When it comes to personal finances, management, experts agree that the keys
to sound practice and escape from debt are simple – use some common sense and
follow the motto found on U.S. money
Editors Note: The following is a true account of a Southern Baptist pastor
and his wife. The names have been changed to protect the privacy of the couple.
When it comes to personal finances, management, experts agree that the keys
to sound practice and escape from debt are simple – use some common sense and
follow the motto found on U.S. money
Editors Note: The following is a true account of a Southern Baptist pastor
and his wife. The names have been changed to protect the privacy of the couple.
A Southern Baptist pastor and his wife have learned a painful lesson – “What
you believe about finances and your future either frees you or keeps you in
bondage.”
They learned the lesson the hard way – by experience.
Sarah and Joe consider themselves a fairly typical ministry couple. They are
30-something and have children. Thus far, three pastorates have provided average
salaries and benefits.
“I wouldnt consider us a couple ready to jump off a bridge, but
we were living paycheck to paycheck,” Joe reflects. “When we had an
emergency, wed take out a home equity loan. We had practiced budgeting
and some degree of financial management.”
Debt was not holding them prisoner, he says. However, like many other couples,
financial lies were holding them captive, he insists. “We believed the
lie that we couldnt save and have an emergency fund.”
As an average couple with average income, they say they wondered aloud how
friends who made less money managed day to day, much less when crises came.
“The week one of our children was born, our air conditioner went out,”
Joe cites as an example. For Joe and Sarah, two financial needs coming at the
same time constituted a crisis.
Actually, a banker once told them that ministers are considered among the worst
credit risks by lenders. “It hurts your credibility if you cant meet
your obligations,” Sarah acknowledges. “Its a source of stress.”
Like many ministerial couples, Joe and Sarah have made provisions for retirement.
“Early in our ministry, we had churches we served put a part of my salary
in an (SBC) Annuity Board account,” Joe says. “But we didnt
have a readily available savings account. I found it difficult to talk to my
churches about financial needs, even during … budgeting time.
“Our parents have helped us with gifts through the years, not necessarily
to bail us out but to affirm us in ministry,” Joe continues. “In one
church, a member gave us a substantial sum toward a vehicle. And as wonderful
as that gift was, we still had a monthly payment.”
Sarah does not work for a salary today. “(But) Ive almost always
worked part-time for us to have extra money to eat out or for Christmas gifts,”
she explains. “Id look at what we brought in (financially), and it
looked sufficient. We wondered why it wasnt sufficient.
“God began to work on both of us with a desire to be out of debt,”
she continues. “We felt doing something about our finances coincided with
the calling we felt to a new work.”
Some months later, prior to moving to a new town with a new ministry, Joe met
David Carter, a stewardship specialist with LifeWay Christian Resources of the
Southern Baptist Convention. Among Carters responsibilities is training
individuals to be volunteer personal financial counselors.
Joe and Sarah asked Carter if they could talk with him to discuss their finances.
“Meeting with David was an affirmation we were on the right track,”
Joe recalls. “He asked us about our goals and what we were going to do
to reach them. We readjusted our spending, and that resulted in a new mindset.
He took almost a whole day with us, and it was refreshing for someone to make
that unconditional time for us.”
Among the resources Carter shared was a list of categories, printed on a chart
by salary brackets. That showed Sarah and Joe areas in which they were overspending
according to their income level, including entertainment.
“That challenged us to look for ways to do things that dont cost
money,” Sarah says. “For a long time, budget was a hard
word for our children, but now they realize that because we keep a budget, we
have the money for the things we get to do.”
Another lie they had believed was that they both had to work to make it financially,
Joe says.
“The truth is, you can live without the second income. Its just
a matter of making decisions based on that.”
Paired with this lie is the lie about the tithe. “Some believe if they
tithe, God will take care of them,” Joe points out. “They believe
they can be irresponsible with the other 90 percent, and God will provide. If
you are going to live within your means and a crisis arises that you cant
meet, youve spent the money God provided on something else. But if you
are a good steward, God will bless you in ways that you dont expect.”
