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By Robert Wuthnow
At a time while already overworked clergy are being known as upon through funds slicing politicians to do extra for the terrible, the ill, and the aged, American church buildings are soreness continual monetary shortfalls. in truth, opposite to renowned media photos of millionaire televangelists, America's church buildings are reducing courses and employees, clergy salaries are stagnating, and plenty of parishes are having difficulty elevating adequate funds to maintain the church lit and heated on Sunday. Why are America's church buildings in monetary misery? Robert Wuthnow, a number one commentator on non secular lifestyles in the United States, asserts that the regular drop in donations, volunteering, and private involvement is an immediate results of a non secular crisis--a difficulty brought on largely by means of the clergy's failure to deal with the important relationships among religion and funds, paintings, stewardship, giving, and monetary justice.
In The concern within the Churches, Wuthnow deals a looking learn of this monetary obstacle and of the non secular vacuum that has silently grown worse prior to now decade. to do that, he shall we the church buildings communicate for themselves, quoting greatly from interviews with clergy and laity in sixty Protestant and Catholic congregations during the united states, and drawing from the texts of over two hundred sermons, from church monetary files, and a countrywide survey. What emerges is that parishioners frequently suppose the church doesn't care approximately what they do from Monday to Friday, bargains no advice of their so much urgent daily issues, but constantly looks soliciting for extra money. Clergy, for his or her half, say they hesitate to discuss funds simply because they recognize "the funds query" makes humans uncomfortable. yet failure to elevate the topic usually makes it essential to reduce the very courses and prone that center classification parishioners wish and may help. Wuthnow argues that during order to outlive, church buildings needs to locate how you can minister to the industrial matters in their personal center category parishioners. certainly, of each $1,000 bought through church buildings, $900 comes from those that paintings in heart classification occupations. in actual fact, whatever that motivates heart classification individuals to develop into extra concerned will boost a church's monetary health and means to serve its humans. even though the placement is important, Wuthnow unearths a lot reason for desire. He issues to rules and courses that a few church buildings have enacted to problem their participants to imagine otherwise approximately paintings and cash and giving. Parishioners occasionally reply absolutely while clergy communicate boldly and concretely approximately issues of religion and finance, and a few church buildings have shaped small teams whose participants meet usually to debate problems with spirituality, paintings, own funds, and stewardship.
a major and sympathetic exam of the obstacle in the back of the stained glass, this thought-provoking quantity should be hugely useful either essentially and as ethical aid to clergy, parishioners, and an individual else enthusiastic about restoring energy and importance to American church buildings.
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Additional info for The Crisis in the Churches: Spiritual Malaise, Fiscal Woe
Sample text
SAINT ANDREWS EPISCOPAL CHURCH Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church sits magnificently on the corner of two treelined avenues about five blocks from the center of a small city on the West Coast. Its red-brick exterior is highlighted by a large wooden cross above the front entrance. The sanctuary is to the left; an office and educational wing spans the corner to the right. The building, erected in 1938 and modernized in the 1960s, exudes elegance and stability but also blends nicely with the informality of its surroundings.
Knowing that money is a sensitive issue, clergy are often reluctant to talk about it at all or do so only in terms of raising funds for specific needs. Stewardship is easiest to address by asking people to fill out pledge cards—or by preaching vaguely about God's creation—rather than by talking about family budgets, financial responsibility, advertising, and consumerism. And the relationship between faith and work is more comfortably handled by offering people a time on Sunday mornings to escape their work than by challenging them to think harder about their priorities.
I am not suggesting that addressing the broad range of middle-class concerns more effectively will necessarily solve the churches' present financial problems. Religious leaders will still have to be prudent managers of limited resources. They will have to make fewer dollars go further. But it is abundantly clear that priorities—and reasons for giving—will also need to be examined carefully. If a growing share of church budgets goes to staff salaries, fringe benefits, and maintenance costs, is this what parishioners are willing to support?