TONIGHT
E-mail a friendJoe Dunsey
airdate June 17, 2005
Joe Dunsey is the founder of Faith Financial Ministries, a nonprofit money management organization based on Biblical principals. Despite being a CPA with an MBA, Dunsey found himself in tremendous debt, feeling helpless and hopeless, with seemingly no way out. He turned to his faith, began tithing and, most importantly, changed his attitude about finances. He says he's now more content with what he owns and has stopped wanting things he can't afford. His mission is to help others balance their budgets with faith.
Joe Dunsey
Tavis: We continue our 'Road to Wealth' series tonight with a look at the role of faith in your finances. Joe Dunsey is the founder of Faith Financial Ministries based in Lake Zurich, Illinois. 6 years ago and more than $30,000 in debt, he turned to the Bible for help and now oversees his very own successful nonprofit ministry dedicated to dispensing financial advice. He joins us tonight. Joe, nice to have you on.
Joe Dunsey: Nice to be here, Tavis.
Tavis: Glad to have you. Let me start with what I just referenced a moment ago, your personal story. I always find that if people are gonna give me advice about my money, they should know a little something about having been in trouble. So tell me your story right quick.
Dunsey: Well, I'm an accountant by my background and training, and I thought I had all the answers and was trying to take control of all my finances, and what happened is it was just getting away from me. My focus was wrong, my heart was in the wrong place, and I found myself accumulating a lot of debt, and about 6 years ago, the sewer in our house broke, and I was told if we wanted to use the bathroom again, we were gonna have to fix it right away, and it was gonna cost $13,500, and that just devastated me. I was already worried about our finances, and it was causing a lot of stress in my life, and I didn't know what to do or have anywhere else to go but to the Lord, and I just went on my knees and asked for his guidance and begged for his forgiveness that I left him out of that part of my life. And he's just been true and answered all my hopes and gave me guidance through his word.
Tavis: When you said that you asked for--you asked for guidance and forgiveness, do I take that to mean you did not ask for money to get out of the debt?
Dunsey: Exactly, Tavis. I used to always ask for money. I always prayed to God if he would just give me a little more money or maybe that promotion or bonus. I was always looking for money to bring into my life some happiness that I thought was missing, and what happened, it wasn't doing that. I was just getting more frustrated and more discouraged, and so this time when I really felt at wit's end and hopeless, I finally just asked God to give me what he knew I needed, and I just begged for his guidance at that point and said I'm gonna trust you with this.
Tavis: How do you respond to folk, and I ask this question respectfully, but I want to get your answer. How do you respond to folk who say it's really not about your faith and your finances, but about your lack of good sense and your finances because there are a lot of heathens the world over who don't know nothin' about God, folk who are agnostic, folk who don't acknowledge God, and yet, they're doing quite well in their finances? How do you respond to folk who say, again, it's not so much about your faith and your finances, but the good sense that God gave you, you just didn't put to good use?
Dunsey: Right. Well, the way I would respond to that is, you're right. God gave us all good sense and choices in our life, and there are a lot of successful people who don't believe in God, but their success, most of it really is what the world calls success.
Tavis: Right.
Dunsey: And no matter how successful you are in that sense, you're going to leave it behind. What we accumulate here, our possessions, our wealth, our success, it stays behind when we leave, whether you believe in God or not.
Tavis: What's the point then of putting God in your finances if it ain't about money to begin with?
Dunsey: Well, you put God in your finances because we're entrusted with everything we have. I believe Scripture is very clear that God created everything, and God owns everything, and we're entrusted with anything we've been given, whether a lot or a little, and as stewards, someone that is required to take care of what we have, we're entrusted by God with everything he's given us, so that's--that's why I feel we do have a responsibility, and there's a lot of good things that we can use with our finances to live our lives in a way that brings contentment and peace, responsibility, taking care of our families, and also responsibility to share with others and share God's word and his love with others.
Tavis: Tell me more about Faith Financial Ministries. I'm fascinated, genuinely, by the work that you do, in large part because you're having such success with it, but also because on a much larger scale, this whole--I say this without meaning to cast aspersion--but this whole industry, if you will, this whole arena of faith-based financial ministries is booming, as if you don't already know that. But tell me more about your particular work with Faith Financial Ministries.
Dunsey: Sure. Uh, I just felt led to share what I was learning in Scripture with others because I had the practical application down. As an accountant, I worked with a lot of business owners and wealthy individuals, and I understood the concepts of planning and preparation and budgeting, but from a worldly perspective, and what I found in turning to God, there were better reasons for doing that, and so I wanted to help people to have a different focus, a change of heart in other words, about why it was important to take care of the things that we had and to be a good steward with our finances, and so I approached that concept by going to churches and nonprofit organizations to help teach that concept, to help take the focus away from material things and the accumulation of things as a means to success and happiness, and to focus more on just using those resources to the best of our ability and taking care of what we do have. And that's what Faith Financial Ministries is about. I do that for groups at churches mainly, and also for individuals. I counsel with them to help them through some difficult times in many cases. I work with them and try to lead them out of a hole that they dug themselves into.
Tavis: Are you more of a financial coach or a financial planner?
Dunsey: Definitely a financial coach. I try to walk side by side with people. I don't give specific investment advice. I don't give my opinion in the sense that, 'this is what you need to do to be happy or successful.' what I do is work with individuals where they're at and walk them through choices and options they have, in a sense, educate them to what they can do in their lives to change their situation, be--
Tavis: And--I'm sorry.
Dunsey: Oh, no. Go ahead.
Tavis: I was just fascinated to ask, as a financial coach whose principals and strategies are biblically based, what do you find as your greatest challenge in getting people to understand, to accept, and to embrace about your biblically based financial strategy and philosophy?
Dunsey: Probably the hardest thing to embrace is to take the focus away from ourselves. You know, our culture, everything on the media that we hear and listen to every day just kind of focuses inwardly. 'You need this to be happy. You deserve that to be happy. You've worked hard.' and the focus of Scripture is really not on ourselves, but on others. First, on God. First and foremost, but then on others. Helping others, loving others, caring for others.
Tavis: Do you find it more difficult--I'm fascinated--do you find it more interesting, seriously and legitimately, to get people to stop looking inward? Is that a more diff--that is really a more difficult lesson to teach than getting folk to embrace the notion of tithing?
Dunsey: Uh, you know, I believe that to get rid of the inward focus is a key to the idea of tithing.
Tavis: OK, I got it, all right.
Dunsey: And so the change of heart is really important in order to have that heart to give and help others, and that's where the tithing comes in, and of course Scripture talks a lot about that in the Old Testament, and Jesus referred to it in the New Testament, but ironically, I've been asked, is tithing something that we still need to practice? And I tell people that if we want to listen to what God has to say, tithing is a floor that we probably should obtain to, and then eventually, as our heart is willing, it should go up from there.
Tavis: For folk who are of faith, but do not yet--or have not yet married their faith and their finances, what's the best advice you offer, right quick?
Dunsey: The best advice is to turn to God and just ask him to give you that heart, that heart to trust him with everything that you've been given. A heart and desire to learn how to manage what he's given you to the best of your ability, so that you can use it wisely, to be discerning in how you use your money. There's a lot of people out there who want it, so be careful.
Tavis: I better stop you right there. I don't want to ask him for too much to begin, so--
Dunsey: OK.
Tavis: Let me stop right there, and thank you, Joe, for coming on. Joe Dunsey, the founder of Faith Financial Ministries. Joe, a pleasure to have you on. Thank you, sir.
Dunsey: Pleasure to be here. Thank you, Tavis.
Tavis: Glad to have you.
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