Are we making the same mistakes again?

Lately, I’ve had a familiar feeling I can’t quite shake.  

The economic pressures and financial strain my church members are facing echo many of the worries we felt in 2020. Now, obviously, it is not the same; no social distancing, no mask debates, no wondering whether we could gather at all. But as I talk with people about their household worries and what they can and can’t afford, I feel like we are repeating some of the same financial and ministry mistakes we made previously. As if we didn’t learn our lessons the first time, our churches now have an opportunity to repeat them.

Let me explain what I mean. 

1. What we are facing 

I think we are back to a perfect storm, one in which, if not careful, the local church absorbs the full force of the economic wave.

Remember, I’m a pastor, not an economist. But let me try to show what I see.

One major factor right now is the price of gas. When gas prices rise, nearly everything else follows. At the time of this writing, gas is hovering around $4.19 a gallon, with some regions seeing even higher costs. That ripple touches groceries, utilities, and every errand our members run to get through the average week.

Then, we must consider that one of the ongoing realities for many local churches is the significant number of older, seasoned members on a fixed income. They have little to no additional money coming in to offset the rising costs. And here’s the thing, your church isn’t immune to those same rising costs either. The electric bill, the maintenance, the programming…it all costs more than it did two years ago.

When combining the two, you get members trying to cover their bills at the same time the church is trying to cover its own. Tithing and giving begin to quietly suffer. I remember vividly having that conversation with a few older members in 2020, offering what I called my pastoral “blessing/forgiveness,” and telling them plainly: pay your bills first. Why? Because they were responsible, faithful givers. They didn’t splurge and tried to live within their means. But their margins had become tighter. Now I find myself in similar conversations again, because they are facing similar challenges.

Put simply, both the church and its people are being squeezed at the same time.

2. Decisions to make, a mistake to avoid

My primary concern is that we as churches, leaders, ministries, etc., won’t start acting until we are already reacting.  

I believe in being a good steward of the money and resources that God has given us. I hope and pray your organization has reserves and contingency plans should giving begin to fall off.  

But hope and prayer aren’t a financial strategy on their own. The better question is: are we being proactive right now, while we still have the margin to think clearly?

About a month ago, I sat down with my team and asked a direct question: “If we started falling behind, what would be some of the first areas we could thin down or stop?” To be clear, giving is doing well this year, and the group and I were speaking from a healthy position. This wasn’t a crisis meeting. But the question was sobering, and the group rose to meet it. They became intentional and honest in a way that I found genuinely encouraging.

Here are a few of the questions we started asking together:

• How can we reduce unnecessary trips for our people? (ex. moving meetings closer to existing worship times.)
• What do we consider “extras” (events that we could condense or cut) if the need arose?
• How do we keep the congregation informed without creating a spirit of panic or doom? 

That last question matters more than most leaders realize. Your people can handle honesty. What they struggle with is silence, followed by a sudden alarm because you chose to wait too long.

3. Do we remember the lessons the first time?

If you were leading a church during 2020, do you remember what that season forced out of us?  

We stopped so much that was “extra.”  Our churches became nimble and fast-moving. Every gathering had to have a purpose. We asked whether a meeting could be an email or if a planning session could be a Zoom call. We called people just to check in, not because it was on a program, but because we genuinely wanted to stay connected.   We learned, perhaps for the first time in a long time, what we didn’t need. And we were still ok because we were more focused and more effective.

But somewhere along the way, as restrictions eased and giving recovered, we forgot and drifted back into old habits. The extras quietly became normal again. What had been a discipline became a distant memory. We got comfortable.

If we are not careful, I think we are starting to sound a lot like Israel after leaving Egypt, seeking comfort instead of God’s promises.

We saw what God could do. We learned what we didn’t need. And then, when the pressure lifted, we went back to what was familiar. We kept the lessons in our heads but not in our habits.

Takeaway:

So here we are again, we find our church facing something similar,  in part because we didn’t carry forward what we learned the first time.  

What if this moment is an invitation? What if we chose to connect genuinely, use technology to further the kingdom (rather than mask our lack of commitment), and let this difficult season make us bold again, rather than just busy?  

If you lead or steward a church, here are three questions worth sitting with right now: 

1. How is our spending tracking compared to this same time last year? 
2. If giving were reduced by 10%, where are a few areas we could cut without most of the congregation even noticing?
3. How do we keep people informed, while being honest about the reality of the situation, without making them feel frightened or pressured?

Forgetting is easy. Faithful stewardship isn’t. 

Hard seasons are meant to shape us, not just stretch us. Don’t waste this one. Now is the time to ask hard questions while we still have the margin to answer them well.