Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Gordon Botting

Second Advisor

Steve Case

Third Advisor

Jiwan Moon

Abstract

Problem

America's teenagers do not understand the basic financial principles of earning, spending, saving, and investing. Adolescents who never learn to manage their budgets and adopt healthy financial habits grow up to be adults whose spending habits surpass their income. By carrying those habits into adulthood, they will make poor financial decisions that will impact every area of their lives. As a church, providing a financial training will not only increase the financial literacy of adolescents, but it can give them direction for godly priorities and practices as a lifestyle.

Method

A six-hour seminar on financial education and money management skills was developed and implemented for teenagers, ages 13-18. The seminar covered seven Bible based financial principles: Putting God first; using money wisely; working diligently; being careful with greed; living debt-free; delaying gratification; and living a generous life. The implementation of the seminar took place in the local church.

Results

Twelve areas of finances were assessed through a pre- and post-survey and five areas showed an increase of more than 40%: knowledge of money (41%), budgeting skills (50%), car insurance (40%), knowledge about banking (41%), and values/tithing (44%). Three areas showed an increase of at least 14%: saving strategies (22%), smart shopping strategies (14%), and knowledge about credit (19%). Four areas showed no increase: saving for the future, investing (compounding interest), and the financial advantage of a college degree and the self-reported talk about money.

Conclusions

A seminar based on biblical financial principles can improve the financial knowledge of teens in order to prepare them for the financial demands of the future. The integration of spiritual financial principles produces an internalization in the teenagers that brings results in their value system.

Subject Area

Church work with teenagers--Seventh-day Adventists--Finance, Personal; Finance, Personal; Glendale Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church (Glendale, Calif.)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/494/

Download

Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS