Financial Literacy Foundation Plan

Financial Literacy Foundation Plan — Sample Community Church

S1 Build Financial Literacy · Foundation pillar. Illustrative example of the approved principal deliverable, prepared for leadership review, Quarter ending December 2026.

Why this deliverable matters

S1 Build Financial Literacy is the first of Leland's Seven Stewardship Principles because every later principle assumes a household and a congregation that can read, understand and speak about money with confidence. A church cannot lead people toward generosity, debt freedom, saving or long-term planning if the words 'net income,' 'cash flow' or 'emergency fund' land as foreign language. This module exists to build a shared financial vocabulary and a shared set of basic competencies — reading a statement, building a budget, understanding timing, choosing the right account, and setting a real goal — so that every subsequent stewardship conversation, whether in a small group or a leadership meeting, starts from common ground instead of confusion.

By the end of this module, leadership will have produced a Financial Literacy Foundation Plan that names what biblical financial literacy actually means for this congregation, documents how well households and leaders currently read and use financial statements and budgets, lays out a concrete plan for teaching literacy across every generation and life stage represented in the church, and establishes a way to measure whether literacy is actually growing over time. This is not a one-time class. It is the foundation layer the other six principles will be built on, and it must be maintained as a continuing ministry rhythm, not a single semester of teaching.

What leadership will have completed

Leadership will have defined biblical financial literacy for the congregation, assessed current literacy levels among households and leaders using aggregated, deidentified data, designed a literacy teaching plan spanning life stages and settings, and adopted a Financial Literacy Foundation Plan with a 90-day action plan assigning named owners and dates for closing the literacy gaps discovered.

Seven Principles curriculum version 1.0 — author-review draft pending Leland Rubin's approval prior to publication. · version 1.0 · status Author Review. Synthetic example content — replace each section with your church's approved language.