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Sunday March 29, 2009 ~ 9 Comments
A couple of updates:If you want to dialogue about the story on Anderson Cooper's CNN blog, click here.
Nearly two in three pastors (62%) report more people from outside their church asking for help, and nearly a third (31%) see more such requests from church members, according to a survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors.
What we found is that while the needs are greater at this time, most of our churches are ready and working to serve those in need and may be in a better place than other sectors of society. The average church actually saw their offerings grow by 4 percent in 2008. Only 12 percent of churches saw their giving decline by 10 percent or more in 2008. This doesn't mean our churches aren't experiencing difficulty. These are challenging times that demand sacrificial giving by membership and wise spending by churches. And, depending on where they are in the country (and thus the severity of the recession), the situation can be and is different. We just released this article at LifewayResearch.com that provides much more information about the economy research. This last year has also brought changes in how those within congregations approach expenditures. Thirty-five percent of churches have a heightened sense of caution within their congregations about trying new things that cost money. A small number of congregations (11 percent) have seen increased reluctance to attend church functions or church-sponsored events that carry a cost or admission charge. Among the other effects the economy has had on churches:
With these challenges comes greater opportunities for our people to demonstrate love, kindness and support to one another and those outside of the church. In fact, these difficult circumstances are motivating churches to mobilize people for the work of mercy ministries. Feel free to discuss below, but I am particularly interested in two things: 1. How has the economy impacted your church? Posted on March 29, 2009 at 7:49 PM ~ 9 Comments Tagged with: consumerism, crisis, culture, economy, mercy ministry, service Subscribe via RSS or Follow us on Twitter
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We have a decrease in giving in the first three months of 2009 over the past 4 years. Right now we are holding tight to see how this plays out. We have some reserves so we are not ready to panic but if the trend continues for the next quarter we will have to begin looking at how we can reduce expenses. The only real way we can save is a reduction in personnel.
Like Howard, our giving is significantly down in 2009 compared to 2008. I attribute that to the number of layoffs which has impacted our members. We, too, are waiting to see how all of this plays out. We have contingency plans in place but will wait until a certain point before implementation.
Regarding ministry, we are partnering with our local city officials and a government work development resource to host a job fair in our church on June 12. We're expecting 1,000-2000 people at our job fair. Not only do we hope to help our members, but our community as well.
Les
Thanks for this Ed. At Mustard Seed Associates http://msainfo.org we are working on developing resources to help churches particularly here in the Pacific NW enable their congregants and those in their communities who are in need respond to the recession. We have been discouraged by how many churches are doing absolutely nothing to respond so it is good to see the statistics on those that are responding. Blessings
Ed,
It is amazing how God can provide even when it seems impossible. It is encouraging to hear that churches are not "suffering" greatly in their finances. So we found that our budget lost its "wiggle room." To rememdy this, we made several cuts regarding expenses that were excessive or not essential to our ministry.
What is amazing is that after we made these cuts to be better stewards of our finances, we have actually seen some growth in our weekly giving. God is great!
Our church has not seen any huge decline because of the economy, but we haven't seen any growth either.
Over the years we have had several financial issues at the church where I am a member. What I have seemed to see is that when we were exercising good financial control and being clear about what the problems were, giving did pick up. I think that having a really open meeting and discussing what has happened to giving and how the church is responding (both on the helping side and the cutting back side) is likely to improve giving.
One thing that some of us may do is to believe that there is a problem and that no one is responding properly. Then we cut back a bit because we have "lost faith" in the ability of the church to manage the money--and we are trying to make the problem bad enough to cause things to shape up. (Sounds sort of like the original Republican tax cuts to force smaller government doesn't it?) Then when things do shape up, we give at least what we held back and maybe some additional.
We will help a lot if we understand clearly the need and how it is being met--far more than we think we would.
Bennett Willis
After some thought, my last comment says that we should not be "waiting" to see what is going to happen--or if we wait, we need to not be quiet about it.
The Body of Christ is not made up of wimps. We need to be kept fully informed about what is going on. Lots of churches have gotten somewhat silent about things relating to finances. It is easier to not bother to prepare monthly statements and to not be transparent about everything that is going on. This is a recipe for disaster and the recipe is even more potent when the economy is down.
Bennett Willis
The giving at the church I serve is up around 25% from last year. It is the greatest financial time the church has ever seen. We are currently in a building program and it appears we will be able to cash flow the project of around $300,000. To God be the Glory!
Christine, thanks for the suggested resources.
Tommy, that is not unheard of. I have seen several situations like that. I think it is an uneven situation across the country and in different churches.
Ed
What an opportunity!
http://tinyurl.com/cnjxw8
Just a tiny way our community rallied around each other and now the effort is continuing through the web. People helping people by connecting and sharing.
Another church a few miles away did a FREE community resource clinic and provided free legal advice, employment and resume help, tax help, finances and budgeting help, spiritual direction, computer repair and technical help, and general adcovacy and community resources. www.therefugeonline.org. They rocked it!