Missions giving not keeping up with church offering increases

(ABP) -- The amount of money flowing through Baptist church offering plates has increased 112 percent in the last 15 years, but the amount of money churches give to missions causes has increased at only half that rate.

An analysis of financial data reported by Southern Baptist Convention churches shows congregations nationwide are sending smaller percentages of their undesignated offerings to the Cooperative Program unified missions budget. That budget funds both state and national missions programs.

Further, designated giving to special missions offerings also has increased at only half the pace of increases in undesignated giving to church causes.

This is a trend found not only among Baptists, explained Sylvia Ronsvalle, executive vice president of empty tomb, a Champagne, Ill., ministry devoted to increasing awareness of missions funding needs. "These trends are common to the church in the United States," she said. "Churches seem to be turning inward. They seem to be emphasizing the comfort and happiness of members over the transformation of those members."

Just the facts

Here are the facts among Southern Baptist churches, as reported on the Annual Church Profile and published by the SBC Executive Committee in the convention's annuals:

-- Undesignated receipts in SBC churches grew 112 percent from 1987 to 2002, from $3.2 billion to $6.8 billion.

-- Total receipts in SBC churches, combining regular budget gifts and special offerings, grew 120 percent over 15 years, from $4.3 billion to $9.5 billion.

-- Total missions expenditures reported by churches, including Cooperative Program, special offerings and local missions, grew 55 percent in the same period, from $663 million to $1 billion.

-- Gifts to the Cooperative Program nationwide, including both the portion retained by state conventions and the portion forwarded to the SBC, grew 49 percent, from $337 million to $502 million.

-- Designated giving to the SBC's special offerings -- primarily the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions, Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American missions and the world hunger offering -- grew 56 percent, from $109 million to $170 million.

-- The average percentage of a church's undesignated receipts sent through the Cooperative Program decreased from 10.52 percent in 1987 to 7.39 percent in 2002. As a percentage of undesignated offerings, local churches have decreased their Cooperative Program giving by 30 percent.

That trend line more than any other is the one that worries denominational officials, missions leaders and missions workers.

"That's not a healthy trend if you want to name Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior," Ronsvalle said.

Church challenges

So what's going on? Are churches simply hogging more money for themselves while mission boards freeze appointments?

It's not that simple, according to several analysts.

"I personally feel Baptists' commitment to missions is as strong as ever, but it has been influenced by other factors," noted Clay Price, research director at the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Price has monitored these giving trends across three decades of denominational employment.

First, Price said, "as the education level of pastors and church staff has increased, so has cost of salaries and benefits."

That was echoed by Phill Martin, education director for the National Association of Church Business Administration based in Richardson.

Specifically, he said, rising health-insurance costs have wreaked havoc on church budgets. "With multiple years of 25 and 30 percent increases in the cost of health coverage, it is a significant impact on church budget issues."

Second, churches have faced increasing land and building costs.

Third, the price of keeping the lights on and the heat or air conditioning running has increased significantly.

Fourth, churches have experienced a long-term trend of members wanting to be personally involved in direct missions -- sometimes as a full or partial substitute for giving to send others.

That point was echoed by Cliff Tharp, research director at LifeWay Christian Resources and coordinator of the Annual Church Profile.

"Many more churches have groups go on trips, do volunteer missions," he noted. "That may be impacting Cooperative Program giving, but I have nothing to quantify that."

Price recalled a book written about 30 years ago by Robert Kilgore, then director of church loans at the SBC Home Mission Board. In How Much a Debtor, Kilgore drew upon his banking and church experience to estimate that most churches in 1973 spent 15 percent to 20 percent of their money on local expenses, another 10 percent to 15 percent on missions, 40 percent to 50 percent on staff salaries and benefits, and 15 percent to 35 percent on debt service.

Through NACBA, Martin continues to monitor the ratio of church personnel costs to total church budget, and the portion spent on personnel continues to grow, he said, adding health insurance cost is the driver.

"As local expenses, salaries and debt have risen, there has been a squeeze on the missions portion of church budgets, including the Cooperative Program," Price explained.

More local missions?

One of the explanations churches often give for reducing Cooperative Program giving is increased expenditures on local missions.

The statistics support this assertion to a small degree. Total missions expenditures reported by churches grew 55 percent from 1987 to 2002, a better growth rate than the 49 percent gain in Cooperative Program giving. However, that small distinction pales in comparison to the 112 percent growth of undesignated receipts.

Martin, a former church business administrator who has filled out the Annual Church Profile form before, believes it may not accurately report all church missions expenditures.

Tharp, too, agrees with that caveat, noting that while the definition of what constitutes "mission expenditures" on the report is defined broadly, not all the correct data gets passed along. National data in recent years could be slightly skewed downward, he added, because two state conventions have not reported their numbers on this item.

Price is willing to give churches the benefit of the doubt and acknowledge many may not accurately report their full missions spending on the profile. Often, missions spending is spread throughout a church's budget in such a way that the person who completes the annual statistical report may not know where to gather all the data.

