Evangelisn’t May 26, 2009
Posted by Dan R. Dick in Christian discipleship, Congregational Life, Evangelism, The United Methodist Church.Tags: Evangelism, Faith Sharing, The United Methodist Church
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Faith sharing and evangelism have fallen on hard times in The United Methodist Church. For the most part, we don’t do them — except with people who already believe what we do. As part of our research on spiritual practices, we asked 922 United Methodist lay people to share their evangelism attitudes and practices with us. The responses we received fell into five broad, basic categories:
- faith sharing with others in their congregation, or other churches (316, or 34%)
- those who define evangelism as something their church does for them (287, or 31%)
- those who weren’t clear what evangelism is (164, or 18%)
- those who define evangelism as the way they behave, but don’t talk about their faith (and generally don’t let others know that their faith is their primary motivation to behave the way they do) (128, or 14%)
- those who have spoken with a non-Christian about making a faith commitment within the past 12 months (27, or 3%)
Additionally, almost one-third display Christian symbols (jewelry, bumper stickers, flags/banners, magnets, etc.) and feel that is a public witness to their faith.
