Church collections down in down economy

Christian Post:

Americans have cut back on donations and tithing to churches as the economic downtown tests generosity levels of donors, a new study found.

The latest study released Tuesday by Barna Research shows three out of 10 Americans are reducing their giving to churches, virtually unchanged from figures in January of last year when non-giving was at an all-time high since the economic crisis.

Thirty percent of respondents to the April survey said they reduced their giving to a church or religious center within the past three months, compared to 29 percent in January 2010. In the immediate aftermath of the economic crisis in November 2008, only 20 percent said they had cut back giving to a church or religious center.

Regarding contributions to non-profits other than churches, the percentage of Americans who reduced donations dropped 9 percentage points from 48 percent in January 2010.

Those who were most likely to reduce donations to churches were Baby Boomers, lower income households, Northeastern residents, and those who identify themselves as Christians but are only moderately involved with a church, according to the study.

About a quarter of Americans, 24 percent, shut their wallets altogether and stopped all giving to churches. Another 17 percent have reduced their giving by half.

Order Online: Tithing: A Call to Serious Biblical Giving

"The economic downturn influenced donations later than it affected other aspects of our spending," David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, commented on the study.

"Once it kicked in, though, donors have cut back significantly in their giving to churches and nonprofits. Now, even as the economy shows some signs of improvement, donors are still reluctant to return to their previous levels of generosity. They may be less shell-shocked than 15 months ago, but they are still cautious," he observed.

Many of the adults surveyed had a dim outlook on the economy with three-quarters of Americans now believing the economy will take at least two years or more to recover. Nearly half of adults (47 percent) said they expect the economy to take three more years to recover.

The Barna study also reported that fewer Americans are tithing amid the tough economic times.

Only four percent of Americans give 10 percent of their income to churches, a drop from last year's rate of seven percent. The national tithing rate has typically been five to seven percent of Americans over the past decade.

"Most Americans think of their giving as secondary to their survival," said Kinnaman. "Yet, from a biblical perspective, generosity should be part of Christians' fundamental response to the downturn."

An April survey by the National Association of Evangelicals found that a majority of its leadership doesn't think tithing is required by the Bible.

Among the NAE board of directors, 58 percent said they did not think a 10-percent tithing of income to the church is mandated by the Bible compared to 42 percent who believed tithing was a duty of believers.

Despite differing on the biblical teaching on tithing, the overwhelming majority of NAE leaders, 95 percent, said they give at least 10 percent. Many noted in their response that although tithing is an Old Testament legal model, New Testament Christians should give out of generosity.

The Barna study, conducted in April, was based on a random sample of 618 American adults. The tithing figures are from a separate OmniPollSM tracking study conducted among 1,608 adults in January and February.

We are what we give to others...

From The Denver Catholic Register by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. CAP.

All adult Catholics are teachers. That’s one of our mandates as believers. And like never before in history, we need to be people rooted in the Church and faithful to her teachings. In an age of confusion, the Church is our only reliable guide. Through her, it’s our job to form our children and ourselves in the truth that will make us genuinely free.

Most of us know C.S. Lewis as the author of “The Chronicles of Narnia” or “The Screwtape Letters.” But he was a teacher as well as a writer—and in his lectures, he often described God as a sculptor. For Lewis, the suffering in a person’s life has a special meaning, which is echoed again and again in Scripture.

Proverbs tells us, “Do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights” (3:11-12). And the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that in suffering, “God is treating you as sons, for what son is there whom a father does not discipline?” (12:7).

Suffering is a tool. God uses it to shape each of us into the saints he wants us to be. God sees the shape of our holiness in the marble of our humanity. Then He cuts away the stone of sin to free us.

It’s a great metaphor. Anyone who has seen Michelangelo’s sculpture of the Pieta knows exactly what Lewis meant. The figures of Jesus and Mary have a living humanity. The smoothness of the skin, the elegance of the limbs, the sorrow on Mary’s face—these things are so real that we can forget they came from a slab of marble. The sculptor saw the beauty in the stone … and he set it free with a hammer and a chisel. Nobody remembers the hammer blow; that was over in an instant. They’re too moved by the beauty of the results. The beauty lasts forever.

Now, people aren’t blocks of stone. They’re living tissue, with the freedom and dignity of children of God. And teachers aren’t chisels and hammers. Or at least they shouldn’t be. They are active, cooperating agents in God’s plan, not merely his instruments. But we can still draw some lessons from the sculptor and his work.

First, the great sculptor is motivated by love, not merely technical skill. The sculptor loves the beauty and the truth he sees locked in the stone. In the same way, the great teacher loves the possibilities for beauty and truth—the hint of the image of God—she sees in the face of her students.

Next, the great sculptor has a passion for his work and a confidence in his vision. In like manner, no Catholic catechist, teacher or parent can form another person in the faith without a passion for the Gospel, a personal zeal for Jesus Christ, and an absolute confidence in the truth of the Church and her teaching. No teacher can give what she doesn’t have herself. If you yourself don’t believe, then you can only communicate unbelief. If I’m not faithful myself, then I will only communicate infidelity. Who we are, is part of the formation we give to others.

The Golden Slippers

By Terry Hudson

It was only five days before Christmas. The spirit of the season hadn't yet caught up with me, even though cars packed the parking lot of our Houston area Target Shopping Center. Inside the store, it was worse. Shopping carts and last minute shoppers jammed the aisles. Why did I come today? I wondered. My feet ached almost as much as my head.

My list contained names of several people who claimed they wanted nothing but I knew their feelings would be hurt if I didn't buy them anything. Buying for someone who had everything and deploring the high cost of items, I considered gift-buying anything but fun. Hurriedly, I filled my shopping cart with last minute items and proceeded to the long checkout lines. I picked the shortest but it looked as if it would mean at least a 20 minute wait.

