Christian Leadership Alliance
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Will Our Children Be Stewards?
Will our children be stewards? The answer relies largely on the level of conversation that we foster in and through our faith communities. The simple decisions that children make about money may seem to have minimal, if any, bearing on others. However, the cumulative micro-economic influence of children does sway macro-economic outcomes. We now live in a global marketplace. Children's direct money choices and their influence on adult's money choices ripple around the world to impact issues like economic sustainability, quality of life, economic justice, free trade agreements, and other relevant topics.
The United States economy—the gross domestic product—exceeds $13 trillion annually. Individual spending, commonly referred to as consumer spending, comprises 70% of this economy. An even more staggering statistic is that 80% of product purchases are influenced by children! These figures calculate into a shocking realization that nearly $7.5 trillion of the U.S. economy is influenced directly by children.
Children are learning about money. What are their sources of information? Parents are a major source of information. Yet, a recent survey conducted by Synovate, a global market research company, suggests that giving is not a major component of parents' financial teaching and that only 38% of parents teach children how to pay bills. Another primary and more constant source of information for children is media advertising. The average person, including children, is exposed to over 5,000 advertising impressions each day. Advertising is latent with money messages.
Children's money values are influenced persistently by the underlying messages in advertising. These money values will often be inconsistent with children's other values and potentially in direct conflict with Christian principles. If children are going to adopt money values that are consistent with other faith values, then they must be taught God-honoring, biblical principles about money. The Church has a tremendous opportunity, and arguably an awesome responsibility, to create a culture of generosity that advocates a proportional perspective between earning, giving, saving, and spending money.
Church leaders are often hesitant, perhaps even fearful, to talk with the congregation about financial principles. They avoid most money conversations based on the assumption that money talk is private talk. Yet, several of our money decisions are more obvious than we may think. Some choices are obvious to just about any one—even strangers! What are some of these public displays? The cars that we drive, the homes that we purchase, the clothes that we wear, the frequency that we eat at restaurants, the vacations that we enjoy—in fact, many of our consumer purchases are public displays of decisions that we have made with how to spend money.
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