Why Your Church or Ministry 
Should Sponsor a Debt-Free Workshop

God's Word is clear that debt is NOT a part of his money management plan. Romans 13:8 tells us we should "owe no one anything..." and "anything" means anything. Proverbs 22:7 counsels that "...the borrower is slave to the lender." Deuteronomy 28:12 says, "Thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow." And when we're unfaithful to these verses, we find the result in Luke 16:11: "If therefore ye have not been faithful in unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?"

Why is God so against the credit-based lifestyle that seems integral to our economy? Because He knows it to be Satan's tool for immobilizing and even destroying people... especially Christians.

• Indebted Christians can't tithe. A recent study quoted in Moody Monthly magazine reported the average Christian contributes just 2.5 percent of his or her income to their church, so our mission to get Christians out of debt is at least partially aimed at producing a four-fold increase in church income.
    
• Indebted Christians can't offer enough, beyond their tithes, to missions and ministries carrying out the Great Commission. We believe Matthew 24:14 promises the ushering in of Jesus' kingdom when we get the Gospel preached to the whole world. And there are sufficient denominational missions, organizations and other ministries in place today to get that job done... if they just have the resources. Where are those resources? They're currently flowing from Christians to Visa, Mastercard, mortgage lenders, auto finance companies, department stores, and the like. Our mission is to get those resources redirected back to the Kingdom.
    
• Indebted Christian husbands and wives fight about money problems, just like unbelievers. And they divorce over money problems, just like unbelievers. In fact, money trouble is the number one cause of divorce in and out of the church. Our mission is to remove Satan's squeeze from these couples, to save their homes from destruction and generational consequences of divorce.
    
• Indebted Christians turn to alcohol, drugs, and other diversions to escape their money problems, just like unbelievers. This is one more device of the devil to destroy Christians and their witness. Our mission is to take this leverage away from him.
    
• Indebted Christians frequently fail to answer God's call to ministry because they can't afford to. They have to stay with their jobs... to pay the bills... because they've allowed Satan to use cultural pressures to maneuver them into debt. Our mission is to free these brothers and sisters to do the jobs God assigned to them.

This is a Practical, Biblical Approach

In this workshop, we start out teaching what the Bible says about money in general, then we move to what the Bible says about debt, then we explore the Bible's teachings on prosperous living.

This is balanced teaching.

The Bible is clear, very clear, on the subject of money. And when the whole of it is considered, the message is not extreme in either direction. We don't believe God's word says, "poverty is holy," nor do we believe it says "all Christians are guaranteed to be materially wealthy." And we explain with scriptures -- including the Hebrew and Greek behind those scriptures when necessary -- why our perspective is what it is. With over 700 direct references about money, including two-thirds of the parables and one out of every six verses in the Gospels, the Bible has quite a lot to say about this subject... and we present it clearly and objectively.

Our goal is not to create a doctrine or a fad. It is to free our Christian brothers and sisters from Satan's debt bondage. That's all... and that's plenty.

The Biblical portion of the workshop is based on the book, A Biblical Perspective on Debt-FREE & Prosperous Living®. The step-by-step debt-elimination/retirement savings system portion of the workshop is taught from the Debt-FREE & Prosperous Living® Basic Course manual. The complete Christian Debt-FREE & Prosperous Living® Basic Course includes both these books plus four audio cassette lessons in a vinyl case, and it would be available to all attendees.

What Are the Benefits to You and Your Ministry?

Offering this workshop to your people will strengthen them, and thereby strengthen your church or ministry. When they're out of debt, they'll have less stress in their lives, making them happier and more productive... and more available to contribute both time and money.

We also believe that the more the members of a congregation walk in obedience to God's word, the more he's able to cascade down his blessings - both on the individuals and on the congregation as a whole.

It goes without saying that the workshop will cause your ministry income to increase over time, but we've also seen many of the individual struggles that require counseling actually decrease because they've been rooted in money all along. As Ecclesiastes 10:19 says, "A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things."

And let's not forget that a debt-free congregation can 
better help their church get and remain debt-free.

An Outreach as well as an "Inreach"...

A debt-free congregation and a debt-free church present a strong witness to the surrounding community. Individual and corporate debt-freedom adds a level of credibility to the church's "salt" that few other virtues can match. And debt-freedom, in our debt-bondage culture, is strong evidence to convict a church or ministry of actually practicing what they preach.

...and a Powerful Evangelistic Tool

According to pollster George Barna, in The Barna Report, 1992-1993, "an overwhelming 92% of non-Christians believe the church isn't very sensitive to their needs." In other words... they see the church as irrelevant to the needs of their day-to-day lives. But, if you offer them a proven pathway to get out of debt... now that's relevant!

As the saying goes, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." If they find you care about their real needs, some of them will come to care about what you know... that they need more than freedom from debt, they need freedom from sin.

Biblical principles articulated during the workshop begin showing the applicability of scripture to everyday living, but you can be more overt than that by inviting attendees to your regular services. Churches offering the Debt-Free Workshop regularly pass out information about the church before the workshop begins or during a break. These "announcements" usually include an invitation to Sunday services or other church/ministry outreaches.

This is a Timely & Important Service

Sponsoring a Debt-Free Workshop is not just a good idea, it's a critically important service to a society and community overrun with the ravages of debt. We, as Christians, are in the business of setting people free, and this workshop offers one more tangible way of doing that. A way people will see in the finances they deal with every day of their lives.

Please give us a chance to show you our Debt-Free Workshop, so you can see for yourself how much it will help those God has entrusted to you.  Contact us today!