A friend on Facebook posted the article linked here. Let me give you a taste of the article here since I have learned that most people do not follow the link to the source:
“I read a 10-year-old stat estimating the global income of organized Christianity (churches, denominations and para-church ministries) hovers around $270 billion annually. I’ve read elsewhere that the yearly global income for Christian individuals (the compensation they get from having jobs) is $10 trillion. Extend the tradition of a 10 percent tithe from each of these groups toward eradicating poverty, and you’d do it in a year. We’re talking about $1,027,000,000,000…The Church could end poverty, scarcity, sickness and famine without a dime from the rest of the world.â€
Now I cannot give an enthusiastic thumbs up to everything in this article. It seems to assume the church can exist without any inherent cost. That has never been true. And will never be. But no doubt there is a lot of institutional bloat that could be popped and dropped elsewhere. It is also obvious that the author of the article’s values are in lock step with liberal politics (like equating feed people with saving endangered animals).
But I must admit that his basic point is worth considering. What impact could the church made if its members actually gave 10% of their income to the church and then the church used a lot of that money to engage in acts of mercy?
Let me follow the author’s lead and use a somewhat contrived formula to give concrete reality to what we are talking about. Let me step away from the idea of tithes and move instead to the reality of the endowments and investments the churches of the LCMS keep stored away for a rainy day. My numbers are total guesses, though made from experience. I will try to be conservative.
I am going to assume that the average LCMS church has at least $50,000 is funds that are are not being used for daily operations. Included here are endowments, LCEF investments, memorial funds, cemetery funds, etc., etc., etc.
If that is true we then need to take that $50,000 times 6,200 LCMS congregations. What is the total? 310 million dollars. And that from a tiny corner of the body of Christ known as the LCMS. What could that money do? Well, to give one example. it could feed 6.2 million children in Africa for a year. As as we are feeding, we can also be witnessing to Christ.
These numbers are a bit artificial, but the point is this. If we in this rather small church body would end our addiction to saving money for no particular purpose, we could accomplish much good. If we added regular and generous giving, we could do much more.
As I said, I cannot agree with this article in full, but there is no doubt the Church is not doing the mercy work it could be with the great wealth God has entrusted to it. And just as sad as the fact that many needs go unmet is the fact that those in need also do not have a chance to taste how good the Lord is as those needs are met by his Church.