Sarah says evaluating their spending, forced her to know more about the couples
finances. “Ive taken a more active role,” she explains. “We
set up the budget together. We dont ignore it. We anticipate needs.”
After about three months of making adjustments in their budget, Sarah and Joe
say they began to feel it was working smoothly. “You begin to question
everything you do,” Sarah says, noting such scrutiny of casual spending
paid off when an unexpected vehicle repair bill could be paid in cash.
“Were already seeing the benefits,” she says of the financial
work they began in late summer 1999.
“Freedom” is the word Joe says he would use to describe their life
today, in contrast to “bondage” of the past.
“There is a freedom in knowing an emergency isnt going to overwhelm
you,” he says.
“Its a choice, compared to bondage,” Sarah agrees. “Its
up to you to make choices.”
Joe says he has learned financial struggle is not always a result of insufficient
income. “Wise financial management is a spiritual thing. There has to be
the willingness to budget on the part of two people in whose lives God is at
work,” he says.
“God created the desire in both of us to do something about our finances.
God sent us someone to help us, and we reached out. The day we met with David,
God blessed us.”
Southern Baptist leaders are hoping others can have the same opportunity as
churches begin providing active financial counseling ministries for members.
LifeWay provides training for leaders of such ministries. Counselors-in-training
learn to share proven life-changing principles with persons struggling with
financial bondage.
The need is great, leaders insist. “The individual or family budget is
as important to funding kingdom activity as is the church budget – if not
more so,” says Gary Aylor, director of church stewardship services at LifeWay.
“It is inadequate to focus solely on giving. We must equip believers to
manage 100 percent of their resources under the lordship of Christ so all can
be free to join him wherever he leads.”
LifeWays Church Stewardship Services also offers personal financial counseling
at every major conference center program to any participant, including pastors,
church staff and laypersons. A one-on-one personal, confidential meeting with
a trained counselor may be scheduled. (BP)
Steps to becoming debt-free
Commit to the Lord and begin to tithe.
Reevaluate needs, wants and desires.
Delay major purchases, stay out of the mall and exercise self-control in every
area.
Stop charging and cut up ones credit cards.
Only use credit cards to buy budgeted items. Gain agreement from ones
spouse before making a purchase. Pay credit cards off entirely at the end of
the month. The first time one is unable to pay off credit card bills, cut up
the card and do not use it again.
Begin to save.
Reduce food costs.
Develop a schedule to repay outstanding debt.
Focus on the account that charges the highest rate of interest, yet has the
lowest balance due. When the account is paid off, close it, and roll what was
being paid on it onto the next account with the highest interest and lowest
balance. Continue eliminating one account at a time until each is paid off and
closed. This strategy is only effective if one stops making charges on the account.
Liquidate small assets.
Liquidate large assets in an emergency.
Adopt a stewardship mentality in life.
Contrary to the belief of many, “money is never a problem,” author and financial
expert Larry Burkett has said. “Its a symptom.”
Ted and Jeanette Warren agree and expounded on that idea during recent
workshops on sound Christian financial planning during a Southern Baptist conference
in Glorieta, N.M. Ted Warren is chief operating officer of LifeWay Christian
Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. His wife, Jeanette, is a certified
public accountant.
In church “we always seem to make stewardship as give, give, give,” Warren
admits. “But what we are realizing is that the average person is in a bad financial
place.
Giving the person in the pew sound, biblically-based financial advice is a
first step in good stewardship, he says.
“How much is enough?”
How someone answers that question reveals several things about him or her,
Warren notes. It reveals a persons priorities, relationship with God,
attitudes, values and what is important. These last three reveal a persons
identity and his definition of success, Warren points out.
In discussing the worlds definition of success, Warren lists power, wealth,
address, fame, athletic prowess, career position and car. All these things “are
temporal,” he says.
God defines success as obedience, character, availability, knowing God and
redemption, Warren says. “None of these is temporal. There is a great contradiction
in what the world says and what the Bible says about the successful life.”
A persons identity, or who he is in Christ, is the foundational issue
of all money management, Warren says. “How we identify ourselves defines our
attitudes which, in turn, determines our actions,” the Southern Baptist worker
notes. “We have to determine if we really trust God. Theres a big difference
is saying we trust him and really trusting him.
