On Sunday you preach about stewardship. You remind your congregation that everything we have belongs to God and that managing it well is part of faithfulness. On Monday you open your bank account and don’t know how you’ll make it to the end of the month.
If that’s you, you’re not alone. And the question almost no one dares to ask out loud is this: who taught you to manage what you have?
What seminary didn’t teach us
Most of us left seminary knowing exegesis, homiletics and church history. Few of us left knowing how to build a family budget, negotiate a salary with a board or prepare for retirement. We assumed those things would “work themselves out,” or that thinking about them was a sign of little faith.
The reality is different. In a LifeWay Research study of 720 pastors’ spouses in the United States, 6 in 10 said the salary they receive from the church isn’t enough to support their family, and more than a third said they worry every month about making ends meet. In another LifeWay study of retired pastors and missionaries or those 67 and older, one in ten had nothing saved for retirement.
In many Latino congregations the picture is even harder: small churches, pastors who hold a second job so they can keep serving, and families who quietly carry what no one mentions from the pulpit. Money becomes something we talk about for others, but never for ourselves.
Why this is so hard to talk about
Talking about money in ministry stirs up three fears. The first is guilt: if God provides, worrying feels like distrust. The second is suspicion: we’ve seen so much abuse of prosperity theology that any conversation about money sounds the same. The third is shame: admitting it isn’t enough feels like admitting we’ve failed as leaders or as providers.
So we stay quiet. And silence has a cost: decisions postponed, debts growing without anyone knowing, couples arguing behind closed doors, and pastors reaching their sixties without knowing how they’ll live when they can no longer preach.
Naming it doesn’t solve everything, but it’s the first step. What isn’t named can’t be healed.
Stewardship, not scarcity
Jesus used a very concrete image to talk about discipleship:
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?”
Luke 14:28 (NIV)
Counting the cost isn’t a lack of faith. It’s wisdom. Jesus doesn’t ask the builder to stop looking at the numbers; he asks him to look at them before he starts. Biblical stewardship isn’t born from fear of not having enough. It comes from trusting that what we have is enough to do well what God has asked of us.
So this month we’re not offering you a finance course. We’re inviting you to check your foundations: the things no one sees that hold everything else up.
The five foundations
Each foundation comes with a sign that it may be weak and one small step, under five minutes, you can take today.
1. Your income
Sign: you don’t know exactly how much comes in each month, or you work two jobs and can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins.
Step for today: write down how much comes in each month and from where. Seeing the full number, even when it hurts, is the first foundation.
2. Your debt
Sign: there are statements you’d rather not open.
Step for today: list what you owe, with the balance of each debt. You don’t have to solve it today, just stop hiding it.
3. Your retirement
Sign: when you think about the day you can no longer pastor, you’d rather change the subject.
Step for today: find out whether your denomination or church offers a retirement plan for pastors. Asking isn’t a lack of faith.
4. The conversation at home
Sign: at home, money only comes up in a crisis, or it ends in an argument.
Step for today: take ten minutes this week to ask your family what worries them most about money. Just listen.
5. The conversation with your church
Sign: you know what you receive isn’t enough, but you’re ashamed to tell your board or leadership.
Step for today: write down what you would need to serve without anguish. It’s the first draft of an honest conversation with your church, whenever you’re ready to have it.
Don’t build alone
No foundation is laid in a day, and none is laid alone. The tower in the parable isn’t raised by a single pair of hands. Our finances are the same: what we hide weighs more, and what we put on the table, in community, can be carried together.
That’s why on Wednesday, November 18, Entre Caminantes will be devoted to this conversation, with Ania from MV, who walks with pastors through retirement and financial wellness. It’s a safe, free space, open to everyone.
But first, we want to hear from you.
Sources
LifeWay Research, survey of 720 Protestant pastors’ spouses in the U.S. (2017), as reported by The Christian Post.
LifeWay Research, survey of 2,451 retired or 67-plus pastors, ministers and missionaries (2019), as reported by The Christian Post.
Luke 14:28, New International Version.
