Jeff Atchison to Fort Phantom Baptist Church in Abilene as pastor.

Cedric Chambers to Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Denton as pastor.

Curtis Chandler to First Baptist Church in Murchison as pastor from Parkview Baptist Church in San Saba.

Dan Connally has resigned as pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Comanche, and is available for interim pastorates and pulpit supply.

Eli Fullen to New Hope Baptist Church in Aubrey as youth minister.

Gene King to Mustang Baptist Church in Pilot Point as pastor.

Susan McClellan to First Baptist Church in Lewisville as preschool minister, where she had been coordinator.

Guillermo Salinas to Iglesia La Esperanza in George West as pastor.

Rye Taylor has resigned as pastor of First Baptist Church in Cherokee.

John Tunnell to First Baptist Church in May as interim pastor.

Personal choice

Michael R. Chancellor needs to provide tissues and crying towels with his letter.

Many people grow up in a bad environment, in poverty, with drugs, etc. But many also escape from their situation. Why is it that we Christians keep on blaming the environment for people’s sinful behavior.

Even professional athletes making millions each year still feel they have to deal drugs, kill, do drugs, etc.  It’s the choice they make!

Mick Tahaney

Port Arthur

Civil religion & U.S. customs

Thank you for including the link to the piece by the Witherspoon Institute on “Thanksgiving and the Constitution.”  It goes against the grain of strict separationists’ views.

It may be water under the bridge at this point, as our culture is becoming more secular. We may soon lose the last vestige of this civil religion. If so, we haven’t really lost much, because the gospel is our priority.

But I think this piece provides historical balance, even as the debate becomes less relevant.

David Sweet

Buda

PORT ARTHUR—Two Southeast Texas churches that split 75 years ago soon will share a common facility.

Procter Baptist Church in Port Arthur invited First Baptist Church, which sold its facility on Port Arthur’s Gulfway Drive, to share its building until First Baptist can find its own property—however long it takes.

Procter Baptist Church Pastor Rick Erwin“They have been so nice and gracious to us. I don’t know too many Baptist churches that are so nice to each other, where there’s no spirit of competition,” said Kyle Morton, pastor of First Baptist Church. “It’s one for the history books.”

When Morton arrived at First Baptist four years ago, he recognized the challenges the church faced. Located in a transitional neighborhood, the aging membership did not reflect the surrounding area. The church drew about 125 worshippers “on a great Sunday when everybody showed up at the same time” to a sanctuary that could seat 1,200.

“I had no desire to move the church,” he said. Twice before, the church considered relocation. Both times—in the 1980s and around 2000—church members decided to stay in their longtime location.

However, efforts to reach the neighborhood around the church proved unsuccessful. Attendance and finances continued to decline.

“I reached out to anybody and everybody who could help me,” said Morton, who serves on the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

He consulted with the state convention’s church architecture staff regarding facility usage and sought the counsel of other BGCT staff, fellow pastors and leaders of Golden Triangle Baptist Association.

Formed a study committee

Heeding their recommendations, Morton led the church to form a study committee to consider its options. After that committee presented its findings, the church formed a long-range planning committee to determine next steps to recommend to the congregation.

Eventually, the committees recommended selling the 70,000-square-foot building and the 6.78 acres on which it is located.

“It’s a God thing that happened,” Morton said. The motion to sell passed 55-3.

Proctor Baptist Church in Port Arthur will be host to two congregations until First Baptist Church can find a new home.Then the church experienced another “God thing,” when it placed the property on the market, he noted. When First Baptist listed its property, leaders fully expected the process to take up to 18 months, and Morton confessed he would have been happy if the church cleared $800,000.

Within three months, the church had two offers. First Baptist sold its property for $1.7 million.

But vacating the premises right away meant First Baptist needed a temporary home. Then Pastor Rick Erwin at Procter Baptist Church contacted Morton. Procter Baptist offered to let First Baptist use its facilities for worship and Bible study at mutually agreeable times on Sunday and grant First Baptist office space during the week.

