Everyone knows the American economy is struggling. But no one seems to know what to do about it. Just this week we learned that a record number of Americans—-46.2 million—-live below the poverty line. Last year alone that number jumped 2.6 million. At the same time, median household income levels dropped to numbers not seen in 15 years, meaning millions more who have avoided poverty nevertheless have less money to spend, especially when you account for inflation.
Christians, however, don’t have the option of exasperating, though helpless as we watch our diminishing bank accounts. After all, Jesus told us in Matthew 6:31-33:
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
These dear promises apply to us in good times and bad, whether we live in a prosperous or declining area. As we cling to these promises, The Gospel Coalition wanted to hear from churches about how the financial tumult has affected them, recognizing the crisis has hit us in various ways. In some cases hardship has revealed new opportunities. So we asked three of our Council members: How has your church responded to the economic downturn of the last several years?
Richard D. Phillips, senior minister of Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina:
The economic downturn has not had much of a noticeable effect on the finances of our church. We are located in an area that has not suffered as greatly as other areas, being situation in the middle of one of the South’s main industrial corridors. Also, our congregation is a tithing congregation. We have not had a history of big donors but rather of a large number of faithful givers. So as long as people have kept their jobs, their income has remained stable and so has our giving.
Also, our church has grown considerably in the last couple of years, so with increased numbers of givers, we have actually had budget surpluses every year. We believe that the finances of the church are a matter of significant interest to all members and have challenged our congregation to dramatically increase their giving so that we can contribute more to the kingdom of Christ. Three years ago we raised our budget by almost 30 percent and had a surplus. Some of this was caused by growth, but it was to a large extent the response of the people to a challenge from the elders and pastors to do more for the gospel.
The main point is that the giving is a reflection of the spiritual vitality of the congregation and of their zeal for the gospel. Our goal is not to finance a nice church for ourselves, but rather to increase our giving to go along with an enlarged vision for ministry and mission. Our congregation has responded very positively. We are likely to start a capital campaign this year to expand our sanctuary, and we anticipate having the funds to do so. Praise the Lord who provides for his church!
K. Edward Copeland, senior pastor of New Zion Baptist Church in Rockford, Illinois:
Though the mainstream media would mark the beginning of the recession somewhere in the autumn of 2008 (around the fall of Lehman Brothers), the bottom fell out for Rockford during the later part of 2007. Already infamous for our double-digit unemployment, Rockford was hit hard by the automobile crisis. Our biggest employer is Chrysler. In the fall of 2007 our church was two-thirds of the way through a capital campaign designed to raise the funds for a new multipurpose building. Our capital campaign ended December 2008 without us reaching our stated goal. We have yet to build. In retrospect, the congregation is glad that our plans were held up, because we would really be struggling now if we had to pay a big construction note. Individually, we are even more grateful that God showed us how to live simply and give sacrificially during the capital campaign so that when the recession became full blown we had already adjusted our lifestyles.
Our staff is now leaner. There is not so much specialization because we have had to cross-train and work more collaboratively to get the work done. No one has received a raise in the past few years. We have tried to find creative ways to add value and show appreciation to paid staff (e.g., flex time, more personal days). We also recruited more unpaid staff by working out a deal with the local probation office for people to be able to work off their community service hours at the church.
We still need more space. Consequently, we have made better use of the facilities around us. We use the local middle school for our Resurrection Sunday services because it can hold twice as many people as our sanctuary. We use the free conference rooms at our local library for some Bible studies and other meetings. We are currently and prayerfully planning a church plant in a local housing development because we can get conference room space for free.
We have partnered with local agencies, organizations, and units of government to help us with outreach. We had been doing block parties and weekend events at all of the area housing developments by ourselves. This year, through relationships we developed with the police department, housing authority, park district, fire department, and about 15 other agencies we were able to shut down whole blocks at a time for weekends at a time. For 10 weekends during the summer we had basketball tournaments; gave out free clothes, shoes, and food; gave free haircuts to young boys; packed thousands of meals to send to Haiti; built a new playground; and touched literally thousands of lives in the 10 highest-crime areas of our city at little cost to the church because we worked together with non-religious entities. They provided information and services; we provided tangible help and the gospel.
Bottom line: We’re doing more with less.
Harry L. Reeder III, senior pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama:
In 2008 the elders and deacons of Briarwood began to anticipate the approaching economic recession and its possible depth and breadth. After an extensive time of prayer and deliberation they came to the conclusion that it could possibly be so extensive that the very ministry initiatives of the church could be threatened and undermined by a reduction of financial resources. They then established the following objectives in anticipation of the economic downturn.
- The discipleship ministry of the church, for the purpose of evangelism, assimilation, and worship, must be maintained at the same level in a more efficient manner financially.
- The missions ministry, including individual missionaries and agency support, must not only be maintained but also by God’s grace grow.
- The mercy ministry resources of the church will (of necessity) need to grow in its effectiveness and scope.
The ability to fulfill these three objectives were challenged by the dynamic of a significant capital campaign for facility expansion that had just been successfully initiated. Therefore, the elders created a strategic plan consisting of three directives:
- Reduce the operating budget by 10 percent under the provision that all effective existing ministries would be properly maintained and resourced.
- Place in hibernation the capital campaign, “For Coming Generations” facility expansion, with the request that the congregation focus on their tithe and regular giving in worship, their faith promise giving for missions, and increased mercy giving.
- Investigate and implement the growth of the mercy ministry for the congregation and from the congregation into the community.
The Lord blessed in significant ways to the point that the tithes, regular giving, and missions giving were not only maintained but even moderately increased, and the mercy giving exponentially grew. The growth of the congregation in ministry through this refocus was astounding, and the testimonies of God’s grace at work in lives are legion.
Interestingly, when the “For Coming Generations” facility expansion capital campaign was reinstated this year, through God’s providence, the cost of that campaign was reduced by two-thirds of its original projected cost. Pastorally, my comment to the leadership and fellowship was that this was the hand of God’s providence affirming their previous principled and prioritized commitment during the recession to maintain worship, evangelism, discipleship, missions, and the increased mercy.
The Briarwood congregation continues to be encouraged by the all encompassing patient and gracious providence of God as we move forward asking the Lord to enable us to be an effective, Christ-centered, gospel-driven, Spirit-filled, equipping church for the coming generations.
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
