Wednesday, June 11, 2008

GCC and the Wall Street Journal

Granger Community Church was mentioned in an article about Financial Peace in the Wall Street Journal! It's so great to see people looking to their local churches to get support and find out what God says about money.

Do you hear that local churches? People are looking to YOU to show them the way! I believe with all my heart that the local churches in this country need to look outside of their walls to identify the felt-needs of their communities. What are the issues that are causing strive and division in marriages, families, churches, communities? The Churches should boldly tackle the tough issues. Churches should offer support and help to the hurting, Things like Money, Sex, Addiction, Divorce, Fear - what is your church doing to help people get back on track? Do people have to get back on track BEFORE they can come to your church?

Here is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal:

On a recent Tuesday evening in Granger, Ind., the nondenominational Granger Community Church drew 375 people for "Financial Peace University." In its second year at Granger, Financial Peace is a sort of weekly group confessional for debtors who follow the live-within-your-means teachings of Dave Ramsey, a nationally syndicated radio host.

Fishbowls and Scissors

The church keeps fishbowls and scissors up near the stage for anyone inspired to cut up the credit cards on the spot. One who took advantage was Paula Frederick, a cheerful 42-year-old order manager at a phone company, who says her husband ran up to try to stop her from chopping up her Best Buy card. "I about took his finger off," she says, adding that she eventually succeeded in cutting up the card into pieces.

With church volunteers passing the microphones, Richard Rice, a burly, 37-year-old medical technician, rose to testify. Although he makes $70,000 a year, Mr. Rice said he had barely been able to save. Buffeted by a divorce last year that forced him to move and outfit a new house, he built up $20,000 in card balances.

"Back in January, one day, I had $30 to my name," he said. But now Mr. Rice said he has knocked $2,000 off his card debt and put aside $1,000 in an emergency fund. "I finally made a decision I wasn't going to live like this anymore," he proclaimed, drawing applause and a few raised fists from the crowd.

"I'm proud of you, dude," said Dave Dewey, a church volunteer who led the meeting. "A thousand may not be much, but it's $970 more than you had before."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amber...thanks for the heads up on the article! Couldn't agree with you more...wish that the church would become more than just a place to worship God but also be a place where people would seek help/advice/connections for a lot of real life, practical situations (such as the ones that you mentioned).

Miss Mandy said...

We took the financial peace last fall. It was the best thing we could have ever done for our finances.

I'm so thankful GCC sees the importance!

The Good Morning America bit was good too!

heather said...

You're so right about the church needing to be a place where ppl think to come to learn, for help, for advice, for guidance. After all, everything is spiritual, so churches should embrace this holistic way of thinking. Pretty cool to read about what Granger is doing!