Smallest congregations
stronger in worship, giving
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 17, 2008
They’re the smallest of the small – 2,845 congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA) with 50 or fewer members. Nearly half – 1,326 – have no pastoral leadership. Only 462 have an installed pastor. Mostly, they rely on part-timers, tentmakers, fill-ins from other denominations, but, especially, the members themselves.
But, according to the 2007 comparative statistics published by the PCUSA, the little gatherings are bigger in other categories. Their Sunday worship attendance averages 76.8 percent of the membership, nearly double the 41.4 percent who attend services in congregations of more than 1,600.
And, contrary to the myth, the members of the 50-and-under congregations surpass all but one other size group in per-member giving. The PCUSA contributes to the myth that the members of the small congregations are far behind in their giving by the way it posts its comparisons.
It lists 10 categories as follows (as well as other data):
Membership
Worship attendance
Giving per person in worship
1-50
76.8 percent
$1,629.35
51-100
64.1 percent
$1,578.30
101-150
58.7 percent
$1,726.32
151-200
56.3 percent
$1,865.06
201-300
53.6 percent
$1,865.06
301-500
50.8 percent
$2,042.94
501-800
48.7 percent
$2,233.76
801-1200
43.6 percent
$2,477.89
1,200-1,600
44.1 percent
$2,708.04
1,601 and more
41.4 percent
$3,125.61
The data show that attendance as a percentage of membership declines at each level as congregational size increases. At first glance, without mathematical interpretation, the data leave the impression that the members of the larger congregations give more money to the churches than those in the smallest congregations. But that’s not so.
We redid some numbers, selected sample sizes from among the ranges and recomputed the gifts according to membership instead of worship attendance.
Members
50
100
150
200
300
500
800
1,200
1,600
2,000
Total gifts
$62,717
$101,030
$139,680
$195,474
$299,892
$520,952
$875,728
$1,416,826
$1,906,432
$2,562,500
Per mem.
$1,254
$1,010
$931
$977
$1,000
$1,042
$1,095
$1,181
$1,192
$1,281
The outcome: The 50-member congregations gave more money per member than all other size groups except those in the 1,600-plus category. And the difference between the largest and smallest was $27 a year, only 2.1 percent.
The 2,845 congregations in the 50-lower category account for 26.3 of the 10,792 congregations in the PCUSA. The 100 congregations with more than 1,600 members are less than 1 percent of the total.