Financial Coaching for Kingdom Men

Tax season has a way of holding up a mirror to our lives. You look at the "Gross Pay" on your W-2 and that familiar pit forms in your stomach. You think, “I made that much money last year? Where on earth did it all go?” Without a plan, money is remarkably flighty. If you don't intentionally tell it where to stay, it will fly away like a pet finch when the cage door is left ajar—quick, quiet, and suddenly out of reach. The Workplace Trap vs. The Family Blessing For many of us, our only experience with a "budget" is at the office. In the corporate world, a budget feels like a list of restrictions handed down from a department you’ve never visited. It’s a "no" to your ideas, a "not yet" to your project, and a ceiling on your potential. But a family budget is fundamentally different. It isn’t a corporate restriction; it is a Kingdom duty and a divine blessing. At work, you have no control. At home, you and your spouse are the Finance Committee. ...

  There is a specific weight that comes with overwhelming debt. It’s the sound of the phone ringing from an unknown number. It’s the pit in your stomach when you check the mailbox. It’s the tension that sits at the dinner table between a husband and wife. As a financial coach, I have sat across the table from many people who feel that the walls are closing in. I was recently asked by a faithful couple if it was right for Christians to file bankruptcy.  As I was contemplating this question and praying I was surprised at the response I got.  The song, “He Paid a Debt He Did Not Owe, I Owed a Debt I could not Pay” started running through my head.  Considering the Year of Jubilee, Old testament laws about issuing loans, The Lord’s Prayer, and the story of the dishonest manager among others, we as Christians are intimately familiar with someone else paying our debt.  Both spiritual and financial debts.   The Bible is clear that when something is borrowed it...

Growing up I learned how to play chess.  I knew the rules of the game and how the pieces move and when someone asks me if I play chess I sheepishly say why yes I do.  I enjoy the game and comradery and if they know more than I do about chess I usually lose.   The boys in the house know much more than just the rules and how the pieces move.  They know chess notation, various openings, and strategy.  Did you know that you can lose a game in three moves?  I do now.  Just like you can lose a chess game quickly, you can lose the debt game quickly, too.  The boys in the house study me and my moves and predict what is going to happen so that they can win. The same can be said of those who lend out money.  They are not bad people, but they are absolutely masters of the financial game, their goal is to predict your moves to maximize their own win.  We as Kingdom men, must study their strategy to win our own financial game. Many times, we don...