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Dwindling tithes sink local church

CHURCH: Easter a reality check for congregants

BY LOUIS MEDINA, Californian staff writer
lmedina@bakersfield.com | Saturday, Apr 25 2009 09:18 PM

Last Updated Saturday, Apr 25 2009 09:18 PM

Lighthouse Christian Ministries is going dark today after 33 years of service to the community. The wave that has crushed this inner-city spiritual beacon: the economy.

Good Neighbor Church in Oildale conducted its last service on Easter, due in part to financial strain, as churches make do with dwindling tithes from tapped-out congregants.

But Lighthouse is the first Bakersfield church to say publicly that the recession was its undoing.

"We hope we can sell it by the first of May," said founder and the Rev. Donald Vereen of the East Brundage Lane property. "We've got to dissolve and pay these bills that we owe. The board and I looked at this. The only way we can do justice and have a good name is pay these bills back."

Vereen, 55, said it takes about $4,000 a month to stay above water, but tithes from church members yield only about a fifth of that. He's been borrowing money to keep the doors open.

Gloomy Easter

On Easter Sunday, Vereen echoed the reality of his congregation from the pulpit: "Several people here have lost their house. Several people here have lost their jobs. There are some people here who say, 'If it wasn't for prayer, my PG&E bill would have been cut off,'" he said.

On what is considered the best-attended church day of the year, no more than three dozen congregants gathered in the 200-seat sanctuary.

"I was almost in tears today," said Fred Johnson, 35, who was there with his wife and their two children.

Johnson, who has attended Lighthouse for three years, said he and his wife started a youth program at the church about a year ago, but attendance in it, as well as during Sunday worship, has dwindled recently.

"Some of the kids, their parents started working on Sunday," he said.

Church board member Mary Hughes, 75, recalled that in 2008, about 100 people attended regularly. That number had dropped to "less than half" by the beginning of this year. About 30 people have left since then, "and they're still leaving."

"I haven't thought about what church I'm going to go to," she said, "but it will be the same faith." The mostly African-American church is interdenominational.

After the Easter service, Vereen, a former Bakersfield City School District board member, shook his head as he looked at that morning's offering: $104.

Money trouble

Generally speaking, churches are not closing their doors at the same alarming pace as retail businesses walloped by the economy. Four southwest Bakersfield congregations recently merged into two, but those were alliances of convenience rather than economics, said the pastors.

Yet many churches are adjusting to leaner times while relying on their faith.

"Many pastors that I've talked to have noted that their offerings are being impacted as this economic climate continues," said the Rev. David T. Goh of The Garden Community Church downtown. "I've also heard numerous testimonies about how the Lord has continued to provide for people. As churches we place our trust in God as our provider."

Michael Hawkins, president of the Bakersfield Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said attendance is up.

"When times are difficult, people reconnect again with the things that are most important," like faith, family, and serving others, he said. "Before the crisis, people started to focus more on money."

Tithes and offerings haven't come down much in Mormon churches locally, he said, but programs for the poor have kicked into gear.

LDS members fast two meals on the first Sunday of the month and donate the money they would have spent on food to a fund for the poor all over the world, including locally. The "Bishop's Storehouse" is a program that delivers foodstuffs from Mormon warehouses to the needy.

Msgr. Perry J. Kavookjian called Lighthouse's demise "tragic," and said he was thankful his own church, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, is "very healthy financially." Still, the Catholic priest said some of the congregants at his church, which meets at Frontier High in the northwest, are struggling with unemployment.

Church for sale

The Realtor handling Lighthouse's sale, Melvin Khachigian of Cal-Western Properties, said the asking price for the church is $1.25 million. He is marketing the 8,000 square feet to churches, mortuaries and social service agencies. It's Khachigian's third church sale, he said, but the first in several years.

"It's being sold as a package, a turn-key operation," Khachigian said. "You could buy it today and probably have Sunday services within a week."

Final service

The Rev. Vereen later learned from some congregants that they'd missed Easter at Lighthouse to visit prospective churches.

"It's a slow torment," he said. "I think the whole idea is just sinking in that they need to move on. I can't reject that."

Lynette Johnson, church membership and tithing secretary for St. John Missionary Baptist Church, half a mile east of Lighthouse on East Brundage, said she wouldn't know if any Lighthouse members have come to her church, which is 2,500 strong.

"God has blessed us here," she said. The church has a new pastor and attendance has remained steady, as have tithes and offerings.

Vereen will be delivering his final sermon this morning and retiring, a recent church bulletin announced. Then, in the afternoon, fellow ministers, their flocks and other members of the community will say goodbye to the church.

The Rev. Angela Williams of the nearby 400-member Cain Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church had a word of encouragement for Vereen:

"Tell him to keep praying and don't give up," she said. "Get your eyes off the situation and on the Lord."

And for his displaced flock, Williams said, "They're welcome here."