Listen to the commentary
Dear Marketplace Friend,
We’re nearing the end of this extraordinary year; by all indications, 2024 may in fact be even more consequential than 2023 was before it. Through this 4th quarter, I’ve been raising the questions in these weekly missives that would give rise to next year being significantly beneficial for you – personally – no matter what else is happening in your outer circles. How could that happen?
You already know this: if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep achieving what you’ve always achieved. Plans to update/upgrade in the things that matter most is the challenge; do your “New Year’s Resolutions” during Q4, with a commitment to act on them in Q1.
Our four sectors of life come into view: Personal (Body/Mind/Soul/Spirit), Family (Partner and Progeny), Professional (Career and Finances), and Kingdom (within the church and beyond the church). Each warrants specific attention. Settling into past paces is a recipe for stagnation; new initiatives enable growth. Are you satisfied to settle-in, or are you ready to breakthrough?
Today I want to challenge you to plan for a financial reset in 2024. I’m going to highlight a message by John Wesley – founder of the Methodist movement, within the Anglican church – about 300 years ago. His wisdom is worth considering. How can we make money a tool rather than an idol?
Wesley proposed three crucial action steps to manage money biblically.
First: Earn all you can. Effectively leverage your income producing activities to produce maximum income while serving the common good. Receive more revenue from legitimately meeting needs to the benefit of others, not at the expense of others.
Second: Save all you can. Control your appetites and envies while fulfilling the reasonable needs that are within your realm of responsibility. Be frugal without being fanatical. Disallow the temptation to translate increased income into increased lifestyle.
Third: Give all you can. The ultimate objective is to be, in practice, a generous distributor of God’s money to advance God’s interests and to expand God’s Kingdom. This category represents the ultimate aspect of unlimited potential as you practice biblical stewardship over a lifetime.
What would Wesley know about money? Would his three principles work in real-time?
His early career was as an Anglican clergyman. He became a missionary from England to America; along that path, he encountered some faith leaders from whom he gained a personal understanding of knowing God by faith in Jesus. Years into his ministry service, he had what we would know to be a born-again experience, and the explosion of his ministry impact occurred subsequent to that personal spiritual breakthrough.
Earn; Save; Give: would that work in the “real world?” In 1731 – when he was 28 – he adopted this three-part financial plan. His annual income that year was 30-pounds sterling; he limited his lifestyle to a 28- pound burn-rate and gave the remainder away. The next year, his income doubled (he was writing faith-related pamphlets that were being sold across England). He capped his personal spending to the 28-pound level and had 32-pounds to give to the poor. Year three, his income grew to 90-pounds, and he gave away 62-pounds. This progression continued; one future year, he earned over 1400-pounds while his spending held at the 28-pound level. He put his money where his mouth was…
How about it? What action steps could you propose to take beginning in January that would align you with Wesley’s proven model? What could you do next year to increase your income? What realignment of spending would reduce the outflow of lifestyle costs? And, what commitments to Kingdom giving would you be willing to embrace as you step forward into ’24?
What if you made your money model look more like Wesley’s? Would God entrust you with more? The Scriptures – and, history – would suggest that the answer is “yes.”
Bob Shank
