ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast

Tim Barker
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Most Christian giving doesn't produce a single soul saved. Welcome to ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast — the show for Christians who measure what really matters: not just meals and clean water, but souls saved and lives transformed. Tim calls it EROI — the eternal return on investment. Host Tim Barker is the founder of ROI Ministry, a free resource that reviews over 100 ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Every dollar of every copy of Tim's book, BOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You, goes straight to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim. New episodes every Thursday. Topics include: the parable of the talents, the real cost-per-soul in Christian giving, donor advised funds, the kingdom advisor movement, and the verses on the poor that the prosperity gospel skipped. Subscribe and know you're making a difference.

  1. 1d ago

    MedSend: How $3.64 Brings One to Jesus Through Healing — A Partner Highlight with Rick Allen (Ep. 13)

    For $3.64, MedSend provides one person medical care — through a healthcare worker who shares the gospel with every patient they see. One worker, supported over 4–5 years at $15,000–$25,000 per year, reaches an estimated 100,000 patients over their career. In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with Rick Allen, MedSend's CEO of 18 years, about how a software executive became a missionary, why the global south is the new frontline for unreached people groups, and what happens when saving a life becomes the bridge to sharing Jesus. Plus: the "Launch" model that eliminates dependency, the 12-CEO summit Rick convened with the largest U.S. sending organizations, and the book "Surrendered Heart." MedSend: https://medsend.org/ ABOUT ROI MINISTRY ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. Free resources: • Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/ • BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/  Know you're making a difference.

    MedSend: How $3.64 Brings One to Jesus Through Healing — A Partner Highlight with Rick Allen (Ep. 13)

  2. 6d ago

    The Mailbox Club: $0.80 Disciples a Child to Jesus — A Partner Highlight with John Mark Eager (Ep. 12)

    For about 80 cents a child, The Mailbox Club walks a kid through a complete course of Bible lessons. Last year: 17.3 million children enrolled, nearly 12 million completed the course, and 8 million made a decision for Christ — across 100+ countries, 200,000 churches, and 750,000 volunteer mentors. In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with John Mark Eager, CEO of The Mailbox Club, about how a 1965 mail-based Bible lesson ministry in Valdosta, Georgia became a globally decentralized, church-driven discipleship engine serving the 4–14 age group in the hardest-to-reach places on earth. They cover the Samaritan's Purse distribution pivot that dropped costs and 10×'d graduation rates, the 10/40 Window math, why discipleship-first flips the math (80%+ of kids discipled come to faith anyway), and Franklin Graham's counsel when John Mark laid out a growth plan: "Don't limit God." The Mailbox Club: https://mailboxclub.org/ ABOUT ROI MINISTRY ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. Free resources: • Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/ • BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/  Know you're making a difference.

    The Mailbox Club: $0.80 Disciples a Child to Jesus — A Partner Highlight with John Mark Eager (Ep. 12)

  3. Jul 16

    The Bucket Ministry: 220 Come to Jesus in a Week — A Partner Highlight with Cory Akin (Ep. 11)

    220 people came to know Jesus in a single week — through clean water, in a Nairobi slum, at a cost of $1.34 per person per year. In this Partner Highlight, Tim talks with Cory Akin of The Bucket Ministry about how a CFO became a missionary, why meeting a physical need opens the door for gospel conversations, and what 14 years of filter design has taught them about sustainable impact. 15 countries. 220 salvations in a week. One cracked cup on the Amazon that started it all. The Bucket Ministry: https://thebucketministry.org/ ABOUT ROI MINISTRY ROI Ministry reviews 100+ ministries a year and publishes a top-10 list of those beating the world's best charities on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. Free resources: • Top-10 list + 90 reviewed ministries: https://roiministry.org/ • BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/  Know you're making a difference.

    The Bucket Ministry: 220 Come to Jesus in a Week — A Partner Highlight with Cory Akin (Ep. 11)

  4. Jul 8

    Here's Life Africa: How $0.95 Brings One Person to Jesus — A Partner Highlight with Andy Blakeslee (Ep. 10)

