Should Churches Go Into Debt?

How to Know if the Blessing is Worth the Burden

Should churches go into debt? This question often elicits passionate responses from people at various points on the yes/no spectrum. The passion is often driven by a desire for their church to make the best decision to advance the gospel in their community and around the world.

And this is a good thing.

DEBT IS NOT A SIN, BUT THE BIBLE ISN’T EXACTLY A FAN OF DEBT

This point needs to be made at the start. Some treat taking on debt as sinful. It’s not, at least on its own.Psalm 112:5 tells us, “Good will come to the one who lends generously and conducts his business fairly.” God would not reward someone (the lender) who is knowingly participating in the sin of another (the debtor). Read More

The Episcopal church where I served as senior lay reader for 15 years suffered a major split over debt. Most of the members of the vestry wanted to reduce or retire the debt on the church's multipurpose building and its Christian education center, which doubled as a child development center and pre-school during the week. The rector, on the other hand, wanted to undertake a major building project. He was feeling the pressure of preaching and presiding at three celebrations of the Holy Eucharist on Sunday mornings and a monthly celebration of Holy Communion and a healing service on Wednesday nights. He thought that a larger new sanctuary which would accommodate the church's rapidly growing congregation would be the solution of his problem. With additional seating and more parking he could return to two services on Sunday morning. No one considered hiring an assistant or associate rector or even a part-time priest to relieve him of some of his workload as had my previous church had done when its congregation became too large for one pastor to manage. Perhaps they did and the rector did not like the idea of sharing the workload with someone else.

I was on vacation when everything came to a head and came back to a church which a number of my friends had left. At the bishop's insistence the church had hired a consultant and the consultant had identified as one of the problems that the rector was not equipped to lead a large, growing church and had recommended that he receive further leadership training. The rector was willing to undertake this training. However, the members of the vestry who had opposed the construction of new sanctuary demanded his resignation. At the vestry meeting at which they made this demand other members of the congregation voiced their support for the rector and objected to their demand. The rector refused to resign. The members of the vestry opposed to the construction of a new sanctuary resigned, as did the music director and the choir and the director of the early childhood development center and preschool. A third of the households that attended the church also left.

The resignation of the vestry members and the departure of their supporters relieved the pressure on the rector to undertake the much needed training. Due to the decline in attendance the church went back to two services on Sunday mornings and the Wednesday night service was cancelled. After this split the church plateaued and then began to stagnate and decline. Six years later the rector moved on. By then what had been a thriving parish had become a diocesan-supported mission again. Debt and conflicting visions of a church's future I have read are two major causes of church splits.