From My Desk to Yours
Everyone likes good news, but sometimes we need to hear if there is a hole in the ship. Only then can you take action to correct that hole to save the ship. We have a huge hole in our ship when it comes to giving to churches. No church leader wants to be accused of rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship. With this edition of the Journal, and for the next couple of weeks, we will be sharing with you some of the most recent reports and studies on the state of giving in America. You will be informed but also give ideas and advice on how to repair your Gospel ship. Here is what is in this week’s edition.
Mark Brooks, The Stewardship Coach, starts us off with a post entitled The Future of Giving: It Isn’t Good, Part 1. That title alone gives you a preview of the results of three recent studies Mark will review for us. In this first part, Mark gives the statistics showing how it has begun to pick up speed and impact churches and ministries. It’s sobering how quickly giving has declined in the last three years. It isn’t the most exciting news, but if we are going to reverse this decline it starts by being aware of the problem.
Mark’s Bonus Section is an interview with Ron Sellers of Grey Matter Research on their study, which he published in a post entitled An Inside Look at The Giving Gap Part 1. Mark begins this interview by asking Ron for background on Grey Matter and also how they approached their recent study on Evangelical donors. The Giving Gap reveals, “The average evangelical Protestant gave 1.7% of household income to church over the past 12 months, with a median of just two-tenths of one percent. Because of both lower generosity among those who are still giving and a drop in the proportion who give anything to church, the average has fallen 28% over the past three years from 2.4% generosity in 2021. The median has fallen from 0.6% three years ago.” Mark and Ron dig deeper into the why of this phenomenon in part one. Next week, they will talk about solutions.
Our final post is entitled A False Sense of Security. Mark Brooks introduced the concept of the two sides of the giving coin in his opening post. In this post, he makes the case for why church leaders must look at both sides of the coin. Mark quotes Dr. Ronnie Floyd, who wrote, “If you only look at one side of the coin, it has the potential to create a false sense of security about the financial health of the church. For many, this is what has happened. The decline is so slow that we can’t recognize what is right in front of us.” Mark concludes his post with a pointed plea and challenge for all Southern Baptists. It is time we wake up, and this post rings the alarm. Let’s make it go viral!
Finally, as always, remember, all articles can be found at https://stewardshipjournal.com/. We are excited to be offering this service to our pastors. We appreciate your support!
In Jesus’ name!
Dr. Shawn Parker