Study finds church giving is up but not as much as people's income

Published: 2004-10-26

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (CNS) -- U.S. Christians contributed more per person to their church in 2002 than in 2001, but the rate of increase was less than the rate of their income growth, says a study released in mid-October by Empty Tomb. The Champaign-based organization, headed by John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, advises churches on stewardship and has been doing detailed analyses of church giving in the United States since the 1980s. The couple's initial study published in 1988 looked back at year-by-year church giving since 1968. In their new study, "The State of Church Giving Through 2002," the Ronsvalles said the composite total of giving in 26 denominations that regularly gather the financial data of their congregations nationwide rose, after adjusting for inflation, by about $11 per person. In inflation-adjusted 2000 dollars, the average contribution in 2001 was $674.72 and the average in 2002 was $685.86. When per member giving was analyzed in terms of U.S. per capita disposable income, however, the study found that church members gave an average of 2.64 percent of their disposable income in 2001, and that dropped slightly to 2.62 percent in 2002.

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