Statistics on giving are startling: Those who give the most usually have the least to give. Committed Christians with yearly household incomes of less than $12,500 give away approximately 7 percent of that*—while all church members on average give just over 2 percent.**

And what do churches do with this 2 percent? We spend it mostly on ourselves. Only about 2 percent of the 2 percent we give goes to overseas missions of any kind** (see chapter 19, “Two Percent of Two Percent”).

I am encouraged that many of us are increasingly frustrated about this. In last week’s blog responses, Pastor Ray wrote that he’s “been waiting a long time to find evangelicals who truly believe reaching out to the poor” is a priority. Dave wrote that the book “created a healthy sense of ‘cognitive dissonance’ “ with the current priorities at his church. That’s what I was hoping for, because that’s what God keeps doing in me.

My own nest egg has dropped about 50 percent due to the stock market. When my wife, Reneé, and I sat down recently to make our tithing commitments, she wanted us to give more because of the tough times facing churches, organizations, and missionaries. I balked, reminding her how much we had lost and that we would have two kids in college next year. She reminded me of what I had written in my book (chapter 25, “Time, Talent, and Treasure”) and essentially told me to “man up” and get out the checkbook. She was right, and I did.

In Mark 12, Jesus notices the rich giving “large amounts” to the temple, then sees the widow give “two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.” He calls over his disciples to make the point: Do we give our excess, or do we give in sacrifice? Two millennia later, the same question applies: Do you think we—and our churches—are committed to giving, even when it hurts? In the midst of the greatest economic turmoil since the Great Depression, we’re about to find out.

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“No more lies, no more pretense,” says Paul (Ephesians 4:25, The Message). He goes on, “Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all.” With this book, I want to tell the truth. For years I was caught up with the American dream. I had put aside the truth: that serving the poor is not a calling reserved for a subcategory of Christians, or churches with the poor in their congregations.

This past week, I was honored to speak at the Colorado chapter of Women of Vision at our World Vision Storehouse in Denver. Many of their questions centered on how I knew that God was calling me to serve the poor. The answer took a while for me to embrace wholeheartedly (see chapter 2, “A Coward for God”). The answer is that the Bible, the source of truth, says to “look after orphans and widows in their distress” as well as to “keep oneself from becoming polluted by the world.” (James 1:27, NIV). Our faith is more than a personal transaction with God. The truth is that serving the poor is a calling for all of us.

And yet this calling is also complex: in God’s grace, he gifts us to answer this call in a variety of ways. I’ve been touched by your comments on this blog – from Pastor Manuel praying for church planting in Bangladesh to dear Florence praying for strength as she serves in inner city St. Louis. How has God opened your eyes to the truth that we are all called to care—really care, and that means to act—for the poor? How has his grace gifted you to do that?

I’ll be signing books this Thursday at a Family Christian Bookstore in Plano, Texas and also at The Christian Book Expo in Dallas. The details are on their websites.  If you’re near, please come by.