giving to the devil

Nearly twenty years ago, I attempted to conduct a survey of 100 churches within a nearby city with a population of about 60,000 people.  I prepared a carefully worded, two-page questionnaire, which was subtly designed to elicit information regarding the percentage of those churches' funds which was used to finance any sort of ministry amongst the community, that is to say, ministry outreach which was conducted outside of the churches themselves, or which did not directly benefit the church and/or its leadership.


Those questionnaires were placed in stamped, self-addressed envelopes, and a cover letter was included which explained that the survey was being conducted only for the purpose of fulfilling a college course requirement related to statistics.  Everything was done with the aim to make the completion and return of those surveys as simple, easy (and free of cost) as possible, for those, church leaders, whom I had hoped would cooperate with my little project.  I got three of them back, only one of which was completely filled out.

I was otherwise able to obtain literature directly from one of the churches I attempted (unsuccessfully) to survey, which literature included all of the information I was looking to obtain by means of my survey instrument.

The 'data'~though insufficient to be considered "statistically significant," revealed that a paltry 1-3% of all monies that came into those (four) churches, was 'returned' to the surrounding communities, in the form of funded outreach ministries.  Far more significant, however, is my own experience among a large number of churches (of various denominations) which I have attended, over the course of several decades.

In almost every church and denomination I've attended, throughout many years, I have observed a very consistent pattern involving the collection and distribution of church funds. Concerning the collection of monies (and/or other valuables, i.e., real property): that "pattern" consists of teaching that Christians have a duty to support both the "church" (as in the organization and its physical infrastructure) and the "ministry" (as in the leadership and operations of the 'home' church), with a strong emphasis placed on giving tithes and offerings to the local church.  (A "tithe" is typically represented to consist of 10% of net earnings, after taxes).

Now, concerning the distribution of funds.  During the past 30-40 years or so, there has arisen the phenomenon involving an increasing number of mega-churches.  It is not at all uncommon, today, for a single church building to cost several millions of dollars to construct.  Moreover, many larger churches today are situated in what are referred to as a "campus," which includes a number of buildings besides a main auditorium.  Yet, the current costs associated with purchasing and maintaining even a moderately sized church building (and grounds), can easily run into the many hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars.

But according to one of the larger mainstream denominations, it is not the costs involved in purchasing and maintaining buildings and other real property which consumes the lion's share of any given church's income.  Rather, by far the largest expense goes to support a handful of personnel.  How large a share of income typically goes to compensate church staff?  You may be surprised (or, maybe, shocked is a better word) to learn that  the "average church" spends approximately 50% of its budget to compensate the pastor and a handful or so of other church staff.  Here is a quote from a document titled, "Church Budgeting Manual" (click here to view) distributed by the Church of God (Cleveland, TN) organization, to its member churches:

"There is little doubt that personnel costs will be the most sensitive subject discussed by the budget committee. Most new budget committee members will be surprised to learn that, on average, almost half the church’s expenditures go to personnel costs. That rule of thumb applies to both small and large churches – churches that have only a pastor, as well as churches that have a pastor, assistant pastors, and a stable of support staff. According to Christian Ministry Resources’ data that looks across denominational lines, the average church spends 47% of the church’s budget on compensation. Their definition of compensation includes the total costs to the church of having a pastor and other personnel on staff."  (p. 10; emphasis added) 

What other costs are involved in the operations of typical (institutional) churches?  Here is another quote from that same Budgeting Manual:

"Expenditures can be broken down into three major categories: personnel costs, operating costs, and 'ministry' costs." 

