WASHINGTON -- Churches can expect less in the offering plate this Christmas, according to experts who cite 6 percent unemployment and sinking investment income as donation deterrents.

Many churches and parachurch ministries finished November at 10 percent to 20 percent below the usual level for the year to date, according to a report in USA Today.

"The word you hear everywhere is ‘cutbacks,'" said Jerry Butler, executive director of the Willow Creek Association, a national network of 4,800 evangelical mega-churches.

"Churches will cut activities and programs, maybe give fewer youth camp scholarships," Butler said. "They will cut equipment. The last thing they will cut is staff."

Butler's home church, 20,000-member Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago, saw the crunch coming early in 2002 and cut 30 people from a staff of 550, according to the report.

The Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco said a drop in donations impacts ministry. Glide, which has 3,000 in regular worship attendance, is down 45 percent in donations compared to this time last year.

The church could be forced to cut back on the 1.2 million meals it serves to the poor each year, Williams said.

"We're doing triage on what really matters," he said. "We served 7,000 people at our Thanksgiving dinner, more than ever before. We are here to serve the Lord and serve the poor. In a bad economy, we are touching the lives of people with no economy."