The Faithful Steward

An fruitful stewardship ministry, who can find? It's not easy. As church leaders, we often struggle to embrace the conversation around stewardship. And usually, that's because we've maintained too narrow a focus when it comes to stewardship. To have an effective conversation around stewardship, sometimes we need to "undo" the framework we've been using. Three key realizations can help: The convers...

Saving isn't exciting - not nearly as exciting as, say, buying that new car or going on that great vacation. But saving does two key things for us. In the present, it grows us in Biblical characteristics like patience, perseverance, gratitude, and wisdom. And in the future, it positions us for obedience to God's leadings into generosity and other areas. It's possible, of course, to over-save, and...

Welcome to the final installment of our three-part series on Marriage and Money. In the last two episodes, we looked at the importance of married couples becoming one financially and at the key step of understanding each other's financial backgrounds and motivations. This week, we'll wrap up the series with a discussion of the significance of shared values and priorities. Built on a commitment to...

In part 2 of our three-part series on Money and Marriage, host James Lenhoff addresses some of the sources of our conflicts over money and offers insight toward building understanding with our spouses. Our financial priorities tend to be a product of several factors, including how our family of origin handled money and our own money motivations. James examines how differences in families of origin...

We hear it all the time - arguments over money are a leading cause of divorce. But are these arguments really about money? Or are they about something deeper? What's really behind this is that couples are not following the Scriptural principle of becoming one. Sometimes, this is because one or both spouses haven't ever really left their family of origin - either in physical distance or in mental a...

Stewardship in the early stages of life is pretty simple - the decisions are simple, the options are limited, and the outcomes are fairly straightforward. That doesn't mean it's always easy - but it is far less complex than it becomes as we move through life. The early career stage provides the best opportunity to establish life-long stewardship principles and practices. Things like being a dilige...

Like many things, our stewardship evolves as we go through the stages of life. And like many things, the earlier we start on this journey, the better prepared we are to continue the journey throughout our lives. Many people struggle with stewardship as adults because they were never taught stewardship principles as children. They never had the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them while...

When people are in trouble, they often turn to the church for help. And many churches are prepared to respond through their benevolence ministries. Serving people in dire financial circumstances is a key way of showing Jesus' love and compassion. But often, these difficult situations are caused by financial habits that will continue to foster crises until they're addressed. While aid in a crisis i...

So often, we think of stewardship in the narrow sense of addressing specific financial situations. If we're struggling with debt, then stewardship means being disciplined in our spending and getting out of debt. If we're well-off, then stewardship is all about giving and generosity. And in the church, we tend to separate people in different financial situations and have separate conversations that...

Join us as podcast host James Lenhoff paints a wholistic picture of stewardship and invites us to envision and commit to whole-life stewardship in the new year. Stewardship starts with our finances. Jesus taught that we have to choose between serving God and serving money, and this is a lifelong journey. But stewardship doesn't end with finances. All that we have is from God - our time and talents...

It's a new year. Time for those New Year's resolutions - you know, the ones about losing weight, getting out of debt, etc. Maybe you made some last year; how did that work out? For most of us, New Year's resolutions fail. They fail for several reasons - they're based on other people's priorities for us rather than our own sense of what's important; they're not realistic given our circumstances; th...

As each year draws to a close, many of us take some time to think back over the year. Maybe we identify some things we're thankful for. Perhaps we think through some highlights - experiences, relationships, areas where we grew. Maybe we recognize some difficult, painful moments. As you think back over this year, how would you evaluate your stewardship? Did you grow in this key area of discipleship...

When most Christians think of stewardship, their minds automatically turn to giving. That's because the Church tends to equate these two terms. But stewardship is more than just generosity. Stewardship starts with a foundational recognition that all we have belongs to God. As a result, whether we're spending, saving, or giving, we're doing it all with God's resources. God isn't interested only in...

Jesus tells us that we have to choose between serving God and serving money. Of course, most of us would say that we serve God rather than money. But in reality, we often end up serving money as a default due to lack of intentionality about how we manage our resources. Serving money can take many forms. For some, it's hoarding; for others, it's materialism. None of us picture ourselves in these po...

"What do you want for Christmas?" Every year, we ask our families and friends this question. We run from store to store, often spending money we don't have to buy things people don't need. And we rack our brains to answer the same question. Most of us have more than we need already, so we struggle to come up with new ideas. Year after year, we exhaust ourselves in the pursuit of things for ourselv...

Faithful Steward host James Lenhoff helps us navigate the sometimes tricky waters of wealth with a balanced,  Biblical approach. Learn God's purposes for wealth and pass them on to your congregation! Contrary to what some teach and believe, wealth isn't evil. Scripture doesn't tell us that money is the root of all evil, but that the love of money lies at the heart of all kinds of evil. But wealth...

Host James Lenhoff unpacks the foundational nature of stewardship in the life of the believer and shows why the conversation around stewardship should be at the heart of how we disciple our communities. We've often thought of - and taught - principles of stewardship as though they were an isolated facet of the Christian's life. And we've typically couched stewardship in terms of giving, limiting t...

Join us as host James Lenhoff discusses how intentionality is the solution to lifestyle creep. Are you earning more today than you were at the beginning of your career? Do you know what's happened to all that additional income? Most people increase their earnings level over the course of their careers; and yet, many still feel like they're falling behind financially - like there's never enough. We...

Fights over money - they happen all the time. Disagreements and stress over money are one of the leading causes of divorce. And most of the arguments occur over numbers - disagreements over whether a couple can afford something or not. But numbers aren't usually the problem. Usually the problem is a failure to understand each other's motivations behind how they spend money. For individuals as well...

We've looked at the elements of faithful stewardship - earning diligently, spending prudently, giving generously, saving wisely, and approaching debt with caution. We've seen the importance of being intentional with our finances - prioritizing, planning, and tracking where the money goes. But how can we tell if we're on the right track as faithful stewards? In this podcast episode, host James Lenh...

Host James Lenhoff navigates the sometimes tricky waters surrounding debt with a grace-filled approach and a balanced stewardship context. Join us and discover keys to understanding and managing debt as a faithful steward. Many believers labor under a load of debt, struggling to make ends meet because of significant monthly payments. They feel hopeless, with a seemingly insurmountable financial de...

Join us as host James Lenhoff leads us down the path of saving with wisdom. James offers key principles to guide our own saving and to pass on to other believers as they pursue faithful stewardship. Christians are pulled in opposite directions when it comes to saving. Our culture promotes mixed messages - on the one hand, it's all about spending without any thought for the future. And on the other...

It's time for the "giving" talk again. Maybe it's the annual "stewardship campaign". Or maybe it's a capital project for a new building or a special fundraiser for a new program. Whatever the case, most pastors aren't comfortable giving this talk. And most congregations aren't comfortable hearing it. But a large part of this discomfort comes as a result of equating stewardship with giving. Steward...

Spending. We all do it, and many of us feel guilty about it. Should we really spend that much on movies or eating out or vacations? Zooming out a bit, spending incorporates everything we do with the money we earn. We can save it, we can give it, we can use it to retire debt, or we can spend it on lifestyle needs. All of these are forms of spending, and the Prudent Spender brings them all into focu...

Should I earn more? Or does earning more mean that I'm greedy? What does it look like to earn as a Faithful Steward? Many people see earning as something they have to do in order to live. We need money to pay bills, so we work to earn the money. The Disinterested Earner trades time for money in an ongoing transaction that more often seems like drudgery than anything of value. At the other end of t...