$85,000
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
By Pastor Ted Weis, Little River Congregational Church, Little River, KSThat'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.
