When leaders of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship Church sat down to plan this year's budget, they knew that extra prayer was in order.
The slowing economy was squeezing the 4,000 members of this evangelical megachurch outside Dallas, prompting more families to ask for spiritual and financial help even as fewer could afford to give.
To cut 10% from its $6 million budget, the church froze staff salaries, stopped using a daily cleaning service and cut $10,000 from its lawn-care bill. It also laid off five of its 71 staff members, including a popular pastor.
It is my hope that this economic downturn will cause local churches to really start to reevaluate their debt and their spending. This insatiable appetite to spend, spend, spend in local churches cripples them when times get tough. As the economy collapses and people show up looking for help from the local church, many find that the church is already overextended because of fixed costs associated with buildings and staff. Think of the example above. They cut $600,000 from their budget by getting rid of a daily cleaning service, cutting ten grand from their lawn care bill (how much was left over?! With 4000 “members” you couldn’t find a couple of guys to mow the lawn for free?) and getting rid of five staff members. This could have been avoided with some restraint when times were good. The unprecedented affluence we experienced over the last couple of decades is unlikely to come back. We have lost too many jobs and the rest of the world is catching up.
The problem is not a lack of giving. The problem is not Christians being unfaithful in tithing. The problem is one of spending. Many churches run their finances like the Federal government. When they get more money, they spend more money. When times are tough, they blame the revenue instead of the spending. Ministry requires money sometimes, that is true but not nearly as much money as we make it seem. In the Gospels we see Christ sending out His disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God and they were pretty ill-prepared by our standards.
And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. (Luke 9: 1-6)
The twelve went out without food or money or even so much as an extra tunic. I wonder what they would say about sermons trying to guilt people into giving to pay for jumbotron screens, $10,000 lawn care services and all of the other things we spend money on that has very little to do with proclaiming the Kingdom?
1 comment:
I heard someone comment a couple weeks ago that he expects that, given the government's growing need for more money to cover their spending, churches will soon lose their tax-exempt status. And that when that happens, many of the churches with big buildings and/or lots of debt will go under - and that that may well be a good thing....
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