Platform Overview

Summary

What this program is for, how the four elements fit together, and how a church moves from first baseline to measured improvement.

Printable Seven Stewardship Principles Overview

About the Seven Principles Overview

This is the front door to Leland's Seven Stewardship Principles. It explains Leland Rubin's seven-part church stewardship sequence, introduces the Seven Principles Academy and the three supporting Nsites applications, and shows how a church moves from assessment to evidence, teaching, action and measured change. It also brings together the program's references, worksheets and curriculum resources.

Leland Rubin

Its part in the whole: Establishes the shared language — the seven stewardship principles, operational systems and engagement — that every other section measures against.

This is where the program starts.

Once leadership agrees on the purpose and completes the survey, the next step is to set the church up formally. Continue to Onboarding

Purpose and intent

Program charter

Leland's Seven Stewardship Principles is a church stewardship program created by Leland Rubin. Its seven-part sequence helps leaders build financial understanding, stability, generosity, future ministry capacity, pastoral wellbeing, and outward giving. Nsites applications provide supporting financial, engagement, and deidentified household evidence for responsible action.

7Ps

Leland's Seven Stewardship Principles

The Seven Principles provide the sequence: financial literacy, reserves, liability reduction, generosity, future ministry, pastoral wellbeing, and missions and community outreach.

NSITES

Nurturing Stronger Individuals Through Education and Stewardship

The Nsites applications carry the evidence: money, people and aggregate household wellbeing, gathered so individuals and churches grow stronger together.

Leland Rubin

Creator of the Seven Stewardship Principles

7Ps

Seven Stewardship Principles

Methodology contribution

The Seven Principles methodology

Leland Rubin supplies the stewardship framework: seven principles that name the questions, organize the teaching and turn church-health reflection into focused action.

S1Build Financial Literacy

S2Build a Financial Reserve

S3Eliminate High-Cost Liabilities

S4Cultivate Generosity Through Giving

S5Invest in Future Ministry

S6Provide for Your Pastors' Wellbeing

S7Give Generously

Allan Bell - CPA, CMA, MBA

Nsites Founder and Creator

Nsites contribution

Evidence and platform intelligence

Allan Bell - CPA, CMA, MBA, supplies Stewardship Nsites, Stewardship Nsites Connect and Personal Nsites — the financial, people and aggregate household evidence that tests perception and supports follow-through.

Stewardship Nsites tracks giving, funds, budget-versus-actual, statements, reserves, runway and operational readiness.
Stewardship Nsites Connect tracks how people arrive, receive follow-up, join, serve, attend and stay.
Personal Nsites gives each household a private financial-wellness plan while leadership sees aggregate themes only.

Program synthesis

A church financial empowerment program brought together by Leland Rubin, creator of the Seven Stewardship Principles, and the Nsites founder and creator. The Seven Principles methodology names the questions. Nsites supplies the evidence. Together they help church leaders see one honest picture — without blending perception, evidence or execution into a single score.

The four elements

One application, four elements. Each is a complete experience; none of them is the whole answer on its own.

Seven Principles Academy

The interpretation and the discipline.

Seven principles with lessons, exercises, evidence, rated self-assessment, deliverables, a 90-day plan and coaching. It turns the numbers into a diagnosis and the diagnosis into work with an owner and a date.

Open Seven Principles Academy

Stewardship Nsites

The money truth.

Giving, funds, budget versus actual, statements, reserves, runway, comparatives and operational readiness. It answers what the church actually has, where it comes from, where it goes and what it can responsibly commit to.

Open Stewardship Nsites

Stewardship Nsites Connect

The people truth.

How people first hear about the church, arrive, are recognised on a return visit, get followed up, join a ministry, serve, attend, pray and stay. It answers whether the church is actually connecting people or only counting them.

Open Stewardship Nsites Connect

Personal Nsites

The household truth, privately held.

A private space for each participant: financial wellness assessment, plan, goals, budget, credit, banking, insurance and learning. Leadership only ever sees totals and themes — never one household's numbers unless that person grants permission.

Open Personal Nsites

Cross-application intelligence — how it all comes together

The value is not in any single dashboard. It is in testing what one element claims against what another element can prove.

