When I left a graduate program in Industrial Relations to enroll in seminary, it was not because I was interested in finances. I had deliberately chosen God over mammon.

I have since learned how important financial stewardship is to sustaining ministry and serving God. Mission flourishes when personal and congregational finances are healthy.

During my ministry, I discovered that young pastors were leaving seminary with crippling debt. But neither the larger church nor the seminaries in our sphere would acknowledge the problem.

Some two decades have passed, and things have begun to improve. It appears that most seminarians and professors have come to understand that while interest and ability in finances do not necessarily make a good pastor, a good pastor can be handicapped by lack of engagement with financial matters. Financial oversight is the purview of the board, but for true financial health, professors and seminarians need to see the board as allies, and not as adversaries.