Tennessee churches donate collections to local businesses impacted by pandemic
Two Tennessee churches come together to donate a weeks' worth of offerings totaling over $12,000 to three small businesses.
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The pastor of a Tennessee church appeared on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday to explain how the church is helping local businesses that are struggling to survive amid the pandemic.
“Churches give, by their nature, to try to help out their neighbors,” Tim Stutler, the Goodlettsville Cumberland Presbyterian Church senior pastor, told “Fox & Friends.”
“Honestly, as we were thinking about people perhaps going to be unemployed and businesses closed, we knew that we might have to up our giving to help pay for their rent or help feed their families,” Stutler said.
“I literally woke up the next morning thinking why would we wait until then. If we can help them stay open, then they can keep their employees employed and they can continue to provide goods and services for our community and, perhaps, keep them from being unemployed.”
The Goodlettsville church partnered with a Gallatin, Tenn., church to donate up to a week's worth of offerings to support small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
"That one week alone, collections totaled more than $12,000, which is now helping one small business in Gallatin and one in Goodlettsville," Fox 17 Nashville reported.
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One of the many benefactors of Goodlettsville church donations appeared alongside Stutler to share the story.
Jenna Rummel, owner of the Chic Artique furniture store, said that her business had a “stack of bills accumulated” after seven weeks.
“We were just so grateful and blown away that a pastor would have a heart for small businesses in the area and we’re just incredibly grateful for what this means and being able to pay some bills we were behind on is basically what we used it for,” Rummel said.
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Rummel said on May 3, after an online church service, her husband laid all of the bills out on a table to “pray over them.”
“The next day I got the call. We didn’t even know the church was giving money,” Rummel said.
“When they gave us the check for $5,000, we were just blown away."
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