Congregational vs. Denominational Giving: An Analysis of Giving Patterns in the Presbyterian Church in the United States and the Reformed Church in America

Agricultural Risk and the Spread of Religious Communities

“…In the United States, religious communities are widely regarded as having been the main source of social assistance -especially in agricultural regions -until the rise of government social spending at the beginning of the twentieth century (McBride, 1962;Lindert, 2004;Gruber and Hungerman, 2007). 2 Data on nineteenth-century church spending indicate substantial expenditures on local relief and charity (Nemeth and Luidens, 1994). There is also extensive historical evidence that local religious community members supported each other in case of need (see e.g., Trattner, 1974;Bodnar, 1985;Gjerde, 1985;Overacker, 1998;Szasz, 2004;Bovee, 2010).…”

The economic practices of US congregations: A review of current research and future opportunities

“…Additional research provides in-depth information on what congregations fund, including social service provision (Ammerman, 2005;Chaves and Tsitsos, 2001;Cnaan, 2002;Fulton, 2016;Scharffs, 2007), community organizing and civic engagement (Wood and Fulton, 2015;Fulton 2017), international missions and aid (Hudson Institute, 2016;Wuthnow, 2009), and religious schools (Greeley et al, 1976;Harris 1996Harris , 1999Ruger, 1999). Targeted studies on religious giving within particular groups or denominations have resulted in data on giving to black Protestant churches (Barnes 2013;Pressley, 1995;Pressley and Collier, 1999), Muslim mosques (Bagby et al, 2001;Bagby, 2012), Orthodox parishes (Krindatch, 2015), Presbyterian congregations (Krohn, 1995;Lunn et al, 2001;Nemeth and Luidens, 1994), Reformed churches , Jewish synagogues (Cohen, 2004;Cohen et al, 2011;Cohen and Landres, 2014), Mormon temples (Curtis et al, 2014(Curtis et al, , 2015Dahl and Ransom, 1999), Baptist churches (Hull et al, 2010), the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Inskeep, 1994;Brewer et al, 2006), and Catholic parishes (Hoge and Augustyn, 1997;Miller et al, 2001Miller et al, , 2002Notarantonio and Quigley, 2009;Rexhausen and Cieslak, 1994;Starks and Smith, n.d.;…”

“…Targeted studies on religious giving within particular groups or denominations have resulted in data on giving to Black churches (Barnes, 2013; Lincoln and Mamiya, [1990] 2003, esp. Chapter 9 6 ;Pressley, 1995; Pressley and Collier, 1999), Muslim mosques (Bagby et al, 2001; Bagby, 2012), Orthodox parishes (Krindatch, 2015), Presbyterian congregations (Krohn, 1995; Lunn et al, 2001; Nemeth and Luidens, 1994), Reformed churches (Luidens and Nemeth, 1994), Jewish synagogues (Cohen, 2004; Cohen et al, 2011; Cohen and Landres, 2014), Mormon temples (Curtis et al, 2014, 2015; Dahl and Ransom, 1999), Baptist churches (Hull et al, 2010), the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Inskeep, 1994; Brewer et al, 2006), and Catholic parishes (Hoge and Augustyn, 1997; Miller et al, 2001, 2002; Notarantonio and Quigley, 2009; Rexhausen and Cieslak, 1994; Starks and Smith, n.d. ; Zech, 2000; Zech et al, 2017, esp.…”

Black Church Giving

“…Moreover, theologically traditional 3 churches tend to receive more funds than liberal ones (Iannaccone, Olson, & Stark, 1995; Lunn, Klay, & Douglas, 2001). Studies also describe higher levels of giving by Protestants more than Catholics (Zaleski & Zech, 1992), by traditional Christians more than mainline Protestants and Catholics (Keister, 2008), and increased giving among Presbyterians (Nemeth & Luidens, 1994) as well as Baptists and Methodists (Donahue, 1994). Yet churches that are part of denominations with high-income earning members tend to receive relatively lower percentages of their incomes (Iannaccone, 1994; Davidson & Pyle, 1994, suggest the converse).…”