Episode 226 – How to Create a Generosity Framework for Investors | John Cortines

What does a banking password that reads “retire@40!” have to do with radical generosity? For John Cortines, it was the starting line. At Harvard Business School, a men’s Bible study cracked open a question none of them could answer: what is a Christian stewardship philosophy? The search for that answer became a book, then a framework, then a life, and this conversation captures the heart of it.

John Cortines, co-author of God and Money and True Riches and a generosity leader at the Maclellan Foundation, joins Justin Forman for a wide-ranging conversation recorded live at Kingdom Advisors. They walk through the biblical case for financial finish lines (pre-set guardrails for lifestyle spending and net worth that create genuine freedom) and the four-stage heart transformation every investor must navigate: pride to gratitude, coveting to contentment, anxiety to trust, and indifference to love.

The episode closes with a vision for the future: professionally managed giving funds that bring the same rigor investors already expect from their financial advisors to their Kingdom capital. John believes these will become as standard as index funds, and he’s already building toward that reality through the Maclellan Foundation’s collaborative giving model.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Opening — King Nebuchadnezzar vs. King David on ownership

01:05 Who is John Cortines? Family, farm, and homesteading

03:33 The journey begins: “retire@40!” and encountering generosity

04:05 Harvard Business School and the men’s Bible study that changed everything

05:30 Taking the “God and Money” class at Harvard Divinity School

06:13 The wrong relationship with giving — and the mindset shift

07:00 The right question: not “how much to give” but “how much to keep”

08:09 Research with Harvard MBA alumni: what radically generous investors look like

11:33 Why joy is the difference between effective altruism and Christian generosity

14:04 Financial finish lines: lifestyle and net worth guardrails explained

15:17 The shadow side of entrepreneurial ambition

16:13 Introduction to True Riches and the four heart transformations

16:45 Heart condition #1: Pride — and the antidote of gratitude

20:24 Practical rhythms for cultivating gratitude

21:52 Heart condition #2: Coveting — and the antidote of contentment

23:31 Social media, discontentment, and radical surgery

25:12 Biblical pairing of financial sin and sexual sin in Scripture

27:45 Breaking down the wall: why money is the last taboo in the church

29:08 Heart condition #3: Anxiety — and the antidote of trust

29:45 Heart condition #4: Indifference — and the antidote of love

33:31 Going on offense: collective and collaborative giving

34:08 Personal conviction: giving toward what’s on God’s heart, not just yours

37:27 Professionally managed giving funds — the vision for the future

39:38 The mutual fund parallel: from $100B to $15 trillion

42:31 How to build joy and community into collective giving

44:38 Celebrating generosity as a family and as a community

45:49 First step for investors: offer 100%, not just 10%

47:15 Closing encouragement and call to action