Teaching Stewardship to Families & Churches

Course Syllabus

Course Description

This final course of the certificate prepares you to pass on what you have learned. You will study the biblical call to teach, learn how adults learn, and practice teaching money to children by age. You will learn to guide family money conversations and couples' budgeting with safety awareness, lead a small-group stewardship class at church, and offer one-on-one money mentoring with clear boundaries and ethics. You will consider teaching in re-entry and prison ministry settings, building church benevolence that empowers people, and careers that use these skills. You will finish by designing a four-session stewardship workshop and teaching one 15-minute segment back to the class. Every activity has a paper alternative, and no device is required.

Faith Integration

Paul told Timothy to commit what he had learned to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2), and Titus 2:3 calls older women to be teachers of good things. What God has taught you about money is not meant to stop with you. In this course we learn to teach with humility, without shame, and within wise limits: we share biblical stewardship principles, count the cost (Luke 14:28), and send people to qualified professionals for individual financial, legal, and tax advice.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

1. Explain the biblical call to teach stewardship using 2 Timothy 2:2 and Titus 2:3–5, and describe the limits of a lay stewardship teacher.
2. Apply principles of how adults learn to plan shame-free, trauma-informed money lessons.
3. Teach money concepts to children at different ages using chores, allowance, and give-save-spend jars.
4. Guide family money conversations and couples' budgeting, and recognize warning signs of financial abuse and refer safely.
5. Plan and facilitate a small-group stewardship class with confidentiality and grace.
6. Practice one-on-one money mentoring basics: listening, asking questions, boundaries, referrals, and ethics.
7. Adapt stewardship teaching for re-entry and prison ministry settings and help a church build benevolence that empowers.
8. Design a four-session stewardship workshop, teach one segment, and describe careers that use stewardship skills.

Course Materials

• This student workbook
• A Bible (King James Version)
• Your notes, budgets, and plans from FFS 231–233
• Plain and lined paper, index cards, and pencils for lesson plans and handouts
• Three envelopes or small jars for the give-save-spend demonstration (optional)
• A device with a word processor when available (optional; every activity has a paper alternative)

Weekly Schedule

How You Will Be Graded

To pass this course: earn 70% or higher overall and attend at least 80% of sessions.

Classroom Covenant

• We begin and end each session in prayer. Participation in prayer is always welcome, never required.
• What is shared in class stays in class. We protect one another's stories.
• We speak with respect, listen without interrupting, and disagree with grace.
• We come prepared, do our own work, and ask for help when we need it.
• We follow all facility rules. Safety and security come first.
• We believe the best about one another and about what God can do.

Support & Accommodations

If reading, writing, vision, hearing, or any other need makes a part of this course harder, tell your instructor privately. Materials can be read aloud, enlarged, or completed orally. Missed sessions can be made up using the module pages. If you are transferred or released, your completed work stays on record and you can finish online.

Welcome

Welcome to the final course of the Faith-Based Financial Stewardship Certificate. You have learned to manage money God's way; now you will learn to pass it on. This companion walks beside you with a weekly reading, five devotions for the days between sessions, and a Quick Guide for teaching and mentoring that you can keep with your Bible after release. Remember throughout: you teach principles, and you send people to qualified professionals for personal advice.

How to Use This Companion

• Read the weekly reading after each class session. It takes about 10 minutes.
• Reflect on the questions. These are for you; you do not have to turn them in.
• Meet with God through the five daily devotions between sessions.
• Keep the Quick Guide at the end to carry home after release.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.— Psalm 119:105 (KJV)