A new study shows that while a majority of unchurched Americans are turned off by the institutional church and don’t have a biblical understanding about God and Jesus, they believe Jesus makes a positive difference in a person’s life and would enjoy an honest discussion with friends about spiritual matters.
The study, conducted by LifeWay Research in partnership with the North American Mission Board’s Center for Missional Research, polled 1,402 adults who had not attended a religious service at a church, synagogue or mosque in the previous six months.
The findings have important implications for Christian churches and individuals who want to effectively reach unchurched people, said LifeWay Research Director Ed Stetzer.
“A full 72 percent of the people interviewed said they think the church ‘is full of hypocrites,’” Stetzer said. “At the same time, however, 71 percent of the respondents said they believe Jesus ‘makes a positive difference in a person’s life’ and 78 percent said they would ‘be willing to listen’ to someone who wanted to share what they believed about Christianity.”
The study found many unchurched people don’t have a biblical understanding about God and Jesus.
“While 72 percent of those surveyed said they believe God — a higher or supreme being — actually exists, only 48 percent agree there is only one God as described in the Bible, and 61 percent believe ‘[t]he God of the Bible is no different from the gods or spiritual beings depicted by world religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.,’” said Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research. “At the same time, 66 percent of adults ages 18–29 agree that Jesus died and came back to life, compared to 54 percent of adults 30 years and older.”
It’s not surprising that people who don’t attend church don’t understand what the Bible teaches, McConnell added.
“If you aren’t going to church, you don’t have an opportunity to be informed about what the Bible teaches or what other faiths teach,” he said. “It’s not surprising then that unchurched people lump world religions all together and consider the gods described in them as being the same.”
While the study found a real openness to hearing about matters of faith, Stetzer said it also clearly documents “[i]t’s very much a generic ‘big guy in the sky’ view of God and a ‘you believe what you believe, I believe what I believe’ viewpoint on theology.”
The negative perception for many people, however, seems to be the church, not Jesus Himself, according to the study.
While 64 percent of the respondents think “[t]he Christian religion is a relevant and viable religion for today,” 79 percent think Christianity “is more about organized religion than about loving God and loving people.” Seventy-two percent said they think the church “is full of hypocrites, people who criticize others for doing the same things they do themselves,” and 86 percent believe they “can have a good relationship with God without being involved in church.”
“Unchurched people do not understand the connection between having a relationship with God and being with other believers in church,” McConnell said. “[They] see the church as candles, pews and flowers, rather than people living out their love for God by loving others.”
Stetzer explained, “There will always be the stumbling block of the cross. Yet our study shows that many are tripping over the church before they hear the message of the cross.”
Despite their negative opinions about the church, most unchurched people are open to discussing spiritual matters with a friend. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to listen to someone who wanted to talk about his or her Christian beliefs. The number rose to 89 percent among adults 18–29 years of age.
Seventy-eight percent of adults 30 years and older said they would enjoy an honest conversation with a friend about religious and spiritual beliefs, even if they disagreed with the friend.
“Even though the unchurched have a confused view of God and a negative view of the church, they are overwhelmingly open to someone sharing about their Christian faith,” Stetzer said. “We think religion is a topic that is off-limits in polite conversation, but unchurched people say they would enjoy conversations about spiritual matters.”
One of the most important insights of the study is that the vast majority of unchurched people are not only open to spiritual conversations but already know a Christian, McConnell said.
“Eighty-nine percent of these unchurched people say they have close friends who are Christians,” he said. “We don’t have to search for the unchurched folks around us; we actually know them. It’s really a matter of starting conversations about spiritual matters with the unchurched people we know. … That should propel us to action and help us move beyond fear to share our faith.” (LifeWay)
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