Are You Kidding Me?! Scary Stats and Facts.

This is a compilation of the scariest, most embarassing, most shocking statistics and information about the Church and it's affairs.  Somebody is going to have to stand before Jesus one day and explain their role in this.  We don't want it to be US - or you.  We don't quote anything haphazzardly without having good documentation and sources.  If you have stats that you think we need to hear, find the source material and email us.

Check back, sadly, we're adding more all the time! 
(Mostly from "World Christian Trends" William Carey Library,David Barrett & Todd Johnson. The summary and analysis of the annual mega-census.)\

KEY:

• World A are the 38 countries that are primarily unevangelized. <50% (1.6 Billion souls) (10/40 window - North Africa, Asia, East)
• World B are the 59 countries evangelized by not converted. >50% but <60% Christian (2.9 billion souls)
• World C are the 141 countries primarily or predominantly Christian already. >95% Evangelized and >60% Christian (2 billion souls) (What we call the "West")

Assets of the Church

• US Christians control TRILLIONS in assets while at any given time 200,000,000 Brothers and Sisters starve.
• 78 countries each have Great Commission Christians whose personal incomes exceed US$1 billion a year.

Financial Fraud in the Church

• Annual church embezzlements by top custodians exceed the entire cost of all foreign missions worldwide.  Emboldened by lax procedures, trusted church treasurers are embezzling from the
• Church $5,500,000 PER DAY.   That's $16,000,000,000 per YEAR!  That's Billion - with a "B"!  (For reference:  TOTAL Christian spending on foreign missions - $15 Billion. God forgive us!)
• Criminal penalties against clergy in sexual abuse cases now exceed $1 billion,causing a number of churches,dioceses,and denominations to be forced into bankruptcy.
• Each year 600,000 full-time ordained workers (clergy,ministers,missionaries) reach retiring age; 150,000 then discover that their employers provide no old-age pensions.

Wasteful Spending by the Church

• Most Christian bodies insist on full accountability to the last cent in finance (But not well. See above.), but ignore or even decry statistics about Christian workers and ministries.
• 95% of all church budgets in the US are spent on our own comforts and programs. Less than 1% is spent on evangelism to the most unreached.
• 40% of the church’s entire global foreign mission resources are being deployed to just 10 oversaturated countries already possessing strong citizen-run home ministries.
• More than 90% of all Christian materials are in English, but only 8% of the world speaks English.
• All costs of ministry divided by number of baptisms per year. Cost per baptism in India - $9803 per person.  Cost per baptism in the United States - $1,550,000 per person.
• Every year the churches hold a megacensus costing $1.1 billion, sending out 10 million questionnaires in 3,000 languages, which covers 180 major religious subjects.
• Christians spend more on the annual audits of their churches and agencies ($810 million) than on all their workers in the non-Christian world.
• The total cost of Christian outreach averages $330,000 for each and every newly baptized person.  (USA $1.55 Million, India $9,800)
• Non-Christian countries have been found to have 227 million Bibles in place in their midst, more than needed to serve all Christians, but poorly distributed.
• 91% of all Christian outreach/evangelism does not target non-Christians but targets other Christians in World C (>95 Evangelized, >60% Christian) countries, cities, peoples, populations, or situations.
• Each year,180 million Bibles and New Testaments are wasted - lost, destroyed, or disintegrated - due to incompetence, hostility, bad planning, or inadequate manufacture.
• Books primarily about Jesus in today’s libraries number 175,000 different titles in 500 languages, increasing by 4 newly published every day. As in all scientific research, 70% of all new Christian books and published articles will never be quoted in print by their peers, ever.