“I just felt led of the Lord. We have all this room, and they didn’t need to deal with the worry of having to rent a building,” Erwin said.

First Baptist eagerly accepted and offered to pay half of the utilities for the building the two congregations would share.

A godly thing

“It was nice of them to offer, but as far as we’re concerned, if we charged them rent, then it would be a business deal, not a godly thing,” Erwin said. “We just wanted to open our doors and let them worship here.”

He noted Procter Baptist formed 75 years ago when it split from First Baptist. “And believe it or not, there are still some people here who remember that,” he said. “But the spirit and attitude is totally different now.”

While the churches will function independently, they already have shared fellowship times together.

“They even did the Baptist thing and fed us,” Morton said.

He told First Baptist’s long-range planning committee to enjoy their Christmas holiday, because he wants them to hit the ground running in January. Morton hopes the church will find suitable land to purchase within a year, and then complete the building process and relocation within another couple of years.

No rush, as far as Procter Baptist is concerned, Erwin said.

“Our people are not worried about it one bit. We welcome them with open arms,” he said. “I just wish it would be an example to others. … Churches ought to help each other.”

In 1888, visionaries started a newspaper to draw Texas Baptists together. Now, generations later, Baptist Standard Publishing still exists to inform, inspire, equip and empower people to follow Christ and expand the kingdom of God.

This month, we are celebrating the Baptist Standard’s 125th anniversary, and you are invited to celebrate with us.

Here are five ways you can help us celebrate 125 years of the Baptist Standard:

1. Send us an anniversary message. Tell us what the Baptist Standard means to you.

2. Give a tax-deductible contribution. Help us extend the legacy of the Baptist Standard by making a tax-deductible donation. Might we suggest $125 — $1 for each year of the Standard. (And if you want to add zeroes to that number, that’s fine with us!) Donors giving $125 or more will receive a thank-you gift of a Baptist Standard Publishing mug (while supplies last).

3. Read about and contemplate our history. 125 years of integrity and innovation; Editorial: Happy birthday to us; and more special anniversary coverage on baptiststandard.com in the coming week.

4. Subscribe. If you are not currently a subscriber, please pitch in to help us keep publishing news and information. A digital Baptist Standard subscription costs only $10.

5. Connect with us on social media. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

We could not have reached 125 years without the support of readers and friends like you. Thank you for celebrating this milestone with us.

Members of Oak View Baptist Church in Irving provided 2,600 Thanksgiving meals to apartment residents and also donated meals to the homeless as a part of Serving Irving, a ministry nearly two decades old. The cooking team, shown above sporting ‘fowl’ headwear, prepared turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, rolls and pie. Along with the meals, volunteers distributed Bibles and gospel tracts and received prayer requests. Members served on a variety of teams including promotion, baking, packaging, cooking and serving.

Two teams of Howard Payne University debaters traveled to Members of HPU’s student debate team who traveled to Oxford, England, are Kim Bryant, associate professor of communication; Marcos Corley, a junior from Corpus Christi; Catherine Mullaney, a senior from Boylston, Mass.; Dorie Walton, a junior from Lolita; Kaleigh Tankersley, a junior from Iraan; Jared Russell, a junior from Hillsboro; and Julie Welker, chair of the communication department, professor of communication and team coach.Oxford, England, to compete in the Oxford Inter-Varsity International Debate Tournament. Debaters included Jared Russell from Hillsboro, Kaleigh Tankersley from Iraan, Marcos Corley from Corpus Christi and Catherine Mullaney from Boylston, Mass. Dorie Walton from Lolita served as a judge for the competition. Faculty members traveling with the team were Julie Welker and Kim Bryant.

Buckner Children and Family Services will present a free foster care and adoption information meeting Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. at 5200 Buckner Boulevard, Dallas. Participants will receive an overview of foster care and adoption options in Texas, including foster-to-adopt, Waiting Texas Children and domestic infant adoption programs. Discussion will include international adoption options through Buckner’s affiliate, Dillon International. For information or a reservation to attend, email sscott@buckner.org.

