Making Change Through Small Groups

Nine years ago, Travis and Danna Reynolds were fairly new on staff at Life.Church when they decided to go through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University with their small group.

No one knew what they were doing, and no one was really leading,” said Danna. “But, we knew we wanted to go through it as a group—together.”

Fast-forward to 2016. The Reynolds have led fifteen to twenty other small groups through Financial Peace University, helping dozens of couples and individuals eliminate debt and build wealth.

“It’s so great to have people come and say, ‘We just made our last car payment!’ or ‘Our student loans are paid off!’”

Travis and Danna still remember what it was like when they first started putting the principles in place.

“It wasn’t long before we started seeing a difference in our finances, and it seemed like we had more money each month. We used the debt snowball to pay off debt, and then started watching our net worth grow year after year,” said Travis.

“Everyone should be doing this,” they thought to themselves.

But everyone wasn’t.

That’s Why We’re Making Change

Here at Life.Church, we’re going through a series called Making Change. Through these messages, we’re sharing biblical truths about financial concepts to encourage and inspire our attenders to break free of debt and find financial freedom.

As part of Making Change, we’re encouraging our attenders to go through Financial Peace University. Our church decided on Financial Peace University, but there are many other tools, courses, and programs out there—choose one that fits your church.

If you’d like to lead your attenders to take the next step of attending a personal finance course, Travis and Danna have a few tips for you.

  • Be transparent. You don’t have to be specific, but if you’ve ever struggled in this area, don’t hide it. Being authentic about your experiences will help others connect with you and feel inspired to make the changes they need to make.
  • Make it easy. When recruiting leaders to teach the course, let them know it’s easy. They don’t have to be spreadsheet-loving personal finance gurus, they just need a heart to help and encourage others.
  • Create accountability. The steps to managing money are easy, but making the right decisions daily is hard. Create a program where attenders can have accountability, like in a small group setting.
  • Encourage spouses to attend together. For couples, both the husband and wife should attend personal finance courses together. Spouses need to be on the same page in their goals and plans for their financial future.
  • Paint a bigger picture. Some attenders might think that a financial course will only involve someone yelling at them to cut up their credit cards, but it’s not all about debt. Help your attenders see the bigger picture. By following a plan, they’ll be able to build wealth, save for things that matter, and give!

We’re all called to build wealth. Not for greed, but for generosity.

We’d love to share more tips about Making Change. You can find resources and training about this message series for free on the Open Network.

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