The Economics of Church

Back in the fall, in discussing Mrs. Astor's support of stained glass window restoration, we applied economic thinking to the world of art. We talked about the factors that give value to art: its ability to touch our hearts and souls, to bring us beauty, to make us aware of life beyond the scope of our ordinary rational thinking, to help us recall our past and so on. While "economics" is often thought of in terms of jobs and money and material possessions, it also has this deeper meaning: just how do we assess what we value? How much value do we place on costly – or perhaps in this case, optional – aspects of our lives?

The same way of thinking can be used to look at "church". The US is known to be the most religious nation in the world, but even so, many Americans choose not to participate. And of those who do, they can choose among a wide array of religions and, within those, numerous variations and nuances of practice and style. How and why we make these choices are issues currently being examined by sociologists and, yes, even economists, using statistical and quantitative tools. In this and a following article, we will appeal to some of their information in hopes of casting some light on directions and forces in church participation today and what they might portend. This will not be an altogether optimistic exercise, but that's precisely why we need to spend time with it.

Episcopal Church Decline -- AND Growth
We can start by looking at some simple numbers. In 1985, there were about 2.74 million Episcopalians. In the latest count, tabulated from congregations' Parochial Reports for 2006 by the Research group at the Episcopal Church Center[1], there were 2.15 million. But before we jump to the conclusion that this decline automatically means people value the Episcopal Church less than they used to, we need to note that a substantial proportion of its individual churches are growing. What's going on? Most notably, what are the churches doing that are growing? Why, for instance, would I get up on Sunday morning and go there to church, rather than stroll down to Starbucks for a latte and the New York Times?

There are some straightforward, objective measures that we can take from another product of the Episcopal Research group, FACTs on Episcopal Church Growth, by Director Kirk Hadaway.[2] Perhaps the most obvious is location; the old saw about business success can apply to churches too: "there are three factors in growth: location, location and location". Churches in growing neighborhoods grow, and there is indeed church planting in new and expanding suburbs. A number of cities are spearheading revitalization of downtowns and other urban areas, and these are the second most prevalent setting for growing congregations. Churches that have more families, more men and more children are growing. A sizable proportion of multi-racial churches show gains, as well as many that have largely non-white membership. Churches that have more than one service of a Sunday and cater to varying tastes among parishioners also bring in more people. Good clergy are important, too, of course, but not just those who are experts in Biblical studies and spirituality. These characteristics are perhaps "givens" for parish priests and don't make much difference, statistically, to growth or decline. But in places where the clergy are dynamic and inspire enthusiasm and facilitate action and activity among the members, there is growth.

The Feeling of "Being Church" Is Inviting
This last brings us to a more subjective, qualitative approach to growth and decline: community. Other scientific work in this field highlights this aspect of church life. Deborah Bruce, a researcher for the Presbyterian Church, USA, has written about why people in a congregation invite others to church.[3] According to the survey data she works with, this happens where the people "experience community", participate in "meaningful worship", perceive their church as a "welcoming place" and where "leadership" is "empowered". Spiritual growth is a plus, her study shows, but it is not significant, based on standard statistical measures, as a defining feature of an "inviting" congregation.

These items – community, worship and openness – are unique qualities of a church. It reaches out to people and wants to help them lead better lives. It has no ulterior motive: it is not fundamentally in business to lobby for better housing or support a symphony orchestra or raise funds for disaster relief. It may engage its members in activities related to betterment of local living conditions, promoting local arts organizations or baking cakes for the upcoming bazaar. But its under-girding raison d'etre is to lift up its people for their own sake. Churches that do this with a clear vision of caring and joy show growth, the denominational data specialists and their studies indicate. The churches' own spirit and presence make their members want to share this part of their own lives with others.

But Some Big Questions for the Future
We find ourselves moved by our own words here, and we wish they could be the punch-line to our story. But there is more. The opposite is also true. Our numerical information tells that churches that get fuzzy about their true purpose and mission or that get side-tracked with their own politics seem not to grow. Churches whose worship style is perceived as stilted or even "reverent" tend not to capture the hearts of their worshippers in contrast to those whose services are more joy-filled and include something new or different.

Of specific interest as we look to the future, churches whose congregants are older tend not to grow, in contrast to those that not only welcome children, but give them roles: a children's choir or youngsters who read lessons or have other visible parts in a service or program evidence a substantive concern with children's growth and development. This is a key concern. We see in broader data on church attendance and religious preference by age group[4] that participation by younger people is flagging. An increasing share of young adults have not been growing up in a church at all. We need to pay attention to that trend for more reasons than the sizes of our churches; we need to consider what it means to our society of tomorrow. Stay with us on this topic. We'll consider young adults in more detail next time; we think you'll be surprised at some of what we've learned.

The economics of church: What does church "cost"? And what are the "benefits" that bring it value, especially to young adults? A surprising number of them say there aren't any . . . .

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[1] http://www.episcopalchurch.org/research.htm.

[2] FACTs on Growth is based on the national Faith Communities Today survey, first taken in 2000 and updated in 2005; it polls clergy or other leaders of individual congregations. Kirk's paper can be found on the Episcopal Church website http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/FACTs_on_Episcopal_Church_Growth.pdf, and also on the FACT website, http://FACT.hartsem.edu, which is a program of Hartford Seminary.

[3] Deborah Bruce works with the US Congregational Life Survey; it was first collected on an April Sunday in 2001 from more than 300,000 church attendees of many denominations around the country. A smaller update of it was done in spring 2006 and that included an "over-sample" covering 41,000 Episcopalians. This survey is available at www.uscongregations.org.

[4] Religion and church survey work comes from numerous other sources. Two we accessed here are the "General Social Survey" conducted every other year by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, http://www.norc.org/GSS+Website, and the Barna organization's market research, which we mentioned in our Advent Reading List post about the book unChristian. See www.unChristian.com for more information. A whole collection of the academic survey data can be found on The Association of Religious Data Archives, http://www.thearda.com/, managed by Penn State University. If you want demographic data on your own zip code, that too, including maps, can be found on The ARDA.

We have become acquainted with these data and statistical tools at annual conferences of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion; the latest, where we heard presentations from Kirk Hadaway, Deborah Bruce and numerous others, took place in early November in Tampa, FL.