Yet, a clear trend still exists, Price added, noting the consistent pattern of Cooperative Program giving, total missions expenditures and designated offerings to grow at only half the rate of undesignated giving to the churches.

"The fact that all three of these have experienced about the same growth seems to be some indication that other factors have pushed or pulled these missions dollars downward," he said.

Is politics to blame?

Political tensions in Southern Baptist life over the last two decades could be explored as a factor in missions-giving trends, but Price discounted that as not a likely influence. Ronsvalle affirmed that the picture of SBC churches looks similar to what she sees in other evangelical and mainline churches regardless of whether they have experienced controversy.

Put another way, has the SBC lost missions money to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the group formed by moderate Baptists disenfranchised from the SBC in the 1990s?

Total dollars given to the Cooperative Program did hit a brief plateau from 1991 to 1993, the same time the CBF was launched. However, in those early years, the CBF served as an alternative pass-through funding mechanism for a number of SBC ministries.

That plateau in giving also corresponded to a national economic downturn in the second half of the first Bush administration.

SBC leaders never claimed to have taken a financial hit from churches defecting to the CBF. To the contrary, the SBC has boasted of sailing along without missing a beat.

CBF supporters, meanwhile, have contended the combined missions reach of the two organizations is greater than what the SBC could have accomplished alone.

The $8.7 million in undesignated gifts to the CBF in the fiscal year ended June 30 represents less than 2 percent of more than $501 million given through the Cooperative Program in 2002. The undesignated gifts to the CBF represent less than 5 percent of the Cooperative Program income that flowed to the national SBC in 2002.

In 1996, the first year for which complete giving data is available for the CBF, it received $7.4 million in undesignated gifts. Had that amount been given directly to the SBC's national causes instead -- which CBF supporters claim is unlikely -- the SBC's undesignated income would have increased by 10 percent rather than 4 percent.

Such a leap is inconsistent with the 1 percent to 4 percent gains posted by the SBC in the decade prior.

What cannot be deduced from the available data is how much of a shift in giving might have occurred between various types of Baptist churches. For example, it is possible that increases in giving to the SBC by more conservative churches have offset decreases in giving to the SBC by CBF-friendly churches.

How low can you go?

Regardless, one fact remains unchanged: The percentage of churches' undesignated receipts going to missions has dropped by one-third in 15 years.

Charted on a linear path that assumes a continued steady rate of decline, it would take Cooperative Program contributions to zero in another 30 years -- bad news for state conventions and the SBC as well.

Both Ronsvalle and Price believe that's not likely to happen, however.

"It will never reach zero," Ronsvalle said, noting her agency had generated controversy in the past by extrapolating such a course-to-zero missions giving.

Even if the Cooperative Program ceased to exist, Baptists would find a way to cooperate to fund missions, Price insisted. "Baptists have too long a history of working together to do missions. We would come back to the point of saying, 'We could do more if we pooled our money.'"

And despite the decreasing percentage of church offerings given to missions, the Cooperative Program remains a "sizable" force for missions, Price noted.

What's the answer?

If denominational bodies want to increase missions giving from churches, they need to increase feedback, suggested Ronsvalle.

"We have found, repeatedly, church members will give to missions if they understand the need," she said. "But people want to know what their money is doing when it leaves the congregation."

Most denominations are not well equipped for this type of reporting, she admitted. What's required, she suggested, is more like the statements of activity that airlines send frequent fliers.

"If you're a frequent flier, you can fly, and two weeks later, you're going to get a specific report back showing you where you've been, how many miles you flew."

On the other hand, "you can give money to your denomination and not be able to track it."

That failure combines dangerously with a trend of church members wanting to support missions efforts they not only can see but can personally participate in, added Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics in Nashville, Tenn.

"The day has long been over when churches were willing to give their money to someone else to determine what to do with it," he explained. "People want to see their money at work. It's an issue of trust. They ask, 'Why should we give our money to a bureaucracy?'"

Back to the root of all evil

While it's easy to blame churches for keeping more of the offerings for their own discretionary use, the root of the missions funding challenge lies with individual Christians, Ronsvalle asserted.

"The church, and particularly missions, is shrinking as a market share of people's spending," she said.

The average member of a Christian church in the United States gives only 2.6 percent of his or her income to the church, Ronsvalle reported.

If all church members gave a biblical tithe of 10 percent, nearly $80 billion in additional funds would flow into missions annually, she said.

How does that figure compare with world need? By some estimates, a mere $2.5 billion could stop the deaths of 11 million children worldwide under age 5. An $80 billion investment could end the worst cases of world poverty, empty tomb contends.

Ronsvalle wishes churches not only would give more money to missions, but would challenge Christians to be better stewards of their financial resources.

"There has been a vacuum of leadership on the national level to raise people's eyes off their own individual needs," she said. "There has been a lack of comprehensive vision to challenge people to be willing to invest in the kingdom" of God.

Church leaders ought to more boldly counsel church members who seek fulfillment through consumerism, Ronsvalle urged, suggesting that buying a third car and moving to a bigger house is not the stairway to heaven.

"We don't really believe what we say we do," she concluded. "Because if we did, we'd be spending our money differently."