Tom Allen

I recently read a report from the Barna Research Institute that totally caught me off guard and blew me away. They predict that  1 out of every 5 churches in America will close permanently over the next 18 months.   There are more than 300,000 Evangelical churches in the U.S. That means that over the next year and a half,  60,000 churches will close their doors and disappear.  That's the most frightening thing I have read throughout this entire pandemic.  So, the obvious question is  WHY?  Well, the answer isn't a simple one, as several components have collided to create this dire prediction. Some of those are... FINANCES.  It's evident that it takes money to run a church and that money comes from the tithes and offerings of its members. Even before the pandemic hit, some churches were struggling financially. With the advent of COVID-19, those struggles have only multiplied. Some churches had no way to receive funding except through in-person, manual giving. With the buildi