When it comes to discipleship, churchgoers struggle most with sharing Christ with non-Christians, according to a recent study of church-going American Protestants.
The study conducted by LifeWay Research found 80 percent of those who attend church one or more times a month believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith, but 61 percent have not told another person about how to become a Christian in the previous six months.
These results came from an extensive discipleship research project focused on measuring spiritual maturity in individuals. Overall LifeWay Research found eight biblical attributes consistently evident in the lives of maturing believers. Of those eight, “Sharing Christ” has the lowest average score among Protestant church attendees.
Three-quarters of churchgoers say they feel comfortable in their ability to effectively communicate the gospel, while 12 percent say they do not feel comfortable telling others about their faith.
Despite a vast majority believing it is their duty to share their faith and having the confidence to do so, 25 percent say they have shared their faith once or twice, and 14 percent have shared three or more times over the last six months.
The survey also asked how many times they have personally “invited an unchurched person to attend a church service or some other program at (their) church.” Nearly half (48 percent) of church attendees responded, “zero.” Thirty-three percent of people say they have personally invited someone one or two times, and 19 percent say they have done so on three or more occasions in the last six months.
In the study, 21 percent of churchgoers say that outside of church worship services they pray every day for people they know who are not professing Christians. Twenty-six percent say they pray a few times a week. One-fifth (20 percent) say they rarely or never pray for the spiritual status of others.
(BP)
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