Money Shifts Culture. The Question Is Which Direction.

By Ron Bare

Money is not the problem. It never has been.

Money is neutral. It is a tool. But tools take the shape of the hands that hold them, and money is no different. In the hands of someone pursuing destruction, it funds destruction. In the hands of someone pursuing good, it funds good. The direction it flows can reveal what a person, a family, or a culture values. 

That is not a financial observation. It is a spiritual one.

Jesus said it plainly in Matthew 6:21: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Not might be. Will be. Your money follows your heart, and your heart follows your money. The two are inseparable.

You Cannot Serve Two Masters

Andy Crouch has a teaching on God and Mammon that is worth your time if you have not heard it. His point, drawn from Matthew 6:24, is that Mammon is not just money. It is a system, a power, a way of organizing life around wealth as the ultimate source of security and meaning. And Jesus says you cannot serve both God and that system. You have to choose which one shapes your decisions.

Most of us do not think we have chosen Mammon. But our spending, saving, investing, and giving tell a story. And sometimes when we look honestly at that story, it does not reflect what we say we believe.

That honest look is where real stewardship begins.

What Tina and I Have Learned Firsthand

Years ago, Tina and I felt a growing conviction about the culture of life. We believe every person is an image bearer, created with dignity and purpose. We realized that belief required more than a vote. It required action.

We started small and local. We connected with Crown Financial Ministries and piloted a new curriculum that works through identity, purpose, and stewardship with a local ministry called “The Point” in Parkesburg. We got involved with young moms who needed support and stability. Over time, one relationship led to another, and we found ourselves walking alongside a young single mom and her children in a way that changed all of us. We learned about and became involved with Bridge of Hope, a ministry that began in our backyard and connects the church with those facing homelessness in tangible, practical ways. 

These local steps eventually connected us to something much larger: collaborating with other organizations, helping launch a family and life fund to support those who choose life, coordinating collaborative efforts across organizations, and building a global network committed to protecting life at every stage.

We did not plan for it to go that direction. We just kept following where God was already at work.

Where Money Is Already Shifting Culture for Good

Look around, and you will see it happening in ways that rarely make headlines.

Families funding church plants in underserved communities. Donors supporting organizations like Water Street Rescue Mission, which serves our struggling neighbors in Lancaster. Investors backing business-as-mission companies that bring dignity and economic opportunity to communities around the world. Businesses hiring chaplains, caring intentionally for their teams, and treating their employees as whole people with families and faith and futures.

Organizations like Illuminations are directing resources to bring hope into places of real darkness. Apartment Life is using resources to build genuine community in places where people often feel invisible.

These are examples of people intentionally directing their resources toward causes and organizations that reflect their values.  Of course, values-aligned investing remains investing: financial objectives, risks, costs, diversification, liquidity, and other considerations still matter.

Where Money Shifts Culture the Other Direction

It is worth being honest about the other side.

Significant amounts of money flow every year into industries built on destruction: illegal drugs, human trafficking, predatory gambling, the abortion industry, and the exploitation of human dignity through pornography. These are not fringe concerns. They are massive, well-funded systems that shape culture in ways most of us would find deeply troubling if we thought clearly about them.

Money funds all of it. And money, deployed with intention and courage in the other direction, may help push back.

An Invitation to Get Specific

Here is what I want to leave you with.

Start with a vision. What kind of world do you want your wealth to help build? Get specific. Name the problems you feel called to address. Identify the organizations already doing work that aligns with your values.

Then be intentional. 

Connect your giving, investing, and spending to that vision deliberately. How you spend, save, invest, and give tells a story. Make sure it is the one you actually want to tell.

Then be generous. Not as an afterthought, but as a strategy. Generosity, deployed with intention, can help shape families, communities, and culture.

If you want to explore what that looks like for your family, we would welcome the conversation. 

Call 717-407-5200.