Pastor Rick Warren of the Southern California megachurch Saddleback Church is encouraging his parishioners to donate $900,000 within two days.
In an “urgent” letter posted on the church’s web site Wednesday, Warren explained that church expenses went up this year to help care for the financially hurting community while the end-of-year donations are down. Saddleback needs the $900,000 by New Year’s Eve to stay out of debt, the founding pastor stated.
“On the last weekend of 2009, our total offerings were less than half of what we normally receive – leaving us $900,000 in the red for the year, unless you help make up the difference today and tomorrow,” stated the letter.
Warren noted that ten percent of the more than 22,000 members of the church are out of work this year. To help the struggling members as well as the community in general, Saddleback bolstered its charity services such as its food pantry.
The Saddleback food pantry fed 400 hurting families in the community every month, and over 2,000 different families received food assistance in 2009, Warren highlighted.
Other Saddleback charity services to help those hurt by the recession included a breakfast and homeless ministry that helped thousands in the poorest parts of Southern California’s Orange County, financial coaching, and a ministry that collects donated cars to help those struggling with transportation.
Warren, in a recent interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, said the number one thing he believes American politicians need to do domestically is “get America back to work.”
“I think before health care or anything else, we need to get people back to work,” Warren told NBC’s David Gregory last month.
“There’s nearly 10 percent unemployment. That’s the equivalent of Canada being unemployed. And so we have to look at this fact that if we get people back to work, then we can work on some of these other issues,” he said.
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