Posted on 06/16/2003 1:15:53 PM PDT by Onelifetogive
At St. Cecilia Cathedral, the Rev. Damien Cook receives a collection envelope from 20-month-old Sadie Kirschenman.
And, she said, unlike her hometown priest, "it isn't the only thing he talks about."
Still, Kirschenman said, she has mixed emotions when Hunke begins a homily about money at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha.
"There's some guilt that you don't do enough," she said. "And yet you don't want to hear about it."
Kirschenman isn't alone. According to a recent Lutheran Brotherhood survey, half of Christians think that money and material possessions should not be discussed in church.
Pastors also shy away from the subject, researchers say, even though money is one of the most frequently discussed topics in the Bible.
Money won't be on today's agenda. Collection plates on Easter usually overflow, and preaching focuses on the Resurrection.
On Monday, however, pastors must once again worry about ever-rising costs, growing competition for the religious dollar and the fact that religious giving hasn't kept up with inflation over time.
And if they are mainline Protestant or... Catholic pastors - shepherds for the vast majority of Midlands churchgoers - they also must contend with rates of giving that researchers say lag behind those of conservative Protestants.
"Pastors are going to have to confront the issue of money more and more," said the Rev. Bob Folkers, pastor of St. James United Methodist Church in Bellevue. If not from the pulpit, he said, "then one on one."
Most churches rely on pledges, annual appeals and weekly envelopes to raise money. Whether these techniques, which came into vogue in the early decades of the 20th century, can meet the needs of the 21st century church remains to be seen.
Studies indicate that Americans direct the majority - 63 percent - of their philanthropic dollars to churches, which is good news for them.
But other less-encouraging trends have emerged.
Per-member giving as a percentage of income, for example, decreased from 3.1 percent in 1968 to 2.6 percent in 1997 among the 29 Protestant denominations that report annual financial information to the National Council of Churches' "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches," said researchers John and Sylvia Ronsvalle.
Protestants also are keeping more of their dollars at home, a trend that puts denominational bureaucracies and programs at risk.
Studies also indicate that roughly 75 percent of money is given by 25 percent of the people, and that giving levels vary greatly from denomination to denomination.
According to researchers Dean Hoge, Patrick McNamara, Charles Zech and Michael Donahue, conservative Protestants give more than 3 percent of household income on average; black Protestants, 2.5 percent; mainline Protestants, 2 percent; Catholics, less than 1.5 percent; and other denominations, less than 1 percent.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Assemblies of God and the Seventh-day Adventist Church head the giving parade.
About 30 percent to 45 percent of Latter-day Saints, for example, tithe the 10 percent mentioned in the Bible.
Per-capita giving in the Assemblies of God exceeds 5 percent. Adventists give more than 4 percent of their income.
Jewish per-family giving rivals that of Latter-day Saints, said Hoge, McNamara, Zech and Donahue. But the two are not comparable since Jews give more to secular Jewish federations than to synagogues, they said.
The lower level of Catholic giving has puzzled just about everyone.
According to a 1996 study of giving in the... Catholic Church and four other denominations by Hoge and his fellow researchers, several commonly given reasons do not hold up.
It is not true, they said, that Catholics give less than Protestants because Catholics are angrier with their leaders or because Catholic parishes are less democratic in decision-making.
Other unfounded assumptions are that Catholics give less to their churches because they give more to nonparish causes than Protestants and because they send their children to parochial schools in greater numbers, the researchers said.
Catholic families with children in school give more, not less, than other Catholic families, the researchers said. And Catholic giving to Catholic causes outside the parish "is no higher than its equivalent in the other four denominations," Hoge, Donahue, McNamara and Zech said.
Lower rates of giving seem to be related to two institutional factors:
Catholics emphasize stewardship and individual giving less than Protestants. "We found that a substantial percentage of Catholic parishioners do not even know whether or not their parish has such an emphasis," the researchers said.
Catholic parishes are less likely than Protestant congregations to use pledge cards so that members can put in writing what they intend to give for the coming year.
Both factors are true of the Archdiocese of Omaha, said the Rev. Michael Gutgsell, chancellor.
For decades Catholics relied on priests and nuns to run parishes and schools, he said. While this low-cost work force kept overhead down, it didn't foster a "giving kind of mindset," Gutgsell said.
In addition, Gutgsell said, Catholic parishes are larger and thus operate on less money per church member.
Studies indicate that Catholic parishes are eight times the size of a Protestant congregation on the average.
Operating costs vary dramatically - $15 to $22 a week for each person attending worship service in mainline Protestant congregations compared with $5.44 a person in Catholic congregations, researchers said.
"Knowledge of these lower costs among Catholics may be a factor in the lower level of Catholic giving," Hoge and his fellow researchers said.
Pledging or planned giving is one of three factors generally associated with higher levels of giving. Family income and congregational involvement are the others.
People with more money give more, Hoge and his fellow researchers said. People who are actively involved in congregational life give more.
