Baptisms @ $762,000 each
Reader Dave writes,
SteveGood challenge on Zero dollar church planting.
The Jan 2012 issue of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (IBMR) publishes the annual statistics of the "Status of Global Mission". They identify that $762,000 per year is the "cost effectiveness" per baptism, globally.
Granted, the numbers include all Christian groups of every "flavor" (para-church and denominational), but it does cause you to gasp! …and causes you to want to ask probing questions to know more…
Thanks for your good work and blog articles. And, your book, What Jesus Started, has arrived for those of us who pre-ordered.
Christmas blessings!
Dave
All we need is $762,000,000,000,000,000 to reach the next billion people.
UPDATE: Here's the direct link to the article. Look for item 55 on page 29.
UPDATE: That figure should be $762,000,000,000,000 (not $762,000,000,000,000,000) to reach the next billion people. Thanks to Fro for the correction. I feel much much better now.