Stewardship Web Links
The following quotes and statements can be used within
your sermons to help people become more aware of the importance of church
stewardship.
General Economic and Demographic Facts
We are in an accelerating world:
General Giving Trends
Families
Children and Youth
Pastors
Churches
Retirement
General Economic and Demographic Facts
We are in an accelerating world:
- In 1800 there were one billion people; in 1930, two billion;
1960, three billion; 1975, four billion; 1987, five billion; and 1998,
six billion.
- Life expectancy worldwide was 21 years at the time of Christ;
48 years in 1955; and 65 years in 1995. This is expected to rise to
85 years by 2050.
- Global food production has tripled since World War II,
outpacing even population growth.
- We use seven times as much water as in 1900.
- Paper consumption per capita in the United States tripled
from 1940 to 1980, and tripled again in the next ten years (to 1,800
pounds).
- There are 62,000 new book titles and new editions each
year.
- In 1960, the average CEO traveled 12,000 miles a year.
Today, the average CEO travels 113,000 miles a year.
- The Physician Desk Reference (PDR) had 300 pages when it
first came out in 1948; fifty years later it has 3,000 pages.
- In 1978 the average grocery store had 11,000 products;
now it has 30,000 products.
- There are 550 different kinds of coffee, 250 different
kinds of toothpaste, and 175 different kinds of salad dressing.
(From: Hurtling Toward Oblivion, Richard A. Swenson, M.D., 1999)
- Americans on average now work more hours each year (1,966)
than people in any other industrialized nation—382 hours, or the
equivalent of more than nine work weeks, more than Europeans.
(From: A Geneva-based International Labor Organization)
- While we were all busy working 60-hour weeks, a few sociologists
were trying to map out just what those weeks were doing to our souls.
Mental health and well-being are "negatively associated with a
strong investment in materialistic goals.
(Says Richard Ryan, a psychology professor at the University of Rochester)
- &147;The more we seek satisfactions in material goods," "the
less we find them there.&148;
- Jim Wallis, editor of Soujourners magazine and convener
of Call to Renewal, a national movement to overcome poverty, notes
that 1 in 6 children in America continues to live in poverty, compared
to 1 in 50 in Sweden, 1 in 20 in Germany and 1 in 12 in Great Britain.
Adds Wallis: the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen in
America, where CEOs have seen a 540 percent increase in their salaries
in the same amount of time the average workers’ wages have grown
32 percent.
- Wesley suggested in his sermon, "Use of Money" that
Christians should gain all they can, save all they can and give all
they can. Today, according to "The State of Working America," a
report published every other year by the Economic Policy Institute
in Washington, D.C. today’s family has reinterpreted gain, save,
give to earn, spend, owe with debt increasing faster than the general
economy.
- The Wall Street Journal reports that from 1983 through
1992 personal bankruptcies hit a new record every year. From 1992 to
1995, the rate leveled increases again led to one million personal
bankruptcies in 1996, 1.35 million in 1997, and 1.4 million in 1998.
This was 8 times the rate during the Great Depression. 70% of those
were "Chapter 7" (no assets) with credit card debt averaging
90% of total income. Studies from the Universities of Texas and Pennsylvania
noted that the typical bankruptcy involved a well-educated, middle
class baby boomer with large credit card debt.
- According to Newsweek, between 1995 and 1998 over one million
new millionaires were created; yet 61% of Americans said they have
missed the boom, and 72% felt more social pressure to keep up.
- 25% of the people who earn more than $100,000 annually
said they need to earn more to afford life’s necessities. Money
Magazine, December 2000.
- In The Millionaire Next Door, researchers Thomas Stanley
and William Danko described today’s millionaires as people who
live well below their means, drive used cars, buy suits off the rack
at J.C. Penney’s shop for bargains, are not driven to spend their
income to create an image or personal identify, did not inherit their
wealth, and live next door to people with a fraction of their wealth.
- Harvard University economist Juliet Schor also found that
for every hour of television watched per week annual spending increased
$208.
- In 1996, this is how we spent money in American (in billions of dollars):
2.5 world missions
Ronsvalle and Ronsvalle, Behind the Stained Glass Window
25 gardening
2.5 chewing gum
31 tobacco products
8 movies
34 state lotteries
14 cosmetics
49 soft drinks
21 pet food
58 Alcoholic beverages
22 hunting
24 eating out ($842 per person in the US)
- Howard Dayton of Crown Ministries, Inc. calculates that Americans now spend more money each year on gambling than they do on groceries and that the average church member spends an average of $20 a year on foreign missions while the average American gambles $1,174 a year.
General Giving Trends
- In 1933 at the height of the Great Depression, the average
household’s giving was 3.3% of income, and giving stayed at that
level until 1954. From 1955 until 1996, during the greatest explosion
of discretionary income in history, giving dropped to 2.58%. United
Methodists gave 2.11% in 1996, ahead of Christian Scientists, Unitarians,
and Episcopalians.
