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StumbleuponFinancial difficulties lead followers to church
Saturday, October 18, 2008
With America facing serious economic troubles, many individuals are looking to religion for solace.
And faith leaders are listening.
The Rev. Doug Surber is pastor of Miami Shores Baptist Church, 4000 Vance Road in hard-hit Moraine. He said the best thing he can do for GM workers losing their jobs is to offer prayer support.
"Our church has an open door policy," Surber said. "Anyone who would like to come in and talk or share, we are here for them. Financially, however, we're not able to do much.
"As spiritual leaders I think we have to assure people that God is on his throne and loves them. Sometimes during an economic downturn people of faith begin to doubt the reality of God. We must show them compassion."
Rabbi Irwin Kula, author of "Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life" (Hyperion, 2006), said desperate times call for desperate measures.
"The first thing one needs to do is to own who they are in this crisis," Kula suggests. "Otherwise, paralysis sets in and fear dominates."
Kula, who is president of the New York-based National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, explained that in order to maintain their equilibrium, believers need to "replenish their spiritual capital."
"The messiness in our lives — the space between what we yearn for and what we get — that's the grist for really learning about ourselves," he said. "There are things we can do, like helping other people, that will yield spiritual capital. And spiritual capital needs to be replenished before we can deal with the financial bankruptcies we are all undergoing."
In Wilmington, Ohio, DHL, the city's largest employer, is leaving the state. It's a move observers say will devastate southwestern Ohio's economy. But Dennis Humphreys, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, 1920 U.S. 22 in Wilmington, said his congregation remains hopeful.
"People in our church have been very upbeat," Humphreys said. "They trust God and are patiently waiting to see where he is going to take them and direct them in their lives.
"We've been positive around here about how to live our Christianity out even though we're living in difficult, uncertain times. That's the direction we have chosen to take."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2167 or kmoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.