Ordained

Matt Farmer to the ministry at Calvary Baptist Church in Brenham, Dec. 8.

Robert Rodriguez as a deacon at First Baptist Church in Odem, Nov. 24.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  The “Serving Irving” item was edited after it orginally was posted.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Pastor Rick Warren’s life always has been an open book.

He spread the word about how to live a Christ-centered life in his best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life.

Over the years, he and his wife, Kay, have shared heartbreaking experiences, including her battle with breast cancer and, more recently, the death of their son, Matthew, who struggled with mental illness and committed suicide in April. He was 27.

Dr. Mehmet Oz measures megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s waistline at a “Daniel Plan” forum at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. (RNS photo courtesy Toby Crabtree/Saddleback Church)

Now, in his new book, Warren, 59, founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, is trying to help people heal their health. The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life, written with doctors Mark Hyman and Daniel Amen, details a lifestyle program that helped Warren lose 65 pounds in 2011 and propelled members of his congregation to get healthier by dropping more than 250,000 pounds collectively that year.

It has five essential components: food, fitness, focus, faith and friends.

“The last two components—faith and friends—are what I call the special sauce that makes the Daniel Plan unique,” Warren said.

The program incorporates healthy eating, regular exercise, stress reduction, prayer and support from other church members in small home groups.

Warren was inspired to create the plan after he baptized more than 800 people one day in November 2010. After lowering more than 145,000 pounds of weight into the water, Warren said he thought: “Wow! Everybody’s fat!”

He concedes it wasn’t a very spiritual thought for a pastor to have, but he also thought: “I’m fat, too. I’m as out of shape as everyone else is.”

“That was the ‘aha’ moment” that started the ball rolling, “but we didn’t start the Daniel Plan right away,” he said.

He tapped three well-known doctors who all were best-selling authors—Hyman, Amen and Mehmet Oz—to help him create the plan.

‘I need to repent’

Then, in January 2011, Warren said he went in front of his congregation of 20,000 people and said, “Guys, I need to repent.”

“I told them I had gained two to three pounds a year, and I’ve been your pastor for 30 years. So, I needed to lose about 90 pounds.”

He invited them to join him. “I figured maybe a couple hundred people, but that day, 12,000 people signed up.”

Warren’s church, with eight campuses in California and several internationally, has an average weekend attendance of 22,000.

The title of the Daniel Plan comes from the first chapter of Daniel, in which the Hebrew prophet Daniel challenges the king’s official guard to test some young men to eat the king’s diet of rich food while Daniel and his three friends eat healthy fare including vegetables, Warren said.

“We just took the title from that concept. It doesn’t try to follow what Daniel ate, because the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly what he ate.”

The food portion of the plan involves eating “healthier, fresher and more natural foods,” he says. “The line we use is: ‘If it grows on a plant, it’s healthy. If it’s made in a plant, don’t eat it.’ My rule is no snacks, no sweets, no seconds.”

At 6-foot-3, Warren weighed about 295 pounds when he began following the plan in January 2011. He lost 65 pounds by eating more nutritiously and working out.

He was doing well on the program before his son died. Matthew suffered from mental illness his entire life, Warren said.

“When Kay was pregnant with Matthew, she got some kind of unusual rash or disease that left her bedridden for months. During that pregnancy, I had three fears: Is my wife going to live? Is the baby to going live? And is the baby going to be healthy? Kay lived. Matthew lived, but Matthew was not healthy. He had a tender heart and a tortured mind. He struggled with suicidal thoughts all of his life.”

Warren said he gained “about 35 pounds back in six months of grieving my son’s suicide.”

Lifestyle changes

The weight regain was tied to lifestyle changes.

“My back went out, and I wasn’t able to exercise for an extended period,” he recalled. “I didn’t feel like doing anything, and our members who are so loving were bringing us meals every night. They weren’t necessarily healthy meals. They were rich in creams and enormous portions, far more than we could possibly eat. It was comfort eating. I wasn’t making some good choices in terms of what I ate.”

