No sooner had Americans cleaned up from the impact of Hurricane Ike in 2008 than we were hit by a global economic hurricane. We saw banks fail, homes lost in foreclosure, corporations go bankrupt, and the fierce winds of global recession threatened economies all over the planet.
“The economy has taken a turn for the worse, big time,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist for Decision Economics, a consulting and forecasting group. “Consumption literally caved in. It is a prelude to much worse news on the economy over the next couple quarters.” The Economist magazine reports that some economists are predicting the recession could stretch into 2010 with the jobless rate reaching 10.5 percent by then.
Millions of Americans are already feeling the pain having lost their homes, their investments, and their jobs. Unemployment has risen to 6.5 percent and could soar to over 8 percent early in 2009. Unemployment among Latinos has already reached 8.8 percent and has soared to 10.1 percent for African Americans. Many of those who have lost their jobs work in the hotel and restaurant industry, which is one of the first sectors impacted by economic decline. How will your church respond if almost 10 percent of your congregation or community suffer unemployment?
Shelters all over the U.S. that provide food and housing for the homeless report that demand is soaring and resources are shrinking. States and municipalities are cutting social services to the poor as demand is increasing because tax revenues are declining due to the recession.
Government officials have promised to address the issue with plans to “create jobs, provide relief to families, help home owners, and restore the financial system.” And we need to pray for all our political and economic leaders in this time of global economic crisis. But, as followers of Christ, we also need to join them and prepare to be God’s compassionate response to escalating needs of our most vulnerable neighbors as the economic devastation continues.
What We Learned From Katrina
Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf region just over three years ago. Churches were among the first responders. They weren’t prepared, but they often did a better job than government agencies.
Followers of Jesus, during times of crisis, don’t abandon neighbors, but share their resources with them.
Since Katrina, churches all over the U.S. have developed disaster preparedness capabilities. Some major denominations like the United Methodists and the Southern Baptists have developed sophisticated strategies. Crown of Life Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas, was ready to receive, house, and care for 200 refugees fleeing Hurricane Ike.
As the world slid into this swelling global recession, I tried to find any churches or Christian organizations that had developed recession preparedness strategies. I found a number of businesses but virtually no churches or Christian organizations that had become “recession ready.”
Brainstorming Recession Readiness
Since we found so little preparation, Mustard Seed Associates hosted our first ever Recession Preparedness Brainstorming Session here in Seattle.
We have been concerned about a possible economic downturn since 2007. In fact, I met with the administration and board of a leading evangelical college in January 2008, urging them to get ready for the impact of a possible recession on student loans and the ability of students and their parents to pay the bills.
We held our Recession Preparedness session several weeks before the economic meltdown actually began. Almost 50 friends came together to identify creative ways we could more fully be the compassion of God in our communities during a global economic crisis. We have worked in a similar way, over the years, with groups like Habitat for Humanity, World Concern, and Tear Fund UK to help them anticipate and creatively respond to new challenges.
We began with a simple “hard times” meal like you might be served in a homeless shelter. Then we divided into three groups to concentrate on three distinct groups of people: the poor, the middle class, and church communities.
We asked each of the three groups to focus their brainstorming around different questions. Here are the questions and some of their responses.
The Poor
How can our churches and Christian organizations that work with the poor increase our capacity for compassionate response while giving is likely to decline?
This is a tough one because often when giving declines, ministries to the poor are one of the first things to be cut. One response was to urge congregations to institute the policy of increasing their giving by 10 percent to those most seriously impacted by the recession, even if giving starts declining. We will undoubtedly need to increase resources and volunteers at our food banks and feeding programs during the worst part of the recession. But as we come out of the recession, we will need to enable poorer communities to start small businesses that provide jobs and lift the entire community.
These communities often have strong relational networks that enable them to work together during times of crisis. Now suburban and urban congregations must learn how to work together through community networks to serve those in need.
A few years ago, an inner-city Methodist church in Chicago worked through these neighborhood networks in collaboration with a rural Methodist church. Farmers in the rural church grew thousands of fruit tree seedlings. Then the urban community networks planted these fruit trees in parking strips and backyards all over their inner-city neighborhoods to significantly increase the food-producing capability of the community for good times and tough times.
