Pastor Bruce Jackson and First Grace Church, a Charis Fellowship congregation in Dayton, Ohio, was featured over the weekend in an online article at Forbes.com. The article discussed the Payment Protection Program and the impact it has had on faith-based organizations. A portion of the article appears below. Click here to read the complete story.
The SBA’s Decision To Give Churches And Other Faith-Based Organizations Payroll Protection Loans: ‘We Feel Blessed’
Pastor Bruce Jackson sent me a text when he was approved for a loan from the Small Business Administration: “we feel blessed,” he wrote. A friend had tipped him off to the loan, the Payment Protection Program, and the fact that churches were eligible. Pastor Bruce had jumped at the opportunity, despite the fact that religious organizations in Ohio are considered essential businesses, and First Grace Church has seen an uptick financially during the pandemic, because he viewed it as a gift from God.
Through a mixture of political bargaining and entrepreneurship, the business of saving souls, as Pastor Bruce calls it, has been able to mitigate some of the financial hardship devastating many small businesses during this time. Since churches don’t have to report their finances, it is difficult to know exactly how many have applied for government aid, but the number is estimated to be in the thousands. In a survey of 659 evangelical churches conducted by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, 59% of evangelical churches had applied for PPP loans as of May 26, according to Vice President Kim Sandretzky.
Click here to read the complete story.