Thoughts on Life and Leading

Generousnews.org is featuring a story covered on christianpost.com detailing George Barna’s recent research on how the economy is challenging the church:

Christian Post - Fascinating Barna study on what’s happened to church giving over the last 3 months. My quick summary:
1) one out of every five households (20 percent) has decreased their giving to churches or other religious centers
2) Among those who reduced their donations to churches, 19 percent dropped their giving by as much as 20 percent; five percent decreased their funding by 21 to 49 percent; 17 percent reduced their gift by half, and 11 percent cut their support by more than half.
3) A surprisingly large proportion, 22 percent, stopped their offering to churches altogether.
4) Upscale households were most likely to reduce their giving.
5) Barna projects $3 - $5 billion less for churches in 4th quarter.
6) 35 percent of respondents said their church had offered a special talk about the financial hardship and ways to respond to it.
Are we having fun yet?

It’s no fun being in the middle of this dilemma. The complete Barna article is disheartening and a bit frightening. We are trying to be graceful and tactful with how we are dealing with the economic hardships.

Thankfully, many people in our church are remaining faithful even though they are being challenged. The great news is, we are giving more help than ever before to needy people. God’s work will continue.