We've seen that~"across denominational lines," personnel costs consume roughly half of the "average church's" budget.  What percentage is consumed by "operating costs"?  Here's what the Budgeting Manual says about that:

"The cost of operations is generally going to be the second largest expenditure in the average church’s budget....   As a rough rule of thumb, most churches are going to spend between 20%-25% of their budget on just servicing their mortgage indebtedness."  (p. 12)

Wow!  There is a ton of meaningful information embedded (intimated) in that last statement.  Let's unpack that information, so that we can see what it means, as follows.  Let's analyze the above statement, in the context of a not-very-large church which cost, let's say, $3.5 million; which is strictly the cost of the real property (including church building and land).  The debt service (mortgage) payments alone, on that amount (on a typical 30-year note at 4.5% interest), would be about $18,000 per month.  According to the Budgeting Manual, the cost of "servicing...mortgage indebtedness" typically represents between 20-25% of "most" churches' budget.  Calculated at the median between 20-25%, $18,000 is 22.5% of $80,000.  That number ( $80,000 ), then, according to the Church of God's "Church Budgeting Manual," would represent the  monthly budget  of a "church" which has a $3.5M mortgage debt.

But that figure, 22.5% of budget, represents only the cost of the mortgage payment.  Many other expenses must be added to that figure, in order to estimate the total budgetary expenditures related to purchasing and maintaining church facilities.  Here are a few of those additional cost categories:

• insurance
• utilities
• janitorial
• grounds maintenance
• building maintenance

With respect to the cost of utilities, the aforementioned Budgeting Manual states: "The budget committee should expect the utility costs to be between 15%-25% of the total budget for the year."  Throw in the costs of everything else in the remaining cost categories, above, and one can easily see that there is not much remaining in the typical church budget, for any kind of "funded" outreach ministries.

Let's step back and look at the cost of "compensation."  If the "average church spends 47% of the church's budget on [personnel] compensation" (according to the Manual), that means that a church the size of which I described ($3.5M), most likely spends close to $40,000 per month to compensate that church's pastor and staff.  That equals $480,000 per year ~ just to pay the pastor and a few other (paid) staff.

I am very familiar with a number of churches of that size and capacity.  In fact, I know of two churches of that size and capacity, very near where I live, which belong to the same denomination which produced the above-mentioned Budgeting Manual.  In both of those churches, there may perhaps be a half-dozen or so "paid" staff members, in addition to the pastor.  Most "ministry" positions ~ in most churches, however, are not paid positions, but volunteers carry most of the weight of "ministry," in every church I have ever been a part of.

So, what is the "average church" member getting for his or her money?  Answer: a pastor, an associate pastor, a song leader, a youth leader, a building (which typically sits empty the great majority of the time), and one or two 90-minute services per week.

Altogether, the total costs of owning, operating and maintaining a church the size of which I have used in our example, total approximately $1.0 Million per year.  If (I stress the word "if") the "ministries" and operations of that size of a church, in America, may be directly instrumental in bringing, on average, let's say 36 people to Christ, each and every year (a number which, in my experience, is a very generous estimate); that means that it costs almost $30,000, for every one person reached.  As a matter of fact, I have observed over a period of many years, that very few souls have truly been won to Christ by the efforts of the churches I have alluded to.  It doesn't cost me anything to witness to people, and pray with people, everywhere I go. . . .

By the way, one million dollars is just what it would take to pay cash (one time payment) to buy each of 8 families a $120,000 home; or, to purchase 40 brand new $25,000 vehicles.  And every year, 8 more homes, or 40 more brand new vehicles, could be purchased ~ for what it costs to operated a $3.5M church building ~ which offers an hour and a half "service" a couple of times a week.

Meanwhile, I have also observed that there have been numerous times (involving persons known to me) when poor individuals ~ regular attendees of such churches ~ have not had money enough to buy gasoline, in order to drive to church.  Not to mention those who can't afford even to own a car.  Or, how about church members who, every month, don't know how they are going to pay their rent, or utilities. . . .?

The whole affair wrenches my gut whenever I think deeply about it.  Excuse me, while me and Jesus go "spue" that mess out. . . .  (I started to say, "puke;" but since Jesus said "spue," ~ Revelation 3:16 ~ I'll go with that.)