I find myself talking about evangelism around 50% of the time in my work as a Congregational Developer. I work with over 250 churches, and many of my conversations involve churches seeking vitality. Evangelism always comes up.

I want to let you in on a key theory I like to start with.

Evangelism isn’t uniform.

Let’s talk about this from a single, specific research point.

Ryan Burge, the current G.O.A.T. in religious engagement research, published findings from a study he is currently doing this past week. The larger project is focused on “The Nones." This is a massive demographic group in the United States of people with no religious belief or affiliation. Currently, estimates place this population at around 21% of Americans. When we combine atheists and agnostics, it is around 36%.

This is the largest religious bloc in the US.

In a recent data release, Burge shared how he has broken the nones down into several classifications. One of them is what he calls “the dones.” This group is primarily made up of people over the age of 65. 32% of dones are over 65. What is interesting is that 34% of Protestants are in this same age bracket.

Here is why this is interesting to me.

Many of the churches I work with are overwhelmingly over the age of 65. Their immediate grasp of any evangelistic or growth need is to reach younger people. That is the first idea that pops into their heads and it gets tremendous energy.

We know many people who aren’t religious are skeptical of institutions and the church. What we also know is that one of the most powerful tools of evangelism is personal relationships and personal invitation. The closer you are to someone, the higher the likelihood a person would accept an invitation to visit church.

Relationships are all a matter of trust.

If someone who is disengaged from church and faith receives an invitation from someone they deeply trust, they are more likely to respond.

We also know that many of the dones didn’t grow up in a religious household. This is one of the points I share with people; we aren’t dealing with a theological barrier, but a sociological one. Church isn’t in their frame of mind. Dones aren’t spiritual in the least bit, but it isn’t an issue in their mind necessarily, but in their habits.

I’m tempted to go down the rabbit hole with you, but I won't.

What I will leave you with is an action item.

What might it take for you and your church to realize that any evangelism strategy is more complicated than you realize? It depends on age, religious background, and other things. There will be easier folks to evangelize, and the common indicator of how easy/hard that will be is related to understanding the power of personal invitation from a trusted friend.

Chad

PS. As always, you can hit reply to this and get straight into my inbox.

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