The level of activity in US churches when it comes to monetary giving and displaying care for others in need is "lukewarm", authors of a new report state.
And being lukewarm can lead to churches being "spit out" of Jesus' mouth, they warn.
"The State of Church Giving through 2006: Global Triage, MDG 4, and Unreached People Groups" document published by Empty Tomb Inc on Wednesday evaluated members' contributions to churches from 1968 through 2006 and the allocation of church funds to overseas mission work and urgent global needs.
A survey of a group of 34 Protestant denominations found that, on average, two cents of each dollar donated to their affiliated congregations in 2006 funded international missions through the denominations - a level of support for overseas missions that was lower than that in the 1920s.
The report also showed that the portion of income members contributed to their church decreased from 3.11 per cent in 1968 to 2.55 per cent in 2006, a decline of 18 per cent from the 1968 base.
Furthermore, the total portion of per capita income given to churches in 2006 was lower than in the worst year of the Great Depression.
If members contributed only a few more cents per day, the report notes, churches in the US could engage every "unreached" people group and stop up to two-thirds of global under-five child deaths.
Only $26 a year per evangelical Christian is required to fund over $544 million in efforts toward global evangelisation, the report estimates. The estimated cost to stop global deaths of children under five years old is $239 per evangelical Christian, or $5 billion in total.
