Stewardship Plan- Money

It is amazing what God teaches us in short periods of time. Seven years ago my attitudes towards money were selfish and not biblical. I was introduced to a Crown Financial Ministries Bible study and those beliefs began to change.

After reading many books on the subject of the stewardship of money, I began to write down a philosophy of money that hopefully is in line with God's revealed will. I published a book-Stewardship Mandate- in June of 2005 where I summarized those beliefs along with ideas about the stewardship of abilities, time and health as well.

I am currently working on a edit of Stewardship Mandate and I am amazed at how God is revealing new things to me all the time. Although I stand behind 95% of the things I originally wrote, I often cringe and think, "I didn't communicate that very well," or "Why did I write that?"

One of my core beliefs is that the things you will measure will improve if you commit them to prayer and work a plan towards the desired goal. As Christians, we should set goals for improving in areas of whole-life stewardship. Are you a good steward of money?

Jesus says, "You cannot serve two masters. You will either love the one and hate the other; or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money"- Matthew 6:24. What is your plan to serve God using money as a tool rather than serving Money using God as a way to acquire more money?

My belief is that all Christians should strive for the attitude of George Muller who housed, fed and clothed over 10,000 orphans in England. Muller often said, "My goal is to become more frugal towards myself and more generous to others." Now that is a worthy stewardship goal- one that is Christ-glorifying.

How do you accomplish this? First, you must know where you are at. Do you keep a budget/spending plan? If you don't budget, start by recording every expense that you have for 30 days. I recommend continuing to do this daily. It takes 5 minutes each day. I have found that those who record their expenses will spend less. It does not matter whether your income is $5,000 per year or $5,000,000 per year. If you are a Christian, you should strive for excellent stewardship of what God has entrusted to you today.

After you know where the money is going, develop a spending plan. Here is a simple spreadsheet to help you with categories- for example purposes only since every situation differs: http://www.stewardshipmandate.com/Finances_BudgetProjections.pdf.

Once you have set up a spending plan, you must start to ask key questions and form goals to the answers of these eight important questions:

1. If you died today, would your spouse or family members know where to find all of your important financial documents? Have you prepared a list of family advisors on one page for them to contact? 2 Kings 20:1, “…Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die…’”
2. Have you adequately protected your family from these three financial risks: death before seventy years old, living past ninety years old and/or a disability? I Timothy 5:8, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
3. What is your plan for paying off all debts including your home? Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other…”
4. Are you striving to live out the call of Christ to be more frugal towards self and generous towards others each year? John 3:30, “He (Christ) must increase, I must decrease.”
5. What is your plan to increase the percentage that you give to the work of Christ every year? Are you giving out of guilt or in response to the grace of God that has transformed your heart? 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
6. Are you saving on a regular basis for the goal of financial freedom- to be able to free up more time to serve Christ in creative ways? Do you save in order to help others in times of need? Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.”
7. Are you a wise investor? Do you invest with patience and discipline? Do you have a plan for investing to combat the two risks- principal and inflation- that every investor faces? Ecclesiastes 11:2, “Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.”
8. Are you encouraging/modeling strategic living free from the love of possessions? Luke 12:15, "Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

If you want to print out these questions in a pdf format, you can find them on the home page of http://stewardshipmandate.com under Critical Questions.

If you only set one goal in these areas and worked towards accomplishing that one goal, you would be further along in your stewardship journey than if you did nothing.

We were created to be stewards over all of God's resources. Adam was given a stewardship mandate- Genesis 1:28- to take dominion over all the earth. Sin has screwed up this plan. We have become wasters of money, abilities, time and health as a result. But when Christ returns, we will once again be ideal stewards of all God's abundance. Until then, we train. We strive. We press on. We set stewardship goals and work towards achieving them. We seek progress each year in faithfulness to Christ. We realize that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion on the day Christ returns- Philippians 1:6.

For the Ultimate Goal of Perfected Stewardship,

Ashley Hodge