Financial Planning as Worship

What if I told you that worship doesn’t just happen when you sing and raise your hands on Sunday?

..or when you pray and praise while you drive your car or reading your Bible during your morning coffee time.

We are able to worship God in all that we do. And one way I want to highlight specifically is through your financial planning.

I know that some of you want to bail at this point. How can talking about the drab that can be finances be worshipful? I know, for most people money and numbers are the last thing you want to dive into, nonetheless explore how it can be worshipful.

But what if we’re missing something.

I’d invite you to at least skim through what I am going to break down here. I think there is a lot that can be gained – in our faith, in our partnership with how God is working and even in our understanding of God – when we pause to think through and act on what it looks like to be a good steward of what God has given us.

I think that

I have three main questions to break down and help set the stage when It comes to seeing your financial planning as worship.

1. What is worship?
2. What is financial planning?
3. How is financial planning worshipful?

Number 1 – What is Worship?

Massive disclaimer – I am no theologian. But, I have walked with God as his child and through that have experienced and learned a little about what it looks like to worship. So I will speak from that experience and from what I have learned in my journey.

I have two definitions of worship that I think are helpful for this conversation:

• John Piper says that “true worship is a valuing or treasuring of God above all things”
• Bill Gaultiere quotes Dallas Willard saying “Worship is to engage ourselves with , dwell upon, and express the greatness, beauty, and goodness of God through thought and the use of words, rituals, and symbols”

A lot of us like to box worship into being something that has to be “spiritual” as we define it. We tend to separate “spiritual” from “worldly”. But what if we can worship through some of the worldly things we do as well?

Hold onto that question – we will come back to that.

Number 2 – What is financial planning?

Don’t you dare skip this part. I will keep it brief.

I see financial planning, at a 30,000 ft. view, as being the map and the scaffolding that allows us to be good stewards. Now, could you build a building without scaffolding? Or could you get where you needed to go without a gps? Probably. Eventually, I guess. But I don’t know if the building would be any good or if you’d have enjoyed the trip.

These metaphors are incomplete because a lot of families that I work with don’t even know what type of building they are building or where they are going in the first place to keep those metaphors going. 

On a more granular level, financial planning is the making and keeping up with of a plan for your financial life. That includes:

• Defining what success and what the finish line look like for your family. You can’t be “on track” if you don’t know where you are going or what you want.
• Making sure you spend less than you make
• Allocating money in a wise way between savings, investing, spending, etc.
• Being a good and cheerful giver
• Making sure you have the right protection and safe guards in place
• And many other things depending on what your specific situation looks like

Now the good stuff.

Number 3 – How is financial planning worshipful?

As John Piper defined worship, it is a valuing or treasuring of God above all things.

Jesus tells us in Matthew that we cannot serve two master, we cannot serve both God and money, or Mammon. Why does he tell us this?

He says this because as scripture also tells us, if you want to know where someone’s heart is, just look at where their treasure is. Or as Billy Graham puts it, “Give me five minutes with a person’s checkbook, and I will tell you where their heart is”.

I don’t want to throw this out there to convict any one. But the Bible is not light on God’s thoughts around how powerful money is. And this is why I believe our finances are such a powerful space to invite God in to work in and through us as his followers.

Which brings us back to Financial Planning as worship. Engaging in the wise stewardship of our finances by having a plan around the different bullet points from above puts us in a place where we can value and treasure God literally above all of our things.

We are only the stewards. Everything belongs to the Father.

Which is why I think it is important, and even worshipful, to have an intentional plan on how we can utilize God’s assets for maximum impact. And of course we can take this too far, putting ourselves in a place where we are the one’s in control instead of God. But I think if we are actively seeking him in conjunction with our planning that he will graciously guide and correct us as we go. He is a good Father.

As money is something we have to engage with day in and day out, I think we are leaving a lot on the table with being good stewards and with how God can be working in our hearts if we don’t engage in a surrendering and planning with our finances.

I’d encourage you to explore what that can look like for you and your family. If you have no idea where to start, I’d love to help you start that conversation. My team, as Christian Financial Advisors, has thought about this a lot. But that is not even necessary – the first place I would encourage you to start is to take some time to ask God what this can look like for you. Engage with him in prayer and see where he takes you. Engage this conversation with your community and see where the Holy Spirit leads you.

I’m excited for how God will work in your lives.