Introducing ‘Generations: A Journal of Faith and Finance’

Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21).  Faith and finance are inextricably bound together.  Faith entails values, and those values call for embodiment in all areas of life.  How we mobilize financial resources in the spending and making of money is one reflection of how our values are expressed and put into action.  

This perspective is the basis for the Pension Boards-United Church of Christ’s first venture into publishing: Generations: A Journal of Faith and Finance, an online magazine that explores the places in our economic lives where our faith values meet our financial obligations and opportunities.  

Generations will be published twice yearly, in the fall and spring, and will include articles and commentary on socially responsible investing, the faith dimensions of economic and global issues, interfaith perspectives, church finance and stewardship work, issues related to personal debt, and resources for local church worship.  Contributors include a variety of writers from the worlds of both church—within and beyond the United Church of Christ—and finance.   

In the first issue, published November 2020 with the theme, “Mobilizing Resources for Change,” Deenabandhu Manchala, Area Executive for Southern Asia, Wider Church Ministries, UCC, reports on anti-human trafficking efforts during a pandemic: “… while hurrying the world onto a frightening path towards an unknown future, [the pandemic] has also exposed more clearly our world’s existing systemic greed, sharp economic disparities, war economies, continued environmental destruction, and dehumanization of vulnerable people.”   

Timothy Smith, former Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, presents a fascinating look at the trajectory of the UCC’s involvement in socially responsible investing, in “The UCC: A Force for Change 50 Years Later.”  And in a provocative article, former UCC General Minister and President, John Thomas asks, “What does it mean to be religious but not spiritual?” and explores the limits of the “dutiful Christian.”  

The spring issue of Generations will be available online at www.pbucc.org on May 1 and will explore the theme, “Think Globally, Act Locally.”  To subscribe, email info@pbucc.org.  

The Rev. Dr. James A. Moos, is the Executive Director of Faith and Finance Ministries with the Pension Boards-United Church of Christ. He is the former Associate General Minister of Global Engagement and Operations, UCC, and Co-Executive of Global Ministries.