Stewardship Resources

Good $ense

Grace. Joy. Freedom.

Are these words that come to your mind when you think of finances? They could be. Grace, joy and freedom are words people most often use to describe their experience of Good $ense – a proven, biblical resource for changing hearts and lives in the area of finances.

Through the Good $ense course, you and people in your congregation will discover tools and develop skills to help control your finances so that your finances won’t end up controlling you. Together you’ll get training in Biblical financial principles as well as help and guidance to:

  • Prioritize financial goals
  • Develop a personalized spending plan
  • Identify action steps to reduce expenses
  • Reduce debt, and much more

More than just a learning experience about budgets and finances, the course enables you to reflect upon your relationship to money and how it impacts your relationship to God. No matter what your circumstance – financial crises or abundance – Good $ense can help you:

  • Discover how to become a diligent earner, generous giver, wise saver, cautious
    debtor, and prudent consumer
  • Learn how to resist the pull of culture and draw closer to the mind and heart
    of God
  • Experience the joy of becoming financially faithful as well as financially free

A Good $ense seminar is approximately 7 hours in length, and can be conducted on a one-day format or a Friday evening and Saturday, and cost is approximately $35 - $40 per couple. To schedule a Good $ense seminar for your congregation (or a group of congregations) please contact the Director of Development Rev. Greg Jones.

Convention Wide Resources

Growing Financially Healthy Churches – Ben Harder, Presenter

A stimulating seminar designed to help leaders deal effectively with church finances.

Local Church Seminars

Growing Financially Healthy Churches

Presenter: Rev. Greg Jones, Director of Development

A four hour seminar that is an abbreviated version of Ben Harder’s “Growing Financially Healthy Churches” that can be offered to the leadership of your congregation or to a group of churches located in your area. This seminar focuses upon topics such as:

  • What is Stewardship?
  • Six Myths of Stewardship
  • Four Approaches to Church Budgeting
  • Sixteen Ways to Increase Giving

Wills and Estate Planning

Presenters: Mr. Roland Rackham, Vice President for Advancement at Atlantic Baptist University and Rev. Greg Jones, Director of Development, Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches

This two hour comprehensive seminar explores issues such as:

  • The Advantages of Making a Will
  • The Importance of Wise Planning … Factors for consideration
  • Enduring Power of Attorney
  • Health Care Directive
  • Naming the Guardian
  • Naming Your Executor
  • Utilizing the Spousal Trust
  • Gift Instruments helpful for maximizing estate while minimizing taxation

Building a Results Oriented Team

Presenter: Rev. Greg Jones, Director of Development, Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches

Stewardship is about more than simply dollars. It is also about how we make use of all the resources that God has entrusted to us, including our gifts, abilities, relationships, callings, etc.

This one day course is designed to enable teams (pastoral staff and/or pastoral
and lay leadership) to develop an understanding one another’s unique strengths
and contributions to the overall success and effectiveness of the team. Topics to be covered include:

  • Building an Effective Team
  • Building on Individual Strengths
  • Learning to Work Together
  • Practicing Open Communication
  • Meeting Interpersonal Needs
  • Providing Supportive Leadership

Helpful Links

The following are some helpful links for stewardship resources. If you would like to recommend others for posting here, please email your suggestions to Rev. Greg Jones.

  • Generous Giving is a privately funded ministry that seeks to encourage givers of all income levels—as well as pastors, church lay leaders and others—to experience the joy of giving and embrace a lifestyle of generosity, according to God’s word and Christ’s example. It was launched in 2000 by the Maclellan Foundation to stir a renewed, Spirit-led commitment to generosity among Christians. Generous Giving does not solicit donations.
  • Crown Ministry Resources. Crown’s Vision: To see the followers of Christ in every nation faithfully living
    by God’s financial principles in every area of their lives. Crown’s Mission: Equipping
    people worldwide to learn, apply, and teach God’s financial principles so
    they may know Christ more intimately, be free to serve Him, and help fund
    the Great Commission.
  • Resources on tithing and stewardship from the American Baptist Churches.
  • creativepastors.com (5 Sunday Series). Some of our Convention churches have found the “In the Zone”
    series to be incredibly helpful; though they found it best to personalize
    it to custom-fit their church and congregational culture. One such church
    was Apohaqui Community Church. Their Lead Pastor, Rev. Kevin Vincent, writes:
    “At ACC we recently completed the "Living in the Zone" message series. The 5 week series has been, to sum it up, "Transformational". It was a hard-hitting and very candid Biblical series of messages and resources that addressed one of the biggest elephants in our churches today. Simply
    put many folks don't want to talk about money and Christian responsibility. But we did. And God is abundantly blessing many lives as they begin to get this area of their life right. In turn our Church has been blessed with increased financial resources to carry out our mission in this community. I whole-heartedly encourage churches to consider this series.”
  • A website of the Christian Stewardship Association’s “Church Stewardship Research.”
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