Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

unning expenses, and the rest goes for local and
national charities and home and foreign missions.
Where the money goes
Now take a look at the budget of the typical
church that has been selected.
Salaries The minister, who has been with the
church more than 20 years, makes $4,450 a year (he
got a $450 raise last year)
. He is also given a home,
for which the church finances major repairs. He
has a $240 annual car expense allowance, and the
church puts $356 a year into his retirement fund.
The choir director and organist, both house
wives and amateur musicians, are paid $500 a year
each. Another housewife gets $600 as church sec
retary and assistant treasurer.
Other salary expenses are $100 for a relief
preacher when the minister goes on vacation and
$720 for a janitor. Total salaries : $7,466.
Operating costs. The church is heated at a
cost of $800 a year.
Electricity costs $150, water $48,
and the telephone $100. Repairs to the church and
the minister's home and replacement of physical
equipment and the like eat up $250 a year. Total
upkeep: $1,348.
Insurance and interest.
Premiums on insurance
policies on church property cost $200 a year, and
interest on the building loan will run this year to
$1,000. Church property, incidentally, is exempt from
taxation. Total here: $1,200.
Incidentals. Stationery and postage run $50
annually, and $200 is paid out every year for a small
weekly advertisement in the local paper. Church
bulletins cost only $312 a year because they are
run off on duplicating machines.
Music for the choir and organist runs $100, and
$250 is set aside for miscellaneous expenses, which
might be new hymnals, Sabbath school pamphlets,
Communion supplies or any of a hundred other neces
sary items. Total incidentals : $912.
Good Works. The $3,814 in the budget not
earmarked for current expenses is divided up like
this:
A total of $267 (at 52 cents per member) for
support of the national organization, $100 for a
local religious education project, $2,800 for the na
tional organization's benevolence budget, $225 for
an home, $357 for the orphans'
national building
fund, and $65 for the local federation of churches.
Gospel on a shoestring
That's how one church operates. Reads like
a pretty small business, doesn't it Actually, that
church is above the norm. On a nation-wide scale,
the average church spends only $9,181 a year to run
itself and gives $2,492 to benevolences.
And the average member gives only $30.58 a
year to his church. For America's S2y2 million church
members that's a total contribution of only 21/
billion dollars a third as much as we spend to sup
port the liquor industry, half as much as we pay
for cigarets.
And with that relatively small amount, what
does this business accomplish
It manufactures articles like peace in your soul,
homes for the aged and orphaned, sustenance for
the poor, medicine for the sick, clothing for the
naked and faith.
118
How is it that so little money can do so much
Those who work with churches will tell you that
every dollar given is trebled by donations of time
and talents by willing hands. The Lord's business
will get done,
somehow or other.
on you.
How much of it gets done and how well depends
Reprinted
by request from CHANGING TIMES
The Kiplinger Magazine, June 1951.
Tither's Corner
ANOTHER COUNTRY HEARD FROM
Our tithe reporters from across the U.S. boundry
line have come up with an interesting bit of
news on Christian giving. Covenanter ministers are
not noted for their swollen bank accounts. Many of
them, and we hope God."
all, are "rich toward
Among our people are many indeed who faith
fully contribute their tithes and offerings. We cited
an example of those who paid two tithes of their
last year's salary. We are hearing of congregations
which are making commendable efforts to do their
share and more. We hadn't heard of anyone who
has contracted the two tithe habit. Not that there
may not be many such but we do not know, and it
is not necessary that we know who they are. "The
Lord knoweth them that are His" and what they
are doing.
But we do know of one pastor and his wife who
are normally operating on the two tithe basis. Dur
ing 1952, '53 and '54 their average giving was 20
per cent of their income, and in 1955 so far, they are
on their way toward the double tithe for the fourth
consecutive year.
This report comes from the Dominion of Canada.
We are not stating who these "two tithers" are. But
if there is anyone whose curiosity bump is giving
him (or her) trouble, he (or she) may drop a line to
the Rev. and Mrs. F. F. Reade, Almonte, Canada, who
keep accounts for the folks we have in mind.
D.H.E.
BIBLE SONGS THE PSALMS IN METER
By Rev. David T. Lauderdale
The following incident concerning the old sweet
song of the Bible, the one hundred and third Psalm,
was told by that great servant of God, Dwight L.
Moody.
The Father's Pity. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him
(Psalm 103:3). A chaplain to seamen, at an Amer
ican port, visited a sailor who appeared to be near
death. He spoke kindly to the man upon the state
of his soul, and directed him to cast himself on Jesus
Christ. With an oath, the sick man bade him be
gone. The chaplain then told him that he must be
faithful to him, for if he died impenitent he would
be lost forever. The man was sullen and silent and
pretended to fall asleep. The visit was repeated
more than once with similar ill success. At length
the chaplain, suspecting that the sailor was a Scotsman,
repeated a verse of the old version of the
Psalms :
COVENANTER WITNESS