A majority (57 percent) of religious congregations in America report that their income declined because of the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Nearly one in five (18 percent) indicate that it declined "a lot" while 39 percent indicate it declined some. Another one in ten say it declined initially, but by 2010 their income had rebounded. Almost a quarter (22 percent) indicate that their income did not change from 2007 through 2010, while another 11 percent report that it actually increased over the same time period.
This is the first data released from the Faith Communities Today (FACT) 2010 survey at Web-enabled news conferences last week. The report is entitled Holy Toll: Impact of the 2008 Recession on American Congregations. Overall, the recession had a negative impact on about two-thirds of the estimated 350,000 local congregations from all faiths in the United States.
Most of these congregations instigated wage and hiring freezes, dipped into reserve funds, and further reduced the hours of part-time staff or cut back full time workers to part time. They tried not to reduce programs and services, in part because they all experienced steep increases in requests to meet the needs of the unemployed in the community and among their own members.
People in the pews have been hurt even more than has organized religion. Lower incomes from reduced wages, increased charges for health care and other benefits, cut backs in hours, unpaid days off, etc., have caused economic hardship for many families. Almost every congregation has at least some of these families or is trying to meet the needs of suffering families in the surrounding neighborhood.
FACT has been tracking the life of congregations in America for a decade, starting with its first major study in 2000. Throughout that decade there has been a downward trend in the financial health of American congregations. Even among the growing Evangelical sector of Christian churches the percentage of congregations reporting an "excellent" or "good" financial condition has declined from 68 percent to 43 percent. Most of America's local religious groups are hurting financially.
It is possible that this trend over the past decade is actually part of a longer trend. FACT has no way of knowing this because it has been working on tracking trends for only the last decade. There are those researchers who believe that organized religion is in general decline; that fewer people attend church and fewer people are giving money to churches.
The FACT series of studies includes massive surveys in 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2010. The most recent sample included 11,077 randomly selected local congregations. A total of 25 Christian denominations and other faith groups conducted surveys as part of this large project, and a national random sample of other sectors was included. The 25 participating groups include Jewish, Muslim, Unitarian and Baha'i research as well as Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and other Christians. It is the largest single effort to understand the life and dynamics of local, religious congregations. More reports on growth, outreach, major trends and other topics are coming.
Full disclosure: I have participated in the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership that sponsors the FACT surveys since the late 1990s, and became executive secretary on January 1.
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