New Center for Financial Literacy partners with expert to offer biblical planning tools

Liberty University is committed to ensuring that students in every degree program learn biblical financial principles and are equipped with the tools they need to make wise financial decisions.

In August, Liberty launched the Center for Financial Literacy (CFL) in partnership with the Ron Blue Library. The center leads workshops, classroom presentations, and other special events to share a biblical model for money management with students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Free financial planning resources and tools are available.

“We want to educate and collaborate with the Liberty community to integrate principles from our understanding of God’s Word into how we manage financial resources,” said Dr. Stacie Rhodes, CFL executive director. “We need to understand that there are significant life implications for how we manage money. These can often be challenging conversations, because managing money is a highly personal topic, but let’s go ahead and talk about it because learning to manage money should not be difficult — there are proven biblical principles that we can learn from.”

For the students, who are in a stage of life where they are already making major decisions, learning to think ahead and manage money from a biblical perspective “offers a chance to change your life now and build a lasting legacy going forward,” Rhodes said.

The CFL is working across all of Liberty’s schools and colleges. Financial literacy will be introduced in every program through a 100- or 200-level course and then reinforced in an upper-level (300 or 400) class.

“The Provost’s Office desires every Liberty student to graduate with a biblical worldview of money,” Rhodes said. “The principles stay the same, but the application varies in each profession. We are working to take the curriculum that Ron Blue has developed and package it specifically for each school, tailoring the application for each degree.”

Ron Blue is widely considered to be the father of Christian financial planning. He has founded Ronald Blue Trust, a financial planning firm serving thousands of clients across the U.S.; Kingdom Advisors, which trains thousands of Christian financial advisors to integrate biblical wisdom into their financial advice; The Ron Blue Institute of Financial Planning, committed to bringing biblical financial wisdom into academia; and co-founded the National Christian Foundation, which disburses more than $1 billion per year to evangelical causes. He has authored more than 20 books on personal finance from a biblical perspective.

Since partnering with Liberty, Blue has been active across campus, presenting biblical financial principles in classrooms and hosting more intimate events for student clubs and faculty, giving them opportunities to ask questions.

Blue believes that in a world where personal debt is steadily rising, academia can play a key role in reversing the trend.

“There is no question that God has used this university in a significant way,” Blue said. “I am very privileged to be partnering with not only one of the largest Christian universities in our country, but a leading and extraordinarily influential university in the world.”

The world is looking for answers, he said, and the church can provide them.

“All of life passes through your checkbook, so the way you think about the financial aspect of your life matters,” he said. “As Christians, if we can think differently about money and model a biblical worldview of money management, we can change everything.”

For those interested in a career in financial planning, Liberty’s School of Business offers a number of degree programs — including accounting, finance, and economics — from the certificate to the doctoral level. Liberty offers a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration – Financial Planning online and residentially, and a Master of Science in Finance – Financial Planning online program, as well as a Certificate in Financial Planning. Liberty also offers Blue’s Certified Kingdom Advisor course online, the first step for earning CKA® professional designation.

Visit Liberty.edu/CFL for more information, including resources and events.