By Aaron Earls

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The economic recovery has reached the offering plate, according to a study from Nashville-based LifeWay Research.

Today, 8 in 10 Protestant pastors (79 percent) say the total offerings at their church this year are at or above last year’s levels, including 42 percent who say this year is ahead of last year. Few pastors (15 percent) say giving is not keeping pace with last year.

Those positive giving numbers have followed the economic upturn, said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.

“The increases in offerings so many churches are experiencing coincide with what most economists refer to as ‘full employment,’ as well as increased wage growth in 2018,” McConnell said.

“Inflation has allowed social security recipients—likely some of the most faithful donors in many churches—to receive cost of living increases above 2 percent for two years in a row.”

Some pastors are more likely to say their offerings have increased than others. Those with churches of 100 or more attendees (49 percent) are more likely to say their 2018 offerings are ahead of 2017 compared to smaller churches (36 percent).

African-American pastors (42 percent) are most likely to say their offerings are below last year.

Half of Pentecostals (54 percent) and Baptists (50 percent) say they are collecting more than 2017, while fewer Presbyterian/Reformed (34 percent), Lutheran (33 percent) and Methodist (31 percent) pastors say the same.

Those churches who are seeing an increase may not want to bank on those continuing, said McConnell. “This could be short-lived as wage growth adjusted for inflation has been about zero in recent months.”

In the meantime, however, most pastors are meeting their budget so far this year.

Seventy-seven percent of pastors say their church’s 2018 offerings have been at least what they budgeted, including 29 percent who say they’ve exceeded their budget. About 2 in 10 (19 percent) say giving is lower than budgeted.

Meeting budgets and bringing in additional money may grant some struggling churches additional time and opportunity to recover, said McConnell.

Economy perception

The increase in giving has buoyed pastors’ perceptions of the economy. For the first time since LifeWay Research began asking pastors economic questions in 2009, more pastors say the economy is having a positive rather than a negative impact on their church.

Today, 45 percent of pastors see the economy as benefiting their church, while 35 percent say it is having no impact.

In 2010 in the midst of the Great Recession, 80 percent of pastors said the economy was negatively affecting their church. That number has been falling steadily since then.

Last year, 35 percent said the economy had a negative impact. This year, that number fell by more than half to 14 percent.

The shift in pastors’ attitudes about the economic impact on their congregation is long overdue, said McConnell.

“Most trackable forces in the economy have been positive for several years. Pastors’ perceptions are finally catching up to the economic reality,” he said.

However, some pastors are more likely than others to see the benefits for their congregation.

Half of pastors of churches with more than 100 in attendance say the economy is positively impacting their congregation, compared to 40 percent of pastors of churches with fewer than 100 attendees.

African-American pastors are almost three times as likely as white pastors to say the economy is impacting their church negatively (36 percent vs. 13 percent).

More than half of Pentecostals (64 percent) and Baptists (54 percent) say they see the economy impacting their church positively, while around a third of Lutherans (38 percent), Presbyterian/Reformed (35 percent) and Methodists (31 percent) agree.

And pastors do not foresee the recent tax reform changing things for their church. Half (49 percent) say they do not expect it to impact their congregation. A quarter (26 percent) believe it will have a positive influence, while 12 percent say they expect it to have a negative impact.

“The full impact of the tax reform on church giving will not be known until 2018 is complete,” McConnell said, “but pastors are optimistic it will not hurt their church’s finances.”

Aaron Earls is online editor of Facts & Trends and a writer for LifeWay Christian Resources.

Methodology:
The phone survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors was conducted Aug. 29 to Sept. 11, 2018.
The calling list was a stratified random sample, drawn from a list of all Protestant churches. Quotas were used for church size. Each interview was conducted with the senior pastor, minister or priest of the church called. Responses were weighted by region to more accurately reflect the population. The completed sample is 1,000 surveys. The sample provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.2 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

Comparisons are also made to telephone surveys conducted in November 5-12, 2009; March 1-9, 2010; October 7-14, 2010; January 17-27, 2011; May 18-25, 2011; May 23-31, 2012; September 11-18, 2014; January 8-22, 2016; and August 30-September 18, 2017 using the same methodology.

