In light of the continually troubled housing market it’s understandable that the vast majority of attention being paid to foreclosures is squarely on distressed homeowners and their properties. But truth be known, foreclosures go far beyond just residential properties. All over the country commercial enterprises are finding themselves in serious financial trouble as well. Among some of the hardest hit are America’s churches. Such is the case with Faith Christian Church of Lakewood Ranch, Florida.

Just days before the Easter holiday, Faith Christian Church was foreclosed on. The church’s financial difficulties had already led the pastor and its leadership to conclude they needed to shut down and dissolve the corporation at the end of April. They were hoping to get one last service in on Easter Sunday as a means of encouraging the church’s 140 congregants not to lose hope as they searched out new places to worship. Unfortunately, they won’t get that chance.

As reported by the Bradenton Herald here on April 6 2012, Faith Christian Church was originally established in 1996, moving to their current location some 11 years ago. The newspaper says the church “owes $1 million on the property” with monthly mortgage payments at “more than $8,000 per month.”

“They had every right,” said Pastor Tim Smith. “We couldn’t pay our mortgage. It’s too bad we couldn’t end it in a way we thought was more fitting.”

Neither Smith nor the congregation has any ill will toward the bank over the foreclosure. They knew they were in serious financial trouble months ago, which is why they began preparing for the closure.

On the front door of the church was is a sign warning vendors of the pending shutdown, informing them all bills would be paid but no new purchases would be made after April 8. With the foreclosure proceeding now in process, the church’s bank account has been reduced to zero; a situation which could cause problems for some vendors.

The Right Attitude

By respres (http://www.flickr.com/photos/respres/2539334956/) CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

It is certainly sad to see a religious institution as active in the community as Faith Christian Church having to shut down because of foreclosure. However, the attitude displayed by church members and their leadership is one we should all take notice of. Nowhere in the Bradenton Herald story was there any indication of bad blood between the two parties. Nor were there any complaints or attempts at finger-pointing from the church elders or pastor.

With humility this group acknowledged their failure to make good on their mortgage and the bank’s right to repossess their property. They will pick up the pieces of their lives and find new places to worship together. In the meantime, the bank will do what it always does; perform any work that needs to be done before putting the property back on the market. Hopefully both parties will agree to go their ways amicably and this will be the end of the story.

Both the bank and the church are to be commended for understanding what was at stake here. The church especially should be looked to for its example. If more foreclosed property owners were willing to accept the responsibility for their part of the foreclosure process we could all work together to get this mess cleaned up much more quickly.