The Mainline Church's Funding Crisis: Issues and Possibilities. - book reviews

Christian Century, March 13, 1996 by Tom Sine

THIS BOOK IS especially timely, given that officials in Washington, D.C., are looking to the churches to make up for cuts in government social programs. As Peter Steinfels noted in the New York Times, "Basic to Congress's rewriting of federal obligations to help the poor, disabled, sick and elderly is the assumption that religious institutions, along with other charitable organizations, can provide the nation with a social and economic safety net as well as a moral and spiritual one." But expectations of increased funding do not seem realistic in light of Ronald Vallet and Charles Zech's account of the funding crisis facing mainline denominations. The authors contend that the decline in funding is not new and is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

The opening chapter profiles the membership and giving trends for major denominations from 1970 to 1992. Virtually all major denominations are experiencing decline in both areas, necessitating a reduction in both foreign and domestic staffs and budgets. In contrast, five nonmainline denominations have not experienced funding crises--but their statistics indicate they may well be on the same track as the mainline churches, simply a little further behind the curve.

Vallet and Zech speculate that mainline members, particularly baby boomers, have transferred some of their giving to parachurch organizations. A second factor may be the growing theological distance between a more conservative laity and a more liberal clergy. Third, a number of regional or midlevel judiciaries seem to be withholding funds that they once automatically passed on to their denominational headquarters.

Vallet and Zech draw on work in the social sciences to suggest that the funding shortfall reflects a money crisis at the local level. And because churches want more ownership of their missions giving, denominational programs lose out. Finally, they suggest that church members may feel alienated not only from clergy but also from denominational leadership.

The authors go on to suggest that Christians often make concessions to the reigning assumptions of modernity, thereby diminishing their investment in the work of the church. At the center of this captivity to the dominant culture is a failure by many church leaders to take biblical study and exposition seriously.

Vallet and Zech present a range of ways in which denominations might seek to arrest and reverse these trends. They propose shifting more control of the life and mission of the denomination to local congregations to overcome alienation and enhance ownership and accountability. Such a move might eventually lead to the dismantling of denominations.

In addition to proposing structural change, the authors call for a renewal of worship, a re-emphasis on biblical preaching and an expansion of theological education for laity as well as clergy. They particularly stress that the concept of stewardship should permeate the life of the church. Vallet and Zech list the following characteristics as integral to congregations that are "truly the Household of Jesus Christ": life centered in the celebration of resurrection; devotion to God's mission in the world; and faithfulness to the social and economic assumptions of Christian faith rather than of modern culture.

The book's weakness is that it fails to address one of the major factors behind the decline in giving: a graying and declining membership. Fewer members inevitably mean fewer dollars.

In my experience as a consultant and speaker at mainline churches, these churches do a much poorer job in retaining their young people than do their evangelical counterparts. I recently spoke to some 300 people at an adult forum at a church in Seattle. When I asked all those in their 20s to raise their hands, one couple responded. Almost everyone else was over 50--a situation that is all too common.

The group most rapidly disappearing from the church in Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. is the under-30 generation. According to Peter Brierley, who does demographic research on the church in Europe, 85 percent of the nonattenders in both mainline and evangelical churches in Great Britain are under 30. These statistics indicate that the funding crisis for mainline churches will become increasingly severe as the older generation moves on to fixed incomes and the leadership passes to those now under 30. Not only will significantly fewer of this younger generation participate in mainline churches, but they are also likely to give much less than their parents or grandparents did--not necessarily because they will care less but because they will have fewer economic resources. The cost of living is 10 to 20 times higher than it was 30 years ago, but the income levels of those under 30 has only doubled.

If mainline denominations are to solve their funding crisis, they must make a major commitment to increasing the size and number of their churches. In particular they must implement a strategy to reach and mentor a generation that has very little religious background. This will require radically different approaches to both evangelism and church planting.