Traveling the Financial Pilgrimage: A Lesson To Be Learned

seank.mitchell@yahoo.com

For a moment, imagine you are sitting within the realm of a Bible Study Group. You and others there are present to grow in your relationship with God, strengthen your spiritual relationships with one another, and understand the Christian calling. The leader of the study has just introduced an exercise—an exercise he promises will help each of you attain the aforementioned goals of the study. The exercise has two parts, the first being for you and other participants to write down your ascertained spiritual gifts and the ways you are currently implementing those gifts into everyday life.

After everyone has shared their personal reflections from the exercise, the leader leads the group to part two of the evening’s activity. This time, you and others are asked to write down how much money you made within the last year and how much of it you gave to advance the message of God’s love and Christ’s redemptive work. I’m sure you can only imagine the reaction from the group after hearing this—Silence: Uncomfortable, fearful, bashful, silence.

Not long after the leader’s request for the attendees to “fess up” the information about their financial gifts from God and how they have each used those gifts, an older attendee approaches him and pulls him aside. “You should not be doing this. These people did not come here to discuss their income, much less their private financial decisions. That is between them and their Lord. If you carry through with this exercise, I guarantee you many of these people will not come back to this study.”

If you were the leader of this study, what would be your next move? Or, an even better question, how did you react to the exercise as a participant? Were you offended? Did you feel compromised? Did you want to head for the door and not come back? Or, were you just as excited about this exercise as you were the first one? Maybe you would have not left, maybe you would’ve understood where the leader was coming from, understanding his point to be that everything we have comes from God, financial and spiritual gifts included. But though you understand, the exercise is still experientially a bit too personal.

Agreed. The exercise is overtly personal. And spiritual. It will require authenticity, confession, accountability, humility, faith, and trust. These qualities, characteristics of Biblical and modern-day disciples, are what each of us is to be filled with, and filled again and again. Open conversations about financial stewardship, like any other kind of stewardship, if guided by the Holy Spirit, can be an instrument in helping us grow in our Christian discipleship.

Do we really believe what we say and preach about God? Is He truly the one who supplies our needs, takes care of us, arranges a promotion at work, and gives other financial favor? Do we really believe that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, and that everything we have comes from His hands? If we do believe that what we have has been entrusted to us from God, money included, we will not view it as a private matter but a matter that needs and deserves to be shared openly with our brothers and sisters in Christ. If we believed, we would not call it our money, our savings, but simply what God has entrusted to our care.

Do we really believe? Do we want to deepen our relationship with Christ? There is no way around it—if we are going to travel the narrow road of discipleship, at some point we will need the encouragement of our brothers and sisters to remind us that our money is not our own, and that what we are doing with it is a very important matter. Money is a trap for a lot of people, a hindrance for many people fully coming to know Christ. Some even walk away from the faith because of it, or might leave a Bible Study due to it.

Most Christian study groups would not be ready for the above exercise, but if nothing else, using it as a discussion point could be a needed step to travel a much-needed path. Let’s embark on a journey together, a journey to create more and more of these discussions about financial stewardship. A journey to make more disciples!

Sean K. Mitchell is a creative writer and author of The Financial Pilgrimage, a book that doesn’t just talk about money management, but communicates a fresh, financial approach to Christian discipleship. For more information on the book, visit www.thefinancialpilgrimage.com.