How Churches Fare in Recession

Has the current recession affected church giving? Have contributions fallen off with increased unemployment? If so, how much?

CHRISTIANITY TODAY asked its domestic correspondents for reports on fluctuations in local church treasuries.

The results of the nationwide poll showed no general pattern. The closest thing to a trend seemed to be notes of caution about future spending. Church boards were becoming a little more cautious about committing themselves to costly building programs. Individual members were not as willing to pledge amounts of money over an extended period.

Thirty Southern Baptist pastors were confronted with this question at a conference in Kansas City: “Is the recession apparent in your church offerings?”

Seven reported that their offerings were higher for the first three months of 1958 than they were for the first three months of 1957. Five of the seven said their offerings probably would have shown a larger increase if it were not for the recession. Five others reported their offerings about the same and expressed the belief they would be larger if it were not for the recession. Two reported their offerings were less, another decidedly less. The other ministers said the recession had not affected their offerings.

Of 12 churches polled in Los Angeles, all reported a drop in income this year ranging from 10 to 30 per cent.

Said the Rev. Clarence Forsberg, pastor of First Methodist Church of Eugene, Oregon:

“A number of our churches in the Northwest are receiving from $1,000 to $5,000 below a year ago.”

Some ministers observed that the pinch has been felt less in churches where there is emphasis on stewardship.

One church in Cincinnati reported that unusually bad weather coupled with a wave of influenza had a more adverse effect on receipts than did the recession.

The churches hardest hit, as expected, were in heavy industrial areas. Congregations composed mostly of white-collar workers were not as adversely affected as those with tradespeople. But psychological factors seemed to be at work to cut down spending in many regions. In South Carolina the economy leans largely upon the textile industry, which is more active than a year ago. Nevertheless, Dr. R. Archie Ellis, pastor of the 3500-member First Baptist Church of Columbia, said weekly contributions are down. He added that he did not think the income of the average member has been reduced, except for those depending on investments, but “I think they are scared.”

Many churches reported no noticeable dips in incomes. One such is the First Presbyterian Church of Oklahoma City, whose pastor adds, however, “The people are beginning to be a little bit cautious in making future plans for the church.” Members of a Seattle congregation reportedly were reluctant to sign pledges although they were continuing to give at a rate comparable to a corresponding period last year.

The administrative head of a national religious organization said he was ready to tighten belts for next year’s budget after noticing a drop in contributions.

There were notable exceptions to the reports on decreases in giving. Said the Rev. Paul Koenig, pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in St. Louis:

“Offerings are up 33 per cent over last year. In March, two weeks’ regular offerings were each over $5,000, the largest in the 100-year history of this pillar of St. Louis Lutheranism. Many others of the 80 Missouri Synod congregations in St. Louis report similar increases over last year. Many of the congregations attribute this to an all-out ‘every-member stewardship drive’ last fall which asked for annual sacrificial pledges. Apparently, church members have not been hit too much in the area by unemployment and are therefore keeping their pledges.”

A similar report came from the Rev. Paul G. Stephan, pastor of the Trinity Lutheran Church of Des Moines, Iowa:

“The contributions of our constituency are 25 per cent better this year than in 1957. We do not even use the word ‘recession’ in our congregation.”

Another exception was the 743-member Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Pittsburgh. Dr. K. C. Fraser reported that his congregation last month pledged to give $63,000 for foreign missions within the next year. The figure represents a $2,000 increase over similar pledges made at the same time in 1957 and overpaid by $680. Fraser said receipts for the church maintenance fund were holding steady in spite of some unemployment among members.

Dr. Luther P. Fincke of the Point Breeze Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh reported “no discernible effects.” The First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, Calif., is not noting “any real falling-off,” according to Dr. Robert Munger, pastor.

Wesleyan Tradition

In Cincinnati, a 10-member joint merger commission of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America and the Pilgrim Holiness Church voted to recommend union of the two denominations to their quadrennial general conferences.

The commission said it found no “insuperable barriers” in the two churches’ doctrines or areas of operation which seemed to militate against a merger.

The Wesleyan denomination will hold its general conference at Fairmount, Indiana, in June of 1959; and the Pilgrim Holiness at Winona Lake, Indiana, this June.

A commission spokesman said that doctrinally the two bodies are both in the Wesleyan tradition of fundamental early Methodism. He said they have a combined membership of about 90,000 in 2,000 widely scattered congregations in the United States.

Conferees restricted their discussions to differences in church procedures important enough to influence denominational action in either body. They found that both denominations could save about $150,000 a year in operating expenses if they merged into one group.

