The topic of that Sunday was finance and balance. He started with the five circles of commitment to the church. You know the thing where there’s an extremely large circle and then smaller circles are inscribed? Consider that, with five levels.

The most inner level is called the “Core” – the core consists of the people in the church that work (work for the church; i.e., ushers, deacons, pastors, other volunteers) and tithe.

The second level consists of the “Committed” – people who don’t work at the church but tithe.

Next level would be the Congregation – they don’t work at the church and they don’t tithe, but they deserve credit for being good givers.

Fourth level = Crowd. They sometimes attend church (i.e., on special occasions and holidays). They only go to one church, but they don’t go very often

Fifth level = Community. They almost never go to church.

The Bishop called the Financial Foundation: The Ability to Reach, The Ability to Reproduce, The Ability to Rule.

A lack of balance hinders the pursuit of goals.
Reasons attributed to lack of balance: Ignorance, Disobedience, Grumbling/Faulting, Laziness.

I got cut short but here’s the reasons I managed to write down for things to do to achieve financial balance:

Strong work ethic
Discipline of delayed gratification
Budgeting to live beneath your “needs”
Saving/Paying Yourself
Didn’t get the fifth one.