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Most of us have sat through a great weekend seminar, walked out fired up, and then watched the fire slowly cool once life got busy again. It isn’t a failure of the teaching. It’s just what happens when a one-time event runs into a full calendar.

So what if the next step wasn’t another event you travel to? What if it was a course that travels to you, sits with your small group week after week, and keeps the conversation going long after the initial spark?

That’s what we’re building. A small group financial stewardship curriculum, rooted in Scripture, designed for small groups and Sunday school classes.

What the Small Group Stewardship Curriculum Will Cover

Largely the same core content you’d find in the Stewardship Lifestyle Seminar and in our book, The Good Steward. We’re also adding modules that go beyond what’s currently in the book, material we believe is important for a full small-group journey.

In some ways, the course will be more than the seminar.

Our core teaching from Haggai on the five priorities is expanded into two of the largest chapters in the book. In the curriculum, you’ll spend two full weeks on that content instead of a single 30-minute session. You also get weekly devotional elements and the kind of peer discussion a seminar simply can’t provide.

In other ways, it will be less.

More complex topics like detailed financial planning and estate planning are intentionally truncated. The reason is practical. Laws and regulations change constantly, and we want these principles to stay evergreen and usable for years. Our goal is that you understand the biblical principle well enough to apply it wisely in your own state and your own situation.

Who Is This Course For?

Christians of every walk and circumstance.

It’s not only for people drowning in debt. It’s not only for people who already invest skillfully. The goal is to help every believer become a better steward of everything God has entrusted to them: budgeting, debt elimination, generous giving, investing, and more, regardless of the stage they happen to be in right now.

Here’s something we want to say clearly. Stewardship is not about becoming a millionaire.

Wealth itself isn’t the enemy. Plenty of faithful believers use significant resources for Kingdom purposes, and we thank God for them. But “millionaire” language has a way of quietly becoming the goal. Our aim is different. Heart transformation and holiness come first, so that whatever financial success follows stays a tool instead of becoming a master.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (ESV)

The course exists to serve that transformation. Practical tools matter, and we’ll give you plenty of them. But they’re secondary to a mind and heart being renewed so we can discern and do the will of God with the resources He’s placed in our hands.

How Is This Different from Something Like Financial Peace University?

We get this question a lot, so let’s take it head on.

As we read it, Ramsey’s approach often starts with the observation that God made the world to work a certain way, then moves fairly quickly toward how to build wealth within it. The practical instruction is genuinely useful. Our concern is that wealth can quietly become the primary goal when relatively little sustained attention is given to guarding the heart against the love of money.

Our approach treats wealth and heart posture as two parallel tracks. For the train to run properly, both rails have to be there. The heart stays aligned with the Owner while the practical skills are being developed.

God made wealth for particular purposes. We need to trust Him with it, and we need to refuse to let our hearts be given over to it.

To be fair, we don’t think Financial Peace University, or any single curriculum, should be the only stewardship discipleship a church offers. When the heart dimension is missing, a significant part of biblical stewardship is missing with it. That’s why we’d encourage churches to pair practical tools with something that keeps the heart conversation alive, which is exactly what this course is designed to do.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Matthew 6:24 (ESV)

That verse names the real danger. Money skills without a guarded heart can still leave a person serving the wrong master. We’re deliberately keeping both tracks in view.

What Will It Cost, and When Will It Be Ready?

We’re still in the early planning stages, so we can’t give you firm numbers yet. Our intention is to keep pricing competitive and accessible.

Our goal for a beta test is early 2027.

One important note: we’re not looking for individual beta testers. We’re looking for small groups and Sunday School classes, along with their leaders, who are willing to walk through the material and give us honest feedback. The blunt kind, ideally.

If that sounds like your group, reach out at Contact@StewardologyPodcast.com. We’d love to have the conversation.

We also hope to develop an individual, self-guided version down the road. The first step, though, is the small-group version.

Does This Mean the Life Institute Seminars Are Ending?

No.

We want the video course to become the first level of engagement for a lot of people and churches. But if a church wants a more intensive, in-person experience for the whole body, the Stewardship Lifestyle Seminar is still available and still going strong.

Think of it this way:

  • Small group course for ongoing, relational discipleship in smaller settings.
  • Live seminar for embedding stewardship into the DNA of an entire church.

You can start with either one. Both are built to take a church or a group further into faithful financial stewardship.

Devotional as Well as Instructional

This isn’t only a content course.

The small group stewardship curriculum is designed to be devotional in nature. A participant can work through a week’s material in one sitting, or spread it across several days so there’s room to meditate, pray, and let the Scripture actually settle in. There will be substantial Scripture and prayer elements woven throughout, not tacked on at the end of a lesson.

Eventually we want to build something broader. A content library that churches and individual Christians can access for ongoing stewardship tools and resources, all in one place.

The small group stewardship curriculum is the first major step in that direction.

The Decision Underneath All of This

For years, the limiting factor was weekends and airline tickets.

That’s no longer the case. The limiting factor now is whether we’ll be faithful to put durable, heart-focused tools into as many hands as possible.

That’s the decision underneath everything we’ve shared today. And it’s the same decision every steward eventually faces. Will we stay small and safe, or will we trust God with a larger assignment?

Would you pray with us as we take the next steps?

 

 

Next Steps

 

Material presented is property of The Stewardology Podcast, a ministry of Life Financial Group and Life Institute. You may not copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, or exploit any content without the expressed written permission of The Stewardology Podcast. For more information, contact us at Contact@StewardologyPodcast.com or (800) 688-5800.

The topics discussed in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations.  Investing and investment strategies involve risk including the potential loss of principal. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

Securities and advisory services offered through GWM, Inc Member FINRA/SIPC