The Present Economic Crisis and the Goings of God: Two Questions
Originally Posted: Reimagining Church Blog
What follows are some quotes I’ve read recently regarding the current economic crisis and the traditional church. Forgive the lack of citation, but I did this on the fly and the purpose is for discussion. I hope you will share your thoughts on my two questions.
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“A new study from the Barna Group found that during the past three months, one out of every five households had cut its faith-based giving. As a result, churches could see donations decline by as much as $5 billion and revenue by as much as 6 percent during the fourth quarter of the year. “The enemy of charitable giving is insecurity,” said Paul G. Schervish, professor of sociology and director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College. “Right now, we can’t even project the end of the recession, like we did other recessions.”
“The number of religious groups in trouble is growing. Focus on the Family, a faith-based organization in Colorado with a $5 million deficit, laid off more than two hundred workers in November, while Seventh Day Adventist Church leaders have instituted a wage freeze and a 20 percent reduction in travel. Elsewhere, falling donations recently forced the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh to hold a “special collection” for Catholic Charities in response to a 40 percent increase in calls to the agency’s emergency assistance program.”
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“During the last year, most churches have reported 5 percent to 10 percent reductions in giving. I’m also aware of some churches that are experiencing up to a 20 percent reduction from last year’s collections. Because we have not seen such a drop in general giving in recent decades, this loss of revenue has caught many churches by surprise. Churches that previously had little or no debt have borrowed for building projects in recent years, banking on the future growth to generate revenue to pay off the debt. However, the drop in giving has caused church lenders to see a rise in troubled debt situations.””In response to this decreased giving, church lenders are tightening their lending requirements. Robert Yi, vice president of church and ministry lending for Evangelical Christian Credit Union, says, “We’re doing a modest amount of lending due to tight liquidity in the marketplace. Along with other financial institutions, we’re anticipating a recovery in the financial markets that would allow us to return to more typical lending volumes. Until then, we’re focusing our financing efforts primarily on meeting the critical needs of our existing member ministries.”
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“I also believe that what goes on in them [support groups] is far closer to what Christ meant his Church to be, and what it originally was, than much of what goes on in most churches I know. These groups have no
buildings or official leadership or money. They have no rummage sales, no altar guilds, no every-member canvases. They have no preachers, no choirs, no liturgy, no real estate. They have no creeds. They have no program. They make you wonder if the best thing that could happen to many a church might not be to have its building burned down and to lose all its money. Then all the people would have left is God and each other.”
~ Frederick Buechner, Quoted on pg. 277 of Reimagining Church.
buildings or official leadership or money. They have no rummage sales, no altar guilds, no every-member canvases. They have no preachers, no choirs, no liturgy, no real estate. They have no creeds. They have no program. They make you wonder if the best thing that could happen to many a church might not be to have its building burned down and to lose all its money. Then all the people would have left is God and each other.”
~ Frederick Buechner, Quoted on pg. 277 of Reimagining Church.
Two Questions:
1. Do you have any related statistics to add to the above?
2. What is your take on the present economic crisis in relation to the church and the kingdom of God?
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January 14th, 2009 in
missional | tags: church debt, Frederick Buechner, George Barna, Reimagining Church
[...] In a recent post on his Missional Tribe blog ‘beyond missional’ Frank Viola asked some questions about the effect of the current financial global crisis on Churches, and indeed the Kingdom of God. You can read his post here. [...]
I think the economic downturn definitely is affecting the finances of institutional churches. However, personally, we gave away more money in 2008 than we have ever given. We quit giving to a building and started being aware of the needs around us. Most of that money went to very real personal needs of people that we know and the rest was given in consideration of global needs. We aren’t the only ones. I have a young friend who has taken great delight in setting aside money each month to give and away and challenges God to show him where. None of it has gone toward the upkeep of a building that is used less than 1.5 percent of the week. So, I have to wonder how much of the loss of finances to the building is wrapped up in individual people starting to actually take care of the poor, the hungry, the needy.
I left the institutional church almost 5 years ago. For three of those years I participated in an emerging style church that turned out to be very unhealthy. Now I’m not involved in any sort of church at all. I doubt I ever will be again, not in any organized fashion. But I focus on bringing God and his redemptive love to places where He might not ordinarily be given a high profile … like my daughter’s hockey team.
What drove me (and my family) away from the institutional church? Well, it was a combination of things. But one of the straws that broke this camel’s back was the congregational meeting where the elder in charge of our Benevolence Fund gave his report. He proudly told the congregation of the man who’d come to the church doors begging for a winter jacket. The man was from Central America and was a day laborer. It was winter. He had work, but it was terribly cold. Could we please give him a jacket? The elder was proud of the fact that he had protected our church’s money from this malingerer. I was heartbroken and wept over that poor man, shivering through his job with no jacket while we sat in our warm pews with more jackets in our closets than we knew what to do with.
I’m with Mr. Buechner … let the buildings fall. Let those who are fat from jobs they do not deserve, work amongst those they need to serve. Then perhaps we will begin building God’s Kingdom.