Churches are Facing Foreclosures

March 24th, 2009 | Tags: Foreclosure Crisis

The mortgage crisis is reaching up to the heavens and the churches of USA are now facing foreclosures.

The Metropolitan Baptist Church was once a haven of peace and source of strength for a couple of slaves that had been freed during the Civil War. Today it is a mega church and a powerhouse serving the community. In 2006 work started on a dream project of the church in Largo. The estimate was $30 million to build a campus having a church that would have seating arrangements for 3,000, a centre for education and a parking lot for 1,100 vehicles.

In 2008 the congregation after selling its church in Washington prepared to move to “God’s land in Largo.” But on 20th October 2008 the heavens frowned. Rev. H. Beecher Hicks discovered that the funds for the mega venture had run dry. Construction work had come to a halt. The congregation became homeless and had to rent space as it struggled to find new sources for funding.

The mortgage crisis has started added houses of worship to its list of casualties. There are many more congregations that have been scarred by foreclosures according to firms that are specializing on the issue of church mortgages With credit having dried up the construction work of churches have become silent. Only skeletons remain of the dream sanctuaries that should have been completed many months previously.

The members of the congregations have reduced their subscriptions and the pastors who had over reached to purchase properties during the boom are now battling to somehow to hold on to their churches.

John Stoffel, the administrative pastor of Seabreeze Church of Huntington, California said, “The economy has dramatically changed over the last year to 18 months in a way that very few, if any, had expected.” Seabreeze had spent nearly $12 million for building a complex. It was completed in 2007. But reduced donations mainly because of differences between some churchgoers and the pastor, compelled the church to agree to an interest-only mortgage. Stoffel insisted that so far Seabreeze has not skipped out on a single payment but that is not the sole problem – there are other debts. The church is due to pay to this year $1.2 million on bonds that had contributed to financing the project. Moreover a couple has to be repaid $200,000 that the church had taken from them. They had taken a loan on their house to help out the church.