Fewer dollars, greater need at churches

By Christopher Quinn

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Mike and Susan Sowers are eking out a tough economic year. They have faced serious family illnesses that kept them away from their jobs, and Susan’s father died.

Still, despite the lost income and extra expenses, the first check they write every month goes to Hamilton Mill United Methodist Church.

“We have full confidence that with God’s guidance we will have what we need and will be blessed for doing so,” Susan Sowers said. “And so far the needs have been met. My old car just keeps going and going. I thought I would buy a new car at the beginning of this year, but we did not. It has done OK.”

While churchgoers across the nation are facing hardships similar to those of the Sowerses, they all haven’t followed the Gwinnett couple’s example.

Many churches are facing the most severe drop in donations in a generation as the economy sputters.

Job loss is driving the decline, according to a recent survey coordinated by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. As congregants’ donations dwindle, churches are looking for ways to cut costs. At the same time, they also are seeing a growing need for their services.

Churches are also seeing a dramatic change in the people seeking those services.

“Never in 13 years have I seen members of our own church come to the church for food,” said the Rev. David Davis, the Sowerses’ pastor at Hamilton Mill. “In the past, it was always to drop off food.”

Davis said donations at his 2,000-member church have declined more than $150,000 from last year, straining its $2 million budget. To make up for the shortfall, the church put an expansion program on hold and dipped into its reserves.

Hamilton Mill’s experience reflects the worst year in memory for church giving nationally.

Bill Enright, director of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving at the Center on Philanthropy, said the decline is the largest in the institute’s records, which date to 1967.

When families cut back on giving to charities, church donations are the last to go, Enright said, because of the strong emotional ties people have to their faith and fellow congregants.

“That probably gives you some clue as to the impact of the economy on our lives,” he said.

Thirty percent of 1,540 churches who responded to the Indiana University survey reported donations dropped on average 10 percent in 2009. In 2008, 21 percent reported declines. Seven percent of the churches laid off full-time staff this year in response, and 11 percent laid off part-timers.

Even the good news from the survey, which was that 37 percent of churches reported an increase in giving, was tempered. That percentage was down from 2008, when 50 percent of churches reported giving was up.

Even as financial donations have dropped, Davis said more people are volunteering their time at Hamilton Mill. The church, like other congregations across the country, has also started seeking ways to provide nonfinancial assistance to members and nonmembers through programs such as a job-finding ministry and support group.

The hard times have made the church think about its purpose.

“We’ve had to look at our mission and say, ‘What are we here for?’ ” he said.

Davis said Hamilton Mill juggled its budget to double food assistance to the community this year after seeing requests for aid rise. Many who have lost jobs were builders, contractors, real estate agents and carpenters who did well during the boom years that made Gwinnett County one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation. When the housing bubble popped, jobs, incomes and lifestyles disappeared.

Some families are losing basic services for the first time in their lives and are struggling to keep their utilities on.

The economic pinch crosses denominational lines and affects church associations and religious benevolence organizations as well. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an Atlanta-based association of 1,800 moderate Baptist churches that work together on missions, leadership development and polity, reports last year’s budget of more than $15.3 million is down to about $12.9 million.

The Georgia [Southern] Baptist Convention saw its budget between 2008 and 2009 drop from $49 million to $45 million, and it reduced staff of 202 by 27.

The 99 churches of the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta have seen a drop of about $1.9 million in giving this year to $84 million. The archdiocese saw what was coming in 2008 and let go of six workers out of its 300, spokeswoman Pat Chivers said. It has worked to trim costs, such as reorganizing its health insurance to save money. Individual parishes, or churches, have also been hit, she said. The churches in the archdiocese furloughed a total of 23 workers this year.

The Catholic Church’s social service nonprofit for the metro area, Catholic Charities Atlanta, suffered a $200,000 decrease in its $5 million budget this year. Besides church contributions, it gets donations from agencies such as the United Way, which has cut some grants.

Catholic Charities Director Joe Krygiel said as the budget fell, demand for help has more than doubled.

“We went from serving 14,000 people to 32,000 people this year,” he said.

The nonprofit offers a variety of services, from personal counseling to helping people apply for government services such as food stamps. The number of people in danger of losing their homes and coming in for mortgage counseling jumped from 188 in 2008 to 276 so far this year. With more demand for help, Catholic Charities staff members have less time to spend with clients and are trying to find ways to work faster, such as preparing a handout with information about housing rather than spending time with a client, Krygiel said.

Many coming in are the working poor, who often work two or more jobs but who have lost a job and are having trouble making ends meet, he said. Like Davis, Krygiel is also seeing former donors come in for help.

“They are dependent now on charity help themselves,” Krygiel said. “It is very sobering out there.”

Enright said the economic pinch is forcing churches and parachurch organizations to be more creative and try new things as they maintain their benevolence programs in the face of falling income. Even though 30 percent of churches reported less income in the survey, only 10 percent said they are cutting programs.

“The story needs to be told of the self-sacrifice and the commitment and creativity in which these congregations are reaching out to their communities,” he said. “They are keeping community services going, and they are reaching out in new creative ways.”

Information on the church giving study can be found at www .philanthropy.iupui.edu/news/ 2009/10/pr-Congregational
EconImpactStudy.aspx