More traditional Protestant churches, especially the moderate to liberal churches, are struggling more with membership.
Pekin Road Baptist Church and the former Ridgeville Community Church are greater Dayton (OH) local examples of a negative national trend in the American mortgage industry.
Since December 2007, the number of foreclosure proceedings brought against churches has tripled compared with the previous seven years, according to a review of the Thomson Reuters Westlaw legal database which tracks foreclosures.
After 43 years without a single one, the Evangelical Christian Credit Union saw its foreclosure rate more than double to 7.7 percent in July 2010 from 3.7 percent at the end of 2008, spokesman Jac La Tour said.
The trend suggests churches, like other nonprofits, are under extreme financial duress, La Tour said.
“The last place any of them is going to look (to cut spending) is their mortgage,” he said, adding the rate of foreclosure among the roughly 1,000 evangelical ministries with mortgages under management by his credit union had dipped from 8.2 percent at the end of June.
While linked to today’s tough economic times and the national mortgage crisis, religious leaders and experts said the quickening rate of foreclosure by churches could also be traced to competition from new churches and changes in where, how often, and if people go to church in America.
“All churches in this country, at least Protestant churches, depend on voluntary contributions of members. If people are hurting, they are going to have less discretionary income. Churches might be the last place they would cut,” said Ava Chamberlain, a professor of American religious history at Wright State University.
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