The District Chronicles

Issue date: 5/24/09 Section: Cover

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - The doors of the historic Black Church, a fortress of healing from social pain, have opened even wider during the economic crisis. But, as church membership increases across the nation, offerings are decreasing, causing even houses of faith to make difficult decisions, pastors say.

"I think the story that has not been told is that the churches across the country have been hard hit," says Dallas' Bishop T. D. Jakes in an interview with the NNPA News Service. "The church has no more resources than from the parishioners from which it comes. And so, when the parishioners are in straits, churches are in straits too. And so it puts us in a bit of a precarious situation."

Jakes says he has had to take drastic, but practical measures to cut costs at his more than 30,000-member Potter's House.

"Membership has gone up. Income has gone down. We've laid off about 40 people from our staff. We've had to make some hard choices."

Last months' Black unemployment rate leaped 1.7 percent from the month before, now at 15 percent overall. That is nearly double that of the 8 percent White unemployment rate and the national average, which is 8.9 percent. For Black men, the unemployment rate is 17.2 percent, more than double that of White men, at 8.5 percent.

Economic forecasters say unemployment could reach double digits for everyone before it gets better. The pain is indiscriminate.

"I don't think anyone is not affected by the economy right now from Wall Street to Main Street," says the Rev. Dr. Tecoy Porter, senior pastor of the 1000-member Genesis Church in Sacramento, Calif. "California just got out of the budget crisis so our members are furloughed twice a month and things like that."

Because of a 20 percent drop in offerings, Porter says he has had to lay off some staff members and restructure his church organization. That includes cutting two Sunday services down to only one. Fortunately, because of the Black community's history of struggle, Black institutions have a special knack for endurance.

"We've been here before. We're not strangers to any type of depression or oppression or things like that. And so there's a resiliency of Black churches that cannot be overlooked," says Porter. "I am a preacher's kid, a third generation pastor, so I am a product of the Black church and so I believe it is the strongest institution that we have for African-Americans in our community because it has survived so much."

Continued...

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