What Would Churches Do with More Money? Ten Answers from Two Perspectives

In an informal survey, I asked two groups of members in churches the following question: “If your church budget receipts were to increase tomorrow by 50 percent, what would you like to do with the extra funds?” So that there would be clarity to my question, I asked them for the current level of budget receipts, and then added 50 percent. So a $100,000 budget becomes $150,000. A $50,000 budget becomes $75,000. A $500,000 budget becomes $750,000. You get the picture.

The two groups I asked were simply divided between paid church ministers (pastors and others) and laypersons in the church. Their responses were similar, but interesting in the ways they were different. Each person could name up to three responses, but no more than three. They are ranked below in order of frequency of responses. Read more