Churches with leaner staffing costs had a larger percentage of their budget directed toward “ministry beyond one’s own congregation” such as missions and community outreach.

With churches looking for ways to cut back on expenses, Leadership Network partnered with Your Church magazine and Leadership Journal to find out whether it’s possible to do ministry with “lean staffing.”

The good news: it is possible, said Warren Bird, research director at Leadership Network. In fact, 1 out of 7 churches are already there!

Churches, on average in the U.S., spend nearly half their budget on staffing.

The survey is intended to help churches determine ways to move toward a leaner staffing approach.

“We know churches right now are thinking a lot about the economy and taking a hard look at their budgets,” said Matt Branaugh, editor of Your Church magazine. “Personnel costs obviously being such a big expenditure and most likely the biggest, it seemed like this would be a good time for them to assess what their spending and assess those staffing strategies.”

Though the survey, released Wednesday, did not go into depth on how churches actually are able to work with a lean staff, the researchers sought to provide an initial picture and possibly a conversation starter for churches reevaluating their budgets.

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