I was reading an interesting CNN/Money article about the price of religion that detailed the way a strong adherence to one’s faith can run up some hefty bills.  The article, in part, profiled a family of Orthodox Jews who are spending more than most of us can imagine to remain consistent with their religious beliefs.

The article was an eye opener on those turns, but it also made me think about a related issue.  How are churches faring during the recession?  Churches are, in large measure, funded by giving from the congregation and it made sense to me that contributions would probably fall with an economic downturn.  Generally, one might start a look at that issue with a personal perspective, but I’m not much of a churchgoer, so I don’t really have a personal reference point.  So, I started doing a little research instead.  I discovered a few interesting things.

First, churches are having a rougher time, overall.  C. Michael Tillman wrote an essay in a New York newspaper and noted:

Fifty-seven percent of congregations have experienced a drop in contributions, 20 percent have had layoffs, and nearly half have reduced or frozen staff salaries. History shows a “lag effect” for churches in recessions, meaning the worst may be yet to come.

Those are scary numbers.  Lighthouse Christian Ministries in Bakersfield, CA, can vouch for the impact of the downturn, too.  They’re closing up their church and selling the property.  The money just wasn’t there to stay afloat.  When you think about what an economic downturn means in human terms, that isn’t surprising.  A Bakersfield.com article explained:

On Easter Sunday, [Reverend Donald] Vereen echoed the reality of his congregation from the pulpit: “Several people here have lost their house. Several people here have lost their jobs. There are some people here who say, ‘If it wasn’t for prayer, my PG&E bill would have been cut off,’” he said.

Those comments sound a lot like the warning offered by Pastor Keith Drury, who laid out a troubling scenario for churches in the event of a long-term recession.  Among many other potential problems, Drury noted:

We ministers like to pretend that since a depression might prompt revival it might increase our church’s income. We are wrong. If your church has 100 working folk who give a percentage of their income to the church each month and 20% of them get laid off they will tithe their unemployment check, When unemployment runs out and they have no income at all they will tithe their income–but “10% of zero is zero.” Sure, some dedicated Christians will take food out of the mouths of their children to support their church, but most will say, “I’d be worse than an infidel if I didn’t care for my family first.”

Second, there really are exceptions to every rule.  That includes the “recession puts churches at risk” rule, too.  For instance, those big mega-churches like Rick Warren’s jumbo-sized Saddleback congregation, don’t seem to be suffering quite as much as some others.

Only 7% of the big churches feel as though the recession is having a “very negative” impact on them.  Nearly half report that they don’t feel the recession at all in financial terms.

There are also a handful of smaller churches who aren’t seeing decreases in tithing and intensified financial pressures.  The churches around Cedar Falls, Iowa, for instance, seem to be faring well.

So, it looks like a mixed bag in terms of churches and the recession, but with a pretty significant downside for many congregations.  It will be interesting to see if church financial problems become a bigger story as the economy continues to struggle.

I also learned something else interesting while looking into this.  Apparently, Catholic seminarians often get “full ride” scholarships that include room and board.  At least one observer thinks this could lead to more people entering the priesthood.  That’s something in and of itself, but the real juicy tidbit from Anthony Lee, who was primarily writing about the potential impact of the economy on tithing, is that he says people actually go through seminary for the sake of the free education and then pursue their religious vocation for only a few years before walking  away from the priesthood with their Masters Degrees.  And some of them do this intentionally–they have no plans on making a life as a priest.  I had no idea!