On a recent Saturday morning, Kevin Cross looked out at a sea of people filling the pews of a Fort Lauderdale church, and greeted the crowd of several hundred with a hearty ``amen!''

But instead of delivering the gospel, Cross spent an entire day lecturing and instructing the crowd at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale on . . . personal finances.

Cross is a ''financial missionary.'' His calling: to spread the message of faith-based financial management.

``By definition, missionaries are people sent to where the need is greatest.''.

These days, the need is apparently growing in the continental United States, where a steadily increasing number of churches and religious groups are ordaining ''financial missionaries'' and ''stewardship pastors,'' whose job is not the spreading of gospel. Rather, their mission is to preach and teach money management and financial salvation in tough economic times.

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