Earnest money.(Enterprising: Business as an act of creation)

Books on how to get rich quick rank at the top of the best-seller lists right alongside relationship and diet guides. Even Americans awash in more wealth than their parents ever dreamed of having find there is no such thing as "enough."

This is as true for Christians as anyone. Even the voice of God can be drowned out by the clamor of Mammon. That's why the 3,000-member Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia sponsors a small group that meets in a classroom to learn money management according to Christian principles.

Bon Air sits at the lower end of the "megachurch" category--where some institutions claim 20,000 members. Like many of these large houses of worship, Bon Air offers a smorgasbord of study courses rivaling that of a community college. Subjects range from introductory Spanish, to a "New Life" class for singles, to a summer music camp. Critics of mega-churches deride what they call their "WalMart of the spirit" approach to attracting members. By trying to be so many things to so many people, some ask, do they risk diluting the message of the Gospels?

It's a fair question. The notion of "Christian financial management" has a slightly incongruous ring to it, along the lines of "Muslim drinking games" or The Great Big Hindu Hamburger Book. But the producers of Bon Air's courses point out that the Bible contains more than 2,300 verses related to money. The reason, they say, is that God knows that money competes with Him for our attention more than anything else.

Every class at Bon Air begins and ends with a prayer. Students also share prayer requests of a personal nature. Each financial class deals with a specific subject: investing, work, teaching children to spend wisely, gambling, charity, etc. Workbook lessons show students how to make a budget, balance a checkbook, and pay down debt. Those who start the financial course expecting to become masters of the Wall Street universe soon learn otherwise. While investing and money management makes up a significant portion of the ten-week class, it is ancillary to the principal subject of managing money according to God's will.

A portion of class time is spent discussing God's word, and the proper flame of mind in which money matters should be approached. Students are ...