Some churches in South L.A. don’t just ask people to donate a 10 percent tithe to the church, they also help congregants manage the other 90 percent of their money, USC Annenberg journalism student Jordyn Holman reported in an NPR Next Generation story, featuring the Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement.
The Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement’s Financial Literacy Program teaches pastors and lay leaders of congregations about financial management, what it takes to become “bank qualified” for loans and fund raising, so that they, in turn, can bring the message back to their communities.
Murray Center alum Rev. John Cager, for instance, incorporates financial management tips into his sermons and devotes two days of Sunday school to financial literacy at Ward AME Church, he told NPR Next Generation.
“You cannot expect of people who have not been trained, or who are not fiscally or financial literate, to do what is right with those dollars,” Rev. Mark Whitlock, executive director of the Cecil Murray Center, said. “The church is responsible for teaching financial literacy, teaching home-ownership, teaching savings, teaching how to operate your life from a day-to-day basis.”
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Photo Credit: Jordyn Holman
