Finance, Personal

Daryl L Williams

The author researched the link between faith and financial stewardship in Christians to prove that linking spirituality to financial teachings would prompt Christians to be better stewards. The author conducted a six-week seminar, which immersed participants in a financial literacy class that taught both tactical and spiritual approaches to finances. The analysis of the responses of participants indicated that having faith as a part of their financial teaching was instrumental in their motivation to complete the program as well as implement it. Also, the research suggested that the program would lead participants to become more generous givers to their church.

Stephen Kenneth Wilmot

The author studied the New Testament's teaching on material wealth and applied the biblical principles to the practical problem of modern retirement from work. The research used both biblical resources and secular information to provide a wise plan for accumulating resources for secular retirement and funding the advancement of God's kingdom.

Michael D Reeves

The purpose of this project is to empower members of the Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church, Columbus, Ohio to participate in the financial empowerment of the Christian family. The hypothesis was that through training, education and Christian principles, the members of Corinthian can develop their families, financial empowerment. This project consisted of a series of financial seminars. The research design was pretest and posttest, using ten identical questions on each test. After the seminars and analysis were complete, it was determined that there was attitudinal change among the Christian families that completed the financial empowerment seminars.

M Graham MacCallum

The thesis of this project is that couples who follow biblical financial principles have less stress and conflict in the financial area of their relationship. The author evaluated the differences in the relationship between husband and wife after they went through a financial stewardship program. Using the financial section from a widely used marital relationship inventory for the pretest and posttest, the author found that six of the eight results further suggest that many couples and churches would benefit from utilizing the same or similar stewardship program.

Zeddie D Scott

Addressing the lack of an economic management curriculum in the local Black Church and community is the first stage in the quest for economic empowerment. The purpose of this ministry focus is to provide spiritual uplift and basic economic management information to the community that would help bring economic empowerment to the Black community. The methodology is qualitative with a focus group action research approach. The thesis is that after participation in the six-week economic management seminar, participants changed their thinking patterns and attitude toward money management and spending habits.

John W Sonnenday

Money is one of the themes Jesus addressed most frequently. Yet in today's church, conversations about personal finances are infrequent. This project focuses upon a particular congregation, Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., where individuals do share the details of their personal finances, including income, assets, and giving patterns. Through interviews, the factors are explored which have led to this openness around money. Learnings are suggested that may help other congregations to move in the direction of greater freedom in discussing personal finances.

Cornelius Elroy Battle

This project proposes to empower African American members of Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church (Pinnacle, NC) through teaching personal financial stewardship. In six sessions the project provides instruction and counsel in budgeting, credit, home ownership, investing, Christian giving, and estate planning.

David W Carlton

This project develops, conducts, and evaluates a five-week course in money management to assist selected young adults in managing personal financial resources. Based on experimental and historical research, as well as data from descriptive surveys, the project prepares and presents five two-hour sessions to equip participants with money-management skills.

Jay P Warden

Forty-two gay males in couple relationships were surveyed in the Greater Boston area. This study examined possible quantitative relationships among four variables: self-esteem, length of relationship, personal money management style and financial commingling. The findings demonstrate that the lower level of power and security as personal money management motivation, the higher the level of love as a personal money management motivator, the greater is the financial commingling and the longer is the relationship. It takes a change of attitude from seeking after security and power to place trust in another person and make a financial commitment.

Marvin J Effa

The thesis of the project is that greater knowledge of biblical finances produces better attitudes toward finances. The project consisted of thirteen messages that examined biblical finances as found in the New Testament and Proverbs. This material was categorized according to what (concepts to be understood), how (instructions for management), and why (motivation for obedience). The project includes a topical listing of all financial passages in the New Testament and Proverbs and an annotated bibliography. The testing instrument developed for the project was a semantic differential that evaluated knowledge and attitude toward biblical finances. The thesis was confirmed.