The State of the Southeastern Conference and Seventh-day Adventists in the Church and Religious IndustryIndustry Identification“Approximately 270,000 religious congregations in the United States have revenue annual total of 80 billion dollars. Just over 50% of Americans belong to a religious congregation. In terms of membership, the most widespread faith in the United States is Catholic (around 25% of the population); Baptist (16%); Methodist (7%); Lutheran (5%); Presbyterian (3%); Pentecostal (2%); and Episcopalian (2%). Church membership statistics are notoriously unreliable.”(Hoover's 2008)“The size of individual congregations varies. Catholic congregations, on average, have 2,400 members; Jewish congregations, 1,500; Baptist congregations, 580; Methodist congregations, 300; and fundamentalist Christian congregations, 180. About 50,000 congregations have 1,000 or more members, including about 25,000 Catholic congregations. Congregations are generally limited in size due to the practical need to meet for religious services. Geographic proximity and the physical size of a church building are limiting factors, as is the desire of members to be known personally by the clergy. Many congregations can coexist in the same geographic area due to the diversity of religious beliefs in most U.S. communities.” (Hoover's 2008) This is the sector within which I find the organization of which I am a part, the Southeastern Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. This is an environmental analysis of this organization. Macroeconomic variables that affect my organization as well as internal variables that relate to these different macroeconomic variables will be discussed in this environmental analysis.External macroeconomic variables: How they affect the ChurchSocial changes: Changing member preferences.Government changes: New legislation: impact what can and cannot be predicated Economic changes Changes in real personal income: impacts on tithing Competitive changes: new competition, new products Changes in suppliers: number of ordained and licensed priests Market changes: changes influenced by technological change These are some of the macroeconomic variables that influence the sector that I am part of. I will discuss two of the most relevant macroeconomic variables for this industry and how they affect the environment of this assignment. The organization I belong to is the Southeastern Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. This is a conference of Seventh-day Adventist Churches located in the South Georgia and Florida region. The two macroeconomic factors that I believe impact this industry are economic changes. I will illustrate how the job market and how this has affected tithing within the church. Comparing the gross domestic income of each country