That's the magic number.To maintain a church building and employ a full-time pastor, a local church needs at least $85,000 a year in its budget.
This statistic was cited by Dr. David Greenhaw, President of Eden Seminary, who spoke to delegates at a workshop during the annual meeting of the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference, September 28-30, in Wichita.
In 24 out of 38 conferences in the United Church of Christ, more than 50% of their churches have budgets under $85,000. In this case, the Southern and New York Conferences have the greatest number of churches, followed by Missouri-Mid-South and Indiana-Kentucky.
Florida, Connecticut, Southwest, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, California-Nevada Southern, California-Nevada Northern, Penn Southeast, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Penn Northeast, Penn Central are the only conferences where the majority of their churches have budgets over $85,000.
Whatever shape the UCC takes in the future, small churches will be a large contributor.
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1 comment:
I think you've identified a key issue in the debate about church renewal. Most of our models of how to do church come from mega churches that seem "effective". We need to identify models of church renewal and church life that are "transferable" in small church settings.
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