Trying to align our money choices with our deepest values was confusing, humbling, and complicated. But we weren’t (and aren’t) alone. A few years ago my husband Zach and I began having conversations about “faith and money.” We entered the conversations with some trepidation, as if we were entering uncharted territory. Simplicity and responsibility The conversations [Read More …]
From anxiety to grace: How my thinking about money has changed
I have never matched most people’s image of someone enslaved to money. I have never thrown ethics to the wind to get or keep a high-paying position; I have never been interested in a high-paying position at all. I have never run up huge credit card bills which I could not pay off. Yet my heart has been in bondage to the idol of money. I grew up an only child in a home with an income that was [Read More …]
Honoring the past, envisioning the future: Faith and Money Network celebrates 40 years
As we celebrate our 40th anniversary at Faith and Money Network, we’re taking a look back at our legacy, revisiting the programs and events we’ve introduced over the decades, and outlining the possibilities that lie ahead for our small but mighty organization. Don McClanen founded the organization as the Ministry of Money after holding his first unofficial workshop in 1976. Don found himself [Read More …]
Jesus and the Roman Coin
I think I was a teenager when I first came across the story of Jesus’ clever back-and-forth with the religious authorities of his time. The story is found in Matthew 22:15-22, and the line familiar to most is in verse 21: “Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” At the time, and in recent memory, I [Read More …]
What practicing Sabbath Economics looks like for my family
The Kingdom of God is a beautiful place — kind of like my backyard in the Upper Eno Watershed in North Carolina: lush, green, a riot of color where birds are singing happy songs and splashing in the bird bath. In this place, every living creature has enough. No one is poor or in need. There is abundance, not scarcity. This is a pipe dream, you might say, but this is the world God provides for us, [Read More …]
Investing, Giving Locally, and Becoming Big Budget Nerds: How One D.C. Couple is Figuring Out Their Finances, Together
Danny Mortensen and Liz Schmitt are a thirty-something couple residing in Washington, D.C., where they attend Capitol Hill United Methodist Church. Schmitt grew up in upstate New York and has lived in D.C. since 2009. She’s a self-proclaimed budget nerd who is working on investing locally. Outside of her day job in environmental policy, she has been getting back into teaching piano and enjoys good [Read More …]
Why we decided to “purchase” a charitable gift annuity
This year my husband and I “purchased” a charitable gift annuity from the American Friends Service Committee with a significant portion of our assets. I call it a purchase, because we will receive a quarterly payment and they will manage and invest the funds, so we are getting something in return— even though the funds we used will stay with AFSC after we die. There are different names [Read More …]
More than enough: Cultivating a ‘mindset of abundance’
This past January, I enrolled in Faith and Money Network’s online study group, “Money, Faith and You.’ Each week we had homework, and for the second week, we were asked to write a money autobiography. I have used money autobiographies in my work at Everence (a faith-based financial services organization) so I was very familiar with the concept. A money autobiography invites you to think back to [Read More …]
Are you a generous person?
Are you a generous person? In my work with people, I am often asked questions by people who want to gauge their own generosity. These are usually indirect queries like, “what are other people giving?” or “what percentage of income is the average amount?” rather than “Am I a stingy or profligate person?” This is a natural inclination to fulfill what is expected; to not give too little nor too much [Read More …]
Trusting into deeper generosity — reflecting on a lifetime of lessons
Way back in the early 1990s I attended what was called a “Basic Retreat” with the then-named Ministry of Money, now Faith and Money Network. I was newly single with three young kids and truly questioning my values around money. I had more money than most of my divorced friends who also were raising kids, and I felt a bit guilty. I wanted to be generous without being foolhardy. “How much [Read More …]