A church with for sale sign
I’m tempted to paraphrase Christ’s remark, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and foreclosures by the banks shall not prevail against it.”
Church’s nightmares about being foreclosed are unfortunately a reality and on the rise. A surprising high number of churches are facing foreclosure these days. There are “for sale" signs outside churches around the nation, after they failed to make months worth of mortgage payments.
It is estimated that churches have fallen behind on building payments or defaulted more this year then in any year since the Depression. The recession, combined with a significant nationwide drop in church giving, has resulted in some churches filing for bankruptcy.
While there are always those cases of financial irresponsibility and financial neglect, most churches have shown some high level of financial responsibility in order to qualify to purchase a property. Unforeseen events can cause sudden and unpredictable financial havoc.
The reality is this, some pastors are just financially irresponsible and incapable of running an church and therefore have no business heading a church. Some churches have a leadership structure that are incapable of running a 20-member church but yet want to leap-frog to a mega-million church. Because Joel has a mega-church does not mean you are ready or capable to having one.
It is an irony that most churches consist of a wealth of brain resources from every professional spectrum that can be tapped with absolutely no charges for their services. All the church have to do is just ask their members to be on their respective committee – The CPA’s, bankers, and financial planners get recruited for the financial committee and allow them to independently make recommendations to the pastor or the the board. Provided the pastor will listen to them.
To run a mega-million or a successful church, pastors must come to the realization that a church is a business and must be operated as such period. Most pastors must pray for let go of the problems facing their churches – lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, and envy.
Most pastors are ignorant of the fact that the cost of a value activity is always affected by policy choices a church makes, which is quite independently of other drivers. Being able to preach a great sermon does not sustain or make a church great.
The so-called strategy of increased membership for the sole purpose to increase financial donation or contribution is a demonic business strategy. More and more churches are starting to use Youtube.com, Facebook.com and Twitter.com not to share the word of God but rather to attract members – another sad and pathetic practice.
Yes, we all are aware that banks offered ridiculous loans, but just because one is offered something ridiculous, must one accept it? Unlike an innocent and naive first time home buyers, churches knowing that the price of a projected church project was high and the building plans ambitious, but yet went ahead and secured a $5 million plus loan from a credit union that caters to churches. In some cases, the lenders were, in a sense, betting on the likelihood that a maybe popular pastor could attract a large audience or, in some cases, on the popularity of one denomination over another.
But, where those bets wrong, or too optimistic or poor judgement, congregations found themselves knee-deep in debt and at risk of losing their churches.
An economic downturn increases church attendance, while the amount each churchgoer donates continues to decrease. Churches can trim the fat of their wasteful spending by selling the pastors’ private plane, stop paying all of the pastor’s and his family credit cards, cutting staff and some useless social activities.
By facing foreclosure itself, the church has loose it role of a lighthouse and a shelter in the time of the foreclosure surname. They have instead become an irrelevant, irresponsible, unnecessary institution and a useless tax parasite to it members. The only solution to the church and its foreclosure mess is through God’s words – the Bible.
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This article though informative seemed one sided. Almost as if the writer made up their mind about the story without looking with a more thorough lens. Terms such as "Most pastors are ignorant to the fact… and "Most churches… seem subjective rather than objective. Also the writer says that using social networking to solely increase membership is a demonic business strategy, but who says that is what they are soley using it for? And one must also ask the question is investing in profitable companies who have less than ethical and moral practices any less demonic? The truth is that it is not an easy task to keep a church afloat in these days and times when corporations are raping the average citizens on multiple fronts. There are bound to be casualties because of this, and although church leaders need to be more fiscally responsible, to imply that they are the sole blame for their faltering status is just plain wrong.