparing the heirs? How well did they know the story? How well they do? Do they know the values? How prepared are they? And in many cases, we try to force succession upon kids who shouldn’t be in there.
Ray: Okay, fantastic. So, on that note, and I don’t know the numbers, I suppose you probably would, but I’ve read about the trillions of dollars that are queued up to be passed along from a current generation to the next. Do you have any idea what that is?
Bill: $40 trillion by the year 2050.
Ray: So, that is easily within our lifetime, $40 trillion.
Bill: 40 trillion, which they say 67% is people have some kind of faith. So just to put it in perspective, 1% of the 40 trillion were given its $40 billion.
Ray: That’s amazing. And so, I would like you to answer this next question with two angles on it. One, if I am an older person listening to this, and I’ll let you I’ll define older here, I’m not going to draw that line in the sand. But if you’re an older person, and you’re contemplating what you’re going to pass along, and how you’re going to do it, I’d like to know what advice you would have for me. And if I’m a younger person who may be on the receiving end of some of that, what advice would you have for both sides of that experience?
Bill: On the older person, the big thing that we say is, make sure you get some real advice. Don’t look at it just from a transactional perspective. And we see too many people who sell businesses and they do it only from a financial side. The bigger questions is, how do I set up my family? How do I have this set of values, all those kind of things and those are soft sided discussions that typically your normal lawyer or financial planner, so it’s people like, like us at the Servant Foundation, there’s another group I work with called a Center for Family Conversations. Engage in a different conversation that’s beyond the financial. For the young person, that’s your other part of your question, the person that may be on the receiving end, the same kind of conversation needs to take place, part of it is understanding who you are. So, I’m a big believer in the idea that you understand your identity in Christ, your shape, what are your spiritual gifts, your heart and passion, your abilities, your strengths, your personality, and your own life story. How is God going to use that uniquely to impact the world?
Ray: Those conversations don’t always happen, right? And that’s where the breakdown occurs?
Bill: Yeah, I mean, it’s usually the patriarch that says, here’s what’s going to happen, I’m going to plug you in, and you try to make an introvert and extrovert and on down the line. There is all kinds of stories like that, and God’s uniquely wired and design people to serve as a given purpose. And that’s what we need to have come alive.
Ray: Yeah, well, one of the things that struck me in the book, and I’ll just say one more time, it’s called Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again, by David Green, and Bill High, who is our guest on today’s Bottom Line Faith program. One of the things that really struck me was that the family, the Green family, really, because of these conversations, because they knew who they were, and they knew what they were really about, and whose they were. They literally were able to lay the business on the line with $1.3 million a day, fine. You could read the story in the book, if you’re not familiar with it, at risk, and they could have lost it all. But the conversations that the family had had is really what allow that kind of commitment to remain in place. What would what would you say about that?
Bill: Well, in the book, we described the fact that the family met together, there’s about 20 of them in a room. And so you gotta keep in mind there’s generation one 70 year olds, 50 year olds, and then you got generation three, 20 year olds, and they likewise had a voice in whether the family should proceed forward, not on the pro-life issue. And all of them agreed that this was a family decision to go ahead and take a stand for life. That’s very unusual.
Ray: Well, Bill, believe it or not, we’re at the end of this time together. I hope we’ll get another time soon. But I shared with you and anyone who regularly listens to our program, there is one question that I asked at the end of every program and it’s what I call the 4:23 question. It’s based out of Proverbs 4:23, the words of Solomon who says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for from it flows all of life and all of life’s decisions.” And so, Bill, let’s just kind of paint the scenario that you’re at the end or near the end of your time, this side of eternity, and you have a chance to gather your family, your friends, your loved ones, those who are most precious to you, and you get a chance to pass along your above all else advice. If there’s one thing you would like to pass along, as you’re above all else, advice above all else…
Bill: I would encourage them so that verse other ways that people translated is to be vigilant, to be vigilant in guarding your heart and I believe that’s absolutely true. Part of that vigilance in my mind is going deep in God’s Word. So, day by day, I get to work with young folks and I tell them read the Bible cover to cover and that’s one of my first big pieces of advice. Understand the story of the Bible, the context of the Bible because when you understand context, you realize that you only fit in for a small bit of time. You’re part of a bigger story that God’s writing and so that’s one of the first big things. But then it’s also, who’s that cloud of witnesses around you who’s that group of people that will encourage you and be part of the community that will push you forward in your own walk with God?
Ray: It’s great advice. One more time, Bill. How could our audience follow up, learn more about you, what you’re doing, and how to they might connect with you?
Bill: Go to my website bill high dot com bill high dot com.
Ray: There you go. Bill hi dot com. Bill, before we kind of sign off the air, is there anything else you’d want to share? Or any words of encouragement that you might have for a listener to the program today?
Bill: One of my favorite verses is in Psalm 78 verses five through seven. And I’d encourage people just go back and look at that. But that’s one of those multi-generational verses. It’s about five generations tell the next generation, the children and even the children yet unborn and if we do that we transform culture.
Ray: It really is all about families and legacy with you, isn’t it?
Bill: It is.
Ray: And I think you take this pretty seriously and you’re following God’s unique call on your life. And I just want to thank you.
Bill: Well, thanks for having me on.
Ray: Fantastic. Well, folks, I hope and I trust that you have been blessed and encouraged and perhaps even challenged today with our interview with Bill High. And as he was sharing if you’re a business owner, or a person who has some decisions coming up about transference of wealth or financial resources, this family conversations are absolutely critical. And if you’re on the younger generation, encourage mom and dad and grandma, grandpa sit down and have some of these really in depth conversations. And if those conversations occur as a result of our interview today, then I think Bill would agree with me that this has been a successful time together. We want to just encourage you to check out the other interviews that we have here at Bottom Line Faith, real simple. Go a bottom line faith dot org. That is bottom line faith dot org. If you’re not a regular subscriber, just scroll down to the bottom of the web page there and whether you’re on iTunes or Google Play or Stitcher. Whatever your podcast platform might be you can subscribe there you’ll get notifications when every new episode comes out, which is on a weekly basis. If you are a Christ follower in business and you’re interested in checking out Truth At Work which is the host ministry here at the Bottom Line Faith program go to truth at work dot org. You can click on the tab there called Roundtables and you could learn how to connect in a community of Christ followers who are also business owners and they can help you in your business and in your walk with Christ. Until next time, I am your host, Ray Hilbert at Bottom Line Faith. Thanks so much. God bless.