Hoge, McNamara, Zech, Plain Talk about churches and Money
- In Louisiana in 1998, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy,
1,847,098 tax returns were filed with an average income of $34,828.
Only 17.3% of the returns were itemized and only 15.3% itemized charitable
contributions. The charitable contributions represented only 1.6% of
the income.
- Church giving as a percentage of income has declined for
27 consecutive years, according to Empty Tomb.
- Church endowments have a positive effect on regular giving
in mainline churches, according to Loren Mead, and specifically in
Methodist congregations according to Charles Zech.
- Giving USA 2000 reports that total charitable giving in
1999 reached $190 billion, an increase of more than $15 billion from
1998. Individuals and bequests continue to make up most of that giving
(more than $159 billion), with corporations contributing $11 billion
and foundations donating nearly $20 billion. Who was on the receiving
end of all that generosity? Religious organization received 43 percent
of it; health organizations, nearly 18 percent; and education charities,
14 percent. Perhaps most important, total giving in 1999 represented
2.1 percent of the gross domestic product, the first time giving has
been so high as a percentage of GDP since 1971.
- In 1998 there were 733,790 non-profits which is a 64% increase
since 1988.
- According to Percepts Data for the Louisiana Annual Conference,
27% of families identify stress as the top spiritual/personal need.
Over 47% identify financial security as their greatest hope. Over 31%
say financial worries are second only to health. 61% give less than
$500 a year to church and only 17% give more than $1,000.
- According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, in 1999 11% of Americans have already earmarked money for charity in their wills or other planned gifts. (Only 6% had done this in 1992.) One of 4 families is considering such charitable bequests or gifts. 34% learned of such gifts through published materials and 51% learned of such gifts through financial advisors.
Families
- 8 of 10 spend more than they make.
- 7 of 10 will live in debts, retire in debt and die in debt.
- 65% plus of married households now require two incomes.
- 9 of 10 leave the family vulnerable and ill equipped at
death.
- Only 2 of 100 are prepared for the legal, ethical and financial.
- 9 of 10 have no consistent savings program.
- There are few plans clearly defined for funding retirement,
education or an emergency.
- In 95% of the homes, a three month income interruption
would mean certain panic before the fourth month arrived. A six month
income interruption would find many dependent on other family, the
church or government programs.
- The current average consumer debt now exceeds what the
previous generation owed for their residence. Debt dependency is a
way of life with balances growing annually.
According to: Family Business Centre, Inc.
Children and Youth
- In 1996, children in grades 1-6 spent an average of $423,
and teenagers in grades 7-12 spent an average of over $3,400 a year.
Comparatively, 50% of the world’s population live on less than
$300 a year and 85% live on less than $1,000 a year.
- According to a 3 year study by the General Board of Discipleship,
in 2006 we ill experience a new youth boom large than the youth boom
of the late 1960s and 1970s. They will have been born between 1982-1999
and will be larger than the baby boomers. They will set trends for
the next 20 years.
- 30% born outside of marriage, but 12% marry the father
after child is born.
- By the time the youngest Millennial reaches 18, 35% will
have gone through a parent’s divorce.
- Family is defined by relationships vs. biology.
Pastors
- Many feel that they are adjunctive to the financial process
and that money is not a core spiritual value.
- 85% are untrained in the theology of stewardship and have no books in their libraries on Christian stewardship, money, or giving.
Churches
- 90% have no stewardship plan.
- One-third of churches are underfunded.
- Since 1970 churches have experienced increased staff (fixed
expense). One contributing cause is the declining size of a volunteer
base of women with 74% of women now working outside the home. The ratio
of staff to members has almost doubled since 1970 from 5:1000 to 9.5:1000.
- Only one-third to one-half of church members financially support their church.
Retirement
- Retirement is a relatively new concept in human history
with no Biblical basis or precedent.
- 40% of retirees say transition into retirement was difficult.
This compared to 12% of newly married adults who said that transition
to marriage was difficult and 23% of new parents expressing difficulty
with transition to parenting.
- Age 65 isn’t old. When social security was created,
the average life expectancy was 63 years. Now it is 75, and it is projected
to be 81 by 2040.
- Leisure is not more fulfilling than work; one third of
male retirees return to work within one year of retirement.
- Older people do not need to make room for the next generation;
there are fewer workers available.
According to: Pollan, Die Broke - 90% of Americans plan to keep working after retirement
with 68% not needing the income. 23% of retired Americans 65-69 already
work and 13% of retired Americans 70-74 work. By 2008 older workers’ income
will increase three times faster than younger workers with a 15% increase
in ages 25-44 and 48% in ages 55 and over.
According to Money, November 2000.
