From a young age, we have to be taught to share, whether this is our toys, candy, or another favorite object of ours. Even as we progress in age this does not guarantee we will be good at sharing, as I have witnessed 8-year-olds who are better at sharing than someone in their 80’s. However, I don’t think it is that we are not good at sharing, but more than we are selective with what we do share. For example for many children, I do not think you would have to twist their arm very much to share their broccoli, but their favorite candy bar is another story. For teens, it wouldn’t take much convincing to get them to share their chores that need to be done, but sharing the car if you have two teens who can drive in your house can be a challenge. For adults we often don’t have trouble sharing our favorite recipes, sports news, political opinions, or funny memes, but when it comes to sharing our faith that happens much less often.
This last point is what I want us to focus on for this post. I am not sure when the trend began but there was a shift from what the scriptures teach us by going into the world to make disciples of Jesus to now the focus is on inviting a friend to church (and we are not that great at that either). Now, I understand the premise of how if we invite someone to church then they will hear the good news of Christ. I also understand how someone not connected to the church is much more likely to come if a friend invites them. So, please hear me when I say I am not putting down the idea of inviting someone to church, I think this is a good and loving thing to do. At the same time, I wonder how this has become the substitute for actually making disciples ourselves?
Once again somewhere along the line, there has been a disconnect. Back in March 2018, Barna reports that 51% of churchgoers don’t know what the great commission is, another 25% said they heard of it, but they couldn’t recall the exact meaning, 6% said they were not sure, and only 17% could tell you what it was about. When given the great commission along with 5 other well-known verses 37% could pick out which one was the great commission. (1) As the old quote from the Apollo 13 astronaut goes, “Houston, we have a problem.”
It goes deeper than this, another study showed back in 2019 that only 45% of people had shared with someone in the past 6 months how to become a Christian. Of that group, the majority shared this with one or two people. Those 65 and older are the group of people least likely to have this kind of conversation with someone at 62%. When you look at many churches the age demographic is definitely trending upward, yet the older demographic is much less likely to share their faith than young or middle-aged adults. (2)
The last study results I will share with you is by Lifeway Research in 2018 (So Covid was not in the equation) and they asked, “During the past six months, how many times did you invite an individual or family to attend a worship service with you at your church?” 30% said they gave 0 invitations, 17% said 1 invitation, 21% said 2 invitations, 9% said they didn’t know, and 25% said 3 or more invitations. Now, this is not even sharing your faith with someone about how to follow Jesus, this is just inviting them to church with you, and around a 1/3 said they had invited 0 people. Another 17% had only invited 1 person in 6 months. This means almost 1/2 of churchgoers have invited 1 or fewer people over a six month period. Once again, “Houston, we have a problem”. (3)
What seems to have happened is we as the church have not adjusted to our communities not automatically being drawn to the church. Many churches are still waiting on their “silver bullets” to work as Thom Rainer writes about in his book, “Anatomy of a Revived Church”. (4) The church often thinks “if we just had a different pastor” (often a young pastor so we can attract young people), or “If we just had more money” then we could do so much more, or the “If we just had better music” then more people would come, or “if we just had a better location” this way more people would see us, or “if we just had newer facilities” then people in the community would see it and want to be here. Please hear this, there are no shortcuts that will help churches grow, or I should say there are no healthy shortcuts to help churches grow.
A sad thing is I don’t know if a lot of churchgoers mind as long as they can take part in their favorite activities at the church. Years ago, I actually had a very active church member who served in multiple ways at the church tell me, “As long as our church can stay open long enough for me to die and have my funeral here I am o.k. with that.” I don’t think this individual was alone in thinking this, they just happened to be bold enough to actually say it out loud.
I understand it is not always easy to share our faith, even as a pastor it can be uncomfortable and unclear as to how to approach the conversation. However, I noticed that the more that I looked for opportunities the more they seemed to arise. Many times it came from someone sharing about their beliefs, their experiences, then asking questions. Then following this I would share where I find my hope. You do not have to have all the answers, it is also o.k. to say, “I am not sure” or “I don’t know”. Will some people mock your beliefs? Yup. Will some people see it as an opportunity to pick at something they feel makes Christianity untrue? Sure will. You can’t control those things, but you can choose to live a life for Christ and you can look for opportunities today to share that hope you have!
May we go into the world and live out the great commission in Matthew 28:16-20 which says, “16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
