Thought Question: What Is Your Church Worth?

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Jay F Guin

From Christianity Today.  You can download a fullsize version of the graphic.

The block text in the upper lefthand corner says,

Does a congregation’s tax-exempt status outweigh the economic value it adds to its community? The University of Pennsylvania’s Ram Cnaan has long been searching for a specific answer. In a 1997 study, he found that urban congregations provide, on average, $140,000 worth of services annually. In 2009, Cnaan (who describes himself as nonreligious) revised his estimate to $476,663.24. Now he’s about to release an even more detailed pilot study focusing on 12 historic Philadelphia congregations, including First Baptist Church, whose annual value to the local economy Cnaan’s team places conservatively at $6,090,032 (nearly ten times its annual budget). Some of the items that contribute:

Now, obviously enough, you can’t measure souls in dollars. Salvation is not a marketable commodity. Nonetheless, it’s interesting to see the value of the services rendered to the community — and how much those values have increased over the last decade or so. Our understanding of what Christianity commits us to is changing, and the results are partly measurable.

Here’s the question: In comparable terms, what is your church worth to your community? Would it be missed if it closed its doors — by anyone other than the members?

About Jay F Guin

My name is Jay Guin, and I’m a retired elder. I wrote The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace about 18 years ago. I’ve spoken at the Pepperdine, Lipscomb, ACU, Harding, and Tulsa lectureships and at ElderLink. My wife’s name is Denise, and I have four sons, Chris, Jonathan, Tyler, and Philip. I have two grandchildren. And I practice law.
This entry was posted in Thought Questions, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

8 Responses to Thought Question: What Is Your Church Worth?

  1. David Himes says:
    April 11, 2011 at 8:56 am

    Would it be missed if it closed its doors — by anyone other than the members?

    — what a great question … which every congregation of every denomination should ask itself

  2. laymond says:
    April 11, 2011 at 9:51 am

    "Here’s the question: In comparable terms, what is your church worth to your community? (I don't know if you mean monatary value)
    Would it be missed if it closed its doors — by anyone other than the members?
    Answer: yes, but not nearly as much as it could be.

  3. Alabama John says:
    April 11, 2011 at 3:28 pm

    To the members a lot as there is not another (liberal) progressive one anywhere close by and we drive 30 miles each way now and many others do too. Building gets more use than any church of Christ building I have ever seen. Several community folks do use the building for various things so they would miss it.

  4. Terry says:
    April 11, 2011 at 7:09 pm

    I have absolutely no doubt that my congregation would be missed by the community.

  5. wjcsydney says:
    April 11, 2011 at 8:33 pm

    My church building is a purpose built conference cente which we developed. It works wonderfully as both a church home and a conference centre. It would be missed.

  6. Dwayne Phillips says:
    April 12, 2011 at 5:55 am

    A related question:

    If I closed my doors, i.e., if I disappeared, would anyone other than my immediate family notice?

  7. Tom says:
    August 16, 2013 at 2:29 pm

    Can you help me find the papers published by Cnaan, referenced above?

Comments are closed.