In front of me were two small children - a boy of about 10 and a younger girl about 5. The boy wore a ragged coat. Enormously large, tattered tennis shoes jutted far out in front of his much too short jeans. He clutched several crumpled dollar bills in his grimy hands. The girl's clothing resembled her brother's. Her head was a matted mass of curly hair. Reminders of an evening meal showed on her small face. She carried a beautiful pair of shiny, gold house slippers. As the Christmas music sounded in the store's stereo system, the girl hummed along off-key but happily.

When we finally approached the checkout register, the girl carefully placed the shoes on the counter. She treated them as though they were a treasure. The clerk rang up the bill. "That will be $6.09," she said. The boy laid his crumpled dollars atop the stand while he searched his pockets. He finally came up with $3.12. "I guess we will have to put them back, " he bravely said. "We will come back some other time, maybe tomorrow." With that statement, a soft sob broke from the little girl. "But Jesus would have loved these shoes, " she cried. "Well, we'll go home and work some more. Don't cry. We'll come back," he said.

Quickly I handed $3.00 to the cashier. These children had waited in line for a long time. And, after all, it was Christmas. Suddenly a pair of arms came around me and a small voice said, "Thank you Sir." "What did you mean when you said Jesus would like the shoes?" I asked. The small boy answered, "Our mommy is sick and going to heaven. Daddy said she might go before Christmas to be with Jesus." The girl spoke, "My Sunday school teacher said the streets in heaven are shiny gold, just like these shoes. Won't mommy be beautiful walking on those streets to match these shoes?" My eyes flooded as I looked into her tear streaked face. "Yes" I answered, "I am sure she will." Silently I thanked God for using these children to remind me of the true spirit of giving."

Christmas is not about the amount of money paid, nor the amount of gifts purchased, nor trying to impress friends and relatives. Christmas is about the love in your heart to share with those as Jesus Christ has shared with each of us. Christmas is about the Birth of Jesus whom God sent to show the world how much he really loves us. Please show this love as we think of the upcoming season. This is one of my personal testimonies.. Please Share!!!

Terry Hudson

Terry has been kind enough to allow this to be forwarded as long as his name and this message remain unchanged.

The circle of thanks and giving

from Catholic Womanhood


Thanksgiving is a compound word that really needs to be considered carefully, and perhaps re-evaluated, at this time of the year. It's a word with more meaning than the mere conjunction of its parts --"thanks" and "giving"-- might suggest.


Its most obvious sense is simply an offering of gratitude for what we have received. But giving thanks goes much deeper than just feeling satisfied and saying "thanks." It implies a deeper "giving" than that, and a deeper connection between our willingness to give, and the virtue of gratitude. In fact, giving and gratitude reinforce one another. 


Consider the Gospel passage:


"When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury, and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. 


"He said, 'I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.'" (Lk 21:1-4)


In the passage from Luke’s Gospel, it is not what the woman had received that was noteworthy, but what she gave-- in accordance with the saying of Christ recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. 


Not only does this widow give spiritually, through her worship, but she gives materially from her poverty; she makes a sacrifice. The woman gives thanks to God for what little she has, by offering all of it.


The woman was a willing and cheerful giver, in spite of how little she had to give. Such an action requires a heart that is grateful to God for whatever gifts He may choose to bestow. And yet, this grateful recipient shows herself also more willing to give-away again. 


Consider, along similar lines, the Pilgrims who celebrated America's first Thanksgiving in 1621. By all appearances, they had considerably less to thank God for than we do. 


They faced difficulties we can barely imagine, in simply procuring enough food. They had experienced the misfortune of being persecuted for their religion-- yet as Protestants, they also experienced the deep misfortune of being separated from most of the Church's sacraments.


Yet they were deeply grateful and devoted to those truths of the faith they had. And they were grateful for the mere ability to survive, with the amount they received from God. Their offering of gratitude, in the first Thanksgiving, is comparable in some ways to the widow and her two coins. 


Those Pilgrims seem almost deprived, from our perspective: we can watch the Pope on television simply because we're bored; we can shop at a supermarket when we aren't even hungry. We have more than we need, of almost everything we could ask for.


And yet, given our tendency to take these things for granted or put them to no use, who might we be in Jesus' parable? We may turn out to be the "wealthy people," to the Pilgrims' "poor widow." Sometimes it seems like the more we have, the less we actually appreciate it, or bother to give meaningfully.


Of course, the point isn't to beat ourselves up over whether we're grateful or giving enough, by simply contemplating others' deprivation. Cultivating gratitude rarely works that way. 


How does it work? By the peculiar logic of the Gospel, as it turns out. 


We become more grateful not by hoarding things and relishing them, but by giving of ourselves in real sacrifice. And a grateful heart, in turn, gives even more away, to others and to God. It's not the ordinary human logic of finitude and self-focus, but God's logic of community and infinity.


It's what some call a "virtuous circle," a self-reinforcing tendency toward goodness. We give out of gratitude, and become grateful as we give. And back around again-- to eternity.


It's the opposite of the "vicious circle" involved in chronic self-seeking. We hoard because we're ungrateful, and become ungrateful as we hoard. This, too, can continue forever.


But a thankful heart gives-- and grows in its gratitude, in order to give more. This Thanksgiving, let's prayerfully consider not only what we have received, but consider how much more blessed it is "to give than to receive." 


The logic of the Gospel guarantees that we will become more grateful as we give-- and give more, as we grow in gratitude. Such is God's kingdom on earth, the life of the Trinity at work among us.