I want to ask you a question. How is your church dealing with those members of your congregation who are faced with financial problems? Your immediate reaction to this question may be that this is a subject in which the church does not need to be involved. This is something that financial advisers are trained to handle. Surely you may be thinking the church should be dealing with matters which appear to be closer to spiritual needs such as the actual breakdown of family relationships where children and parents go through great traumas which can cause those involved to lose any faith they may have had before hand.
Let me ask you another question. What causes such breakdowns to occur?
The obvious answer is normally infidelity in marriage but recent important findings have revealed that this is no longer the biggest reason for such a breakdown. This has now been superseded by the devastation caused by couples getting into debt and this factor is the one that is now destroying marriages more than anything else.
As a practising Christian and Chartered Accountant, I have had the privilege of being asked by FMI to assist in the provision of professional financial advice to churches and Christians facing problems of this nature. One of the aspects which FMI are most concerned about is providing preventative medicine to help ensure that couples and families are encouraged to adopt the necessary stewardship to prevent them falling into the financial abyss and having to endure the consequences resulting from such.
The churches that are forward looking are taking steps to ensure that their members are able to be effective in their witness, being both the salt and light of the world. Courses are being given in effective discipleship, witnessing, drink and drugs, and marriage, Sunday school and youth leadership. But how many have considered introducing a course on dealing with financial responsibility. With the media constantly attempting to seduce people to spend money on items they can't afford it is a tragedy that Christians are falling for this subtle way that the devil uses which can result in their downfall.
Every person is different and what may be a temptation for you may not be a temptation for me. During the last few years our country has been going through a relatively prosperous period with unemployment at a low level and therefore financial problems may not be so pronounced as they were in the last recession. However, the last unemployment figures showed an increase for the first time for three years and it is anticipated that this is going to continue to increase, particularly in the manufacturing industries which are presently facing a complete slump.
In my Practice, even in boom times, I am quite often approached by couples who don't know where to turn. They have accumulated debt on credit cards and bank loans resulting in the fact that they are unable to start on the road of buying their own home and are becoming desperate to know how they can overcome this problem.
You may wonder how I as a Chartered Accountant, having one's own Practice, can relate to this situation. However, I unfortunately became involved with a partner in an Accountancy Practice who having professed to be a Christian, then turned out to be somewhat of a scoundrel. He over committed himself and eventually went bankrupt and, under the partnership rules and regulations, left me with all his debts to pay that amounted to an extremely large figure. For two years I was unable to spend anything on myself and had to keep my expenditure to the absolute minimum. Having been through this experience I realise how much one can save in expenditure if one is really ruthless and how one can survive on a relatively small amount of expenditure. It amazes me how faithful some of the widows are in our church who are living on a mere pittance.
The organisation Credit Action who promote self help in personal money matters has felt it worthwhile to tackle this problem and in collaboration with FMI have written a course of six seminars which can be run by churches. Therefore, facilitators are needed who feel that this preventative teaching could allay the tragedies which are so often resulting from couples faced with financial problems. These seminars are outlined in an excellent booklet entitled 'Your Money Counts - An Introduction to the World of Better Money Management' along with a copy of 'Leader's Notes', available from FMI. It handles such subjects as balancing the books, instant credit or instant debit, dealing with surprises, making your money work harder, dealing with temptation, your children, work and other matters, and looking at money from a spiritual viewpoint.
We at the Family Matters Institute are particularly keen to actively promote this venture. We would be very grateful if you could forward any comments you may have on these matters and I would be happy to deal with any particular case you might have in your church on the basis of an 'agony uncle' but, as mentioned before, our main intention is preventing the happening rather than providing the cure. We look forward to any comments you may have on this subject and trust that you and your congregation may be blessed in this day and age in which we live, when stress in this nation is abounding more than ever before particularly as far as financial issues are concerned.