Reserves look thin. Is that a real risk?: The Build a Financial Reserve principle rates whether the church has set aside 3-6 months of essential operating expenses. Stewardship Nsites holds the actual reserve balance and monthly burn rate. If the principle rates low and the reserve balance confirms fewer than three months of runway, the gap is real and the fix is a funded reserve policy, not reassurance.
Giving is soft. Is that a money problem or a people problem?: Stewardship Nsites shows participation rate, concentration and lapsed givers. Connect shows attendance and serving for those same segments. When lapsed giving lines up with lapsed attendance, it is a connection problem and the follow-up pipeline is the fix. When people are still present but giving less, it is a teaching and trust problem addressed through Build Financial Literacy and Cultivate Generosity Through Giving.
The church wants to hire or build. Can it?: Reserves and runway come from Stewardship Nsites, operating discipline from the Operational Readiness assessment, and the volunteer and ministry capacity to support the decision comes from Connect. The Build Financial Literacy and Build a Financial Reserve principles force those three into one recommendation rather than a hopeful vote.
Discipleship is claimed. Can it be evidenced?: The member journey funnel in Connect measures movement from first visit to serving and giving. The Cultivate Generosity Through Giving and Invest in Future Ministry principles ask what the church does at each stage. Together they show whether people are progressing or simply attending, and the drop-off stage names the next 90 days of work.
Households are under pressure. What does the church do about it?: Personal Nsites gives each household its own plan while reporting only aggregate readiness to leadership. A congregation-wide debt or emergency-fund weakness becomes a teaching series and a class — never a list of names.

The rule behind every one of these: a rating is an opinion until something outside the exercise agrees with it. The Academy supplies the question, the surveys supply the congregation's view, and the financial and engagement data supply the check. Where the three disagree, that disagreement is the finding.

Assess first, then teach — exercises, surveys and scoring

Three different kinds of input, deliberately kept distinct. The survey finds the gaps; the Academy closes them.

The digital workbook survey is issued first to many participants across leadership, staff, ministry leaders and members. Every submitted answer is compiled into one score per principle, with the spread and the leadership-versus-member perception gap made visible. That compiled view decides which principles the church should teach next.
Academy exercises are the leadership team's own work after the assessment: written answers, deliverables and evidence for each principle. They produce the documents the church was missing and close the gaps the survey revealed.
The 100-point operational readiness assessment covers accounting and financial reporting, human resources and technology. It scores yes-or-no readiness, sets a maturity level and tier, and generates prioritised corrective actions.
Personal Nsites assessments stay with the individual. Only aggregate readiness and themes reach church reporting.

Start the assessment See compiled gaps Teach the principles Operational readiness

The closed loop — perception, evidence, gap, action, re-measure

The cycle the whole program runs on. Each stage is served by a different element of Nsites, and the loop repeats on a cadence so improvement is measured rather than asserted.

1. Assess perception — Where do we think we are?

2. Gather evidence — Where are we actually?

3. Name the gap — Perception versus evidence.

4. Teach and act — Close the gap on purpose.

5. Re-measure — Did it actually work?

1. Assess perception — Where do we think we are?
The Seven Principles digital workbook is assigned to leadership, staff, ministry leaders and members. Each participant rates all seven stewardship principles, so the starting point reflects the church's shared view rather than one voice.
Seven Principles digital workbook · assigned participants
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2. Gather evidence — Where are we actually?
Stewardship Nsites supplies the money truth, Stewardship Nsites Connect the people truth, and Personal Nsites aggregate household readiness only. Operational readiness adds the discipline check.
How each application's evidence maps to the principles — select a source
Stewardship Nsites · Connect · Personal Nsites (totals only)
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3. Name the gap — Perception versus evidence.
Each principle carries a perception score and an evidence score side by side. The perception score comes only from the Seven Principles workbook survey ratings submitted by participants. The evidence score comes only from application data — Stewardship Nsites, Connect and aggregate Personal Nsites totals. Where they disagree, that disagreement is the finding, and the widest gaps become the teaching priority. No blended Seven Principles score is ever computed.
Compiled results · Church Transformational Dashboard
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4. Teach and act — Close the gap on purpose.
All seven principles are taught through the Academy — the methodology is complete, not selective. Sequence is what the gaps decide: the widest gaps are taught first so the weakest areas get attention soonest, and the rest follow in order. Each principle ends in a deliverable and a 90-day plan, and every action carries an owner, a due date, an outcome measure and coaching follow-through.
Seven Principles Academy · Coaching & Action Plans
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5. Re-measure — Did it actually work?
The same evidence is reviewed and the assessment is re-issued on a regular cadence. Improvement is measured against the prior baseline, then the loop begins again with the stewardship principle showing the greatest remaining gap.
Reports · repeat assessment
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Which application supplies evidence for each principle

A single view of the seven principles against the three applications, showing exactly what each one contributes as evidence — and where it contributes nothing.