LifeWay Research is a Nashville-based, evangelical research firm that specializes in surveys about faith in culture and matters that affect churches.

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Some 44% of liberal Democrats say they have used social media in the past year to encourage others to take action on an issue that was important to them. A similar share (43%) have taken part in a group that shares their interest in a cause.

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Voters are more enthusiastic about voting than in any midterm election in over 20 years of Pew Research Center polling. Still, millions of Americans will not exercise their right to vote on Tuesday.

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Americans have more confidence in the leaders of France, Japan and Germany to do the right thing regarding world affairs than they have in U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted earlier this year.

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More Hispanic registered voters say they have given “quite a lot” of thought to the upcoming midterm elections compared with four years ago and are more enthusiastic to vote this year than in previous congressional elections. But they lag behind the general public on some measures of voter engagement.

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The Me Too movement gathered voices to combat sexual assault and sexual harassment. In October 2017, #MeToo spread virally as many women shared their personal experiences with harassment or sexual assault. The movement gained traction when Alyssa Milano urged victims to share their story under the hashtag as sexual assault accusations against producer Harvey Weinstein were surfacing. In the next 48 hours alone, the hashtag had been shared nearly a million times, many coming from victims sharing their own story.

While #MeToo initially gained prominence in part for highlighting mistreatment in the entertainment industry, #ChurchToo was started to highlight similar misconduct in church settings, sometimes accompanied by the failure of church leadership to respond appropriately when allegations were shared with them. Bill Hybels and Andy Savage are among the notable church leaders who have recently resigned in the wake of numerous allegations of sexual misconduct.

Among Protestant pastors

• 85% say they have heard about the #MeToo movement
• Only 16% say they have heard of the #ChurchToo movement
• 4 out of 10 say they are more inclined to preach about domestic and sexual violence because they are hearing more about the discussion
• 12% say they are less likely to preach about it
• 40% say they understand more about domestic and sexual violence because of the #MeToo movement
• 21% say it hasn’t affected their level of understanding
• 39% say they now have more questions than before
• 14% say their congregation has become more callous towards sexual and domestic violence in light of the #MeToo movement
• 6 out of 10 say their congregation has more empathy towards those who are victims of domestic and sexual violence
• 16% say someone on their church staff has experienced sexual harassment in a church setting

Be sure to Tweet your questions and comments to us: @LifeWayResearch and individually: @smcconn, @statsguycasey, and @lizettebeard. Join us next time for another edition of Keep Asking.

Additional resources:

• Pastors More Likely to Address Domestic Violence, Still Lack Training by LifeWay Research
• One Year Later: Has #MeToo Changed the Church? by Aaron Earls, Facts & Trends
  

Newsroom employees are more likely to be white and male than U.S. workers overall. There are signs, though, of a turning tide: Younger newsroom employees show greater racial, ethnic and gender diversity than their older colleagues, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

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About 250,000 babies were born to unauthorized immigrant parents in the United States in 2016, the latest year for which information is available, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data about illegal immigration. This represents a 36% decrease from a peak of about 390,000 in 2007.

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With this year’s midterm elections just a week away, here are some key findings from Pew Research Center surveys over the past several months about some of the dynamics and issues shaping the battle for Congress.

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On election night 2018, besides the exit polls there will be an additional source of data on who voted and why, developed by The Associated Press, Fox News and NORC at the University of Chicago and based on a very different methodology. That means that depending on where you go for election news, you may get a somewhat different portrait of this year's electorate.

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Political polarization is as prevalent in United States as it has been in decades. How is this polarization affecting how people affiliate with churches?

LifeWay Research asked 1,010 Protestant churchgoers about how politics affect their church affiliations.

