In news that shouldn’t come as a surprise considering Barna’s recent survey about “The Great Commission,” Barna found that Christians are not sharing their faith anywhere near as much as they used to.
Twenty-five years ago, Barna and Lutheran Hour Ministries joined together to try to figure out why Christians weren’t doing “intentional outreach.” This latest Barna report is a follow-up and comparison to the 1993 answers Barna received.
In 1993, 89 percent of Christians agreed that “Every Christians has responsibility to share their faith.” Now, it is 64 percent. Equaling telling, in 1993, only 10 percent of respondents agreed that the local church has the sole responsibility for converting people to Christianity. Today, that number is almost 30 percent.
People have also changed their approaches to sharing their faith, as well as what they say what they do. In 1993, the most popular tactic was to talk about the way you’d changed and the benefits of accepting Jesus into your life. Today, the most popular was to ask questions about the person’s beliefs and experiences and share about your own.
These changes in just the last 25 years are telling about the future of Christianity in America.
You can read the full study here.
