Janice Worth

Hi, I'm Janice Worth. I do life in New York City and Palm Beach. I consider myself a serial entrepreneur in the beauty, wellness and aesthetic medical arena. I'm single and have a son, Mike, attending college in Philadelphia. Since I always tend to be in high-energy start-up mode, most people don't know I love to putter in the garden. My favorite evening would include a luxurious bubble bath, a scented amber candle and any Edith Wharton novel.

About eight years ago I attended a Generous Giving conference in Dallas. There were about four or five hundred people there who were lit-up about sharing the resources God had given them to heal the world. They were the happiest group of people I had ever met. I heard stories of radical generosity for the first time and these people were having a ball. I wanted in at this party. After the conference my giving went from transactional stewardship to relational generosity.

I absolutely see God as the genesis of generosity. Our salvation starts with generosity..."for God so loved He gave". Without our God giving and sharing his love and life radically there would be no redemption. Once I realized that there was nothing that I possessed that God hadn't given me, whether it is my intellect, education, or opportunity, the logical next step was to acknowledge God owns it all. Now when God says he owns it all He means He wants all of me...my time, talent and treasure and that's a process. So everyone's journey looks different. God has given me a lot of grace to experiment with different concepts like a financial finish line, capping my income and rewriting my will to leave a legacy beyond my son.

I think one of the greatest dangers of wealth is when we believe our money can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment. So we spend years pursuing more zeros only to ultimately find out it cannot satisfy us...only God can. Also for me I've realized that my greed blinds me to the bondage I have around money. I often don't really consider myself greedy. I just look around at my friends with bigger homes, fancier cars, and more exotic vacations not to mention more shoes and I feel just fine. However, my checkbook tells a different story. Lately, I've been hearing God say, “my enough is your enough."

I constantly need to wrestle with the question, “Am I getting my identity from what Jesus did for me or from my achievements and success?” Often it’s both. It's a struggle. As my heart rests in my true identity as a daughter of the King, I can be radically generous with my money. Embracing God’s grace will always make me more generous. Embracing our world’s materialistic culture will always make me hoard. When my identity and security are rooted in Christ, then my money becomes a tool for doing good and serving people.

When I was 25 I wish I knew that generosity is truly a journey and money is the tool God was using to set my heart free. As I more fully surrender to God I am free to see giving as a "get to not a have to." The generous life is the quickest pathway to a life of freedom and joy. I know now that my money and my success will only bring me a happy, abundant life as I spend it on behalf of others. The abundant life is not about how much I have, but how much I can give. True life is partnering with God on a giving adventure to heal the world.

I have become addicted, I hope in a healthy way, to reading the Bible in 90 days. I've been committed to doing this continually for the past three and a half years. This is definitely not meditating or studying God's word, but more about being constantly washed by His word. For me it has made scripture truly foundational and vibrantly alive in my life. It's like reading God's memoirs and discovering new things about Him everyday.

I have a donor advised fund with the National Christian Foundation. This is a great giving tool. It is like having a personal giving assistant. There is a giving pie chart feature, which breaks down your giving. It showed that my giving is dramatically skewed towards supporting gospel ministry. I am a huge advocate of Redeemer's City-to-City church planting ministry. I support a number of college ministries, an evangelism ministry, and the We Want More in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I believe generosity is the new evangelism and when I give extravagantly it opens the doors for the gospel to re-weave the fabric of society and bring social shalom.

I am a generosity junkie. My two-word purpose statement is Expanding Territory. I love to see things grow! My passion is spreading this message of generosity. When I excel in my purpose--expanding territory and am in my passion spreading the message of generosity to God's glory, I am in the zone. Currently I serve on the boards of Generous Giving, Women Doing Well and the NCF New York affiliate. As God uses me through serving with these three organizations to assist people in living more biblically generous lives, I am in my sweet spot. I am on purpose, in my passion and ready for the Holy Spirit to give me His plan to be part of bringing the kingdom of God here now.

If I had to choose three words to be remembered by, I'd like to be remembered as a woman who is a: 1. God-chaser 2. Loves lavishly 3. Gives promiscuously