Contrary to much of the evangelical media hype on the secularization of America, we live in a very God-conscious country. Barna found that 7% of the unchurched plan to visit a church this year.(1) Another 33 percent say they would consider returning to church. They are waiting for a friend to ask or for a top quality and interesting offering from a church.
Forty percent of the unchurched population are open to returning to church this year! Two thirds of the unchurched said religion was either very important or somewhat important to them.(2) Most unchurched have attended church regularly in the past. "Eighty five percent of all unchurched adults have had a prolonged period of time during which they consistently attended a church."(3)
Who are these people?
William Hendricks interviewed several of them and told their stories in the must-read book, Exit Interviews (Moody, 1993).
Here is what he found out about those who have left the church:(4)
• They are not saying they want to leave the faith.
• They are not saying they want to leave the church.
I say it again: we live in a culture radically exposed to Christianity and interested in God. Evangelism ought to be shooting fish in a barrel.
Two questions:
• Why aren't we reaching them?
• What can we do about it?
The answer to the first question is as easy as it is unsettling. People came looking for God in our churches and didn't find him. Three-fourths of unchurched Americans describe having a meaningful relationship with God as either very important or somewhat important.(5)
Yet, two-thirds of people who attend church say they do not experience God in their worship services on a regular basis.(6) "What they typically get is an experience with people who talk about and hope to interact with God."(7) It is not that they are not interested. They have come asking. We have failed to deliver. We are like a restaurant where hungry people came looking for food and walked away frustrated and still hungry.
____________________________________
1. George Barna, Evangelism that Works (Ventura, California: Regal, 1995), p. 68.
2. Ibid, page 52.
3. Ibid, page 50.
4. William Hendricks, Exit Interviews, (Chicago: Moody, 1993), p. 258.
5. George Barna, Evangelism that Works (Ventura, California: Regal, 1995), page 57.
6. Ibid, page 58.
7. Ibid, page 58.
The Boomer Blogger
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Every time I read these things I am stunned at the simplicity of reaching the unchurched. Yet, it is rare to find a place where God is experienced.
Gary,
The problem has been we have turned evangelism into a program instead of the result of a relationship.
We have used the 4 spiritual laws, Romans Road, 5 steps and every other gimmick from seminar after seminar.
We have tried to get people to accept Jesus into their lives by trying to force an intellectual decision.
We have not understood that relationships create the atmosphere within which a perfectly natural movement toward the Lord can take place.
Instead of a slick impersonal approach to evangelism, we must become aware that the best tool we can have to bring people
into the Kingdom is a home baked cherry pie taken to a neighbor
Post a Comment