The last chapter looked at how congregations spent their money. Some were surprised at how much was spent on staff. If you are like me, 2.8 billion dollars is a bigger amount than I can get my head around. This chapter tries to break those figures down into a more imaginable number by looking at the relationship between the number of worshippers and staff costs, sliced in a variety of ways.
For all United Methodist congregations with at least five members, the average cost of staff per worshipper per week is $16.37. In other words, if each Sunday every person in worship put $16.37 in the offering plate, it would cover most of the cost of local church lay and clergy staff. (I qualify that with "most" because that doesn't include the costs of insurance and pension for those annual conferences that apportion rather than direct bill these costs.)
I thought it might be interesting to see if the staff costs seemed to vary based on average worship attendance. Here is what I discovered. As in the example above, this is the amount that every person attending a worship service would need to put in the offering, every time they attended worship, to cover the most of the the costs of the congregation's staff.
• Churches with an average worship attendance of 50 or less have an average staff cost of $14.60 per worshipper per week.
• Churches with an average worship attendance of 51 to 100 have an average staff cost of $17.65 per worshipper per week.
• Churches with an average worship attendance of 101 to 200 have an average staff cost of $18.85 per worshipper per week.
• Churches with an average worship attendance of 201 to 300 have an average staff cost of $19.00 per worshipper per week.
• Churches with an average worship attendance of 301 to 400 have an average staff cost of $19.77 per worshipper per week.
• Churches with an average worship attendance of 401 to 500 have an average staff cost of $19.80 per worshipper per week.
• Churches with an average worship attendance of 501 to 1000 have an average staff cost of $19.97 per worshipper per week.
• Churches with an average worship attendance of 1001-1500 have an average staff cost of $20.43 per worshipper per week.
• Churches with an average worship attendance of more than 1500 have an average staff cost of $17.82 per worshipper per week.
I then decided to see if there were any obvious differences based on region.
• Churches in the Southeastern Jurisdiction have an average staff cost of $15.27 per worshipper per week.
• Churches in the North Central Jurisdiction have an average staff cost of $16.14 per worshipper per week.
• Churches in the South Central Jurisdiction have an average staff cost of $16.42 per worshipper per week.
• Churches in the Northeastern Jurisdiction have an average staff cost of $16.97 per worshipper per week.
• Churches in the Western Jurisdiction have an average staff cost of $22.09 per worshipper per week.
I also did a slice based on the ethnic majority in the congregation.
• Churches that are predominantly Asian American have an average staff cost of $17.53 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that are predominantly Euro American have an average staff cost of $16.68 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that are predominantly African American have an average staff cost of $13.23 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that are predominantly Pacific Islander have an average staff cost of $13.04 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that are predominantly Hispanic American have an average staff cost of $11.18 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that are predominantly Native American have an average staff cost of $7.65 per worshipper per week.
And finally, here is a slice based on total church expenditures
• Churches that have total expenditures of less than $50,000 per year have an average staff cost of $11.02 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that have total expenditures of between $50,000 and $100,000 per year have an average staff cost of $16.36 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that have total expenditures of between $100,000 and $150,000 per year have an average staff cost of $19.93 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that have total expenditures of between $150,000 and $200,000 per year have an average staff cost of $21.45 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that have total expenditures of between $200,000 and $300,000 per year have an average staff cost of $22.66 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that have total expenditures of between $300,000 and $500,000 per year have an average staff cost of $21.45 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that have total expenditures of between $500,000 and $1,000,000 per year have an average staff cost of $22.28 per worshipper per week.
• Churches that have total expenditures of more than $1,000,000 per year have an average staff cost of $23.76 per worshipper per week.
Note: All of these slices are based on churches with at least five members.
These numbers are easier for me to imagine. Here are a couple of things I observed.
• In general, as expenditures increase the amount spent on staff costs increases at a higher rate than the average worship attendance increases.
• There is a pretty big jump in the average staff cost per worshipper between churches with yearly expenditures of less than $50,000 and those with more than $50,000.
I wonder if when worshippers place their offering in the offering plate how they imagine the money gets used?
The statistical data included herein were provided at no charge by the General Council on Finance and Administration of The United Methodist Church (GCFA) and may be obtained directly from GCFA, PO Box 340020, Nashville, TN 37203-0029. This data is proprietary and is owned by GCFA and may not be used in any commercial or exploitative way, to make a financial profit, or in a manner that defames the United Methodist denomination or its agencies or organizations. GCFA does not endorse any particular use of the data or accept responsibility for its interpretation or analysis by another.
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