the church and deepening economic concerns

Many of the most thoughtful voices of reflection on the web this week have been focused on the deepening economic crisis. Sometimes what is needed is straightforward advice, such as the “Good $ense Seminars” advertised on the website of the Moravian Church in North America. For others, the tone sounds far more urgent.

For example, The Rev. Tom Hansen, the interim pastor of a Minnesota congregation with numerous members losing jobs and homes, writes: “Everybody’s dreams are dying and we don’t have the resources to help them,” said Hansen, adding that “some laid-off members have exhausted the social service aid available to them.”

And as the organization Christian Churches Together (Disciples of Christ) works to address poverty, General Minister and President Sharon Watkins laments: “We’ve heard a lot recently about Wall Street and Main Street. Our concern is the people who live on the street, or have no street address.”

And lest we think that this is an issued preoccupying only American denominations, you might want to read this week’s official report by the General Synod of Church of England,”The International Financial Crisis and the Recession.”

Here at Alban, we continue to actively work with congregations and your leaders to provide resources to do more than circle the wagons against a feared oncoming storm. Our upcoming webinar, or web seminar, “Crafting a New Story in a Time of Crisis,” for example, will provide practical wisdom from two of our senior consultants, Larry Peers and Dan Hotchkiss, about how to take seriously the changes congregations are facing, without losing sight of your congregation’s essential identity or missional focus.

We invite you to join us there, or here at the Alban Roundtable, to let us know the impact of the ecnomic crisis on your congregation.  How are you remaining faithful to your congregational identity and ministries, while you learn to respond to the ever changing challenges that face us all?