Many of ‘Unchurched’ Claim Faith, Poll Says

There may be more Christians outside the churches than in them, California researcher George Barna told a recent church growth consultation at the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board in Nashville, Tenn.

The founder and president of the Barna Research Group in Glendale, said his company’s research has found that half of the “unchurched,” or unaffiliated, say that they have made a profession of faith in Christ and that Jesus is an important part of their lives.

In contrast, he said, 55% of the people who regularly attend Protestant churches have never made such a commitment, “and many of those people have been sitting in those churches for 10 years or more.”

The researcher said the percentage of unaffiliated who say they plan to visit a church has gone down from 40% in 1986 to 18% in 1990. “That is an alarming statistic,” he said.

To reach these people, Barna said, churches should offer quality programs and ministries that compete with the professionalism of secular organizations, develop a climate for facilitating growing relationships and allow for diversity.

The pollster challenged Southern Baptists in particular to ask themselves, “Is the denomination culturally relevant to where we are today?”

Barna also reported that Americans have a wide variety of beliefs about what it means to be a Christian. He said 21% believe that living differently from other people makes someone a Christian, 14% believe it is loving and helping others, 14% think it is believing in God, 11% say it involves going to church or being religious and 10% say being a Christian means being a good person.

Twenty-two percent say they don’t know what being a Christian is all about.

Barna said only 19% agree with the traditional evangelical belief that being a Christian is accepting Christ as savior and having a personal relationship with Jesus.