Church+money

Church leaders wonder what impact anxiety over the economy will have on donations

BY ALLISON KENNEDY - akennedy@ledger-enquirer.com --

A few items were missing from the table.

In August, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church hosted a missionary program. Church secretary Kathy Branscomb took note that the typical bounty at the reception wasn't there.

"Normally it's a bigger spread. We had nice refreshments, but they were more frugal," she said. A buffet that would normally include chicken fingers contained finger sandwiches, cake and punch.

It was the first sign to Branscomb that her church was feeling the effects of a depressed economy. She'd heard it from some members who were struggling financially. But the reception helped her see.

Friendship Baptist is not alone. Congregations all over the Chattahoochee Valley area tell similar tales of pinching pennies because of falling revenues, or anticipating them.

After about 20 years of low food inflation, prices for bread, milk, eggs and flour are rising sharply, surging in the past year at double-digit rates, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Milk prices jumped 26 percent, while the price of eggs rose 40 percent.

The average household spends three times as much for food as for gasoline. Food accounts for about 13 percent of household spending compared with about four percent for gas, according to government figures. Households are spending about $1,000 more per year for gasoline than they were just five years ago -- an 85 percent increase.

Then comes the taxpayer bailout of Wall Street to the tune of $700 billion. Many question where the bottom of the troubled economy lies.

Closer to home, the unemployment rate is 6.7 percent, with companies large and small affected. Homegrown dealer Bill Heard Chevrolet shut its doors in recent weeks, putting about 300 out of work locally; and bank holding company Synovus cut 230 Columbus-based jobs.

This economy? The Rev. Jimmy Blanton hasn't seen worse. The director of missions for the Columbus Baptist Association said the economic outlook among the 53 Southern Baptist churches is bleak overall; he and his staff at Mission Columbus Central have planned for an 8.2 percent budget shortfall next year. The result of that will be less programming and training in Columbus churches.

"We're all trying to tighten our belts," he said.

And yet, Blanton is encouraging people to be faithful in their financial giving -- both to their churches and to Mission Columbus on Buena Vista Road, which serves some of the city's most needy through a variety of social services.

"My confidence is in the Lord," Blanton said. "He will provide in His time."

"What I have primarily seen as a result of this economy (so far) is that the kind of help people from outside our church, and from within our congregation, are calling about is more dire and from people who normally would not need help -- the employed -- people living in their own homes. This is new," said the Rev. Howard White of Pierce Chapel United Methodist Church in Midland.

"There is some evidence that giving has been effected, but so far we've not had to make any cuts."

Contact Allison Kennedy at 706-576-6237

 

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