Missions and the Church

• Some 250 of the 300 largest international Christian organizations regularly mislead the Christian public by publishing demonstrably incorrect or falsified progress statistics.
• Christian triumphalism - not as pride in huge numbers, but as publicized self-congratulation - is rampant in most churches, agencies, and ministries.
• All costs of ministry divided by number of baptisms per year. Cost per baptism in India - $9803 per person.  Cost per baptism in the United States - $1,550,000 per person.
• It costs Christians 700 times more money to baptize converts in rich World C countries (Switzerland)than in poor World A countries (Nepal).
• Percent of Christian resources in countries that are already more than 60% Christian - 99.9%.  Percent spent in countries where less than half the people have EVER heard of Jesus - 0.01%.
• It is estimated that Christians worldwide spend around $8 BILLION dollars PER YEAR going to the more than 500 conferences to TALK about missions. That's more than TWICE the total spent DOING missions.
• Everywhere on Earth can now easily be targeted with at least 3 of the 45 varieties of effective evangelism.
• 818 unevangelized ethnolinguistic peoples have never been targeted by any Christian agencies ever.
• Over 20 centuries Christians have announced 1,500 global plans to evangelize the world; most failed; 250 plans focused on AD 2000 fell massively short of stated goals.
• Mainland China’s Christians have thousands of trained workers poised to begin evangelizing the world de novo (all over again) soon after AD 2000.
• Regular listeners to Christian programs over secular or religious radio/TV stations rose from 22% of the world in 1980 to 30% in 2000.
• Out of 648 million Great Commission Christians, 70% have never been told about the world's 1.6 billion unevangelized individuals.
• The 3 least cost-effective countries over 1 million in population for Christian outreach are: Japan, Switzerland, Denmark.
• The 3 most cost-effective countries over 1 million in population for Christian outreach are: Mozambique, Ethiopia, Tanzania.
• Per hour of ministry, the 5 megapeoples most responsive to Christianity, Christ, and the gospel are: Khandeshi, Awadhi, Magadhi, Bai, Berar Marathi .
• Per hour of ministry, the 5 megapeoples least responsive to Christianity, Christ, and the gospel are: Swedish, Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, Georgian .

Denominations of the Church

• Currently there are over 51,000 Christian denominations in the world.
• A huge new Christian nonconfessional megabloc,the Independents/Postdenominationalists,is growing rapidly and numbers 19% of all Christians.  These 386 million Independents in 220 countries have no interest in and no use for historic denominationalist Christianity.
• From only one million in AD 1900, Pentecostals/Charismatics/Neocharismatics have mushroomed to 524 million affiliated (with unaffiliated believers, 602 million).

Growth of the Church

• From only 3 million in AD 1500, evangelicals have grown to 648 million worldwide, 54% being Non-Whites.
  The country with the fastest Christian expansion ever is China, now at 10,000 new converts every day.

Persecution of the Church

• More than 70% of all Christians now live in countries where they are experiencing persecution. In some cases EXTREME persecution.
  14 million converted Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims have opted to remain within those religions in order to witness for Christ as active believers in Jesus as Lord.

Global Population Issues

• Despite BILLIONS of dollars spent by dozens of denominations toward over a hundred major programs to fulfill the Great Commission by the year 2000, we didn't even keep up with population growth, much less reach the 2 billion unreached.  Evidently no apologies are forthcoming for the giant waste of assets and broken promises.
• 124 million new souls begin life on Earth each year, but Christianity’s 4,000 foreign mission agencies baptize only 4 million new persons a year.
  Since AD 1900,Christian urbanites have exploded from 100 million in 500 cities to 1,160 million in 5,000 cities.

Unreached Peoples

• Out of 648 million Great Commission Christians, 70% have never been told about world’s 1.6 billion unevangelized individuals.
• There are still thousands of language groups who do not have a SINGLE page of the Bible in their language.  98.7% of people have access to scripture in 6,700 languages leaving 78 million in 6,800 languages with no access at all.
• The majority of the unreached people groups are in countries that are restricted access. Western missionaries may not even be able to get to them.
• Despite Christ’s command to evangelize, 67% of all humans from AD 30 to the present day have never even heard of his name.
• 648 million Christians today (called Great Commission Christians) are active in Christ’s world mission; 1,352 million Christians ignore this mission.
• Organized Christianity has total contact with 3,590 religions but no contact at all with 353 other religions and their over 500 million adherents.

Micro-Lending Stats

• We can help a Brother or Sister start a business in India with a loan of as little as $25.

Martyrdom

• Over the last 20 centuries, and in all 238 countries, more than 70 million Christians have been martyred - killed, executed, murdered - for Christ.
• More Christians have been martyred in the last 100 years than all others years since AD 30 combined.

Had Enough Yet?  It gets worse. 
We're stuffing the Fattest and starving the Hungriest!

