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NEWS PROVIDED BY
empty tomb, inc.
June 15, 2021
 
CHAMPAIGN, Ill., June 15, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- The new empty tomb book finds never-before-available power for good among church people in America.

The State of Church Giving through 2018 finds that member giving to churches was 2.05% of after-tax income in 2018, far below the classic "tithe" or 10%.

For every additional percent of income church members increased toward the tithe, those members would give $69.7 billion more.
 
Church members in the U.S. are not aware of this power for good. For example, 1.2 million children under the age of five are dying each year around the globe from treatable causes readily addressed in much of the world (see Fig. 21). In a calculation from available data, empty tomb estimates it would take $16 billion a year to stop these deaths between now and 2025. If church members were to combine their donations, it would take less than one-quarter of a percent of each church member's income to provide the necessary money.

Yet the individual church member asks, "What difference would my giving make?"

And so the children continue to die.

What to do?
 
The research of empty tomb documents the existence of the affluence spread among Americans, including church members. And Mission Match is a tool designed by empty tomb to act on this hidden power for good on a scale with global need.
 
The affluence in the U.S. and the rest of the world is a relatively recent development, according to the analysis of Angus Maddison, in The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. Beginning with the year 0 A.D., only in 1820 did countries' economies begin to grow at more than 0.5% a year, and in 1870 at more than 1%.
 
Further, in the U.S., the growing affluence spread broadly after World War II. An empty tomb analysis using available data calculated that 40% of U.S. urban consumer units lived below what would have been the poverty level in 1941. By 1960, the figure was 13%.
 
Still, while most Americans are what might be called the regular rich, who now enjoy benefits of this widespread affluence — air conditioning, vehicles, the variety of foods available, travel — there are some who are the extraordinarily rich, having access to many times the 2018 average U.S. per capita income of $48,147.

And empty tomb has concluded that these extraordinarily rich people are in a position to give leadership to the regular rich toward tapping their power for good.

Back in the first century, when the disciples were faced with 5,000+ people, they told Jesus to send the crowd away. Jesus instead gave the responsibility back to them: "You feed them." The disciples protested that it would take eight months of a person's wages. Then Jesus told them to find out what they had to work with. When they presented the five loaves and two fish, Jesus expanded that resource to feed the entire group (Mark 6:30-44).

Today, the church, also referred to as the body of Christ, is supposed to carry on the work of Jesus. Unlike the disciples who traveled with Jesus who had no place to lay his head (Luke 9:58), church people in the U.S. are often the regular rich, compared to much of the world.

Yet, when faced with the 1.2 million children under age five dying each year from treatable causes, church members seem to echo the early disciples: "Are we to go and spend that much ... and give it to them ... ?" (Mark 6:37).
 
Back then, Jesus gave the original disciples the responsibility of feeding the crowd of 5,000+. Today, it's reasonable to think that this same Jesus is giving the many more and richer disciples the responsibility to heal the under-5 children. The potential is there among church members. It needs to be mobilized.
 
And empty tomb has a suggestion through its tool, Mission Match. A list of the extraordinarily rich is compiled each year in the Forbes 400. This list does not indicate whether a person considers himself or herself a disciple of Jesus. Names on the list include Warren Buffett, MacKenzie Scott, Alice Walton, Charles Koch, and Lukas Walton, among others.

A group on this list, who consider themselves disciples of Jesus and acting as venture philanthropists, could provide the leadership needed to encourage church people to take action through empty tomb's Mission Match. By providing the first-year amount of $9.412 billion, these leaders can set a direction for the 300,000+ historically Christian congregations in the U.S. When congregations match up to $8 billion of the first-year donations, 85% of the venture philanthropists' donations would be doubled and provide the needed $16 billion. In following years, the support base for the matching contributions is scheduled to expand, requiring less from the original donors.

Through Mission Match, congregations design mission projects to target one of the 22 treatable causes of death in children under five in one of 40 countries. According to empty tomb calculations, these 40 countries were not on target to help meet the 2015 target reduction goal set for reducing the global Under-5 Mortality Rate deaths. The congregations also propose the delivery channel through which they want to work, in Jesus' name, to help prevent these deaths.

At this point, each congregation can apply for up to $3,000 for their project. Once approved, the congregation raises, from those within their local church, at least an equal amount, and then the congregation spends the combined money on the project named in their application.

Churches can learn more about how to apply for these matching contributions at missionmatch.org.
 
Venture philanthropists interested in providing leadership for church members to act on their power for good on behalf of the dying children can contact empty tomb directly.

The discussion of the potential numbers appears in The State of Church Giving through 2018: What If Jesus Comes Back in 2025? (30th edition, Dec. 2020), available at Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Reference Resources:

Economic growth analysis by Angus Maddison: Angus Maddison; The World Economy, A Millennial Perspective; OECD; 2001; p. 263 accessed 5/30/2021.

Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans: "The Forbes 400: The Definitive Ranking Of The Wealthiest Americans in 2020;" edited by Kerry A. Dolan with Chase Peterson-Withorn and Jennifer Wang.

This release is the latest in the recent empty tomb series. Following is a list of the previous releases:

April 13, 2021:
Long-Term Declines in Church Giving and Membership can be Addressed

April 20, 2021:
Global Racism Means About 80% of 1.2 Million Child Deaths Are in Africa

April 27, 2021:
Progress on Reducing Global Child Deaths Shows Goals Are Reachable, New empty tomb Book Finds

May 4, 2021:
It's Chocolate AND Children, Says empty tomb®, inc.'s Mission Match®

May 11, 2021:
Whither Philanthropy? Young People Learn Giving in Church and the Church Is Weakening, empty tomb Book Finds

May 18, 2021:
New empty tomb Book Raises Question: Will 3-10 Entrepreneurial Venture Philanthropists Launch 5-Year Movement Now to Save in Jesus' Name the Lives of 1.2 Million Dying Children Under-5 Via 300,000+ Congregations in Dying U.S. Church?

May 25, 2021:
Numbers in New empty tomb Book Locate the Heart of the Dying Church's Choice: Serve God, in Jesus' Name, With Money on a Scale With Global Need — or Serve Money

June 1, 2021:
Mission Match® Seeks 10 Congregations and Three to 10 Venture Philanthropists to Help Mobilize Church in the U.S. and Counter Trends Found in empty tomb® Book

June 8, 2021:
St. Augustine and John Wesley Would Not Be Happy with Numbers in empty tomb's 30th Edition

SOURCE empty tomb, inc.

CONTACT: Sylvia Ronsvalle, 217-356-9519, research@emptytomb.org