The commission will recommend to the general conferences that they adopt as a uniting slogan: “Uniting for World Evangelism.”

Co-chairmen of the commission are Dr. W. H. Neff of Indianapolis, Indiana, general superintendent of the Pilgrim Holiness Church; and Dr. Roy S. Nicholson of Marion, Indiana, president of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Ratio Of Evangelism

It took an average of about 25 Methodists to win one new one in 1957.

Dr. George H. Jones, member of the Methodist General Board of Evangelism, came up with this “evangelistic ratio” after a study of membership statistics.

The Methodist Church added 378,031 new members during 1957. This figure divided into the total number of Methodists in the United States in 1956 results in a ratio of some 25 to one, meaning that on the average it took about 25 Methodists to win one new one.

Nae Meeting

The 16th annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals meets in Chicago this week.

“Christ in you, the hope of glory” is the theme of the five-day conclave at the Hotel Sherman.

NAE President Paul P. Petticord’s keynote address will approach the subject, “True Ecumenicity.”

Billy Graham will be another featured speaker, along with Dr. Stephen Paine, Dr. Albert J. Lindsey, Dr. Robert G. Lee, Dr. J. Wilbur Smith, Dr. Harold John Ockenga, Dr. Herbert S. Mekeel, Dr. J. Edwin Orr, Dr. V. Raymond Edman, and Dr. R. L. Decker.

Two nights of prayer are planned under the leadership of the Rev. Armin Gesswein, chairman of the NAE Spiritual Life Commission.

Dr. Frederick C. Fowler is convention chairman.

Blasts Denounced

The blasting of a Miami synagogue’s school recreation center was denounced by Dr. Harold E. Buell, president of the Greater Miami Council of Churches.

“This violence and the apparent prejudice lying behind it gives a bad name to our city and area and damages the influence of American democracy abroad,” he said.

Temple Beth El’s annex was lifted off its foundation last month by about a dozen sticks of dynamite planted by unidentified persons. Damage was estimated at $30,000.

On the same day the Miami building was blasted, the Nashville Jewish Community Center in Tennessee was dynamited with damage estimated at $6,000.

Jewish leaders in Florida said they feared the twin bombings may have signalled the start of a nationwide terror campaign against the Jews.

Benjamin H. Chasin, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans, wired the governors of Florida and Tennessee and the United States attorney general urging federal-state teamwork to stamp out what he called a “conspiracy reaching across statelines.”

In Nashville, the Community Relations Conference urged all law enforcement agencies to make every effort to find and arrest those responsible for the Jewish center’s bombing.

CANADA

Contingent Aid

Premier W. A. C. Bennett of British Columbia indicated that the provincial government is willing to help ship the “Sons of Freedom” to Russia if there are assurances that the Doukhober dissidents will stay away for good.

A group of “Sons” recently returned from Russia with the report that their group would be welcome on Siberian farms. The sect, which time after time has balked at governmental authority, now wants British Columbia to pay the bill for their proposed move.

The premier made it clear that before the provincial government would give any such aid it would want assurance from the Dominion government that those moving “would lose their Canadian citizenship and not come back.”

The Question

If you had the opportunity to ask President Eisenhower one question, what would that question be?

Send your suggestion for such a query to the News Editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, 1014 Washington Building, Washington 5, D. C.

For New Churches

The United Church of Canada spent $14,000,000 to build 196 new churches and 85 manses in 1957, according to the annual report of Dr. M. C. Macdonald, secretary of the denomination’s board of home missions.

Macdonald said plans call for 178 new churches and 59 manses in 1958 at an estimated cost of $13,000,000.

He added that the United Church will need a minimum of 40 to 50 new churches annually to keep up with an expected Canadian population rise from 17,000,000 to 27,000,000 by 1975.

The church official called for more cooperation among religious workers “to guard against the frittering away of energy and missionary funds.”

EUROPE

A Catholic Majority

The Catholic People’s Party of The Netherlands emerged with a 250,000-vote majority over the Labor Party (Socialist) in elections last month for 590 seats in the eleven Dutch provincial legislatures, thus reversing the situation at the 1956 elections.

About 6,000,000 voters went to the polls to give the Catholic Party 190 seats as against 178 for the Labor Party. The Catholic group polled about 33 per cent of the votes as compared to about 29 per cent for its nearest rival.

In an interview between the official functions in connection with the state visit of Queen Elizabeth of England, Foreign Affairs Secretary J. M. A. H. Luns, a leader of the Catholic Party, said the returns showed that “the electorate is getting fed up with being too much mothered and directed” by the four-party government.