Warren says he’s back to working out with a friend who is his trainer-accountability partner. “I have four different workouts so I don’t get bored”—a hiking workout, a swimming pool workout, a treadmill routine and weight-training exercises.

Co-author Amen, a psychiatrist, member of Saddleback Church and author of numerous books including Use Your Brain to Change Your Age, said, “Exercise is the fountain of youth in so many ways.” A person doesn’t need do marathons, he insists. Just walk briskly for 45 minutes four times a week and lift weights two times a week.

Warren insists one of the main reasons for the Daniel Plan’s success among church members is the support they received from their home groups.

Prayer

Prayer is another key, Warren said. “I tell people if you prayed as much as you worried, you would have a lot less to worry about.”

Some have questioned Warren’s mix of church and health, but he said: “You think that God is only interested in your soul? No, he is interested in your body, mind and soul. Jesus went into each village teaching, preaching and healing. The Daniel Plan has to do with healing.

“The Bible says, ‘God made my body; Jesus died for my body; the spirit lives in my body.’ So I had better take care of it.”

Terry Martinaz, 66, Nov. 16 in The Woodlands. A graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he served in ministry 38 years.Terry Martinaz He was minister of education at Hillcrest Park Baptist Church in Arlington, First Baptist Church in White Settlement and First Baptist Church in Madison, Miss. In 2005, he moved to The Woodlands and began work as a consultant to churches representing LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was a member of Crossroads Baptist Church in The Woodlands. He is survived by his wife, Lynda; son, Gary; and step-sister, Jan Kindlinger.

Ben Loring, Jr., 67, Nov. 16 in Saline, Mich., from complications of frontal lobe dementia. He was a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was pastor of churches in the Waco while a Baylor student and served on the staffs of First Baptist Church in Houston, the Texas Christian Life Commission, the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission and Antioch Community Church in Waco. He was pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, First Baptist Church in Lawton, Okla., First Baptist Church in Amarillo and was founding pastor of Mercy Place in Dallas, which is now Antioch Community Church. He was preceded in death by his wife, Ruth. He is survived by his son, John, and daughter, Rebekah McBride.

Baylor defeats TCU in giving and on gridiron. In an alumni-giving competition between Baylor University and Texas Christian University, 1,315 Baylor young alumni prevailed, giving more than $164,500 to their alma mater. Dubbed the I-35 Battle Royale, the competition challenged each university’s young alumni—graduates between 2003 and 2013—to make a gift to any area of their respective university during the month leading up to the Nov. 30 Baylor vs. TCU football game. Baylor reached 49 percent of the participation goal, and TCU reached 40 percent. In addition, 576 young alumni made financial gifts to Baylor for the first time. The Baylor Bears also prevailed on the gridiron, narrowly defeating the TCU Horned Frogs 41-38.

ETBU expands counseling services. Effective Jan. 6, East Texas Baptist University will expand services of its Counseling Care Center to Marshall-area residents. Since the center opened a year ago, it provided services primarily to students and university employees, with counseling care offered to community residents on a limited basis. “Our services to the community in the past had a two- to four-week wait. Now, a person should be able to receive services within 24 hours,” said Tom Haygood, ETBU associate professor of counseling. The center, located in the ETBU Mamye Jarrett Library, has been staffed by licensed professional counselors. Since ETBU now has a master of counseling program, graduate students in clinical training for licensure also will provide counseling, increasing the center’s ability to respond to community needs. A clinicial psychologist also is on staff at the center. For more information, call (903) 923-2360.

Literacy Connexus equips ESL teachers. In 2013, Literacy Connexus trainers and apprentices in the Teaching English with Excellence program equipped more than 375 people through weekend workshops. Surveys showed more than 64 percent of the trained individuals immediately put their skills to work in English-as-a-Second-Language classrooms. Teachers trained in the Teaching English with Excellence program—including those equipped in previous years—reached more than 12,000 English language-learners each week throughout the school year.

