Sermon Illustration

World Bank Generates Reports that Nobody Reads

The World Bank, an international organization that provides loans to developing countries, considers informing public debate a part of its mission. With that goal in mind, every year the World Bank publishes hundreds of well-researched reports like "Why Don't Remittances Appear to Affect Growth?"

Shockingly, the World Bank ran a little self-assessment and discovered that almost no one is reading these fascinating-sounding reports. As a matter of fact, nearly one-third of the World Bank's 1,611 policy reports have never been downloaded, not even once. "As each report costs an average of $180,000 in terms of researchers' time and other expenses, a ballpark estimate of the amount of money spent researching and writing reports that did not merit a single download is $93 million."

Possible Preaching Angle:

That's a lot of time and money to communicate absolutely nothing beyond your own institutional walls. Sure hope the church isn't doing something similar.

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