On Re-Converting North American Christians

Reading this book rocked my world, and renewed my passion for finding ways of changing it.

I've finally gotten around to reading The Hole In Our Gospel, the 2009 best seller by Richard Stearns, president of World Vision. I would strongly encourage everyone to get a copy, but here are a few excerpts:

More and more, our view of the gospel has been narrowed to a simple transaction, marked by registering a decision for Christ, or coming forward during an altar call... It was about saving as many people from hell as possible--for the next life... It minimized any concern for those same people in this life. (p. 17)

For the past two thousand years, "loving our neighbors as ourselves" has meant exactly that--loving our immediate neighbors, those people we encounter daily in our communities... That one's neighbors might include those living on another continent was ludicrous until recent times. In fact the great disparity between rich nations and poor nations... largely didn't even exist... Prior to 1800, disease and inadequate health care were facts of life that affected all people. Lack of clean water and sanitation would have been virtually universal. Droughts, crop failures, famines and epidemics would have periodically devastated almost all countries. Illiteracy was common everywhere. It was the legacy of colonialism combined with the advances of the Industrial Revolution that ultimately resulted in the rapid development of some economies over another. (p. 100)

Only about 4% of all U.S. charitable giving goes to international causes of any kind. (p. 102)

If your income is $25,000 a year, you are wealthier than approximately 90 percent of the world's population. If you make $50,000 a year, you are wealthier than 99% of the world's people. (p. 215)

The average giving of American church members in 2005 was just 2.58% of their income. In 1933, at the height of the Depression, giving averaged 3.3 percent... If we look at where the money goes after it is received by churches, we find that just about 2 percent of it goes to overseas missions of any kind, whether evangelistic or to assist the poor... The bottom line is that the commitment that American Christians, the wealthiest Christians in all history, are making to the world is just about 2 percent of 2 percent--actually about five ten-thousandths of our income... about six pennies per day that we give through our churches to the rest of the world--six cents!  (p. 217) 

(Note: Newer editions of the book may have updated statistics.)

One great way to give: https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2022/08/st-augustine-bellies-of-poor-are-safer.html