Book Description

The State of Church Giving through 2015: Understanding the Times is the 27th edition in empty tomb, inc.'s annual series.Chapters update church member giving and membership data in the U.S., including: (1) 1968-2015 data for a composite set of Protestant denominations. (2) 1921-2015 data for 11 denominations. (3) Future trends. (4) Denominational international ministries. support, 2003 through 2015 (5) Cost-per-day for various church populations to address global needs. (6) Potential giving levels for all church members, and specific groups such as Catholics in nine archdioceses. (7) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey 2015 data for charitable cash contributions, analyzed by age, region, and income levels. Chapter 8 micro-reviews five major sections of church history, and then explores current issues facing the church. In particular, the challenges of post-World War II affluence for the church are discussed. After briefly considering Augustine's and Luther's interactions with money, present-day church leaders' responses to this affluence are reviewed. The suggested solution is recovery of a larger purpose for the church, a positive agenda for the affluence. Information about closing, in Jesus' name, the "Promise Gap" -- the difference between the under-age-5 mortality rate reduction targets set by world leaders in 1990 and 2000 and actual rates in the 40 countries not on target to meet those goals as of 2015 -- is presented, including detailed tables about the causes of death in each country. Dynamics that could interfere with, and others that could strengthen, the pursuit of this larger purpose are considered.