Bay Psalm Book auctioned for record price. One of the 11 surviving copies of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in English in America, fetched $14.2 million at Sotheby’s auction house in Manhattan. The bid of $12.5 million, plus fees, exceeded by more than a million dollars the $11.5 million paid for the previous record-holder, John James Audubon’s Birds of America, in 2010. “This means the world to us in terms of the continuation and the building up of our ministries in Boston,” said Nancy Taylor, senior minister of Old South Church in Boston, the seller of the book. The psalm book’s new owner is the private equity fund founder and philanthropist David Rubenstein, who called in his bid from Australia. According to Sotheby’s auctioneer David Redden, who gaveled down the sale in two and a half minutes of concerted bidding, Rubenstein, a well-known antiquities buyer and donator, intends to lend the ancient Puritan hymnal to libraries around the country, eventually putting it on long-term loan to one of them. Rubenstein edged out a $12 million dollar pre-set bid by Steve Green of Oklahoma City, scion of the billionaire family that owns the 500-store Hobby Lobby chain. The Greens had been bidding on the Bay Psalm Book in hopes of including it in a biblical museum the family plans to build just off the Washington Mall in early 2017.

Televangelist Paul Crouch dead at 79. Paul Religious brodcaster Paul CrouchCrouch, the religious broadcaster who co-founded Trinity Broadcasting Network and was known for his prosperity gospel messages and lavish lifestyle, died Nov. 30. He was 79. Crouch and his wife, Jan, started the network in a rented facility in Santa Ana, Calif., in 1973. It grew to include a “family of networks” and became the largest and most-watched Christian broadcast company in the country. Crouch was born in St. Joseph, Mo., and earned a degree in theology from Central Bible Institute and Seminary in Springfield, Mo.

Activists end immigration fast. Sapped by three weeks of a water-only diet, three activists for immigration reform ended their fasts Dec. 3 with a morsel of bread blessed by a priest and “passed the fast on” to others who hope to keep attention focused on the issue. The protesters went without food in a bid to pressure Republican House leaders to pass an immigration reform bill. In recent weeks, they attracted high-profile visitors, including President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, to the heated tents where the fasters camped on the National Mall. Now the “Fast for Families,” organized by a broad coalition of labor, immigrant and Christian groups enters a new phase as the original group of fasters begin to recover from the physical ordeal and a larger group take up the cause. An altar is set up in honor of immigrants during the “Fast for Families.”According to “Fast For Families” organizers, more than 3,000 people nationwide have pledged to fast for at least a day in the name of immigration reform. Unlike the fasters who lived in a tent without food for three weeks, most of the new fasters will keep their day jobs and decide for themselves what form the fast will take. It marks a subtle acknowledgment that the movement is shifting into low gear for a long-term fight, political analysts noted. Immigration reform stalled in Congress after the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill in June. House Speaker John Boehner has refused to put the issue on the House’s schedule this year, and many activists worry action is less likely next year as lawmakers set their sights on the midterm elections.

STEPHENVILLE—When a recent evangelistic crusade at First Baptist Church in Stephenville approached its scheduled conclusion, church leaders had no desire to let the calendar overrule what they saw as “a mighty work of the Holy Spirit.”

“The Lord was moving in such tangible, powerful ways. We knew it (the crusade) had to extend,” Pastor Ben Macklin said.

Evangelist Scott CampDuring the “Discover Joy Crusade” with evangelist Scott Camp, about 300 people made public commitments to Christ, including 135 first-time professions of faith in Jesus, in six worship services.

The crusade services each night marked the culmination of much prayer and active outreach by the church, staff and crusade team, said Danny Walker, minister of education, discipleship and missions.

A special event for various groups—men, women, children and students—preceded evening worship services. The events featured a free meal and testimonies by guest speakers from the crusade team. On average, 170 people per night attended the special events, which Macklin credited as one of the best tools to motivate church members to invite unchurched friends to the crusade.

“We really encouraged our folks for several weeks to be bold in their conversations and invitations,” he said. “We knew that if we could get them here, God would do miracles with them.”