    $0.95. That's the third-party-validated cost — confirmed by Calvin Edwards & Company — of one person praying to receive Jesus through Here's Life Africa. One of the ministries Tim's team has kept on the ROI Ministry Top 10 since the first annual list. Here's Life Africa has been at this for 29 years. It started in Tanzania, a country of 30 million that was 47% Christian. Today, that same country is 70 million people and 62% Christian — 40 million professing believers, up from 14 million when the ministry began. The ministry now works across East Africa in Tanzania, Malawi, and Uganda, with 47 teams deployed to million-person geographies. In this Partner Highlight episode of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Andy Blakeslee, leader of Here's Life Africa, to walk through: The Amazon jungle origin: Andy grew up in the same place in Ecuador where Jim Elliott, Nate Saint, and three other missionaries were martyred in 1956 — and accepted Christ at age 5 in that jungleThe Toña story: the Helio Courier plane that flew Andy and his family was named after the first Waorani Indian to receive Christ — and then was martyred for going back to his own tribe with the gospelThe 14-year detour: EDS, Accenture, and "I'll never be a missionary" — until God's call was unmistakableThe $0.95-per-decision number: third-party-validated by Calvin Edwards, and how it compares to the 30,000× upside in kingdom impact when resources reach the world's poorest, lost peopleThe LAMP method (Listen, Ask, Consider the Message, Pray) — a four-letter, four-week discovery Bible study that turns 3,000 raised hands a day into small groups meeting weekly for 7-10 yearsHow $42 starts a small-group Bible study that meets weekly for up to 10 years — about 40 cents per person per year for a decade of discipleshipHow $2,250 per month (or $27,000 per year) sponsors an entire team and produces roughly 50 evangelistic crusades a yearThe 0.33% problem: only one-third of one percent of all Christian giving reaches the world's poorest, lost people — and why that number has not budged in two decadesWhy the Great Commission shows up 5x in the New Testament and the Greatest Commandment only 3x — and what that means for how you allocate your giving portfolioHow to give to Here's Life Africa anonymously through the ROI Ministry Top 10 (no fees, no skim, 100% reaches the ministry)About ROI Ministry ROI Ministry is a free resource that reviews 100+ ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Tim calls it EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim. Free resources: https://roiministry.org/ https://hereslifeafrica.org/ BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ Subscribe and know you're making a difference.

    Here's Life Africa: How $0.95 Brings One Person to Jesus — A Partner Highlight with Andy Blakeslee (Ep. 10)

  5. Jul 3

    Neverthirst: How $50 Gives Someone Clean Water For Life — A Partner Highlight with Matt Letourneau (Ep. 9)

    $50. That's what it costs — sustainably, for life — to take one person off the water crisis and put the gospel in their hands. One of the ministries Tim's team has kept on the ROI Ministry Top 10 since the first annual list. Since 2008, Neverthirst has provided over 1.6 million people in the 10/40 window with sustainable clean water and the gospel — posted 17 consecutive years of growth, scaled from $2.5M to $10.9M annual budget, and now serves from some of the hardest places on earth. With local pastors at the tip of the spear. In this Partner Highlight episode of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Matt Letourneau, Executive Director of Neverthirst, to walk through: The Psalm 67 origin story — three Birmingham businessmen, a guest sermon on "May God be gracious to us and bless us," and a mud-hut "hospital" in Sudan that started a 501(c)(3)The 17-month client-pipeline collapse that pushed Matt out of a six-figure consulting book and into ministryThe cost-per-soul math: $50 sustainably takes one person off the water crisis — gospel included — for a 20–30 year life on the water pointThe village-pay-in model: every family contributes money or labor to a repair fund held in escrow by 8 women in the village, so a corrupt chief can't get to itThe 10/40-window pastor whose two sons (ages 7 and 5) were killed in the very village he was trying to reach — and who went back years later, drilled a well with Neverthirst, and led the village to ChristWhy "water without the gospel" misses the point — and what "eternal impact per dollar" actually measuresThe story of Neverthirst's growth from $2.5M to $10.9M — and what unlocked it (compelling vision, clear reporting, GPS coordinates on every project)How to give to Neverthirst anonymously through the ROI Ministry Top 10 (no fees, no skim, 100% reaches the ministry)About ROI Ministry ROI Ministry is a free resource that reviews 100+ ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Tim calls it EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim. Free resources: https://roiministry.org/ https://neverthirst.org/ BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/ Don't bury what you heard and know you're making a difference.

    Neverthirst: How $50 Gives Someone Clean Water For Life — A Partner Highlight with Matt Letourneau (Ep. 9)

  6. Jun 26

    Explore God: 3 Billion Gospel Presentations for 3 Cents Each — Jamie Radtke (Ep. 8)

    3 cents. That's the cost of a single gospel presentation at Explore God (formerly Global Media Outreach) — one of the ministries Tim's team has kept on the ROI Ministry Top 10 for nearly a decade. Since 2004, Explore God has shared the gospel more than 3 billion times. In 13 languages. Across the poorest and least-reached places on earth. On the smartphones of people in Thailand coffee fields, in Pakistani cities, in Indian villages where it's illegal to share the gospel in person. In this Partner Highlight episode of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Jamie Radtke, President of Explore God, to walk through: The 2004 founding vision — a former Apple engineer's bet that the internet could accomplish the Great CommissionThe cost-per-soul math: 3¢ per gospel presentation, 46¢ per indicated decision, $3.45 per new discipleship connectionWhy 85% of Explore God's outreach happens in developing countriesThe 2026 rebrand from Global Media Outreach to Explore God — and why the name change is a discipleship betHow the gospel reaches closed countries where in-person evangelism is illegal or impossibleThe regional-hub strategy putting online missionaries in Kenya, India, Lebanon, Russia, and BrazilHow to give to Explore God anonymously through the National Christian Foundation portal on roiministry.orgAbout ROI Ministry ROI Ministry is a free resource that reviews 100+ ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Tim calls it EROI: the eternal return on investment. Every dollar Tim receives from BOOM goes to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim. Free resources: https://roiministry.org/ https://exploregod.com/ BOOM book: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/  Subscribe and know you're making a difference.