For example, Catholics who go to church about once a week give more than twice as much as those who attend two to three times a month, the researchers said.
If Catholics have come belatedly to the systematic-giving table, they are making up for lost time.
The Archdiocese of Omaha has sent two groups of priests to stewardship workshops put on by the International Catholic Stewardship Conference in Washington, D.C. It will send a third group this summer.
Hunke went in January, even though he had already moved in that direction by creating a new stewardship and development post at St. Cecilia and hiring Jeremy Belsky as director.
The move seems to have paid off. St. Cecilia is ahead of budget this year, Hunke said.
Churches face competition for the religious dollar from independent organizations such as World Vision, Compassion in Action, Youth for Christ/USA and Bread for the World, which raise operating funds independent of denominations.
But, said church consultant Lyle Schaller, it is also true that giving increases when parishioners have various causes from which to choose.
Folkers, the pastor of St. James United Methodist Church in Bellevue, has found this to be the case.
St. James laypeople who are reluctant to send money up the line to the general church gladly give to Habitat for Humanity building projects or to flood-relief efforts in Mozambique or to the pastor's discretionary fund for local people who need help, Folkers said.
Why? Accountability, Folkers said.
"If the average Joe in the pew can track his money and see the good it's doing, he'll give," Folkers said. "Seeing money going to help people - that's the concern."
Theological teachings also make a difference in giving.
Latter-day Saints and the Assemblies of God teach that tithing is obligatory, whereas most mainline Protestants and Catholics stress proportionate giving.
"Tithing a full 10 percent is a commandment," said D. Spencer Nilson, director of the Mormon Trail Center in Omaha. "And obedience is the first law of the Gospel."
Latter-day Saints go before their bishops every year and account for their giving. Those who haven't tithed the full 10 percent can't go to the temple.
Assemblies of God pastors who do not pay yearly tithes to their district offices lose their credentials.
But, said the Rev. Dave Argue, pastor of Christ's Place Assembly of God Church in Lincoln, tithing has its own rewards.
"The issue of giving is an issue of faith and partnership with God," he said. "If we give to God out of a heart of gratitude and a spirit that recognizes that all we have is His, we participate with Him. It causes us to abound in everything. We don't give so we'll get. That's wrong. But when you give, the Lord loves to surprise people."
Most researchers agree that instilling an attitude of stewardship is difficult and must be done over a period of years.
St. Cecilia is starting early.
At the beginning of the school year, Belsky, the stewardship director, went to St. Cecilia grade school and taught the children how to use offering envelopes. During each Mass, time is set aside for children to come to the front of the church and drop their offering envelopes in a basket.
"It gets them into a good habit," Belsky said.
Deborah Kirschenman, the St. Cecilia parishioner, hopes that is so. Her 20-month-daughter, Sadie, is among the scores of toddlers who make their way to the front of the church with their collection envelopes each week.
Kirschenman said she and her husband, David, pledge a portion of their income each year rather than tithe.
"We give what we can," she said. "It's a rare person who gives 10 percent. I applaud them, however."
In the history of the world, there have been few as "rich" as the majority of the US.
conservative Protestants give more than 3 percent of household income on average; black Protestants, 2.5 percent; mainline Protestants, 2 percent; Catholics, less than 1.5 percent; and other denominations, less than 1 percent.
Blacks Protestants are supposed to be so poor, but they outgive Catholics. Who is "poor in spirit"?
I wasn't picking on "the Catholic Church," I was picking on "Catholics." You know, those same people who enable the pedophile priests and offer their children to them as sacrifices.
Catholics are not accustomed to stewarship, and so have become cheapskates. I was on the finance committee of our parish for a couple of years, and it would appall you to see the number of high wage-earners (doctors, for instance), who'd put ten dollars in the basket on Sunday. That's $500 for an entire year from a guy who drives a Porsche and makes $300,000!
We just had a pledge drive here, one of the largest parishes in the Fort Worth diocese:
Out of 4,300 families registered, 255 committed to pledge a specified amount of money each week or month. That's FIVE PERCENT.
Over the last two years, 1933 families gave SOMETHING to St. Michael's. That's 44% of the registered families who gave something. Of that 1933, the 255 who pledged are 13%.
So, besides not going to Mass, Catholics tend to let somebody else do the heavy lifting financially.
The Catholic clergy have always been viewed as more "set apart" than those of Protestant congregations (especially since they're celibate), and many take vows of poverty.
Apparently, Catholics don't have a problem keeping them there, as well as all the lay Catholics who work in parish ministries.
I would also say that there is an "ownership" issue as well. A Protestant congregation owns its facility and decided for itself who the leadership will be. The leadership is then responsive to the membership. While this is not always ideal, it gives people the incentive to "invest" in a church.
Money given to a Catholic Church vaporizes. A much smaller percentage is used locally and the local church body has little or no say over how it is spent.
You didn't copy me on your ignoring of me????
How rude!
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