Keep Your Bitcoin: Churches Can Preserve Wealth
By Raul Rivera
Don’t just accept Bitcoin; hold onto it. Lately, churches have started accepting Bitcoin donations, seeing it as a way to expand their ability to receive donations. I love their willingness to try something different. But here’s the catch: many of these churches are advised to instantly liquidate the Bitcoin and receive the cash instead. Could churches be leaving money and opportunity on the table? Let me give you an example. In September 2020, a church received a Bitcoin donation valued at $100,000. Instead of keeping it, they liquidated it and received the cash minus processing fees. If the church had held onto that Bitcoin, it would be worth $676,190 today. I am fully persuaded that there are good reasons for churches to choose the non-liquidation option and hold on to it. Only a handful are keeping their Bitcoin to preserve wealth. Imagine the potential if more churches viewed Bitcoin as a tool to build lasting financial stability for their mission.
Ecclesiastes 11:2 teaches us to "Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land." The verse applies to each of us, to me, and to churches that hold and steward resources. This verse teaches that careful diversification of investments is a form of wise stewardship, relevant for individuals and churches alike. A savings or money market account isn't enough. When churches think ahead and include strategies like holding Bitcoin in their financial approach, they’re embracing the biblical call to prepare wisely for the future.
In this post, we’ll explore why Bitcoin stands out as a potential store of wealth for churches. We’ll look at how it compares to traditional assets and why it might help guard against inflation and market swings. Preserving wealth requires more than saving money in a bank; it calls for strategies grounded in both biblical principles and today’s financial realities.
What Makes Bitcoin Unique?
When people consider investing in stocks, they typically ask, “What does this company do? What makes it valuable?” The answer is simple: stocks represent companies that produce products or services and do so profitably. But Bitcoin is different. We must ask, what makes Bitcoin valuable? Bitcoin is a digital asset backed by energy and the world’s largest computer network—a network more powerful than Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple combined. It’s a powerhouse that isn’t dependent on any one entity but operates on a decentralized network of miners, hundreds of thousands of people and companies who process transactions on the blockchain, generating value by keeping the network secure.1
And here’s a fascinating point: 55% to 70% of the energy powering Bitcoin comes from renewable sources. At night, uses excess electricity from the grid—power that would otherwise go to waste. On peak demand days, when the grid is overloaded, Bitcoin miners can quickly power down and redirect their renewable energy back to the grid at a lower cost than generating additional power from conventional sources. This flexibility, known as grid balancing, helps stabilize energy supply and reduce strain on power stations. This makes Bitcoin more than a digital asset; it’s actively supporting energy efficiency, which ultimately helps lower power bills.
Bitcoin as a Store of Wealth
Unlike fiat currency (paper money), which isn’t backed by a physical asset, Bitcoin’s value is rooted in energy production and computing power that secure it. I’ve often heard smart people express doubts about Bitcoin, but I’ve noticed a pattern. They are adamantly against it, until they understand it—then they are for it. Once they understand that Bitcoin is backed by a powerful network of computing resources and small and medium sized renewable energy producers, they see its potential as a store of wealth.
In the 1990s, I pastored a church for eight years. I then became a businessman, founded StartCHURCH, and later became an investor in stocks, real estate, and cattle ranching. After that, I took a deep dive into studying Bitcoin. After years of study, I’ve come to see it as a great way to preserve wealth. The more I learned, the clearer it became that Bitcoin, still in its early adoption phase, holds enormous potential for appreciation over the next ten years (probably by at least one order of magnitude). It’s an asset class with room to grow, and its resilience and utility make it an attractive option for churches looking to protect their wealth.2
As churches explore the potential of Bitcoin, it's essential to understand its classification as property, which brings unique reporting and management responsibilities. At StartCHURCH, we now include comprehensive guidelines within church bylaws for managing, purchasing, and reporting digital currency donations. Our GetRIGHT Service is here to assist your church in establishing compliant bylaws to both accept and invest in Bitcoin.3
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Consider the performance: over the last six years, Bitcoin has delivered an average annual return of about 77.17%, while the S&P 500 averaged 11.8%. The numbers don’t lie. Bitcoin has outpaced traditional investments by a large margin, proving its strength as a wealth-preserving asset for those willing to take a closer look.
Let’s Bring This Home
Pastor X is a leader with a sincere heart for God and a passion for his congregation. His commitment to biblical truth and a genuine love for his church community have created a thriving ministry, recently reaching a milestone of 350 members. With over a million dollars saved, his church has been renting its facilities for several years, and the board of directors has been eagerly discussing the potential purchase of a permanent facility. After years of careful planning, they believe their savings should be enough for a down payment—but as they prepared to move forward, they realized their hard-earned funds had lost significant value.
