Separation of Church and Money--Part I

I was talking to a young man yesterday (18yrs old). I asked him if he had anyone train in him in money management, money leadership, investing, etc. He said no. I asked him how long he had been going to a church. He said all of his life. I said you have had no training on money from the church he said No. I said, "I'm sorry that the older people have failed you in this critical issue."

Why don't we as older people in the faith teach and train our young people to master the concept of money? Why don't we teach on it in our family? In our Sunday School? At least somewhere when believers come together. Why do we wait in some churches to only teach on it with the older people?

If you are reading this, you can make the change for every teenager you have some influence on. If you are a YP, begin a series on this starting in January. If you are a concerned parent, talk to your YP and ask him when he is going to start a discussion on money. If you are a pastor, begin to mandate that all of our teenagers are going to be going through a training on money.

I think the main reason we don't train on money is because of ignorance and even more importantly, because we don't think it will stir up our fire for God or draw us closer to Him. We think teaching on money should be reserved for economists while our teens are piling up credit card debt. We think teaching should be done only in the schools as our teens walk blindly into college taking out massive college loans. We think teaching on money should be done in the home, while our church kids live for the now while not thinking how they are going to pay in the future.

It is time we stop separating church and money and hit it hard with our teens. In Part II, I will cover how you begin to create a culture in your youth ministry or home that begins to honor God with our money and trains our students in practical ways.