71: Financial Freedom Includes Responsibility
The Faithful Steward
Is the pursuit of financial freedom a good thing or a bad thing? It depends on your definition. The world's definition and the Biblical definition are very different. In the eyes of the world, financial freedom means being free to spend on whatever we want without worrying. This tends to take one of two forms: either spending recklessly (like the Prodigal Son) or accumulating obsessively to get to the point where we can take life easy (like the Rich Fool in Luke 12). The problem is that both of these definitions are actually slavery. In the first case, the one who thinks he is free is...
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70: Midpoint Stewardship Check-in
The Faithful Steward
Each quarter, we discuss the key financial rhythm of a quarterly stewardship check-in. This is where we look at where we are financially versus where we planned to be and identify areas where adjustments might need to be made. Quarterly check-ins are an important rhythm because they give us a longer view than monthly Spending Plan reviews and help us to understand trends. And the mid-year check-in is important because there's still time in the year to make the adjustments we need to make if we can identify them. Check out our from last year for details. But often we find that quarter after...
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69: The Enneagram and Stewardship: Types 8-9-1
The Faithful Steward
This episode concludes our 3-part series on the Enneagram and Stewardship by looking at the "gut" grouping - the three Enneagram types motivated by anger. These three types include: The Challenger or Activist (type 8), who focuses anger outward. These are the big personalities, who tend to take over a conversation and dominate a room. They're not constantly expressing anger, but when they do, it's loud and domineering. The Peacemaker (type 9), who tends to mask anger by focusing on harmony. These are the people who readily see others' points of view but struggle to express their own...
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68: Enneagram and Stewardship: Types 5-6-7
The Faithful Steward
Last time, we began our 3-part series on the Enneagram and Stewardship by looking at the "heart" grouping - the three Enneagram types motivated by shame. This episode, we're looking at the "head" grouping - the three types that are motivated primarily by fear: The Investigator (type 5) deals with fear by focusing inward, withdrawing from people. This person tends to come across as an introvert, preferring to process emotions internally rather than externally. The Loyalist (type 6) deals with fear through planning and control. This person cares deeply about relationships, but more from an...
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67: Enneagram and Stewardship: Types 2-3-4
The Faithful Steward
This episode begins a 3-part series on the Enneagram, a popular personality profile tool. The Enneagram identifies nine different personality types in three groupings and we'll tackle one grouping each episode. What's different about the Enneagram from most other personality tests is that it acknowledges that within each personality type, there are healthy and unhealthy traits. People of any personality type are on a spectrum from unhealthy to healthy, and the explanations identify ways to move more toward the healthy end of the spectrum for each type. We'll look at what these personality...
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66: Money and Midlife
The Faithful Steward
Midlife crisis. We've heard about it, seen it caricatured on TV. If we haven't experienced it yet, it's likely we will. So how do we understand it and how do we approach it with wisdom in terms of stewardship? The biggest symptom of the midlife crisis is a major life change that doesn't seem consistent with how life has been lived up to that point. The conservative, successful career man buys the red sports car; or he leaves his wife; or he changes careers. The super mom who has devoted her life to her family suddenly leaves. The one who has lived a fairly ostentatious lifestyle suddenly dials...
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65: Stewardship in Lane 3-Legacy
The Faithful Steward
The stewardship conversation in a church congregation is difficult. People are in and that means different conversations are needed. For people in Lane 3 - those that are doing well financially and building net worth - it can be difficult to even engage them in the conversation. They may feel like they don't need stewardship teaching because they're doing well. If stewardship were only about making money and building net worth, they'd be right. But it's about much more than that. When we understand that God owns everything and has entrusted into our care resources to use for his purposes, the...
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64: Either/Or: Making Trade-offs
The Faithful Steward
We can only spend a dollar one time. But there are so many things we want to do with it! In our culture, we're not used to "either/or" - we want "both/and". And to get that, we make all kinds of unwise financial decisions. When we realize that we have to make some adjustments, we tend to start with the assumption that our bills are all non-negotiables. But are they really? Some of our bills - even the fixed expenses - are actually discretionary; we can choose whether we want to continue them. And some of our variable expenses - like groceries and clothes - are not discretionary; we have to...
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63: Stewardship in Lanes 1&2: Stability, Clarity
The Faithful Steward
People are in different situations financially. That's why one-size-fits all conversations or teachings about finance so often miss the mark. If you're struggling under a load of consumer debt, encouragement to save for retirement isn't going to mean much. On the other hand, if you're debt-free, then cajoling about getting out of debt won't apply. As we consider the path toward financial freedom, we need to start with understanding where we are. And as we lead those who are on that path, we need to begin with an understanding of their current situation. These different situations can be summed...
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62: Am I On Track Financially?
The Faithful Steward
As spring arrives, nature shakes off the slumber of winter. And it's a good time for us to shake off any unproductive habits we may have built up in our stewardship. Spring is a great time for a deeper dive into our stewardship habits, goals, and progress. Enough time has elapsed since the beginning of the year that we have data to help us understand whether we're on track with the goals we set for the year. And enough time remains to make any course corrections we might need to make. This is a time to ask some key questions, like: If we put holiday spending on credit cards, have we made the...
info_outlineIf you're a stewardship leader or a teaching pastor, you know that talking about money to the congregation is hard. It's not comfortable - for you or for the congregation. People get defensive when they feel that you're prescribing rules that don't make sense to them in their situation.
Part of the problem is that over time, we've conflated the concept of stewardship with giving. Stewardship is about managing resources in a God-honoring way, recognizing that He is the owner. But when we run "stewardship campaigns", we're not teaching people about how to manage money in a God-honoring way. Instead, we're focused on raising money for the church. So people come to equate stewardship with giving to the church. Good stewardship means giving more; poor stewardship means not giving enough.
Another part of the problem is that people in our congregations are in all different kinds of financial situations. So inevitably, when we prescribe rules, people respond with "You don't understand my situation." When we dive into the details of giving and tithing and treat these as one-size-fits-all topics, we miss out on opportunities to truly disciple our congregations in real stewardship.
Join us as host James Lenhoff encourages and equips pastors and stewardship leaders to teach the "why" and "what" of stewardship. Learn how important stewardship teaching is in the context of overall discipleship and how to approach the topic Biblically with confidence. And come back for our next podcast episode, in which we'll take a look at the one-on-one conversations needed to teach the "how".
To learn more check out www.GoodSenseMovement.org
Email James at: [email protected]
You can see the full video of some of our podcast episodes on our YouTube channel.