Churches Falling Victim to Foreclosures
With the worsening of the economy, the members of the churches are diminishing together with their donations resulting in many churches falling victim to foreclosures. The finances of the churches have also been mismanaged.
Memphis Theological Seminary’s Dr. Jay Earheart-Brown analyses the causes to be fall in membership numbers and in tithes with all being added to mismanagement. He said many of the new churches are failing to invest their properties for longer stretches of time.
They are just taking a place on rent for holding meetings. If all the efforts and time is spent on buildings and then maintaining that huge edifice there is very little time for actual ministrations and attending to the needs of the people in the community.
The previous members of Millington based New Life Church say that God has spoken to them. They lost out to foreclosure. Some of members clubbed together to form the Dominion Christian Church. They rented out a place in Millington Civic Center. They share it with four other congregations that are smaller. The rent is thus paid for. They hold their services in this new place.
One of the members of Dominion Christian Church, Diane Edwards said that often when there are splits in the church or when the church facing foreclosure one feels that nothing will become right again. But one should think that it might appear to be the end of the road but it could be just another bend for a new start.
The important thing is to stay together. She said, “We are together. We’re doing fine and we’re ready to save and hopefully we’ll be able to pay cash. We’re going cash this time. We are not going to that kind of debt anymore. Churches messed up when we went in to a lot of debt.”
News Channel 3 was making investigations about the plight of some of the foreclosed banks and found although the process was initiated none of the churches were actually compelled to vacate the premises. They are staying on as tenants of the bank that once foreclosed on them. This is happening because the church cannot cobble together the money required to clear the loan and secondly the banks too cannot find new customers to purchase the church property.
Dr. Earheart-Brown feels that the churches that are non-denominational are more prone to foreclosures. Those that are denominated like United Methodist, Disciples of Christ etc have been more cautious about their finances – merging congregations and selling of properties to ward off foreclosures.
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