BIBLE ENRICHED SPIRITUAL TRUTHS: The CARES Act & Your Church Staff: What You Need to Know & 4 Steps to Take Now

Monday, 30 March 2020

The CARES Act & Your Church Staff: What You Need to Know & 4 Steps to Take Now

The new stimulus bill includes churches and has implication for church staff. Please learn more before making any staff decisions.

We are in unprecedented times, and (for most of us) the health crisis is just weeks away. However, for all of us, the financial crisis is here.

There are roughly 350,000 churches in the United States. Most are small and have a single (often part time) staff member. Some employ thousands. However, Warren Bird of the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability estimates that there are 1 million people on the payroll of US churches, the majority of whom are part-time, often working other jobs.

Thus, the Congress and the President included them in the most recent stimulus bill, The CARES Act (and the Paycheck Protection Program), as part of a plan to avoid sudden and vast unemployment.

While this is a fluid situation, we are committed to learning more about the CARES Act in the hours and days to come.

One particular trusted resource that we want to note is Richard Hammar’s overview posted at Christianity Today. Hammar, senior editor at Church Law and Tax, notes the following about the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program):

The Act establishes a new US Small Business Administration loan program called the Paycheck Protection Program for small employers (including nonprofits and churches) with 500 or fewer employees to help prevent workers from losing their jobs and small businesses from failing due to economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program provides federally guaranteed loans to cover payroll and other operating expenses.
To be eligible, the small employer must have been harmed by the pandemic between February 15, 2020, and June 30, 2020. The Act requires eligible borrowers to make a good-faith certification that (1) the loan is necessary due to the current economic conditions caused by COVID-19; (2) the funds will be used to retain workers and maintain payroll, lease, and utility payments; and (3) they are not receiving duplicative funds for the same uses from another SBA program.