The 350,000 churches, synagogues and mosques in the U.S. raked in an estimated $88.3 billion last year. That’s a lot of money. That makes religion a bigger business than say, movies, music, video games and books combined. Not too shabby.
So why do churches have such a hard time making an impact on society?
Jason Nelson
August 9, 2005
After you take out about 50% for salaries, that leaves you with $44 billion. How does that compare with the others? I guess we’d have to look at the “profit margin” of the church to really answer the question. There are other studies that show giving is on the decline. Interesting…
Scott
August 9, 2005
My guess… we spend a great deal of that money, at least in the Christian church on ourselves. making our worship experience more pleasant.
Dan Currier
August 9, 2005
An interesting question, I have mixed thoughts about it. Anywho, quote that quickly came to mind was one of G.K. Chesterton’s, from his Intro to Job “If prosperity is regarded as the reward of virtue it will be regarded as the symptom of virtue. Men will leave off the heavy task of making good men successful. The will adopt the easier task of making out successful men good.” If one is to agree with such, it may perhaps shed some light on this.
Anne Jackson
August 9, 2005
How are churches NOT making an impact on society? Spiritual awareness right now is huge, and from a secular media standpoint, religion and even churches are getting tons of press coverage. People are finding relationships with Christ all the time; in fact a recent statistic I heard on Sunday said that in fact, Christianity (born-again) is the largest growing sect of spirituality out of all now, surpassing Islam.
If churches weren’t having an impact on society, how come they raked in 88 billion? How come more people are giving to that than movies, entertainment, etc. Sounds like infact the church is impacting society in a new and revolutionary way.
kevin
August 10, 2005
That’s a good point, Anne. I think part of what I was intending (though it didn’t come across), is why are we such bellyachers? If we rake in so much cash and should therefore have some influence in this money-driven world, why do we complain all the time? Why do Christians have such a ‘woe-are-we’ mindset?
Anne Jackson
August 10, 2005
Because we are still silly humans who at times lack faith and grace and thankfulness. I know I’m that way sometimes.
Alex
August 10, 2005
$88 billion?? Its sad. Most of it is probably spent on perpetuating the institution, rather than the movement of Christ. Can we really honestly say that this huge sum has contributed to the Church being the salt and light it was meant to be in the world? Abortion is continuing unabated. The divorce rate is pushing 50%, and is said to be higher amongst Christians. Addiction to pornography is exploding, even among, God forbid, women. Sure, spiritual awareness is high, but media coverage does not necessarily equate to truly transformed lives. Where was the money spent again??
Don’t get me wrong, I think good things are happening in many churches, but big money is not a sign of lasting spiritual transformation. Mostly, it goes into funding a self-pertuating institution rather than activating people to be other focused and true salt in the world.
Anne Jackson
August 10, 2005
I’m glad it’s not up to us to look at people’s hearts and motivation and appearances and how they spend their money.
Although “big money” isn’t a sign of lasting spiritual transformation, I do think that as people become healthier in the walks, they realize the importance of giving and tithing. We should be celebrating people’s generous hearts instead of questioning how the church is using the money.
Kortland
August 10, 2005
Maybe it is because church denominations are like “little” governments and are taking more and more money out of the church for its use.
Alex
August 10, 2005
In response to Anne’s post re: judging people’s hearts and motivations, I am glad it is not up to us too. That’s not the point. The point is that the church is losing effectiveness (yet God still moves in spite of us). It is said that 40% of the 250,000 or so churches in the US are plateaud or declining. And Barna’s research has shown that from 2000 ’til 2002, tithing went from 12% of born again adults to 6%. Apparently Christians are not as generous as Anne would believe. Again, I am not dissing those that do give. Rather I am questioning trends endemic in the church which are not entirely good. Aren’t we called to hold each other to account? As for how church should operate, a good reading of Acts shows a community of faith that operates far differently from the institutionalized church we are experiencing today. IMHO, it is this essence that we must passionately strive after.
Anne Jackson
August 11, 2005
I wonder what the stat is for after 2002 though? I can only speak from experience from my own church, but (this year only) our giving has been anywhere from 20-35% higher than it was last year, even in the summer months. Each month we have easily surpassed our needed budget (which has never happened before). We took initiative to start Crown small groups and occassionally do seminars or classes on money management, plus as a staff it is something we have prayed for our church. I know we are not an exception. By simple means of math that equals over 25mil per church, etc. I know our budget is around a 10th of that, so it has to be coming somewhere and growing somewhere as well. I mean 2002 was three years ago and even since then the church culture has changed drastically. Where else is the money coming from?
Anne Jackson
August 11, 2005
Rereading, as a staff, we were praying that westsiders became healthy finanically, not that we’d rake in the dough. Just wanted to clear that up.
Alex
August 11, 2005
Let’s break this down some more – If there are 350,000 churches in the US, that means each church gave an average of just over $251,000 per congregation. Ouch! In a 2005 Barna report, he found that only 4% of people tithed to churches alone and that the average amount of money donated to churches was $895 per person. That averages to just about $75 per month. It’s clear that people are generous with their time, but not as much so with their money. The likely general rule is that 20% of the people give 80% of the money in churches, and that 20% of the churches give 80% as well.
Anne Jackson
August 11, 2005
Forgive my bad math, it was early this morning and the numbers on my calculator were too small to count. Although the Barna statistic may be right, for us as church leaders to sit and complain about it (which I am by no means implying you do) is a bad use of time and our resources. What are WE not teaching? What are WE not practicing? 88 billion smackers is still a considerable amount of money, as the original topic said, being more than all those entertainment avenues combined.
kaydo
August 11, 2005
Fascinating statistics. While I’m sure we can all define success or impact in varying ways, maybe the better question is: are churches/organized religion (with all of their time, money, and energy) achieving the same collective level of leadership in our culture that the arts have been enjoying for quite some time?
Justin Broome
August 11, 2005
Wow what a minefield of a topic! If statistically only 4 percent of believers are tithing and it’s still amounting to 88 billion dollars, if all believers tithed we’d see around 2.2 TRILLION dollars a year! Imagine all the needs in peoples lives we could meet with that type of resource at our fingertips. Oh, wait… God DID design it to be that way, it’s only our sheer disobedience that prevents it from happening…
We so often pray for God to change this world and sweep through our nation, and I think he probably says back to us: “I will as soon as you let me work through you to do it.” The choice is ours. Are we going to be the instruments God uses to change the world, or are we going to worship our money, look at the 88 billion that OTHERS give, think it’s good enough, and go on with our lives?