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The Numbers Are in. There’s Money for Ministry.

by Jac La Tour

April 21, 2015

…for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.
(Psalm 50:10)

Early in my walk with Jesus I heard a pastor mention this text to show that God has plenty of resources at his disposal for kingdom work. “To meet a need,” the pastor said, “all God has to do is sell one of his cattle.”

If cattle are a metaphor for money, then God has entrusted his people with huge herds. According to an infographic published by Missiographics, Christians earn most of the world’s income. In Latin America, it’s more than 90 percent of the total. In post-Christian Europe, it exceeds 75 percent.

When it comes to giving God’s cattle away, though, Christians aren’t so generous. Those in Latin America give just 1.3 percent of their income; in Europe it’s 1.7 percent.

But there’s good news in these numbers. They show that the money needed to fund ministry, including yours, is available. The challenge is helping believers see the value of selling more of God’s cattle. Here are a few ways you might use these statistics to show them:

• Use the information in the infographic to report the contrast between North American giving and giving in the region where you serve, then tell a story of how one person’s life can be transformed by investing a specific amount of money.
• Send a link to this blog to your supporters and invite them to send you creative ideas for getting more people engaged with your ministry.
• Each time you write a fundraising letter or email, include a statistic or two from the infographic with an invitation to increase the generosity percentage by joining your support team.

As you consider how to use this infographic, keep one fundraising adage in mind. Statistics don’t prompt people to give. Stories do. So always focus your fundraising communication on a story and use the stats to help tell it.

Category: Missionary Minded