Yoël Frank’s Barefoot Disciple calls Christians to “live on min” for the sake of others. Frank is an accountant from Western Australia who gives readers practical advice for applying their Christian faith to financial management. A pastor friend of mine remarked that this book: “ruined me in all the right ways.” Readers will be challenged to use all of their money for Jesus’ sake. Barefoot is compulsory reading for any school- or university-leaver going into the workforce.
Real Wealth
The introductory remarks discuss the nature of wealth. What is real wealth? If the gospel is real wealth, our financial decisions ought to be informed by the gospel. But “the odds of living as a disciple in this culture are massively stacked against you” (p. 4). Consumerism predominates. Most of us are conditioned to think that we are not wealthy, even though we are, globally and historically. Westerners are the rich young ruler of Luke 18. Frank conversationally shifts the mindset of the reader from consumer to kingdom venture capitalist through five habits comprising ten steps.
The Barefoot Disciple: Five Money Habits for Modern Disciples
Yoël Frank
Purchase from The WanderingAuthor's WebsiteThe Barefoot Disciple: Five Money Habits for Modern Disciples
Yoël Frank
Five Habits, Ten Steps
The five habits are: live simply, give habitually, spend missionally, harvest impactfully, and steward wisely. Frank urges us to adopt these so that others can simply live, the grip of greed is broken, and God is glorified in all our living. These habits are parsed out in the ten sequential steps. One chapter is devoted to each step, with discussion questions and Bible passages at the end.
The first step is to “live on min”. Christians are to live not out of abundance, but for generosity. For that, many of us will need a consumer identity detox (p. 13), understanding that there are diminishing returns on money spend for happiness (p. 16). Instead of living for personal happiness, we live to be generous. Readers are encouraged to organise their money into spend, serve, and save accounts, and to set a spending benchmark to avoid both lifestyle creep and the attitude that after ten percent goes to God, I just keep the rest (p. 41).
Kingdom investing (step two) is encouraged by the question, “if you knew you would die tomorrow, what past spending would you see as important?” (p. 53). Money is made to work for maximum kingdom impact instead of my personal spending (step three). For that we’ll need to get off the consumer treadmill (step four). One does need to sort out their shelter, however (step five).
Those steps set one free to be a venture capitalist for the gospel (step six), so that our investment is has an impact (step seven). Frank gives examples of creativity giving. Money might have a greater gospel impact overseas, for example. However, he points out that church giving should always be the priority, before missions and the poor. Loving my neighbour as myself is the driving principle (step nine) as I seek to optimise kingdom investing (step ten) not for my own glory, but the glory of Jesus and the good of others.
Step eight, “In the Meantime”, comes last. The resason for this is not entirely clear to me, to be honest. Frank encourages readers to regularly reappraise their giving according to steps six, seven and ten. That will require thinking about how much one gives as one’s income rises. Frank encourages progressive giving akin to the Australian government’s progressive income taxation system (p. 159). Throughout the book offers various financial management tips for maximising the money God has given each of us to steward, from buying a home, to leasing a car, and understanding tax exemptions for giving.
Guidance
The reflections at the end of each chapter are grounded in relevant parts of Scripture and provide good questions to drive deep thinking and good discussion. These reflections would be especially helpful for Christian Union graduating cohorts or university church small groups. There are links to online resources on the Barefoot Disciple website which will aid readers to personally implement the principles and advice in the book.
Financial management and financial concepts are simply explained from a Christian perspective. The reader is equipped to set good, Christian money habits. Frank points out that regular personal financial reappraisals will be required. Indeed, while was rereading this book I reappraised and reapportioned some of my giving.
Critiques
Frank rightly notes that Jesus raised the bar for righteous living in the New Testament. This leads him to make the statement that “in my opinion, for a modern Australian, there is no scenario in which giving less than 10% is justified. Don’t mess with 10%” (p. 57). This runs into two problems. One, this statement is too easily understood legalistically. Two, the statement does not allow for extenuating circumstances.
We are not under law, but under grace (Rom 6:14). While I appreciate Frank’s zeal to create a ten percent floor to our giving (rather than a ten percent ceiling to aim for), ten percent is a good marker, not a law. He does encourage generous giving from the beginning of the Christian life elsewhere in the book, which is refreshing given that other Christian financial advisors encourage saving and investing until a certain monetary threshold is met, then give. But Frank’s above statement risks undoing that good work.
Generally, I think we Australians need to be pushed to give. We are rich and we don’t realise it. If I do not set the habit of giving (which might include regular recurring payments) I won’t be planned, strategic, or regular in my giving. But Frank risks pushing the concept too far, especially if one’s giving becomes compulsion in dire personal (or familial) economic circumstances. It seems unlikely to me that a rich Westerner would not be able to give somewhere near ten percent, even on Centrelink. My advice, if I may, is to think long and hard before decreasing your giving below ten percent. My suggestion is to seek financial advice from a trained professional who is preferably Christian.
Barefoot Disciple is aimed at people who are in the early phase of their career, but readers who could do with thinking through managing money Christianly would also benefit greatly. If it is time for you to reappraise your money matters, Frank’s is a helpful introductory guide. You will find the right questions to ask about Christian money management. This book will challenge you to generously and strategically use money for gospel purposes—it may even ruin you in all the right ways.
