As the economic crisis grows, so do parallels between the Great Depression and today. The following excerpt from Culture 11 offers a sobering comparison:"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."
The Church has a unique opportunity in these troubled times to demonstrate the generosity of God. Now is not the time for the people of God to turn inward, or the programs of the church to retreat. Bad times can be good times for the advance of the Kingdom.
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