A vital part of the Foundation’s purpose to help fulfill our clients’ mission is a commitment to educate and train clergy and lay leaders on financial wellness for long-term financial success. While most of the work we do is with churches, including Sunday School classes, small groups, finance committees, and more, we are also ready to answer the call to work broadly with large groups around the state, including conference initiatives and districts.

Recently, Foundation President and CEO, Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Coppedge-Henley, was tapped to lead a day-long financial wellness session for Bishop Robin Dease’s Thriving Leadership Initiative (TLI). The program, launched in 2025, was developed for lay and clergy leadership to experience opportunities for growth. By learning from people from other cultures and contexts, TLI is an effort to strengthen existing ministries and launch new, multi-ethnic, sustainable communities of faith.

Following an application process to the two-year program, lay leaders and clergy participate in four annual in-person events as well as monthly online learning labs. In addition to financial wellness, other themes the program explores include community transformation, cultural intelligence, team systems, ministry models, multicultural worship and liturgy, and Wesleyan theology and discipleship.

Coppedge-Henley’s presentation, Creating a Culture of Generosity, zeroed in on the tenet that generosity is not just a brief campaign once a year, but in fact, generosity must be built into the culture. The Peter Drucker quote, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” was invoked to reinforce this thought. The idea is that if a concept, such as generosity, is not woven into an organization’s culture, values, beliefs and behaviors, even the most intentional financial planning may not reach its full potential.  

Small groups used time in break-out sessions to further explore this by considering these questions:

• What does it mean that the church was created for ministry, and not to pay bills? 
• While keeping the lights on is crucial, how might your focus be on what we need light for?

While TLI participants pondered those questions, they were left with an important takeaway: it is imperative for the local church to connect mission and generosity. The key is understanding that generosity focuses first on what God is calling us to do, and then focuses on how we are going pay for it now and in the future.  

The Foundation is grateful to have been included in the Thriving Leadership Initiative and furthering Bishop Dease’s vision to build better leaders. Again, this presentation and other financial wellness talks are available from the Foundation for any Methodist affiliated organization in Georgia. Reach out to the Foundation to discuss what topics best fit your needs and schedule a time for the Foundation to come to you.