I am excited to share a new project I just went “live” with: NextGenSteward, a Substack targeted at young Christian adults. (Substack is a popular publishing and newsletter creation platform that makes setting up a site like this one very easy as compared to a new WordPress site.)
The site’s purpose is to provide guidance on financial stewardship in the areas of career, income, spending, giving, taxes, borrowing, and investing. I am basing it on a weekend seminar I did for the young adults in our church last year and adding a lot of additional content to provide further details in some areas.
It’s set up as a curriculum using short-form articles that leverage the material I used in the seminar. So far, I’ve published over a dozen articles on the site; most lay a foundation for everything that will come later.
The articles are numbered and posted on the site’s home page in the order they should be read, which is the reverse of what you would typically see (i.e., the latest article on top). I had to manually date them to accomplish that. Readers should start with the “Welcome to NGN” post at the very top of the page.
Here’s a preview of one of the articles in a Google doc (#2—Why This Stuff Matters):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FJkIxubRFkyjVVNjR2bAyya5oy9UO05Ijmz1125KYyw/edit?usp=sharing
How to access it
The site is currently “private.” When a site is set up that way on Substack, only “approved subscribers” can log in with their email address. I plan to keep it private for now so that the focus is on my local church community and you and your young adult family members and friends who subscribe.
This is an effort to do something targeted at the younger generations; I’ve found that many graduate from high school and college with very limited knowledge of personal finance. There’s a lot of “noise” out there, and I hope this material is a clear and engaging option for young Christians looking for guidance and information in this area.
I have turned ”comments” on, mainly for questions, and plan to activate the Substack Notes feature to share information and build community. I have added a ”contact me” button on the Welcome page that is ”pinned” to the homepage.
When someone first goes to the site, they will see the cover page image, title, and one-line description. They can’t proceed without first requesting to be added to the subscriber list and cannot read any posts unless I have added them to the subscriber list.
The welcome page has a box where people who want to read it can enter their email address. I will receive an email notification when they put their email in this box to request access to this Substack. I will then manually add them to the list, and they will receive a welcome email telling them how to access it.
Or, if you or someone you know (college students, young adults in career, etc.) would like access, please email me at cjc@retirementstewardship.com, and I’ll add them.
What then?
Once someone has access, they can start reading through the material based on the sequence I have set up on the “curriculum” page. So far, there are about 15 articles on the site, as far as the curriculum guide goes for now. If you’d like a preview, here’s a link to a Google doc that lists them:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hUnelpmH9xroAM2aFO0_qrwQfpl4prGqpESRVzrDI6U/edit?usp=sharing
However, I will add many more articles (the next two or three will deal with taxes), and subscribers will receive an email update whenever I post a new one.
I hope readers find this material helpful and encouraging as they begin their lifetime stewardship journey. Please let me know if you have any questions or if you hear of problems subscribing to the site.
