Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource youth to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Welcome back Life Group leaders, Dallas here, and I am here with our guest, Eric Hurd, our stewardship pastor as we are talking about week three, and we are talking about money. Muddy, money, an easy topic.
Oh, it's very powerful, very personal, very personal. And we are going to talk about making the most of your money, which might be a challenging conversation. So we want to help guide the conversation and Eric, what are some challenges you've seen with talking about money? A lot of times, Dallas, and I got to tell you my own story, is that I really didn't understand biblical principles of finance or money.
And so it was really hard to talk to people about it, and I had very little experience, and I grew up in poverty, and my dad mismanaged money all the time, and so I didn't have a good example. Nobody really talked about it, and I think some of those challenges really hit a rush from having a conversation with other people. So having the conversation about money is going to be challenging. There could be pain in your story with it.
There's always the thought of, there might be somebody in your group, Life Group Leaders, the church always wants my money. Does the church want your money? Does the church want our money? And the answer to what we learned and rooted is yes, but probably not for the reason that you can think of.
So as we think through Life Group Leaders, what are some words of wisdom and encouragement? How can a Life Group Leader inspire people to have a conversation about money, but what are some tips that we can do? And I know you kind of mentioned stories, so what are some tips that we can give our Life Group Leaders for having this conversation? Well, first of all, thanks for the question, and it's framed really well.
I think one of the first things is people resonate with authenticity. And I think when it comes to money, we're either a wonderful example, or we're a horrific warning. And I've had different times in my life when I have been both. And I'll tell you, Dallas, people would have looked at my checkbook if they saw and they would look and go, oh, he gives, and oh, he's generous, my wife and I talk through it, and we regularly gave to the church, but underneath all of it, I had a fear that I was never gonna have enough, and that God wasn't gonna provide, and I didn't trust God when it came to money.
And so sometimes it's not even how you deal with the money, it's the heart issue. And so I was not a good example, because I didn't trust God with money. In fact, that's why I firmly believe he set up the tide in the Old Testament. He doesn't need our money, the church doesn't need our money.
But here's the thing is, we need to give our money, because otherwise we fall prey to all kinds of things, especially greed, and there's all forms of greed. And so I think when it comes to our life group, and I try to be this with my life group, is be authentic. Tell your God's story, like I'm not quite there here, I still struggle with this, and so authenticity is huge, but also knowing your story. What's been the journey with money?
Like I've looked from the time I was a kid and the things that my dad said, like, you've got the herd curse, or you'll never have enough money, whatever you have is gonna be taken from you. Well, he's so that into me, and it literally so fear at me. So I know my story, I know how I've managed it in the decades, and so are they being authentic, knowing your story, and then thirdly becoming familiar with the biblical principles of money management. Wow, that's great.
So even life group leaders, before you even jump into this conversation, like have your story ready to go. I always tell people the greatest story ever is the story of Jesus, obviously, the second greatest story is your story. So what is your story? How can you begin to prepare that?
And what I love about stories is, Eric, I can't sit here and say, no, that's not your story, that's not how it worked. That's not how it happened for you. And you can't argue that for me. So as a life group leader, before we're even going into the questions, before we're even going into the topic, before we're even sitting down with your group, I think you should sit down and look at your story.
How can you share your generosity story or where you're at on your journey? What does it look like to have a three minute version, a five minute version, 10 minute version, for you to share and inspire people, just to break the ice even a little bit. And that might be really cool as we look at our rhythms of groups or our rhythms of rooted story is one of them generosity. It's another one that for some, this could even be a strong goal.
You get in multiple things on this. So loot. And this is a really personal thing for people and it is very powerful. And again, one of the things I've gained in life group, and we use that methodology of drawing people out, asking the right question, not a lot of questions, but drawing people out at just finding out, like if you posed your life group, hey, what's the wisdom you have gained from the Bible when it comes to money?
See, now, sorry, you're not having to be the teacher. There's a lot of people worry about, oh gosh, what if I don't know the biblical principles? What if I haven't been a great example? We'll draw it out of your group.
