By Aaron Earls
American churches have smaller budgets, and fewer congregations have full-time paid senior pastors, but churches don’t seem to feel the pinch as much as they did a few years ago, according to the American Congregations 2015 study.
While the median church budget dropped $25,000 in the last five years, down from $150,000 to $125,000, most churches seem more financially optimistic.
The number of churches that say they are experiencing some or serious financial difficulty declined the last five years after a decade of increase. From 2000 to 2010, the percentage of churches that claimed difficulty grew from 8 percent to 18 percent. But in 2015, researches found a slight drop to 16 percent.
This echoes recent findings from Lifeway Research. A third of Protestant senior pastors say their church’s giving was under budget in 2015. One in 5 saw their finances decline. Since Lifeway Research began conducting the economy study in 2009, however, 2016 marked the lowest percentage of pastors saying the economy was negatively impacting their church.
The Hartford Institute for Religion Research (HIRR) says the positive feelings among congregations may be “because they have become more comfortable doing with less rather than because they have more to invest in their ministry.”
Here are four ways the research found churches are making the most of their financial situation.
1. More churches have inspirational worship. Despite the budget adjustments, weekend services are more upbeat according to the study.
From 2005 to 2010, churches that said worship felt “very inspirational” decreased slightly from almost 32 percent to 30 percent. In 2015, however, it rebounded up to 35 percent.
2. Fewer churches are fighting. In 2010, the study found a “recession surge” of church conflicts. The percentage of churches that had any conflict in the past five years jumped from 57 percent in 2005 to almost 78 percent in 2010.
Those numbers crept back down closer to previous years in 2015. Dropping almost 16 points last year, 62 percent of churches reported conflicts in the last five years.
3. More churches are using bivocational pastors. A different 2010 study from HIRR found close to 10 percent of congregations used staff layoffs and hiring delays to help deal with financial shortfalls. That seems to have carried over into 2015.
In 2010, more than 71 percent of churches had a full-time senior pastor. That number fell by almost 10 percent in 2015—dropping to 62 percent.
4. Churches are focusing on specialized programs. The research found churches with at least one program specialty such as Bible studies, music programs, or youth activities are more likely to grow (52 versus 42 percent) and have high vitality (36 versus 26 percent).
AARON EARLS (@WardrobeDoor) is online editor of Facts & Trends.
