In my experience there are several common misperceptions about financial stewardship within the church.

The first misperception is that financial stewardship is just about giving to the church. Shame on us for anything we have done to validate that misperception! Financial stewardship is a deep discipleship issue and is (should be!) about:

• teaching folks the biblical principles surrounding our relationship to money,
• training folks in how to implement those principles into their day-to-day financial lives, and
• in the process, removing money as the chief rival god in many folks' lives.

To paraphrase Andy Stanley, "Unless the church is teaching folks how to save money and get out of debt, it is irresponsible to tell them to give."

The second misperception is that discussions and workshops about stewardship are only for folks who are in deep financial difficulty. It is true that the understanding and practice of biblical principles regarding one's financial resources will be of great help to those ...