Black Church memberships up, offerings down

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - 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."

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.

Economic forecasters say unemployment could reach double digits for everyone before it gets better. The pain is indiscriminate.

"I don't think anyone is not affected by the economy right now from Wall Street to Main Street," says the Rev. Dr. Tecoy Porter, senior pastor of the 1000-member Genesis Church in Sacramento, Calif. "California just got out of the budget crisis so our members are furloughed twice a month and things like that."

Because of a 20 percent drop in offerings, Porter says he has had to lay off some staff members and restructure his church organization. That includes cutting two Sunday services down to only one. Fortunately, because of the Black community's history of struggle, Black institutions have a special knack for endurance.

"We've been here before. We're not strangers to any type of depression or oppression or things like that. And so there's a resiliency of Black churches that cannot be overlooked," says Porter. "I am a preacher's kid, a third generation pastor, so I am a product of the Black church and so I believe it is the strongest institution that we have for African-Americans in our community because it has survived so much."

The messages through the years have been consistent. "We preach hope. We say we can make it. We've been here. Don't panic. This too shall past," Porter says.

Meanwhile, some pastors say their churches are supplementing messages of faith and hope with practical teachings on finances, job-searching, entrepreneurship and business ownership.

Porter has written a book, "Releasing Your Inner Treasure, 8 Kingdom Keys to Unlocking the Wealth Within You", based on his personal experiences with financial management. Now in his 10th year of pastoring, he retired from managing his information technology firm when he was only 29 years old.

"If you manage your money right, then everything else will be right" he says. "I'm so surprised at how we just don't want to talk about money and deal with those issues. So, that spurred me to write the book and really preach about how He has empowered us economically and financially and to use those practical scriptures to build us up."

In addition to scriptures, tangible know-how to correct and add balance to some of what has been taught in churches over the years will be key, says Bishop Noel Jones, pastor of the 17,000-member City of Refuge in Los Angeles, which he says is down only 6-10 percent on income.

Jones says unbalanced teachings in the church are partially to blame for the crisis.

"We have endured 25 years of health, wealth and prosperity preaching and the prophet should have told us that we were going to be in this kind of situation and circumstance since they have such prophetic words," Jones says.

He continues, "The only people who were making any real money were those who were expostulating the theology that left the psychology that debilitated the minds of those who were involved. The debilitation is that everybody expected to bring an offering in church and just get rich though nobody participated and partnered with God. Because at the end of the day nobody receives a check in an envelope postmarked from heaven. It's your participation that makes it happen"

The pastors agree that the financial troubles won't last always.

"In the Bible, in every story where you find a famine in the land, by the end of the chapter, you find a blessing, overflowing abundant blessing," says Stevens. "We don't serve a 'get you' God. God is not coming after you because you want a better house or a better car. Everybody got greedy. God doesn't hate us for that. So, we have to get over the guilt factor and look at what we can do to be better stewards of our resources. The rebound is coming. We ought to see that and know that. .Work while we wait, prepare. We are our best stimulus plan. We are our best recovery package.