Christianity still largest faith group in US, according to Gallup; Kentucky pastor updating Spurgeon work into modern English; Tips for church budget planning

Good News for Today

Most Americans still identify with a religion, and Christianity is by far the largest faith group in the United States. But the percentage of Christians has fallen to a historic low. In 2023, 68 percent of U.S. adults said they were a Christian, the lowest percentage since Gallup began asking in the 1940s.

Specifically, 33 percent of Americans identify as Protestant, 22 percent Catholic, and 13 percent say they are another Christian group or simply refer to themselves as “Christian.”

Still, fewer Americans see religion as an important aspect of their lives, and it shows in their beliefs and actions.

A Gallup survey finds U.S. adults are less likely to identify with a religion, say religion is very important to them, belong to a congregation or attend worship services.

Much of the decline of Christianity has happened in the past 20 years. In 2003, 83 percent of Americans claimed to be Christian, statistically unchanged from 84 percent in 1993 and only a slight drop from 86 percent in 1983. The high-water mark for Christian identification in Gallup’s survey was 96 percent in 1956.

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Like many pastors, Ron Metheny has long admired the writings of Charles Spurgeon and considered them to be educational, inspiring and encouraging.

Metheny, the pastor of Roland Memorial Church in Greenville, Kentucky, has taken one of Spurgeon’s popular works, “Eccentric Preachers,” and revised it, updating it into modern English.

Metheny said he was “very careful” in revising the edition. “I’m attempting to maintain faithfulness to the design, meaning, doctrine and purpose of Charles Spurgeon who lived, preached and wrote in Victorian England. I wanted it to still have Spurgeon’s voice in it while updating the language.”

His editing process has included reading the book from cover to cover more than a dozen times, Metheny said. He’s read it even more than that, saying he was introduced to it

during his first pastorate 26 years ago. He has pastored five churches, including the last four years at Roland Memorial.

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Maybe your church is about to start planning their next budget. Church leader Sam Rainer offers some tips in our Baptist Press Toolbox.

1. Start by projecting revenue first. Too many churches start by projecting expenses. It’s an understandable mistake because expenses represent how funds are spent on ministry. The problem is you can’t spend the funds unless they are first given. Dreaming about big-ticket ministry efforts may be fun, but it’s not wise to dream up a budget. When you start with what you expect to take in, you can better prioritize your expenses.
2. Include deferred maintenance in your operating budget. Deferred maintenance is what happens when you postpone needed repairs to save money. The problem with deferring these repairs is that they become more expensive the longer you delay them. Repairing a leaky roof doesn’t get any cheaper with time. Put a deferred maintenance line item in your budget to take care of delayed repairs. Some churches have decades of delayed deferred maintenance projects. Start working on them this year.
3. Include a contingency fund in your operating budget. Many churches do not have a contingency fund for unforeseen expenses. A church should have about three months of expenses set aside for emergencies. Start building this fund through your operating budget. In essence, you pay yourself with this tactic. As funds come into the operating budget, a portion is set aside for the contingency fund.
4. Keep personnel costs between 45% and 55% of the total budget. Personnel costs include the salaries and benefits of all employees, part-time and full-time. A church with limited or no debt can be on the higher end of this range. A church with substantial debt will need to be on the lower end of this range, if not lower.