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]
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.
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.
ALL MISSIONARIES
- All Missionaries in the World (Catholic, Protestant, etc.): 445,000 foreign missionaries [1]
- Missionaries in the Reached World : 343,000 foreign missionaries (77%) [estimated]
- Missionaries in the Unevangelized : 86,000 foreign missionaries (19%) [estimated]
- Missionaries in the Unreached : estimated 15,000 foreign missionaries (3.4%) [2]
30:1
“Roughly thirty-times as many missionaries go to Reached people groups to work with Christians, as go to Unreached People Groups. Far less go to the Frontier People Groups, where there are as yet no believers. – R.W. Lewis [3]
CHRISTIAN WORKERS
- Full time Christian Nationals Workers: 13.5 million workers [1]
MORE MISSIONS OBSERVATIONS
- Only 1 of every 174,463 Christians goes as a missionary to the Unreached.
- Only 1 of every 41,707 Protestant Christians goes as a missionary to the Unreached.
- There are 57,053 Evangelical Christians for every one unreached people group.
- Young people have traditionally led the way in going and there are roughly 21 million university students (2014).
SOURCES
[1] Center for Study of Global Christianity, Gordon Conwell 2024 Status update, See also World Christian Database, 2015,*Barrett and Johnson. 2001. World Christian Trends, pg 656
[2] *15,000 is the latest number for 2024, See also Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Zurlo, eds., World Christian Database(Leiden/Boston: Brill, accessed January 2022
[3] 2018, [R.W. Lewis Quote] International Journal of Frontier Mission, Clarifying the Remaining Frontier Mission Task, by R. W. Lewis, issue 35:4 Winter 2018, p164
See also Atlas of Global Christianity 2009. And 2001, Deployment of Missionaries