Dave Ramsey. The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003.
If you want to know what is in this book without reading it, you could catch a couple of episodes of “The Dave Ramsey Show” on radio. Or, you could have been paying attention to Grandpa and Grandma when they were talking about money. You could have, but, odds are, you didn’t. So now you may need to read the book.
I remember as a student pastor having to go to a day-long seminar in Grenada designed for first time pastorates. Various members of our conference spoke briefly on items related to the ministry: preaching, visiting, sacraments, etc. One spoke on finances. He spoke; we stared at each other. After all, he was addressing us in a foreign language. Things like: “You are always going to be having to get another car. So, pay for the first one. Then, save payments as you go along so when you get ready for the second one, you will have cash to pay for it.” Sure. Right. Most of us were already into struggling to pay the payments on our present cars while we furnished the parsonage with a few niceties of life that were not hand-me-downs from our parents. I remember that I was making a whopping $400 a month as a student pastor. True, it was more than it is now, but, no, it wasn’t nearly enough to start in the hole and get out ahead, especially not when I was still paying for school. Besides, the way of credit was so much easier.
Sure. Right. You bet.
It has always struck me as (un)funny how the traditional Wesley question asked of those being ordained elders in the church “Are you in debt so as to embarrass your ministry?” is greeted by nervous laughter from the annual conference. I guess it makes it easier for the candidates to give an affirmative answer. (It really is a serious question.) Then again, as one bishop wryly noted, it takes a lot to embarrass some people.
But this question probably speaks to our lifestyles as much as any of the others we ask about the things we believe. It does reflect on our view of life, our understanding of what is owed to us (our entitlements in this culture), and our stewardship of the gifts that God has given us. I guess that is what I enjoyed most about this book: there is a purpose to our management of money beyond “piles of cash”, although Ramsey thinks that is okay too. For management involves what we would do with those piles if we had them. That involves our understanding of giving. That is a concept which directly relates to living out our faith in the world.
Don’t get me started on piles. I have been in enough barnyards to know what they smell like. I have also seen enough gardens to know what happens when the piles are broken up and spread around in the right places. Ah, the power of multiplication.
This book is about being free. It is about cultivating the graces which keep us free in a world of enslavement, and, in particular, plastic credit card enslavement. I think I might disagree with some of his conclusions, but I dare say that he is right on with his identification of the demonic power that the misuse of money can unleash within our lives.
And I wonder how many other pastors, and laymen, have found their ability to serve freely and generously bound up with plastic cords. But I have moved beyond preaching to meddlin’.
2/8/05
For a different look at a related subject see Phyllis A. Tickle. Greed.