The Economy is A Big Mess But We Serve A Bigger God

tagged: Associations, Church Life, Current Events, Prayer, Roger Ferrell

The Economy is A Big Mess But We Serve A Bigger God

Posted by Roger Ferrell in Church & Missions, News & Culture

So I heard the economy is in trouble. Did you hear that? While all the stockbrokers make appointments with their cardiologists, our churches keep pressing on with their task to make disciples. But there is no pretending this is not affecting us. And quite frankly, I’ve been stressed out about how 5 member families losing their jobs and a decrease in giving has hampered our ability to pay the bills at our church. These times surely call for much prayer, and as much help as we can give each other.

Fortunately, wise counsel is often close at hand. Our Director of Missions here in the Gwinnett Metro Baptist Association sent this letter to the 130 pastors in our association today. I think he makes a good point.

Dear Pastor,

One of the items that came out of the Pastor Assessment information was that a number of churches wanted some help with their financial situations. So I am writing you to make this suggestion to you that might help save you some significant dollars. If you have any kind of outstanding loan on your buildings or property, now would be a good time to meet with your bank and discuss them lowering your interest rate. I believe that interest rates are about as low as they are probably going to be for some time and so you might be able to lower your interest rate.

When you talk to the bank, they will probably say that they have set a policy to not re-negotiate loans at this time. Tell them that while you appreciate the fact that they cannot re-negotiate every loan or even be able to give you their lowest rate, that other banks are at least lowering the rate a point to a point and a half you feel that you would like to requestio this from them at this time. Such a reduction in your interest rate can amount to a sizable savings.

We were able to work out this kind of a deal with our bank on the loan on our office building here and it saved us about a thousand dollars a month. So if this would help you, then now is the time to act.

Yours in Christ,

Sid Hopkins, Director of Missions

I hope that reminder is useful to you and your church. Receiving this letter also sparked a few interesting questions I thought might make a good discussion for our readers. First, what is your congregation’s view of debt, and how did they arrive at that view? Second, how is this economy affecting your church? Are you seeing any change, and if so, what kind? Last, who in your church is this economy putting a stress on financially? (no names please, just occupations or types of people) How are you helping them, and how can we pray for you?

Mike Woodward says:

October 16, 2008 at 12:50 pm

Our 4 year old church is renting a warehouse type facility, but gutted it and constructed a worship space, common area, office and classrooms for low 6 figures. We did not go into debt. While I was not on staff, or even a member, when they started the project, I think they started the church with a philosophy that having no debt put them in the best position to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

We’re in the St. Louis rural suburbs. One of the biggest employers was two Chrysler plants in Fenton, MO. One plant was closed, and the other had its workforce cut by two thirds. In addition, the company that hauled the vehicles has cut its workforce by 2/3, and the company that manufactured the seats for Chrysler vehicles went bankrupt. Long and short of it: we have at least 3 families affected by just this one plant closing. Some of them are covered for now with severance or by their union contract. We have several others that have lost higher paying jobs in old technology and are currently ‘underemployed’.

The brothers and sisters who are most affected tend to be tied to the manufacturing industry or in unskilled labor.

Most of the care ministry in this church was successfully ad hoc because for several years the attenders/members hovered around 100. We’re flirting now with the 200 level which means caring ministry HAS to be systematic. We’re just now starting to get our ministry organized to scale up to this level.

We’ve set up a caring blog that will list job openings /corporate job websites that we know of personally. I plan to add to this blog static posts dealing with compiling people who can help others with home improvement and car care to save money. I hope to eventually set up a seminar for job searches / interviewing, as many of our people who are affected have been at one job their whole life.

As we are still in the brainstorming phase, I hope to glean some ideas from this discussion. Wouldn’t it be awesome for a lonely and hopeless culture see how the body of Christ loves and works together in the midst of crisis. Why that would be downright peculiar! (Romans 12:9-15)