year in review

Pastors Face a Perfect Storm

by Frank Brown

W
hen Peggy Niederer ’01 M.Div. became es polled reporting having to make budget cuts. This figure
pastor in 2003 of Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in was even higher in congregations with only one minister.
Leonia, NJ , she knew that the small congregation’ s
survival might, one day, come into question. By But, even as this perfect storm of diminishing resources and
late 2009, that day appeared to be growing closer as the power- heightened need is visited upon congregations across the
ful forces of the recession ravaged the church’s finances. Holy denominational spectrum, YDS alumni leaders are o≠ering
Spirit was forced to dip into its endowment, and at the worst models for how to not only survive but also prosper in such
possible moment. an environment. It is a time, they say, when churches can
fill their congregants’ needs and o≠er prophetic leadership
“The stock devalued at the same time that we needed to with- in ways that secular institutions cannot. And, the ongo-
draw from it. We took a double hit,” says Niederer. “We may ing crisis is also an opportunity to move along the some-
never recover from that. It may shorten times glacial process of reforming and
the life of the congregation. It could be streamlining the business side of local
five years instead of ten or two years in- church operations. Above all, they say,
stead of eight. It’s hard to know.” focus on a core Christian message must
win out over the clamor of worried voices
The recession, which o∞cially began in and distractions.
late 2007, has taken a harsh toll on Holy
Spirit Lutheran, an ELCA congregation “In 35 years of ministry and teaching,
where about two dozen people attend a I’ve never lived through anything where
typical Sunday service. The congrega- churches are as preoccupied with the econ-
tion’s president, a faithful tither, was omy as they are today,” says Dan Bonner
out of work for nearly a year. Giving was ’76 M.Div., ’77 S.T.M., a Methodist pastor
down by eight percent for the fiscal year who heads the Center for Urban Congrega-
that ended June 30, 2009. The church’s tional Renewal in Georgetown, TX . “What
Shepard Parsons ’84 M.Div.
preschool, founded in 1967, struggled I encourage folks to do is to keep our eye on
along, with Niederer filling the director’s position until our mission and not fret, certainly publicly, over things we
December 2009. Then it closed, after 42 years. cannot control in our environment. The institutions that are
staying the course and even expanding around the edges are
Across the country, Y DS alumni pastors are struggling with the ones staying on mission. The mission of the church is the
the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. good news, the peace and justice, the whole bundle.”
Shepard Parsons ’84 M.Div., a United Church of Christ
minister in Shelton, CT , took a 63 percent pay cut and went The Lake Institute’s study, the “2009 Congregational Eco-
part-time as the sole pastor. Ruth Ann Chartier ’93 M.Div., nomic Impact Study,” found that churches that have older
a UCC pastor, is moving from one financially struggling members, are more dependent on endowment income, and
church in Massachusetts to another in Pennsylvania, in part are smaller in size are faring worse than their counterparts.
because she is impressed with the new congregation’s gritty The good news from the Lake Institute, which polled mostly
survival skills. local Protestant churches, seemed to be that, overall, giving
was up from 2007 to 2008, although the rate of increase was
These experiences mirror the findings of a 2009 national not as high as in previous years.
study by the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving that captures
the extraordinary economic pressures at work. Just as endow- Jerry Henry ’80 M.Div., chair of the Development Committee
ment dividends shrink and church members themselves are of the YDS Alumni Board, parses such numbers for a living
squeezed financially, local churches are witnessing a jump in as an Atlanta-based partner with the Alexander Haas fund-
demand for the social services that they have historically pro- raising consulting firm. “Giving to religion is one of the last
vided. According to the study, nearly one-third of the church- things to decrease. I think it has to do with the deep spiritual

2 Y a l e D i v i n i t y S c h o o l
Across the country, YDS alumni pastors are struggling with the worst
economic downturn since the Great Depression.
ties that we feel. We are sharing the abundance of God,” says
Henry, who specializes in consulting with religious groups.
Another recent study, “Faith Communities Today 2008: A
First Look,” was released in October 2009 by the Hartford
Institute for Religion Research at Hartford Seminary. While
the data from over 2,500 congregations of every major faith
tradition—Christian and non-Christian—was collected be-
fore the brunt of the recession hit, the study’s findings confirm
the dire straits in which many US faith communities find
themselves. “The clear and consistent short-term direction is
negative—including worship attendance growth, spirituala
vitality and sense of mission and purpose,” the report notes.
Specifically, even before the crisis, the number of congrega-
tions describing their current financial health as “excellent”
dropped from 31 percent in 2000 to 19 percent in 2008.
Such startling numbers put demands on the leadership skills
of pastors in ways that most seminaries do not prepare them
for. That is why parishioners’ advice can be invaluable, says
Tom Duggan ’59 B.D., a Presbyterian minister who weath-
ered economic collapses while serving English-speaking
congregations in Bangkok and Paris. “Don’t panic over the
finances,” he advises. “I’ve always turned to the people for
help. I’ve said to them, ‘It’s not my church. It’s your church.’
The people always responded.”
Within the context of the Roman Catholic Church, Kerry
Robinson ’94 M.A.R. is trying to help bring business ex-
pertise to church administration. Robinson is the founding
executive director of the National
Leadership Roundtable on Church
Management, based in Washing-
ton, DC , which works with bish-
ops across the nation’s 195 Roman
Catholic dioceses.
“The economic crisis has created
a sense of urgency among church
leaders,” says Robinson, adding
that demand for her group’s servic-
es is up markedly, in part because
of the economy. Potential donors
Ruth Ann Chartier ’93 M.Div.
are looking not only for compelling
church ministry to fund but also, she said, for “systems of
contemporary best practices and a culture of transparency
and accountability.”
s p e c t r u m
The sort of networking and sharing of experiences that Rob-
inson’s Roundtable facilitates is essential for all pastors as
they face hard decisions
forced upon them by
the recession, some YDS
alumni suggest.
Feeling isolated can be
inevitable, says Talitha
Arnold ’80 M.Div., who
is senior minister at the
United Church of Santa
Fe in New Mexico. “The
first thing I would say is
that it’s not about you,”
she notes. “It’s easy to
Kerry Robinson ’94 M.A.R.
internalize what’s hap-
pening but these are global things that are happening. The
second thing to do is to seek out colleagues.”
Arnold reports that her UCC congregation felt an economic
impact from the crisis in two waves. First, parishioners de-
pendent on retirement income were hit hard by the decline
in the stock market. Then, in 2009, the church was impacted
by layo≠s of members from state government, tourism and
construction, New Mexico’s top three employers. To help
the largest group—state workers—cope, Arnold organized
Saturday burrito breakfasts just for them, thus providing a
new source of fellowship.
Despite the challenges they face, pastors like Chart-
ier, in Fall River, and Niederer, in Leonia, still see
rays of hope.
The kind of dynamism and adaptability Arnold de-
scribed are among the big reasons Chartier has de-
cided to leave the United Parish of Fall River, MA ,
for Linfield United Church of Christ in Royersford,
PA , even though the leaders of her new church told
her that “they have enough money to fund this posi-
tion for three years and after that they are just not
sure.” For her part, Niederer is encouraged at how
her tiny Lutheran congregation has risen to chal-
lenges. Says Niederer, “I feel people taking ownership and
volunteering to help in the parish.”
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