They've all heard messages. They've all read the word of God. And so I think asking open-ended questions that don't put people in a corner, don't evoke shame or guilt, but draw them out. Like, in what ways have you mismanaged money?
And we all have. Oh gosh, I tell you, I had greed and covetousness when I first got to mirrors, so wealthy community. And man, I liked what other people had. And man, I played the shell game with my finances.
I bought things I did not need to impress people. I did not know. I made a lot of mistakes. And you know, when you tell your mistakes, people trust you, laughter is evoked, and it sets people at ease.
But then you can ask, but what have been the ways you've really managed money well, and what have been the rewards of that? And so you inspire people like, let's try to be that. So be willing to talk about how you failed managing money. Because everybody has.
But be willing to say, but man, what are the things you've done right? That's a really good lean-in question too. Like, how have you mismanaged money? Like, hey, when you got your first page, I think, what did you do?
And that's a really good lean-in question. Because the first thing I did is, growing up, we didn't need fast food. We just ate at home, large family. I remember my first paycheck.
I thought I was the wealthiest person on planet Earth, making $8 an hour. And I went to Chick-fil-A for the first time. And I ordered a meal, and I thought, I was the coolest guy. I bought fast food.
That was my thing. So that's a really good lean-in question of, hey, how have you mismanaged money? I like a laughter. Yeah, that's good.
And I think even just for the freedom for our life group leaders is, hey, as you know your group, no one knows your group better than you as a leader. So have the ability to look at the questions and reframe them. But as I look at these questions that we sent out, if you have the group discussion guide, we are week three making the most of your money. It is page 10, if you've printed it out.
But the lean-in question is what's a project goal or resolution you've set that proved to be too ambitious. So you could answer that question. You could also, hey, how have you mismanaged money? I think that's a really fun one.
Or if you ever bought something that later you regretted. Buyers remorse. Yeah, I bought an AMC Gremlin. Gremlin?
Yeah, oh, you're too young. I'm thinking of the movie. No, no, this is the ugliest car that's in fact. They found the engineer and shot.
Put him out of his best. It look up Gremlin Goomba. It is the ugliest car that's ever been. I bought one thinking it was cool.
Thank you. Yeah. And so we've all bought something we shouldn't have bought. Absolutely.
And then our passage for today is Luke 1911 through 27. It's all in there for you to read. But we are we're talking about Jesus. We're talking about his kingdom.
We're talking about what is he saying about his expectations for kingdom people and just maybe to reorient ourselves. Like who are kingdom people? Like that's a question. Sometimes if we don't know how to define everything in a question, it's hard to answer it.
You bet. But you know, when you see that we're kingdom people. How would you define king simple? Simply followers of Jesus.
So Jesus spoke more about money than any other subject, more than heaven and hell combined. So if I'm a Jesus person, if I'm a follower of Jesus or as they say a kingdom person, then money does matter. And so we're going to get into that topic and what Jesus had to say about it. Because when you think about it, there won't be money in heaven.
This is the place that we manage money. And so stewardship, management of our time, our treasure, our talents is what this parable is talking about. How are we investing it? Yeah.
And see, I remember you talk about a good investment. I had an opportunity to invest in some seminary students in Uganda. Get this $100 a month. It paid for food, clothing, shelter, and their education.
$100 a month. And those four students are now full time pastors, somewhere in the world. And all I had to come up with was $100 a month. Was that a good investment?
Yeah. And it's going to have eternal consequence. So this passage you're going to look at today is really at the heart of stewardship or management, which God has called us into. So when we say investment, what about the person in our life groups who might say, actually, you didn't get anything back.
What's the return on investment? You just gave $100. Like, how can we begin to shift people's thinking in that way? It's getting out of the temporal and embracing the eternal.
What am I doing today that has eternal benefit? And one of my favorite movies is Gladiator. And there's that classic line in there that what we do on Earth ripples in eternity. And it does.
And so the way I manage money is not just good, so I'll have it and I'll be able to retire. It's not about me. It's getting outside of myself and saying, what is God doing in the world? And where can I play a part in it?
