This evening, an influential evangelical leader in New York City issued by email to me a personal call for Christians to pray for the crisis hitting the investment community. Allow me to share his (edited) email as follows:
It is crucial to take forceful leadership in praying for our business leaders, Christians in the financial industry and those whose investments and mortgages are tanking. We may find it hard to pray for these bankers because they are insanely wealthy, true.
A few of them can be terribly arrogant; and some can have little heart for the less wealthy. Yet, Jesus prayed for the rotten because he loved the rotten. In this situation prayer could accompany a revival of the heart on Wall Street. Christian leaders need to lead during this financial crisis, which is threatening to become one of the greatest in our nation’s history.
We can hope that these are only “rough spots along the road.” Or “You have to throw out the history books because there’s really nothing to compare this to,” said one chief investment officer.
A chief market strategist said the magnitude of the financial industry fallout is unprecedented, and could only be compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s or the railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s.
NYC financial industry may lose 150,000 jobs this year. Ministries and churches that rely on donations from the financial industry should expect a 25 percent drop in giving.
Yet, we shouldn’t be too alarmist because it could create a sense of panic.
We should recognize the intense pressure on our brothers and sisters in the financial industry. In discussions with financial leaders earlier this year I found that their spiritual and emotional condition was already sending an //SOS// for help.
Now, they may be shouting for the life buoy.
Pray for more of Jesus on Wall Street.