Ghetto-Church Pressure

The pressing problems of 15 million Protestants behind the Iron Curtain in Germany’s Eastern Zone are highlighted in a new report just published in Berlin (Evangelische Kirche Jenseits der Zonengrenze, by Gunter Jacob and Christian Berg, Verlag-Lettner, 52 pp.).

Hitler’s war on Russia and American political naivete has deeded over half the land mass of Germany to intense communistic indoctrination supported by the threat of the Red Army.

The Russians can hardly execute 15 million people, and yet religion is offensive to them. Their goal is to make the church a Ghetto church. Religion is thought of as a feeling within the “soul,” or to be restricted completely to the church building, and every effort to evangelize is efficiently cut off.

To produce this Ghetto-church (which the authors say was not difficult to produce in Russia with the decadent Orthodox church) and to weaken the German Evangelical church, several measures have been adopted. In some instances evidence of a good knowledge of Marxism, plus a spirit of dedication to it, are necessary for admittance into advanced education, thus preventing any education among Christians. The church money collected by the state—a custom in Europe—has been cut in half, and the church population willfully lowered so as to diminish even more the church’s financial resources. Any new building or repairing of present structures is either denied or made very difficult.

To intensify the difficulties for Christians, a program of dedication to Communism has been instituted to parallel confirmation, and house-to-house visitation is made to conscript young people to make this act of dedication.

Enormous changes of thought are observed among Christians. The traditions of 400 years now seem to be unworkable and are no longer recognized as New Testament teaching. Foremost in this regard are the concepts of a state church and a “people’s” church. The tradition of the church tax, collected by the government, is proving to be detrimental in the present situation. Separation of church and state is no longer regarded as an American peculiarity but a vital part of New Testament faith. The immense value of the American churches’ emphasis on stewardship of time and money, and participation of the entire church in the Christian witness is also being recognized and is having its effect.

One of the most difficult problems is that of the thousands who are fleeing the Eastern Zone for the West, among them many pastors. This is regarded by the authors of this report as high treachery. Their judgment is that God can build his Kingdom in East Germany, that God is greater than the Kremlin, and that the Gospel is still the power of God, and therefore, Christians must remain in the Eastern Zone and remain faithful to the Gospel and firm in their convictions of its power.

Certainly, for the Christian brethren who must live, work and serve in such adverse circumstances, life and witness is far from easy.

B.R.

AFRICA

Kibango Simon

Back in the 1930s a prophet movement sprang up in the Bas-Congo, owing its inception to a man who once professed Christian conversion, Kibango Simon. The movement was marked by a distinctly subversive tinge, forbidding its followers to pay head tax to the government.

Many Congolese left their employment, others abandoned fields they had been cultivating under government direction. Life became so dislocated that authorities moved in to arrest adherents, including Kibango Simon himself. Many were exiled and kept under restraint in localities far removed from their original homes.

Kibango Simon was exiled to Elisabethville, where he died some 12 years later. While there followed occasional murmurings, it appeared as if the movement were dead.

Now there is a recrudescence of Kibango-ism, or to call it by its new name, Kintwadi-ism. The revival is mostly limited to the Bakongo tribe in Lower Congo, Portuguese Angola and French Equatorial Africa.

The exponents of Kintwadi-ism claim that Kibango Simon is still alive and ranks with Jesus Christ as saviour of men. They meet in groups, sometimes with leaders who give way in the proceedings to anyone who thinks he has a special message to impart. They use the Kintwadi Bible or such portions of it as fit their own special ideas and have composed words of their own to Christian tunes. They have drawn a large part of their followers from Catholic and Protestant churches. Their meetings often follow a “holy roller” pattern, the leader winding up his service in ecstatic convulsion reminiscent of the ancient witchdoctor.

Meetings at first were held only at night. Now the government has recognized the movement as a religion, permitting assemblies at any time.

The Bakongo tribe is probably the most nationalistic group in Congo. Its link with Kintwadi-ism may well give rise to a politico-religious movement.

J.M.

Evangelist Sentenced

A native evangelist on the Danish mission field in the Sudan was fined and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for having offended the Moslems by delivering a sermon on the words of Jesus: “No one cometh to the Father except by me.”

The evangelist has maintained that he said nothing hostile to the Moslem faith. He appealed the case.

Three African pastors were imprisoned at the same time, but were acquitted then filed law suits against a tribal chief for alleged slander and bad treatment in prison.

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