Personal Stewardship: Faith and Money Network Offerings

Faith and Money Network

As well as being a Stewardship For Us consultant, and a couple of other professional roles, I am a volunteer board member for the Faith and Money Network. The organization began more than 35 years ago as the Ministry of Money, a mission group growing out of Church of the Savior in Washington, DC. Founder Don McClanen recognized the relationship between money and fear and anger, and he realized that few people addressed these problems from the perspective of their faith, and recruited a mission group in his congregation to spend a year working with money as a faith topic.

As you may imagine, Church of the Savior is a Christian congregation, and many of the Faith and Money Network materials and programs cite Bible verses and use its wisdom. Yet the materials are really about you and how you encounter the material on your own spiritual path; it is not prophesizing.

The Faith and Money Network has a multi-session cohort-based course called Money, Faith, and You with uses our excellent Study Guide. I facilitated a group through the course at my home congregation, All Souls Unitarian in Washington, DC and the participants had no trouble using the materials for their own discernment and to connect to each other. And a number of UUs came on our Trip of Perspective to Southern Appalachia a couple of years ago – we got great feedback about their experience.

Faith and Money for UUs

As a stewardship consultant for UU congregations, my work stops where the personal level begins. I do not act as a teacher, counselor, or guide for UU members directly about their understanding or use of money. However, I believe that this could be a part of any congregation’s programs, and it would do a world of good for the congregation’s stewardship culture.

Where would you start; where would you find materials and curricula to help people deepen their discernment in their faith, through how they understand, earn, and use money? If you are looking for budgeting help, that is easy to find. But the deeper, more personal, perhaps more tender topics? Those resources are rare and not necessarily sensitive to people’s personal faith journeys or beliefs. The Faith and Money Network materials are. I highly recommend them.

In fact, the Money, Faith, and You course was recently revised to include more on how money and race intersect, so if you have been interested in 8th Principle work (dismantling racism and other oppressions), this is worth checking out. Sorry, the Guide is only available as a resource for the course (on line), not on its own.

Resources

Here are some currently available Faith and Money Network materials. Feel free to reach out to me personally if you are interested but hesitant. Otherwise, there is contact information on the website. You could sign up for a group or trip yourself, rally a group in your congregation to do a course or trip together, or contact us to get help doing something, like forming a small group for household practices, in your own congregation.

• The Money Autobiography
  Writing a “money autobiography” is a challenging and crucial step in understanding our behaviors and the powerful feelings evoked by money.
• Online Study Groups
  Faith and Money Network’s six-week online study groups are a place to explore your habits and history with money. NEW group starting in January!
• Household Practices Covenant Groups
  Small groups for support in developing new household choices shaped by sabbath economics. New Group starting in January!
• Money Mentoring
  For spiritual direction and/or change in habits and practices.
• Trips of Perspective
  Not a guided tour or “mission trip”, these are a chance to create community with people who don’t have societal power and privilege but have spiritual riches and richness of solidarity
• Workshops
  Offering the space and freedom to ask questions and find one’s own answers.
• The Faith and Money Podcast
  Personal interviews exploring the connections between faith and money.

As a leader in your congregation, your own spiritual growth will influence others in the congregation. I hope this helps you on your journey!