    Explore God: 3 Billion Gospel Presentations for 3 Cents Each — Jamie Radtke (Ep. 8)

  7. Jun 18

    She Is Safe: How $2.90 a Week Stops Child Trafficking — A Partner Highlight with Michele Rickett (Ep. 7)

    $2.90 a week. That's what it costs to keep a girl from being sold. In the first episode of the new Partner Highlight series on ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker sits down with Michele Rickett — Founder and CEO of She Is Safe, a survivor of childhood abuse who has spent the last 24 years building one of the most effective gospel-centered anti-trafficking ministries in the world. In one of the most honest conversations about money and ministry you will hear this year, Michele walks through how She Is Safe keeps girls in high-risk communities safe for less than the cost of a venti latte a week — and how that work has cut trafficking in pilot villages by 85%. She shares the story of one woman sold at age 4 for a case of beer, the husband who later said "we don't allow that here anymore," and the men who ended up donating land, baking bricks, and building the school themselves. She also opens up about her own past, the forgiveness that set her free, and the moment she looked over a fence in Africa and saw a girl being sold — and heard God say: "What are you going to do for these children of mine?" This is the first Partner Highlight — sit-downs with the leaders of the ministries on the ROI Ministry Top 10. If you have ever wondered what a vetted, gospel-centered, auditable, impact-per-dollar ministry actually looks like in practice — this is it. She Is Safe served 100,502 women and girls in their last audited year. They are ready to scale from 11 countries to 14 — but not without partners. To give directly: https://sheissafe.org/ To support the work through ROI Ministry's National Christian Foundation platform (no fees, no skim): https://roiministry.org/ Know you're making a difference.

    She Is Safe: How $2.90 a Week Stops Child Trafficking — A Partner Highlight with Michele Rickett (Ep. 7)

  8. Jun 11

    Know You’re Making a Difference (Recap) (Ep. 6)

    0.33%. 30,000×. Two numbers. One question: what kind of steward are you going to be? In 2001, the Gordon Conwell Center for the Study of Global Christianity published the number. In 2025, they updated it. In 24 years, total Christian giving nearly tripled — and the percentage that reaches the world's unevangelized barely moved. That's the 0.33% problem. The 30,000× is the upside. When a dollar flows to a faithful, fruit-bearing ministry serving the poorest and least reached, the same dollar can produce 3,000 to 30,000 times the eternal impact of where the average gift goes today. In the season-one recap of ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast, host Tim Barker walks the entire series in a single pass: the global giving crisis (Episode 1), the words of Jesus on the poor and the lost (Episode 2), the framework for wise generosity (Episode 3), the free due diligence tool (Episode 4), and the kingdom-advisor litmus test (Episode 5). Then he lands the question that holds the whole season together: are you inspecting the fruit of where your dollars go? In this episode, you'll hear: The 2025 update: $677 billion in Christian giving, 0.33% to the unevangelized, 0.1% to unreached peoplesThe 30,000× upside: the maximum EROI measured across 100+ ministries reviewedWhy "follow your heart" is the worst stewardship advice in the Bible (Jeremiah 17:9)The 1 Timothy 6:17–19 framework: God first, family, local church, strategic kingdom investmentsThe fruit-inspector test: how to evaluate any ministry in 60 secondsThe kingdom-advisor litmus test: 100× the world's best charities while sharing JesusWhy ROI Ministry never touches a dollar — and the donor-advised funds that make it possibleTim Barker is the founder of ROI Ministry, a free resource that reviews over 100 ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Every one of Tim's dollars from every copy of his book, BOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You, goes straight to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim. Subscribe to ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast and know you're making a difference. Resources mentioned in this episode: The top-10 ministry list and 90+ reviewed ministries: roiministry.orgBOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You: https://www.amazon.com/BOOM-What-When-Blows-Around/dp/1646459016/

    Know You’re Making a Difference (Recap) (Ep. 6)
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About

Most Christian giving doesn't produce a single soul saved. Welcome to ROI Ministry: The Don't Bury It Podcast — the show for Christians who measure what really matters: not just meals and clean water, but souls saved and lives transformed. Tim calls it EROI — the eternal return on investment. Host Tim Barker is the founder of ROI Ministry, a free resource that reviews over 100 ministries each year and publishes a top-10 list of ministries that beat the best charities in the world on cost per person served — while still sharing the gospel and making disciples. Every dollar of every copy of Tim's book, BOOM: What to Do When Life Blows Up Around You, goes straight to vetted gospel + compassion ministries. No fees. No overhead. No skim. New episodes every Thursday. Topics include: the parable of the talents, the real cost-per-soul in Christian giving, donor advised funds, the kingdom advisor movement, and the verses on the poor that the prosperity gospel skipped. Subscribe and know you're making a difference.

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