Today, a significant number of retired ministers and their spouses face financial difficulties. Their ministry positions limited their earning potential which resulted in limited savings. Ordinary expenses like groceries, housing expenses, and medical bills threaten to exhaust the modest funds they possess.
Rev. Bill Hughes may be officially retired but at age 84, he continues to preach weekly. Every Sunday, he makes the hour-long drive from his home near Jackson, Mississippi to Carthage where he’s serving a small congregation without a pastor.
However, on November 28, Mike went on a mountain bike ride with his children—one of their favorite activities. In a fluke accident, he flew over his handlebars and crashed onto his helmet. He suffered a spinal cord injury, severely limiting his movement.
After her husband passed away, Peggy moved to live closer to family. She brought all her belongings, including family photos, her treasured violin and piano, and original music compositions, to an apartment—only to have a second tragedy strike when a fire consumed the building.
When it comes to stewardship and charitable giving, most churches only think about cash donations. But most of the wealth in congregations is tied up in non-cash assets, many of which can be given as charitable donations. These non-cash assets are often called...
I used to think of Ministerial Relief as a ministry that only provided for widows requiring critical assistance. Every year, I encouraged our congregation to give enthusiastically to it, never imagining my wife and I would one day be beneficiaries of the generosity of God’s people in the PCA.