The Great Commission has become the great omission for a majority of believers. According to a leading Christian pollster, only one out of every three adults attending a Protestant church shared their faith with a nonbeliever last year.
In its latest report released yesterday, the Barna Research Group (BRG) found "a whopping 47-percentage-point difference in regard to sharing one’s faith with non-Christians." Surprisingly, a majority of adults attending Baptist churches—generally considered to be among the most evangelistic—did not witness in the last year.
The findings were part of a study by the California-based organization, which discovered diverse levels of religious activity among the 12 largest denominational groupings in the country. The report follows up BRG’s previous controversial report on people’s religious beliefs, which evaluated opinions on eight faith-related perspectives. That study, which discovered widely varying religious beliefs, revealed that charismatics are "the most biblically astute people."
The newest study found that Pentecostal, Assemblies of God and Mormon church attendees are the most active in a variety of religious endeavors, while individuals who attend Catholic and Episcopal churches are generally the least involved in the eight religious activities—including prayer, Bible reading, witnessing and church attendance—evaluated in the nationwide survey of 6,000 adults.
BRG president George Barna pointed to "a moderately strong correlation between the data on people’s beliefs and the statistics regarding their religious activity." He said: "The groups whose adherents are most likely to possess biblical perspectives are also those whose adherents are most actively pursuing spiritual experiences. The churches where people’s beliefs have strayed farthest from the Bible tend to be those in which the people are least involved in religious and spiritual pursuits."
BRG found that the most common religious practice among adults is prayer. Participation was highest among those who attend a Pentecostal church—97 percent of whom said they had prayed in the last week. The lowest was among those who attended an Adventist church (79 percent).
When it came to Bible reading, Pentecostals (75 percent) were the most likely to study Scripture. The least likely Bible readers were Catholics (23 percent), Episcopalians (30 percent) and Lutherans (32 percent). Although they are not generally considered to be a Christian church, Mormons (67 percent) were more likely to read the Bible during a typical week than were Protestants overall. Barna said the figure was surprising because most Mormons do not believe that the Bible is the authoritative word of God.
Another surprise was the discovery that most Baptists had not witnessed to a nonbeliever in the last year. Baptist churches are often known for their evangelistic focus, yet only four out of every 10 adults who attend a Baptist church said they had verbalized their faith to a non-Christian.
Overall, Barna said the survey revealed "a nation that is comfortable with religion but not particularly committed to spiritual growth." He commented: "Most people who are aligned with a Christian church really make a rather minimal investment in religious activity… Most people describe themselves as religious, describe their faith as being very important in their daily life, but make only a half-hearted effort to truly master the foundations of their chosen faith and live a life that is determined by that faith."