One of the few groups doing recession preparedness is Catholic Charities in central Texas. They offer workshops that help the working poor find jobs that will be less vulnerable to layoffs during this growing recession.
The Middle Class
How can we enable the middle class in our congregations and communities to reduce their economic vulnerability and increase their availability and resources to help neighbors in need?
Trinity Lutheran Church in Lynnwood, Washington, is proactively trying to enable middle class members to both reduce their vulnerability and increase their availability to others. They are offering a course on financial planning to help people both reduce their debt and create budgets to better steward what God has entrusted to them. They also offer a course, taught by older members, on how to grow and process food (i.e. canning fruit) to reduce food costs in tough times.
Young, innovative leaders are not only creating new expressions of the church, but some are actually downscaling their lifestyles so they have more to share with the needy.
In The New Conspirators I tell the story of a young family that decided to sell their larger home and buy a smaller but adequate home in Grand Rapids to significantly reduce their monthly mortgage payments and increase their ability to give to the church’s mission to those in need. With this soaring economic crisis, imagine what might happen if we motivated families to reduce their expenditures on themselves to free-up more money and time to invest in responding to the urgent needs of their neighbors? Perhaps some will be motivated to open their homes to those in need.
Our Churches
How can we enable our churches to develop a recession preparedness capability to better serve those devastated by this economic hurricane like those churches have done to get ready for natural disasters?
One possibility is for churches to invest in creating an emergency food pantry for the needy nearby during a time of recession or a natural disaster. The Mormons have developed methods of food storage that we could all learn. Some families are stockpiling at least three weeks of food supplies for themselves and their neighbors to use in an emergency.
Let me be clear though. The last thing we want is to encourage a survivalist mentality. During the Y2K scare, a disappointing number of Christians, caught up in end times fear-mongering, abandoned their neighbors and headed to remote cabins with their guns and dehydrated foods.
The Scripture calls followers of Jesus, during times of crisis, not to abandon our neighbors but rather to be in the forefront of those who share their resources with them.
More Creative Approaches
Here are some more creative ideas our friends came up with at our Recession Preparedness session.
Like churches with disaster plans, train crisis response teams to offer support for people in serious economic peril, helping them identify available employment and financial assistance resources.
Inventory available resources of the church community (e.g. tools to borrow, plumbing or mechanical skills, kitchen space or utensils, financial advice, extra work clothing) and create a kind of church “Craig’s List” (or “Kingdom List”) for trading, bartering, or borrowing.
Convene classes on financial stewardship focused on the biblical principles of reducing debt, budgeting, giving, and saving. Offer financial mentorship.
Promote lifestyle changes that can save money and free up funds to help those in serious need.
Glean from underutilized resources like unharvested berry bushes and fruit trees in the neighborhood (Seattle has wild blackberry bushes everywhere!), and identify land that can be used for local food production. Gleaning from grocery stores that throw out old, but still good, food is a viable option as well.
Partner with rural congregations and local farmers and gardeners, develop agricultural cooperatives, food storage programs (e.g. canning, dehydrating, freezing) and meal planning and preparation groups.
Include and mentor the youth to be a part of the creative process. They can offer new perspective and learn about sustainable lifestyles from older people in their communities that still know how to grow and process food.
Offer inspiration and support resources for those offering care to the needy over a sustained period.
Install showers near the church social hall to increase your capacity to be a shelter to neighbors during any economic or natural disasters.
Finally, as individuals and congregations, significantly increase your giving to Christian organizations that work with the poor locally and globally.
We continue to add to these ideas, and we would love to post your ideas and share the ways you and other communities of faith are making a difference among the vulnerable. The conversation continues at msainfo.org.
The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Manual puts it well: “The unprepared church will miss valuable opportunities to minister while attempting to react to a disaster in their community. By planning before a disaster occurs and coordinating with the local government and local American Red Cross chapter, a church can be prepared to minister fully in a time of crisis.”
Doesn’t it make good sense for our churches not only to be prepared for natural disasters but economic crises as well?
Tom Sine is founder of Mustard Seed Associates (www.msainfo.org) and author of The New Conspirators. He lives in Seattle.
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