Sarah and David Sutton, Auguie Henry Society members, knew when they decided to complete their estate plan that leaving a gift to their church, Council Road Baptist, was a priority.
“All the important events in our lives have taken place there—births, celebrations of marriages and mourning friends who have died. We live life with our church family and help each other in the good times and bad,” Sarah said. “My family joined Council Road when I was about four years old, and I have sat under all five pastors. It holds a very special place in my heart, and hopefully someday our gift will enable it to continue ministering to the community.”
David, who works as an IT executive with Maxim Consulting, and Sarah, the communications editor and team coordinator for the family discipleship and equipping team at Council Road, met and were married at their church 23 years ago. Both are actively involved as lay musicians.
The Suttons went through The Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma to create their estate plan that included a gift to their church.
“We wanted a say in how our estate will be distributed at our deaths. Tithing is important to us and leaving a gift in our will to our church is important to us,” David said. “We don’t have direct heirs, but we believe that it’s just as important for us to create an estate plan so that our wishes are carried out.”
Foundation Vice President and Trust Counsel Mike Romero walked the Suttons through the estate planning process and answered their questions.
“We wanted to find somebody we trusted, who had experience and who could answer all of our questions. We felt comfortable with the expertise, answers, and guidance we received from Mike and the Foundation,” David said.
Sarah said that she understands how easy it is to put off making an estate plan.
“We knew we needed to do something, and it’s obviously the responsible thing to do,” she said. “It’s easy to keep putting it off with how busy we all are. And we have already been able to share with several families how easy the process was and have encouraged them to make their plans.”
The Suttons recommend calling the Foundation to request and complete an Estate Planning worksheet (or completing it online), making an appointment so that it’s on the calendar, and bringing to the meeting your own list of questions.
“No one really wants to talk about dying. I think for some people getting an estate plan in place seems like a mysterious, difficult thing to go through, but it doesn’t have to be,” David said. “It’s a great relief to have our plans in place.”
Did you know?
The Foundation’s Auguie Henry Society, named in honor of the Foundation’s first full-time executive secretary-treasurer, was formed in 2006 to recognize families and individuals who have included a Baptist ministry as a part of their estate plans. Currently, the Auguie Henry Society has 800 members who as a group have given in the form of a planned gift or designated as future testamentary gifts more than $61 million for ministry causes.
Call 1.800.949.9988 for more information on creating a will or trust, or at the top of this page select the Begin Your Estate Plan Now button.
Posted on
Tue, January 10, 2012
by Taprina Milburn