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Resources FAQs
Below are frequently
asked questions about Good $ense resources. FAQs pertaining to the Good Sense ministry can be found here.
- Why is Willow publishing a financial stewardship resource?
- What are Good $ense resources designed to do?
- Why should a church purchase and use Good $ense instead of something else? What makes these resources distinct?
- How does Good $ense compare with other Willow Creek curriculum such as Just Walk Across the Room, An Ordinary Day with Jesus, and Network?
- How many people will one set of resources serve?
- Can churches purchase individual course components?
- Who should teach the Good $ense Counselor Training Workshop?
- What is the best format for presenting the Good $ense Counselor Training Workshop?
- What is the best format for presenting the Freed-Up Financial Living Course?
- Do married couples each need a copy of the Freed-Up Participant Guide or can they share one copy?
- What are the benefits of a Good $ense Ministry in the local church?
- What should we tell a church who wants to know more about Dick Towner, the Good $ense author?
- What is your return policy?
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1. Why is Willow publishing a financial stewardship resource?
It is the number
one need of churches. According to WCA surveys and other research,
resources to assist with stewardship teaching and training
are a primary need of leaders in the local church.
The church at large has failed to teach a balanced and comprehensive
view of the biblical wisdom concerning a person’s proper relationship
to their money. As a result, the competing theology of materialism
is capturing the minds and hearts of both Christians and non-Christians.
Consequently, bankruptcies are at a record high, savings are
at record lows and consumer debt continues to rise. Even more
significantly, people's’ spiritual growth and development is
stifled, they fail to honor God with their finances and they fail to experience joy and freedom in this area of their lives.
Willow Creek has a proven stewardship ministry track record. For over
20 years, the Good $ense Ministry of Willow Creek Community
Church has been helping individuals and families by teaching
biblical financial principles and practical money management
skills. Good $ense resources are based on field-tested content and
proven ministry experience.
Good $ense is a key component of the WCA mission to envision,
equip and encourage the local church.
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2. What are Good $ense resources designed to
do?
- The Good $ense Freed-Up course teaches and trains everyone in the church to integrate Biblical Financial Principles into their lives - financially and spiritually.
- The Good $ense Counselor Training Workshop
trains and equips laypersons to provide free, biblically-based,
confidential counsel to assist families and individuals
in addressing financial questions or difficulties.
- Other Good $ense workshops and resources complement those two core curriculums and provide the means for a church to have a year-round financial stewardship ministry.
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3. Why should a church purchase and use Good $ense instead
of something else? What makes these resources distinct?
Some of the core values built into the G$ resources that make them unique include:
Deep integration of biblical principles with practical day-to-day application. A key emphasis of the Good $ense resources is to not just make passing reference to scripture (and definitely not to do so out of context!) but to "drill down" into the meaning of the passage and then how to specifically apply that insight in very practical ways.
Grace-filled approach. There's no guilt manipulation or judgementalism involved. Good $ense views an individual’s relationship
to money as a spiritual issue and recognizes that an improper relationship
to one's money blocks spiritual growth and transformation. Good $ense takes a
grace-filled approach in leading individuals into reflection and introspection
about their relationship to money, and ultimately helps remove
money as a stumbling block to spiritual growth. A grace-filled
approach is used to challenge individuals to examine
whether they are becoming more faithful in following biblical principles or becoming more foolish by yielding to cultural influences.
Seeker friendly. Good $ense uses culturally
relevant and easily understood concepts and approaches to
integrate biblical principles about money with budgeting basics.
Good $ense resources are also flexible so they can be taught
in various formats and can be adapted to teach and train a
variety of audiences.
Delivered through the local church. Good $ense equips
local churches to minister directly to their congregations
and communities by establishing a church-wide, year-round
ministry. Rather than sending teachers and trainers to lead
workshops and courses, we provide the resources to empower the local church
to teach, train and care for their congregations in this area
of financial stewardship. We provide optional training for those who want to hone their skills still further. See the home page for information.
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4. How does Good $ense compare with other Willow Creek
curriculum such as Just Walk Across the Room, An Ordinary
Day with Jesus, and Network?
The same level of excellence that marks other WCA resources has been built into the Good $ense resources and like those other Resources,
the Good $ense Curriculum:
- Includes everything needed to effectively teach or facilitate the courses.
- Helps equip the local church teacher to teach the courses.
- Utilizes a variety of teaching and learning styles - lecture,
video, individual activities, partner activities, small
group activities - to maximize adult learning.
- Has been comprehensively field tested. Course teaching,
activities, and video segments have all been reworked and
refined based on the input of hundreds of participants.
We know it works!
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5. How many people will one set of resources serve?
