I do agree, Scarlett. But how does a responsible orginization end up $900,000 in the red ? This is a sign of someone not doing something right.
With a large budget set up, $900,000 is certainly understandable. We'll not meet our budget this year, I'm sure but we're meeting expenses. That means we've cut a lot of things including raises (2 years now), scholarships where needed, necessary building upgrades, "extra" spending wherever possible. If this church has their money all promised to ministry, I can see why they'd want to try to meet their budget. But this is where I think it's important for a church to have an emergency fund too. Not sure if they do or not - I'm not familiar with their spending and financial practices so I can't say for sure. How about instead of deciding that they're not doing something right, find out the facts first. That might be prudent in this case.