“At least 11,500 Christian employers accepted $150,000 or more in government stimulus loans.”

“Well over a half million pastors, church staff members, and ministry employees kept their jobs and continued serving their communities during the pandemic thanks to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, according to a list released last week.” - C.Today

Discussion

Bad, bad decision. Churches don’t take government money. A church must be insane to do that.

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

and state governments shut down most businesses for a while. Plus, the government told the churches they could not meet in person for a good while. Why is it bad for churches to receive compensation for the decrease in the offerings they would have received had the government not interfered?

Mark:

1. The money is a loan, borrowed money that must be paid back. That adds another layer of debt to ministries. Proverbs teaches the money must be paid back, even if others who accepted the money do not pay it back.

2. Yes, the gov’t is the immediate cause of the financial hardship, but if a ministry’s finances are so weak and savings so shallow that they need a loan, then that ministry should look carefully at its ministry.

3. Accepting this money creates willingness to accept other gov’t money in other circumstances. Gov’t money is never free or without entanglements.

4. Is a ministry’s financial support so inconsistent that people won’t give financially if they can’t come on Sunday? If offerings decreased significantly simply because people were not coming to a building, then that ministry has a deeper problem than finances. If offerings decreased because people were not working because of gov’t requirements, then the ministry makes major changes to its expenses.

5. I wonder how many ministries that accepted gov’t money/loan have other debts/loans? Our church is debt-free which allows us to make financial decisions more easily. We also have a conservative budget which allows us to save money. I suspect that many of the ministries which received gov’t money have other debt as well.

PPP money is a loan. It must be paid back.

Wally Morris

Charity Baptist Church

Huntington, IN

amomentofcharity.blogspot.com

From this article: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/how-the-small-business-administration-is-reaching-every-nook-and-cranny-of-the-country

“In North Carolina, I visited faith-based groups and met with the First Baptist Church, the megachurch. And they were recipients of the PPP. They shared with us that with their funds, they were able to bring on board their staff, plus other employees to be able to distribute food to the needy. They went from 200 to 2,000 meals. And it’s growing.”

Mega-churches accepting gov’t money to expand ministries and hire staff for food distribution. What happens when the money is gone or the gov’t tries to enforce discrimination laws?

SBCVoices Link: https://sbcvoices.com/some-of-our-entities-funded-by-the-paycheck-protection-plan/

Many SBC organizations received these loans. I wonder how many Evangelical/Fundamentalist organizations received money.

Wally Morris

Charity Baptist Church

Huntington, IN

amomentofcharity.blogspot.com

While the PPP money is a called a loan, it really isn’t. If the organization receiving the funds complies with certain rules, mostly about keeping people working, the money does not have to be repaid.

Robert: What you said is true, but technically the money is a loan, & ministries accepted the money as a loan with the probability of not having to repay the money. But who decides? The gov’t. Therefore ministries are putting themselves under gov’t control. In today’s cultural climate, that is a dangerous place to be. I think this situation shows just how shaky many churches’ finances are, including the supposedly sound mega-churches. We talk a lot about the dangers of gov’t involvement in our churches, but once the issue is money, we quickly forget our rhetoric.

Wally Morris

Charity Baptist Church

Huntington, IN

amomentofcharity.blogspot.com

As you probably know if the funds were used for payroll 75% would be forgiven and not repaid. I was surprise to look through the spreadsheet of the organizations that took funding. Several well know right-edged IFB churches show taking funding. Churches that I know of that signed-up for the loans but returned do not show on this listing so I’m guessing these are ones who cashed the check so to speak.