How Christians use money speaks volumes about their hearts. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21 NIV). This means that the way we use money is a reflection of our priorities, but it will also help guide those priorities.
Many pastors are uncomfortable talking about money in church. But Jesus’s teachings about money make it clear that we cannot neglect its impact on people’s spiritual health.
Here are five tips to help you model financial health to your congregation.
1. Teach about money regularly.
Money is a notoriously difficult subject to talk about in church. But even a cursory study of Scripture tells us that financial matters play an important role in our spiritual lives. The Bible is full of teaching on topics such as:
- Generosity
- Tithing
- Greed
- Stewardship
- Debt
Paul even goes so far as to say that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10 NIV). If you want a spiritually healthy congregation, you cannot neglect teaching about financial issues.
Instead of feeling fearful about how people could react to teaching about money, focus on how the Lord will work in the lives of those Christians who choose to adopt a Kingdom perspective on their finances. You can teach with wisdom and with confidence, joyfully anticipating the life transformation that will occur in your congregation.
2. Use financial examples in spiritual teaching.
Even when you’re not preaching through a passage that talks about money or planning a sermon series dealing with financial matters, you can still use illustrations involving money to teach other spiritual principles and reinforce healthy financial habits.
When you create illustrations, you often share about experiences that will resonate with your congregation. Money plays such a prominent role in our lives (and in Scripture) that there are plenty of important financial experiences that could work into an illustration, such as:
- Buying or renting a house
- Using credit
- Taking out student loans
- Starting a savings account
- Making an investment
As you use more financial illustrations, it will become easier for your church to make the connection between spiritual truth and healthy financial practices.
3. Find opportunities for financial experts to teach.
When it comes to your finances, seeking expertise can be incredibly healthy. Your church probably already has people who work in financial professions, and they may be willing to share that expertise in your Sunday school classes, premarital counseling program, or other trainings where it would be relevant. Your leadership team could also work with these experts to develop a curriculum that covers spiritual and financial health together
Even if your congregation does not have any financial professionals, there may be some people in your congregation who have a history of making wise financial decisions. You could help these people find opportunities to serve as financial mentors in your church. They also might be able to point you to trusted financial professionals who would be willing to lend their expertise and teach a class.
By turning to financial experts, you are modeling that this is what your congregation can do as well.
4. Be open about your financial mistakes.
Sharing your personal failures is hard. But when you talk about how poor financial choices have affected your spiritual life, it can be easier for your congregation to recognize the same in their own lives. Making yourself vulnerable creates powerful opportunities for God to speak into the lives of your congregation.
Church members can often learn as much from your missteps as they do from your victories. When you are willing to share your mistakes, members of your congregation will benefit.
5. Include financial stewardship in discipleship.
Discipleship is about growth, and the two components of growth are understanding and practice. We want to help believers both practice the actions and behaviors of their faith and grow in understanding about who God is. These two sides of growth feed each other, as practice leads to understanding, and as understanding leads to practice.
The Bible speaks so often on the importance of generosity and its impact on our spiritual health that we know financial matters must have a role in our discipleship strategy. As believers grow in spiritual wisdom, their understanding of God’s perspective on managing resources should develop too. And this understanding ought to make a difference in their lives; the fruit is evident when disciples begin to manage their money from a Kingdom perspective.
Let’s journey together.
You don’t need to do ministry alone. You can find opportunities to connect, plus more content and conversations about church administration, at XP Summit: xpsummit.org.
