The Upside of Down Times
Leading the family of faith through the storm
If pain is our greatest teacher, then we are all gaining an advanced education through these financially difficult times. Even signs of hope and recovery bear suspicion; perhaps they are merely the eye of the storm before the backside tempest moves over us?
Just how bad is it, and how deeply have local churches and charitable organizations been afflicted? Establishing definitive analyses is difficult. Both religious and secular media vary in their assessments—ranging from reports of minimal damage to accounts of significant pain and deep cutbacks.
In my personal association with pastors, there is more than a smattering of anecdotal evidence of belt-tightening. An excellent statistical summary by one of our own — Dr. Brian Kluth, generosity minister-at-large at First EFC in Colorado Springs — notes that nearly 30 percent of churches experienced declines in 2008 giving, while more than 50 percent are falling short of 2009 projections.
Though we all wish that serious down times would be rare and brief, they do present the upside opportunity for strong teaching and discipleship, as well as personal reflection. “Never waste a good crisis,” our political leaders have said. It would indeed be a missed opportunity for church leaders to not render a biblical perspective in the midst of such upheaval.
Yet we would also be wasting a good crisis if we didn’t examine our own perspective on the current economy and how that perspective has shaped our church. It is a good hour for introspection. Have we been good stewards of our responsibilities—teaching about managing material resources and navigating our assemblies through these rapids?
Or have we neglected a strong biblical perspective on this topic in fear of being labeled as “always preaching about money”? Have we focused our long-term, high-debt capital projects in efficient ways that tie wisely to the heart of our mission?
As a local church pastor, I have pondered how my assembly would function if the wheels of the economy completely came off. How would we meet the basic needs of our people, and how would we serve those outside our walls?
It’s natural to hope that cataclysmic conditions might drive masses of people toward church and connection with God. Yet consider the Great Depression. Though certain denominations seemed to thrive during that period of history — particularly those with emphases on dramatic eschatological belief systems—most churches maintained a relatively level attendance throughout the 1930s.
But can we expect an unchanging attendance? Compared to our modern culture, churches of the 1930s played a stronger role within the social fabric of their communities. In our day we must intentionally create the interdependent networks that formerly existed more organically.
At Tri-State Fellowship, in addition to care-giving ministries and missional outreach, we are establishing a crisis intervention task force — to address needs ranging from a sinking economy to a local natural disaster. For those of us with the most, might our resources be a gift of God to those in the church family with the least? Rather than assisting intermittently, could we even open our homes to those most desperate?
The material challenges of our time provide wonderful open doors for significant spiritual ministry, if we will embrace the opportunities.
To access a 1,000-church survey of church giving patterns, visit www.kluth.org/surveyresults.htm, and to read Dr. Brian Kluth's article "5 Ways Your Church Can Make Giving Go Up in a Down Economy," click here.
Randy Buchman is lead pastor of Tri-State Fellowship (EFCA) in Hagerstown, Md. He serves in a community where unemployment has been running about 2 percent above the national average. To obtain a copy of Randy’s sermon series “The Upside of Down Times,” contact him via e-mail.