Unbeknownst to them, the money accumulated in their bank account was worth 21% less in purchasing power than when they began saving. Inflation had silently eroded their resources, and keeping the funds untouched was like watching sand slip through their fingers. This revelation prompted a difficult but necessary conversation within the church: managing finances isn’t just about stewardship. It requires real business acumen to make the most of what God has entrusted.
Inflation: The Silent Thief of Value
Since 2020, inflation has stripped 21.4% of buying power of the U.S. dollar, and this reality often goes unnoticed. Many people naturally think in nominal terms rather than adjusting for inflation, a habit that leads to misconceptions about wealth and purchasing power. Here’s how this plays out:
- When inflation drops, it doesn’t mean that things get cheaper: A decrease in inflation simply means that prices are rising at a slower pace, not that they are falling. For instance, if inflation was 8% last year and has dropped to 2% this year, that 2% increase is on top of last year’s 8%. Prices are still rising, just at a lower rate, meaning the cost of goods has increased by a cumulative of over 10% over the two years. This distinction is crucial, as people often wrongly assume that lower inflation means lower costs. Prices remain high, and may never revert to previous levels, permanently impacting purchasing power.
- Churches are Part Business: The church is the body of Christ, made up of many members working together to fulfill God’s purpose. Yet, those called to lead must also understand that churches are part business. While the spiritual mission is central, there’s a practical side to church leadership that requires careful management of resources. For years, the church in the example above, faithfully set aside funds, believing they were building a strong foundation to eventually purchase their own facility. But when the time came, reality hit hard. Inflation caused the real estate market to shift, and the funds they saved could now buy only a fraction of what they needed. Inflation had quietly eroded the value of their savings, turning years of careful planning into an uphill struggle. This experience shows that simply saving isn’t enough; churches need a business-minded approach that protects the purchasing power of their resources to achieve long-term goals.
How Much Bitcoin Should They Have Purchased?
To maintain the purchasing power of $1 million over the four years between 2020 and 2024, considering a 21% loss due to inflation, the church would need to grow that $1 million to approximately $1,265,823 by 2024.
To achieve this, the church could have allocated 12.8% of their savings (approximately $128,473 of the $1 million) into Bitcoin in 2020. This strategic move would have ensured that, with Bitcoin’s growth, the church preserved $1 million in purchasing power by 2024, despite inflation.
Adopting a Long-Term Vision
Embracing Bitcoin and other innovative financial tools can provide churches with the resilience needed to navigate an unpredictable economic landscape. At StartCHURCH, we’re here to support your church in taking these forward-thinking steps with confidence. From tax and legal compliance to expert bookkeeping, our services are designed to equip you with everything necessary to secure your church’s resources. Don’t let changing times catch you off guard—let us help you build a financial foundation that honors both today’s responsibilities and tomorrow’s opportunities.
- Bitcoin’s security relies on a mathematical structure called an elliptic curve. Specifically, Bitcoin uses the curve defined by the equation y2= x3+7. This equation represents a specific shape on a graph, known as an elliptic curve, which has unique properties that are useful for cryptography. To make Bitcoin transactions secure, this curve is combined with a very large prime number. A prime number is a number that can only be divided evenly by 1 and itself, making it special in mathematics.
In Bitcoin’s case, this prime number is approximately 2256, which is an enormous number representing a vast space of possible values (outcomes). To give you an idea of how big that number is, the observable universe is estimated to contain approximately 1080 atoms. This is a rough estimate, as counting every atom is, of course, impossible. Scientists arrive at this figure by estimating the number of atoms in different types of matter (such as stars, planets, and interstellar gas) across the observable volume of the universe.
To give some context:
a. 1080 is the number 1 followed by 80 zeros, a number far beyond everyday experience but helpful for understanding the scale of the universe.
b. Bitcoin uses 2256 which is somewhat equivalent to 1077. We see that the number of atoms in the observable universe is slightly more than the possible combinations in Bitcoin's cryptographic key space, emphasizing the vastness of both scales.
c. This number is so big that even with a trillion computers making a trillion guesses every trillionth of a second for a trillion years, would only reach 1056. That is far from guessing the right key due to the vastness of the number space (Programming Bitcoin: Learn How to Program Bitcoin from Scratch). - As of March 2024, El Salvador has mined Bitcoin and currently holds 5,689.68 BTC, valued at $406,607,655. Other nation-states, such as Russia, UAE, Argentina, and Ethiopia, have also begun mining Bitcoin—a trend that will likely trigger a game-theory response among G7 nations.
- Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial or investment advice. Each church should carefully consider its financial goals, consult with a financial advisor, and assess its risk tolerance before investing in Bitcoin or any other assets. StartCHURCH does not endorse any specific financial products or services.