Additional Information

About FSMP Online

Enrollment is easy, follow-through takes a heart-felt desire to change your situation and discipline to reach your goals. Read through this summary of the program to gain an understanding of what it requires to achieve financial freedom.

Goals, Benefits & General Information

The Bible says everything is owned by the Lord (1 Chronicles 29:11-12), yet we find it difficult to believe that we are not the owners of the material blessings and talents with which we have been blessed. It is a challenge to fully understand the freedom we possess as stewards.

The FSMP ministry provides trained Christian financial mentors that come alongside you and your family to help you take control of your finances and gain a new sense of peace and freedom. Grounded in biblical principles, FSMP provides methods, practices, teaching, and accountability designed to help individuals free themselves from financial bondage. There is no charge for the program. However, the program requires a significant time commitment and demands a change in thinking and practices related to managing finances. It is intended for those who truly desire to improve and change their financial situation.

The program has two components, a technical component focused on your finances, and a spiritual component focused on biblical principles of stewardship. While there is no homework for the Spiritual Sessions, a renewed emphasis on daily time spent in prayer and reading of scripture is encouraged. The Technical Sessions do require additional work outside of the weekly gathering with your mentors.

Before beginning the program, you will be asked to sign a Participant Agreement that explains your responsibilities in undertaking this program. It also presents the responsibilities of FSMP. You will receive an FSMP handbook for the Technical Sessions, and a Hearts and Minds Spiritual Manual, which are yours to keep. Each week, you’ll read a chapter from the technical handbook as you prepare for the meeting with your mentors.

Throughout the Program’s duration, your technical and spiritual mentors help you through the struggle of tackling your specific major financial issues as you learn to effectively steward the resources God has entrusted to you.

The Spiritual Sessions are intended to be completed prior to the Technical Program. If  the Spiritual Sessions are completed immediately prior to the Technical Sessions, the program will run 13 weeks. This is best if you are pressed to find more than five to six hours in a week to devote to the program. The Spiritual Sessions can also be completed in tandem with the Technical Sessions if they start on the same week as the Technical Sessions and are completed prior to Week 6. If the sessions are completed concurrently, they program will run eight weeks, with sessions on two different evenings each week for the first five weeks and one evening per week for the last three weeks.

Technical Program

One day each week for eight weeks, a pair of trained mentors will meet with you. If you are married, they will meet with you and your spouse. Children living in the home are encouraged to attend and participate, as well.

Meetings take place wherever you keep your financial records. The purpose of the Technical Sessions is to put an effective household financial system in place and help you manage financial challenges you are facing. Each session lasts from 1½ to 2½ hours depending upon the complexity of a particular financial situation. The homework and preparation required between meetings amounts to another one to two hours per week, for a total of three to five hours a week for most of our Participants. The sessions cover the following information and activities.

  • Session 1 – Getting the Big Picture. During the first meeting, you and your mentors put together or update your personal financial statement and debt terms schedule. This enables your mentors to understand your financial situation and develop an action plan.
  • Session 2 – Record of Transactions.  You and your mentors establish an accurate and efficient financial system for your household using our proven methods.
  • Sessions 3 and 4 – Project, Prioritize & Pay.  These sessions are devoted to setting up and implementing the system that will help you make Godly choices and decisions to manage your finances. Your mentors will hold you accountable to these principles as you make financial transactions through the remainder of the program.
  • Session 5 – Hustle to Make Ends Meet.  You will focus on increasing income.
  • Session 6 – Sacrifice: Playing Hardball With Debt.  This session addresses how to sacrifice.
  • Sessions 7 – Debt Repayment.  This session prioritizes debts for repayment.
  • Session 8 – Prevention and Minimizing Risk.  This session analyzes methods to prevent and minimize expenses and reduce risk into the future.

Spiritual Program

Before or during the same ten-week period, a pair of trained spiritual mentors will meet with you for two hours per week for five weeks in a row, to study God’s principles of stewardship. The spiritual program makes use of scripture, audio lectures, and thoughtful prayer for the issues facing you and your household.

  • Session 1 – Handling Finances Has Consequences. During the first meeting, we will ask the question “Why do we have so much and enjoy it so little?” We will gain an understanding of God’s perspective regarding our finances, referred to in the Bible as “the little things.”
  • Session 2 – Who is the Real Owner? This session will focus on our role as stewards and what it means to manage our lives with a clear understanding of profitable and rewarding stewardship.
  • Sessions 3 – Needs vs. Wants. Someone once said: “We make our choices and then our choices make us.” We will discover the difference between a “need” and the rest our desires, and learn what makes it easier to make wise choices.
  • Session 4 – Debt is an Adversary of Contentment. We will learn the pros and cons of assuming debt and discover four mindsets that will help us maintain our freedom and live with contentment and hope for the future.
  • Session 5 – God, Family and Others in Need. This session presents the benefits to our lives today of being generous with the right motives and living life with an eternal perspective.