Church Foreclosure

Church Foreclosure

In the last year churches have been hit hard with budget short falls as members have cut back on giving due to their financial situations. If unemployment is averaging 10.4% and others are underemployed and equity has been lost this can affect the donations a church receives significantly. Sadly churches have taken the American view that borrowing money is ok.

So much emphasis has been put on building beyond the means and needs of a congregation, how many churches will fall into foreclosure in the next five to ten years will probably be significant and could be a black eye on the church. On the positive side it will hopefully get Christians and the church back into the business of The Great Commission. It could be a time to reinvent the church in a way that is more flexible more agile and more suited to work and deal with the community around them. Hopefully the church will no longer be many separate lighthouses in a city, but a bright light encompassing the whole community.

Churches in the last 15 years have started moving away from the traditional church building with a big front door and a steeple. Churches have started occupying community centers, strip malls, old office buildings, old retail stores, movie theaters, restaurants, bars, the beach, ski slope, and anything in between. The church of yesterday will probably only survive in small communities or in buildings that have been long paid for and who’s members do not mortgage the property to pay for today’s bills or what they think they will get tomorrow.

As I hear lay leaders say if we only had this much money we could do this. Very few people want to start at the bottom of the ministry ladder of face to face contact and work their church up to more integrated programs. The church will need to get more relational to convert people to Christ and to grow the Kingdom of God. Small groups do this, but sadly some churches cannot even get these going do to inter congregational conflicts or lack of interest. Small groups are where church relations start and where community starts. A church with a building full of strangers is bound to die with its preacher or just dissolve over time.

Small groups really get back to the early foundations of the church; there is very little hierarchy, a sense of sharing as group leaders share their home, coffee, and more. It does what some do not want to be done it takes the church out of the building and puts it out in the world.

The most interesting thing to observe will be the way members of a church respond to seeing their church building go into foreclosure. Will they run from it, will they fight for the building, will they downsize and start over, we they lose their faith over the whole experience. Seeing a building go into foreclosure after a lifetime of attending and tithing could be devastating to a member. I see most churches hanging on until the bank comes and keep hoping for a miracle. While miracles can and do happen and I do not want to discount them, I feel most churches in financial problems will be banked owned.

I think most churches need to start reacting today that are currently in financial trouble or see it looming in the future. The best thing would be to sell their property and pay off the debt if they are in the position. Hopefully at this point the money would be available to buy a smaller building or rent a comparable space, or to find a space near were most of their congregation lives or a place in the community that has a real need for a church. The main issue seen with selling a church to a non church is building use. Most churches lack a good layout to be converted to offices or stores. Leaving the value mostly in the land, and I think most churches will be faced with the realization that their property is worth only half of what they think it is worth.

In the end a building is dust to dust and not where our treasures lye and hopefully the church body will keep that in mind when making choices about budgets, loans, building, and more.