Change in giving to religious organizations and churches in 2008: +5.5 percent (a total of $106.89 billion)

Change in overall charitable giving in 2008: –2 percent (a total of $307.65 billion, the first decline in overall giving since 1987)

Jesus warned against piling up money on earth, because money comes and goes. A sad reminder of the vulnerability of money came with the June 2009 news story of an elderly woman in Israel who had hidden her life savings of one million dollars in her bed mattress. Every night she slept on one million in American dollars and Israeli shekels. She must have felt very secure with her fortune literally inches ...

Most important issues facing young adults (ages 22–28):

• Making better money management decisions: 52 percent
• Strengthening family relationships: 18 percent
• Protecting the environment: 11 percent
• Balancing work and personal life: 10 percent

Since the 1940s, the Ad Council has been the leading producer of public service announcements. Of the thousands of commercials they have produced, their work for the "Don't Almost Give" campaign has been particularly powerful.

One ad shows a man with crutches struggling to go up a flight of concrete stairs. The narrator says, "This is a man who almost learned to walk at a rehab center that almost got ...

In his Books & Culture article "A Lot of Lattés," Ron Sider reviews Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don't Give Away More Money, a book "about the pitifully small charitable donations of the richest Christians in history." Sider offers a synopsis of some of the authors' findings:

If just the "committed Christians" (defined as those who attend church at least a few times a month or profess ...

We all have various Christmas traditions. Few of us probably have a tradition quite like the Robynson family's. In his book Crazy Love, Francis Chan shares their story:

This family of five, with three kids under the age of ten, chooses to celebrate the birth of Christ in a unique way. On Christmas mornings, instead of focusing on the presents under the tree, they make pancakes, brew an urn of coffee, ...

Kurt Warner, the two-time NFL MVP quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals, started a family tradition he calls The Restaurant Game. The night before he heads out for a road game, Kurt and his wife take their seven children out to eat a family dinner. Once the Warner family is seated, one of the children will scan the dining area like a quarterback looking for potential receivers. When the Warner child ...

My wife and I refinanced our house and cashed out what was (for us) a large sum of money. I spent several weeks dreaming of ways to spend it.

It was near Christmas, and I had been studying the birth of Jesus and what it would have meant to those who heard about it first. As I was praying and prepping for the messages I would teach in the weeks of December, God brought into my mind that to take this ...

Widows and widowers in the U.S. who say they give 10 percent or more of their income to the church: 17.6 percent

Non-widowed Americans who say they give 10 percent or more: 8.6 percent

As tedious and tiresome as it can be, there's something soothing about the sound and smell of leaves as you rake, and something satisfying about seeing them all bundled up when you're done.

What is it about raking leaves that's so satisfying? It has to do with the harvest. Human beings have a primal urge to sow and reap, to gather a crop, to bundle the fruits of their labor. To a farmer, the harvest ...