KEY:

• World A are the 38 countries that are primarily unevangelized. <50% (1.6 Billion souls)
• World B are the 59 countries evangelized by not converted. >50% but <60% Christian (2.9 billion souls)
• World C are the 141 countries primarily or predominantly Christian already. >95% Evangelized and >60% Christian (2 billion souls)

Broadcasting (radio/TV) per year - total spend $5.8 Billion (100%)
World A - $6 Million (0.01%)
World B - $226 Million (3.9%)
World C - $5,568 Million (96.0%)

Finance (church/agency) per year - total spend $270 Billion (100%)
World A - $188 Million (0.01%)
World B - $1,370 Million (5.1%)
World C - $256,100 Million (94.8%)

Foreign Missions Money per year - total spend $15 Billion (100%)
World A - $250 million (1.7%)
World B - $1,750 million (11.7%)
World C - $13,000 million (86.6%)

Scripture distribution per year - total spend 4,600 million pieces (100%)
World A - 20 million (0.4%)
World B - 680 million (14.5%)
World C - 3,900 million (84.8%)

Christian Books (copies printed) per year - total spend 3.5 billion pieces (100%)
World A - 4 million (0.1%)
World B - 346 million (9.9%)
World C - 3,150 million (90.0%)

(Plus 11 other scales that all look about the same.  Tracts, Scripture languages, Literature, Periodicals, Computers, Full-time workers, Computer users, Foreign Missionaries, Home Missionaries, Lay leadership. Barrett, Page 55.)

 

Page 80 - "Where should foreign missionaries work?"

	Currently Deployed	If Deployed where UNEVANGELIZED are located
World A Countries (least evangelized)	18,000	177,000
World B Countries (evangelized, not converted)	68,000	242,000
World C Countries (mostly converted)	335,000	1,000
Total	420,000	420,000

 

Country Metrics

Canada (total population 31,147,000)
Unevangelized - 2.2%
Evangelized but non-Christian - 18.3%
Christian (of one sort or another) - 79.5%  (self-described, include Catholics)
Evangelization percent - 97.8%
Offers per person  per year - 300+
Cost effectiveness (Cost per baptism) $1,189,000

USA (total population 278,357,00)
Unevangelized - 1.5%
Evangelized but non-Christian - 13.8%
Christian (of one sort or another) - 84.7%
Evangelization percent - 98.5%
Offers per person per year - 200+
Cost effectiveness (Cost per baptism) $1,551,000

Mexico (total population 98,881,000)
Unevangelized - 0.2%
Evangelized but non-Christian - 3.5%
Christian (of one sort or another) - 96.3%
Evangelization percent - 99.8%
Offers per person  per year - 500+
Cost effectiveness (Cost per baptism) $147,100

India (total population 1,013,662,000)
Unevangelized - 40.7%
Evangelized but non-Christian - 53.1%
Christian (of one sort or another) - 6.2%
Evangelization percent - 59.3%
Offers per person  per year - < 10
Cost effectiveness (Cost per baptism) $9,800

China (total population 1,262,557,000)
Unevangelized - 35.2%
Evangelized but non-Christian - 57.7%
Christian (of one sort or another) - 7.1%
Evangelization percent - 64.8%
Offers per person  per year - < 20
Cost effectiveness (Cost per baptism) $15,800

Indonesia (total population 212,107,000)
Unevangelized - 37.2%
Evangelized but non-Christian - 49.7%
Christian (of one sort or another) - 13.1%
Evangelization percent - 62.8%
Offers per person  per year - 70
Cost effectiveness (Cost per baptism) $40,800

Afghanistan (total population 22,720,000)
Unevangelized - 70.4%
Evangelized but non-Christian - 29.6%
Christian (of one sort or another) - 0.1%
Evangelization percent - 29.7%
Offers per person  per year - 15
Cost effectiveness (Cost per baptism) $30,400

Cambodia (total population 11,168,000)
Unevangelized - 50.9%
Evangelized but non-Christian - 48.0%
Christian (of one sort or another) - 1.1%
Evangelization percent - 49.1%
Offers per person  per year - < 20
Cost effectiveness (Cost per baptism) $4,300

Bangladesh (total population 129,155,000)
Unevangelized - 42.8%
Evangelized but non-Christian - 56.5%
Christian (of one sort or another) - 0.7%
Evangelization percent - 57.2%
Offers per person  per year - < 20
Cost effectiveness (Cost per baptism) $7,200

 

"An AD 2001 reality check: 50 new facts and figures about trends and issues concerning empirical global Christianity today." (from Table 1-1 in World Christian Trends,William Carey Library,David Barrett & Todd Johnson.)