The Finishers Project began collecting information in a database form on the web since May 2000. The total number of family units (last names) currently stands at 6613. The total number of entries is 10354 individuals including spouses. From the live database an up-to-the-minute summary of results is generated. Below is a live report.

What percentage of those that have placed their names on the Finishers Project web site indicate they live in North America or elsewhere?

People make a self-evaluation as to where they are in the process of moving into missions from a career. What are the percentages in each process stage?

This is representative of missions-minded adults in America within +/- two percentage points within each category. About 1 in 12 are ready to decide which organization to join. However, most are exploring, open to be persuaded that personal involvement in the missions enterprise is a good life-choice for them. The Finishers Project is specifically designed to move people along from the early stages, so this profile should not be surprising.

What percentage in each age bracket have placed their names on the Finishers Project web site indicating they are willing to consider options and opportunities in missions?

Over 50% are in the boomer generation. About 35% are Gen-Xers and the Millenial Generation is approaching 10%. The older Builder Generation is not well represented on-line or in this database.

Overall how do people rank their financial situation?
How do those in the boomer generation rank themselves?
What about the buster (Gen-X) generation?

Not surprisingly, there is a difference in the financial positions of the generations. Overall about 1 in 3 can self-fund. Slightly over 4 in 10 boomers and nearly 3 in 10 Gen-Xers indicate they can be self-funded. The majority of these need to raise some travel and overhead funds. Another 4 in 10 need to raise support in the conventional missionary manner in both generations. Of these about half the boomers have their retirement funded. Another 2 in 10 in the boomer generation, 3 in 10 for Gen-Xers indicate they require a salary, if the "in debt" category is included. It is likely this is not representative of the general population. It seems mission-minded people tend to be better off financially.

Overall how does divorce affect the financial situation?

Of these mission-minded people, 29 percent report having been divorced. This is lower than the general population. Unexpectedly, perhaps, divorce is not much of a factor in the financial situation of this segment of the population.

On the web site people are asked about the length of time they may be willing to serve. Below is the summary of those statistics:

About 4 in 10 indicate an interest in moving into missions full-time from their careers. The options of Part-time, Part of a year and summer are considered by about 2 in 10 that place their personal profile at the Finishers Project. If you concede the 6 mos — 2 year option "full-time" for that period, over half that enter their profiles on the Finishers Project web site are considering fully committing themselves to the global missions effort.

Notice that over half have indicated they are "Not Sure" as to the length of service to which are willing to commit. Most are open to a compelling challenge for a career switch. (The percents add up to over 100 as this is a multiple choice category.)

People are permitted to indicate where in the world they might have a preference to serve. On the Finishers Project web site they are allowed to make more than one choice. However the percentages are based on the number of people not the number of choices, so the percentages add up to over 100%.

Over half of those indicating a willingness to serve in missions indicate No Preference for geographic location. This accurately reflects previous findings that people are more interested in joining God and offering their skills than in what agency they join or where they serve.

The North America choice is a little different. Over 1 in 5 indicated they will only take North American assignments. About 1 in 3 indicate interest in serving in either Central or South America. Nearly 1 in 6 indicate a preference for Western Europe. The remaining indicate preferences somewhat evenly spread out over the rest of the earth.

Note: The percentages add to over 100% because people can indicate multiple geographical preferences.



Languages

People are requested to indicate what languages they know. They are allowed to make more than one choice. The totals are based on the number of languages checked, not the number of people that know these languages. The total number of entries in the database is 6613. Of these 6288 report living in the US or Canada and 325 live outside North America.