Jim is moving $250,000 that his business keeps on hand in cash to Hope Credit Union, a black owned financial institution. Selling him on #BankingBlack was easy; it cost nothing, carries no risk yet makes a big… Read More »Church credit union network targeting payday loans makes progress
When Pastor Gregory Edwards, couldn’t get an answer on why his thriving predominantly African American church couldn’t get answer from his local white led bank on why Resurrected Life would not get a covid relief… Read More »Credit union network linking black and white churches moves into pilot
After interviewing Walter Brueggemann we at Faith+Finance have an emerging theory of change, of what a Post Covid-19 version of God’s economy could look like. To start with, it is based on interdependence for our… Read More »A post Covid-19 Christian economy emerging
“I think about my bank statement as my report card. When you talk to St. Peter you can’t hide from your bank statement.”
To many in Cincinnati, the Over the Rhine neighborhood revival seemed like a major success; one of the poorest parts of the city was seeing restaurants serving locally grown food, coffee shops,bars move in along… Read More »What happened when a church learned to see its money in a new way
“As impact investors we are the good guys, we would put money to work and take a haircut (on financial return) if its justified. But would we give up control of capital and our (controlling) role?”
“We want to help the congregation learn that we don’t need to automatically go back to the building to be a church again. The leaders need to paint that picture.”
The questions the current global pandemic is raising for all of us, like “who is my neighbor”, “what is my surplus”, and “what is money good for”, are the same questions churches on the brink of shutting their doors are also forced to ask.
Beloved Asheville is part of a peer group launched by Faith and Finance of practitioners working on church assets in transition. Their low cost model, using homeless sweat equity could perhaps be replicated if people understand how to listen to, believe in and find the resources to use the gifts of people effected by the problem.
“Mission” by Dale Cruse via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) The spring of 2000 should have been a very good time for me. I’d just made a sale for the most cash, the least equity, and… Read More »The hidden cost of market rate