Hard Times Hit Myrtle Beach Area Church
For most of the past 20 years, New Harvest church in Socastee had plenty of money.
The nondenominational church spread its missionary work worldwide, sinking wells for fresh drinking water in India, starting an orphanage there, supporting a school in Pakistan and even buying 100 children out of slavery.
"We were bringing in $30,000 some weeks," said the Rev. A.J. Baisch, senior pastor at New Harvest. "It wasn't uncommon for us to get individual $50,000 donations" from the congregation of 200, many from the real estate industry. .
Then the recession struck.
Now the church, built and lovingly decorated by the hands of its congregants, is scheduled to be sold next week on the Horry County courthouse steps in a foreclosure auction, nearly $77,000 in arrears.
"It's very sad about New Harvest," said the Rev. Kelly Malone, senior pastor at Agape Christian Fellowship in Myrtle Beach. "It's the same all over. Everyone is struggling."
Malone said he has heard from plenty of other church leaders in the area who are having to scrape by, sometimes because they have smaller congregations, sometimes because churches decided to expand when times were better and got behind when giving fell off.
It's another sign of the times.
The church began in a small storefront in Surfside Beach, and after years of increasing income and a charitable offer on eight acres at along S.C. 707, New Harvest was able to have a permanent home. The mortgage payment was $5,500 a month.
Baisch said when times were good, he and Hensley looked for ways to spend the church's money on missionary work, never thinking they should set some aside for a rainy day. And they had no idea a monsoon was coming.
"We're not business people, we're church people," Baisch said. "We made mistakes. We did."
Things have gotten so bad that Baisch and soon-to-be-former administrative pastor Todd Hensley have been working most of the past year with very little pay. Their homes are also in foreclosure.
Once the economy turned, the congregation thinned because some people left the area after losing jobs, said church member Amanda Dickson, who served as the church's Sunday school director for several years.
Some left because they couldn't understand how the church could have gotten itself in such a financial mess, she said, and there were some hurt feelings between some congregants who had made real estate deals together.
What's left of the flock - about 100 people, Dickson said - is a family.
"I see this as a refining fire," she said. "What's left will be a stronger foundation."
Hensley said the land the church sits on is worth more than the nearly $1 million owed on the building since it was refinanced a couple of years ago, but the bank has declined to make a deed-in-lieu deal or extend the church more time on the foreclosure so it can try and sell some of the property to pay its bill.
The bank that holds the mortgage, BB&T, has stopped talking to Baisch, he said, and even though he and Hensley have a plan to share the church building - and expenses - with two other congregations that are now renting space, the bank is past the point of negotiating.
Representatives from BB&T did not return a call for comment, but, like all banks, BB&T is probably inundated with requests from customers of all kinds for leniency and assistance.
"There is a certain sadness," Dickson said. "I met my husband here, had all our children here. [Losing the building] is a blow. My children have grown up here - this really is their second home. We have no family here except our family at New Harvest."
However, she said, she still has faith.
"I'll find peace in whatever the decision is," she said. "I believe there are different seasons we're supposed to go through to make us into what we're supposed to become."
Struggling along
"The church operates on tithes and offerings," Malone said. "In every congregation, a percentage of the people are elderly, on fixed incomes, and there are blue-collar workers. They are hard workers, but many of them have been out of work for a year now. Even people who are working have been affected by decreased paychecks, decreased hours at work."
"People naturally want to take care of their own households first, and we don't begrudge that," Baisch said. "We'd just like a chance to turn this around and get caught up."
Other churches manage to do missionary work like New Harvest, and are able to stay afloat. Some have financial administrators to deal with the budget, others have committees that make the business decisions.
Churches affiliated with large national denominations, Malone said, can sometimes get support from their home organizations. But independent churches, like New Harvest and Agape, are pretty much on their own, Malone said.
Some churches are not even seeing a decrease in giving since the economy went bad.
"Our giving is actually up, and our missions giving is up even more," said Debra Cartrette, secretary at First Assembly of God in Loris. "Even though people are out of work."
She said giving is a principle at her church.
"If we give, God blesses us," she said. "We give as a form of worship. But it's a principle we stand by. You tithe with whatever you have."
Dickson said she has never struggled with the idea of giving to God first, even when her young family was just starting out and sometimes didn't have money for diapers.
Baisch and Hensley said they have learned their lesson about budgeting, and have asked for the congregation's forgiveness.
"They have forgiven us," Baisch said. "And if we get another chance, there are things we will do differently. But we're not going to change our general philosophy. We're here to do the things a church is supposed to do."
Dickson, who has been a church member since the storefront days, said the congregation, her family, will survive even if they have to meet in a smaller place again. After all, that's where they came from.
