Absolute Quandary for My Active Members in Family Due to Church not Helping TBM Member Having Major Health Crisis - won’t surprise me if some leave church as result
I have a family member who is young mother who is very active in the church. She has been diagnosed with a very rare medical condition which has significantly impacted her life and that of her husband and children. She has been in and out of hospital, multiple surgeries snd procedures and will have lifelong complications.
She and her family are facing near catastrophic financial conditions. Her husband works tirelessly but the medical expenses are overwhelming. The medical expenses see combined with all the other expenses such as childcare, time the husband has to take off of work to care for her and the list goes on and on. The medical treatment is unique and there are some significant aspects of her treatment that are not covered by insurance. Without being too specific the uncovered portion is appropriately $8,000 per month and they have modest income.
The church members have been great at bringing casseroles and the like when she has been in out of hospital. However, the church has provided zero financial assistance. They recently offered to help for a single month but this family needs significant financial assistance and will likely need it for a long period of time.
So here have been the conversations I have had with the TBM family members who have been witnessing the failure of the church to step up and help in any significant manner.
Me - isn’t this the exact family who the church should help in times of crisis? Isn’t this the exact scenario that you pay fast offerings for? TBM response - yes.
If the church does not step up and help this family - who do they step up and use their resources to help? TBM response - yeah, we agree.
Me - isn’t it concerning the church is not stepping forward and helping? When I ask this with multiple TBM family members in the room it’s mostly crickets. When I talk to them privately virtually all of them have admitted they are highly troubled the church is not helping. A couple of them have relayed to me and my spouse privately that they are actually disgusted by it given the church’s resources and how much this family is suffering but they are afraid of saying to much on it.
Bottom line for me after observing how the church operates for more than six decades is that the church will provide minimal short term assistance. However, I have never seen the church provide any real meaningful assistance that is 1) a significant amount; or 2) for a sustained period of time.