Many of our churches just completed a series of weekly classes going through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. FPU is a nine-week course geared toward teaching people how to effectively plan and execute the use of their money in a wise manner. It covers everything from debt to saving to investing.
Below is a special message from Dave:
Mars Hill Sammamish hosted an event to celebrate the completion of the course and asked participants to share their reflections on what they learned as well as their plans for the future. Here are some of their responses:
- “This is the first time in our eight years of marriage that my wife and I sat down and actually did a budget. We had never taken the time to tell our money where to go, and as a result we never really knew where it was going. Now we have a budget and are working on the baby steps.”
- “We’ve been in an interest-only mortgage for a while now. After the session on mortgages we are now working to refinance the loan.”
- “For the first time, we put our kids on ‘commissions’ and the envelope system [a budgeting tool]. They have 3 envelopes: give, save, spend. Before, we used to just give them money, but now they are working for it and learning how to steward it the way God wants.”
- “We put our kids on the envelope system as well and the coolest thing happened. After we’d been telling [our daughter] about how we are stewards, how what we have is God’s, and how he is generous with us, we gave our little girl ten one-dollar bills. We asked her how much she thought God was asking her to give to him and she pulled seven of the dollars aside. When we told her that he is only asking for one of the bills and gives us the nine, she was blown away by God’s generosity.”
- “I recently heard Pastor Sutton talk about new ways to support church planting for Mars Hill. One day, when they go to plant a church, I want to be able to write the check for the entire thing.”
- “Part of my financial history is that I put all my chips down on a stock speculation during the Washington Mutual collapse . . . and lost everything. Being later in life with kids in college, it destroyed our savings. I sit in on this class and see my sin in that—I’m confessing this to you guys right now—and think of all the other things I could have done with that money like planting churches.”
God definitely used the class, content, and leaders to do a work in the participants.
We hope that these classes and the materials from our friend Dave Ramsey have been beneficial for your family. If you missed the classes, contact your local Mars Hill Church to find out when the next Financial Peace University classes will take place.