"It's not about the building," she said. "It's about the fellowship." -Sun News
For most of the past 20 years, New Harvest church in Socastee had plenty of money.
The nondenominational church spread its missionary work worldwide, sinking wells for fresh drinking water in India, starting an orphanage there, supporting a school in Pakistan and even buying 100 children out of slavery.
"We were bringing in $30,000 some weeks," said the Rev. A.J. Baisch, senior pastor at New Harvest. "It wasn't uncommon for us to get individual $50,000 donations" from the congregation of 200, many from the real estate industry. .
Then the recession struck.
Now the church, built and lovingly decorated by the hands of its congregants, is scheduled to be sold next week on the Horry County courthouse steps in a foreclosure auction, nearly $77,000 in arrears.
"It's very sad about New Harvest," said the Rev. Kelly Malone, senior pastor at Agape Christian Fellowship in Myrtle Beach. "It's the same all over. Everyone is struggling."
Malone said he has heard from plenty of other church leaders in the area who are having to scrape by, sometimes because they have smaller congregations, sometimes because churches decided to expand when times were better and got behind when giving fell off.
It's another sign of the times.
The church began in a small storefront in Surfside Beach, and after years of increasing income and a charitable offer on eight acres at along S.C. 707, New Harvest was able to have a permanent home. The mortgage payment was $5,500 a month.
Baisch said when times were good, he and Hensley looked for ways to spend the church's money on missionary work, never thinking they should set some aside for a rainy day. And they had no idea a monsoon was coming.
"We're not business people, we're church people," Baisch said. "We made mistakes. We did."
Things have gotten so bad that Baisch and soon-to-be-former administrative pastor Todd Hensley have been working most of the past year with very little pay. Their homes are also in foreclosure.
Once the economy turned, the congregation thinned because some people left the area after losing jobs, said church member Amanda Dickson, who served as the church's Sunday school director for several years.
Some left because they couldn't understand how the church could have gotten itself in such a financial mess, she said, and there were some hurt feelings between some congregants who had made real estate deals together.
What's left of the flock - about 100 people, Dickson said - is a family.
"I see this as a refining fire," she said. "What's left will be a stronger foundation."
Hensley said the land the church sits on is worth more than the nearly $1 million owed on the building since it was refinanced a couple of years ago, but the bank has declined to make a deed-in-lieu deal or extend the church more time on the foreclosure so it can try and sell some of the property to pay its bill.
The bank that holds the mortgage, BB&T, has stopped talking to Baisch, he said, and even though he and Hensley have a plan to share the church building - and expenses - with two other congregations that are now renting space, the bank is past the point of negotiating.
Representatives from BB&T did not return a call for comment, but, like all banks, BB&T is probably inundated with requests from customers of all kinds for leniency and assistance.
"There is a certain sadness," Dickson said. "I met my husband here, had all our children here. [Losing the building] is a blow. My children have grown up here - this really is their second home. We have no family here except our family at New Harvest."
However, she said, she still has faith.
"I'll find peace in whatever the decision is," she said. "I believe there are different seasons we're supposed to go through to make us into what we're supposed to become."
Struggling along
"The church operates on tithes and offerings," Malone said. "In every congregation, a percentage of the people are elderly, on fixed incomes, and there are blue-collar workers. They are hard workers, but many of them have been out of work for a year now. Even people who are working have been affected by decreased paychecks, decreased hours at work."
"People naturally want to take care of their own households first, and we don't begrudge that," Baisch said. "We'd just like a chance to turn this around and get caught up."
Other churches manage to do missionary work like New Harvest, and are able to stay afloat. Some have financial administrators to deal with the budget, others have committees that make the business decisions.
Churches affiliated with large national denominations, Malone said, can sometimes get support from their home organizations. But independent churches, like New Harvest and Agape, are pretty much on their own, Malone said.
Some churches are not even seeing a decrease in giving since the economy went bad.
"Our giving is actually up, and our missions giving is up even more," said Debra Cartrette, secretary at First Assembly of God in Loris. "Even though people are out of work."
She said giving is a principle at her church.
"If we give, God blesses us," she said. "We give as a form of worship. But it's a principle we stand by. You tithe with whatever you have."
Dickson said she has never struggled with the idea of giving to God first, even when her young family was just starting out and sometimes didn't have money for diapers.
Baisch and Hensley said they have learned their lesson about budgeting, and have asked for the congregation's forgiveness.
"They have forgiven us," Baisch said. "And if we get another chance, there are things we will do differently. But we're not going to change our general philosophy. We're here to do the things a church is supposed to do."
Dickson, who has been a church member since the storefront days, said the congregation, her family, will survive even if they have to meet in a smaller place again. After all, that's where they came from.
"It's not about the building," she said. "It's about the fellowship." -Sun News
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