As an Executive Pastor of Operations, I read a lot of information regarding church attendance and giving patterns. Needless to say, the reports have put me on a rollercoaster ride since the pandemic. Not only does the data seem contradictory sometimes, it can be downright confusing. One report shows that church attendance is down, while another shows the growth. How can it be both? While I read reputable sources (Gallup, Barna, Pew Research, Lifeway, etc.), it’s important to take the time to dig into the numbers and understand the context of these reports. For example, Barna’s research shows that church attendance from 2009, compared to now, has declined for all generational groups. Does that have anything to do with COVID? No. Yet, many other reports show that church attendance is up. It comes down to knowing the criteria for the growth or decline.
The trends, percentages, and averages are helpful to gain perspective, but we need clarity on how to move forward. Coming out of COVID, our church attendance was roughly half of pre-pandemic numbers. In order to continue to pursue the mission and maintain a healthy financial position, we needed to figure some things out quickly.
The Starting Point
Let’s state the obvious: always start any endeavor with prayer. Seek God (Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”). Ask for wisdom (James 1:5: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”). Listen for God’s voice (1 Samuel 3:10: “Then the Lord came and stood, and called as at the other times: “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.“).
Healthy Church Compensation
The latest attendance and giving trends don’t apply to all churches; they are averages, which means many churches will fall on either side of the average. But, there are specific markers that most churches can lean on to measure their health. For example, most healthy churches spend approximately 45% – 55% of their operational budget on compensation. Compensation includes salaries, health insurance, taxes, retirement, etc.
After COVID, many churches found that decreased attendance and donations put their compensation over the healthy percentage range.
However, the percentage of the budget allocated to compensation is only one marker. To get a more complete picture of compensation health in your church, you need to calculate the staff-to-congregation ratio. Prior to the pandemic, a healthy congregation to FTE (full-time equivalent) employee ratio was about 75:1. Which means that for every 75 people in the church, there was 1 FTE employee. In the post-pandemic world, many churches found themselves well outside this ratio. Churches in this position found themselves wondering what to do.
Evaluate Staff
What comes next is not particularly popular, especially in the church world. If your church spends more than 60% of the budget on compensation and the congregation-to-FTE ratio is lower than 40:1, you know there’s a problem, and the church must address it. Ignoring it will only make it worse. I highly recommend reading the advice from the team at the Unstuck Group on this subject. Here’s an oversimplified summary of the post:
- Use the mission, vision, and strategy to determine the church’s structure and employ the people needed to support the structure. Avoid creating a structure to fit the existing employees.
- Don’t be afraid to change the structure to match the mission, vision, and strategy.
- Employ leaders. The role of the church staff is to equip, empower, and encourage volunteer leaders and build volunteer teams. (Ephesians 4:12)
- Having fewer people on staff increases volunteer engagement, allowing the church to compensate the staff appropriately.
Get Healthy
Once your church discovers its compensation expenses and FTE-to-congregation ratios outside healthy ranges, it needs to make incremental changes to move toward health. Start with prayer, determine the best structure for your church based on the mission, vision, and strategy, and employ staff to lead these initiatives through volunteer leaders and teams. It won’t happen overnight, but there is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to building a healthy church.
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