UCC - New report examines impact of recession on congregational vitality

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

New report examines impact of recession on congregational vitality

> Written by Wire and Staff Reports
> April 21, 2011

The 2008 recession extended a decade-long erosion
of the financial health of American
congregations, with just 14 percent of the 11,077
randomly sampled congregations saying in 2010
that their financial health is excellent.

Of those who characterize their financial health
as declining between 2005 and 2010, a full 80
percent reported a negative impact from the recession.

And the recession affected just about every kind of congregation equally.

These are among the conclusions drawn from the
new
<http://faithcommunitiestoday.org/fact-2010>Faith
Communities Today 2010 survey of American congregations.

The Cooperative Congregational Studies

Partnership (CCSP) conducted the FACT 2010 survey
and analyzed responses from a variety of faith
traditions in the United States. The survey
updates results from surveys taken in 2000, 2005,
and 2008 and is the latest in CCSP's series of
trend-tracking national surveys of U.S. congregations.

David A. Roozen, Director of the Cooperative
Congregational Studies Partnership and Professor
of Religion and Society at Hartford Seminary,
said that, "Although the downward trend [in
financial health] has been relatively constant,
there is no doubt that the recession at least
temporarily set back any hope of recovery."

Still, he said, "To the extent that there is good
news in the FACT 2010 findings regarding the
impact of the recession, it is that one in ten
congregations reported that they had already
begun to recover from an initial recession-driven dip in income."

"The worst of the recession's impact on American
congregations may be over," he said.

According to Marjorie Royle,

<http://faithcommunitiestoday.org/united-church-christ>UCC
researcher with the FACT team, it seems less
vital congregations ? those that were declining
before the recession ? may have already used
their reserves. When the recession hit, they were
less able to bounce back than more vital ones.

Since the period of the 2008 recession 60 percent
of UCC congregations surveyed said their
congregational income "declined a lot or a
little," 10 percent said they "declined then
rebounded," and 30 percent reported "no change or growth."

Commenting on their current financial health 29
percent of polled UCC congregations said they had
"some / serious difficulty," 46 percent said
times were "tight," and 25 percent reported "good
or excellent" financial health. Of all faith
traditions polled, the UCC's 25 percent "good or
excellent" rating was the lowest, with the
exception of Reform and Conservative Judaism
which both reported 17 percent "good or excellent" financial health.

The FACT report, entitled

"<http://faithcommunitiestoday.org/sites/faithcommunitiestoday.org/files/Ho 
lyTollReport.pdf>Holy
Toll: The Impact of the 2008 Recession on
American Congregations," examines the program,
human and organizational toll of the recession.

> Among the findings under the program toll:

The most frequently employed mechanism when a
congregation encounters financial distress is
digging into savings and investments, followed
closely by salary freezes or personnel reductions
and postponed capital projects.

A common fear is that mission and benevolence
spending will be the first thing cut but this is not the case.

"The good news for advocates of congregational
outreach," Roozen said, "is that FACT 2010 shows
virtually no difference between congregations
negatively impacted by the recession and
congregations spared the recession's financial
toll in the likelihood of offering outreach
services. Mission remains a priority even in times of financial distress."

"The absence of recession impact on either

outreach or member-oriented programming resonates
with the observation of one commentator who noted
that American congregations are 'putting off
rather than pruning'," Roozen said.

He also noted that while the program toll of the
2008 recession appears to have been minimal, the
same can't be said for the human toll.

Nine percent of congregations reported staff
layoffs or furloughs because of the recession,
and just over 25 percent reported salary freezes
or reductions. Assuming an estimate of 350,000
congregations in the United States, employing an
estimated 1.5 million staff, that equates to more
than 500,000 people who lost their jobs or had their salaries reduced.

In addition, 41 percent of congregations reported
that the recession had a major or moderate impact
on unemployment among members. And half the
congregations for which the recession had a major
impact on the unemployment of their members saw a
major decline in congregational income.

This stark impact led to an increase in requests
for cash assistance, pastoral counseling, and
emergency housing. Nearly half of all
congregations experienced an increase in requests
for cash assistance, underscoring the importance
of American congregations as a social safety net.

"It may well be that the organizational toll of
the recession on America's congregations turns
out to be the most significant in the long term," Roozen said.

The negative impact of the recession on

congregations that had declines in income is
especially dramatic for worship attendance
growth, spiritual vitality, and volunteers. It
also led to increased levels of conflict.

The report was written by Roozen, director of
Hartford Seminary's Institute for Religion Research.