It has been said that God’s people possess enough of God’s provision to accomplish and fulfill God’s purposes in the world. Indeed, according to Christian financial advisor Ron Blue, “Eighty percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America—and the total represents way more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission.” Think about this statement as you consider the following statistics.

The World’s Great Spiritual and Material Poverty

1. A majority of people alive today do not know the Savior. This includes 1.19 billion Muslims, 811 million Hindus, 360 million Buddhists, 228 million ethno-religionists, 23 million Sikhs, 14 million Jews, 768 million agnostics, and 150 million atheists.
2. About 1.6 billion people have never heard the life-saving good news in this sentence: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” John 3:16.
3. More than 1 billion people live in absolute poverty. This includes 700 million people living in slums, 500 million people on the verge of starvation, 93 million beggars, and 200 million children exploited for labor.

The Church’s Unprecedented Growth

1. The church has grown more in the 20th century than in all the previous 19 centuries since the time of Christ combined, with almost 2 billion adherents worldwide.
2. Every day 166,000 people hear the good news of Jesus Christ for the first time.
3. Every year, 27 million people profess faith in Christ as Savior for the first time.
4. The current ranks of 81 million believers in China are expected to swell to 135 million by 2025. The 50 million faithful in India could mushroom to 125 million by 2050. And today’s census of 90 million Christians in Africa is likely to explode to 1 billion in 2050.
5. Evangelical Christians comprise an estimated 35% of the U.S. population, or about 100 million people.

The Church’s Great Storehouse of Wealth

1. In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion in income.
2. Total Christian [including nominal] income in the United States is $5.2 trillion annually, nearly half of the world’s total Christian income.
3. Worldwide, Great Commission Christians have personal income totaling $6.8 trillion a year.
4. Over the next 50 years, between $41 trillion and $136 trillion will pass from older Americans to younger generations, suggesting that roughly $1 trillion to $3 trillion in wealth will change hands every year.

The Church’s Squandering of Resources

1. In 2000, nearly 97% of the entire income of all Christian organizations was spent on, and primarily benefited, other Christians at home or abroad: $261 billion spent on ministering to Christians, $7.8 billion on already-evangelized non-Christians, and $810 million on unevangelized non-Christians.
2. The average donation by adults who attend U.S. Protestant churches is only about $17 a week.
3. Among church members of 11 primary Protestant denominations (or their historical antecedents) in the United States and Canada, per-member giving as a percentage of income was lower in 2000 than in either 1921 or 1933.
4. In 1921, per-member giving as a percentage of income was 2.9%. In 1933, at the depth of the Great Depression, per-member giving grew to 3.3%. By 2000, after a half-century of unprecedented prosperity, giving had fallen to 2.6%.
5. Overall, only 3-5% of Americans who donate money to a church tithe (give a tenth of) their incomes though many more claim to do so.
6. 33% of U.S. born-again Christians say it is impossible for them to get ahead in life because of the financial debt they have incurred.

Faith and Generosity Are Linked

1. Among evangelicals, almost $.90 of every donated $1 goes to their churches. The proportion drops, however, as people’s spiritual intensity and commitment to Christ decline.
2. In 2001 American evangelicals gave a average of $3,601 per capita to nonprofit organizations, which is high when compared to other demographic groups.
3. From 1968 to 2000, members of U.S. evangelical Protestant denominations gave larger dollar amounts and larger portions of income to their churches than did members of mainline Protestant denominations.
4. In 2001, American evangelicals gave 4x as much, per person, to churches as did all other church donors in 2001.
5. 88% of evangelicals and 73% of all Protestants donated to churches.

The Potential for Funding the Harvest

1. If members of historically Christian churches in the United States had raised their giving to the Old Testament’s minimum standard of giving (10% of income) in 2000, an additional $139 billion a year would become available.
2. 80% of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America and the total represents way more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Copied from, http://www.epm.org/resources/2003/Jan/01/key-statistics-generous-giving/

SUMMARY: GIVING IS A HEART ISSUE, NOT A MONEY ISSUE

Stats like those above can invoke guilt, which isn’t really the point. The larger point is what would happen if believers were to increase their giving to a minimum of, let’s say, 10%. There would be an additional $165 billion for churches to use and distribute. The global impact would be phenomenal. Here’s just a few things the Church could do with the kind of money: 

1. $25 billion could relieve global hunger, starvation and deaths from preventable diseases in five years.
2. $12 billion could eliminate illiteracy in five years.
3. $15 billion could solve the world’s water and sanitation issues, specifically at places in the world where 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day.
4. $1 billion could fully fund all overseas mission work.
5. $100 – $110 billion would still be left over for additional ministry expansion.

Copied from, http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/what-would-happen-if-church-tithed