JoLynn Garlow always had maintained good credit and carried little debt, but things changed when her Colorado Springs boutique went under.

“The market went to the crash point and business dropped off. A bunch of stuff happened all at one time, I ended up quickly running out of money and it was over,” Garlow said. “I was devastated. I not only lost everything but had to declare a personal bankruptcy.”

In the years that followed, she rebuilt her life and embarked on careers selling real estate and working as a life coach. Even so, for the first time, Garlow found herself “struggling and trying to figure out money,” she said.

That’s when her son, an Air Force pilot with solid financials, suggested taking a Dave Ramsey course. He even offered to pick up the $99 tab.

Garlow was familiar with Financial Peace University, Ramsey’s Bible-based finance program. She’d purchased a book by the best-selling author, radio host and speaker, whose talks and courses have been packing houses for more than 20 years. She’d read a chapter or two, put it down and never came back.

This time around, though, Garlow knew more about the program, which boasts that graduates have, in 90 days, learned skills and embraced habits that saved their families an average of $2,700 a year. Garlow had seen it work for friends, erstwhile budget-slackers who cleared their debts and began saving for travel.

More importantly, this time Garlow needed the help. And like many who live in a nation where the average household credit card debt is approaching $16,000, she knew that making a sea change in spending and saving habits would require something of a come-to-Jesus moment.

“We mentally hang onto these old patterns and thoughts that will sabotage us. I want control of my life,” Garlow said.

She recently started attending a nine-week Financial Peace course at Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, one of more than a dozen churches in the Springs area offering the program.

Divine Redeemer member Kathy Lindsey knows how important it is to keep control of family spending but admitted she likely wouldn’t have taken advantage of the class had it not been offered – and promoted – through her church.

“It’s good that a lot of churches offer it. Sometimes you feel more comfortable with your own community of people,” Lindsey said. “It’s not like you’re talking about your religion at the classes; they’re open to anybody of any faith or no faith. It’s just a motivating and inspiring class. I don’t think there’s one person who couldn’t gain something from it.”

The current version of the course has been whittled from 13 to nine sessions; classes meet weekly for 90 minutes so students can go over their budgets and other assignments and watch a core video by Ramsey.

“It’s a good way to get couples together and get them all on the same track,” said Dave Glenzinski, who attended a handful of classes in 2011 but was unable to complete the program due to health issues. “Since then, I’ve been looking to take the course again.”

Glenzinski hopes the classes he and his wife, Gina, are taking at Divine Redeemer will help them hone their budgeting skills – critical now that the couple is dealing with hefty medical expenses.

“We had trouble finding help and finding the right way to do it and formulating what to do,” he said.

One segment in the current Ramsey series, led by the speaker’s daughter, Rachel Cruze, addresses the finances of childrearing and parenthood. That’s a big reason Wilbert and Jessica Waller signed up for the classes.

“We have a daughter, our first child, who’s 17 months,” Jessica Waller said. “I want to be able to invest for her college. That’s a big thing for me because our parents were both able to afford our college. They didn’t have to take out loans or anything. I would like to know how they did it.”

With financial-based conflict cited as the No. 1 cause for divorce in America, offering the resource could have more than one positive outcome for families and communities, Waller said.

“I feel like the class has opened communication between myself and my husband about money,” she said. “It’s helped us communicate, even after just the two classes.”

Promoting good financial stewardship benefits churches as well as those who attend them, said Penny Heiniger, who co-teaches the class at Divine Redeemer with Tim O’Connor.

“People without money can’t give money to the poor; people without money can’t help their church do ministry,” Heiniger said. “People who get rid of their debt and people who save their money can give.”

A key part of the program lies in the resetting of old misreadings of biblical mandates, she said.

“A lot of people say it the wrong way, that ‘money is the root of all evil,’ and that’s not true. The Bible passage is ‘the love of money is the root of all evil,'” said Heiniger, who is retired from the Air Force and has passed the Certified Public Accountant exam. “Money is amoral – those are Dave Ramsey’s words. It’s what you do with that money.”

Garlow said she hopes one day to have the flexibility to do good works with her savings, but she realizes she’ll need to keep on top of finances as a self-employed worker and divorcee.

“Sometimes it’s easier to do it yourself, but sometimes it’s easier to have someone on the road with you,” she said.

For this part of the journey, at least, Garlow’s in good company.