HOW SHOULD WE HELP A NEIGHBOR?

Dear Friends in Christ,

My letter to you this month arises from a presbytery action to assist a neighboring church. Most of you are familiar with the New Hope Presbyterian congregation on Rt. 42 near Fuquay-Varina. Perhaps in the past we cooperated with them. You may have family there. It is a somewhat larger congregation than ours, with potential for growth in that growing area.

It has, however, fallen on hard financial times, apparently at least partly of its own making. Over the last few years, in an attempt to attract young families and provide a needed resource to the community, the congregation undertook to build a large education wing with childcare facilities, and developed a weekday childcare program. Their hope was that the income from the childcare would offset the building expense and even supplement the congregation’s budget. Due to delays in building, the program could not start last year on time, with the result that fewer children attended; revenue was down. This was an unexpected financial blow that prompted some restrictions at the church, including a major decision to terminate the pastor. As often happens in churches, when times get tight, people look for someone to blame. Some felt the session had not adequately investigated the financial obligations. Some felt the pastor’s authority overruled any objections. In any case, the church suffered a very bad year and a number of members left.

The Presbytery of New Hope stepped in with an administrative commission to see what could be done to salvage the situation. The presbytery paid the pastor’s severance package out of its own funds, as the church did not have any available, and more to the point, the administrative commission developed a plan to rescue the church and get it back on sound footings. Part of that plan involves making an appeal to local Presbyterians to contribute to an incentive fund to encourage New Hope Church members to financially support their church at higher levels. The more the members contribute, the more the presbytery will contribute to bring the church back to a sound financial base. The idea behind the plan is that it tests the waters to see how dedicated and able the current congregation is to continue ministry and avoid bankruptcy. If they are, and demonstrate that clearly, the presbytery will assist them substantially. If not, they will receive less help from the presbytery. To develop that extra fund for incentive purposes, individuals and area churches have been asked to contribute.

Our session spent time at a recent meeting discussing this situation thoroughly. We arrived at the following response, and leave the rest in your hands as individuals. 1. We chose to make you fully aware, through this letter, of the situation at New Hope Church. 2. We will post in the fellowship hall the presbytery document explaining the incentive fund. 3. And we will announce in a worship service later this month that the fund exists. We are neither recommending that you contribute to it nor recommending against it. We simply decided to leave that decision to those who felt led to respond. If you wish to send money, consult the document from the presbytery and follow the guidelines there. We do encourage support of our sister congregation through prayer and words of support. Please prayerfully consider how you should respond.

Shalom,

Rev. Hix