"If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." -- Matt 19:21
Stewardship under the direction of Jan Couch is an exciting ministry that will not only teach you Biblical lessons but will impact your perspective of Christian living. Please select a topic to the left to find out what God's instructions are for our finances and spiritual development.
AgapePress - A Christian financial counselor says believers need to get their priorities right if Christian households have any hope of getting on solid financial ground. For more than 25 years, Larry Burkett has offered financial counseling from a biblical perspective through his Georgia-based ministry. The Christian author and speaker says the Christian world is no different from the secular world when it comes to debt, bankruptcy, and divorce because priorities are misplaced.
Burkett says while the Bible does not condemn borrowing, it does lay out specific guidelines for Christians and debt. "God said very clearly [that] you can't be unfaithful in a small thing and faithful in a large -- they come part and parcel together," Burkett says. "You can't be a bad money handler and be handling other things well. Money is just the outside indicator of what's going on in our lives spiritually."
According to the financial guru, the use of credit is not a problem among Christians -- instead, he says, it is the misuse of credit. Burkett says most Christians do not have a firm grasp on the biblical perspectives on debt. "Only 3% of Christians actually tithe today. Thirty-seven percent of those attending evangelical churches don't give anything at all to their local church in any way. And that's not a problem," he says, "that's an indicator of a problem. It's a spiritual problem being reflected through their finances."
He cites surprising statistics to prove his point. "Over the last decade, giving overall in Christianity has increased about 20% -- but recreational spending increased almost 125% and debt spending increased 550%," Burkett says. "I think it's really time that God's people decided [that] God really does want us to live by a different set of rules."
Burkett says there are several steps to becoming debt-free -- among them transfer ownership of everything to God, tithe on gross income, allow no
more debt, develop a realistic balanced budget, and start retiring existing debt.