In The Faith - A Chronicle of the Christian Faith

In a report from the Barna Research Group, about 60% of the Christian adult population, which itself represents 38% of all adults, shared their faith with non-believers this past year.

VENTURA, CA – Evangelical Christians believe that sharing their faith is essential because of the teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (28:19-20). It is this belief in evangelism that outrages many secular people, and is often the spark behind the anti-Christian bias in the United States that seeks to keep matters of faith out of public life.

As people in the United States increasingly embrace elements of postmodern philosophy, Christian evangelism could become an endangered behavior. Despite the emphasis that postmodernism places upon tolerance and diversity of opinions, it also says that there are no absolute moral or spiritual standards that are appropriate for everyone and thus rejects aggressive evangelistic efforts as an attempt to “impose” one person’s view others.

According to a new study from the Barna Research Group of Ventura, California, there are nearly 50 million born again adults who shared their faith in Jesus Christ with non-believers during the past year. These evangelizers constitute 60% of the born again adult population, which itself represents 38% of all adults. The evangelistic efforts of this group span the gamut from street preaching and door-to-door witnessing to evangelistic conversations and counseling with personal friends

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In a typical week, evangelizers were more likely to attend church services (72% versus 52%); volunteer at their church (47% versus 28%); attend a Sunday school class (47% versus 24%); participate in a small group or cell group for spiritual purposes during the week (41% versus 22%); and read from the Bible other than while at a church service or class (74% versus 47%). Donation patterns were also notably different, resulting in a substantial gap in the average amount of money donated to their church in the past year: evangelizers gave an average of $801, which was more than three times the average among born again non-evangelizers ($250).

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Filed under: By Example