55+ baptisms

During the crusade, 55 new Christians were baptized, and new believers have continued to baptized in the weeks since then at First Baptist.

“The impact of God’s work during the crusade hasn’t ended with the crusade,” Macklin said. “We continue to see lives being transformed through faith in Jesus Christ, and our church family sees this weekly as baptisms and testimonies continue.”

Students from Tarleton State University—including several prominent athletes—were among the number who made commitments to Christ at the crusade.

“If you knew where so many of these young men come from, you would know what a miracle this is,” TSU head basketball Coach Lonn Reismann said, as he watched 10 players from his men’s squad accept Christ one night.

Extended one more night

Although the crusade had been scheduled to end on Wednesday, Macklin invited the evangelist to extend it one more night before he had to leave for another engagement.

“Every poster, invite, newspaper ad and announcement was incorrect once we decided to extend. We had no way of letting people know the crusade was continuing. All we could do was to rely even more completely on the Spirit of God, and he did not disappoint,” Walker said.

Throughout the service, at the conclusion of prayer times, during musical worship and baptisms, the evangelist extended an invitation for anyone who wished to make a faith commitment to Christ to respond publically.

“The Spirit began to move through prayer and worship, and we never even made it to the sermon portion of the service,” Walker said.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)—When the Baptist Convention of New England received a donated old church building in Worcester, Mass., convention leaders knew exactly what they wanted to do with it.

“We were fortunate enough to have the building donated to us, and now we hope to turn it into a church planting center for training planters in the New England area,” said Tim Buehner, evangelism consultant and mission mobilization leader for the convention.

Yet the renovation remains daunting and costly, requiring everything from demolition and construction crews to painting, carpentry and masonry skills. Simply put—they can’t do it alone.

“We have a huge need and not enough resources,” Buehner said. “I’m sure we’re not the only ones with this dilemma. There are extreme needs in areas like ours all over the nation where the majority of churches are small and pastored by bivocational leaders. In places like this, you can’t do everything on your own. You need a little help.”

That’s why Buehner chose to post the convention’s need on an online volunteer opportunities map . The Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board created the tool to connect churches and associations that have needs akin to New England’s with volunteer mission teams that can help.

Identify areas of ministry

As pastors, church planters and ministry leaders identify areas of their ministry or in their community where they could use extra help, they can go online and submit their need on the map. The site allows them to be as specific as they want, including details like a summary of the project, how many teams are needed to serve and the duration of the project.

Then, as other churches throughout North America begin praying and planning for upcoming short-term mission opportunities for their congregations, they can go online and search the site for needs their team might be able to meet. The map is customized by region, with each need represented by a dot on the map. Those searching for opportunities can go online, view the needs available, pray about the opportunities and connect with a place to serve.

“The map has made connecting churches and volunteers as simple as one click,” said Susan Peugh, volunteer opportunities coordinator for NAMB. “We hope that by simplifying the connection process for both churches in need and volunteer teams looking for needs to meet, we’ll see more and more connections made and partnerships formed between churches.”

More than 300 needs already posted

More than 300 needs already are posted to the map, and more are on the way as Southern Baptist state convention leaders, church planters and missionaries from across the United States and Canada use the tool to connect and partner with other Southern Baptist churches and mission teams.

“Short-term mission teams encourage and expand the work of church planters and churches in underserved areas of North America,” said Jerry Daniel, a NAMB ministry team leader. “Often these trips will be a key factor in developing partnerships and focused prayer for cities and people groups in need. Serving together creates a deeper bond of fellowship and an opportunity to see God’s Spirit draw people to faith in Jesus.”

Lorna Bius, a missionary in NAMB’s West Region, already is encouraging church planters and leaders there to use the tool to connect with others through service and prayer.

“This is a great tool to serve as a connection point for those who want to go but don’t know where to start,” Bius noted. “Churches love to send teams out to serve and see ministry work done in a different setting. This is a great way for them to discover places and people to serve. Dots on a map become real places to pray for and ministries to partner with in the future.”

