developing lifestyle worshipers

Our college group at my church was traveling to invest in some children at a missions project during the summer, and I was driving one of the vans full of students. I had just finished reading Dave Ramsey’s, The Total Money Makeover, and I was befuddled at some of the stats I read. I polled those riding on the van and asked them how much of a stress factor was the area of finances in their lives. I was baffled. Some students already had student loans way into the tens of thousands of dollars. Accompanying that debt, many of them had accumulated thousands of dollars of credit card debt due to spending money on anything from Japanese food, Old Navy, and rent payments.

I investigated further. The average college graduate leaves college with approximately $20,000 in student loans and a staggering $4,000 in debt stemming from credit card purchases. Due to this immense debt, college students have a substantially less net worth than people their age fifteen to twenty years ago. More young adults are also postponing getting married and having children all because they are overwhelmed with their debt. When the Pew Research Center polled to determine the number one item causing stress in the lives of 18-25 year olds, they found that finances (debt, spending, etc.) was the number one answer for 30% of those polled topping relationships, family, education, career, and the uncertainty of their future. Over 80% of college students graduate with credit card debt even before they have been offered a job. Currently, 19% of Americans who file bankruptcy are college students.

I see the stress money brings on college students while they are still in school, but you are going to have to trust me when I say that you haven’t seen anything yet when it comes to financial pressure. When you leave college, the stress becomes much worse when all those bills that were in the distant future abruptly become a present reality. I want to save you from making some mistakes that literally could cost you the rest of your life. Even if you don’t see the need now, if you put into practice some of the following biblical principles into your finances, you will be able to give God glory through every spending decision you make.

The first major mistake that college students make concerning their finances is that they spend money that they simply don’t have. From taking out student loans for major purchases to running up credit card bills for minor purchases here and there, college students are targeted to spend money that is not present. Ask yourself a question: why are financial institutions so eager to get college students to commit to their organization if college students are so broke? Why don’t they seek out people with jobs and a good amount of money? In the long run, they make more money off of people like you who don’t have the financial resources to settle debt quickly.

Today’s tip: don’t spend money that you don’t have.  If you are in debt, start working your way out.  Pay down the debt you have.  Pay more on it than the month’s minimum payment.  Completely pay off the lowest one, then apply all that money to the next debt and keep going so you can be completely debt-free.

My first book, Freshman 15, went on sell on May 26th.  I posted this back on May 22nd:

I normally have a hard time promoting something I have done, but I don’t have a problem now because of two reasons.

1. The answers in this book are God’s answers rather than mine – His ideas are a lot better.  Each chapter is devoted to answer college student’s questions according to the biblical standard, and each chapter has small group discussion questions so that a college ministry could read it together.
2. The proceeds will save a life. I can’t reveal the entire picture just yet, but God has led me down an incredible journey that has allowed a partnership between this book and an unbelievable ministry opportunity.  I am so honored that I am going to be able to partner with this ministry organization.  The only reason I can’t spell it out for you right now is that the details are still being ironed out on the specifics of how this book will help out.  I promise you – very soon I will reveal on this blog on where the proceeds are going – and I think you would buy the book even if it wasn’t good just to be a part of this ministry endeavor (is that enough teaser for you?).

If you have been following my blog since Thursday, you should know the ministry partnership now: when you buy Freshman 15, you help the Agnews rescue our child. When I originally posted that, we knew where we were going, we just couldn’t tell anyone yet.

The week in February when we decided to adopt, I knew that this task is a huge financial commitment.  Here’s my belief about God-sized projects: sometimes God takes care of everything 100%, and sometimes God allows us to reveal how committed we are to the process.  As we prayed for this process, we felt like God was using this chance to adopt as a stimulus to finish this book I had been periodically working on for almost two years.  That week, I decided to finish it before May’s graduation, and I worked feverishly for that goal.  So, the cat’s out of the bag: I wrote the book for that group of graduating seniors and for money…because it takes money to adopt a child from Ethiopia.

I have been so blessed to receive emails from college students (and surprisingly many people out of college) that said this book has helped them in determining God’s will, dealing with the social drinking issue, quest for purity, developing a budget, reaching out to people in need, dealing with family, etc.  For those who have bought a copy, I pray that God uses the included teaching from his Word to radically change your life.  Know that you purchasing that book also helped our soon-to-be child and I thank you for that.

I have been so blessed by receiving messages over the weekend about how you can help.  Here’s a start: If you haven’t gotten a copy yet, buy one.  Buy twenty and pass them out to your friends.  I hate self-promotion, but adoption-promotion, I can live with.  While you buying one book does not cover a plane ticket, every little bit helps in this process.

Here’s how you can help by getting the word out: You can become a Fan of the book on Facebook, or you can email your friends a link to this blog.  Thank you for your prayers and pray that this book will help many college students in their desire to live for Jesus and also speed up our adoption process.  Thank you again!  For the King!  For his Kingdom!

You can get your copy of Freshman 15 here.

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