It seem like a Number of churches and religious organizations are experiencing a downturn in their financial support in the past few weeks. Long time ago churches would have mortgage burning services to show how happy they were to end debt. I don't know if that is true today. I don't believe the church should have an on-going mortgage especially if the plan is to reach souls for Christ. We the congregation can't do what God has called us to do if we are burden down with alot of debt and neither can the church. A lot of churches have been caught up in the corporate America mentality. Secular business methods were brought into the “Church” when Churches played to the “Businessmen” in the congregation (the men with the money), elected them to boards and started using their methods for “running” the “Church”.
Most Churches today function just like secular businesses do, in the last quarter of the year they start putting together their business plan for the next year. They calculate expected expenditures for the next year, and any new expenditures, derived not through prayer and direction form God but by secular business methods and then calculate how much in tithes they need to fleece through guilt from the congregation to support their plan! Here's a compendium of articles on the subject:
Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, Colorado) eliminates 202 jobs or 15 percent of its staff in Colorado Springs.
New Life(Colorado Springs, Colorado), the church formerly pastored by Ted Haggard, announced a layoff of 44 people, or 12 percent of its workforce.
First Baptist Church (Weston, Florida) delayed plans for a new $4 million building due to budget shortfalls.
Episocopal headquarters (New York City, New York) noted that the denominations endowment fund declined about 30 percent this year.
The following Christian colleges are closing because of poor finances: Cascade College (Portland, Oregon), Taylor University undergraduate program (Fort Wayne Indiana), Pillsbury Baptist Bible College (Owatonna, Minnesota), Vennard College (University Park, Iowa).
Seventh-Day Adventist headquarters (Silver Spring, Maryland) announced a wage freeze, budget cuts and project delays.
Various missions organizations, nationwide and global charities are also reporting downturns. It's a known fact that during economic downturns, people are more apt to focus their attention on local causes. Missions groups and global charities will be susceptible. We can expect more of this in the months to come especially with some of our mega churches. In other words the church bottom line should not be the same as a business bottom line. Money!
6 comments:
Hello there,
A church that I used to attend sold its church building to a cult and the building had been purchased by freed slaves more than a century ago. There were many tears but the pastor convinced the board that the church building was not sufficient and that an entire plaza should be built in the suburbs.
The church building fund went bankrupt, the construction stopped at the new suburban site and the cult that had purchased the building has demanded that the congregation leave the building.
One third of the congregation has left. There were about 2,000 people attending each Sunday years ago.
This situation is happening with so many mega churches.
I don't think that there is a problem with churches obtaining mortgages to buy their buildings but many churches are getting into larger mortgages than their current congregation can keep up with.
Congregations are being told "have faith in God and He will fill the building!!" and that is used as the justification for asking the congregation to support these enormous mortgage loans.
If people in the church object, they are told that they don't have enough FAITH that God will provide.
There is an element of emotional manipulation going on.
The Bishop I used to work for would take out mortgages for small church buildings in HIS name in order to start new churches.
That sounds okay ...on the surface...since new churches do not have a congregation established or any savings to use to buy a building.
The mortgage would remain in his name while the congregation was paying the loan each month with their tithes and offerings. The only problem with THAT type of arrangement is that the buildings legally belonged to him since he was the only name on the mortgage.
The nonprofit entity never owned the building. The trustees were hand-picked by the Bishop so of course, they were rubber-stampers on anything and everything.
The only persons who were placed in positions to make decisions were those who would accept whatever the Bishop wanted to do.
This is so very common all over.
There are so many reasons why there are many financial collapses that are occurring quietly throughout the body of Christ and a large part of it is not because of the downturn in the economy but because of mismanagement....and sometimes...greed.
May our Lord place His hand of judgment upon those who have defiled His house and may we ALL turn our hearts fully to Him, those who call themselves by His name!
Peace, blessings and DUNAMIS!
Lisa
You've got an - AMEN!!! from me on this post!!!!!
An excellent post with much food for thought. I think that the financial crisis should cause all of us to be introspective to determine what our priorities really are.
Are we seeing the crumbling and removal of things "shaken, being made by us and temporary in order that the permanent and that which cannot be shaken be revealed?" Heb 12:27
Good question. I think that if churches were fiscally responsible and morally together in their financial dealings, they've got the favor of God. I think they'll be just fine.
This is a true test of the times though.
I know plenty of Christians and majority of them are struggling just to give their tenth - let alone an offering.
Tough times...really tough times.
Great Post! The tactics used to get the money for these huge mortgages are ungodly. I know people who want to go to church, but do not because of the pressures inflicted upon them help pay a church mortgage or support the building fund.
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- blackwomenblowthetrumpet mentioned emotional guilt (a favorite), add humiliation (members are forced to get up and drop their offering in the plate), and scolding. It is really sad that it's church folk who keep people from going to church.
I actually left a small church where I was a member for 10 years and one of the reasons why was because everything centered around money. Every event there was some type of money that would have to be payed, outside of the regular tithe/offering. I just could not afford to attend there anymore.
I now attend a much larger church, it would probably fall into the category of mega church. However, I am not hounded for money. We are encouraged to tithe.
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