F&S Survey Results |
| Dear Pastors, |
| Thank you so much for your response to the survey sent out from the International Offices on behalf of the International Finance and Stewardship Committee. We would like to share the results with you. Based upon sampling guidelines as established at custominsight.com and their random sampling calculator, (http://www.custominsight.com/articles/random-sample-calculator.asp) we can happily report a high level of confidence (95% with a +/- 6.3% error level) that this survey accurately reflects the opinions of the general church in North America. The figures we used were the 217 North American pastors completing the survey out of 1860 churches in the US/Canada (according to the number in the 95th General Assembly Minutes, pp. 156-157), assuming one pastor per church. While we attempted to solicit international input, the survey defaulted on its own to a reflection of North American pastors, by virtue of limited international participation. |
Number of Respondents |
| As of June 15, 2009: |
226 |
|
| Number of North Americans participating: |
217 |
(96%) |
| Number reporting from other areas: |
9 |
(4%) |
| Number of pastors who tithe on their gross income: |
150 |
(66%) |
| Number of pastors who tithe on their net income: |
76 |
(34%) | |
Secular Income and Tithing |
| Number of Respondents who report no secular income: |
66 |
(29%) |
| Number of Respondents who report secular income: |
160 |
(71%) |
| Number who tithe their secular income to: |
| Their Local Church: |
156 |
(97% of those who have income from a secular source) |
| Their State/National/Regional Office: |
5 |
(3% of those who have income from a secular source) | |
Church Expenses |
| Respondents who personally paid: |
| no expenses: |
93 |
(41% of all respondents) |
| some: |
75 |
(33% overall; 56% paying any) expenses for the local church |
| most: |
29 |
(13% overall; 22% paying any) expenses for the local church |
| all: |
29 |
(13% overall; 22% paying any) expenses for the local church |
| Therefore, 59% (133) of the pastors responding pay some, most or all expenses for their local church. | |
Agreement/disagreement with Question 6 |
| "In my opinion, a pastor who tithes on his secular (non-ministry) income into his church and then receives 90% back in the form of compensation, has biblically tithed." |
| Agree: |
188 |
(83%) |
| Disagree: |
37 |
(17%) |
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| We also received many helpful comments. Thanks again for your help as we continue to prepare our report for the General Assembly in 2010. |
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| Your F&S Committee. | |