Black Church Giving

Church giving is an understudied phenomenon; queries on BlackChurch giving are even rarer. In response to the latter dynamic, levels of tithing,income, and mission donations are examined based on a national sample of 1,601 Blackchurches across seven denominations using linear and ordered logit modeling. Findingsshow minimal ideological and programmatic effects. However, denominational differencessuggest that Black congregations affiliated with the Church of God in Christ have higherrelative percentages of tithers and those associated with the Presbyterian and UnitedMethodist faiths have the lowest rates as compared with their Baptist peers. Moreover,African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Presbyterian, and United Methodist churches are morelikely to have higher church incomes and mission giving than Baptists. Thus, althoughBaptists tend to generally have higher rates of church tithers, this pattern does nottranslate to higher church incomes or mission donations. As expected, church size andformally educated memberships positively influence giving patterns. Results provideimportant insights into the Black Church economic ethic