Critics of the church will always have something to say against pastors and ministry. The church has been called legalistic, pastors bigots and their practices selfish, and these are just some of the most common attacks against ministry.
One sensitive area that many people hit is the inability of people in ministry to be good stewards of God's money. Although there are dozens of pastors all over the world who have misused and mishandled money, it would be unfair to stereotype all pastors as being thieves and money-hoarders.
This becomes a challenge for churches as it is one of the roles of the church to teach their congregations about money and finance. Jesus talked more about money than He did about heaven and hell combined. That's because there is a strong biblical emphasis on a proper view of money.
Instead of shooting down the criticism -- as illogical and stale as some of them may be -- pastors and church leaders can instead take this as a challenge to step up in the areas of biblical finance and stewardship.
Here are some things that pastors should start doing before talking to their congregations and even to outsiders about money.
Set an example
1 Timothy 4:12 was an instruction to the young pastor Timothy telling him to "...set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." If we are to teach our congregations about proper finance, we are to set examples of good financial management.
Apart from using the church as a good model of finance, we can also use our own lives as living testimonies of God's faithfulness to enable us to be good stewards. God's grace gives us the wisdom to save and invest, and we can maximize that.
Have the right mindset
Many times, pastors struggle with money because of the wrong mindset about it. A pastor having the proper and balanced view and value of finance can be the starting point of a proper and balanced view amongst church members.
Some pastors have problems with valuing money too much or valuing it too little. The proper mindset starts with sticking to Jesus as the true source of provision and striving for a sharp way of denying money as the highest value in all situations.
Set a good system
We cannot set good examples if we do not have good finance systems -- both at work and in our homes. This is where the expertise of finance coaches come in. Getting a good system in place becomes a strong word of testimony to others that pastors value good stewardship above all else.
