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By banding together, congregations are trying to leverage the same consumer power they wielded in fighting for jobs and rights in the 1960s--but this time to gain better access to financial services and end what Jackson refers to, with typical flourish, as "economic apartheid." No boycotts are being threatened this time around. Instead, Jackson is uniting an underserved market with customer-hungry companies. New York Stock Exchange (N.Y.S.E.) chairman Dick Grasso agrees: "It's an absolutely perfect alignment."
Citigroup is offering graduates of the One Thousand Churches program six months of free checking and is considering a credit-card deal. Insurance companies, computer makers and Internet service providers are also coming to the table with special offers. Freddie Mac donated $1 million and developed One Thousand Churches' tutorials on credit scoring and home ownership. "The future of the housing market rests with minorities and first-time home buyers," says Willie Spears, an executive at New Orleans' Hibernia National Bank, "so in that respect we're being a little selfish."
Jackson's economic-literacy program dovetails with corporate growth strategies in part by trumpeting the economic value of faith. "Church members tend to be more stable people," he says. "They tend to subject themselves more to instruction. They're joiners." It's unlikely Jackson or his group will make any money from this venture, other than through donations from participating companies. Still, many ministers are so fearful of compromising their integrity that the program prohibits pitching any particular financial services during its seminars.
As Bembry guides his students through the mysteries of credit scoring, he peppers the seminar with practical advice not found in the workbooks: Keep all receipts so you can see where your money is going. Create an emergency fund. Avoid ATMs with usage fees. (Bembry knows how seductive these machines can be; he installed one in each of the two gas stations he owns.)
Once churches pay to join One Thousand Churches, classes are free for individuals. But Bembry zeroes in on one goal of the program: "After you've got yourself in a position to do so, pay God first. Tithe 10%. Then pay yourself."
Having majored in finance, Bembry has more formal investment training than most One Thousand Churches ministers, who often tap church members with experience in the financial sector to run the classes. While most seminaries offer at least one business-oriented course on church management, fewer than 10% teach personal finance. "It's the great silent subject, a huge gap in pastoral training," says Dick Towner, who founded the Good $ense Ministry, in South Barrington, Ill., in 1987.
To help fill this education gap, One Thousand Churches gives preachers a list of biblical passages on financial planning. The program's fee also covers a three-day crash course for pastors at the N.Y.S.E. In April, in a gilded conference room at the 250-year-old exchange, dozens of black ministers were immersed in Wall Street vocabulary--syndicate, suitability, zero-coupon bond--before taking a tour around the trading floor.