Read this blog to find out how churches can help with your money worries.
For those struggling with debt, low income or other financial challenges, a local church may not be the first place you think of to seek help. In fact, more than 1,500 churches across the UK have chosen to partner with Christians Against Poverty (CAP) to tackle the causes and consequences of poverty in their communities, and are helping people find freedom every day.
Here are three reasons why you should connect with your local church if you need help.
How the Church can help you with your money worries:
1. You’ll find an existing community ready to support you
Research has shown that difficulty with money commonly leads to isolation and loneliness. When surveyed, 9 in 10 of the people CAP helps said debt made them feel they had no one to turn to with a problem. When we’re struggling, it’s essential that we have a support network close by, to encourage us, guide us, and remind us that we’re not alone, through both the easier and the more difficult patches.
Where appropriate, CAP’s local church teams will invite those they’re helping to attend church, sometimes for a Sunday or midweek service, sometimes for a social or evangelistic event. In doing so, they’re able to offer an opportunity to find an existing community that can demonstrate God’s love, compassion and grace through life’s many ups and downs.
My CAP Debt Coach, Jo, invited me to church and it’s like my own little family now. I’ve found so much support, love and understanding.
Trish, who received help to become debt free
2. Many churches offer practical guidance to help you tackle your challenges
Over 1,500 churches partner with CAP to deliver free debt help, job clubs, life skills groups and money coaching in their local community. Volunteers are meticulously trained to provide support and guidance, and they know where to direct people if other types of help are needed.
Talking about the job club her husband attended at their local church, Sue said, ‘The mock interview sessions and help to write his CV really benefitted [my husband, Tim], and he would often tell me how supportive everyone was. He would tell me how, after each session, the coaches, volunteers and other participants would get together in the church’s café with a hot drink to pray, talk and get to know each other on a personal level.
The job club was “a hub of hope”
Sue, whose husband attended a job club at their local church
Tim and Sue received practical support through their local job club, as well as friendship and community.
Besides the services they deliver in partnership with CAP, many churches offer other vital outreach programmes including food banks for those of us who are struggling to afford to eat, toddlers’ and kids’ groups where parents and children can socialise and feel supported, prayer groups where people can receive pastoral care, youth clubs to provide a safe space for older children – and that’s only scratching the surface.
Whatever challenges and circumstances you may be facing, your local church is a place where you can find practical help and start to move forward.
3. Churches are built on something that poverty loves to steal: hope
As the body of Christ, churches and their members are in an ideal position to share the good news of the gospel with those we meet. For those facing the despair that comes with debt and poverty, this can change their entire outlook.
To know Jesus is to know that there is more to life than our immediate challenges and circumstances, and it’s a privilege to be able to share this uplifting message with others, especially those who desperately need to be reminded that there is hope.
Did you know?
700+
people heard the gospel message for the first time in 2024
This is thanks to the incredible local church teams working with CAP. The impact of this is rarely more striking than in the words of Stuart, who received debt help from his local church:
Since coming to know God and battling my debt, I’ve been given a newfound sense of being, a new life almost. Before, I felt alone, but now I feel like I have God’s hand on me all the time and I can fight whatever is put in front of me.
Whether you’re in need of practical support with debt and money worries, a community to walk alongside you, a reminder that there is hope and a way forward, or all of the above, you’ll find it through a local church working in partnership with CAP. Find your nearest below and get started on your journey to freedom.
