2 minute read
Foreword
While revising this book, I asked myself why the author would choose to write about stewardship for children. I knew he was an experienced worker of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, serving in various cultural contexts and institutional positions, but he has never served as a children’s ministry director. So, why didn’t he target the decision-makers of the church instead?
After I met him in South Africa in 2019, however, I began to understand. Married to a counseling psychologist and the father of three young adults, the author envisions all children as prospective leaders in the world and in the church. So, as a church leader, he is not only passionate about not only preparing children to lead the church in the future, but also to help them to occupy their place in the world as God’s representatives and agents of change.
Using very simple language, and based on a Christian worldview, the author explains basic financial concepts and corrects some mistaken beliefs commonly held among many in this generation. And the more I read the book, the more I became convinced that many adults would also benefit from reading it as well!
Dave Ramsey, for instance, citing a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts (2015), says that 80 percent of the American population have debt “but don’t want it,”1 But why are they in debt if they don’t want to be? Some don’t know how to generate appropriate income or how to save. Others have adopted improper concepts of property ownership and management. Materialism and consumerism have thrown an entire generation into financial slavery, making them unfit for the normal “earn-first-buy-last” lifestyle. They are also oblivious to the reality of the upcoming economic crises that will overtake “Babylon,” as alluded to in Revelation 18, with dangerous spiritual
1 https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/americans-have-debt#:~:text=A%20recent%20study%20 showed%20that,first%2010%20people%20you%20see, retrieved on November 03, 2020.
consequences. In most cases their misery could be avoided, or at least greatly alleviated, by knowing and applying simple financial principles as presented in this book.
How can this book be used? If read in small portions during family worship, for instance, it will help adults and children to learn together. It can also be promoted and studied in churches during children’s Sabbath School programs (Primary, Juniors, and Earliteens). Another way to motivate its study is to promote contests about each chapter during children’s church programs. The Adventist Education Department could also use it as a textbook for students in upper grades of elementary school and for middle school. Small-group activities could be developed based on each chapter. Many more creative ways to use the book could be generated as well.
And I keep thinking about the intended age group this book is targeting: Is the author aiming to reach only children, or is he envisioning a broader audience? Before answering, let us remind ourselves how clever missionaries in closed territories strategically use children as vectors of the truth that they want to convey to the community. In this way, even some adults who will not read the book may also be reached by its timely message! I hope that you, like me, will be one of those benefited by its message!
