More On Where The Church's Treasure Is

Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds points out this interesting statistic:

This is a sobering statistic:

In fact, fewer than 5 percent of churchgoers actually tithe 10 percent of their income; the average, according to numbers from Empty Tomb, a Christian research group that puts out annual reports on church giving, is now 3.4 percent, or 21 percent less than what dust-bowler counterparts gave during the worst of the Great Depression. Figures show that churchgoer contributions have been cascading downward since the 1960s. Religious conservatives do give more. Problem is, they only give nominally more and other groups give next to nothing.

My emphasis. Read the whole thing.

More...

One 2007 study found 85 percent of church dollars are spent in-house, doing up the environs to snag more “seekers.” In another, Protestant pastors were asked what they would do with an unexpected financial windfall, and 31 percent said they would build a new building....

For every dollar evangelical churches now spend, they give about two cents to missions, an amazing statistic when you consider that funding missions was once paramount to evangelicals.

Something is seriously wrong. We have moved far from the mission of the Lord Jesus.