I Believe It. I Just Won’t Do It.

Have you ever heard a parent say to a child, “Do as I say, not as I do”? While I’ve never personally said that to my children, and don’t know anyone with the gall to actually voice the sentiment to their children, the spirit of the statement is too often practiced. When you consider the believer’s personal responsibility to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, I think we see a case of “I believe it; I just won’t do it.”

I recently read a study by LifeWay Research, headed by Ed Stetzer, titled Churchgoers Believe in Sharing Faith; Most Never Do (Jon D. Wilke, August 13, 2012 - http://www.lifeway.com/Article/research-survey-sharing-christ-2012). As a believer, this article was convicting. As a pastor, it wasn’t surprising.

The article found that most believers in evangelical Protestant churches are all about discipleship, but struggle with the foundational task of discipleship, namely, sharing the gospel of Christ with non-Christians. LifeWay Research found that 80% of those who attend church one or more times monthly believe they have a personal responsibility to share the gospel. Yet, 61% of those said they had not shared the gospel with a non-Christian in the previous 6 months. LifeWay identified 8 biblical attributes consistently evident in the lives of maturing believers. Sharing the gospel of Christ ranked the lowest, on average, among the Protestant evangelical Christians surveyed.

LifeWay’s survey also found the following in relation to sharing the gospel.

1.       75% of Christians said they feel comfortable in their ability to effectively communicate the gospel.

2.       Only 12% of Christians said they don’t feel comfortable telling others about the gospel.

3.       Though an overwhelming majority of Christians felt they had a duty to share the gospel and have the confidence to do so, 25% said they had shared the gospel only once or twice.

4.       A scant 14% said they had shared the gospel three or more times in the past 6 months.

When asked how many times they had personally invited an unchurched person to attend a church service or some other program at their church, 48% responded “zero,” 33% they’ve done so one or two times, and 19% said they’ve done so three or more times in the past 6 months.

In response to the survey, Ed Stetzer, President of LifeWay Research said, “Many times we've been told new Christians are most active in sharing their faith. In reality, people who have been a Christian longer have higher responses for sharing Christ than newer Christians. While new Christians may find it natural to share their new experience, mature Christians do it intentionally.”

They survey also found that prayer is an indicator to sharing the gospel. Those who pray for non-Christians will more consistently share the gospel. Stetzer said in this regard, “Praying more frequently for the status of people who are not professing Christians is the best indicator of more spiritual maturity in the entire Sharing Christ factor." Sadly, though this is true, few Christians regularly pray for non-believers outside of a corporate church context. The study found that 21% pray, outside of church, every day for people they know who are not Christians, 26% said they pray a few times a week, and 20% rarely or never pray for the spiritual status of others. Stetzer concluded from this, "If you are going to be intentional about sharing your faith, praying for others is a great way to start. We often acknowledge the importance of prayer in people coming to faith in Christ, but we also found it has an impact on the person praying.”

What can we conclude from LifeWay’s study? Christians, as a whole, are not gospel oriented. We are failing miserably in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with non-believers. Why? I think there are a few major factors that contribute to this. Churches have become unbalanced in the discipleship mandate given to them; over emphasizing the disciple-growing aspect without sufficient emphasis on the disciple-making aspect. We live in a self-focused society. Sharing the gospel with a non-believer requires the Christian to be more interested in the spiritual status of the non-believer than in any personal discomfort sharing the gospel might cause. Finally, I believe there is a disparity among professing Christians about what the gospel is. LifeWay Research also found, in a 2011 study, that parishioners were much more inclusive when it comes to the gospel than are pastors. If the gospel of Jesus Christ ceases to be believed as the exclusive way of salvation, where’s the motivation to preach it to others?  If it only takes faith, regardless of the object and content of that faith, to get to heaven, why proclaim Jesus Christ and the exclusive Christian gospel over against any other religious faith? (I smell a follow-up post coming!)

The proclamation of the gospel, or lack thereof, among professing believers is a case of I believe it; I just won’t do it. I believe, too, that it is, at times, as case of “do as I say, not as I do” from too many pulpits. If we believe we have the personal responsibility to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with non-believers, then we have the personal responsibility to know the gospel, gain confidence in proclaiming it, and become obedient to our God-given commission.