STEWARDSHIP WITHIN CHRISTIANITY

WHAT CHRISTIANS EARN:

Annual Income of all Church Members: $70 trillion. [1]

WHAT CHRISTIANS GIVE:

Only 1.86% is “tithed” to any Christian causes: $1.3 trillion. [1]

“Americans have recently spent more money buying Halloween costumes for their pets than the amount given to reach the unreached.”

— Claude Hickman

HOW ARE MINISTRY DONATIONS USED:

82% goes to Home ministries of local churches (mostly Christian nations): $1 trillion [2]
12% goes to Home Evangelism in same Christian nations: $156 billion [2]
Only 6% of this “tithe” goes to general Missions: $78 billion

WHAT MISSIONS MONEY IS USED TO REACH THE UNREACHED?

Only 1.7% of “Missions Giving” goes to work among Unreached Peoples Estimated $1.32 billion (1.7% of the $78b for general “missions”) [3]
For every $100,000 that Christians make, they give $1.83 to the unreached.

“If you were in a ballroom with a fifty foot ceiling and the ceiling represented what Christians earned, you could stand two dollar bills, end to end, 12” from the floor to represent what Christians tithe. But to see how little is used for the unreached you would have to stack both bills and lay them flat. (roughly 1/2 mm). ”

— Claude Hickman

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS

If we sent mission teams of ten people to each of the 7,246 unreached people groups with an annual salary of $70,000 a year. Christians worldwide could provide all of the funds needed to reach all peoples with only 0.007% of their income ($5b). The Global Church has roughly 14,000 times the financial resources and 36,000 times the manpower needed to finish the Great Commission.
If every Christian gave $1.93 cents to frontier missions we could easily support 72,000 new missionaries.
If every Christian gave just 1% of their income to frontier mission, we could support another 10 million missionaries.

SOURCES:

[1] Gordon Conwell, 2024 Download "Status of Global Christianity

*also: International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 39, No. 1, also World Christian Database, 2015,*Barrett and Johnson. 2001. World Christian Trends, pg 656,

[2] Todd M. Johnson & Gina A. Zurlo, eds. World Christian Database. Leiden/Boston: Brill, accessed July 2017.

*see also: Todd Johnson, Global Atlas of Christianity, pg 296,

[3]. World Christian Trends Table. David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson. World Christian Trends Table 20-3, lines 23-26,44, Pasadena, Calif: William Carey Library, 2001 *Experts and authors above have determined this trend holds true today as of 2022.

QUOTES:

Just a few years ago we spent more in America on Halloween Costumes.