The Church and Debt
I was reading this interesting post by Hans Wunch giving his personal testimony about being in debt. It is well worth the reading. As I pondered his experience, I wondered if it could be applied on a larger level: the local church. So, I went to Google and looked into the financial health of the church in America. What I found was this:
- Credit Cards: “About 10 percent of credit card holders had total card balances in excess of $10,000.”5
- Debt versus Income: “More than a third—36 percent—of those who owe more than $10,000 on their cards have household incomes under $50,000.”5
- Rising Debt: “The median value of total outstanding debt owed by homeowners rose 9.6 percent between 1998 and 2001.”5
- Bankruptcy: “Bankruptcies set another record in 2003, with 1.6 million personal filings, the American Bankruptcy Institute reports.”5 [...]
How could this not impact giving to the church now and in the future? If the local church is negatively impacted, how long before it reaches denominations at the national level?
What do you think?
[...] [Technorati] Tag results for credit wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt I was reading this interesting post by Hans Wunch giving his personal testimony about being in debt. It is well worth the reading. As I pondered his experience, I wondered if it could be applied on a larger level: the local church. So, I went to Google and looked into the financial health of the church in America. What I found was this: Credit Cards: “About 10 percent of credit card holders had total card balances in excess of $10,000.”5 Debt versus Income: “More than a third—36 percent—of [...]
Pingback by Credit Crunch » The Church and Debt — May 21, 2008 @ 2:04 am
I strongly agree. You correctly analyzed the second and third order effects of our ballooning debt problem. This could be another reason why God wants us to stay away from debt. Let’s pray that we learn this lesson through simply blogging and not through the hardship of what life can bring us when we disobey God’s intent.
http://www.beatingdebt.wordpress.com
Comment by BDO — May 21, 2008 @ 10:27 am
Quinn, I hope your readers will look at all 4 posts about debt from recent weeks. The latest is today 10 ideas on how to beat debt. http://hanswunch.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/so-how-do-you-beat-debt-10-ideas/
Comment by hwunch — May 21, 2008 @ 4:06 pm