Reaching the Nones with the Gospel
By now, you’ve likely read something related to the recent Pew Research Center report that was released last month. Titled “America’s Changing Christian Landscape,” the report has caused quite a stir within the Christian community!
One section details the dramatic decline in people who claim affiliation with any particular religious group. According to a USA Today article, these people are exiting churches and going “to religious nowhere”:
“The ‘nones’——Americans who are unaffiliated with brand-name religion——are the new major force in American faith.
[…]
“ ‘Nones,’ at 22.8% of the U.S. (up from 16% just eight years ago) run second only to evangelicals (25.4%) and ahead of Catholics (20.8%) in religious market share.”
With this group’s staggering growth figures and more than one-fifth of the U.S. population, Christians need to reassess their current approaches to evangelism. What worked in the past is not working today. The Gospel is still the answer, of course, but the way we present it needs to take into consideration what we now know from the Pew report and elsewhere. Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, challenges us to share God’s Story in light of this new normal:
“There is a way of telling the gospel that makes people say, ‘I don’t believe it’s true, but I wish it were.’ You have to get to the beauty of it, and then go back to the reasons for it.”
Equipping Christians to share the beauty of God’s Story in culturally relevant ways is core to Spread Truth’s mission. To effectively reach the Nones, we must first know them and understand how they are processing faith issues. A film we produced last fall puts it in perspective:
Understanding the spiritual landscape is why Spread Truth is so effective in multiplying the Gospel reach of Christians worldwide. Our expertise is a hope-filled answer to the Pew report’s disheartening statistics. That’s why your giving through Spread Truth is so important. Together, we can get the Gospel out around the world to everyone, everywhere, making a lasting difference in the spiritual landscape here at home and around the world.