Church Donations Down Most in Black Churches

A survey of pastors found giving was down more in small churches than large and down more in churches regarded as "black churches". So far as I know these are not random samples but email requests and only those who choose to respond do so. This method may introduce bias of one kind or another.

Reliable information about the lives of churches is hard to come by. There are surveys of church members asking how often they attend. Preachers are asked about attendance. Both of these yield much different and more optimistic numbers than drone photographs of church parking lots on worship day. The latter show lower attendance than the self-reporting.

In recent months Christian sites repeat results of a survey or two that found the decline in Christianity has leveled. That seems to refer to the rate of decline, it is not increasing but decline continues. The number of churches closing has not slowed. One would guess churches, which are small businesses, close at about the same rate as other small businesses close. 

As money to churches has declined along with attendance at church services the percentage of those who say they are not affiliated with any religion has grown. No one has concluded this has caused a decline in the moral standards of the country. Money that once went to fund a preacher and upkeep on an old building goes somewhere else. Time formerly spend in church on Sundays is spent doing something else. If some of this time and money us used to help other worthy causes we may be better, instead of worse, off. 

Of all the branches of Christianity that should disappear, it is those which exist because its original members were brought into to faith by force. The is the churches of black and native people. If those folks find something else to do with their time and money, good for them.