- Only one set of leader materials is required and the courses can be effectively taught to virtually any
size group. At Willow Creek Community Church, the curriculum has been taught to groups of over 1,000. It
has also been taught at churches with as few as ten
participants. Freed-Up Financial Living can very effectively be used with small groups as well as in large workshops. The Good $ense Counselor Training Workshop
typically has fewer participants (five to twenty-five) as
it is designed to train a select group of volunteers who
will serve as Good $ense counselors.
- Participant's Guides
are required for each individual attending a course. Efforts have
been made to keep Participant Guide costs as low as feasible
and we recommend churches pass the cost on to the participants.
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6. Can churches purchase the individual
course components?
- All components for all Good $ense resources can be purchased individually.
- We encourage churches to purchase both the Freed-Up and the Counselor courses. Our experience is that churches that purchase only the
Freed-Up course find there is also a need for additional
help and counsel for some individuals and are then inclined
to purchase the Counselor Training Course.
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7. Who should teach the Good $ense Counselor Training Workshop?
- A fundamental value of all Willow Creek Resources curriculum
is to make the local church teacher a "hero" by
giving them everything they need to effectively teach the
course. In this sense, anyone can teach the Counselor Training Workshop. Obviously the person should have the spiritual gift of teaching and be willing to spend appropriate time in preparation. Having said that,
- The Leader's Guides for the Counselor
Training Workshop include complete scripts for the courses.
If the local church teacher wanted to, he or she could literally
stand up and read the Leader's Guide to present the course
(we hope they won't, but they could!).
- In addition to the teaching text, every page spread in
the Leader's Guides includes:
- Minutes allowed for every section to help the teacher
stick to the time allowed
- PowerPoint slides indicating when each slide should
be shown
- PowerPoint "button" symbols indicating
the teacher should press their control button to bring
up the next item on slides that "build"
- Arrow icons indicating text that needs to be spoken
verbatim by the teacher because the text appears in
the Participant's Guide
- Room to write notes so the teacher can adapt the
content with their own stories and illustrations
- A copy of the Participant's Guide page(s) corresponding
to what the teacher is presenting
- The Freed-Up course is in DVD format so a facilitator rather than a teacher is required. A facilitator's Guide comes with the resource and additional facilitator notes appear on www.goodsenseministry.com/freedup/bonus.
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8. What is the best format for presenting the
Counselor Training Workshop?
The workshop inludes five sessions totaling approximately 7 hours of content. It can be effectively presented in a one day or two day format.
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9. What is the best format for presenting the Freed-Up Financial Living Course?
The course includes six, fifty-five minute sessions totaling approximately
six hours of content. It can be effectively presented in
a variety of formats ranging from one or two days to six weeks.
The one-day workshop has the advantage of everyone being there start to finish and not dealng with multi-week absentee problems due to illness, family situations etc. On the other hand, the multi-session approach allows time for discussion, homework assignments, etc. which can be very helpful (suggested questions and assignments are included in the Facilitator's Guide).
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10. Do married couples each need a copy of the Freed-Up Participant
Guide or can they share one copy?
In order to easily follow the teaching and be able to make
personal notes throughout the class, we suggest that each
participant have their own Participant Guide. However, we
recommend that married couples work together on a single copy
of the Pre-Work and in developing their Spending Plan during
the Course.
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11. What are the benefits of a Good $ense Ministry in the
local church?
- The most significant benefit is that God can use Good
$ense to remove money as a stumbling block to spiritual
growth and transformation.
- Lives can be changed as individuals are freed from consumer
debt and understand God's ownership of their resources.
- Marriages can be strengthened as money ceases to be an
issue in family life and decisions.
- Church ministry is enhanced as believers are freed up
to become generous givers.
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12. What should we tell a church who wants to know more
about Dick Towner, the Good $ense author?
Dick Towner is executive director of the Good $ense movement
for the Willow Creek Association. Previously, he served as
director of finance for Willow Creek Community Church and
as director of Willow's Good $ense Ministry. Before coming
to Willow, Dick served for fourteen years as Minister of Administration
at College Hill Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Prior
to that, Dick was at the University of Cincinnati for 14
years – serving as Associate Dean for 11 of those. He
has a degree in Engineering, a Masters in Higher Education and a
Doctorate in Guidance and Counseling. He has taught biblical stewardship for over 40 years.
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13. What is your return policy?
Customers must
return the unopened product within 30 days of receipt of shipment.
DVDs and CDs may be returned only if damaged
or defective for replacement of the same item. Downloaded
products are not returnable. For returns, call Customer Service
at 800-570-9812 to obtain the required return authorization
number. (Items shipped include the Returns Policy on a form
included in the shipment.) |
