Honey the economy shrunk the offering.

   In my last post I mentioned that my home church is about $20k behind it's goal budget. Being in a small, very agricultural, and small business driven area people's 10% just isn't what it used to be. The economy has struck hard in these areas.

  My family having a family owned and operated heavy equipment business has felt the impact of the economy first hand. When the economy decided to crash it put everyone into a panic, which in turn made people who did have money decide not to spend it and when everyone stopped spending money it made the economy worse. For small business owners like my parents, they rely a lot on other people spending money, with no one wanting to spend money they have to lower their prices in a time where fuel prices are steadily rising. All of these steps turn to a much lower final income. So, in a church where a large percentage of the body is self-employed the overall 10% has made a drastic decrease.

   I wish that I had a some mind blowing Dave Ramsey mixed with David Blaine trick to tell everyone how to get past the economy problems and make more money, but unfortunately I don't. I guess you could play the lotto, but you might want to check your bi laws to see if that's "acceptable" behavior. I read about a church one time that turned down a man's very large donation because he won it gambling. I guess they had more money then we do..