VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (ABP) — Budget cuts and staff restrictions in a poor economy are only a short-term solution for America's religious denominations, says an American Baptist official.
Michaele Birdsall
|
Michaele Birdsall, treasurer and chief financial officer for National Ministries of American Baptist Churches USA, recently said the longer-term and tougher solution is to develop new models of ministry that are effective for churches in the 21st century.
Birdsall, who has worked for American Baptists for about 11 years, said in an interview on Duke University's Faith and Leadership blog that her denomination has been looking at declining contributions for a number of years.
"So for me, it's more fundamental than the economic crisis that we're in right now," she said. "It really is about, 'What is the value that we are bringing to our local churches who primarily fund what we do? How relevant are we to the local church?'"
Birdsall said many churches are experiencing reduced contributions in an economy where people coming into the church have to decide between paying their tithe and paying their mortgage.
Given that reality, she said, "I go to the whole issue of faith and what God calls us to do and if we are meeting people at the point of their need, if we are relevant to our churches and the individuals in our churches who really want to make a difference in the world."
"I think that as we open ourselves up to God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to show us creative ways to be church that actually impact the economic models that we participate in, I think we will be surprised at not the scarcity that's out there, but the abundance that's there," she said. "But again I think it takes us being really honest in terms of 'Are we relevant today as a church?'"
Birdsall said National Ministries, which was founded in 1832, relies on endowment and investment income for about 60 percent of its budget. With the market collapse, the organization entered its 2010 budgeting process needing to reduce spending by about $1.3 million. The only way to do that, she said, was by reducing the workforce.
"That was a very painful step," she said. "We're still living into the reality of what that means for the organization. We did those cuts primarily through a voluntary early retirement package. Colleagues you've worked with for years are no longer there. And a smaller staff is being asked to pick up that work."
"We reduced expenses primarily through workforce reduction," she said. "We reduced our travel budget significantly. We reduced our printed materials. Those are short-term solutions. The long-term solution is looking at our ministry models and saying, 'What are going to be effective ministry models for our 21st -century church? That takes longer to get your hands around."
"Our organization has lived very well on what our predecessors gave, so they left their legacy," Birdsall said. "But the question is, 'What is our legacy today?' It's a different world as we enter the 21st century. What God is calling the church to be is different."
The Faith and Leadership blog is part of Duke Divinity School's Leadership Education Initiative, formed in 2008 with a major grant from the Lilly Endowment and other donors.
-30-
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.