By ENCORE Ministry board member Tom Adkinson
It’s no surprise that John Rivas’s love for his own family and his desire to help other families plan their financial legacies are two of the three most important aspects of his life. The third may be unexpected.
It’s a muscle car – a bright red, shiny, powerful and eye-catching 1968 Pontiac GTO – which his children gave him for his 60th birthday.
“It was a complete and utter shock. I don’t think I’d ever gotten anything more than a Starbucks gift card (for other birthdays),” Rivas said.
Although the GTO revs Rivas up, his family and his work are what really motivate him.
He and his wife of 40 years, Cecillia, have four adult children – a daughter in the Washington, D.C., area and three sons in Central Florida.
The Rivas family bonds are so strong that the entire family vacations together every year, and they sometimes make a big deal of the occasions. Destinations have stretched from Orlando to Barcelona to Rome.
“Those times together are a vital part of our family,” he said.
(Cecillia Rivas brings a piece of historical lore to the family. She is the granddaughter of John “Cactus Jack” Garner, vice president of the United States during Franklin Roosevelt’s first two terms. Garner gets credit for describing the vice presidency as not “worth a bucket of warm spit,” although historians aren’t sure he said those exact words.)
Rivas describes himself as “a Wesleyan through and through,” perhaps rooted in John Wesley’s famous admonition to “do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
He sees much of his work, now devoted to the ENCORE Ministry, as helping families determine how they can construct a legacy.
“I come beside families and show them how to be good stewards. I’m not a lawyer, and I’m not a financial advisor, but I know philanthropy,” he explained, adding that he understands what drives potential donors to any cause.
“A person doesn’t care what I say until that person knows that I care,” he said.
Demonstrations of that care have been evident throughout Rivas’s life. For example, John and Cecillia opened their arms – and home – to a man without any family of his own. He was part of the Rivas household and family for 25 years.
“(It seems) we’ve never had a time without someone unrelated to us sleeping on our couch or in a spare bedroom,” Rivas said.
Wesleyan hospitality aside, Rivas likes to let his inner Dale Earnhardt shine through on the first Saturday of the month. That’s when he and hundreds of other car buffs gather at the Nashville Superspeedway near Lebanon to admire each other’s rides at an event called Nashville Cars & Coffee.
After that, however, Rivas turns his attention back to family and how he can help ENCORE Ministry expand its impact on senior ministry throughout the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference.
Contributor Tom Adkinson is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and author of “100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die.” He enjoys speaking to church and civic groups about travel and his book.
