Trends in evangelical giving show signs of alarm – and it's already sounding in the Southern Baptist Convention
News Analysis
Evangelical giving is down and one of the largest denominations in the world is sounding the alarm of gathering storm clouds of reduced financial support.
On average, evangelical Christians gave $2,503 to their church over the past 12 months, compared to $2,953 in 2021, according to The Giving Gap: Changes in Evangelical Generosity by Infinity Concepts and Grey Matter Research.
Fewer evangelical Christians are giving to Christian ministries or charities outside their church. In 2024, 50% reported giving to a ministry, down from 58% in 2021. Additionally, the percentage of income that evangelicals donate to church has declined from 2.8% down from 3.2% in 2021.
Ron Sellers, president of Grey Matter Research, said, “The numbers paint an increasingly bleak picture of evangelical generosity. “Almost every measure of giving was down for almost every type of evangelical. One exception is evangelicals of color, who remained much more steadfast in their giving than did others.”
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Baptist Press reported recently that the Tennessee Baptist Convention voted to slightly reduce its giving to the Cooperative Program to 45% from 47.5% – and retain 55 percent for Tennessee ministries – but it is what it represents that is important. Tennessee is not the only state convention to reduce or to consider reducing its giving to the SBC.
According to the Baptist Press story, Tennessee’s in-state funding shortfall is only the tip of the iceberg as several state conventions discussed at their annual meetings the reality that they cannot keep giving more to SBC causes when they are receiving less from their churches.
Jeff Org, the new president of the SBC Executive Committee, said the convention must prepare for major challenges in funding.
“Giving to the Cooperative Program is impacted by many factors – including economic pressures on churches and conventions – as well as competing funding requests from many other Christian organizations,” said Iorg. “Southern Baptists still believe in cooperation, and a new generation must decide how to prioritize Cooperative Program giving to assure the long-term stability and fiscal health of our global efforts.”
The news comes as the SBC continues to reel from news the building that houses its Nashville headquarters is being put up for sale after the Executive Committee announced spending more than $12.1 million on the 2021-2022 Guidepost Solutions investigation and subsequent legal expenses dating back to the 2021 fiscal year.
The SBC is supported through the Cooperative Program, which is Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving through which cooperating Southern Baptist churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts to their respective state convention and the SBC missions and ministries. The 2023 Cooperative Program budget was $192 million. The SBC reported 46,906 churches, nearly 13 million members, and a weekly attendance of 4 million in 2023.
Related:
I'm amazed when I read that giving is down, and the only thing we can come up with is economic impact. Interesting...how about the ongoing downward trend within our ranks, the division on truth in God's written Word, the lawsuits within our ranks, etc., etc.. It's easy to blame the world for our problems when we are not willing to turn the mirror on ourselves, and restore faith. Jesus truly asked if He would find faith when He returns. Since the Church is HIS to begin with, maybe we should return to Jesus, as the church of Laodicea is instructed to do. Just a small church pastor's input.