They were given the following statement: “I prefer to attend a church where people share my political views.”

• Overall, 46 percent agree, 42 percent disagree, 12 percent are not sure.
• 57 percent of those under age 50 agree
• 39 percent of those ages 50 to 64 agree
• 33 percent of those ages 65 and older agree

Fifty-seven percent of those with evangelical beliefs say their political beliefs match most people in their church. This compares to just 44 percent of those without evangelical beliefs.

Only 1 in 10 churchgoers say they would consider leaving their church over political views.

Pastors: Be aware that about half of your congregation may not agree with your politics.

Church members: Be aware that the people sitting next to you at church may disagree with you politically.

Remember that the gospel is what brings the people of God together … not politics.

Download the research

Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say everything possible should be done to make it easy for every citizen to vote, but Republicans – especially conservative Republicans – are less likely to hold this view, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

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When it comes to public attitudes on religion, national identity and the place of religious minorities, Greeks, like their neighbors to the East, hold more nationalist and less accepting views than do Western Europeans.

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They tend to be more left-leaning, more progressive in their social and political views, more receptive to immigrants and more favorable toward the European Union. They are also more mixed in their views of traditional center-left parties than older Western Europeans.

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Younger adults in eight Western European countries are about twice as likely as older adults to get news online than from TV. They also are more critical of the media's performance and coverage of key issues.

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With a week to go before Election Day, Americans are confident their local election authorities are up to the essential tasks of making sure that elections are run smoothly and that votes are counted accurately.

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The Iron Curtain that once divided Europe may be long gone, but the continent today is split by stark differences in public attitudes toward religion, minorities and social issues such as gay marriage and legal abortion.

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In the EU, Central and Eastern Europeans differ from Western Europeans in their views on certain issues, including religious minorities and gay marriage.

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The research team talks about Pastors’ views on domestic violence and how they have changed (and stayed the same) since we asked in 2014.

• More pastors (55%) say they are familiar with local resources for domestic & sexual violence in their community than in 2014 (43%)
• Eight out of 10 pastors say that domestic violence should be resolved with outside help (similar to the 2014 numbers)
• In 2014, 34% said they spoke to their church about domestic or sexual violence several times a year or more. In, that number jumped to over half (51%)
• Among pastors who say they don’t speak about domestic violence in the church,
  • 46% say it isn’t a problem in their congregation (up from 29% in 2014)
  • 29% say it isn’t as important as other topics that are addressed
  • 19% say they do not know the issue well enough to speak on it
• It’s important for churches to remember that even when they aren’t aware of specific situations where it may be occuring, it is likely impacting families in their congregation.
• Six out of 10 pastors say their congregations have taken action regarding sexual or domestic violence at least once in the last year
• When pastors are aware of resources, they are speaking up about it more.

Be sure to Tweet your questions and comments to us: @LifeWayResearch and individually: @smcconn, @statsguycasey, and @lizettebeard. Join us next time for another edition of Keep Asking.

Additional resources:

• Pastors More Likely to Address Domestic Violence, Still Lack Training by LifeWay Research
• Pastors Seldom Preach About Domestic Violence by LifeWay Research

In the 2018 State of Theology Study sponsored by Ligonier Ministries, LifeWay Research polled 3,000 Americans and asked them a number of questions about God, Christian ethics and religion in general.

• 6 of 10 Americans say religious belief is a matter of personal opinion.
• 58 percent of Americans say worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending a church.
• 69 percent of Americans disagree that even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation.

For most Americans, matters of religion and faith are meant to be individualistic.

Many believe faith is subjective and shouldn’t be considered “truth.”

• 32 percent of those with evangelical beliefs say their religious beliefs are not objectively true.
• 51 percent of those with evangelical beliefs also believe God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
• 78 percent of those with evangelical beliefs also believe Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.

Many Americans who hold evangelical beliefs about the Bible, salvation, and Jesus Christ, also hold beliefs that are not keeping with Scripture.

Download the research