WASHINGTON – The doors of the historic Black church, a fortress of healing from social pain, have opened even wider during the economic crisis. But as church membership increases across the nation, offerings are decreasing, causing even houses of faith to
WASHINGTON – The doors of the historic Black church, a fortress of healing from social pain, have opened even wider during the economic crisis. But as church membership increases across the nation, offerings are decreasing, causing even houses of faith to make difficult decisions, pastors say.
“I think the story that has not been told is that the churches across the country have been hard hit,” says Dallas’ Bishop T. D. Jakes in an interview with the NNPA News Service. “The church has no more resources than from the parishioners from which it comes. And so, when the parishioners are in straits, churches are in straits too. And so it puts us in a bit of a precarious situation.”
Jakes says he has had to take drastic but practical measures to cut costs at his more than 30,000-member Potter’s House.
“Membership has gone up. Income has gone down. We’ve laid off about 40 people from our staff. We’ve had to make some hard choices. We’ve had to curtail some of the services that we’ve normally had to provide to the community because our resources are hard hit. I’m getting calls from pastors all over the country who are downsizing, cutting back on services, cutting back on office hours because they are being adversely affected by this also.”
Last months’ Black unemployment rate leaped 1.7 percent from the month before, now at 15 percent overall. That is nearly double that of the 8 percent white unemployment rate and the national average, which is 8.9 percent. For Black men, the unemployment rate is 17.2 percent, more than double that of white men, at 8.5 percent.
From the civil rights movement to the current economic downturn, African-Americans have typically turned to the Black church when the community is in crisis.
One would speculate that smaller churches may be fairing easier with less overhead. But in coast to coast interviews, most pastors are telling the same story – even congregations with less than 1,000 members.
“We have probably experienced about a 30 percent decline – a significant, noticeable decline in the giving,” says Pastor Levonzia Stevens Sr., senior pastor of the 700-member Hope Aglow Empowerment Center in Woodbridge, Va. “The people are trying to do what’s right in God’s eyesight. Unfortunately sometimes the pressures of normal bills cause individuals to make decisions that cut back on their giving. It’s been more noticeable over the last year.”
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