“There will come a point when you have to ask yourself, Do I really trust
God? This may be at a point of crisis with your health, your children
or your money or anything else.”
Settling the issue of trust in God will make financial decisions easier, Warren
emphasizes.
Jeanette Warren adds that people in churches need to know resources are available
to help them if they find themselves in financial trouble. She says she would
like to see every church have a Christian financial planner available to help
people who are struggling. “This person could be someone like me a layman
with financial experience who can help.”
To illustrate the problem, Ted Warren notes that reports indicate 150,000 calls
come into Christian Financial Concepts office every month asking for advice.
The average caller is
age 30-35.
owes $15,000-$20,000 in school loans.
owes $17,000-$20,000 in credit card debt.
owes $20,000 on two cars.
owes $120,000 on the average mortgage.
Other statistics offer even more sobering evidence of the extent of financial
difficulties faced by many modern couples. For instance, in American homes today,
including those of church members:
50 percent of all marriages fail. Sixty percent to 80 percent of these
cite financial problems as the root cause of strife.
$1.17 is spent for every $1 earned.
The rate of savings is minus 0.7 percent less than during the
Great Depression.
A look at Southern Baptists and other evangelicals is no more encouraging,
Warren admits. Research among that group indicates:
Individuals pay four times as much in interest as they give to the church
(10.2 percent vs. 2.3 percent).
80 cents of every $1 given to the church is given by those 55 years
old and older.
20 percent of members give 80 percent of the money.
30 percent of the members give the other 20 percent.
50 percent give nothing at all
One in five churches find themselves having to borrow money to keep
the doors open.
“There is a difference in our needs, our wants and our desires,” Warren concludes.
“Second only to love, the Bible speaks about money. Two thirds of all Jesus
parables deal with money. Jesus brings us to a point of decision about our financial
situation.” (BP)
Getting control of ones personal budget is an act of obedience to God
and a key ingredient of kingdom work, a leader in church stewardship
insists.
“Your personal budget is as important, if not more so, than the church budget
is to the funding of Gods work,” says Gary Aylor, director of church stewardship
services at LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Stewardship no longer can be an emphasis only on church budgets but must focus
as well on lifestyle stewardship of individuals and families, Aylor stresses.
“Stewardship is a fundamental part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ and relates
to all we are. It involves the dedication to God of time, talents, energy, material
possessions and all other dimensions of life.”
Stewardship is not a legalistic standard but an act of obedience and part of
ones daily worship of God, Aylor says.
“Stewardship recognizes that everything belongs to God. If you ask someone
if God owns everything, they are likely to answer yes without hesitation.
But it is a different matter, sometimes, if you ask, Does God own everything
you have right now or will ever own or ever hope to own?”
The stewardship of all dimensions of life “provides the engine that propels
the church into the world with the gospel,” Aylor points out. However, even
pastors can have difficulty tithing because their personal budgets are in trouble,
he says.
But recently-produced LifeWay resources such as “Successful Christian Financial
Management,” “The Financially Confident Woman,” “How Much is Enough?” and “Money
in Marriage” are helping individuals and entire congregations deal with all
of their money, not just the tithe, Aylor says.
Three additional resources on money management are set for fall release. “Jesus
on Money: Book One, Charting A New Course” is designed to help persons determine
where they are in relationship to biblical teachings on personal financial management.
“Book Two, Making Mid-Course Corrections” deals with adjusting goals and spending
plans to accommodate changing needs and situations. “Book Three, Crossing the
Finish Line” focuses on yet another life stage, demonstrating how to continue
adjusting goals and spending in order to join God in his kingdom agenda of winning
the world.
The six-week studies will provide specific help in debt reduction, budget planning,
career changes, lending and borrowing and family communication about money.
(Steps are derived from “How Much Is Enough, 30 Days to Personal Revival” by
Larry Burkett. The book is available from LifeWay Christian Resources of the
Southern Baptist Convention by calling 800-458-2772.)
(For details about personal financial counselor training, persons may call
800-254-2022. To obtain information on other LifeWay money management resources,
persons may call 615-251-2808.)