Benefits of a recession

Tired of all the bad economic news? Michael Hyatt shares ten benefits of a recession:

1. It causes you to get more creative.
   
   
2. It forces you to make the tough decisions.
   
   
3. It thins out the competition.
   
   
4. It makes you realize you can’t take anything for granted.
   
   
5. It reminds you that real wealth isn’t about the stuff you own.
   
   
6. It fosters out-of-the-box thinking.
   
   
7. It makes it easier to abandon business-as-usual.
   
   
8. It brings you back to the basics.
   
   
9. It accelerates change.
   
   
10. It causes you to be less wasteful.

That's a positive way of looking at it! On the other hand, if the government keeps bailing every industry out, we are going to lose some of these corrective measures that the free market will naturally take.

Several of these benefits apply to the church as well. While I don't "enjoy" these tough economic times, it has caused our church to become better stewards of what we have, and to think creatively about how to do ministry in the most effective way possible. For example, we switched from color bulletins to black-and-white, and installed window unit air conditioners in our offices that saved us hundreds of dollars this summer. If our budget hadn't been tight, we may not have made these simple, cost effective changes.