It just doesn’t add up
(From Peter Hughes, one of our Briefing readers in Banksia, Sydney, Australia:)
I want you to remember two numbers: 150 and 15. I was reading a book about a guy who was a church planter. His church had grown to about 150 and he decided it was time to plant another church. The problem was that he still had to work a part-time job because there was not enough income coming through the church. This got me thinking.
Most people, it seems, like a church where they know the pastor or minister. Sociologists tell me that this is about 150 people per minister; after that, it becomes too hard. In Sydney Anglican churches, the average giving per adult per week is $15 (actually it's a bit less but let's be nice). It costs a church $80,000 per year for a minister after things like superannuation and insurance etc., and let's say another $20,000 for expenses like building costs (rent or upkeep), printing, insurance and other things.
So, let's say then that it costs $100,000 a year for a minister to run a church. If people are giving $15 a week, this means you need at least 128 adults to break even. That is not far away from having to think about planting a new church if you want to grow. This means the church can't afford another staff member until the new church is big enough (and now the first minister is trying look after 256 people across the new and the old churches—people who are frustrated they can't talk to him).
The solution is either:
- choose not to grow our churches, and once we get between 128 and 150, we stop reaching out with the gospel;
- increase the average giving per adult to $30 per adult per week; or
- be more generous to our ministers and let them spread themselves more thinly. We need to be happy with being in churches with congregations of up to 250.
None of these options are easy. I do not think that a) is a Christian response. For some people, b) is simply not an option. Others will find it hard to adjust to c). But as it stands, it doesn't seem to add up to me.