In 2014, the map will expand as new needs are posted and churches begin planning short-term trips for spring and summer breaks. Additionally, NAMB hopes to see the tool used as a part of Crossover 2014 in Baltimore prior to the Southern Baptist Convention hosted by the city.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The end of the year focuses attention on giving—not only presents on Christmas morning, but also gifts to charitable causes.

As many churches and religious nonprofit organizations make end-of-year appeals for donations, new research is expanding the meaning of “religious giving.” So, some future reports on religious giving may not square with what church finance committees count.

Members of the Soup of Success program in Elkhart County, Ind., learn job skills while packing gift baskets. A gift to Soup of Success, a food pantry and job training program run by the faith-based Church Community Services agency in Elkhart, Ind., would not be counted as religious giving before the new study. (Religion News Service file photo)The research counts motivation for giving and measures not only gifts to houses of worship, but also donations to faith-connected nonprofits that are doing secular service such as fighting poverty or offering job training for the disabled.

“Most people cite their religious commitments, but most also cite the belief that they should give to benefit others. Many people hold both these impulses at the same time,” said Shawn Landres, a co-author of the research report, “Connected to Give: Faith Communities.”

The report, released at the recent American Academy of Religion conference in Baltimore, found that in 2012:

• 63 percent of all Americans donated to some kind of cause, charity or philanthropy.

• 71 percent of those donors gave both to religious groups—including congregations—and to nonreligious organizations.

• Any given follower of one religious tradition is no more likely to give to charity than a follower of another faith. Differences in the likelihood of giving are due more to variations in household income, education and age, said Landres.

When the study looked at amounts donated overall in 2012, researchers found:

• The median amount given among all donors was $660.

• 41 percent of all household dollars donated went to religious congregations.

• 32 percent of donated dollars went to religiously identified nonprofits such as Catholic Charities or Jewish Federation or small programs such as the University Muslim Medical Association Community Clinic in Los Angeles, Landres said.

This aligns with research by sociologist Jonathan Hill of Calvin College, who studies religion and financial generosity.

Jonathan Hill, sociologist at Calvin College.“Giving is a transferable habit that happens to be cultivated in religious settings,” Hill said at the recent Society for the Scientific Study of Religion conference in Boston.

But the “Connected to Give” report also cites generosity thriving among people who claim no religious identity: 34 percent of these “nones” nonetheless give to religiously identified organizations.

Until now, most studies have defined “religious giving” as donations to religious congregations for specifically religious activities. It didn’t count as “religious giving” if you gave to a church’s soup kitchen, say, or to a combined-purpose group doing secular work such as the evangelical relief group World Vision. 

The label also wouldn’t have covered several of the projects listed in the ninth annual “Slingshot Guide”—a handbook of nonprofit programs and projects that reflect Jewish values of prayer, study and good works. It was created to appeal to young Jews who often don’t participate in traditional Jewish philanthropic institutions. 

‘Slingshot Guide’

The 2013-14 edition of the “Slingshot Guide” includes programs such as Innovation: Africa, which uses Israeli technology to bring “light, refrigerated medicine and clean water to nearly half a million Africans,” and the Sunflower Bakery in Gaithersburg, Md., where people with disabilities learn job skills baking kosher pastries.

The “Connected to Give” report was drawn from the National Study of American Religious Giving, sponsored by Jewish foundations and federations, and the philanthropy research organization Jumpstart.

Landres, who also is CEO of Jumpstart, said the research had two purposes. One was to widen the understanding of who gives, why and where they give. The second was to wedge open new sources of venture capital to groups that had been shut out because they were religiously identified.

It’s a real issue: Some major funders will not award grants to groups that they fear may proselytize or promote a specific religious view, he said.

“Not everyone is trying to spread their faith in their work. We think any group, religious or not, that can show they can get the work done and have the ability and moral obligation to do it well should be heard,” said Landres.

“Giving is personal. People give as whole individuals and should not have to check their motivations at the door,” he said. “Those who are motivated by their faith to do good in the world deserve a seat at the funding and policy tables.”