And money is what fuels opportunity for whatever. It's a 501c3, whether it's a church, whatever it may be. And I think our senior pastor Eric, as he taught week one, is I think back week one of this, making the most of our time and making the most of it is making much of Jesus' name. And everything we do here has ripple effects throughout eternity our relationships.
And I think he framed us really well for the rest, for the entire series. But specifically for this, everything we do flows out of making the most of our time in the Lord's will, which is seeing people come to know Jesus. So if that's our filter, I think we have to see it through that lens even with the way we give and we're generous. Yeah, that's interesting.
You say that because I have a friend of mine who when he comes, he gives to the church, because that's his first fruits. He loves Marin Church. But then he has a lot of different organizations that he gives to. But here's what he said qualifies it.
He goes, I get a lot of people because I'm wealthy that ask me to give to them. And I go, tell me about evangelists. And if they don't have a story of how the ministry is impacting evangelism, he goes, that's not my thing. Because his heart goes toward evangelists.
He goes, come on. Yeah. So that's a great example of making the most of your money. Yeah.
So as I can wrap something, the theme that I'm seeing in your conversation is life group leaders, your story, your story with generosity, figure that out. And if you can be in the middle of your story, you don't have to have it all figured out. But making sure that you have your story, I think it's going to lead to a beautiful discussion. And I think you can really encourage, you can challenge.
It's not your job to get everybody's financial statements and walk through like that. That's all we're asking you to do as a life group leader. We're not asking you like, OK, everybody pull out your Mariners app. Let's see who's given them.
It's not about that. But it's how can you inspire people to be more generous? Everything that we have is God's. And we are just wise stewards.
And I think a good question that I always like to ask when I'm doing life groups is who would be impacted if you lived a more generous life? So who are the people in your life that would be impacted? And I can think of maybe there's students who can go to seminary, my family, I think of my kids. For my kids to grow up, they would be most impacted if I lived a more generous life.
Because they wouldn't even know greed. Like I hope that that's the case when they see me as their father is not seeing a lifestyle of greed, but of generosity. Yeah, I think a perfect illustration of that was this last weekend, we saw high schoolers being baptized. And just months before that, I was able to get a bunch of people to give money to student scholarships who would not be able to go to camp otherwise.
So they got the scholarship money. They either recommit their lives or give their hearts to Jesus and then their baptized this weekend. It's like, OK, the ROI on that come. And one thing I would say is that if there was anything I would want people to walk away with at the end of a money, lesson is you cannot measure or you cannot manage what you do not measure.
The vast majority of people do not have a budget. And when you don't operate with a budget, it is amazing how little you give. Because you're always worried, am I going to have enough for next month? It's going to really provide what about, you know, I want to go to school or I want to do this or buy a car.
But if you have a budget, you know exactly where you have them. And then your generosity flows. So what I've got to manage what I have so that I can then be generous, I have found that people who aren't generous, usually do not have a budget. Yeah, because we've taken 10,000 people through financial peace university.
And what we found is the vast majority of them were literally 50,000 in debt, non-mortgage debt. And when you're in debt, you're not going to give. So that's a great final question. It's like a resource is what's the next step for people who are like, I think I need to take hold.
I need to dive in. I need to double click on this. You talk about financial peace. What is something that we can offer move people to maybe the small?
Is there any sort of resources? Well, there's a class we do called Freed Up. We were using financial peace university. What we like about Freed Up, it's this beautiful app that you get to use all year long.
It's your financial house in order. It's really intuitive. It's very, very good. We've taken two classes through it.
So Freed Up, also they can contact me, Eric Hurd, at marinerschurch.org, or eherdamerinerschurch.org. Glad to see you about coaching. Whatever way we can help people. Because I'll tell you, the most joyful people I have found are Charias people.
It's just it goes hand in hand. Yeah. My wife and I are generous, and we know that as we give, people are blessed. And I just find generosity is what fuels joy.
That's beautiful. And I think that's a great ending point. The generous people are joyful people. Will you be joyful?
Will you choose to be joyful? Will you inspire your people to be joyful? Live your bleaters. We're proud of you.
We're thankful for you. We're praying for you as you lead into this conversation. And we can do what we do without you. So thank you.
Sign it off. See you later.