Trinity Wall Street, photo by Leo Sorel, courtesy of SFGate

Do more with less.  There was a business story on the radio the other day about this phrase, where it comes from and how it can be used in ways that either empower or demoralize employees.  My mind strayed to the dozens of articles I have been reading about faith and the recession.  The anecdotal evidence suggests that more people go to church in economic hard times, but that while the pews may be full the coffers are not.  Giving is going down, at least in many denominations.  In other words, churches need to do more with less.  An article on CNN’s website put it this way:

“In faith-based communities, if you ask pastors across the country, many will tell you that attendance is up; however donations are down,” said [Lynnette] Khalfani-Cox, who is known as the Money Coach. “People are turning to the church for help, whether it’s help making their mortgage payment, putting in a prayer request, assistance in finding a job or just getting practical, day-to-day strategies for managing debt.”

I look at the above list of the various kinds of help that people might seek from a faith community (money, prayer, networking, and training or information) and I feel both sympathy and more than a little anxiety.  I think about how many parishes and congregations are struggling in this economy, and I wonder how we can be expected to do it all even while we strive just to keep our doors open and our salaries paid.  And yet if we can’t model faith through generosity, who can?

I know someone whose congregation has taken a series of vows; as a community, they have promised that no member of their church will go hungry or be without a place to call home.  I find this incredibly moving.  My acquaintance already wonders and worries a little about whether this will mean she might have to have someone else–maybe a whole family!–move into her small home.  Her honesty forces me to imagine taking the same vow.  To imagine all those people I like well enough on Sunday mornings but, well, you know…would I really want to live with them?  Or they with me, for that matter!

My favorite article on the subject of faith and finances is “A Spiritual Approach to Money” in the Christian Science Monitor.  The subtitle says it all: “One group’s formula for trying times: Live gratefully, spend less, buy justly, give more.”  If that is the kind of financial counseling being offered at churches, sign me up.  Seriously.

Lazarus at the Gate is the name of the program at the center of the article (here’s a link to the Bible story that inspires that title).  Their website explains “The mission of Lazarus at the Gate is to promote simplicity for the sake of generosity. We hope to combine a vibrant relationship with Jesus with a vibrant commitment to the world’s poor. In particular, we seek to help people simplify their lives and mobilize money to the global poor.”

The Monitor’s article includes this thought-provoking quote,

“Right now there are a lot of opportunities to feel fear when thinking about money. But if you start from a place of gratitude and abundance, it radically changes your perspective,” says Rachel Anderson, director of Boston Faith & Justice Network (BFJN), which coordinates the small-group program. “How we choose to spend our money – there are many justice issues there and room for change to steward Earth’s resources better and alleviate poverty.”

Simplicity for the sake of generosity.  Facing the global economic and environmental consequences of our buying habits and responding with a renewed sense of responsiblity for the world we live in. It does make you think: if we all got in the habit of spending less and giving more, what would the world look like?  And how fantastic would it be if we kept up those good new habits after the economy improves?  In one article I read someone made the comparison with people who grew up in the Great Depression and then kept saving string and tin foil long after the rationing had ended.

I don’t want to rationalize or romanticize the suffering that this economic collapse is causing many individuals–the number of people I know personally who have lost jobs is growing weekly, and even those of us who still have our jobs and our homes and our health insurance feel like we’re facing an awfully uncertain future.  But maybe sometimes necessity can be the mother of virtue, as well as invention.  The Rev. James H. Cooper, the rector of Trinity Parish on Wall Street, said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle that, “any crisis creates the opportunity for a reordering of life systems. [...] The deepest part of us, the humanity that sometimes gets buried, has a chance to rise to the surface.”  I hope so.