christianityandme

Friday, Jul 30th - 10:18pm

« Anti-porn ministry gives out Jesus Loves Porn Stars Bibles

Churches use the latest technology to spread “the word” »

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

Only half of US congregations are financially healthy

When it comes to their financial condition, a majority of congregations in the United States consider themselves financially healthy. But increasingly more congregations worry about their finances.

A new survey of 884 randomly sampled congregations of all faith traditions in the United States has found that 57 percent of congregations report that their financial situation is good or excellent. This represents a notable drop since 2000 when 66 percent of congregations said their situation was good or excellent.

The financial health of congregations varies considerably by faith community, the new survey found. Less than half (48%) of Old-line Protestant congregations reported that their financial situation was good or excellent, compared to 62 percent of Other Protestant congregations and Catholic and Orthodox parishes.

These figures are from the just released Faith Communities Today 2005 (FACT2005) survey. The survey updates results from a survey taken in 2000.

This new survey information appears in “Insights into Financial Giving,” which offers tips on why financial giving is considered important, to help congregations as they plan their financial campaigns. For example, Money Matters: Personal Giving in American Churches, a recent study of church finances, identifies four basic motivations: Thankfulness and Altruism, Reciprocity with God, Reciprocity with the individual’s faith group, and Giving as an extension of the self.

“Insights into Financial Giving” poses the “bottom line questions” and asks congregations to consider which are appropriate to them, which take priority and what steps they would take to respond to them. One says, for example, “Remember that people give to people and not to budgets and shortages. The first rule of fundraising is to ask. Do you ask personally and connect the contributions to how they concretely assist people in their spiritual, physical, and other needs?”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 6:13 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

You must be logged in to post a comment.