Seven Principles module	What this M isHigh-level summary definition	Stewardship Nsitessupplies the money truth	Stewardship Nsites Connectsupplies the people truth	Personal Nsitescontributes aggregate household readiness only
S1 Build Financial Literacy	Whether leaders and households understand the church's finances and their own: budgeting, records and reporting clarity.	Budget-versus-actual accuracy, close timeliness and whether leaders can explain the numbers behind every report.	Attendance at financial-literacy classes and completion of household financial-education content.	Aggregate household financial-literacy scores and course completion, reported as totals and themes only.
S2 Build a Financial Reserve	Whether the church has set aside 3-6 months of essential operating expenses, and is on track if it has not.	Reserve fund balance measured in months of essential operating expenses, and progress toward the 3-6 month target.	Participation in reserve-building or savings challenges offered through the church.	Aggregate household emergency-fund readiness, which caps how much a household can realistically give.
S3 Eliminate High-Cost Liabilities	Progress toward eliminating high-interest debt and other costly liabilities that drain future ministry capacity.	Outstanding high-cost debt balances, interest paid year to date, and progress on payoff schedules.	Enrollment in debt-elimination coaching or classes and engagement with follow-up.	Aggregate household high-cost debt load across the congregation.
S4 Cultivate Generosity Through Giving	The health of congregational giving: participation, concentration, recurring giving and growth over time.	Giving participation rate, donor concentration, lapsed givers and recurring giving.	Giving compared with attendance and serving for the same people; growth in giving participants.	Aggregate progress on household giving plans and goals as evidence of applied generosity.
S5 Invest in Future Ministry	Whether the church is intentionally funding and staffing what comes next, not just sustaining today.	Future-ministry or building fund balance and contributions compared with the funding plan.	Volunteer and leadership pipeline strength feeding future ministry and staffing plans.	No evidence contributed
S6 Provide for Your Pastors' Wellbeing	Fair, documented and reviewed compensation and care for pastoral staff.	Compensation-policy compliance and whether pastoral pay and benefits are reviewed on schedule.	Participation in events and check-ins that support pastoral care and staff wellbeing.	No evidence contributed
S7 Give Generously	Outward generosity and impact: what share of resources and people is committed to missions and community outreach.	Share of the budget given outward to missions and community outreach, and how consistent that giving is.	People participating in outreach and community-service events.	Aggregate household capacity for outward, missions-directed generosity.

Personal Nsites contributes totals and themes only — never one household's numbers — and it supplies no evidence at all for Invest in Future Ministry, Provide for Your Pastors' Wellbeing or Give Generously. Evidence never overwrites the perception score from the Seven Principles survey, and no blended Seven Principles score is calculated. Figures shown in the applications are synthetic prototype data.

Cradle to grave — how a church moves through the program

1. Onboard
The church is set up as its own tenant with roles, permissions and an optional mutual confidentiality agreement. Nothing is shared across churches.
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2. Assess first — where are we on each principle?
Assign the Seven Principles digital workbook to leadership, staff, ministry leaders and members. Their compiled answers reveal the church's shared view and the real gaps before any teaching begins. Complete the 100-point operational readiness assessment and load financial data through Stewardship Nsites.
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3. Compile the shared view
Every participant's answers are compiled into one score per principle, with the spread and the leadership-versus-member gap shown, so the church sees its real perception, not one voice. The lowest-scoring principles become the teaching priority.
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4. Teach the gaps — bridge them through the Academy
Use the compiled results to choose which principles to teach first. Each principle has lessons, exercises, a named deliverable and evidence, closing with a 90-day plan that carries owners and due dates.
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5. Coach and act
Findings from any element become action items in one register with severity, owner, due date, evidence and outcome measure. Coaching sessions work that register.
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6. Report and reassess
Board packs, executive summaries and the Seven Principles assessment report show before and after. The assessment is repeated on a set cadence so improvement is measured, not asserted.
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Principles that govern the design

Every score shows its calculation and links back to the screen the numbers came from.
Church data and personal household data are separated by design, not by policy alone.
No automated observation becomes a recommendation until a person approves it.
Findings are worthless without an owner, a date and a way to tell whether they worked.
Each church is its own tenant; nothing is pooled or compared without agreement.
Colour is never the only way a status is communicated.

All figures shown in this prototype are synthetic pilot data for illustration. Interactions live in the browser session only — nothing is sent, uploaded or stored on a server.